"A VERY LIKE-ABLE AS YOU LIKE IT"

Review from PlayShakespeare.com for Shake on the Lake's AS YOU LIKE IT, directed by Chad Bradford

by Diana Louise Carter

(Excepts below)

 It’s hard to believe Shake on the Lake in tiny Perry, NY., is just eight years old.

The company, co-founded by Perry natives Josh Rice (producing artistic director) and Pilar McKay (managing director) has brought a handful of talented actors from across the country. They've parlayed arts grants into a moveable feast of Shakespeare that travels each July and August from the shores of Silver Lake to as many as eight counties.

This is Shakespeare in the best and most accessible of Shakespearean traditions—outdoor venues, minimal and easy-to-transport sets, actors playing multiple roles, and frequent interaction with the audience. While there are body mics and a sound system providing amplification, there are no lights, so shows begin at 6 p.m.generally and the scripts are modified so the plays can end before dusk. The formula has been successful enough to enlarge the cast to 11 this year and create some spinoffsSponsorships mean most of the performances are free this year, allowing fans to see the performances in multiple settings without having to buy multiple tickets.

This year’s production, directed by Associate Artistic Director Chad Bradford, is a delightful As You Like It, costumed in caftans and tiered skirts of the Summer of Love (designed by Nikki Grey). A half-hour of live music precedes the play, including a lively version of the Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want setting the tone and era of the play perfectly.

In this production, the court is more in the imagination, while the rolling lawns of historic mansions or parks call to mind the wooded encampment of the Arden Forest, to which Rosalind and Celia will travel in disguise. The only scenery is a lace-curtained, wood-framed backdrop.

Before we get to Arden, though, the scheming Oliver sets up his brother Orlando to be maimed or killed by Charles the Wrestler, who has already dispatched earlier opponents. Fight scenes, starting with a pre-wrestling tussle between the brothers, are beautifully choreographed, with Oliver (Matthew Duncan) turning bright red when the unhappy and penniless Orlando (Ladarius Jamerson) puts him in a headlock. The actual wrestling scene looks like something out of the World Wrestling Federation with a scene stealing Charles (Rice) making the audience shriek in laughter at his antics. A few improvised lines—a crotch pummelling of Charles followed by Orlando quipping, “He can only speak in falsetto, Lord,” add to the humor without derailing the text.

Once Orlando and Rosalind have clapped eyes on each other, and Rosalind (Madeleine Dauer) has fled to the forest with cousin Celia (Sharon Combs), we meet Jaques, a courtier of the banished Duke Senior, Rosalind’s father. The melancholy fool (Malcom Tucker, when he’s not playing music) practices his meditation, while sitting with criss-crossed legs and arms outstretched and balanced on his knees, as one might find a 60s-era guru. This is a wry Jacques, who seems just as amused by his fellow forest dwellers as he is contemplative.

This production is particularly good at making each of the denizens of the forest distinct, appearing to be peopled by a cast of thousands. Buxom farm girl Audrey (played by Keith Harper) particularly stands out as a curvy wench who goes back and forth between demur and come-hither wriggles. Her, or should I say "his", wig fell off opening night as she chased, and was chased by, Touchstone. Grabbing the lost wig, Harper looked Touchstone (Duncan) in the eye, plopped the wig back on and ad-libbed “Love me for what I am!” with a wag of his head.

The character of Rosalind is often played with great bravado, almost like a female Peter Pan who insists on fixing everyone. Dauer’s performance is more nuanced, allowing the unsure, smitten young woman to peak out now again from her disguise as Ganymede the boy. Phebe, the vain, charmless woman who falls in love with Ganymede, was played with more confidence than usual by Jordan Tudor, who also doubled as a vocalist before and during the play. I would have a hard time believing she wasn’t the understudy for Rosalind, or that she won't play that role someday.

In a small and young company like this one, I presume the costume budget isn't large, but Grey and her assistants worked wonders. Particularly beautiful was the purple and glittery gold of the God of Love (one of several roles played by Margaret Gayford). Ganymede was a bit of dandy with bell-bottom trousers and a floral frock coat. Though all of the actors were skilled enough to double and triple as different characters without the help of costuming, their clothing changes gave early warning to a thankful audience.

