Brevard Culture

PAM’S NOTE: This article comes from a press release, verbatim. In the pursuit of expediency, I have copied and pasted it here.

THEATER CRITICS HONOR YUSSEF EL GUINDI WITH $25,000 STEINBERG/ATCA NEW PLAY AWARD FOR 2012

Additional $7,500 Citations to Ken LaZebnik and A. Rey Pamatmat

The American Theatre Critics Association has named Yussef El Guindi’s “Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World,” a play about immigration and assimilation, winner of the $25,000 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for 2012. The Steinberg/ATCA recognizes the best American scripts that premiered professionally the previous year outside New York City.

Ken LaZebnik’s “On the Spectrum” and A. Rey Pamatmat’s “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them” received Steinberg/ATCA citations and $7,500 each. Both LaZebnik and Pamatmat are first-time new play award winners, while El Guindi won ATCA’s 2009 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for an emerging playwright.

Checks and commemorative plaques were presented to all three at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays, March 31.

The award was created by ATCA in 1977 to recognize excellence in playwriting by honoring the best new plays not yet produced in New York City. Since 2000, it has been generously funded by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, making the $40,000 Steinberg/ATCA the largest national new play award of its kind.

The Steinberg Charitable Trust was created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg on behalf of himself and his late wife. Pursuing its primary mission to support the American theater, it has provided millions of dollars to encourage new productions of American plays and educational programs for those who may not ordinarily experience live theater.

“The long-standing partnership between the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the American Theatre Critics Association has recognized some of today’s greatest writers, and helped identify the great playwrights of tomorrow,” said trustee Jim Steinberg. “We’re delighted to help support the unique telling of tales on the American stage.”

El Guindi’s “Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World” is a gentle romantic comedy wrapped around a serious examination of issues facing immigrants today, much as they did in the past. An Egyptian immigrant who drives a cab strikes up a romance with a quirky American-born waitress, but the clash of cultures is only the hook El Guindi uses to explore the diversity of opinions even within ethnic groups in the struggle for assimilation and belief in the American Dream. It premiered June 17 at ACT Repertory in Seattle.

Born in Egypt, raised in London and now based in Seattle, El Guindi received a B.A. from American University in Cairo and a 1985 MFA in playwriting from Carnegie-Mellon University. He frequently examines the collision of ethnicities, cultures and politics that face Arab-Americans. He has had at least 16 plays produced since 2001 in regional theaters from Durham to Anchorage. At the same time, he has worked as resident playwright at Silk Road Theatre Project; literary manager for Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco; playwright in residence, dramaturg and lecturer at Duke University; and dramaturg for Eureka Theatre and reader for The Magic Theatre, both in San Francisco.

LaZebnik’s “On the Spectrum” depicts a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome passing as “typical” after years of mainstreaming and therapy. He connects with a woman who proudly champions her autism as a difference, not a disorder. Their love story reveals the contradictions between the desire for acceptance and for achievement. Among the choices: live in a fantastic world of the mind or join the more mundane society that typecasts you as your illness. The work premiered November 12 at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

A. Rey Pamatmat’s “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them” was first produced in a Rolling World Premiere by Actor’s Theatre of Louisville/Humana Festival of New Plays, New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, and Actor’s Express in Atlanta. This moving, bittersweet play portrays a very untraditional family of three young misfits: a brilliant 16-year-old and his precocious 12-year-old sister, abandoned by their widowed father, and the brother’s lover who runs from a family denying his nascent homosexuality. Their fanciful bonding against the challenges of the real world, their resilience and their realization of their limitations result in a meaningful comic drama infused with empathy and wry humor.

The 2012 Steinberg/ATCA award recipients were selected from 27 eligible scripts, submitted by ATCA members, by a committee of 12 theater critics led by chairman Wm. F. Hirschman, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com. Other committee members are Misha Berson, Seattle Times; Bruce Burgun, Bloomington Herald Times and Back Stage; Michael Elkin, Jewish Exponent (Pa.); Pam Harbaugh, Florida Today (Melbourne); Elizabeth Keill, Independent Press (Morristown, N.J.); Jerry Kraft, aislesay.com (Port Angeles, Wash.) ; Julius “Jay” Novick, freelancer (New York City); Wendy Parker, The Village Mill (Midlothian, Va.); David Sheward, Back Stage (New York); Herb Simpson, totaltheater.com and capitalcriticscircle.com (Geneseo, NY); and Tim Treanor, DC Theater Scene (Washington, D.C.).

“Despite vanishing government support and faltering donations, America’s regional theaters have persevered and prevailed as this country’s preeminent crucible for vibrant and important new works,” said Hirschman. “This year’s submitted plays encompass a dizzying range of styles and themes, produced by a cadre of experienced and novice playwrights who are inarguable proof that theater remains a vital and relevant art form in the 21st century.”

