Jamie Em Behncke and Susan Perrin-Sallak in And They Dance Real Slow in JacksonA day after seeing it, I still can't decide whether I like playwright Jim Leonard Jr.'s And They Dance Real Slow in Jackson, but I do know that I appreciate director Patti Flaherty's efforts in staging this nonlinear tale for New Ground Theatre. During Friday's performance, I struggled to follow the action, as Leonard's script confusingly jumps back and forth in time. Thankfully, however, Flaherty's directorial work helps create some clarity to the "when" with which we're dealing.

Friday night's presentation of 100 Saints You Should Know played to a half-capacity audience, which is a shame; New Ground Theatre's poignantly personal play deserves more attention, due to its thoughtful script and equally thoughtful performances. And while playwright Kate Fodor's themes of spirituality and sexuality may put off some potential spectators, the story is much more inclusive, in terms of philosophical perspectives, than those themes might suggest.

 

'night, Mother starts out innocently enough: A young woman asks her mother for some old towels and bedsheets and a bucket. But then she asks for a gun.

Anna Tunnicliff, Jamie Em Johnson, and Andrea Braddy in The Children's HourOriginally produced in 1934, Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour - the current presentation at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre - concerns a monstrous little boarding-school brat who falsely accuses her headmistresses of engaging in a lesbian affair, a charge that leads to parental panic, financial ruin, and the destruction of several lives. In an era that finds the Iowa Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage, Hellman's melodrama now seems more like a museum piece than it would have even two months ago, and so it was wise of director Patti Flaherty to set her production firmly in the past - even though that past feels less like the 20th Century than 400 BC.