Swapping roles between the nasty Duke Frederick and the mellow Duke Senior, Josh Marcks went from a Nazi motorcyclist look in black with silver metalic spikes to a simple white caftan with love beads. At one point, Matthew Duncan made a lightening-swift change from Oliver with a hard, brimmed cap to Touchstone with a skull cap and red clown’s nose—at a speed that seemed almost unbelievable.

Bradford knows how to keep a play engaging and moving at a quick pace. Even though there is essentially no backstage in the Shake on the Lake format, characters seemed to drop in from nowhere, sneaking around the audience to appear in the performance space for each new scene. He solved the problem of having too few actors to play the four couples getting married at the end (Duncan could have been charged with bigamy) by omitting all but the brothers and the cousins they married.

 

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"A meditation on love: Energetic ‘As You Like It’ opens to record audience in Geneseo"

Review from THE DAILY NEWS for Shake on the Lake's AS YOU LIKE IT, directed by Chad Bradford

GENESEO – “All the world’s a stage” we are told by Jacques in the second act of William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”

And where the Shakespearean troupe Shake on the Lake is concerned, we – the audience – are the players called on to yell out “choo choo” when prompted, or drawn into a scene – whether intentionally, or not.

“It was very exciting to see,” said Bill White of Caledonia, who was attending his first Shake show. “I thought it was hilarious the way they mixed traditional Shakespeare with contemporary language. It was very inventive.”

About 170 people – the largest crowd yet to view a Shake on the Lake performance in Livingston County – helped Shake begin its eighth summer with a July 25 performance on the back lawn of the Wadsworth Homestead. Shows continue through Aug. 11 at various locations across Western New York.

“It’s so wonderful to see what kind of community has been fostered in this community and beyond. We see lives change and people get excited. It’s one of the more beautiful experiences you can have as an actor,” said Madeleine Dauer, who stars as Rosalind.

The Perry-based Shake on the Lake began with one location and one show in 2012. For the past five summers it has taken its show on the road. This year, “As You Like It” will be performed 17 times in eight counties. This weekend, the company has performances scheduled at the Perry Public Beach on Silver Lake.

“We believe in rural theater and rural arts,” said Shake co-founder and producing artistic director Josh Rice.

Rice, in describing the acting company’s intent, explained the troupe “wants to make audience and artists not in these two places (holding his hands apart), but here (intertwining his fingers).”

Wadsworth Homestead has provided the opening night for the past five summers and this year’s debut came on a beautiful night for a show. Temperatures were reasonable, skies were blue and by show time shade had enveloped both the audience and stage area.

“I love how they bring Shakespeare to the modern world. It makes it accessible,” said Terry Brayman of Naples, who joined family members Serena Kniffin of Geneseo, Deborah Klee of Rochester, and others at the show.

“This transcends generations,” Kniffin said. “From seven to 70, we have three generations here tonight and they all enjoyed the play mightily.”

Kniffin liked the theatricality and the passion. Klee appreciated the show’s humor and levity.

“I appreciate this as entertainment,” said Klee, who has seen Shakespeare productions in parks in Rochester and Buffalo, but found Shake’s take “more intimate and personal. It was easy to follow.”

“As You Like It” is Shakespeare’s freewheeling meditation on love, said director Chad Bradford.

“Shakespeare seems to ask ‘What is love?’ or ‘What are different kinds of love?’, and also, and perhaps most provocatively, ‘What is not love?’,” Bradford said.

In directing the production, Bradford said he found inspiration in the “Summer of Love” and other spiritual paths that came from the 1960s and 1970s.

As for the plot: Rosalind’s cruel uncle Duke Frederick (Josh Marcks) usurps his twin brother Duke Senior (also played by Marcks) from the throne and banishes him. Senior’s daughter, Rosalind, disguises herself as a boy to flee persecution in her uncle’s court. Accompanied by her faithful cousin Celia (Sharon Combs) and the clown Touchstone (Matthew Duncan), they seek safety, freedom and eventually love in the idyllic Forest of Arden. There, love notes grow on trees and music bewitches the air.

They also encounter a variety of characters, including melancholy traveler Jacques (Malcolm Tucker), who speaks many of the play’s most famous lines, and Orlando (Ladarius Jamerson), a brave gallant whom Rosalind – putting her own heart in peril as she has fallen for Orlando – instructs him on how to best woo a woman.

Along the way, they discover that love is never simple, idealism is sometimes naïve, and the forest will not protect them from the outside world forever.

