Four of the Mundy sisters in Dancing at Lughnasa: Julie Rowe, Margery Lowe, Gretchen Porro and Erin Joy Schmidt / Photo by Alicia Donelan

We’re entering another period when several productions open in one week. As a result, reviews may not remain in the center featured position more than one day. Please check out recent reviews by clicking on entries listed in the red ribbon in the upper left hand corner of the site or, for a directory of all reviews, click on the teal-colored button in the upper left hand corner.

By Bill Hirschman

Amid blockbuster musicals and dysfunctional family dramas, one of the disappearing genres of theater and much of art is the slow, sweet sad song.

And as Palm Beach Dramaworks’ slow, sweet sad production of Dancing at Lughnasa shows, nobody sings them like the Irish.

Like many Dramaworks’ shows, it requires a 21^st Century audience to downshift the metabolism a bit, but the reward is a melancholy but oddly affirming elegy that acknowledges the universal pain of life with a rueful and compassionate smile, echoing that other great memory play, The Glass Menagerie.

Brian Friel’s Tony and Olivier-winning drama is not set in the jaunty Ireland of Riverdance, the fabled Glocca Morra or even Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic Inishmore. This is the mournful land of Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes. It’s a portrait of people seemingly cursed by fate, in this case, the five mostly middle-aged Mundy sisters eking out a hardscabble life in a rural village in County Donegal in 1936.

The tale is told in flashback by the grown narrator Michael Mundy, who then was a seven-year-old child born out of wedlock to one sister and is being raised by the five women as one. The play focuses on crucial days in late summer when events will unravel their lives.

There are no spoilers for Friel; it’s thematically essential that Michael reveal to us bit by bit what the characters cannot see coming: disillusionment, shattered dreams, poverty, illness and death. Friel wants us to cherish what few joys we have while we have them, above all the blessings of family. Michael seems to yearn to hug his long-dead loved ones because their loss reminds him how we don’t appreciate life as we are living it, as Wilder warned us in Our Town.

Under J. Barry Lewis’ brilliant direction of an inspired pitch-perfect cast, establishing the tone, mood, characters and relationships is more important than creating a driving narrative. As Michael tells the audience, “In that memory, atmosphere is more real than incident and everything is simultaneously actual and illusory.” As a result, this may not be every audience member’s cup of tea. Their loss.

We meet the five sisters who have created a close affectionate unit, but each quietly mourns lost chances at love or at least a life of their own. They are imprisoned together by cruel vagaries of fate that have cauterized the part of their soul where hope resides.

The oldest, Kate (Julie Rowe), has become the matriarch since the death of their parents. As the family’s primary breadwinner as an educator, Kate shoulders the heavy burden of leadership and camouflages her own pain with a schoolteacher’s sternness reinforced with a devout Catholicism.

Only slightly younger, Maggie (Meghan Maroney) is the family jokester and cook with a love for raising her lovely voice to croon a popular tune. But in one stunning reverie, Maroney reveals that the past-her-prime Maggie mourns a glimpse of true love.

Chris (Gretchen Porro) is the mother of Michael, having been seduced by the considerable charms of the ne’er-do-well Gerry (Cliff Burgess) who makes blithely intermittent appearances filled with empty promises and doomed pipe dreams. Her “shame” is one of several factors distancing the family from the community. She is alternately morose at her imprisonment and overjoyed when Gerry makes a visit.

Deeply in unrequited love with Gerry is the plain, ineffably sad Agnes (Margery Lowe in her finest performance we can remember) who is in visible but restrained agony whenever Gerry appears.

Rose (the always wonderfully quirky Erin Joy Schmidt) is developmentally disabled, although that is not made clear until someone references it. She just seems to be a lovely, over-enthusiastic young woman who imagines a local boy is sweet on her. Protecting her is yet another reason the family is disconnected from the village. When Agnes proposes the sisters go into town to a harvest dance, Kate stomps on their ecstatic reaction, saying that the village would laugh at a family of older women cavorting. She actually means they would laugh at Rose’s odd antics.

Complicating matters is the return of Uncle Jack (the affecting John Leonard Thompson), a missionary priest who has been called home after three decades of ministering to tribes in Uganda, ostensibly because his mind is deteriorating after a  losing bout of malaria – but, in fact, for another reason.

The entire evening is presided over by Michael (Declan Mooney) who speaks to us and, from the sidelines, speaks for his invisible 7-year-old self when the boy speaks with his aunts in 1936.

If you are familiar with the play, you know there is a celebrated scene in which the sisters join in an impromptu dance to a tune on the radio. In the hands of Lewis, this cast and choreographer Lynnette Barkley, it is an undiluted triumph.  Having spent a half-hour of stage time depicting their repressed gloom, each sister, one by one, issues a feral scream from their guts and erupts into an individual idiosyncratic dance. But it’s not their abandoned movement that rips the play open because other than the surprisingly graceful Agnes, they’re not agility personified. What overwhelms is the expressions on their faces that depict an explosion of long-suppressed passion. While that passion is mostly frustration and even sorrow, there is such joy in its finally being unleashed to exorcise the pain.  It’s thrilling.

