WORLD
PREMIERE |
April 15 - May 22, 2011
The Boy in the Bathroom
Book and Lyrics by Michael Lluberes
Music and additional lyrics by Joe Maloney
Directed by Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen
Musical Direction by Mike Wilkins
- 04/26/11 REVIEW: Orange County Register
- 04/28/11 REVIEW: Stage
Scene LA
WOW! - 04/28/11 REVIEW:
Back Stage CRITIC'S
PICK!
- 04/28/11 REVIEW: Los Angeles Times
- 05/09/11 REVIEW: Broadway World
- 05/18/11 INTERVIEW of
writer Michael Lluberes
- Read Patron Reviews
THEATER REVIEW
'Bathroom' is setting for
an ingenious new musical in Anaheim
Chance Theater gives the offbeat, small-scale show a striking world premiere
production
by Eric Marchese, Orange County Register
[ Link to Orange County Register ]
 |
| Chris
Klopatek Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio  |
In recent years, Chance Theater has delivered new musicals to Orange County audiences on unusual and quirky subjects – apparently the more unusual and quirkier, the better.
It would obviously take considerable ingenuity to devise an entire stage musical from the concept of an obsessive-compulsive young man locking himself in a bathroom and living there for more than a year.
Yet, that's exactly the scenario behind "The Boy in the Bathroom." The musical is proof of its creators' skill and resourcefulness. That makes it a natural for the Anaheim-based Chance, where the show is enjoying its world premiere production.
First developed at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, "The Boy in the Bathroom" is deliberately limited in size and scale. With just three acting-singing roles accompanied by a single, offstage piano, it's really more of a chamber musical than a full-fledged Broadway show.
Nor is the show's tone indicative of your everyday stage musical: Its characters represent a somber world where sadness is the norm and everyone is resigned to the limitations of their own modest expectations.
Director Oanh Nguyen, Chance's artistic director, handles this unusual material as if it were a character study set to music, which is exactly the correct approach for this show.
"No one can hurt me," says David (Chris Klopatek), the "boy" of the title. "I control everything." Thus we hear his reasons for taking refuge behind a locked bathroom door.
From the outset, the scenario constructed by Michael Lluberes (book and lyrics) and Joe Maloney (music and additional lyrics) raises such logical questions as what kind of family would tolerate and accept one of its members living in a confined space?
David's mom Pam (Marina Coffee), that's who. For more than a year, she has kept her son's situation a secret, preferring to deal with it on her own.
But fate intervenes in the form of a broken hip, forcing Pam to hire someone to help with household chores. That someone is Julie (Liz Holt), a young lady preoccupied with earning enough money to buy a car so she can leave Michigan for good.
At first finding him an object of ridicule, Julie is soon intrigued by David's situation. Eventually, and to their mutual surprise (and ours), the couple's through-the-door conversations begin to plumb emotional depths.
As musical scores go, Maloney's work is serviceable but generally unimpressive, given sturdy support by musical director and offstage pianist Mike Wilkins. It's the show's lyrics that are so well-crafted as to merit praise, frequently offering sufficient food for thought even while serving as entertainment.
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| Chris
Klopatek and Liz Holt Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio |
Whether through dialogue or lyrics, David's utterances reflect his introspective nature as well as the many obsessions and compulsions that drive him. Rather than try to outwit him, Julie wisely attempts a tactile, potentially healing connection with David, asking him to touch her fingertips under the door.
Never do David, Julie or Pam seem simply the product of a playwright's imagination. All three characters strike us as real people in a world populated with prosaic setbacks, challenges and disappointments.
Klopatek is alternately warm and personable, then riddled with fluttery anxiety. His explosive panic attacks force him to his knees as he hyperventilates into a plastic baggie. In solo numbers like "Almost Normal," we hear Klopatek's singing voice as soft, small and thin – in other words, a perfect fit for his character.
Holt offers the evening's most assured vocal work, with a pop/rock style that has served her well in previous Chance musicals like "The Who's Tommy." Her opening numbers reflect Julie's scorn toward David, a feeling that eventually mutates into empathy, then love.
The heavyset, bespectacled Coffee shines in Pam's song "Food that Fits Under the Door," which addresses the challenges Pam faces in feeding her son, its amusing lyrics highlighted by familiar food brand names. Pam's gut-wrenching solo "Full" expresses her bitter disappointment in life in general and men in particular. Clearly, David isn't this family's only damaged psyche.