And just in case you think Shake on the Lake is playing too close to Shakespeare’s original, Josh Rice – in a significantly smaller role than last summer’s Richard III – channels his best “Macho Man” Randy Savage for a wrestling scene with Orlando. Rice played the role with vigor – thrusting about the stage, pulling in Savage’s catchphrases such as the bombastic “Oh, yea …” and exhorting the audience to respond to his “chugga chugga” with a raucous “choo choo.”

The wrestling scene is in the original play, through Rice acknowledged that he took inspiration from the over-the-top professional wrestling programs of his youth.

“It was a chance to play out my childhood dreams of stage,” he said.

Robin Finley, who had Rice as a student in English and journalism classes in high school, reveled in her former student’s success.

“I might have imagined there would be greatness. He was a bright shining star, and it’s grown,” Finley said.

She said Shake on the Lake has made Shakespeare accessible.

“To bring something like this to a small venue, and make it comfortable for all ages … this is not like something we’ve had before,” she said.

Each performance is accompanied by a half-hour or so of pre-show entertainment. Opening night featured a selection of songs about love: most familiar – Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love”; some ironic – Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” or The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”; and one stunner – Jamerson’s cover of The Temptations’ “My Girl.”

The five-act “As You Like” typically plays out in four or more hours. Shake on the Lake does it in 90 minutes or less.

“I don’t know what they actually left out,” said Tom Reagan of Perry, who had re-read the play before coming to the show. “I felt like the whole story was here.”

Reagan said he enjoys Shakespeare and sees Shake on the Lake whenever he can.

“They are,” he said, “fun and energetic and creative.”

by Ben Beagle

BWW Review: AS YOU LIKE IT at Shake On The Lake

by Dan and Julie Izzo

Having taught British literature for over a quarter of a century, I have become painfully aware of two initial student misconceptions about Shakespeare and his literature: that he wrote in Old English and that his writings are academic, elitist, archaic and dull. The first false assertion can be dispelled through education. "Hwæt! We Gar-Dena in gear-dagum, þeod-cyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon!" is really Old English. By comparison one can see that Shakespeare wrote in Modern English. The second erroneous belief can only be dismissed through experience, and schools have been struggling to provide that experience for over 400 years. Unfortunately classrooms aren't famous for being the antidote needed to overcome chronic symptoms of archaic dullness (no offense to my former colleagues intended.) Any reader of BWW knows that live theater is that healing potion, but good live theater like modern healthcare is inaccessible to many people.

As stated on their website, Shake on the Lake is a professional theatre company in their tenth season that specializes in performances to underserved rural communities. They are currently touring Western New York State with a lively production of As You Like It. I had the good fortune to stumble upon the second night of their tour. It was scheduled to be enacted outdoors on the grounds of The Morgan-Manning House in Brockport. This plan was interrupted by torrential rain just prior to the staging. With true theatrical chutzpah and the mantra that "the show must go on," these actors, soaked to the bone, were moved indoors into the Tower Building on the campus of SUNY Brockport. To paraphrase Jacques, they were sans set, sans sound equipment, sans special effects, sans everything. In the modern parlance, it was truly an unplugged performance. But what better way to experience Shakespeare in its purest form than from a traveling band of actors armed with nothing but their skill and improvisational wit.

Shake on the Lake did not disappoint. The show was introduced by a series of modern rock songs accompanied by acoustic guitars, a trumpet, a ukulele and an accordion. The lyrics acted as a dumb show to highlight the theme of the evening--love. This joyous company may have been wet but their enthusiasm was not dampened. From the outset of the play it was obvious that their goal was to create an As You Like It that was relatable to a modern audience. The cast took liberties with the text, often interspersing it with modern colloquialisms and pop song references. The acting was impressively physical, spirited and at times appropriately bawdy. Without the set, the audience could see the actors who were outside the circle of the scene enjoy their comrades performance as much as we did. Their joy and laughter intensified our own. It was clear that this was a company that both worked and played together.

Josh Rice, the founder of the troupe, set the tone early with his WWE inspired characterization of Charles the court wrestler. Part Hulk Hogan and part Randy Flair, he mercilessly taunted Ladarius Jamerson's Orlando from the imaginary top rope, flexed and performed diving elbow drops. Jamerson sputtered and feigned being stunned. The audience was drawn in by the familiar motifs of modern wrestling. Shakespeare became relevant through this and similar parallels throughout the show. High-test energy fueled the motor of the plot.