Once again, a cast under Lewis’ direction gives lessons in acting.  In this case, class, notice how they listen intently to what is happening elsewhere in the scene even when they have no dialogue. See how they silently react, without calling attention to themselves, to what is being said by other characters. Watch how doggedly they focus on knitting, ironing, slicing bread while soaking in what is occurring around them, even when – especially when – they are in shadow and featured characters are interacting in the lights on the other side of the stage. While they all excel in this, Lowe’s face perpetually communicates the range of pain and pleasure simmering under the surface.

Thompson, who has played everything from the venal Teach in American Buffalo to the preacher in Candida, deserves a special nod for his heart-breaking scenes of a once-fine now-addled mind trying to find words. Even better is his work in Friel’s brilliant monologue describing an Ugandan ceremony. Thompson makes it clear that Jack has surrendered his repressive Christian faith to the more joyous native religion – the real reason for his recall.

If there is a secondary theme lurking, it may lie there. The repression and prejudices of a strictured society lie at the heart of many of the Mundy family’s woes. Kate may condemn Maggie’s singing of “pagan songs,” disapprove of Chris’ continuing to see Gerry and horrified by Jack’s praise of African rites, but they are clearly the happiest members of this troubled family.

As always, Dramaworks technical crew is among the finest in the region including Brian O’Keefe’s costumes, Ron Burns’ lighting, Steve Shapiro’s sound design and choice of music and James Danford’s stage management. A special shout out is due to Dramaworks newcomer Jeff Modereger for his evocative design of the Mundy’s modest time-worn brick-and-plaster cottage, side yard and garden with its prematurely autumnal trees.

Friel is rarely performed these days; his early Philadelphia, Here I Come! used to be a regional theater staple and his later Faith Healer received a transcendent production at Inside Out Theatre in Fort Lauderdale. He embraces the everyday speech of everyday people with a flair for lyrical metaphors that portend an ominous future.

Thanks to Dramaworks for reviving this quiet portrait of wounded souls.

Dancing at Lughnasa  runs through June 16 at Palm Beach Dramaworks, the Don & Ann Brown Theatre, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Performances  8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday; 7 p.m. Sunday. Running time 2 hours 20 minutes including one intermission. Tickets are $10 (students) to $55. Call (561) 514-4042, ext. 2, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.

Lovers Makeba Pace and Kim Ehly enjoy a tender moment despite the condemnation of the Kenyan society outside in Waafrika / Photo b y Nicole Stodard

We’re entering another period when several productions open in one week. As a result, reviews may not remain in the center featured position more than one day. Please check out recent reviews by clicking on entries listed in the red ribbon in the upper left hand corner of the site or, for a directory of all reviews, click on the teal-colored button in the upper left hand corner.

By Bill Hirschman

Thinking Cap Theatre’s production of Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko’s Waafrika is a deeply earnest and illuminating if imperfect examination of the toxicity of tradition. But even Waafrika’s flaws are washed away by one of the most harrowing finales seen on a local stage.

The arc of this tale is a tragedy, and we won’t give away the cringe-inducing denouement, but you’ll likely see it coming. That doesn’t rob it of an iota of its power as staged by director Nicole Stodard.

Set in rural Kenya in 1992 when homosexuality really dare not speak its name in the face of centuries of stringent social mores, Waafrika focuses on Awino, the daughter of a village chief agonizing over conflicting pressures. She is wrestling to reconcile her physical and emotional love for a white female Peace Corps worker and the unyielding prejudices of her family reaching back through uncounted ancestors.

“There are new questions living inside me,” she tells her father about living with the American woman, wearing men’s clothing and opting for a boyish haircut. “I hear two voices at the same time.”

After lying to her father about not having made love to her “close friend,” she explains to her lover , “Every time we have sex, it means I am not worthy” to be buried in the family graveyard. She is a child of her culture and her time.

Awino speaks of searching for her identity, but the truth is she knows her sexuality. Her crisis is how to honor the truth of who she is in a society whose matriarchs suggest the solution to such abhorrent feelings is to circumcise her, a barbarism they describe in blunt detail.

Mwaluko, an artist-in-residence at Thinking Cap which produced his S/He in 2010, is a transgendered man born in Tanzania but who grew up in Kenya, covered upheavals across the continent for Reuters news service and then emigrated to the United States. His own experience as a man born into a woman’s body deepens his insight into a person struggling to find their identity.

Among his gifts is a skill for creating rich, musical speeches for the African characters. He melds a rural vernacular with a lilting poetry that reflects a millennia-old symbiosis with the land beneath their feet. It is so lovely that the American’s speech seems blunt, out of place and even unconvincing, even when he gives her similar lines.

Woven throughout is the tribe’s clinging to the life raft of tradition with an intensity reminiscent of Tevye’s “Because of our tradition, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”

The pungency of Awino’s dilemma is rooted in the affecting central performance of Makeba Pace under Stodard’s guidance. Pace exudes the sense being ripped apart like someone being drawn and quartered by wild animals. While she embraces the new Africa that is emerging, Pace’s Awino also respects the roots of a culture whose traditions have been inviolable for centuries. Pace’s reputation exploded locally with her stunning turn as the agonized wife of the title character in M Ensemble’s King Hedley II last year. Once again, she proves herself as an actress to watch for.

