Animal Farm

LA Times, November 11, 2002, by Don Shirley:

Feature Story: Roles crafted in clay

Helping to put together their own masks in a theater production of "Animal Farm" gave the actors a better feel for their characters. Michael Nehring compares making the canvas mask he wears as Napoleon, the tyrannical pig in "Animal Farm," to the experience of delivering a baby. He cut the mask off the wet clay that shaped it, and "it was like doing a caesarean section," he said. He cleaned it, repatched it, strengthened it, attached foam and a strap to it. "I know it so well because I helped give birth to it," he said. "It was a huge, cathartic experience."

Several of the other actors in the Son of Semele production of the dramatization of George Orwell's classic fable (which opened Friday) had similar experiences, said mask maestro Deborah Bird, who designed most of the show's 23 masks and mask-like puppets and painted all of them. She believes the actors' performances will profit from their hands-on contributions to their masks.

"Performing in masks is so uncomfortable," she said. "It occludes vision and breathing, and it makes you sweat off the top of your head. But if you work on it and see it some to life, you have a proprietary sense of pride. It helps when you go into rehearsal. You develop a comfort level with it, and you also develop a reverence for it. You know not to treat it like some sort of hat."

Bird, who won an LA Weekly award for her human masks in a production of "The Call of the Wild" and who also creates masks and props in Hollywood, didn't have much experience designing animal masks when Son of Semele artistic director Matthew McCray asked her to do so.

Animals usually are depicted as "cutified, infantilized" cartoons, she said. "Animal Farm" called for masks "with ambiguity, with duality of features that can be filled in with the weight of the actor's performance."

Nehring, who is the chairman of theater and dance department at Orange's Chapman University, from which Son of Semele's core group graduated, had met Bird in Bali at a theater workshop in the mid-'90s and brought her work to the attention of the group.

With a production budget of only $6,000 for a three-week run at the 50-seat McCadden Place Theatre in Hollywood, Son of Semele had no money to pay Bird, but, she said, "I really like Orwell."

And McCray said he never thought of doing the show without masks - because a key moment in the play is when the pigs remove their masks, having morphed into the abusive humans they had once overthrown.

A member of the company donated a Hollywood garage for use as a studio, and Bird began working in June, joined by some of the actors in September.

For Nehring, "it's a completely different way of working on character because it's embodied in this potent symbol. I couldn't be more anonymous."

LA Times, November 14, 2002, by Kathleen Foley:

Son of Semele Ensemble gives Orwell 's fable currency with a polished staging.

"Animal Farm" at the McCadden Place Theatre proves an impressive outing for the Son of Semele Ensemble, an up-and-coming theater company founded in 2001. In it's short history, the company has gained considerably in maturity and expertise. In contrast with the ensemble's somewhat rudimentary early productions of ìLavaî and ìBreath,î by Richard Foreman and Samuel Beckett , respectively, ìAnimal Farmî is gratifyingly polished.

George Orwell 's grim parable about a farm animal rebellion, and the rise to power of a cunning pig despot, is often construed as a polemic against the intrinsic evils of communism. As director Edgar Landa points out in his program notes, Orwell most likely intended a cautionary tale about the perils of voter apathy and an uninformed electorate ñ a warning particularly apropos today.

Peter Hall 's musical adaptation, which features undistinguished lyrics and music by Adriam Mitchell and Richard Peaslee , respectively, was produced earlier this season at the Theatricum Botanicum , a much more spacious Equity venue. Landa deserves considerable credit for confining the action to the sub-99-seat McCadden's postage-stamp stage without impeding its flow.

The excellent cast, spearheaded by the towering Michael Nehring as the tyrant pig, Napoleon, is collectively capable, although an occasional solo falls flat. Valiantly struggling with a malfunctioning instrument, musical director and pianist Leo Meza effectively marshals his performers, whose full-throated choruses compensate for the paucity of accompaniment.

David T. Edwards ' picturesquely battered set, Chris Greulach 's brooding lighting and Al Sgro 's cacophonous sound set the dystopian tone. Huge masks, designed by Deborah Bird , are strapped atop the actors' heads like helmets. When the actors tip their heads down, their faces are completely obscured. Handsome and magnificently constructed though they may be, the masks prove an emotional barrier between the audience and the actors. One yearns for these performers to raise their chins and reveal the human expressions.

