Casa Valentina

Casa Valentina, by The Lesser Known Players opened tonight at the Erickson Theater Off Broadway. It has lots of words. It’s a play, after all. And they are extremely clever words. Playwright Harvey Fierstein even not-so-obliquely compares himself to Oscar Wilde. But some of the simplest statements are the most effective. Near the top of the show, one of the characters says, “I don’t think I belong here.” And it hits. The line is said by a character arriving at a resort in the Catskills – it’s 1962 – where men who dress as women can be themselves. It’s exactly where he should be, you think. And yet … That’s the theme, a question really: can you draw a circle large enough, or small enough that you fit into it. Near the end, the wife of one of the characters asks him a question. I won’t say what it was. He answers with (again) a very simple line. “Yes,” he says. And the word and everything it implies just hangs there and expands out into the space, washing over the characters and out onto you.
Pictured: the lanyard I got with my VIP ticket (got me into the first row, which I love.)
Originally published on my Facebook page on October 19, 2018. 
Edit: The picture got removed, somehow. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Buffalo in Marysville

Image
If you've taken an acting class, you might have done an Uta Hagen exercise requiring you to perform a two-minute slice of life.  Just you, on stage, silently doing something you might do on an ordinary day.  Maybe you're ironing.  Maybe you're making a sandwich.  The point is for the audience to see you acting naturally.  It's not as easy as it sounds. American Buffalo , now playing at Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts in Marysville starts out with an Uta Hagen exercise, basically.  Scott B. Randall plays Donny Dubrow, the owner of a junk store.  Before the house lights even fade down, Donny comes on stage and begins doing what he might do on any typical morning.  He has his coffee cup in hand.  He straightens up this. He looks at that.  He takes a small trash can out into the alleyway and empties it.  He goes out the front door to get the morning newspaper.  It's engrossing to watch all the things he does and guess or conclude why he does them. It's a pe
Read more

14/48 2023

Image
I have lived in Seattle for 30 years and been an actor for the past 12, but I have somehow never been to 14/48. Tonight, I went. It was a revelation. First, some impressions: There was an actor who I had only ever seen playing very serious roles but tonight played a wacky goofball. That was so fun. Wow, look at what they can do! Then there was another actor who played the same kind of character as I had seen before and I loved that too, because they are so good at it. Play that one again! It’s never been more clear that the audience is responsible for the play. Everyone was ready. Ready to cheer. Ready to engage. Ready to love. I would guess that most of the audience was friends of the writers, actors, band members – theater people, eager to help make it a success. I have seen many short play festivals. This is not to denigrate any of what I saw tonight, but if I had seen these same seven plays in the unusual short play festival set-up, I don’t know if they would have landed as well.
Read more

Bechdel Test and other improvisations

Image
I should not be up this late, typing on the internet but I have seen three different varieties of improv show in the past eight days and I feel like I have something to say and I'd better try to get it out. There is so much improv! And so many flavors! Last Thursday I saw an immersive, improvisational, one-man show at the Rendezvous in Belltown called Keefee’s House of Cards where the actor invites four audience members up to play blackjack and then deals out cards, conversation, and biting humor. The brilliance of it is, it's a one-man show with a sharply defined character, straight out of real life -- but with no script. Saturday it was Playback Theater Northwest at Seattle Asian Medicine and Martial Arts in Lake City. In playback theater, an audience member is invited to tell a story from their life, then the actors “play it back.” The evening builds slowly. But by the end, people have opened up about past relationships, ongoing struggles, transformational events i
Read more