Category: Hill Theatre

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Post #501, Four Years, and I Find Out I Am A Theater Critic!

WOW! Jane Eyre, The Musical, At The Lake Country Playhouse was my 500th Post here on An Intuitive Perspective. WOW! Yeah, I know not all of them are scintillating and insightful commentary on the arts but the Monday Music feature instead…but I hope you are enjoying all of it! And I apparently lost count and missed our 4th Anniversary on March 20, 2024…you do lose track of time when you are having fun. And now, I am a theater critic as well!

So, how did I get here? I retired from my career as a computer programmer in 2018. And back in 2010 I was invited to contribute to someone else’s blog and I enjoyed the writing and comments and such. It was on another topic, not the arts.

And then I had an opportunity to work with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater as part of their Social Media Club. A little social group who were invited by the Rep to attend their performances and then comment on our experiences across social media. And to share and re-share the Rep’s various social media posts. I really took that to heart and wrote some pretty extensive and detailed reports on Facebook that I referred to as a ‘response’. That was a lot of fun and I started doing similar posts around other events.

And then I started to tire of my participation in that other blog but knew that I didn’t necessarily want to stop writing so I started An Intuitive Perspective. And the first thing I did was republish all of my older items from Facebook and then proceed with my new content. And once published, I share the link around a variety of social media including of course Facebook. That’s the bare facts…but how did I become a theater critic?

Well I was writing ‘responses’ to the shows that I was seeing at the Rep and as a long time subscriber at the American Player’s Theatre in Spring Green. And then a dear friend from the Social Media Club, Kimberly Laberge, Artistic Director at Kith & Kin Theatre Collective, invited me out to Hartland to experience the presentation of Cabaret that she was directing at the Lake Country Playhouse. It was an amazing play and an amazing cast and a cozy jewel box theater and I have been invited back again and again and I am in awe of the quality of the plays that they take on and the high level quality of each and every presentations.

And then somehow, I wish I remembered the history here, I also became involved with First Stage, which is a children’s theater in Milwaukee, that presents full blown musicals in the Todd Wehr Theater in the Marcus Performing Arts Center and smaller more serious fare in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. The PAC shows blend a cast of adults and young people in shows that will appeal to all ages…and I love them…and I love to watch the reactions of the youngsters in the audience as they experience real theater featuring their peers and their stories. And the other venue generally features the First Stage’s Young Company, high school age actors presenting more complex stories in an in the round black box theater…things like an adaptation of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People or Shakespeare’s Henry IV (part 1). I hope that we see many of these young actors playing at our local adult theaters eventually.

And I have been invited to see any number of other small theater groups put on amazing theater in small theater settings that I didn’t even know existed before now. And I am so grateful for the experience.

Now one thing that I regret. I had started an idea to present posts about smaller art museums around the state and mid-west under the title A Place For A Muse. I have only written two so far. I need to do better.

And what is this bit about being a theater critic? Well, as I said I have always labeled my articles and posts about theater as responses because I hadn’t studied theater or criticism directly. So I didn’t feel confident using the term review. But after attending the Lake Country Player’s presentation of A Rock Sails By, and talking with director James Baker Jr and lead actor in Rock (and Artistic Director of LCP ) Sandra Baker-Renick, I was convinced that what I write is in fact a review…and that is what they will be from now on! So I am a theater critic now, I guess!

So thank you to all who visit here and read my scribblings. And thank you to all of the theater people who have adopted me and allowed me to see your marvelous shows and write about them with abandon. It has been a very rewarding four years…and I hope we can continue!!!

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American Players Theatre Presentation Of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town

Some how I put off seeing Our Town for 72 years and then suddenly experienced two compelling performances in a matter of months! (Here’s my response to my previous encounter at The Lake Country Players). But today, I want to share my thoughts about Our Town at APT!

cast Our Town, 2023. Photo by Liz Lauren.

