Reston's 'Delightful Quarantine' is just that

L-R, Anthony Pohl is "Tug Goff," Liz Weber is "Mavis," and Kim Thornley is "Violet" in Reston Community Players' A Delightful Quarantine/Heather Regen Photography  
 

Attention, Theatregoers:   This one I could see again!  There aren't many shows I can write that about, but Reston Community Players' A Delightful Quarantine is so much fun.

What's to say that all quarantines are bad?  

Not necessarily so in  Susqua Creek Acres, Pennsylvania where some "extra-terrestrials" have landed and it's  immediate confinement to whatever house you're in!  

Head for the doors! 

Liz Shaher's surround sirens ignite the show and away we go!

Charlene Sloan is "Shirley" and Kevin Dykstra is "Roy" in Reston Community Players' A Delightful Quarantine/Heather Regen Photography

It's an hilarious romp with a huge cast (I love 'em), multiple scenes (ditto), many costume changes (yes!) and just about everything one could want in a stage show.

Director Liz Mykietyn writes in program notes that she found the play by Mark Dunn 15 years ago, but it took 10 years to convince anyone to do it. Enter and thank you, RCP! 

How some strangers come to be commingled is life as it is! And, not to be discriminatory, but I do believe the female actors  outshone the men!

The cast has uncoupled couples (?) stuck together, a crossdresser, a long-lost daughter, a prayerful sister, and many more. 

"It" is not the "it" you think "it " is!

My favs were the two "elderly" women (Liz Weber as Mavis, Kim Thornley as Violet) perfectly costumed (by Kathy Dunlap) in little old lady garb of flowered dresses, sweaters (de rigueur!)  and pearl necklaces. (Wait! They're in vogue!)

But it's their mannerisms, the weaves, the bobs, and "Violet's" teetering and tottering which steal the show.  I never wanted them to leave. 

Ms. Mykietyn choreographed the fights and helped design and paint the set, but her tutelage of the two women could be an acting class. 

Although I am not a "cat woman," Shelby Kaplan as the convincing "Judeen" almost made her stumbling date, "Chester" (Michael Wong) and me, into cat fanciers. 

Ms. Kaplan was another favorite whose performance, delivery, and voice grow stronger in every scene she's in, producing cat howls from the audience, for to get 14 cats on stage simultaneously is quite the feat.

A sneeze is a sneeze is a sneeze (maybe, two). (?) He flushed the toilet twice! (?) 

"Professor" Lucy Fuller (Beth Atkins) is the seesawing "moderator" who leads the show with a terrific voice to boot!  It is no wonder she's the music coach, too.

The playbook calls for seven different interior house scenes and before the show, I wondered how that would be achieved.  

Not to worry.

Minimalism may be in vogue, but here, not so much.

One scene easily flows into another on the complicated, stacked stage of different rooms which all work splendidly with Jeff Auerbach and Kimberly Crago's expert lighting, blinking in different colors to target the speaker. 

A laughing good time at the theatre will set your mind apart from another world, for this Quarantine is a fantastic escape to kick off spring to a rollicking start.

I must say I felt some guilt and unease having a jolly good time watching the play unfold in this time of global tragedy and death and destruction in Ukraine.  It's impossible to escape all the horror, but RCP managed to make me forget troubles for a little while and I am grateful.

Other cast members are Alexa Yarboro Pettengill (also, properties designer and set dresser), America Michelle, Nida Syed (another standout actor), Rebecca Asch, Josh Keiter, Charlene Sloan, Kevin Dykstra, Allie Blanchet (Mar. 5, 6, 11),  Birdie Thomas (Mar. 11), Jane Keifer (Mar. 5, 6, 11),  Cara Ethington (Mar. 12), Eileen Marshall, Danny Seal, Anthony Pohl, Ryan Heise (also the stage manager), Kate Keifer (also, the marketer), Anna Mintz (also, set designer and painter), Charlotte McIntosh (also, assistant stage manager), David Reph, Richard Durkin (also the producer).