Bradley Kaye's set is dominated by the antiseptic white tones of the bathroom and the neutral colors of the adjoining hallway. Brian S. Shevelenko's dramatic lighting scheme shifts from scene to scene, giving each musical number its own coloration (even including ultraviolet lighting).
While in development in New York, "The Boy in the Bathroom" garnered multiple awards. It's the fourth consecutive Chance musical to be a part of the annual Festival of New American Musicals, offering tangible proof that Chance Theater stands head and shoulders above its peers in finding and staging new musicals that move us and provoke thought even as they entertain.
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THEATER REVIEW
"The Boy in the Bathroom"
by Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA
WOW!
 |
| Chris
Klopatek Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio |
No theatrical genre is more quintessentially American than the musical. From Show Boat to Oklahoma to West Side Story to A Chorus Line to Rent to Spring Awakening, the American musical continues to evolve, breaking new ground and exploring new themes, and nowhere more so than in the intimate “chamber musical.” Daddy Long Legs, Adding Machine: The Musical, Hello Again, Loving Repeating, Group: A Musical, and Glory Days are but a half dozen chamber pieces raved about on these pages over the past half dozen months, and to this list can now be added The Boy In The Bathroom, currently getting its World Premiere at The Chance Theater.
Though Urinetown’s Little Sally might wonder whether “The Boy In The Bathroom” is anything to call a musical, the title describes to a T what the show (with book and lyrics by Michael Lluberes and music and additional lyrics by Joe Maloney) is about, though it scarcely hints at its power and grace.
The titular “Boy” is in fact a 25-year-old Michigan grad student named David (Chris Klopatek), a young man who has spent the past year shut up inside his bathroom of his own volition. A combination of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and an all-consuming fear of the outside world have propelled David to lock the titular bathroom door, leaving his single mother Pam (Marina Coffee) on the outside, unable to do anything but prepare her son meals no thicker than half-an-inch high (in order to fit between floor and door), that and pass her son newspaper clippings, pages torn from books, and toilet paper under the door. (The latter she manages by threading sheets through the half-inch space, which David then winds onto an empty spool to be used both as intended and as writing paper for his graduation thesis.)
Just what has propelled David to stay shut away from the outside world is never made precisely clear, though he does seem to have a history of wanting the protection of tight spaces. (Fetal David stayed inside Mom three weeks past his due date, and a few years later little David hid inside an opened Christmas present box and refused to come out.) What we do know is that David and his mother have settled into a routine, Pam’s acquiescence to her son’s self-imposed imprisonment making her the proverbial enabler in their dysfunctional, codependent, yet undeniably loving relationship.
Then one day, Mom slips on the ice which any normal son would have shoveled away and breaks her hip. (In a particularly distressing sequence, David’s fears keep him trapped inside his hygienic cell even as his mother cries out repeatedly for his help.) Unable to do her usual obsessive cleaning and dusting, Pam hires Julie (Liz Holt) as temporary housekeeper while she undergoes physical therapy, and it should come as no surprise to musical theater romantics that once Julie and David have struck up a conversation, the love bug will bite them both with life-altering consequences.
Getting David to talk to a stranger proves no mean feat, however, and as frustrating as this is to Julie, for the audience it provides heartbreaking evidence of just how terrified David is of the outside world, Julie’s attempts at a simple getting-to-know-you chat propelling David into a nearly catatonic state.
The pretty young woman’s Knock-Knock jokes prove ultimately irresistible, though, and soon she and David are playing chess (each with their own board) and drinking beers through straws, David’s a custom-made concoction long enough to extend from beer bottle under door and into his mouth.
Meanwhile Mom complains about Julie’s poor housekeeping and continues to feed her loneliness (and avoirdupois) with binge eating that she bemoans in one of the evening’s most powerful songs “Full,” which she sings while quite literally filling her face with food. ...
It’s also a show that seems born to be a musical. Without songs, something would be missing. With them, the end result feels just right.
