Travelin' to see The Perception Plays in Toluca Lake

Last night I went to see two one act plays that frankly surprised me. The name of the evening, The Perception Plays and the names of the two plays, Health & Safety and Dedication Page didn't really make me want to go, however I really was glad I got myself over there to see these performances.

The first play, Health & Safety finds two male room mates in their apartment. A doctor from a mental health center comes to judge whether one of the men should be living away from the mental center. The question: whose version of another person is correct? You need to decide for yourself so I leave that to you as the audience.

Austin Hebert as Klasky is very much at home on stage. He seems to be the most organic of the three actors in his role. Bechir Sylvain had some challenges in creating Bugs. He seemed to choose the more obvious idiosyncrasies, although some of those could be the choices of the writer and the director. However they needed to be deepened by the actor in a way to make them more believable and not so typical. Susan Papa appeared not committed enough to how her character acts in the beginning of the play, she seemed to be her strongest at the end of the play. The story and the theme by the playwright, Chad Baker, is fascinating for the audience. The performance is not yet at the level of the writing.

The second play, Dedication Page, is actually more difficult to create by the actresses and the director. Both actresses obviously have the experience to handle these roles. Stephanie Geyer as Madeline, the wife of the deceased writer, brings a wealth of emotion. Her role is clearly written but the role of Laura is the most difficult. Susan Baker who plays Laura brings her experience and strength to the role. She has a challenge to bring the emotion of this character so that the audience can see it when the writer restrains her with her motivation to write the last chapter. This is also a challenge for the director since it really is "talking heads". The staging kept movement in the play but it seemed that the director used avoidance too much of the time without allowing the actresses to use the set and room to avoid each other rather than staring at a bunch a pages which is unclear when it is the "only copy" of the last manuscript or other generic pages on the table.

Chad Baker certainly has an eye for themes that are universal. Audiences can relate to these stories and the audience last night did appreciate the performances. With such strong character-driven stories the work is with the actors and the director. As they perform these plays longer it may help them to find more reasons why they do what they do even though they never say these reasons.

I would recommend this evening to theater goer. It is great to go to a small theater and see professional performances.

Travelin' in my Neighborhood - Musical Performances

Travelin’ in my Neighborhood – Musical Performances

In one week I had the pleasure of enjoying some musical events right in my own neighborhood. Well actually one of them was a bit outside of NoHo. Yes NoHo is my neighborhood. For those of you who don’t know what NoHo is. It is in North Hollywood, California. It is the revived theater district in the San Fernando Valley. Yes, we are just over the hill from Hollywood but you would be surprised the artistic activities that are going on here.

Anyway I went to the opening night of a new musical called Stiltz! The Musical.
What I loved with this piece:
The two women who wrote the book and the music took the fairy tale called Rumpelstiltskin and created a 21st century musical. I can’t say it was perfect but they were very inventive and definitely took a chance. I love that this group of people (Wayland Pickard, Deborah Johnson, Doug Engalla and Paula Miller) have been creating musicals that can be done on a small budget in a small theater. Community theaters and small theater groups can afford to put this show on. It bugs me when I go see a big money film or show where the authors didn’t get creative. They just redid something that had already been done. Please don’t get me started!

The cast of this musical were fun to watch. The lead actress was very charming and made the audience want to see what would happen next. And after intermission I noticed everyone stayed. Hey that is a really good sign with disposable audiences that is so prevalent in the world right now.

If you want to go into a theater and have a fun, playful evening then plan to see Stiltz! The Musical.

If you want to see this show, it only runs for a few weeks so go now. It is at the Actors Forum Theatre on Magnolia Boulevard. Get information at www.StiltzTheMusical.com.

I also went to another of Sherry Barnett’s Concerts on the Lawn. Some of you might heard read my review of the previous concert with Teresa James on www.nohoartsdistrict.com so I wanted to see the next one. Yes it was fun and there was a larger audience this time. The singer at this show was Jill Sobule. She was accompanied by Dave Palmer. He is a fantastic musician and really added to the show. Some of the songs I enjoyed were “Now that I don’t have you”, “Nothin’ to Prove”, and “If I had a Jet Pack”. The audience really enjoyed offering ideas to Jill for her to use in making up songs. Her song and personal experience about Joni Mitchell was a hoot. I also loved her song about Billy Tipton. I am not exactly sure of the title but what I remembered was, “All Billy ever wanted to be was one of the boys”. It was very endearing. There are more concerts in this lawn series and if you are on Facebook go check out the page called Concerts on the Lawn. The next one is in October.

I want to add one more musical afternoon experience. Now I will admit that this one is not in NoHo but it is so close. It took place at Adam’s Pack Station in the Los Angeles Forest which is about 20 minutes from NoHo. It is easy to get there you just take the 210 to Santa Anita Drive exit and go up into the mountain. It is a lot of fun and great for the kids. On Sundays once a month this summer and fall they have bands playing. I went to see John Zipperer and Friends. As always they were great and John invited a number of his friends to come and play during their time period as well.
John and his band members, Tara, Jimmy and Eddie were accompanied by some other musicians and then friends sat in as well. Jimmy Scott was in town from Texas and once again it is good to hear this wonderful guitarist. He really is fabulous.

I should tell you that John Zipperer has a beautiful voice and a beautiful soul to go with it which reflects in his own compositions. But this group also sings covers of songs that will remind you of times in your life. Tara Sitser harmonizes beautifully with John and she also shares her talent with other guest artists. And she has some of her own songs that you will love. Jimmy on bass brings a warm charm to the group and Eddie well what can I say about Ed the Spoon Man. You must come see him play those spoons.

For those of you who have never heard John Zipperer and Friends go to their website. www.JohnZipperer.com. I have heard them a number of times and I always enjoy the evening or this time the afternoon.

So that was my week travelin’ in the neighborhood enjoying musical experiences.

You don’t have to take a trip to “take a trip”. Most of us don’t have the freedom to travel all over the world all of the time but we can take our passion and enthusiasm that we have to see new places and look for what is different right near home. That’s my philosophy and I’m stickin’ to it!!

So go out and do something different. Go to a musical event. Look in your local paper or try some local websites. Ask your friends. Tell them you want to do something different. You might be surprised what they know about but have never mentioned because they didn’t think you would be interested.