The production team included Dan Widerski, master carpenter, electrician, and with Sara Birkhead, technical director; Kat Brais, hair and makeup; Jon Roberts, projections; and Ali Althen, marketing.

Who: Reston Community Players

What:  A Delightful Quarantine by Mark Dunn

When: March 5, 11 and 12 at 8 p.m. and March 6, 2 p.m.

Where: Reston Community Center, 2310 Colts Neck Road, Reston, VA 20191

Tickets:  Buy online, at the box office at the Community Center, or call 703-476-4500 and press 3 for 24-hour service. $30, adults; $25, juniors and seniors, plus, $2, fee each ticket. The Reston Community Center’s box office is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 4 - 9 p.m.; Saturday, 1 - 5 p.m.; and 2 hours before any ticketed performance.

Ages: For all but likely too complex for those under age 12. 

Duration: Two hours plus one 15-minute intermission. 

patricialesli@gmail.com

Reston's outstanding 'Anne Frank'

Sophia Manicone as Anne Frank in Reston Community Players' The Diary of Anne Frank/Jennifer Heffner Photography

You may think you remember The Diary of Anne Frank from reading the book years ago, but you don't remember it the way the Reston Community Players present it.  

This is one of the best productions I have seen over many years of attending theatre in Washington. Its timing coincides with the sad reality that discrimination exists, and the world witnesses, for whatever reasons, increasing anti-Semitism.

The production, expertly directed by Gloria DuGan, brings the horror to the stage: Hunted like animals by the Nazis, confined to the small quarters of an attic, eight persons, young and old, related or not, live an existence necessary to save lives.
 
No one can escape for a breath of fresh air, to take a walk, to get away from the living cell which, ultimately, saved only one life, Anne's father's.

There are no lapses here. The production has it all, told in an unemotional way, until the end. And Anne records it, writing in her diary from June 12, 1942, the day she turned 13, until August 1, 1944, three days before the families were arrested.

The acting is superb and that Sophia Manicone, who stars as Anne, is only a ninth grader, is astonishing.  She shows maturity and acting ability far beyond her years. 

When the Van Daans (Michael Sherman and Lorraine Magee) fight and argue, their movements, words, and gestures are so realistic to generate the feeling of peeping Toms among audience members. They are the parents of Peter (Logan Matthew Baker) who becomes Anne's boyfriend.
A substitute actor at the last moment was Judy Lewis who played Anne's mother in a sound and realistic performance, although she always carried a script during the show. Since she knew her lines well, this bit of small baggage seemed unnecessary.

Costumer Judy Whelihan dresses the females in 1940s garb, naturally enough: heels, dresses and skirts.  Gentlemen wear period clothing, as well.  Casual clothing is not part of this play, and one could not help wonder if the people actually dressed up while hiding, for "dressing up" then compared to now is entirely different. 

Lighting design by Franklin Coleman was excellent, and no scene had any lighting miscues which almost seems standard in many productions.
 
The set by Maggie Modig and Sandy Dotson is well drawn and duplicates as much as possible the actual quarters where the families lived.  

Stage center is a wooden, rectangular kitchen table where the residents often gathered for talk. Elevated platforms hold segregated sections for sleeping quarters. A bathroom provides a means of "escape" when it's needed for mental health and other reasons.  

 A window in the roof duplicates the one in the annex where Anne often sat and daydreamed, and she described it in her diary. From the window the outdoor scene shows a grey overcast sky until near the end of the play when it becomes a rectangular painting with beautiful colors, a church spire, and the branches of a chestnut tree.

The script contains diary passages which Anne stops to read every so often under a spotlight while the other actors stand motionless behind her in the shadows or they move slowly about the kitchen:

The fact that we can never go outside bothers me more than I can say, and then I'm really afraid that we'll be discovered and shot, not a very nice prospect, needless to say. [July 11, 1942]*

Applause to Dan Moses Schreier and Stan Harris who filled the stage with the reminiscent sounds of the times, the soldiers' shouts, sirens, and the eerily isolated whistles from horrible trains carrying millions to their deaths. 