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| Chris
Klopatek and Marina Coffee Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio |
As book writer, Lluberes creates real people and has them speaking in believable dialog. Composer Maloney follows in the footsteps of Sondheim and LaChiusa, with irregular rhythms and unexpected (i.e. sometimes atonal) melodies which might not work in a bright-and-sunny Boy Meets Girl musical, but seem entirely appropriate here. Lluberes’ (and Maloney’s) lyrics are more conversational than poetic. (“I wish I could fit under the door, but I’m too fat to fit under the door.” “I like the games you play with me when my mother’s at physical therapy.”) In a more traditional musical, this might prove a tad clunky, but in this context, the style seems somehow fitting, and when Lluberes and Maloney set out to write a love song, the result (“Walking On The Moon”) is exquisite from start to finish.
Lluberes, who directed a rave-reviewed New York Musical Theatre Festival staging in 2007, has surrendered those reins to The Chance Theater’s artistic director Oanh Nguyen for its official World Premiere, and as anyone who knows Nguyen’s award-winning work can tell you, a better choice could not have been made. The director’s contributions here are similar to those he made to the non-musical Rabbit Hole, keeping performances authentic and ensuring as much visual variety as possible in a limited space.
UC Irvine MFA candidate Klopatek is simply wonderful as David, heartbreakingly vulnerable, scared, and valiant all at the same time, and he sings with strength and grace. Holt is equally memorable as Julie, tough as nails yet tender, her own feeling of being trapped in small-town Michigan allowing her to empathize with David’s predicament. Vocally, Holt performs Maloney’s melodies with power, purity, and just the right amount of vibrato. Coffee gives a funny, gutsy, and absolutely authentic performance as Pam, though one can’t help wondering how her songs would sound with a Broadway-caliber voice.
Music director Mike Wilkins provides impeccable piano accompaniment. Bradley Kaye’s bathroom set looks totally real, yet allows us to see through doors and walls. (Kudos to the three performers for making it seem that they cannot see through them.) Brian S. Shevelenko’s lighting design is a textbook example of how to add variety to a one-set production and emotional resonance to a show’s musical and dramatic moments. As always, Erika C. Miller’s costumes are perfect choices for her characters. Casey Long has created a subtle, effective sound design. Tanae Beyer is production stage manager, Kyle Cooper assistant director, and Courtny Greenough rehearsal stage manager.
If the Chance World Premiere is any indication, The Boy In The Bathroom has considerable life ahead of it, its budget-to-emotional-payoff ratio making it a terrific choice for intimate regional theaters. The writers might also consider an alternate version featuring a male love interest, a simple pronoun substitution that might make The Boy In The Bathroom irresistible to LGBT theaters like San Diego’s Diversionary and L.A.’s Celebration. As is, Orange and Los Angeles county musical theater lovers are in for an emotion-packed treat down at the Chance.
One thing is certain. You’ll never look the same way at a bathroom again.
The Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. Through May 22. Click here for current performance schedule, closing date, and reservation line. www.chancetheater.com
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THEATER REVIEW
The Boy in the Bathroom
by Eric Marchese, Back Stage
CRITIC'S
PICK!
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| Chris
Klopatek and Liz Holt Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio |
The focal character of the new musical "The Boy in the Bathroom" is David, a young adult whose obsessive-compulsive disorder has taken the form of limiting his entire existence to the inside of a locked bathroom. The bathtub is his bed, the toilet his desk as he scribbles out notes for a master's thesis. His mother, Pam, enables him by pushing food under the door and speaking with him from the hallway.
After breaking her hip in a fall, Pam hires Julie to help her with the housework. As one would expect, Julie eventually begins to interact with David, and the two bond romantically, raising a number of questions: Can David emerge after a year of self-incarceration and live a normal life? Can Pam share David with a girlfriend? Can Julie help David through the rough patches?
All of these problems and more are capably handled by Michael Lluberes (book and lyrics) and Joe Maloney (music and additional lyrics) in a surprisingly compact, intermissionless 90-minute production. The valiant script, directed by Oanh Nguyen, refuses to shy away from harsh issues connected to how relationships are affected by psychological disorders.
Chris Klopatek generates warmth and even engenders our sympathy via David's panic attacks, which arise from seemingly harmless circumstances. His David, mop-haired and slightly unkempt, is just confused and anxious enough to be credible, collapsing into a heap and hyperventilating into a plastic baggie whenever he feels pressure to join the world. As one might expect, his mom has her own issues to contend with, expressed by Marina Coffee's portrayal of her as a chunky, bewildered schlub and in the revealingly bitter solo "Full." With the most assured vocal skills of the three, Liz Holt sketches Julie as a sullen lost soul seeking an escape valve and finding it—to her own, and our, surprise—in the person of David. In many ways, the play paints the couple as genuine opposites who mutually attract.