Matching her anguish is John Archie as her father, the chieftain equally trapped – in his case between his conviction in his tribe’s ethos and his profound love for a daughter who has chosen a lifestyle he cannot accept. Among the production’s strengths is Archie’s completely credible depiction of a human being writhing in an insoluble dilemma. He and Pace also create the feeling an authentic bond of abiding love.

Kim Ehly imbues a sincerity and patient understanding into the altruistic American refugee from a privileged background. But Mwaluko has given her the least convincing lines and her scenes don’t always land truthfully. She does create an admirable chemistry with Pace crucial to making their scenes work.

Rounding out the cast are Carey Brianna Hart as the vitriolic first wife of the chief, and Renee Elizabeth Turner and Stephon Duncan as two other wives.

The script and its execution do stumble on occasion.  It’s not apparent on stage why Awino makes the decision that leads to the finale, although after-show discussions can produce likely possibilities. It’s not even absolutely clear whether she’s alive at the end.

The other serious failing is that Stoddard, Pace, Ehly and Mwaluko stumble over the hairpin turns in plot and emotional direction. For instance, for most of the first act, Awino is consumed with self-doubt over her sexuality and her community’s inability to countenance it. But the moment she begins to make love with her partner, pleasure instantly and uncredibly erases every shred of angst. Similarly, the couple tunes into the radio just as a very convenient report announces the government’s arrest and prosecution of two gay leaders. The couple instantly spins into panic mode. And just then a violent public backlash against homosexuality erupts offstage outside the couple’s apartment. It all feels conflated and contrived.

Other than Archie, it’s also a little difficult for these contemporary American actors to sell to an “enlightened” 21^st Century audience what are inarguably accurate tribal sentiments. One of the chief’s wives tsk-tsks that the chief had Awino educated rather than married her off as breeding stock. “What good is a girl in school?” she says. “It’s a waste of resources.” Actually, the line does echo Li’l Bit’s grandfather’s comment in How I Learned to Drive about ”How is Shakespeare gonna help her lie on her back in the dark?”
Mwaluko is not completely unsympathetic to the traditionalists. He has that same hide-bound character reference the fight for independence from the British. “We fought so this generation would not have to.”

This mixed bag of virtues and deficiencies still results in an intriguing evening of theater that speaks directly to the audience’s experience with struggling to be true to themselves in a world that is too slow to change.

Waafrika plays through June 9 from Thinking Cap Theatre performing at Empire Stage, 1140 N. Flagler Drive, Fort Lauderdale. Running time 90 minutes plus one intermission. Performances 8 p.m. Tuesaday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday;  5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $20-35. Call (646) 246-9856 or visit http://thinkingcaptheatre.com.

University School’s production of Tarzan, The Stage Musical

Theater students from 14 public and private high schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties received awards from the Critics’ Awards Program at the 11th Annual Cappies Awards Gala held Tuesday, recognizing excellence in both productions and theater criticism.

J.P. Taravella took home the most awards with eight for its production of Leading Ladies, which won more awards than any other production including Best Play.

University School of Nova Southeastern University had the most honored musical production with five awards for Tarzan The Stage Musical including Best Musical.  The school also received one of the awards for criticism.

Award winners were determined by votes from the students themselves through a weighted peer review voting process.

The ceremony, which includes scenes from nominated productions, was presented at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, which has hosted the awards since the South Florida chapter was founded in 2002 as a part of the national non-profit organization honoring theater programs.

The winning schools and their major production of the year were:

Boca Raton Community
(Anything Goes)
Best Song: “Anything Goes”
Stage Crew: Kelley Cunningham and Crew
Special Effects/Technology: Senior and Co.
Lighting: Parker, Shackelford and Co.

Coral Glades
(Midsummer/Jersey)
Ensemble in a Play: The Hairdressers

Cypress Bay
(Legally Blonde the Musical)
Featured Actress in a Musical: Gillian Rabin

JP Taravella
(Leading Ladies)
Best Play
Featured Actress in a Play: Casey Hernandez
Lead Actor in a Play: Christian Frost
Supporting Actor in a Play: Patrick Saxer
Supporting Actress in a Play: Mia Cleary
Make-up: Shaina Zwiebel and Crew
Sets: Chris Arata and JPT Stagecraft Class
Sound: Alex Hoffman, Todd Silver, Alex Montesino

Marjory Stoneman Douglas
(Grease and criticism)
Critics’ Team
Senior Critic: Skyler Evans
Junior Critic: Marissa Krantz
Comic Actress in a Musical: Carly Seidner
Female Vocalist: Carolina Meneses
Marketing and Publicity: Jessie Karlen, Carly Sadicario

North Broward Preparatory
(A Flea in Her Ear)
Comic Actor in a Play: Neil Goodman
Costumes: Devon Horn

Pine Crest School
(Oklahoma!)
Comic Actor in a Musical: Patrick Boyle
Female Dancer: Laura Sky Herman

Pompano Beach
(As You Like It)
Male Vocalist: Nicholas Guinta

Pope John Paul II
 (You Can’t Take It With You)
Lead Actress in a Play: Lauren Nolan
Comic Actress in a Play: Jessica Coons

