items tagged with Donna Weeks

Sydney Crumbleholme is maturing. Not only is she physically more mature than the impressive young acting prodigy I fondly recall from the Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s Anne of Green Gables four years ago, she’s also much more skilled as an actress – and that “much more” is particularly impressive considering that Crumbleholme’s previous work was astounding, particularly for her age. In her return to the title role of Playcrafters’ current production, Anne of Avonlea, Crumbleholme shows distinct growth as an actress, showcasing knacks for nuance and subtlety. She alone is worth the money and time spent seeing the show.

Allow me, if you will, to get the unpleasantries out of the way right away, so that I can expound upon the virtues of New Ground Theatre’s debuting drama Under the Radar. The play, inspired by the local gay scene in the late 1970s, isn’t eloquent in its verbiage or impressively acted; the dialogue is amateurishly written; and for the most part, the individual performances are adequate, at best.

Fortunately, though, the employment of news, game-show, and other TV-programming clips from 1978 provides context for the social environment of the time, and elevates the piece to a place of educational significance.

Several minutes into the Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s Lend Me a Tenor, I was concerned that I was in for two more hours of comedy that fell flat with forced funniness, rendering it unfunny, and jokes more worthy of groans than chuckles. But then John VanDeWoestyne’s Tito, the titular tenor, and Diane Greenwood’s Maria, Tito’s wife, entered the stage, and brought with them the strong farcical performances that, until that point, were lacking in Saturday night’s performance.

Attending the theatre is typically a form of escapism, a chance to get lost in the magic of the staging and performances. And then there's Moon Over Buffalo, one of those shows that doesn't just let you escape into it, but lets you in on the antics of what's going on off stage. It's a show about actors and their messed up, dramatic lives.

Sydney Crumbleholme, a freshman at Moline High School, plays the title character in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's current Anne of Green Gables, and I doubt there has been a better, more inspiring piece of casting on area stages in all of 2008.