Maloney's music is so-so, but his and Lluberes' pungent lyrics do the trick. Bradley Kaye's white and off-white set is appropriately claustrophobic, and Brian Shevelenko's shifting lighting brings a different mood to every scene.
Presented by and at Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. Apr. 23–May 22. Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 3 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (714) 777-3033 or www.chancetheater.com.
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THEATER REVIEW
'The Boy in the Bathroom' at Chance
Theater
by Margaret Gray, Los Angeles Times
|
| Chris
Klopatek Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio |
The title “The Boy in the Bathroom” suggests a range of premises for a musical, none especially enticing. (“An irreverent, jazz-inflected take on digestive disorders!” “This sprightly hoedown about rough trade will have you do-si-do-ing in the aisles!”) In fact, Michael Lluberes and Joe Maloney’s play, developed at the New York Musical Theatre Festival and now premiering at the Chance Theater, deals with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the fear of change and the redemptive power of love.
After dropping out of college, David (attractive, dimpled Chris Klopatek, playing quirky rather than unhinged) lives in the bathroom, writing his thesis on rolls of toilet paper. He eats pancakes and other flat foods that his mother, Pam (Marina Coffee), slides under the door; she bewails the challenge of shopping for them in the funny song "Food That Fits Under the Door." (And it's a fairy tale, so quit worrying about how he takes the trash out or whether a MacBook Air might fit.)
Julie (the striking, natural Liz Holt, who has a pretty voice), hired to help out after Pam breaks her hip, goads David into conversation, then chess played on separate boards. (“I like the games you play with me,” he sings, “while my mother’s at physical therapy.”) They fall in love through the door, the Pyramus and Thisbe of mental illness. Scenic designer Bradley Kaye must have struggled with where to put this all-important door on his set, a bright white bathroom suspended in no-man’s land. His choice, stage left, seems as good as any, but it does make the action a little unbalanced.
There's no doubt that Julie will coax David out, but even so the ending feels anticlimactic. (Can love really cure OCD? Without therapy or meds? The play doesn’t seem so sure, either.) And along the way, too many songs about escape — OK, yes, we’re all imprisoned in the “bathrooms” of our pasts — dull the sparks ignited by numbers like “Full,” sung by Pam as she gorges herself on cake.
Still there’s something friendly about a musical on such a modest scale. Director Oanh Nguyen, the Chance's artistic director, creates a low-key, intimate vibe, in keeping with his small space. The contemporary, pleasant songs aren’t trying to graft themselves onto anybody's nervous system. The singers aren’t gunning to take down Raúl Esparza and Kristin Chenoweth. But the accompanist, Mike Wilkins, is stuck in the wings. Why not put the piano out front? Bathrooms may not make great living quarters, but they are known for their acoustics.
“The Boy in the Bathroom,” Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 22. $30-$45. (714) 777-3033 or www.chancetheater.com. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.
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THEATER REVIEW
'The Boy in the Bathroom' at Chance
Theater
by Michael Quintos, Broadway World
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| Marina
Coffee Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio |
Admit it. There are a few scenarios that spring to mind when trying to decipher what a play will be about with a title like the one bestowed upon Chance Theater's latest theatrical offering. But, surprise! It's less quirky (and surprisingly deeper) than you might assume. In the diminutive but impressive new musical THE BOY IN THE BATHROOM—now playing at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills through May 22—the debilitating mental struggle of a young man trapped by his own self-imposed imprisonment (both literally and figuratively) becomes the searing focus of this emotionally-thoughtful new production. This World Premiere presentation is also featured as a part of the 2011 Festival of New American Musicals.
The three-character musical play—featuring book and lyrics by Michael Lluberes and music and additional lyrics by Joe Maloney—tells the curious story of David (riveting newcomer Chris Klopatek), an awkward young man who, for more than a year, has locked himself in the bathroom of his family home in Michigan, fearful of leaving it. You see, David suffers from severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), a condition that has him constantly feeling as if he's never ever quite clean enough. For David, the bathroom is his only safe haven, a supposedly clean, self-contained sanctuary that he himself keeps in check. Within these walls he feels shielded from "dangerous" outside elements that he thinks are essentially the harbingers of disease and bacteria.
