Vaudeville
Vanya |
1) Gabriel McIver's crash in Vaudeville
Vanya (St. Idiot Collective) The entire company
danced with teacups on their heads in Chekhov's masterwork.
For pratfalls, though, McIver wins top honors for bursting
airborne onto the stage as the tubercular playwright.
2) The duel in The Assumption
(Refraction Arts Project) Is it still a duel if all the
spectators die, too? The hilarious and crude death scene en
masse was a great ending to this adaptation of Hamlet.
3) Have You Ever Been Assassinated?
(Rude Mechanicals) Usually it's hyperbole when we talk
about acrobatics on stage. Not this time. Huppah!
4) Ramona the dog in Red Cans
(Rubber Repertory) There may have been a dozen people
lurching, bumping, rolling, and writhing in little red nylon
laundry hampers. Maybe they did steal our footwear. Who could
hold a candle to the sweet-tempered Ramona, who calmly took it
all in from her onstage kennel?
5) The play about trash bags (Refraction Arts
Project) They said it was womblike, which raises
questions. The cast curled up into trash bags and moseyed
around for 45 minutes in a curiously touching portrayal of
something.
6) Robert Faires in In On It
(dirigo group) The Chronicle Arts editor's
beautifully awkward dance routine to Lesley Gore's "Sunshine,
Lollipops and Rainbows" got some of the biggest laughs in the
play.
7) Urinetown: The Musical (Zachary
Scott Theatre Center) People dancing with toilet plungers
on their heads: Thank you, Dave Steakley. Thank you.
8) Elizabeth Doss and Amie Elyn's antics in
Ring Rip Rent (Vortex Repertory Company)
It's sex! Sex everywhere! The repression is almost worth
it in the premiere of Martha Lynn Coon's play about female
sexuality.
9) Twelfth Night (State Theatre
Company) The late State's production of Shakespeare's
comedy provided some lovely clowns, especially Blake DeLong's
Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Corey Jones' Malvolio.
10) We Are Normal, Cha Cha Chaaa
(Yellow Tape Construction Co.) Did any play show actors
having more fun running up and bouncing off the
walls?