So once again, I find myself in Grover’s Corners, NH, but this time seated outdoors amongst towering trees, ten thousand crickets, a number of agile bats, and an audience of eleven hundred other theatergoers who are about to become my best friends and neighbors. Partly by our close proximity sheltering from a brief bit of rain and then by Wilder’s classic take on small town rural America!

Ronald Romàn-Meléndez, James Ridge, Teri Brown & Samantha Newcomb, Our Town, 2023. Photo by Liz Lauren.

And as we settle into our seats, we see that APT has taken Wilder’s stage directions to heart and we have the two dining table sets and two ladders that define the two households that share the timeline of the story. Perfectly suited to the rustic stage at the Hill Theater. And the cast took to heart the directions to mime most of the activities…perfectly…from stirring pots in the kitchen, to pumping water, to delivering milk, and tossing the morning paper on the porch (accompanied by a very satisfying and resounding slap sound effect)!

In act one of course we meet Grover’s Corners through a pair of presentations to the audience from guest speakers on stage, the description of the town’s geography by the stage manager, and then the commencement of the typical day…and we meet the residents as they play out their familial interactions and daily activities. And as we watch and eavesdrop, we realize that every day life in an idyllic community isn’t always quite so idyllic. A far more realistic portrayal than sit coms of the 1950s and 1960s, for certain.

But we do meet the two nuclear families central to the story. The actors here exemplify their characters to a T! The Gibbs family, James Ridge is Dr. Gibbs, Teri Brown is Mrs. Gibbs, and their two growing, active, and curious children, Ronald Roman-Melendez as George and Phoebe Werner as Rebecca. And across the stage in Spring Green but across Town in Grover’s Corners, we learn to love the Webb family, newspaper editor Mr. Webb played by Jefferson A Russell, Mrs. Webb played by Tracy Michelle Arnold, and the aware Webb children, Samanatha Newcomb as Emily, and Susanna Van Hallgren as Wally. A perfect cast that presents the characters and personalities of their roles just as you’d expect for turn of the (20th) century rural America. And the young people to pay close attention to are George and Emily of course, as they age and mature, and discover how deep feelings can really really reside.

Ronald Román-Meléndez & Samantha Newcomb, Our Town, 2023. Photo by Liz Lauren.

And of course scene two is where the pinnacle of the action in Grover’s Corners is told. As Emily calls out George for an unlike George change in attitude and action…and George comes to the realization of what he really wants out of his life and the best way to achieve it…and of course his love for Emily. Wedding bells ensue!

Samantha Newcomb, Our Town, 2023. Photo by Liz Lauren.

And then on to the third and final act which gives us Wilder’s expressed theme, The play is about Mortality. And here brings to fruition the Emily she grew into in the previous two scenes…an observant, mature, and feeling human being unlike anyone and everyone else in the play. Samantha Newcomb truly presents that feeling human being and is the star of this show!

Sarah Day & Jefferson A. Russell, Our Town, 2023. Photo by Liz Lauren.

An aside and then a quibble: For me the stage manager is the key ingredient for a successful Our Town. The stage manager needs to be flexible since the role changes throughout the play and it requires a certain amount of gravitas. Over the years, I have loved Sarah Day in any number of plays, but I don’t think she quite had the feel for the stage manager the evening I attended the play. And the quibble: I sat dead center although higher up in the seating bowl…but Sarah played too much to stage left, particularly during the intro even for me sitting in the center.

Our Town played as the classic play that it has become. Tim Ocel did a marvelous job directing given the sparse sets and props that Wilder allows if you are to stay true to his vision while also expressing your own. And the 1901 costuming provided by costume designer Scott A Rott sets the mood for the period as well…wonderful.

As always: Extra credit reading: The 2023 Season Playbill

And if you want to catch Our Town: click here for more info and tickets!!

Tamara Brognano, Ronald Román-Meléndez, James Ridge, Teri Brown, Samantha Newcomb & Tracy Michele Arnold, Our Town, 2023. Photo by Liz Lauren.

all photos are courtesy of American Players Theatre