Locking himself in this sterile nirvana is certainly an odd living situation: He sleeps on towels in the bathtub. He uses the vanity cupboard as a writing desk. And, perhaps, most enterprising of all, David eats only meals that comprise of flat or pliable foods—foods that can be easily pounded and slipped under the few inches of space at the bottom of the bathroom door—all delivered by his doting, ultra-protective mother Pam (Marina Coffee).
It's an interesting mother-son dynamic as well... Now in his early 20's, David is wholly reliant on his aging mother for pretty much everything; while Pam, in turn as a single mother, finds comfort in seeing to the needs of his grown son, unhealthily coddling his disorder in order to ease her own fears of loneliness. Pam, clearly, displays all the classic signs of an enabler. The duality of her own damaged personality as an over-stressed single mom/caring nurturer and a selfish, cake-loving divorcee certainly interferes with David's ultimate path to recovery.
Divided only by a locked door, Pam is David's sole link to the outside world. Exhausting her days in extreme couponing, Pam constantly supplies David with books and other reading materials (natch), and, of course, a bounty of toilet paper—most of which he uses as actual paper to write his college thesis onto in long-hand. And, as expected, his very condition is the subject of this thesis.
Ordinarily, one would think, such odd behavior would alarm a mother to seek some sort of outside assistance, whether in pill form or, maybe, even a third-party intervention. But, no. Pam tells no one and deals with the situation on her own terms, hoping, perhaps, the problem gets fixed in its own due time. For now, she is clearly enjoying the time she has with her son, but at the same time, appears to be bogged down by extra stress by allowing his son's neurosis to take over both of their daily lives.
Their stress levels are raised even more when Pam suffers a broken hip after slipping on the ice—one of the hazards of Michigan winters. With household chores and food shopping still needed to be taken care of in her incapacity, she reluctantly hires help in the form of snarky neighborhood girl Julie (Liz Holt). Impatient and restless, she worms her way into the job primarily so she can gather enough funds to buy herself a car that will take her far, far away from the state she hates.
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| Liz
Holt and Chris Klopatek Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio |
Soon, like the audience's, Julie's fascination for the self-entrapped young man grows with each exchange. Finally, David slowly lets his guard down and finds a genuine connection with someone other than his mother. Their conversations—all conducted from opposite sides of the bathroom door with nary a glance at their physical appearances—start off as mutual curiosity, then to playful banter, then, eventually, to the beginnings of a blossoming romance.
Rather than ridicule David for his—let's face it—heightened irrational fear of normal, everyday contaminants, Julie offers the kept boy a sympathetic ear, a playmate, and even an unconditional, non-judgmental friend. In a way, Julie's a therapist that sees hopeful possibilities in David's recovery, easing him slowly to the outside world with a finger touch or even, woah, a mutual through-the-door shedding of clothes that's surprisingly liberating.
It's an idealistic, fictional notion to think two people can develop such deep, resonating feelings from only these verbal interactions, but the play really sells this idea well, and the audience is totally buying it. A conundrum arises: is their romance doomed because of Julie's need to flee the confines of her surroundings, not to mention David's opposing inability to leave the bathroom?
Directed with an appropriate intimacy by Chance Theater's own artistic director Oanh Nguyen, THE BOY IN THE BATHROOM has the ingredients to become a really great small-scale modern musical, the kind of emotionally-powerful musical production that intimate, black box theaters can winningly stage for years to come.
Originally developed at the annual New York Musical Theatre Festival, it's certainly a darling little show that provides us with a really sympathetic, likable central character that you really just want to rush up to and give a comforting hug (while wearing a hazmat suit, of course). Additionally, it's that very intimacy in size that helps audiences better connect and empathize with a character so attached to a small (albeit nicely-designed) footprint of space. With every nervous shake, with every slight subtle look, or with every minute movement of hesitation, David's aching pathos vibrates with an amplified intensity within the claustrophobic walls of that disinfected room.