South Plantation
(Big and criticism)
Sophomore Critic: Aaron Bourque
Male Dancer: Lance Spencer
Creativity: Julia Rodriguez, Christina Nunes, Shen Rogus, ASL translation and instruction

St. Thomas Aquinas
(Dead Man Walking)
Featured Actor in a Play: Jake Mathwich

Suncoast Community
(In the Heights)
Lead Actor in a Musical: Joel Gutierrez
Featured Actor in a Musical: Taige Mills
Choreography: Kyle Cortes
Props: Shoshana Cohen, Melanie Grande

University School
(Tarzan The Stage Musical and criticism)
Best Musical
Freshman Critic: Carlo Feliciani
Supporting Actor in a Musical: Ryan Juda
Supporting Actress in a Musical: Laura Galindo
Ensemble in a Musical: Apes Ensemble
Orchestra: Jammin’ Jungle Orchestra

West Boca
(9 to 5 The Musical)
Lead Actress in a Musical: Jade Zaroff

For a complete list of nominees, click here.

By Mary Damiano

Cock, by British playwright Mike Bartlett, which is now making its southeastern premiere at GableStage in Coral Gables, is filled with opportunities for characters to get naked, and GableStage artistic director Joseph Adler is known for getting his actors to show a substantial amount of skin on stage.  Instead, characters stay completely clothed and engage in a version of oral sex — in this case, describing their sex acts aloud — while practicing the restraint of hardly touching at all.  And guess what?  It’s sexy.  It’s very sexy.

But sex, despite the title, and despite the plot, is not what Cock is about.  This is a story about love, labels and the pressure society puts on persons to make decisions about both.

Cock centers on John (Ryan Didato) a twenty-something Brit who realizes that he and his older boyfriend of eight years (Nicholas Richberg) are too different to continue their relationship.  But soon after breaking up, a very confused and conflicted John is back, telling his boyfriend he still loves him and begging his forgiveness for the incredible relationship he’s having — with a woman (Julie Kleiner).

What’s a man to do?  Especially a man who has only ever been attracted to men and identifies himself as gay, when he has incredible sex with a woman and falls in love with her?  Is he straight?  Is he gay?  Is he bisexual?  And why does it matter?

These questions are at the heart of Cock, and Bartlett does an excellent job of asking his audience and his characters to take a hard look at the nature of love. Cock is not about John choosing his sexual preference, but the choice he is forced to make in labeling his sexuality in a way that’s socially acceptable.  Rather than simply being a man able to fall in love with a person, not a gender, John is confused and conflicted over being forced to make a decision not only about who to love, but what to call himself. And which is less acceptable: being in love with two persons at once, or being in love with both a man and a woman?

To examine these issues, Bartlett has created a character who is pliable and insecure, which makes him easy prey for his two lovers. While John complains that his older boyfriend won’t allow him to grow up, he doesn’t mind when his girlfriend describes him as a pencil drawing that hasn’t been colored in yet. She finds this attractive, this quality John has that allows others to imprint on him. John is controllable, often surrendering his will to others, which puts more at stake when his lovers demand he make a decision not only about them, but also about himself.

Bartlett has chosen, brilliantly, to give only John a name.  In the program, John’s boyfriend is listed as M, John’s girlfriend is listed as W, and John’s boyfriend’s father is listed as F, thus eliminating the baggage that can come with a name as well as anything more than the obvious labels for the characters. And over the course of the play, the names aren’t missed.

Cock is a minimalist production, especially by GableStage standards.  There are no props, no costume changes. The trappings of theater are stripped down to better reveal the language, the characters, the dilemma. Scenes are separated by the sound of a bell. The set, by Lyle Baskin, is a boxing ring cut in half diagonally, with the corner in the center, so appropriate to the combative nature of relationships and the way John’s boyfriend and girlfriend fight to be the victor with John as their prize. Jeff Quinn’s lighting is evocative, both moody and stark.

As John, Didato embodies the character’s confusion as well as insecurity.  Kleiner does well with her role of the everywoman fighting for her happily ever after. Peter Galman is funny and touching as John’s boyfriend’s father, who comes to dinner to help his son fight for John.

But the standout here is Richberg, who imbues his character with texture and soul. Even though John is the character in conflict, John’s boyfriend, in Richberg’s capable hands, is the one who seems to go through the most changes. Sometimes he’s catty, hateful and venomous, and sometimes he’s insightful, loving and vulnerable. Sometimes he oppresses, other times he seems the real victim of the piece. And Richberg’s performance is riveting.

GableStage excels at producing theater that is thought provoking, and Cock raises hard questions about love, sexuality and relationships. It gives no easy answers, leaving the audience to ponder, explore and discuss, making Cock the perfect marriage between play and theater.  Don’t miss it.

Cock runs through June 16 at GableStage, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables, inside the Biltmore Hotel.  Performances 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, and 2 p.m. & 7 p.m. Sunday. No 7 p.m. Sunday the 19th. Tickets $37.50 – $50. For tickets and more information, call 305-445-1119 or visit GableStage.org

Ground Up & Rising, another scrappy cutting edge theater that performs intermittently and in different venues around Miami, is beginning another season of four minimalist productions including Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story, John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Danny Hoch’s Jails, Hospitals & Hip Hop and the recent off-Broadway hit Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph.

