CATF's 'North of the Boulevard' is a hit north of the Rio Grande

From left, Brit Whittle is "Trip," Jamil A.C. Mangan, "Bear," Michael Goodwin, "Zee," and Jason Babinsky is "Larry" in North of the Boulevard by Bruce Graham. CATF 2014. Photo by Seth Freeman.

The next station for North of the Boulevard at the Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University might be, New York?  The script is drop dead funny, the audience howls throughout, but it's got a serious side, too.  

The dialogue is fast, clipped, and delivered just like you'd expect, if you've ever visited an auto repair shop.  At Trip's, four blue-collared men sift through life's pieces, trying to make sense of them all. They strive to be North of the Boulevard, a safer and richer world since theirs is falling apart.
 
They examine choices. Where do we go from here?  One route suddenly presents itself which may quickly solve everything.  Or most everything.

Or can it?

It's a December afternoon in 2008 at Trip's shop where the owner (Brit Whittle) is tormented by the recent bullying and beating his son, Kevin, took at the hands of area black youths.  Trip agonizes about his old, decaying neighborhood which is slowly draining his family of its wellbeing and safety, a deterioration matched by the people's.

Zee (Michael Goodwin) pops up.  This stereotypical nasty, elderly, negative mouthpiece criticizes everybody and thing which enters his mind or sight, including his offspring. Perhaps he is too old to hope any more since all he really has going is a red bandana.  He frequently naps in the back seat of a car on stage. 

Soon another boyhood pal, Bear (Jamil A.C. Mangan) arrives, followed by Zee's son, Larry (Jason Babinsky who also stars in repertory in another 2014 CATF production, One Night). 

Larry is a middle-aged loser, and despite Trip's warnings to Zee to stop his bullying, Larry is a target of his father's mean remarks.  You yearn to smack Zee and shake some sense into his final days.  

One of the funniest scenes occurs when Larry spews his pent-up wrath at his father and "gets it off his chest." Let it all out, Larry! The sincere and passionate hate is likely shared by many present.  With his mannerisms, delivery, and lines, he almost steals the show.  

Larry's costuming (by Therese Bruck) includes a woolen cap and ear covers which he never removes. The others are dressed in contemporary flop, except for Bear who wears his work uniform. 

The set is realistically and meticulously crafted by David M. Barber, based on the shop of playwright Bruce Graham 's cousin. High opaque windows line the back of the space, giving it an "industrial feel" with old tires, hanging lights, grease, bottles, car parts, and another junked car's back seat used for a couch.

The set shop hints at so much dust, you almost cough. Or sneeze.

On the wall is a campaign poster of Barack Obama so you can guess the comments Zee makes, proudly claiming membership in the "politically incorrect" club. (Time out for a message about art:  The poster is a copy of the artwork most associated with President Obama's first presidential campaign, the one which makes you think Andy Warhol was still living in 2008, a gift to the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery where the portrait is "not currently on view." Shame.)

Shepard Fairey, b. 1970. National {Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection in honor of Mary K. Podesta. Copyright: ©  Shepard Fairey/ObeyGiant.com

 

On the right side of the stage is a glass-enclosed office with door which Trip frequently uses for private phone conversations about his injured son (who never appears).  When Trip is in the office, he is visible to the audience who only hears portions of his speech, usually the shouts as he becomes increasingly agitated by the unpleasantness he hears on the phone.  

North of the Boulevard is superbly directed by Ed Herendeen, the festival's founder and producing director.  All the actors delivered impressively, just like those I saw in Dead and Breathing, another of this year's presentations, and like that ending, North's finish was unexpected. 

In both I found myself at the end crying out silently to those on stage: Don't do it!  We witness the human need to seize temptation which can upend lives and send participants right out the door.

In a playwrights' roundtable on opening weekend, Mr. Graham said "I've killed so many people I hate in my plays." Hmmmmmm, does that mean...?

Mr. Graham called himself "an audience whore," who, he said, inserts "things in plays just to get a reaction." At the roundtable, he thanked the audience for showing up and "investing in plays you've never heard of....our hats are off to you."

The production fulfills CATF's goals to be a daring story of diversity which embraces innovation and links to the audience. All five new productions on this year's festival playbill have been written in the last year or two and, to mention the obvious, contain contemporary, harsh and coarse language like you hear on the street nowadays. (We ain't got no class either.)

Shepherd University is just a little over an hour's beautiful drive from D.C. in the delightfully "quaint" town of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, founded in 1762, where free lectures, discussions, late-night salons, workshops, and much more are part of the festival.

For more reviews of North of the Boulevard and other CATF productions and area performances, click DC Metro Theater Arts.

What:  North of the Boulevard by Bruce Graham

When: The five new plays in the Contemporary American Theater Festival are staged in repertory, Wednesday through Sunday afternoons and evenings through August 3, 2014.  See them all!

Where:   Shepherd University, Shepardstown, WVA

Tickets: $59 for single seats with discounts for military, students, seniors, families, those under age 30, and West Virginia residents, plus four and five-show discount packages starting at $100. The 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday shows are $30.  Use Code CATF20 to save 20% on single ticket purchases.