The entire cast raced through the show playing multiple characters. Ladarius Jamerson's Orlando was confident, handsome and crazily love-struck while his country bumpkin William "ah shucked" his way through a love scene with cross- dressing Keith Harper's Audrey. Madeline Dauer's Rosalind at first blushed wide-eyed with love but later, when dressed as the boy Ganymede, beamed delighting in impish pranks as she tormented her dear Orlando. Sharon Combs as Celia gave a particularly fine supporting performance as cousin and companion to Rosalind. Josh Marcks' versatility was displayed as he portrayed the serene Duke Senior, the fiery Duke Frederick and the emo shepherd Silvius.

As a scholar and lover of Shakespeare, I missed the flights of language that enrich characterization and soar with emotion. But as an improv teacher, I delighted in the spontaneity and creative high jinx that engaged the audience. Shake on the Lake's As You Like It is a perfect introduction to the genius of Shakespeare. It's fast, funny and first-rate. This modern take is for everyone. If you go, you won't see the exact production I saw because with luck and fair weather you will see it in it's fully produced glory, but I can assure you it will be a great evening of entertainment!

SHAKE ON THE LAKE GIVES RICHARD III A PUNK ROCK MAKEOVER

by Ben Beagle

The Daily News

GENESEO — This is the Shakespeare you’d get if William wore tight jeans instead of breeches, replaced doublets with black leather jackets and donned thick-soled Doc Martens boots.

Shake of the Lake’s summer production of “Richard III,” the story of the ruthless, plotting man who would be king, comes with a punk-rock attitude – complete with a couple of repeating lines from a Sex Pistols song.

“I like the extraordinary imagination. They keep finding new things to do with Shakespeare,” said Anne Lutkus of Geneseo, who was among those who turned out July 26 on a sweltering summer evening for Shake’s tour-opening performance at the Wadsworth Homestead.

An estimated 130 people — the largest crowd to view a Shake on the Lake performance in Livingston County — turned out as Shake began its seventh summer. Shows continue through Aug. 11 at various locations in Western New York.

This summer’s production features a true in-the-round stage, which puts the actors in the middle of an area surrounding by the audience.

“‘Richard III’ is reality TV,” said Shake co-founder Josh Rice, who stars in the title role. “Shakespeare was always looking to the audience. ‘I’m doing this. Now, I’m gonna do that.’ The nature of these shows had constant asides. It’s nice to have people around for every one.”

“And it’s not like Will is here to yell at us,” he added.

Gretchen Donnan of York has seen “a bunch” of the Shake shows. She likes the differences among the productions, and found a lot of energy and passion in this year’s performance.

“I like minimalist theater, where only a little bit of costuming and set changes. They can be quick and subtle, but with a lot of creativity on the part of the cast,” she said. “It’s as much or more fun as a more elaborate theater show.”

Susan Morse of Vermont, who is staying in York for the summer, liked the action and the tradition of actors playing multiple parts. She particularly liked Ladarius Jamerson’s unlikely casting as the Duchess of York.

“Each character really stretched their roles,” she said. “I thought it was very creative.”

In “Richard III,” Richard, the Duke of Gloucester — whose physical deformities often leave people overlooking him — is determined to gain the crown of England from his brother King Edward IV. Richard plots his way through a fast-paced — Shake productions run 90 minutes or less — story of plotting, scheming and many deaths.

The story is more tragic and grim then previous Shake on the Lake productions, but there are also bits of winking dialogue, asides with the audience and dark humor.

When Curtiss Johns as Murderer 2 psyches himself up to kill Richard’s brother, Clarence, he sings the 1980s hit “Eye of the Tiger,” but with substituted lyrics like “I’m gonna kill me a duke/make him all bloody.” (Johns said after the show, he expected the lyrics to change with each performance.)

Musically, you may also hear the Clash, a bit of Pink Floyd’s “Money” and the repeated refrain “I am an anti-Christ/I am an anarchist” from the Sex Pistols “Anarchy in the U.K.” whenever cast members are plotting about killing rivals.

“Richard III” is also the most physical of Shake’s shows, which previously have included “Romeo and Juliet,” “Twelfth Night” and “The Tempest.” There are several sword and knife fights, many deaths and a title character with seemingly hundreds of different facial expressions.