Founder Arturo Rossi wrote that Ground Up “seeks to present powerful art in its purest, rawest form… (a) high quality, enthrallingly potent theater with a minimalist aesthetic, focusing only on telling a riveting story through a fascinating, memorable performance. It is engaging, thought-provoking theater that aims to attract a broader, younger audience base beyond the traditional theater patron.”

The first production is Ground Up’s presentation of Hoch’s Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop slated for Mondays and Tuesdays, May 21,22, 27 and 28 at the O Cinema Wynwood, 90 NW 29th St. in Miami. Curtiz Belz portrays an array of marginalized people battling to have their voices heard including a white teenager who dreams of being a black gangsta rapper, a wheelchair-bound kid whose mother smoked crack during pregnancy, a pale-skinned Bronx street vendor enraging a policeman who can’t figure out what race he is, and a young Puerto Rican on crutches who rhapsodizes about his dancing talent. To see a promotional video, click here. http://vimeo.com/64579735

Other shows at specific dates to be determined are Shanley’s Danny and The Deep Blue Sea in June at O Cinema Wynwood, Zoo Story in July at Miami Beach Botanical Garden; and an open air production in September in Miami Beach Botanical Garden of Gruesome Playground Injuries by Joseph who wrote the acclaimed Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo.

And, Rossi notes, it’s one of the most inexpensive tickets in town at $15 general admission and $10 for students. Tickets can be purchased with cash at the door on the evenings of the performances.

For more information, visit www.GroundUpandRising.org. For ticket sales, email gurachin@gmail.com.

With the wry motto, “Have Play, Will Travel, ” White Rose will be moving to different spaces every few days, ranging from a music store to a comedy club.

“The space will inform the performance, so you’ll never get the same show twice,” wrote Melissa Almaguer, co-creative director.

Some of the venues in the third week still haven’t been nailed down, but negotiations are underway with storefronts on South Beach and galleries in Wynwood.

“We are taking a leap of faith,” wrote Ivan R. Lopez, co-creative director who appeared in New Theatre’s Bird In Hand. “It’s a little scary, but we’ve always trusted our instincts and know that the energy of the company and project will continue to guide us correctly and that by the time the third weekend comes along we’ll have somewhere to tell the story.”

Martin McDonough’s story tells of Katurian, a writer whose bizarrely violent tales have led two brutal detectives from a totalitarian state to arrest him and his mentally challenged brother in connection with the murder of a child. Lopez will star as the writer; Almaguer with direct and act as the brother; Samuel Umoh, recently in AAPACT’s Dutchman will portray one of the detectives, and Wayne E. Robinson Jr.,  who taught both Almaguer and Lopez, will portray the intelligent but troubled lead detective.

White Rose last produced a short play festival called Miami Time in February 2013.

For more information, if you want to volunteer a venue, email whiterosemiami@gmail.com  or visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/White-Rose-Miami/112964655442602

Admission is $15,Students/ Seniors $10.

The performance schedule is:

–Friday, May 17 at 7 p.m. at PAX Miami, 337 SW 8th St., Miami, (305) 640-5847.
(Tucked away under the I-95. Free parking in a lot directly behind venue, but you must drive around block to get to it)

–Saturday, May 18 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 19 at 4 p.m. at Artistic Vibes, 12986 SW 89th Ave., Miami. (305) 305-9103

–Friday, May 24 at 7p.m.at Sweat Records, 5505 NE 2nd Ave, Miami. (786) 693-9309

–Saturday, May 25 at 8p.m. – Venue TBA

–Sunday, May 26 at 4 p.m. at Just The Funny, 3119 Coral Way, Miami (305) 693-8669

–May 31-June 2 performances times dates and venues TBA

Our joint ventures to produce audio interviews with the artists who create the county’s theaters will be posted here from time to time under the title On The Boards. Others on a wide variety of arts topics can be found at their site http://www.artsradionetwork.com.

The latest entry is Bill Hirschman’s interview with Alan Jacobson, founder and artistic director of the Plaza Theatre in Manalapan, about opening, and maintaining, a successful arts organization in difficult economic times.

To hear the podcast, click here,

Boca Raton Community High School’s production of Anything Goes

Theater students from 23 public, private and charter schools throughout Broward and Palm Beach counties will vie for top honors in the 11th Annual Cappies Awards Gala at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 21 at 7 p.m. in the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

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For a complete list of Cappies nominations, click here.

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Modeled after Broadway’s Tony Awards, the awards show will feature songs and scenes from the top nominated shows.

The Critics’ Awards Program, or Cappies for short, recognizes high school theater in 42 categories including performers, designers, technicians and criticism.

With 19 nominations, J.P. Taravella High School leads the nominations having produced the most-nominated play, Leading Ladies.  Boca Raton Community High School’s production of Anything Goes is the most nominated musical with 18 nominations.

The awards ceremony is presented with support from the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, which has hosted the awards since the South Florida chapter was founded in 2002 as a part of the national non-profit organization honoring high school theater programs.