 Anne Frank from Getty Images


The Diary of Anne Frank has a wretched ending, and the cast comes out afterwards to the stage in the dark to stand glumly in a line to receive audience praise until the lights go dark again, and the curtain closes. Lest we forget.

Other cast members in The Diary are Michael Kharfen as Anne's father, Madison Chase, Steven Palkovitz, Earle Greene, Jessi Shull, Francis Kosciesza, Kevin Carrington, and Ian Brown.

Assisting in the production are Diane P. Mullens, producer: Jessica Carrington, stage manager; Kevin Carrington, assistant stage manager; Tom Geutig, special effects and master carpenter; Mary Jo Ford, properties; and Sara Birkhead, lead electrician.

I hope the following receive WATCH nominations:  

Dan Moses Schreier and Stan Harris, Best Sound  

Franklin Coleman, Best Lighting

Michael Kharfen, Best Actor who leads the play with his forceful personality

Michael Sherman, Best Supporting Actor

Lorraine Magee, Best Supporting Actress
  

Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a romance of the "Secret Annex." The title alone would be enough to make people think it was a detective story. But, seriously, it would be quite funny 10 years after the war if we Jews were to tell how we lived and what we ate and talked about here. Although I tell you a lot, still, even so, you only know very little of our lives.
[March 29, 1944]*

Who: Reston Community Players

What: The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman

When: Only two shows remain:  March 13 and 14 at 8 p.m. 

Where: Reston Community Center, 2310 Colts Neck Road, Reston, VA 20191 

Tickets: Buy online, at the box office at the Community Center, or call 703-476-4500 and press 3 for 24-hour service. $28, adults; $24, students and seniors. $15 student tickets are available through RCP’s "Access to the Arts." To reserve tickets within these special blocks, contact Ali Althen at communityrelations@restonplayers.org.  The Reston Community Center’s box office is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 4 - 9 p.m.; Saturday from 1 - 5 p.m.; and 2 hours before any ticketed performance.

Language: G

Ages: For families and appropriate for all ages but may be too intense for children under age 10. 

*Thank you to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for the use of these passages from Anne's diary.

patricialesli@gmail.com

'Superior Donuts' is a super play in Reston

 From left, Bryce Monroe ("Franco") and Michael Kharfen  ("Arthur") star in Reston Community Players' Superior Donuts/ Jennifer Heffner Photography

The superior acting in the Reston's Community Players' newest production, Superior Donuts, more than makes up for the lame title which, I suspect, does not draw audiences and might even turn some away. 


Who wants to see a play about donuts?  Or so, it would appear. 


May I be so bold to suggest a different title, Trading Places?

Indeed, it was "trading places," the theme which struck me, rather than racism which director Seth Ghitelman writes in the program notes.

The production begins with the pernicious, prickly parasite, Max (wickedly acted by Tel Monks) in the racist role, but Max means no offense. 

He taunts the black policeman, Officer Bailey (Matthew McCarthy): "I didn't mean anything by it, really."

Sure.


The play's timing is right for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month next month, but, to me, this was all about contrasts of young and old, new and stale, go and stop, zest and doom. It had nothing to do with "donuts" which serves as a substitute for a much bigger piece of life's pie.  (Groan)


Mr. Ghitelman extracts marvelous performances from his cast, especially from the star of the show, Michael Kharfen who is Arthur Przybyszewski, the shopkeeper who makes the best donuts in Chicago, but whose life is rather hum-drum. 

Like the boring donut's shape, Arthur's life continues endlessly, round and round with nothing particularly to upset the apple cart other than constant sad memories he tells in soliloquies under a spot light (which tend to drag the play down. Dialogue could have better communicated the messages. I found myself thinking: "Oh no, not another one").

Regrets, yes, Arthur's had a few, but in walks a human tornado, Bryce Monroe as Franco, to drive Arthur's meaningless life pattern off course and set a new trajectory, or try to, anyway.