“There’s nothing as physical as ‘Richard III,’ and it fits our style — fast, fun and physical,” said Rice, who plays the grueling title role with a left arm kept tightly to his chest at an awkward angle throughout the show, the occasional gimpy leg and a tenuous mental state. “Part of our style is fast, fun and physical.”

“It’s closer to athletics, and that strikes a chord with me,” Rice said. “When I started in theater, I studied stage combat.”

“And,” he said with a wink, “I’m a fan of pro wrestling.”

Shake on the Lake opens playful, entertaining ‘Twelfth Night’

With snippets of songs from rock bands Aerosmith and the B-52s and – for opening night in Geneseo - references to Kelly’s Saloon, Shake on the Lake’s production of “Twelfth Night” is not the Shakespeare you feared in high school. 

It is, instead, entertaining and not at all intimidating.

“These guys are bringing something you think is dead and long gone and making it modern,” said Marsha Abe of Geneseo, who attended Shake on the Lake’s opening night. 

“Twelfth Night,” the fifth summer production from Perry-based Shake on the Lake, is a comedy about the madness of love that involves separated fraternal twins, mismatched lovers, mistaken identities, jealousy, fights and duels. 

About 60 people attended opening night July 28, a balmy mid-summer evening outside the Wadsworth Homestead in Geneseo. The audience, which included visitors from Canandaigua and Little Rock, Ark., was a mix of returning theatergoers, such as Abe, and first timers such as Mary Patrick-Grabowski of Geneseo.

“I heard it was a lot of fun. It looks pretty cool. The people look cool,” she said while watching the pre-show. “And any chance to come to the Homestead is appealing.”

Improv and humor

The pre-show, which begins a half-hour before each performance, introduces the cast as if they are members of a Shakespearean acting company. They perform contemporary songs, write poetry with audience members and engage in other hijinks, such as a marshmallow eating contest.

“I love Shakespeare, that’s all I really needed to go,” said Ron Smith of Canandaigua, who in addition to seeing the show also bested actor Jordy Neill – the conniving Sir Toby Belch in the play — in the marshmallow contest.

“Twelfth Night” features a cast of seven, with each actor taking on at least two roles. Samantha Harrington and Matthew Duncan play fraternal twins Viola and Sebastian, respectively, who each survive a shipwreck – though each thinks the other has perished – and find themselves arriving separately in Illyria. Viola disguises herself as a boy named Cesario and begins working for Duke Orsino (Vinny Mraz), with whom she falls in love. The Duke, however, is in love with Olivia (Sharon Combs), who herself falls for the disguised Viola. From there, hijinks ensue in a fast-paced production that wraps in about 80 minutes.

The cast also includes Fergie Philippe and Josh Marcks, both newcomers to the troupe.

“These guys are really talented,” Abe said of the cast. “I love the improv and the humor.”

Winking at tradition

Improv, local references and contemporary music may be more in the tradition of Shakespeare then some audience members realize.

“Shakespeare often referenced the pubs and places in London in his plays,” said Shake’s Interim Artistic Director Chad Bradford, who directs this year’s production. “This made the play immediate to his audience and provided some local fun.”

The Kelly’s Saloon references in Geneseo came up during rehearsal “and I thought it was a lovely nod to this tradition in Shakespeare,” Bradford said.

The reference to the Geneseo bar will be replaced by other local references in subsequent performances, which included shows in Dansville on Friday and Letchworth and Darien Lakes state parks on Saturday. Today, the production is at Orleans Marine Park in Kent. Performances continues Tuesday in Arcade, Wednesday in Attica and Thursday through Saturday in Silver Lake. The tour concludes Aug. 11 with a show in Springville.

“We are the Shakespeare festival for rural Western New York,” said Bradford, “so adding this touch, I hope, shows our audience the ownership they have with the company and that over the past five years we have become part of the community.”

The inclusion of contemporary music – Aerosmith’s “Dude, Looks Like a Lady” and The B-52’s “Love Shack” offer humorous winks at the “Twelfth Night” plot – acknowledges Shakespearian traditions.

“Using current music of the day in Shakespeare’s work is as old as the Bard himself. Music and songs of his time were put in the play to not only further the plot, but to draw the audience in with something enjoyable, fun and familiar,” Bradford said. “ … If Shakespeare were alive today, I have no doubt we would hear Celine Dion references and Justin Timberlake jokes.”