Award winners are determined by votes from the students themselves through a weighted peer review voting process.  Nominations were made by student critics from participating schools that attended each other’s shows to write reviews, which were edited by theater educators and sent to the local media.

Tickets are $20 and are available through the Broward Center’s box office at (954) 462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org.  The Broward Center is located in the Riverwalk Arts & Entertainment District at 201 SW Fifth Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.

J.P. Taravella High School’s production of the play Leading Ladies

Archbishop McCarthy High School
(Nine nominations for Bus Stop)
Best Play
Lead Actor in a Play: Eric Maltz
Lead Actress in a Play: Emilie Colon
Supporting Actor in a Play: Justin More
Supporting Actress in a Play: Rachel O’Hara
Comic Actor in a Play: Christopher White
Comic Actress in a Play: Ashley Delgado
Featured Actor in a Play: Kevin Fitzpatrick
Make-up: Adriana Gonzalez

Boca Raton Community High School
(18 nominations for Anything Goes)
Best Musical
Best Song: “Anything Goes”
Lead Actor in a Musical: Kyle Laing
Lead Actress in a Musical: Danielle Overton
Supporting Actor in a Musical: Bobby Crawford
Comic Actor in a Musical: Lawrence Richardson
Comic Actress in a Musical: Valentina Delcoro
Female Vocalist: Vivian Martinez
Featured Actor in a Musical: Burke Schoeppl
Featured Actress in a Musical: Hannah Solimini
Ensemble in a Musical: Angels
Stage Crew: Kelley Cunningham and Crew
Special Effects/Technology: Senior and Co.
Props: Powers, Stoller and DeSantiago
Make-up: Garafalo, Dunn, Figueras
Lighting: Parker, Shackelford and Co.
Sound: Agar, Schipani, Emery and DaSilva
Marketing and Publicity: Bobby Crawford

Boca Raton High School
(One nomination for criticism)
Sophomore Critic: Kelsey Powers

Cardinal Gibbons High School
(Three nominations for Beauty and the Beast)
Lead Actor in a Musical: Malcolm Flavell
Lead Actress in a Musical: Erica Mitchell
Supporting Actor in a Musical: Dillon Williams

Coral Glades High School
(Four nominations for Midsummer/Jersey)
Comic Actor in a Play: Max Miller
Comic Actress in a Play: Christina Furbush
Featured Actress in a Play: Sammie Gaynor
Ensemble in a Play: The Hairdressers

Coral Springs High School
(One nomination for Hairspray)
Featured Actress in a Musical: Kayla Cook

Cypress Bay High School
(13 nominations; 11 for Legally Blonde the Musical and two for criticism)
Critics’ Team
Senior Critic: Annie Leiman
Supporting Actress in a Musical: Annie Leiman
Supporting Actor in a Musical: Josh Jowdy
Male Vocalist: Derrick Gallegos
Female Vocalist: Sarah Barney
Male Dancer: Jon Batista
Female Dancer: Nicolette Quintero
Featured Actor in a Musical: Dillon Noya
Featured Actress in a Musical: Gillian Rabin
Ensemble in a Musical: Greek Chorus – Serena, Margot, Pilar
Choreography: Nicolette Quintero
Marketing and Publicity: Noel Ruez, Carly Valancy, Alex Hess

Deerfield Beach High School
(Two nominations; one for The Children’s Hour and one criticism)
Senior Critic: Connor McVay
Lead Actress in a Play: Heidi Gomber

Flanagan High School
(Six nominations; Five for Jekyll and Hyde and one for criticism)
Senior Critic: Robyn Figueiredo
Best Song: “A New Life”
Lead Actress in a Musical: Kelsie Templin
Male Vocalist: Robyn Figueiredo
Stage Crew: Gage Bonime, Curington, Akram Hossain
Sets: Ashley Hyde

JP Taravella High School
(19 nominations; 17 for Leading Ladies and two for criticism)
Critics’ Team
Junior Critic: Casey Hernandez
Best Play
Lead Actor in a Play: Christian Frost
Lead Actress in a Play: Cassidy Castro
Supporting Actor in a Play: Patrick Saxer
Supporting Actress in a Play: Mia Cleary
Comic Actor in a Play: Ross Granick
Featured Actor in a Play: Hagan Oliveras
Featured Actress in a Play: Casey Hernandez
Choreography: Christian Frost and Patrick Saxer
Stage Crew: Justin Dabolish, Keri Larsen and Crew
Props: Sam Forman, Gabby Lawlor, Emily Bonasia and Crew
Make-up: Shaina Zwiebel and Crew
Costumes: Lindsay Raham, Brigitte Snedeker and Crew
Sets: Chris Arata and JPT Stagecraft Class
Lighting: Joe Bay, Brandon Kutchera, Jose-Ivan Ramirez, Eli Weiss
Sound: Alex Hoffman, Todd Silver, Alex Montesino
Marketing and Publicity: Andres Gomez, Kayla Fast, Adele Oliver

