Showing posts with label Milky Way Cabaret. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milky Way Cabaret. Show all posts
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
More MILKY WAY pics
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| Jeff Swearingen as The Amazing Arnie |
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| Angela Parsons as Travelin' Alice... going through a black hole |
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| Tyson Rinehart as Buzz and Rhianna Mack as Charlotte |
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
A Spaced-Out Odyssey
Greg Romero's "The Milky Way Cabaret" floats across the universe at Audacity Theatre Lab
by Mark Lowry/ TheaterJones.com
Published Tuesday, November 17, 2009
A magician, two clowns and an Alice in Wonderland-esque girl: These are characters that should make you feel all warm inside, right?
Not so fast. In Greg Romero's time-trippin' play The Milky Way Cabaret, currently being staged by Audacity Theatre Lab at Teatro Dallas, it's no so cut-and-dry.
The magician is Arnie (the incomparable Jeff Swearingen), an alcoholic whose tricks are fading and wife Lorraine (Tristy Wyly) has filed for divorce. The sadistic clowns are Buzz (Tyson Rinehart) and Charlotte (Rhianna Mack), who have tragic pasts and are really assassins on a mission. And the magic-loving girl, named Alice (Angela Parsons), is the daughter of Arnie and Lorraine and a victim of her parents' separation. She's on her own mission, risking danger to travel through a series of cosmic wormholes from 2037 back to 2009, perhaps to change everyone's destiny.
Milky Way is the second of three plays by Louisiana-bred and onetime Texas resident Greg Romero (now based in Philadelphia) to be produced by Audacity. The first was another universe-crossing, non-linear piece, The Most Beautiful Lullaby Ever Heard, in 2008. The third will come in 2010.
This middle play, directed and designed by Brad McEntire, is an absurdist construct that might be too easily chalked up as merely "interesting" if it weren't for the sparkling banter between Buzz and Charlotte. They sit in chairs on a stage-right platform for the entire show and discuss their pasts and their interests, and develop an affinity for one another. Romero conjures up some vivid imagery in these conversations, most notably in the character of Charlotte, who was born conjoined at the heart to a twin. Both Rinehart and Mack are affecting and wryly humorous.
Speaking of funny, Swearingen is the perfect choice for a down-on-his-luck man whose passion is sleight of hand. Arnie desperately tries to keep his act going (which sometimes involves the audience, painlessly) as Mr. Boss (Jeff Hernandez) threatens to can him. There's at least one sweet scene between Arnie and Lorraine, too, carried out with lovingly deep-rooted emotion by Wyly and the devastating Swearingen. His reaction when she tells him "You used to be great" is priceless.
The play features some good ideas and memorable dialogue, and Romero and McEntire make smart use of pauses and silence. Presented in the teensy Teatro Dallas space and with an even tinier budget, Audacity's staging still feels very much like a work-in-progress—which it is.
As enjoyable as the clown thread and the magician stuff are, though, they're occasionally dragged down by something that seems thrown in for nothing more than shock value, such as the large rubber double-ended dildo with which Mr. Boss beats down Arnie. It's funny for about two seconds, then quickly devolves into the realm of irritatingly pointless.
It's needlessly smug. Surely Romero can come with a device that gets the same point across without being so cocky.
by Mark Lowry/ TheaterJones.com
Published Tuesday, November 17, 2009
A magician, two clowns and an Alice in Wonderland-esque girl: These are characters that should make you feel all warm inside, right?
Not so fast. In Greg Romero's time-trippin' play The Milky Way Cabaret, currently being staged by Audacity Theatre Lab at Teatro Dallas, it's no so cut-and-dry.
The magician is Arnie (the incomparable Jeff Swearingen), an alcoholic whose tricks are fading and wife Lorraine (Tristy Wyly) has filed for divorce. The sadistic clowns are Buzz (Tyson Rinehart) and Charlotte (Rhianna Mack), who have tragic pasts and are really assassins on a mission. And the magic-loving girl, named Alice (Angela Parsons), is the daughter of Arnie and Lorraine and a victim of her parents' separation. She's on her own mission, risking danger to travel through a series of cosmic wormholes from 2037 back to 2009, perhaps to change everyone's destiny.
