Cait Bodenbender in LearIt doesn't take long for Cait Bodenbender, in the Prenzie Players' Lear, to prove that director/adapter J.C. Luxton's idea to reverse his characters' genders was a great one.

Adam Michael Lewis and Sergeant Leon Maxwell Edison VonPepper in The Two Gentlemen of VeronaThe women of The Two Gentlemen of Verona shine in the Prenzie Players' latest production. Maggie Woolley's effervescent Julia and Catie Osborn's enrapturing Silvia - characters courted by the two gentlemen of the title - are especially captivating, thanks to Woolley's and Osborn's layered portrayals of ladies in (and later out of, and then back in) love. They're among a group of female actors here that offer dynamic, entertaining performances filled with notable nuance, aplomb, and, when called for, titillating humor. And they are a credit to director Andy Lord's vision for what seems to me one of William Shakespeare's weaker, less refined plays. The women help add emotional depth to the text, while Lord wisely places the comedic aspects of the tale at the forefront through his cast's energetic performances.

Beth Woolley in Bear GirlPlaywright J.C. Luxton's writing has a beautiful eloquence about it, with poetic word choices and graceful rhythms in his verse. And while I did not understand all of the finer details in the Prenzie Players' Friday-night production of Luxton's Bear Girl - due solely to my own shortcomings when it comes to dialogue delivered in verse - the themes and main plot points were clearly told, and also, thanks to director Cait Bodenbender's treatment of the material, interesting, entertaining, and educational.

Maggie Woolley and Matt Mercer in The Shape of ThingsAuthor Neil LaBute is known, and respected, for pushing the envelope with his plays. The Richmond Hill Barn Theatre generally produces plays that are comparatively safe in theme and style. So it's a somewhat surprising thing to see LaBute's The Shape of Things on the barn-theatre stage - and, I think, a very good thing, too. Because while some of the play's elements are offensive, its central themes of art, relationships, and what we're willing to do for love are well worth examining. And happily, they're examined here in a production that is also thoughtfully staged and performed.

Adam Overberg and Maggie Woolley in Cyrano de BergeracThe Prenzie Players' current production, Cyrano de Bergerac, is costumed in nothing but black and white. Yet that lack of visual variety counters the abundance of color in the performances of the cast, which add shades of nuance to what could be presented as cut-and-dried "good" and "bad" characters. The actors' portrayals make it possible for audiences to feel sorry for the villain, to fall for our hero's rival in love, and even, to some degree, to occasionally dislike the tale's namesake.

Jaci Entwisle and Andy Koski in Troilus & CressidaIf there's anything at which the Prenzie Players excel - and the theatre group excels at quite a few things - it's the ability to convey the meaning of Shakespeare's words to those who may have trouble following the dialogue and, therefore, the plot. (I.e. me.)  And that strength is all the more important in the Prenzies' current undertaking, Troilus & Cressida.  While watching the opening-night performance, I rarely understood what exactly was going on by way of what was said. But thanks to the passion behind how it was said, I was neither bored nor disinterested.

Essentials Tyson Danner (left) and James Bleecker (standing), with Jackie Madunic and Jason Platt, in Angels in America: Perestroika For the third year in a row, I've composed a list of 12 area-theatre participants who devoted their time, energy, and skills to numerous theatrical organizations and venues during the past year. And once again - happily and inspiringly - it hasn't been necessary to repeat names from one year to the next; local theatre, to the great good fortune of local audiences, never seems to run out of talent.

Andy Koski and Aisha Ragheb in Romeo and Juliet More than a third of the area productions I attended this year - a whopping 35 of them - I saw in the 91-day span from May 17 to August 15. And more than half of those shows - 19 in all - were produced by a combined five theatre organizations: Rock Island's Genesius Guild, Eldridge's Countryside Community Theatre, the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (CAST), Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, and Davenport's newly established Riverbend Theatre Collective. My experiences with this quintet formed a fascinating theatrical journey, one boasting plenty of highs, occasional lows, randomly bitchy Web-site comments ... .

Andy Koski, J.C. Luxton, and ensemble members in The Merchant of Venice After six seasons of reverse-gender casting, anachronistic details, audience interaction, and unapologetic tweaking and trimming of classical works, the happily untraditional Prenzie Players have, with their production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, moved in a truly subversive direction: They've gone traditional. Sort of.

Maggie Woolley and Jake Walker in As Bees in Honey Drown If you diagrammed the experience of the Riverbend Theatre Collective's As Bees in Honey Drown, it would look something like a roller coaster: There'd be an extended incline followed by a precipitous drop, several more inclines each followed by lesser drops, a few twists, and an eventual return to your point of origin. And as with a roller coaster, you might find yourself having a terrific time during Bees' ride, even if your enjoyment wears off quickly, and a few of its shakier moments give you a headache.

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