items tagged with Playcrafters Barn Theatre

Director Paul Workman deserves high praise for making the Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s Titanic Aftermath at all watchable, particularly as the boat is sinking in the second act. Throughout Friday’s performance, I kept thinking that playwright Michael Wehrli’s script was a fantastic historical account, but also kept wondering, “Why is it a stage play?” With so much action described, and so little played out visually, especially during the first act, this piece might as well be a radio drama, or the script for a documentary on the Titanic. As a theatrical production, however, Wehrli's work is … well, rather boring.

As Oregon-based playwright Michael Wehrli is the author of Titanic Aftermath – the historical drama being staged at Moline’s Playcrafters Barn Theatre May 11 through 20 – I initially presume that he’s seen James Cameron’s Oscar-winning movie. In our April 25 phone interview, he tells me he has, and that it was even the inspiration for his play.

That’s not exactly the compliment it might seem, though, considering he calls Cameron’s Titanic “visually stunning and incredibly, maddeningly frustrating because of the fictional characters.

“I mean, they took up half the story,” says Wehrli of the young lovers played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, “and it was the actual survivors’ stories, to me, that were ... interesting. That, and the corporate-negligence side to the tragedy, which is hardly ever addressed in dramatic form.

“So I thought, ‘All right, well, I’m just going to write a play about all this.’” Wehrli laughs. “‘How the hell do I do that?’”

Apparently, director Gary Clark doesn’t think Playcrafters Barn Theatre audiences will get author Pat Cook’s jokes in the venue’s current If It’s Monday, This Must Be Murder, because almost every already-obvious punchline is accented with a combination of slow, careful enunciation and a physical action. For example, the main character, Michael Schmidt's Monday, is referenced in another character’s line, “Rainy days and Monday always get me down.” On Saturday, though, the actor saying this put vocal emphasis on the “Monday” and grandly gesticulated toward Schmidt, as though this rather lame attempt at humor needed to be clarified. It was one of many not-so-clever quips that were rendered even less funny through Clark's, and his cast's, efforts to make sure they weren't missed.

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.

The Reader's chief theatre reviewer, Thom White, saw and wrote about 52 area stage productions in 2011. I saw 39 and reviewed 12. Obviously, during our second-annual breakfast chat on the Year in Theatre, there was a bit to talk about.

It doesn’t happen often, especially if you attend a lot of local theatre – where the on-stage faces tend to become familiar ones. But every once in a while, you’ll be at a production that you’re really enjoying, and gradually realize that you’re routinely focusing on one performer above the others – and asking yourself, with a grin, “Who is that?”

Described by the Chicago Sun-Times as “simultaneously hilarious and touching,” the road-trip comedy Leaving Iowa is the final presentation in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s 2011 season. Leaving Iowa is also the first presentation in Black Hawk College’s 2011-12 theatre season, but don’t chalk that up to either coincidence or some sort of Moline-based rivalry; the productions are actually one and the same.

The Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s Make Me a Cowboy will appeal to anyone who likes pure, wholesome, clean-humored comedy that’s light on plot and heavy on friendly cowboys and public-domain cowboy-themed songs. While that “anyone” does not include me, I at least recognize the earnestness in playwright and director Don Bailey Bryant’s effort to present a decent show, and Make Me a Cowboy certainly made for a good time for Friday’s audience, many of whom sang along to a good number of ditties and seemed pleased with the production.

I’ve been moved by several productions this year, but by none so deeply as the Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s A Lesson Before Dying. In fact, I was in tears several times during Friday night’s performance, including throughout most of the second act.

“I think it came from going to church,” says area actor Pat Flaherty of his childhood interest in theatre. “Because I’d go to church, and I’d see this guy who was holding everybody’s interest through the whole service. It was very dramatic – they’d light the candles and ring the bells and everything – and for a while I thought I wanted to be a priest because of that.

“It turned out I just wanted to be on stage.”