It's doubtful anyone needs to be told that launching a new theatre company - particularly in an area already rife with theatre companies - can be a risky venture, which is likely why Quad Cities-based organizations have tended to debut with relatively low-risk offerings. In 2008, the Harrison Hilltop Theatre chose to stage, as its first production, David Auburn's intimate, four-character drama Proof; a week later, the Curtainbox Theatre Company arrived on the scene with Three Viewings, a trio of Jeffrey Hatcher monologues.
And what is Davenport native Nathan Porteshawver, the founder of the Internet Players, presenting for his new theatre company's debut offering? An original drama that Porteshawver himself wrote.
In verse.
With a cast of 17 actors.
And nine musicians.
Just because Three Viewings - the area debut by the Curtainbox Theater Company, previously based in Los Angeles - is being staged at St. Ambrose University, and features St. Ambrose theatre professor Corinne Johnson among its cast, don't assume that this trio of Jeffrey Hatcher monologues will be any sort of academic exercise.
You can often pinpoint your favorite moment in a particular stage performance, when an actor does something so fresh or unexpected or wonderfully human that the worlds of fictional "reality" and actual reality blur in the most extraordinary way. Ray Gabica, in My Verona Productions' current presentation of Tuesdays with Morrie, doesn't provide one of these moments. If you try really hard, though, you might be able to narrow your favorites down to about 50.
THE PACIFIER
