As a study in the interactivity of writer, director, and performer, the workshop evening in the Eve's Apple Festival of One-person Shows made for fascinating viewing, especially in showing how critical direction can be in helping or hindering a script or actor's potential.
In the first piece of the evening, Sam: Satan's a Martyr, Shashi Balooja portrayed a devilish TV huckster selling his guide to salvation. Written and directed by Monica Sirignano, Sam: Satan's a Martyr showed promise in its gleeful send-up of organized religion and TV ministries, but Sirignano the director was far too enamored of Sirignano the writer, and her script was not as developed or as funny as it could be. She did get a terrific performance from her performer: Balooja was charming and endearing as he danced his way down the aisle to arrive center stage and deliver his spiel, bursting with the glory of something not necessarily Godlike.
A Window in My Cell was written, directed and performed by Jessica Willis. Willis is a terrific writer and a spellbinding performer. Her deeply felt treatise on self-destruction bubbled like acid, but what should have been a ferocious tour de force was compromised by sloppy diction, self-indulgent pacing, and an apparent inability to edit herself, all of which were traps that could have been avoided had another, more critical pair of eyes been guiding her.
Everything came together in Kevin Flynn's Shotgun Wedding, directed by Judith Ivey. Flynn's easygoing performance beautifully showcased his acutely observed writing, and Ivy directed with a keen but blissfully subtle eye. By turns convulsively funny and heartbreakingly moving, Shotgun Wedding was the highlight of the evening, as all of the elements came together to work as one seamless whole.
Production values throughout were strictly standard - bare stage with black walls, a few pieces of furniture as necessary, minimal costuming and lighting, etc., although some technically ambitious video gave the evening an edge of visual sophistication.
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|
Sam: Satan's a Martyr |
A Window in My Cell |
Shotgun Wedding |
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Writing |
1 |
1 |
2 |
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Directing |
1 |
1 |
2 |
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Acting |
1 |
2 |
2 |
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Set |
1 |
1 |
N/A |
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Costumes |
2 |
1 |
1 |
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Lighting/Sound |
2 |
1 |
1 |
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Copyright 2001 Doug DeVita