|
First Chance Fest 2003
NORTHERN LIGHTS The Chance is presenting its first of a planned annual festival of new full length plays and one acts premieres. For less than the cost of a movie ticket, audience members can attend all four programs, numbered A through D, offered in rotation, so that it is possible to see each program for four consecutive weeks at same time, or do a marathon weekend. The Chance has earned a solid reputation for innovative material, and chose through hundreds of submissions to select eight pieces. The performances on Sundays at 5 pm are followed by a talk-back session with director and actors, including light refreshments. Love's Hollow is on Program A, the story of a psychologist, Edie, who falls in love with her psychiatrist, Julian. We follow their relationship over a period of seventeen years in the Montreal area, while both weave in and our of marriages and affairs with other partners. As the story unfolds, we see Edie standing on her own two feet as a strong single woman with a yearning for a satisfying relationship. If Julian is a gifted therapist, his own personal life is in shambles he cannot unravel. Annie Mezzacappa is wonderfully engaging as Edie, a caring but vulnerable woman unsure about herself and her strengths. Richard Hawkes is Julian, the handsome but meek mental health professional. Bridge and Tunnel features on Program B, with Sarah Gurney and Mike Hart as two neighbors who share the grief of a loved one. She and her husband Charlie have a young son who has night terrors. During sleepless nights spent at Mike's, he and Sarah nurse each other's wounds. The issue is whether one can, or wants, to move on from shattered lives. Meredith Young is the serious Sarah with Michael Steger as her footloose gay neighbor. The talk-back session for this piece is scheduled for September 28. On Program C are three pieces, Echo's Longing, Unemployment and Zazzle. Unemployment is a surreal piece with two idlers, Bryan Barton as Jasper, and Marc Sanford as Turner, as they wrestle with the difficulties of obtaining work in today's difficult times. In Zazzle, we follow three hillbilly buddies as they hit the local drive-in and pick up the ride of their life, the foxy Electra. As the trio looks to score in more ways than one, they are in for a nasty surprise at the end of the night. Bryan Barton, Brian Weed and Matt Deller are Jake, Hanrahan and Dipstick with Alex Bueno as the impossibly long-legged vixen, with her incestuous Daddy Warren Draper. Echo's Longing is absolutely hilarious, with Dilbert-life humor as life on the 28th floor of an investment banking firm headed by Ken Pacaro, played by Richard Comeau, with his secretary Jill, Heather Howe. The entire office staff is neurotic, from perfectly in control super bitch Lucielle, played by Clarissa Pitts, the philosopher janitor, Michael Carney, and Matthew Junmar as Abram, the young assistant. Howe's antics as deeply psychotic Jill will leave you gasping for air as she plays out her vacuous life's empty scenario with fantasies of goring deer while cutting herself with her keys. The characters act out the scripted monologues and dialogues we run through our heads as we cope with the meaninglessness of daily life. This program's talk-back is scheduled for October 5. Finally, Program D showcases Shadows and Light, Sharks and Ripe Peach. Elizabeth Willaman is Alice Neel, the well known American painter who lived as an artist and made unconventional choices during times before women's lib. This is a tour de force for this one-woman play with Alice acting out dialogues between herself and the various people in her life, her mother, husband, lovers, fans and patron. The artist is torn between the demands and tribulations of her personal life, with its many hardships, and the need to express herself in paint. Sharks takes place in a cafe, where several customers deal with the news of invading sharks flying through the streets of New York, ready to devour people, with Elizabeth Willaman as Edie, and Joseph Horn as her very British husband Archer. In Ripe Peach, a young homeless woman, Alex Bueno, confronts a fallen cop, Warren Draper, as he searches through trash. They share revelations and establish a relationship over a make shift dinner of discards. September 21 is the talk-back date for this production. Altogether, 25 actors share the limelight, several of whom double or triple roles, and with three of the Chance's own members as Directors: Jocelyn Brown, Joseph Horn and Casey Long. Coordinating rehearsal schedules alone must have been nothing short of a nightmare, but the resulting smorgasbord is an incredible feast for theater fans in North County. The best picks are Love's Hollow and Echo's Longing, but there is something there for everyone in this selection, from laughter to tears and back again. Tell a friend... And if all this was not enough, the Chance is moving
to larger digs, hanging its shingle on La Palma frontage, just in time
for its October 18 gala fundraiser, also celebrating its newly acquired
status as official non-profit, perfect for those large donations.
[top]
|