Actors Alliance Festival 2006 - Program 6

A Fare Ride written, produced, and directed by Matt Thompson with Colleen Kollar and Ted Reis sharing the stage. Kollar plays a stereotypical taxi jockey in any big city. She does everything her own way; that's her style, which includes singing, humming, as well as chewing and popping her bubble gum. She picks up a gun-toting bank robber wannabe (Ted Reis). What develops is a strange relationship. The taxi driver takes everything in stride as she tools down an L.A. freeway at 80 miles per hour. (I don't recall ever being on an L. A. freeway at noon and able to drive that fast.) Playwright/Director Matt Thompson must have a secret freeway. Funny lines, well directed, executed by two delightful actors.

The Storm, Jeanne Becijos adapting Kate Chopin's story. Directed by Connie Di Grazia, Music arranged by Gary Chun, and starring Michael Hubbard, Duane Leake, Krista Bell and Rob Tyler. Becijos' tale makes us feel they are in the bayous outside of N'awleans. Even this Yankee, who lived in the south, was not ready for Cajun country. Duane Leake, as a washboard-strumming itinerant musician, sets the flavor of the piece. He bridges many scenes with vocal comments. (Duane: Are you sure you aren't Cajun?) We meet Krista Bell and Rob Tyler, playing a poor but happy couple. He is off on errands. Last is Michael Hubbard, a neighbor whose wife is off to another state. Suddenly a major tree-killing, house-wrecking, devastating storm develops. The lightning, thunder, and wind bring the young wife and her neighbor together to weather the storm. They were former lovers, and the storm brings back those feelings. This is the deep, deep South and her lover is black. Director Di Grazia creates an authenticity that is startling.

True Blue, penned by Lance Arthur Smith, directed by Angela Miller with Christopher Buess and Dallas McLaughlin on stage. Writer's block, that terrible stage in the writing process when nothing works, is often the subject of writers. Smith captures the feeling of a suicidal young man faced with two years of non-productivity. His attempts at hanging are for naught. He is then visited by his deceased dad who has the audacity to come back as a young man rather than the 68-year-old who had left this mortal coil. There is some unfinished business that his son has to face. Director Miller had a gentle feel for the relationship between son and dad as well as another brother.

The Face of God, inked by Justin Warner, directed by Angela Miller, and starring Megan Fonseca, Patrick Hubbard and Ted Reis. Writer Warner pulls a fast one on the audience and one of his characters. Ted (Reis) is filling in for God at the entrance to heaven. Hubbard plays a man who has just passed. Both Ted and the assistant (Megan Fonseca) can't find the man's record. Ted calls down to Satan who also can't find the man's name. The bantering is great, a very funny piece. Ted's best line comes at the end of the play, "God Damn It!!!" Oh, by the way, God walked out on a break 16 years ago.

The Vienna Poems of Kurt Reichert, co-translated by Kurt Reichert and John Kroll. Kroll is producer/director. Starring are Ron Punit Auerbacher, Jason Connors, Howard Edelman, Jennie Prisk, Mary Qualls, Deborah Gilmour-Smyth, Robert Smyth and Linda Vickerman. This reciting of Reichert's work ended Program Six. Placed on a bare stage, the characters were like chess pieces towards the end of play. Each was lighted as they spoke. Some of the poems were interacted between two or more actors. It was a serious, interesting ending to an evening of mixed productions.