Honorees since 1977 have included Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, August Wilson, Jane Martin, Arthur Miller, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Horton Foote, Craig Lucas and Bill Cain. Each year’s winning plays are chronicled in The Best Plays Theater Yearbook, edited by Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, alongside the 10 best plays produced that year in New York City. For a complete list of Steinberg/ATCA plays, go to www.americantheatrecritics.org , under Awards.

ATCA was founded in 1974 and works to raise critical standards and public awareness of critics’ functions and responsibilities and to recognize excellence in the American theater. The only national association of professional theater critics, with several hundred members working for newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations and websites, ATCA is the U.S. national section of the International Association of Theatre Critics, a UNESCO-affiliated organization that sponsors seminars and congresses worldwide.

ATCA also sponsors the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for an emerging playwright and administers the $10,000 Francesca Primus Prize, funded by the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, honoring outstanding contributions to the American theater by a female artist who has not yet achieved national prominence. Annually ATCA makes a recommendation for the Regional Theater Tony Award presented by the American Theatre Wing/Broadway League, and its members vote on inductions into the Theater Hall of Fame. For more information on ATCA, visit www.americantheatrecritics.org.

"Fiddler on the Roof"

This 1964 musical, with book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, was based on stories written by 19th century writer Shalom Aleichem. But given today’s headlines, its themes resonate.

“Fiddler” is set in 1905 in the Russian village of Anatevka, during the pogroms, a heartless time of ethnic cleansing when Jews were forced from their homes. Here, we see Tevye, a poor man with a wife, Golda, and five daughters. He struggles with the seismic changes tearing his world apart and his desire for tradition, the glue that binds the community.

In the story, Tevye arranges a rich marriage for his oldest daughter. But she has fallen in love with a poor tailor. That strikes the first dissonant chord against the harmonic refrain, “Tradition!” Another daughter falls in love with someone he does not approve, then another. He looks to God for help in coping with the change.

It doesn’t take much of a leap to put yourself in his shoes. Daily, we deal with a quickly changing world where communication across oceans takes but an instant, where unexpected revolution takes center stage on Twitter, where human relationships break societal precepts. Throughout it all, like in “Fiddler on the Roof,” what endures is love.

Directed by Joan Taddie, the Henegar production explodes with talent and emotion. Be sure to read her director’s notes in the program. They concern, in part, the late theater technician Peter Feller, who donated to the Henegar two of the drops used in the show. Those drops come from the original Broadway production directed by Jerome Robbins.

Leading the cast is professional actor Bruce Goldman, who is as good as it gets. He brings such warmth to Tevye. He charms in “If I Were a Rich Man,” makes us laugh in “To Life” and wins the audience’s love in the “Chava sequence.”

Deborah Rappa-Crisafulli not only choreographs splendidly here — the Chava sequence is very beautiful and moving indeed — but she also brings passion to the stage in the role of Golda, Tevye’s wife. She’s particularly funny in the wonderful “The Dream” sequence.

What a find in violinist Jennifer Wills, who dons a beard to portray the Fiddler. Priscilla Blyseth is very funny as the gossipy matchmaker.

Kat Hopper is a delightful Tzeitel opposite Daniel Matteson, a most likeable Motel. Amy Pastoor takes wing as Hodel, opposite Hunter Curry, who is just terrific as the intellectual, Perchik. Curry shows a wonderful, rich voice in “Now I Have Everything.” Danielle Horak as Chava and David McQuillen Robertson as Fyedka charm.

Truly, this is a terrific cast. At every moment, whether they are in leading roles or in the ensemble, they act! Nothing better than crowd scenes filled with actors who really act.

So, too, are the musicians, who are led by conductor Robin Ryon. The pit orchestra sounds full, in tune and just right.

More kudos: Lighting designer Bryce Niehaus, scenic designer Davad Dionne and costume desiginer Louis Dall’Ava.

This show has all the right ingredients to become very demanding on the cast an crew. The word will spread quickly, tickets will start to disappear and Ms. Taddie will probably entreat her cast and crew to do some extra performances…after all, it couldn’t hurt.

SIDE O’ GRITS: “Fiddler on the Roof” runs through April 1 at the Henegar Center for the Arts. Curtain is 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. (The March 11 show begins 1 p.m.) Tickets cost $15 to $22, handling charges may apply. The Henegar is at 625 E. New Haven Ave. Melbourne. Call 321-723-8698 or visit www.henegar.org.

The American Theatre Critics just released the following:

The American Theatre Critics Association has selected six finalists for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for the best scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2011.

