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Branding
irons New
plays defined theaters in 2005-06 season Published
06.14.06 I've
always thought the phrase "world premiere" contains a little
wishful thinking. It's just a grand term for a play receiving its inaugural
production. Just because a show has never seen the light of day before its
opening that night doesn't mean it'll have any further life after it closes.
The world may not even notice. Whether
they thrive or sink without a trace, world premieres provide the defining
characteristic of Atlanta's 2005-2006 theater season. Most of this city's
theatrical brain trust aspires to cultivate and launch new writers, and this
year those ambitions paid off. Virtually every inside-the-Perimeter playhouse
-- except, obviously, the Shakespeare theaters -- staged new plays, many by
local writers. Granted,
many of the biggest events were established works from out of town, like
Jelly's Last Jam at the Alliance Theatre, or 7 Stages' Caryl Churchill
Festival. Since new, at times rough-edged works may not spur ticket sales,
they frequently embody a playhouse's sense of identity and values. By their
new plays shall we know them. Under
Artistic Director Susan V. Booth, the Alliance premiered two newbies. Kenneth
Lin's ...," said Said, winner of the theater's second Kendeda Graduate
Playwriting Competition, explored dying languages and the persistence of
terrorism and torture. "The bigger, the better" seem to be the
watchwords for the kind of dramatic material the award supports: The third
Kendeda winner, Darren Canady's False Creeds, takes place against the
backdrop of the race riots of 1921 Tulsa and promises a similar big-canvas
work for next year. The
Alliance also staged Bluish, the sharpest work to date of Atlanta's Janece
Shaffer. Though Bluish touches on the comic possibilities of a WASPy woman
who discovers her hidden Jewish heritage, Shaffer focused primarily on the
tension between the cultural and the religious aspects of American
Jewishness. Bluish, as a smart, cosmopolitan play set in Atlanta, neatly
defines the Alliance's target audience. Religious
themes extended to other theaters. Horizon Theatre's A Perfect Prayer, by
Suehyla El-Attar (incidentally, a scene-stealing actress in Bluish), explored
growing up Muslim in Mississippi and affirmed Horizon's fascination with the
cultural changes in the New South. Theatrical Outfit's comedy-drama
Keeping Watch by Thomas Ward felt a little more Old South and
"churchy" in its portrait of small-town Alabama, but emerged as the
season's finest new work. Actor's
Express typically gravitates to edgy new work, and may have gotten more than
it bargained for with Love Jerry, Megan Gogerty's musical about the
repercussions of child molestation (and one of last year's Kendeda
finalists). Love Jerry faced some misguided protests for its uncomfortable
themes but achieved an almost unbearably powerful catharsis. 7
Stages frequently stages works that can be avant-garde and perplexing, but
Come On in My Kitchen by playwright-in-residence Robert Earl Price gave the
audience more entry points with its dense, poetic juxtaposition of bluesman
Robert Johnson's legendary Faustian bargain and the political careers of
Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell. Humor
and youth remain watchwords at Dad's Garage Theatre, as demonstrated in this
year's theme The Birds and the Bees at its annual new short play festival, 8
1/2 x 11. More intriguing is the company's interest in corporate satire,
shown in the spring's Get Downsized! an inventive, dialogue-free workplace
spoof, and Travis Sharp's upcoming Lawrenceburg, about a Wal-Mart-style
superstore destroying a small town, opening Fri., June 23. Steve
Yockey may have been the year's most prolific writer, debuting new shows
(frequently of short plays) at Dad's Garage, Actor's Express and Savage Tree
Arts Project. Out of Hand Theatre's Cartoon represents the writer's most
fascinating and ambitious work to date. Its combination of Orwellian tyranny
and animated slapstick provided the kind of madcap event of the youthful
company's specialty. Woman-oriented Synchronicity Performance Group staged
the staggeringly ambitious, company-generated Women and War, presenting a
multiplicity of feminine perspectives on armed conflicts. Jewish Theatre of
the South offered a disappointing dud in Chopped Liver in Paradise, a thin
comedy that didn't do justice to the company's intellectual curiosity,
despite its promising cruise-ship premise. Even
smaller theaters have gotten into the act. Neighborhood Playhouse, a longtime
stronghold of tired chestnuts, changed its name to Theatre Decatur and in
2006 presents two new works by playwright-in-residence Patrick Cuccaro: the
currently running family story An Imperfect Order (see review, p. XX), and
upcoming holiday show The Third Howl. And that doesn't even touch on the
contributions of such smaller groups as Process Theatre, Working Title
Playwrights and Essential Theatre, whose commitment to local writers is so
easily taken for granted. Most
theater people I know would wince at the term "branding" and its
implication of treating art as a commodity. Nevertheless, the new plays of
2005-06 gave Atlanta playhouses opportunities to define and at times expand
their brand. If the best of the world premieres escaped the notice of the
rest of the planet, it's the world's loss. For
its 19th season, Actor's Express has announced a typically intriguing lineup,
beginning Sept. 19 with Pillowman, a thriller by savagely entertaining
playwright Martin McDonagh. Following the Hollywood satire Based on a Totally
True Story, the playhouse offers an intriguing repertory of two monologue
plays: Pulitzer-winner I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, and Will Eno's Thom
Pain (based on nothing), the latter directed by Susan V. Booth and starring
ace Atlanta actor Chris Kayser. The Express winds up its season next spring
with The Great American Trailer Park Musical, which one can only hope lives
up to its title. Off
Script is an occasional column on the Atlanta theater scene. |