And audience interaction is not limited to the pre-show. Several times actors exited or entered past the audience and in one scene – in which a trick is played on Olivia’s puritanical steward – the troublemakers hide out among the audience.

“At Shake on the Lake we think of theater as a living art form,” said Bradford. “Shakespeare’s texts are living texts, not dead pieces of literature. In making them fun and unique and immediate for the audience, it’s truly and sincerely my goal to actually use all of Shakespeare’s traditions to keep it as contemporary as possible.”

And with it, dispel any notions that linger from high school English.

“When you read Shakespeare on the page it can be hard to understand. But seeing a performance, the language no longer seems difficult and their interpretation of Shakespeare gives it added humor,” said Rachel Jones, who accompanied her 7-year-old daughter Lena to the youth’s first Shakespeare production. “It was very entertaining and not intimidating.”

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For more information: http://www.shakeonthelake.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/ShakeOnTheLake

By BEN BEAGLE
BEN@LIVINGSTONNEWS.COM

Playhouse's beautiful musical will hold you by your heart 

Follow Through

The Nebraska Theatre Caravan does a delightful The Fantasticks at the Eisemann Center

but is the steampunk theme really necessary?

by Kris Noteboom
published Saturday, February 22, 2014

Photo: Christian Robertson

Nebraska Theatre Caravan presents a steampunk take onThe Fantasticks at the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts

Richardson — The longest running musical in history, presented by the Nebraska Theatre Caravan at the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts, is, well...the name speaks for itself. The Fantasticks is famous for a reason. It’s simply one of the best musicals ever written, and NTC’s production is a delightful addition to its repertoire.

The Fantasticks, with book and lyrics by Tom Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt, is a masterful balancing act between high and low theater and comedy. It combines classic themes and scenarios with a truly avant-garde presentation. On a side note, Texans Jones and Schmidt are products of the University of Texas.

The story is simple enough. There are two houses next to each other. In one, Hucklebee (Andrew Tebo) lives with his son Matt (Peter O’Neal). In the other, Bellomy (Jon McDonald) lives with his daughter Luisa (Jennifer Tritz). A wall divides the houses as the two fathers are sworn enemies. This naturally drives their rebellious young teenagers to fall in love with each other.

There’s just one catch. This is the intention of the fathers, who are actually best friends. The feud and wall are constructed falsely with the express purpose of getting their children together. That was step one. But, what is step two? An abduction! They decide to hire someone to try and abduct Luisa so that Matt can fend him off and look like the hero. They hire El Gallo (Chad Bradford), along with his assistant The Mute (Dan Chavalier) and a couple of hapless actors, Henry (Eric Bricking) and Mortimer (Alejandro Gutierrez).

Of course, it totally works, which is where the brilliance of the show truly reveals itself. Before this story starts, there is an overture in which El Gallo and the Mute set the stage for a performance. Inspired by the traveling commedia troupes of the Renaissance, this whole thing is essentially a show within a show. So then, the first act is made to succeed in all its sugary sweet perfection.

The happy ending is not the end of this story. The second act shows the aftermath in the cold light of day. The lovers separate, the fathers actually feud and things look dismal. But, it all leads to the lesson that true happiness comes after struggle. There is no truly happy story. There must always be conflict.

Beyond that, Jones and Schmidt defied convention by taking a somewhat traditional story and not only turning the narrative on its head, but also breaking conventions of staging. The fourth wall is routinely broken; the set—typically—is minimalisitic. Also, the only musical accompaniment is a piano, charmingly played by Steven Zumbrun in this production. The show constantly winks at the audience and at itself. It knows it’s ridiculous. Delightfully ridiculous.

This production employs a fairly imposing gazebo set. It’s more than is typical for the show, but not objectionable. It works. In fact, the only part of the show that doesn’t quite work is the steampunk theme pasted over top of it. It’s unnecessary and more of a distraction than an addition. More notably, the Mute is delightful in the first act in clown white makeup and a cabbie cap. However, in the second act he dons odd brass plated armor, a big top hat banded by the typically steampunk brass goggles, and a Phantom of the Opera-style half mask made of, obviously, brass. It’s borderline frightening. And though the second act is meant to be a little darker, it’s not this dark.