For more information: 800-999-2283 or 304-876-3473

patricialesli@gmail.com
 

CATF's 'Dead and Breathing' is alive and kickin'

Lizan Mitchell is "Carolyn," the patient, and N.L. Graham is "Veronika" in Dead and Breathing by Chisa Hutchinson at CATF/Photo by Seth Freeman

At the Contemporary American Theater Festival underway at Shepherd University in Shepardstown, West Virginia, every single attendee I spoke with enthusiastically praised the acting in each of the five new plays of the 2014 season, which would definitely include the portrayals in Dead and Breathing by Chisa Hutchinson.

Two actors, a hospice nurse and her patient, consumed by her dying days, make up Dead's cast. Not a particularly uplifting subject but comedy was promised in the promotion, and it delivered that, and more.  Too much in some instances. 

The production fulfills CATF's goals to be a daring story of diversity, innovation, and one which links the audience with the work.  All five plays have been written in the last year or two.

The new nurse, Veronika (craftily acted by N.L. Graham), arrives at the home of the negative and bitter, sarcastic and unsmiling, humorless and old (she would have been old at 28) rich patient, Carolyn, brilliantly acted by Lizan Mitchell.  Veronika is a nurse, after all, whose mission is to nurture her patient and live happily ever after?

Any sunshine in Carolyn's life disappeared long ago, and she greedily waits for approaching death which will extinguish the lights of her sorry existence. Her frowns become lines in concrete, permanently etched upon her dry face. She is tightly coiled, from her covered head to her mean spirit, ready to strike fast at anything which impedes her goal to die now and get it over with.  She scowls often, turning her mouth upside down.

The characters sling it out with all the obscene language we have grown to expect in contemporary theatre.   They are not of the same school, you see.

Their lines are biting. You may think these things, but civility demands restraint, and aren't we glad?

The play opens with a full frontal nudity scene of Carolyn stepping in and out of the bath tub with Veronika's help while we have to witness another nude scene when Veronika steps away momentarily to answer the door. The patient disrobes again and attempts suicide with a hair dryer in the bath tub filled with water. Right.  (That must have been b-r-r-r cold water, but if so, Ms. Mitchell covered her shivers with aplomb.)
   
While Veronika tidies up the patient and the surroundings, wipes her clean after Carolyn urinates in the toilet (please), Veronika preaches the Gospel to her patient, urging Carolyn to adopt the Gospel, too. 

The exchanges present opposing viewpoints, and if the Almighty and hereafter are not enough, other contemporary issues are thrown in for good measure. 

The two set up an exchange (you scratch my eyes out and I'll scratch yours): Rather than an eye for an eye, how about an exchange of murder and Jesus for cash?  I told you it was a comedy.

"Veronika" (N.L. Graham) gets ready to stick it to the patient in Dead and Breathing at CATF/Photo by Seth Freeman

Carolyn calls her attorney to make Veronika the beneficiary of Carolyn's $27 million estate if Veronika will just agree to murder Carolyn with a nice shot to the neck and get the damned life over.  If you'll accept Jesus Christ in your heart, I'll kill you.  As simple as that. 

Makes sense, no?  What would you do? 

The dilemmas presented are excellent, and the audience wrestles with self-doubt. Don't do it! I found myself imploring her.  (Which her?)

My ending differed from the playwright's.  I fully expected the stage to darken with answers left to the audience to determine. 

The age of the playwright, 34, comes as a shock, for the dialogue suggests experience far beyond someone so young, someone who knows about the closing of life. Ms. Hutchinson has multiple sclerosis who cared for her own mother, ill with cancer.

Congratulations to the director, Kristin Horton. The set (by Luciana Stecconi) was nicely divided into a full bathroom (with real tub, toilet and sink) and the patient's sitting room.

(In the program the playwright complains about repetitive plays about married white women contemplating divorce. Well, you know what? I am tired of seeing naked white/black/ brown/orange women on stage. Where are the naked men? That a man could have played this part, and we could have seen a full monty male nude twice might help dispel the notion that all old women are bitter, uncompromising, hateful creatures. I know a few old coots. Give us naked men.)

Shepherd University is just a little over an hour's beautiful drive from D.C. in the delightfully "quaint" town of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, founded in 1762, where free lectures, discussions, late-night salons, workshops, and more are part of the festival.

For another review of Dead and Breathing and other CATF productions and area performances, click DC Metro Theater Arts.

What:  Dead and Breathing by Chisa Hutchinson

When: The five new plays in the Contemporary American Theater Festival are staged in rotating repertory, Wednesday through Sunday afternoons and evenings through August 3, 2014.

Where:  Shepherd University, Shepardstown, WVA

Tickets: $59 for single seats with discounts for military, students, seniors, families, those under age 30, and West Virginia residents, plus four and five-show discount packages starting at $100. The 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday shows are $30. Use Code CATF20 to save 20% on single ticket purchases.

For more information: 800-999-2283 or 304-876-3473

patricialesli@gmail.com