Arthur hires the upstart Franco who knows a thing or two about finding new customers, mind you, and how to attract members of the opposite sex. Franco doesn't hesitate to unload his ideas about shop and self improvements on Arthur.

To Arthur, Franco says:  Why doncha play some music in here? Rearrange the seating?  And if you have any interest in that pretty policewoman (Mattie Cohan is Officer Osteen), why don't you stand up straight?  Get some shoes besides those lifeless tennis shoes, cut your awful pony tail, trim those eyebrows, and wear a nice shirt. Shed your hippy, old-fashioned ways, and Officer Osteen might take a shine to you, if you showed you care.


But does Arthur care?


Franco is too peppy, too full of life, hopes and dreams.  He's enthusiastic, and he's young!  Let's get real here and "grow up!" Arthur shouts at him.  Dim your lights!

But who grows up? 

A dream is shattered and hope is quashed until revived by an odd life saver who is rescued himself.

The bad guys (expertly acted by Ian Mark Brown as a tough and realistic Chicago hood, ably assisted by Michael King) enact punishment which is far too extreme.  Did they have to go that far?

And what about the language? 

Audiences need to be forewarned that Donuts is full of bad words, none, necessary but included, one supposes, to attract millennials to the stage, but is that what they want?   Pshaw.  It's a put-off.

From left,  Ian Mark Brown ("Luther") and Michael Kharfen ("Arthur")  duke it out while Michael King  ("Kevin")  watches in Reston Community Players' Superior Donuts/ Jennifer Heffner Photography

 
The longest and best fight I have seen on stage was skillfully choreographed by Karen Schlumpf and Ian Claar (is there an award for fight choreography?) who direct two old men to duke it out all over the set and back in the kitchen.

One!

Two!

Pow!

Here, have some hot donut grease on top of that arm.

Ouch!

One of my favorite characters was Sally Cusenza who portrays a homeless woman who slouches in and out of the shop every now and then, a welcome creature dressed to the nines in homeless attire, lugging along a grocery cart full of her last belongings.  Her mannerisms and personality add a welcome dimension to the show, with some funny lines, but no one ridicules her. 

(Congratulations to Ms. Cusenza who excels in triple roles as hair and makeup designer.)


Donuts was billed as a comedy but if this is a comedy, you can eat all the donuts in Chicago for a year and not gain a pound. Besides, you'll be gnawing about these Donuts, not the sugary kind. 


Also in the cast is Tice Rust, a heavy who, in real life, is a Spanish teacher at Herndon High School.


Other crew members are Bea and Jerry Morse, producers and set decoration; Laura Baughman, stage manager; Ashley Primavera, assistant stage manager; Maggie Modig, set designer; Adam Konowe, lighting;  William Chrapcynski, sound; Mary Jo Ford, properties; Mary Gayle Rankin, costumes;  Sara Birkhead, master electrician; Scott Birkhead, master carpenter; Sandy Dotson, light board operator.

Tracy Letts, who wrote the 2008 Pulitzer winner, August: Osage County, is the playwright.

Rated: R 

Language:  X

Ages: Adults

Who: Reston Community Players 

What: Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts
 
When: Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. through Feb. 2 with a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m., Jan. 27, 2019.

Where: Reston Community Center, 2310 Colts Neck Road, Reston, VA 20191

Tickets: Buy online, at the box office at the Community Center, or call 703-476-4500 and press 3 for 24-hour service.  $28, adults; $24, students and seniors.
 
Duration: About two hours and 15 minutes with one  intermission.
 
patricialesli@gmail.com 
  


 

Reston Players hook a 'Starcatcher' for Peter Pan

 Gary Bernard DiNardo is "Boy/Peter" and Raeanna Nicole Larson is "Molly" in Reston Community Player's Peter and the Starcatcher/Photo by Jennifer Hefner

 What's it all about, Peter Pan?