As David, Klopatek truly is remarkable, making his portrait of this young man believably and achingly real. He also punctuates it with a really nice, pleasant singing voice as well. Coffee's speak-singing style seems off-putting at first, but grows on you as the play continues to highlight the character's iffy, surprisingly bitter machinations—with heavy songs that reveal a mother that has her own issues too. It's an interesting and ultimately adequate mouthpiece for exposition, but, still, I did find it a bit curious that a huge bulk of the "showier" songs were placed on the shoulders of the mother, a role which seems to require, at its very core, a stronger vocalist. And, finally, as the sole figure of semi-normalcy, Holt gives not only a convincingly full-bodied acting performance, but she also possesses exemplary vocal talents. The pain and even the small bits of joy that her character travels through float up with an aural beauty that's a wonderful contrast to Klopatek's quieter, thoughtful singing and the more hyper-manic delivery from Coffee.
Kudos also go out to Bradley Kaye's gorgeous bathroom set (with lighting assists from Brian S. Shevelenko) and the show's hardworking live pianist Mike Wilkins, who's also the production's musical director.
While much of the music has a clever lyric or two sprinkled throughout, overall, most of the songs aren't particularly exceptional or memorable. Fortunately, the show's strong, noteworthy book—the show's absolute best asset—gives it enough resonance to make it one of the most admirable fresh entries in Chance Theater's arsenal of brand new works. From its humble start to its courageous finish, this moving new musical—at times warmly amusing, at times deeply heartbreaking—is certainly worthy of your time. With that said, THE BOY IN BATHROOM is certainly, at best, a more-than-above-average work-in-progress that has the makings of a stirring, future cult hit.
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ARTIST INTERVIEW
I Interview Playwrights, Part 354:
Michael Lluberes
by Adam Szymkowicz, "I Interview Playwrights" Blog
[ Link to Adam Szymkowicz's Blog ]
 |
| Michael
Lluberes |
Michael Lluberes
Hometown: Okemos, Michigan.
Current Town: New York, NY
Q: Tell me about The Boy
in the Bathroom.
A: The Boy in the Bathroom is a three person musical I wrote with
composer Joe Maloney. Here’s the blurb about it: “David lives in his bathroom.
He never comes out. His mother feeds him thin, flat food she can slide under
the door. He has everything he needs. David has obsessive-compulsive disorder
and he's not going anywhere... until he meets Julie... and discovers that there
might be something - or someone – on the other side of the door that will make
it worth opening...”
I’m very proud of the work Joe and I have done on it. Hopefully it’s funny and sad and weird. It’s a very different kind of musical – the subject matter – the size – it’s intimate and personal. We wanted to create a really tiny world that would hopefully have a larger resonance. I think the piece surprises people. It feels much more like a play than a musical.
We originally did it at The New York Musical Theatre Festival and since then the show has received a lot of wonderful development opportunities. It’s now in a production at The Chance Theater in Orange County, CA through May 22nd.
Q: What else are you working on?
A: I’ve been commissioned by No Rules Theatre Company in D.C. to adapt and direct a new version of Peter
Pan. This is going to be a very dark and dangerous new take. I think J.M. Barrie wrote such a beautiful story about the pain of growing up. I’m reading a lot right now about his life and it’s opening a lot of windows. A wonderful imagination often emerges from dark places in childhood. I want the play to be both a child’s dream and nightmare. I want to create a fun and scary theatrical playground. I want the play to be thrilling battle between childhood and adulthood. It’s going to be all about imagination. I’m very excited about it.
I just received a New Artist Initiative grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a residency this summer at The Hambidge Center. Hambidge is a beautiful artist’s retreat in the mountains of North Georgia. I plan on using the time there to work on Peter Pan.
Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood
that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.
A: You’ll have to buy me a drink first.
I don’t know about a specific story, but for as far back as I can remember I was always making theatre. When I was little, I would put on plays with my toys in the bathtub. I used to force my sister and the neighbor kids to put on shows in the backyard with me. My mother sewed red curtains and we put up a little make shift stage in a corner of my basement. I used to do plays on a trampoline in the round. I wore a red cape for a year when I was seven.
Later in high school I would put on rebel productions with a group of my friends. We would steal huge boulders from the City Park and orange fencing from construction sites for our sets. In one play I made a boy dress up in a Dorothy dress and a girl actually throw up in a bucket. I directed plays by Brecht and Ionesco while the other kids were doing Damn Yankees. I wore a beret. I was that kid. Today I still feel like I’m just a little kid making plays.
Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what
would it be?
A: One thing: I want theatres and producers to take more chances on new untested
plays and artists.
Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
A: Shakespeare, Stephen Sondheim, Orson Welles, Charles Laughton, Peter
Brook, Zero Mostel, Tennessee Williams, Simon Callow, Bill Finn, Edward Albee,
Albert Cullum, Tony Kushner, Kaufman and Hart, Marian Seldes, The Muppets, The
Group Theatre. My teachers: Gerald Freedman, Lewis J. Stadlen, Marty Rader. I
devour biographies of theatrical giants of the past, the greats who broke through
something and created a huge change – a new way of thinking or feeling about theatre.
Also, my friends are my theatrical heroes. Some of them are working for pennies and cheeseburgers and are creating really amazing work all over the country.
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: I’m excited by anything that I haven’t seen before. I’m excited by plays
and musicals that change the form, that do something different and new. I want
theatre to surprise me. Most of the time I sit in the theatre and I feel like
I know what the person on stage is going to say or sing next or where they’re
going to move. I love being surprised. I like crazy theatrical plays that are
also deeply personal and heartfelt. I’m excited when I see a story about people
who don’t normally get plays written about them. I love things that make you
laugh and cry at the same time. I’m excited by the combination of contradictory
things, the juxtaposition of things in theatre. The big and the small, the highbrow
and the lowbrow, the pretty and the ugly, the extraordinary and the mundane,
the dirty and the sparkly, the hilarious and the heartbreaking, the old and the
new smashed together in one play.
I actually think we’re living in a really exciting time for new musical theatre right now – there’s a whole crop of original small musicals out there. I’m truly inspired by the writers and composers in our generation who are trying to do something new and exciting with the form. You’re not necessarily going to see them on Broadway - the “American Musical” is still a fairly conservative art form – but it’s also a comparatively young art form and my hope is that it turns into something as diverse and exciting as independent film is. There’s room in musical theatre for all kinds of different subject matter, characters, music and storytelling. I’m really excited to see what happens next.
Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting
out?
A: Be yourself. Write the play or musical that you want to see.
Be theatrical. Don’t put something on stage that you could see on TV.
There’s a lot of rejection. People will either get your play or they won’t – but you only need one person to get it.
Be personal. When you’re young and just starting out there’s no reason to not where your heart on your sleeve. Make your plays personal.
Put your play up yourself. Just do it. Plays are meant to be seen and performed - not read.
Also, and I have to remind myself of this all the time: We are writing plays for people to see. We are telling stories. We are trying to make people less afraid, or more hopeful, or challenge them, or make them think, or entertain them. We’re not creating theatre for ourselves in a box, we are communicating with people.
Q: Plugs, please:
A: My website:
www.MichaelLluberes.com
The Boy in the Bathroom at Chance Theater in Orange County, CA through May 22nd. www.chancetheater.com
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PATRON REVIEWS
Very fun show
posted by Tim on 05/22/11
I really enjoyed The Boy in the Bathroom - I now have a crush on Liz Holt, evidently. :) Very fun show, excellent work by everyone.
I recommend it to anyone that likes
to go see plays
posted by Casey on 05/16/11
The show was great even though it was long. You don't even relize the time passing. Through the whole show, there was not a sound from the audience except for laughter at the jokes and aplause at the end of the songs. I have never experienced this before in all the time that I have been watching shows. The acting was remarkable and believable, and it kept me emersed in it until the very end. though some of the content might be inapropriate for younger audiances, I still recomend it to anyone that likes to go see plays (in any form), and I think that those that do not like the theatre that much, would greatly enjoy this splended preformance. On a scale of 1-10, I give it an 11 for the hard effort put into the show, and I hope to go back to the Chance Theatre for years to come. ~a Drama student
I loved it!
posted by Yolanda on 05/16/11
I loved it... was a great performance by three outstanding actors, can't wait to see it again.
The best play I've seen all year
posted by Alyssa on 05/09/11
The Boy in the Bathroom was the best play I've seen all year! Rising star Chris Klopatek was mesmerizing, funny and hearbreaking. Liz Holt brought down the house with her powerful singing voice. Great set design and attention to detail. I saw it twice in one weekend. Highly recommended.
Loved the play
posted by Pam Kibby on 04/30/11
My 16 year old son and I loved the play. We were surprised at the caliber of talent in the play. The music, lighting, and set were all superb. Be aware that there is some adult language and subject matter. When they say 14 years and older, they mean it. We enjoyed ourselves and look forward to attending another performance at the Chance Theater in the future.