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
(14 nominations; eight for Grease and six for criticism)
Critics’ Team
Senior Critic: Skyler Evans
Senior Critic: Kaitlyn Schwab
Junior Critic: Marissa Krantz
Sophomore Critic: Carly Sadicario
Sophomore Critic: Eden Skopp
Comic Actress in a Musical: Carly Seidner
Female Vocalist: Carolina Meneses
Female Dancer: Kasandra Meiler
Featured Actor in a Musical: Steven Corin
Featured Actress in a Musical: Melissa Mauer
Creativity: Tamar Benjoseph, Directing
Choreography: Kasandra Meiler, Melissa English
Marketing and Publicity: Jessie Karlen, Carly Sadicario

North Broward Preparatory
(14 nominations; 10 for A Flea in Her Ear and four for criticism)
Critics’ Team
Junior Critic: Briana Earhart
Junior Critic: Evan Haubner
Sophomore Critic: Josie Roth
Best Play
Lead Actor in a Play: Coby Tuchman
Lead Actress in a Play: Lauren Skuta
Supporting Actor in a Play: Evan Haubner
Supporting Actress in a Play: Samantha Stone
Comic Actor in a Play: Neil Goodman
Featured Actress in a Play: Devon Horn
Ensemble in a Play: Chandebise Maids
Make-up: Evan Haubner, Lauren Skuta and Co.
Costumes: Devon Horn

Pine Crest School
(Eight nominations for Oklahoma!)
Comic Actor in a Musical: Patrick Boyle
Comic Actress in a Musical: Emily Kidd
Male Vocalist: Andrew Lott
Female Vocalist: Elyse Anderson
Male Dancer: William Keiser
Female Dancer: Laura Sky Herman
Orchestra: Pine Crest Concert Band
Marketing and Publicity: Jordanna Brody, Sara Henry

Plantation High School
(Seven nominations for Lucky Stiff)
Lead Actor in a Musical: Adam Cohen
Supporting Actress in a Musical: Victoria DeBlasio
Comic Actor in a Musical: Eric Spicker
Creativity: Bryan Schall, Directing
Orchestra: Lucky Stiff Orchestra
Props: Ashley McFadden
Lighting: Bryan Schall and Ciara Dickerman

Pompano Beach High School
(Six nominations for As You Like It)
Best Play
Supporting Actor in a Play: Jeremy Wershoven
Supporting Actress in a Play: Kijrstin Laventure
Comic Actor in a Play: Brandon Glaser
Male Vocalist: Nicholas Guinta
Featured Actor in a Play: Bobby Aseere

Pope John Paul II High School
 (Three nominations for You Can’t Take It With You)
Lead Actress in a Play: Lauren Nolan
Comic Actress in a Play: Jessica Coons
Sound: Nicolas Aquino

Sagemont School
(Seven nominations; four for Legally Blonde The Musical and three for criticism)
Junior Critic: Maria Moncaliano
Freshman Critic: Jessica Jordan
Freshman Critic     : Claudia Moncaliano
Lead Actress in a Musical: Jessie Jordan
Supporting Actress in a Musical: Cristina Quintero
Featured Actor in a Musical: Mateo Navarro
Sets: Chris Guzzardo and Sagemont Students

South Plantation High School
(12 nominations; 10 for Big and two for criticism)
Critics’ Team
Sophomore Critic: Aaron Bourque
Best Musical
Lead Actor in a Musical: Joseph Franklin
Male Dancer: Lance Spencer
Female Dancer: Tajah Lee
Ensemble in a Musical: The Executives
Creativity: Julia Rodriguez, Christina Nunes, Shen Rogus, ASL translation and instruction
Props: Jillian Direktor
Costumes: Julia Rodriguez
Lighting: Christian Valdivieso
Sound: Kayla Riley

Suncoast Community High School
(11 nominations for In the Heights)
Best Musical
Best Song: “Alabanza”
Lead Actor in a Musical: Joel Gutierrez
Supporting Actor in a Musical: Kyle Cortes
Comic Actor in a Musical: Trevor Durham
Comic Actress in a Musical: Jessica Cayon
Featured Actor in a Musical: Taige Mills
Male Dancer: Shemar Crawford
Female Dancer: Makenzi McIntire
Choreography: Kyle Cortes
Props: Shoshana Cohen, Melanie Grande

St. Thomas Aquinas
(Eight nominations for Dead Man Walking)
Lead Actor in a Play: Sam Scroggin
Supporting Actress in a Play: Alex Nightingale
Featured Actor in a Play: Jake Mathwich
Featured Actress in a Play: Daniella Liotta
Ensemble in a Play: Hope and Walker
Creativity: Tony Testa, Music Composition
Lighting: Matthew Reagan and Crew
Sound: Jackson Prescott and Crew

University School
(12 nominations; 10 for Tarzan The Stage Musical and two for criticism)
Freshman Critic: Carlo Feliciani
Freshman Critic     : Kimberly Moatamedi
Best Musical
Best Song: “Trashin’ the Camp”
Supporting Actor in a Musical: Ryan Juda
Supporting Actress in a Musical: Laura Galindo
Female Vocalist: Brittany Panzer
Male Dancer: Zach Laurence
Ensemble in a Musical: Apes Ensemble
Orchestra: Jammin’ Jungle Orchestra
Stage Crew: Eric Sopshin and Co.
Make-up: Christina Sirvent and Co.

