Page 18 - the NOISE January 2015

local THeaTre
RinGS in the neW yeAR
Musical director stephanie Galloway (center) and the cast of Rent learning the score to the musical during the first weeks of rehearsal.
By CLAiR AnnA RoSe photoS By Rene RiVAS
LoVe VeRSuS FeAR
Theatrikos’ Playwright Café at Charly’s present’s Maia DellaCascata’s original play, The Peeps Show. A play that showcases the timeless theme of Love versus Fear.
“The Peeps Show also has roots with my sister,” Ms. DellaCas- cata says. She tells me about last winter when she stayed at her sister’s ranch outside of Flagstaff. “There were no people, four chickens, two dogs and a lot of spiders—so that was my world. The electricity along with the heating wouldn’t work if the sun didn’t shine so there was no TV, no internet and no phone. There was not much to be doing, except writing, art and reading.”
During the winter months, Ms. DellaCascata did combina- tions of all three past times. Her sister strongly encouraged her to write again and offered to pay her fifteen dollars per writing session. “What I started doing was kind of a Socratic dialogue between myself and the universe,” she explains. “I started doing this more and more frequently and it started to become like a living, organic relationship. In the course of these conversations, the personas became Uni, the Universe and Peeps, the people or humanity. They unfolded in ways that were really outstanding to me, I was just channeling on the keyboard and sometimes just marveling at some of the things that to me felt like they were coming from elsewhere and they had real depth, wisdom and enlightenment to them.”
At the same time Ms. DellaCascata was writing and putting the finishing touches on her plays, Scars, and Hoes on the Bus. She found she didn’t want to stop writing. “I had all these con- versations and I thought—what if i took these characters and put them in a setting reminiscent of a movie called “My Dinner with andre,” which is set between these two men having din- ner at an upscale Manhattan restaurant. The whole movie is them sitting over dinner and it is fascinating because of who they are and the way their conversation weaves and develops.”
“Mine is a bit more colorful,” Ms. DellaCascata tells me. “Uni is the proprietor of an Italian restaurant, a very stereotypical type of restaurant in the middle of Death Valley. Peeps has been summoned by Uni in dreams. Peeps shows up at the restaurant after the initial establishment of the story. Uni is kind of like the Godfather, Michael is the Maître d’ and is ac- tually Michael the Archangel and there’s the waitress Angela who is an angel of a lesser order. Peeps shows up and has taken the bus from San Pedro and doesn’t really know why he/she is there.”
Throughout the play Ms. DellaCascata brings these ques- tions to light, “How do we live in a world that is comprised of love and fear?” she asks. “What happens if we embrace fear? What happens if we embrace love? What happens if we
embrace neither? It’s really a very philosophical Socratic dia- logue with a lot of Godfather reinterpretations. At one point, the archetype of fear, Mr. Boo and later on the archetype of love, Miss Amore comes in and they’ve obviously had some sort of relationship in Vegas past. It’s really an interesting way of materializing these archetypes of creation—fear and love—all based on this little gathering in an Italian restaurant in the middle of Death Valley. In the end, Peeps has to make a decision to choose love or fear.
The Peeps Show will play one night only at Charly’s in the Weatherford Hotel on January 25, at 6:30PM. Theatrikos.com
Rent’S due in FLAGStAFF
Flagstaff light opera Company brings the musical Rent writ- ten by Johnathan Larson, to Flagstaff for the first time this January. I meet with director Jan Rominger and musical director
Stephanie Galloway. “It’s an amazing piece,” Ms. Rominger says. “Jonathan Larson, the creator of rent, died suddenly because of an aortic dissection the day of the night that the show was going to premiere. He was a composer and musi- cian and lived the lifestyle that he wrote about. He lived with a group of artists and they would come over and he would make them dinner. There are some interesting themes that come out in the play that are similar to what he experienced with his actor and singer friends. He put this musical together and work shopped it quite a bit through the New York The- ater Workshop, which likes to work with artists and bring their new work to the stage. He worked on it for many years and he had some collaborators. He never got to see how popular and well received it was.”
Based loosely on La Boheme, rent is a Rock Opera. “It’s about a bunch of artists and bohemians in New York City that live in a building that no one was supposed to be living in—so they weresquatters,”Ms.Romingertellsme. “Theyhadn’tpaidrent for years, so a lot of the play revolves around the theme of the have and the have-nots and what rights do they have?”
“Many of the characters have HIV and AIDS,” Ms. Rominger explains. “It is an educational piece and I felt that it was time to bring it back. I think the younger generation doesn’t un- derstand the implication of what had happened and that it could happen again. I think it’s a really strong piece and the music is timeless. It’s kind of like how Hair, was for the gen- eration of the 60’s, rent is for the 80’s and 90’s.” At the time the play was written, Ms. Rominger was close in age to the char- acters in the play. “When it was written I had a lot of friends who died in New York City from AIDS because they were com- ing out, they didn’t know about it, they didn’t understand it and they were young. So this play hits home there.”
For Stephanie Galloway, this is her first play with Flagstaff light opera Company as musical director. “All my other mu- sic direction has been through Northern Arizona University,” she says. “The timing was right, the play was right and the director was right. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s rock and roll! We haven’t done it yet in this town—it pushes the edge a little bit. I like that it’s something different.”
Ms. Galloway and Ms. Rominger first met in Yoga Teacher training at the Yoga Experience years ago and since that time have wanted to work together on a theater production. Now that they finally have the opportunity of working together with the Flagstaff light opera Company, they are very ex- cited for the production of rent.
rent, opens on January 23 and runs through February 1, 2015 at the Sinagua Middle school auditorium located at 3950 E. Butler Ave. Thefloc.org
SheRLoCK on the SCene
Theatrikos’ 2015 season will begin with Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, directed by Mickey Mercer. This play was adapted by Steven Dietz and based on the play by Wil- liam Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan and the stories, Scandal in Bohemia, and The Last adventure.
“Scandal in Bohemia is where he meets Irene Adler, and The Final adventure is his confrontation with Professor Moriarty at the waterfall,” Mr. Mercer tells me. “It’s very classic Sherlock Homes and if you like the stories this is for you. It’s funny in places. You laugh a lot, and there are serious moments. I love Sherlock Holmes and I really wanted to direct it.”
In watching this play, Mr. Mercer believes the audience has the chance to experience Sherlock Holmes more in depth. The audience gets a more intimate look at his personality. “He is so dogmatic—i’m perfect and you’re not. You see some of that in the play and you laugh at it. The serious moments in the play are where you see that Sherlock has real social issues. He doesn’t relate socially to people. There’s a really touching moment in the play where Sherlock realizes he’s detached and he comes down to being human. In that respect, we see that part of Sherlock that I don’t think you see on TV. Watson is the very steady one and even though Sherlock will deni- grate Watson there’s still a very tight relationship and you see that in the play.”
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure will play at the do- ris Harper-White Community Playhouse, 11 W. Cherry Ave, January 30 through February 15, 2015. Theatrikos.com
Clair Anna Rose’s time on the stage has instilled a life-long love of velvet curtains. editor@thenoise.us
18 • january 2015 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us