If you can't get to Broadway to see its finest, come to Reston and ride with the Reston Community Players on their latest production, Peter and the Starcatcher. In 2012 the show won five Tony Awards, including Best Costumes, Lighting, Sound, and Scenic Design, in a story all about "Peter," as in J. K. Barrie's Peter Pan before Peter knew how to fly.

Reston's "Boy Named Peter" (Gary Bernard DiNardo) highlights a roller-coaster adventure before "Boy" teamed up for the Big Time with Barrie's Wendy, Captain Hook, Tinkerbelle, and the Big Bad Chopping Crocodile (in hilarious get-up here) who make appearances in this version with different names.

Peter and the Starcatcher comes from the book by Dave Barry, the humor columnist, and Ridley Pearson which Rick Elice (of Jersey Boys' fame) made into this play.
 
The story expands the life of Boy/Peter, the character, not the tale, since most of the flash and dash of the original story is omitted here. This yarn delves into the mischievous boy's past and carries the orphan from ship to jungle to mountain top and back to sea again in wonderfully created scenes (by Dan Widerski), including a ship of many different levels.

A young heroine, "Molly" (Raeanna Nicole Larson), assists the Boy in his pursuits, overcoming evil while they run a wild trunk chase in pursuit of the Queen's treasures.  Whee!

Carla Crawley Ito is "Black Stache" and steals every scene when she's onstage in Reston Community Player's Peter and the Starcatcher/Photo by Jennifer Hefner

But, whoa!  The show stealer becomes increasingly evident with every appearance onstage of "Black Stache" (Carla Crawley Ito) who produces nonstop audience guffaws and groans with her special lines and puns.

The large cast and action yield comedy and drama alike at the Reston Community Center. The best parts are the cast's harmonies when members move about with glee and shake, shake, shake their tail leaves like real plants to open the second act. 

"Boy/Peter" (Gary Bernard DiNardo) really can fly in Reston Community Player's Peter and the Starcatcher/Photo by Jennifer Hefner
 
From the ship to a mountain, the audience enjoys lovely, scenic visuals (by Jon Roberts) as backdrops that depict changing locations and help guide guests on the wild trip.

Ken and Patti Crowley created sophisticated lighting which operates in perfect timing and complements the company's advancing stature in the region's theatre world.

Adding pleasure and depth to the production is the live music performed under the direction of Beth Atkins on keyboards, with Patrick Warf, percussionist, and Jessie Roberts, who may be Reston's first onstage sound artist. The musicians even supply the almost forgotten figure of a little tinkle twinkling triangle in a bird cage which signals more magic and a new beginning.

Rounding out the cast are K. Sridhar, Amy Griffin, Joshua Paul  McCreary, Wayne Jacques, Jake Lefler, Binta Barry, Richard Durkin, Rob Cuevas, and Joseph Seiger-Cottoms, many in dual roles

The production staff includes Jocelyn Steiner, producer; Jolene Vettese, director; Colleen Stock, stage manager; Ian Claar, fight director; Tiffany Fowler, costumes; Auryana J. Malek, make-up and hair; Mary Jo Ford, properties; Sherry Singer, props running crew; Sandy Dotson, set decoration; and Cathy Rieder, scenic artist.

Language: G
 
Ages: Everyone is invited, however, for wee ones, the plot is a bit too complex.

Who: Reston Community Players

What: Peter and the Starcatcher

When: 8 p.m., January 26-27 and February 2-3 with a matinee at 2 p.m. January 28 and a "sensory-friendly" matinee at 2 p.m. January 27 (and a special $10 price for all seats.  See "Tickets" below.)

Where: Reston Community Center, 2310 Colts Neck Road, Reston, VA 20191

Tickets: Buy online, at the box office at the Community Center, or call 703-476-4500 and press 3 for 24-hour ticket orders.
 
How much: $23, adults; $20, students and seniors; $10, all seats for the Jan. 27 matinee. 

Duration:  About two hours and fifteen minutes with one intermission.

patricialesli@gmail.com