West Boca High School
(12 nominations for 9 to 5 The Musical)
Best Musical
Best Song: “Get Out And Stay Out”
Lead Actress in a Musical: Jade Zaroff
Supporting Actress in a Musical: Melissa Bradely
Comic Actor in a Musical: Sean Javaherian
Comic Actress in a Musical: Danielle Gavish
Male Vocalist: Eddie Datz
Featured Actress in a Musical: Emily Sterneck
Ensemble in a Musical: Office Workers
Orchestra: 9 to 5 Orchestra
Stage Crew: Aly Costa, Alaina Martinez, Alexis Garcia, Cara Kern
Costumes: Jessica Owens, Bella Marzano, Sarah Allen, Delia Shash

Western High School
(Six nominations for Leaving Iowa)
Best Play
Lead Actor in a Play: Grant Brecheisen
Comic Actress in a Play: Melody Zapata
Featured Actor in a Play: Brandon Sainte
Supporting Actor in a Play: Frank Balzano
Sets: Amber McClosky and Shawn Segal

Ken Clement and Todd Allen Durkin clash with Clay Cartland aghast in Actors Playhouse’s The Fox on the Fairway. Photo by Alberto Romeu Photography.

By Michelle F. Solomon

Playwright Ken Ludwig fashioned his play The Fox on the Fairway after high comedies of the 1930s and 40s — you know, Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You.  And while shades of the Aldwych farces set the tone of the production now at Actors’ Playhouse, The Fox on the Fairway, plays more like a 1970s sitcom. When any one of the comedy’s exaggerated characters comes bursting through the door (and this happens more than a few times), you expect a canned laugh track to surface.

The comic play about the behind-the-scenes entanglements at a private country club has its share of hits as well as misses. Since its debut in 2010, it frequently turns up in summer repertory theater and rightly so. It’s perfect in that niche with its golf tournament setting and carefree antics. Actors’ Playhouse, using its smaller second floor space for Fox, makes sure to inject this lightweight vibe (there’s not an ounce of seriousness or suggestion to the audience to invest in these characters), but it is certainly a breezy aperitif to usher in the lighter Florida summer theater season.

Under David Arisco’s smart direction and the assemblage of a can’t-miss cast, Actors’ Playhouse has found a way to outfox this sometimes dimwitted homage. The always affable Ken Clement plays Quail Valley director Bingham, whose job and marriage are on the line over a bet with rival director, the chief of Crouching Squirrel country club, Dickie Bell, played by Todd Allen Durkin.

Durkin is absolutely dastardly as Dickie, stealing every scene he’s in with his mixed-up metaphors and a slippery tongue that seems to have a life of its own. If you’ve ever belonged to a country club, you’ve certainly run into Durkin’s Dickie. The actor also has the unmitigated pleasure of wearing some of the most hideous golf sweaters and loud golf pants ever to see the light of day (three cheers to costume designer Ellis Tillman for these gets ups and all of the delightful and spot-on costuming in Fox).

Betsy Graver (Louise) and Clay Cartland (Justin) are Ken and Barbie — young, newly engaged lovers without an ounce of smarts between them. Graver’s Louise is a sniffling, squealing, waitress at Quail Valley’s Tap Room who is at the top of her game when she spews vapid insights into goings on at the club while equating them to Homer and the “Iliad.” Obviously one of Ludwig’s favorite characters, the lines he bestows on Louise reveal the playwright’s brilliant comic writing we have revered in his other winning plays such as Lend Me A Tenor.

Cartland plays Justin to comedic crescendo, especially in a turning point scene where the audience discovers that Louise has accidentally flushed his “Granny’s” ring down the toilet. Cartland also displays some incredible feats of physical comedy, crashing through doors, falling over couches and dialing a phone with his arm hoisted in a sling.

Amy McKenna is absolutely fetching as the over-sexed Pamela Peabody, a member of Quail Valley, and Dickie Bell’s former wife. “Golf and sex are the only things you can enjoy without having to be good at it,” is a taste of the many one liners she delivers with a sly wink. Kudos to McKenna for her physical comedy prowess, too. A scene where an oyster misses her mouth and heads south through the front of her dress is an out-and-out laugh riot.

Margot Moreland is the icing on the over-the-top cake as Muriel, the oppressive wife of Bingham and owner of Ye Olde Crock antiques store. Moreland’s comic timing, especially during her surprise entrance, is priceless.

Arisco and Actors’ Playhouse have taken on a challenge with The Fox on the Fairway (the title is never really explained; my bet is it is left to the audience to decide which cad or dame is the fox on the fairway). Ludwig calls for the cast to create Herculean feats of Marx Brothers mayhem: lots of running through doors, leaps across the set and over furniture. There are mixed-up stories of mistaken identities, and plenty of bad puns (more than a few sophomoric double entendres about balls are peppered throughout), but Arisco, the cast and the production team are not only up for the task, but they rise to the occasion.

The Fox on the Fairway won’t take the World Cup when it comes to comedy, but it’s a fun romp and summer fare that only requires the audience to be swept away in its lunacy.

The Fox on the Fairway plays through June 2 at the Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. Performances 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $40-$48, student rush $15.  Visit actorsplayhouse.org or call (305) 441-4181.