Back Stage West, November 11, 2002, by Madeleine Shaner:

George Orwell 's self-described fairy story is rather an extended allegory dressed as a cautionary tale for the phoenix-like dictators who rise from the revolutionary ashes of subjugation to become clones of the tyrants they have fought against. Peter Hall 's adaptation of the 1845 novel, with lyrics by Adrian Mitchell and music by Richard Peaslee , was presented in Orwell 's seminal year, 1984, at the Royal Shakespeare Company at the National Theatre in London . This allegory about the abuse of power is still relevant in a world that doesn't seem to learn from its mistakes.

The animals on Mr. Jones ' ( David T. Edwards ) farm have a hard life under their negligent owner; feed is scarce, sometimes even forgotten; labor is hard, and loving kindness is never a factor in the relationship between the alcoholic farmer and his beasts. Their poor treatment has brought about a shared bond of brotherhood between the different species, which leads, with very little stimulation, to a shared desire for revenge on their master. Led by the pigs, who consider themselves superior, a revolution is born, quickly followed by an ideology, and Mr. Jones is driven out.

Like all ideologies, it's better in the planning than in the execution, because, as Orwell points out, ìAll animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.î Once Old Major, a.k.a. Lenin ( Ray Paolantonio ), is out of the picture, the new lead pig, Snowball, a.k.a. Trotsky ( John Yelvington ), who has too many good ideas, is ousted by Napoleon, a.k.a. Stalin . You don't need to know the language ; the fable, maybe too obviously, depicts the corruption brought about by power and severely flawed human, i.e. animal, nature.

Director Edgar Landa creatively equips his actors with short arm crutches that act as front legs, plus a splendid set of full head masks (designed by mask artist Deborah Bird ). Despite the intimacy of the stage (fine design by Edwards), one quickly accepts that these are animals, not actors in sheep's clothing, and even feels enormous empathy for these unprivileged creatures. And their poor backs! These young actors encourage older bones to ache, and may end up enriching the coffers of Beverly Hills chiropractors if the play extends for a long run.

Everyone is superb, from the posturing Napoleon (Michael Nehring) to an excellent Squealer (Marie Bain), a cool Cat (Julie Gawkowski), a gallant Boxer (Matthew McCray), and a sweet-natured Mollie (Helen Yeoman), not forgetting the feisty little Narrator (Michelle Ingkavet), who holds her own with only two feet.

Music and lyrics are simple, sometimes funny, a tad repetitive, but well performed. One outstanding feature: Even with huge masks muffling heads, not a word of the dialog is lost to bad-actor mumbling. It can be done.

Somewhere, Someone Said

Back Stage West by Leigh Kennicott:

There's more to this production than what's on the tiny stage. On opening weekend the audience contributed heartily, its comfortable mix of generations gathered to watch and learn from four Greek legends modernized by the youthful members of this enthusiastic ensemble. The cinematically written sketches, performed by the cast of 13, are shoehorned onto the postage-stamp-size stage by director Anita Bloom . Against a diaphanous white background festooned with bunting, the opening choral prologue, reminiscent of Ancient Greek drama, features the entire cast to good effect.

The myth of Icarus provides the foundation for Pamela Ezell 's script. She turns the story into a cautionary tale of parental permissiveness and its consequences. Kristen Brennan , in the first of several roles, is the beckoning girlfriend, Pallas; Al Sgro makes a convincingly rebellious 15-year-old protagonist, while John Roberts handles the complex role of a conflicted father. Bloom provides the right touch.

The second sketch, written by Graham Dodge based on the myth of the Minotaur, focuses on the difficulties of difference in a teenage world. Intended as a comedy, this is the weakest piece of the four. The wandering script is not helped by a lack of pacing and the over-the-top playing for laughs. However, Kathleen M. Darcy is a beautiful Pasiphae , and Hahn Cho as her son, the Minotaur, exhibits the right amount of angst when mercilessly teased by his classmates.