The acting, beyond the costumes, is the strongest aspect of this show. Bradford’s mischievous yet sweet bass voice oozes charisma. Yet, his cunning and guile is firmly underpinned by a sharp sense of humor. He’s the heart of the show. The fathers have the kind of chemistry that would indicate they’ve been friends for years, and their numbers together dare the audience not to grin. Also, Chevalier deserves special consideration because his performance is purely physical and he performs it excellently. His presence, even without dialogue, is always felt.

Finally, Bricking and Gutierrez as the wandering actors, are the best comic relief likely seen. Bricking especially, as the washed-up Shakespearean actor, takes what could easily just be a goofy role and imbues it with a deep and thorough humor. The show is always better when he is onstage, and when Gutierrez is dying, of course. His specialty.

The Fantasticks ran for 42 years at the Sullivan Street Theater in New York for a reason. There’s something about it that is just, well, fantastic. It’s a perfect blend of high and low, of happy and sad, of comedy and drama, and it’s impossible not to feel exhilarated walking out of it. This production is no different. So follow, follow, follow to the Eisemann and see that this plum is perfectly ripe. 

http://www.theaterjones.com/ntx/reviews/20140222115903/2014-02-22/Eisemann-Center-for-the-Performing-Arts/The-Fantasticks

Review: ‘Fantasticks’ was a memorable show

By Loyal Fairman 
For The Nonpareil 

The Nebraska Theatre Caravan production of the musical comedy “The Fantasticks” was two hours of pure entertainment.

The main floor of the Arts Center on the campus of Iowa Western Community College was filled with more than 300 in attendance gave the production a well-deserved standing ovation Saturday night. The Nebraska Theater Caravan is the professional touring wing of the Omaha Community Playhouse. They have performed “The Fantasticks” in many states.

‘The play’s the thing’—Shake on the Lake scores a hit

By Kristy Kibler

Perry Public Beach played host to many things last weekend, including gorgeous weather, cross-dressing actors and a whole lot of Shakespeare—all 37 of his plays, to be exact. 

It all went off without a hitch at Shake on the Lake’s inaugural production. 

Thursday, July 28 marked the first show, and the menacing grey clouds lurking over Wyoming County that day had Shake on the Lake organizers and audience members alike questioning whether a run to the rain location was necessary. But when show time arrived, the skies cleared as if the Bard himself was pulling strings to help this festival succeed.

The jokes and puns started within minutes, with Chad Bradford taking the stage as a “pre-eminent Shakespearean scholar.” As he introduced their production, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” he lapsed into a passionate soliloquy about the need for Shakespeare in today’s technological age, beseeching the audience to “imagine a world where men can wear striped tights with pride.” 

The plays themselves began with “Romeo and Juliet.” The three Shake on the Lake actors all played a variety of parts, but Josh Rice, the festival founder and a Silver Lake native, primarily covered narration. Bradford played a delightfully melodramatic Romeo with relish, and Austin Blunk portrayed a hilarious Juliet. The actors worked their audience well, eliciting chuckles from every age as they lovingly poked fun at one of Shakespeare’s most prized plays.

“Romeo and Juliet” ran about 12 minutes, leaving the audience wondering how all 37 plays would fit into the 90-minute running time. But Shake on the Lake speeded things up from there, sometimes doing no more than mentioning a play in a skit about a different one. They handled all the histories by making them into a football game (complete with play-by-play announcing) and combined all 16 comedies into one song. 

It was a whirlwind pace, almost manic at times, and the actors kept up without hesitation. A playful wind caused a few audio snafus, and several passes were missed in the football game portraying the life and times of some of England’s royalty. However, the company never let the minor hiccups take away from their performances. 

The production ended with “Hamlet,” one of Shakespeare’s most esteemed plays. It lasted for almost 30 minutes, a length made more noticeable compared to the brevity of some of the other plays. It seemed to drag on just a tad too long, but it was still good fun that included audience participation in the famous “To Dream or Not to Dream” speech, Blunk using Silver Lake itself to act out Ophelia’s drowning and even a super condensed version (“’Hamlet’ without the layers”) performed backwards.

When it was all said and done, audience members gave the company a standing ovation. Phrases like “Pure silliness” and “great fun” could be heard as people made their way to the parking lot, and that about sums up Shake on the Lake—Wyoming County couldn’t have asked for a more relaxed or light-hearted performance. If this was a precursor to future shows, we’re in for a treat.