The top award of $25,000 and two citations of $7,500 each, plus commemorative plaques, will be presented March 31 at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival of New American Plays. At $40,000, Steinberg/ATCA is the largest national new play award of its kind.

The finalists:

“Annapurna,” by Sharr White, is a visceral and profound meditation on loss and the longevity of love. It reunites a mortally ill cantankerous poet who has moved to the Colorado mountains and the ex-wife he has not seen in 20 years who wants a reckoning if not a reconciliation. The play premiered in November at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco.

“Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them,” by A. Rey Pamatmat, bowed last spring at the Humana Festival. This moving, bittersweet play portrays an especially untraditional family made up of three young misfits: a brilliant 16-year-old and his precocious 12-year-old sister abandoned by their widowed father to raise themselves, and the brother’s lover who runs from a family unaccepting of his nascent homosexuality. Their fanciful bonding, resilience and realization of their limitations results in an uplifting and meaningful comic drama infused with empathy and wry humor.

“On The Spectrum,” by Ken LaZebnik, depicts a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome passing as “typical” after years of mainstreaming and therapy. He connects with a woman who proudly champions her autism as a difference, not a disorder. This love story reveals the contradictions between finding success as oneself and finding success on the world’s terms, and the conflict between the desire for acceptance and the desire for achievement. Among the choices: live in a fantastic world of the mind or join the more mundane society that typecasts you as your illness. The work premiered in November at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

“Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World,” by Yussef El Guindi, is a gentle romantic comedy wrapped around a serious examination of issues facing today’s new immigrants, dilemmas that resonate for every generation’s newcomers. An Egyptian immigrant who drives a cab strikes up a romance with a quirky American-born waitress, but the clash of cultures is only the hook El Guindi uses to explore the diversity of opinions even within one ethnic group as they struggle with assimilation and a newly-minted belief in the promise of the American Dream. It premiered in June at ACT Repertory in Seattle.

“A Twist of Water,” by Caitlin Montanye Parrish, is a sensitive drama of domestic relationships seamlessly fused with an examination of social issues. A single white father tries to come to terms with his black, adopted teenage daughter after the death of his longtime husband, the man whom the daughter considers her real Dad. When the girl seeks out her birth mother, the father’s relationship with her is pressed to the breaking point. This play speaks about forgiveness, about knowing our parents as human beings, about failing our children in spite of our every effort, about loss and love and the triumph of courage that allows us to go on with our lives. The play premiered in February at the Route 66 Theatre in Chicago.

“Water By The Spoonful” by Quiara Alegria Hudes, was first produced in October by Hartford Stage. A soldier returns from the Iraqi war and struggles to put aside the demons that haunt him. His mother, a recovering heroin addict, battles her own demons with other recovering addicts in an Internet chat room. The boundaries of love, family and community are stretched across time, generations and cyberspace as birth families splinter and online families collide.

These six finalists were selected from 27 eligible scripts submitted by ATCA members. They were evaluated by a committee of 12 theater critics, led by chairman Wm. F. Hirschman, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com. Other committee members are Misha Berson, Seattle Times; Bruce Burgun, Bloomington Herald Times and Back Stage (Ind.); Michael Elkin, Jewish Exponent (Pa.); Pam Harbaugh, Florida Today (Melbourne); Elizabeth Keill, Independent Press (Morristown, N.J.); Jerry Kraft, aislesay.com (Port Angeles, Wash.); Julius Novick, freelancer (New York City); Wendy Parker, The Village Mill (Midlothian, Va.); David Sheward, Back Stage (New York); Herb Simpson, totaltheater.com and capitalcriticscircle.com (Geneseo, N.Y.) and Tim Treanor, DC Theater Scene (Washington, D.C.)

“Despite vanishing government support and faltering donations, America’s regional theaters have persevered and prevailed as this country’s preeminent crucible for vibrant and important new works,” said Hirschman. “The recommended plays encompass a dizzyingly wide range of styles and themes, produced by a cadre of experienced and novice playwrights who are inarguable proof that theater remains a vital and relevant art form in the 21st century.”

Since the inception of ATCA’s New Play Award, honorees have included Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, August Wilson, Arthur Miller, Mac Wellman, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Moises Kaufman and Craig Lucas. Last year’s honoree was Bill Cain for “9 Circles.” For a full list of 35 years of winners and runners-up, go to www.americantheatrecritics.org and click on Steinberg-ATCA under Awards.

For more information on ATCA, visit www.americantheatrecritics.org.

Melbourne Civic Theatre mines gold in its charming and funny production of the 46-year old comedy, “Cactus Flower.”