Milky Way is the second of three plays by Louisiana-bred and onetime Texas resident Greg Romero (now based in Philadelphia) to be produced by Audacity. The first was another universe-crossing, non-linear piece, The Most Beautiful Lullaby Ever Heard, in 2008. The third will come in 2010.
This middle play, directed and designed by Brad McEntire, is an absurdist construct that might be too easily chalked up as merely "interesting" if it weren't for the sparkling banter between Buzz and Charlotte. They sit in chairs on a stage-right platform for the entire show and discuss their pasts and their interests, and develop an affinity for one another. Romero conjures up some vivid imagery in these conversations, most notably in the character of Charlotte, who was born conjoined at the heart to a twin. Both Rinehart and Mack are affecting and wryly humorous.
Speaking of funny, Swearingen is the perfect choice for a down-on-his-luck man whose passion is sleight of hand. Arnie desperately tries to keep his act going (which sometimes involves the audience, painlessly) as Mr. Boss (Jeff Hernandez) threatens to can him. There's at least one sweet scene between Arnie and Lorraine, too, carried out with lovingly deep-rooted emotion by Wyly and the devastating Swearingen. His reaction when she tells him "You used to be great" is priceless.
The play features some good ideas and memorable dialogue, and Romero and McEntire make smart use of pauses and silence. Presented in the teensy Teatro Dallas space and with an even tinier budget, Audacity's staging still feels very much like a work-in-progress—which it is.
As enjoyable as the clown thread and the magician stuff are, though, they're occasionally dragged down by something that seems thrown in for nothing more than shock value, such as the large rubber double-ended dildo with which Mr. Boss beats down Arnie. It's funny for about two seconds, then quickly devolves into the realm of irritatingly pointless.
It's needlessly smug. Surely Romero can come with a device that gets the same point across without being so cocky.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Meet Arnie
A little intro video about everyone's favorite magician (except his wife, boss and some folks at the dog races)... Amazing Arnie!
Courtesy of ATL's own Jeff "Mr. Boss" Hernandez
Courtesy of ATL's own Jeff "Mr. Boss" Hernandez
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
MILKY WAY CABARET: Notes on the Play
About the Play
The second project of three in a series of collaborations between ATL and Romero called 3P/3Y (three plays over three years), MILKY WAY CABARET was originally commissioned by the Cardboard Box Collaborative in Philadelphia, PA. It was composed as a sort of valentine to the city. ATL's production will be the second mounting of the production which was developed further through readings and conversations back and forth between ATL artists and Romero.
About
the Playwright
Greg
Romero received an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas-Austin where
he held the James A. Michener Fellowship. Originally from Louisiana, he is currently
based in Philadelphia. Mr. Romero's works include THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LULLABY
YOU'VE EVER HEARD, THE MILKY WAY CABARET, DANDELION MOMMA, THE MISHUMAA, and
ZOMBIE HEART SANDWICH. Mr. Romero currently resides in Philadellphia, PA where he teaches and
writes.
For
more information on Greg Romero click here.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
MWC tickets now on sale!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
MILKY WAY CABARET fast approaches
THE MILKY WAY CABARET concerns the convergence of a coterie of desperate and unlikely characters at a nightclub (of the same name) in South Philadelphia. The piece revolves around an alcoholic magician trying to win his family back by performing a disappearing act, a pair of clown-costumed assassins who put out cigarettes on each others' faces and fall in love while staked out near the nightclub, a dildo-wielding club owner who grows steadily more and more fed up, a hula-hooping ex-Homecoming Queen struggling to come to terms with the dissolution of her marriage and the grown-up version of the magician’s daughter taking a series of dangerous trips back in time, through black holes, in an attempt to save her father’s life.
Featuring Rhianna Mack, Angela Parsons, Trista Wyly, Tyson Rinehart, Jeff Hernandez and Jeff Swearingen
November
11-21, 2009
Playing
at the Teatro Dallas Space
1331
Record Crossing Road, Dallas TX 75235
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
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