Clever writing by Scott Christian and a star turn by David Andrew DeAngelo as Mephistopheles advance the modern retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice . A magic/realistic style gives the otherwise matter-of-fact adaptation an elegant gloss. In her second role Brennan is appealing as the Eurydice character, and Jeff Cole is charismatic as Orpheus . Jennifer Laux brings an earthy quality to her role as Orpheus ' second girlfriend.

Brennan 's retelling of the Eros and Psyche myth seems to have the least to do with our modern times. Brennan chooses to situate the story in an amorphous fairytale time and people her episodic playlet with stock characters: the beautifully beguiled Psyche, played by Erica Rice ; the androgynous Eros, softly played by Edgar Landa , and two sisters, wickedly played by Julie Gawkowski and Brennan . Here Bloom seems to have the most problems with staging as she situates ìanother placeî up against the left wall, while the central portion involving the enchanted palace of Eros occupies the entire breadth of the tiny space.

The American Plan

Back Stage West by T.H. McCulloh:

Richard Greenberg is an adventurous playwright. He zeros in on a familiar crowd, the well-to-do mixing it up with some wannabes - territory playwrights have plumbed for years. But Greenberg always adds another ingredient to fire his action. In Eastern Standard it was a wise old bag lady. Here it's a presumably faded homosexual relationship that might just foul plans for a presumably happy marriage-to-be. In both cases he pulls it off with ease.

Gentile Nick Lockridge is vacationing at a posh Jewish Catskills hotel with a young woman he might be engaged to. Then he spies, and meets, another young woman who lives on a private estate across the lake, Lili Adler . His plan changes, and he and Lili fall rapturously in love. But Lili is slightly unbalanced and under the strict by benevolent control of her domineering mother, Eva . An old formula, it's made interesting by Greenberg's light touch and sense of humor masking the dead serious course of events, particularly when Nick 's ex-lover Gil enters the fray.

With a solid understanding of Greenberg's style and manner, director Elizabeth Mestnik guides her company with the airiest of touches, at the same time keeping the darkness beneath simmering gently. She knows how to balance the playwright's shifting moods, where the laughs are, and how to play the shadowy underlying honesty. The only thing she hasn't been able to make ring true is the final scene, which takes place 10 years later, after Eva 's death. It's a final statement that Greenberg could cut completely for a more solid play. The twist is hinted at in the preceding action, and that's enough.

The company is solid, but Elizabeth Clemmons as Lili is inclined to go overboard occasionally with her hysterics, Ray Paolantonio often overplays Gil's gayness, and Emily Williams could give us just a little more hint of the black maid's humor, which peeks through only occasionally. These flaws are tiny but present. As Nick , David Edwards is on surer ground. His totally innocent approach and his cheerful manner easily mask the fortune hunter he really is, to good effect.

The performance of the evening belongs to Lorna Raver as mother Eva . It's a difficult role, gilding Eva 's selfishness and tortured loneliness with a façade of kindly wisdom, and Raver brings it off beautifully, allowing her wispy hints of engineered events to surface only gradually, like a developing theme in a concerto. It's a performance of rare delicacy and power.

Peer Gynt, Part One

LA Weekly, December 05, 2001, by Alison Merkel:

Before writing the prose plays for which he would be universally acclaimed as the father of modern drama, Ibsen wrote this picaresque epic that traverses farce, tragedy and fantasy. Based in part on Norwegian folktales, Peer Gynt follows a rogue trying out different selves and never concerned with the ramifications of his actions or his own authenticity — a huge journey that unrolls over the course of six decades and several continents. This production covers only the first half, leaving the audience physically and emotionally abandoned early in Peer’s journey. The decision to end here undermines an otherwise solid production. Director Nicholas C. Avila takes on the Herculean task of guiding his strong ensemble through Ibsen’s lyrical dialogue, and at times does so quite deftly. Performer Edgar Landa makes a worthy effort to lead the audience through the imagination of young Peer, whose tall tales take us both far away and deep within the character. But because the show ends before Peer degenerates into a self-seeking opportunist, he is mainly a victim of circumstance, and the story bereft of dramatic tension. Ray Paolantonio, flanked by a more gothic than trollish entourage, delivers a fabulously sinister performance as the Troll King, succinctly capturing all that is unreal and most dynamic about this commendable production.