Abe Burrows wrote and directed the Broadway comedy in 1965 (after a play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy), near the high water mark of TV’s then king of situation comedy,”The Dick Van Dyke Show.” So you might expect the safe and simple. But under the direction of Peg Girard, MCT’s trademark good humored naughtiness livens up the show, making it feel fresh and new.

The story concerns an uptight dentist, Julian Winston, who is having an affair with free-spirited Toni. In order to control their relationship, he has told her that he’s married and has three children. Early in the story, Winston decides he wants to marry Toni and thus even stickier subterfuge ensues.

The cast is in top form.

Amber Prine nearly purrs in her baby doll role of Toni Simmons. She’s got a real sweetness which shows nicely on stage. And Michael David Paul…wow…he’s at his comic best in this beatnik role of Igor Sullivan, a next-door writer who befriends Toni. Paul has grown as an actor and exudes ease and confidence.

The funniest visual gags in the show go to Paul and Chandler McRee, who proves the point that there are no small parts.

Randy Caldwell brings out the heightening frustration in poor Dr. Winston, especially when an expensive gift to Toni gets re-gifted to his nurse, Miss Dickinson, the play’s real cactus flower. As the nurse, Tracey Thompson shows some good comic timing and acting strength. She’s a terrific addition to the MCT stage.

Add Linda Lawson to that welcome. Lawson sailed splendidly through high-drama as Big Mama in Surfside’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” earlier this season. Here, as the randy socialite Mrs. Durant, she shows she’s got the comic chops as well.

Gordon Ringer zeroes in on the sleaze as playboy Harvey Greenfield; and Pete Jacobsen is an oily hoot as Latin lover Senor Arturo Sanchez.

While the onstage talent receive their applause, there should also be some big thank-yous to the tech crew and designers. Scenic designer Caroline Osborne and lighting designer Alan Selby have done the impossible — squeezed four locations out of the small MCT space. And sound designer Wendy Reader’s excellent use of music and a variety of speakers moves the action in and out of the acting spaces and establishes mood and time.

MCT has turned into a well-oiled producing machine that keeps churning out the stuff that audiences love. The first weekend was nearly sold out. This is fun, feel-good stuff. Don’t miss out.

SIDE O’ GRITS: “Cactus Flower” runs 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 26 at Melbourne Civic Theatre, 817 E. Strawbridge Ave., Melbourne. $18 to $20. Call 321-723-6935 or visit www.mymct.org.

The Henegar Center for the Arts gets down-home with its foot tapping, knee slapping production of “Pump Boys and Dinettes.”

This is known as a musical revue, which is theater-speak for a concert by fictional characters.
Designed by Don Cross, the setting is an old fashioned gas station/roadside diner, the kind of place where you can have a nice slice of apple pie and a cup of coffee while you get a flat tire changed. Nicely decorated by scenic artist Brighid Reppert, it’s evocative of all the home-spun comfort that you find in the restaurant section of the Cracker Barrel.

But more than music and atmosphere, what you get with this show is the realization that sometimes, the older you grow, the better you get. That’s what long time Brevard theater patrons come away with when they see Deborah Rappa-Crisafulli, one of the stars on stage in this show.

Rappa-Crisafulli, who also choreographs the show and is known primarily as a choreographer, sails easily through the harmony and down-home fun on stage. This woman just keeps on getting better. She’s a fireball of energy in “Be Good or Be Gone.”

That applies also to Lisa-Marie Rhodes, a wonderful young performer who left the area to finish school in the New York City area. Brevard’s theater scene is richer with her return to the area. Her “This Best Man” number is right on target.

Rhodes and Rappa-Crisafulli hit such sweet harmony together in this show, especially the heartwarming “Sister.”

While the rest of the cast don’t have quite the performance chops as the ladies, they have their appeal: Especially acoustic guitarist Joshua Paez who embraces the John C. Reilly within; and David McQuillen Robertson, the cute bass player. Supporting all are keyboardist Luke Rockwell, electric guitarist Wesley Burrough and percussionist Stuart Andrew Collins.

Although more of that Rappa-Crisafulli energy could be used by the rest of the cast, director Michael Thompson and music director Robin Ryon do bring out some good performances. But please, better enunciation…some voice and diction warm-ups. It was difficult to tell what the guys were singing.

“Pump Boys and Dinettes” is by the biggest team of writers you ever saw — John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann. You’d think that a committee that large could come up with some characters and some kind of plot line, even a cliched one.

Oops. Is my bias showing?

SIDE ‘ GRITS: “Pump Boys and Dinettes” performs 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 5, 2012 at the Henegar Center, 625 E. New Haven Ave., Melbourne. $15 to $22. Call 321-723-8698 or visit www.henegar.org.