Thoughtful 'Humble Boy' engages beauty & the bees

Thoughtful 'Humble Boy' engages beauty & the bees

Published: 05.15.2008
Thoughtful 'Humble Boy' engages beauty & the bees
CHUCK GRAHAM
Tucson Citizen

It's easy to imagine Tucson is full of people who spend their entire lives wishing they were somewhere else. Not just during summer's searing heat but all the time - living with a different spouse or lover, at a different job in a different house or in a different city.

Inertia holds them prisoner in the Old Pueblo as surely as it held those upscale members of troubled Russian families in Chekhov's plays of life just before the Communist revolution. British playwright Charlotte Jones imagines this cross-pollinated culture plopped down in the muddy middle of England's terminally bland countryside. A place so lacking in imagination it rivals America's own flat-lined suburbs full of houses that look alike, served by chain stores that have all the same stuff.

Jones' play is "Humble Boy," directed by Howard Allen at Beowulf Alley Theatre. Allen has set his production on a stage design that carries reality far beyond any previous Beowulf Alley show. A beautifully painted backdrop of a somewhat hazy sky sets the tone for the contrasts of an immaculate British garden filled with rows of tall and impressively blossoming plants.

A corner wall with a wooden gate frames this garden that covers half the stage. Sections of an impressive two-story country home and its stylish French doors dominate the stage's other half.
Clearly, this is the backyard of a family that takes life seriously. People who believe it is important to keep their manners polished and to know the proper Latin names for all those flowers.

But you can't have flowers without bees to pollinate them. So we notice the bee design on the garden wall, right beside a stack of boxed beehives. Then we learn how the beekeeper discovered he was allergic to stings when a bee stung him and he died on the spot. Right in the middle of that lovely garden. Anaphylactic shock.

The bees giving life to the blossoms and taking life from the beekeeper. Finding all the metaphors are a big part of the pleasure in "Humble Boy," a play that stands in smart contrast to all the silly comedies and smiley-faced musicals that traditionally fill our springtime stages.

This upscale drama is for thoughtful theater-goers. The sort who dedicate a part of every Sunday to the brain-tickling pleasures of that crossword puzzle in The New York Times. A quick check of "Humble Boy" reviews online finds several reviewers who discover parallels to "Hamlet."

Personally, this seems like quite a stretch. It's true there is a waffling young man, Felix (Royce Sparks), who has a conniving mother Flora (Cynthia Jeffery). She is in love with a man other than her husband. It was her husband who died from the bee sting.

But geez. Any Buddhist will tell you everything is a part of everything else, so what's the big deal?
Owen as George is the most engaging character in this family blend of distracting laughter and domestic power plays. We come to appreciate George's patience and the frustration of Felix, a shy intellectual who teaches astrophysics at Cambridge University. His ex-girlfriend Rosie (Elizabeth Leadon) is George's daughter. She also likes to tease Felix.

Adding comedic relief is Roxanne Harley as Mercy Lott, an eccentric family friend. There is a satisfying resolution, though, to all the conflicts covered by years of polite pretending. If only it didn't take so long for all those people to come to their senses. Have killer bees reached England yet?

'Humble Boy' has lots to brag about | www.azstarnet.com ®

'Humble Boy' has lots to brag about
By Kathleen Allen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 05.16.2008

'Humble Boy' has lots to brag about www.azstarnet.com ®

There's a full, blossoming, tranquil English garden on the stage of Beowulf Alley Theatre.
It's a most unlikely setting for all the lust, disgust, anger and bitterness that populates Charlotte Jones' idea-packed and funny "Humble Boy."

Beowulf opened the play, its season closer, on Saturday.
And what a play. Jones tackles the cosmos. Beekeeping. Dysfunctional families.

The play is loaded with metaphors. You can see them in the characters' names (Flora, Mercy, Rosie, etc.), the life of a bee (it stings, it dies) and the "jittery, frenzied world of quantum mechanics." It's a bit dizzying.

The story outline, however, is a simple one: Felix Humble has come home for his father's funeral. His father, who loved to study bees, died suddenly while working in the garden. Felix has been away studying the quantum theory of gravity — or at least trying to come up with a quantum theory of gravity.

Home, he has to deal with his mother, Flora, a must-be-in-control woman with a recent nose job and a lover she's had for many years.

Throw into this mix a neighbor, Mercy, who sees it as her duty to soothe over wrinkles in everyone's life; George Pye, the crass man with whom Flora is having an affair; and Rosie, George's sweet, level-headed daughter, with whom Felix once had an affair. Oh, and let's not forget the gardener, who keeps the bees buzzing even as Flora tries to stop them.

Beowulf's production, directed with a sure hand by Howard Allen (no relation to this writer), moved quickly and with clarity — it would be easy to get lost in the play and all the ideas, but Allen sees to it that that doesn't happen.

The design of the beautiful garden onstage is the result of many hands, including Allen, Paul Baker and Jacque Askren. It is central to the plot, and it served that role quite lavishly.

Heading up the cast is a remarkable Cynthia Jeffery as Flora. She held herself with such dignity and heart-breaking rigidity that it was easy to define the character. But Jeffrey's acting gave Flora so much more depth. Sure, you don't like her one bit, but she's funny, she's smart, and finally, we realize, she's human.

Elizabeth Leadon is reminiscent of a young Shelley Duvall — tall and thin and earnest (think of Duvall's character in Robert Altman's "Brewster McCloud"). But she also has acting chops: She brought an intelligence and laid-back intensity to her role of Rosie, Felix's one-time love.

While there were fine performances in this production, there were some that felt out-of-sorts, as though the actors were merely playing the characters, rather than living them.

Royce Sparks had a mammoth role in Felix, who stutters around his mother, wears ill-fitting clothing, is not comfortable in his body and gets so side-tracked by the minutiae of words and quantum theories that he can be hard to follow.

He spelled out Felix's sweetness nicely but missed the mark with owning the character. Consequently, he wasn't able to seduce the audience the way it should have been seduced.

"Humble Boy" is wonderfully funny, and it's got some fine, big ideas in it. Even with a mixed-bag of a production, it's a play that can capture the imagination. And that, quite often, can be enough.

Review
"Humble Boy"
• Presented by: Beowulf Alley Theatre.
• Playwright: Charlotte Jones.
• Director: Howard Allen.
• When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 1:30 p.m. Sundays through June 1.
• Tickets: $19; discounts available with online purchases.
• Reservations: 882-0555 or www. beowulfalley.org.
● Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.

Tucson Weekly : Arts : A Comedy Assortment

Tucson Weekly : Arts : A Comedy Assortment

PUBLISHED ON MAY 15, 2008:
A Comedy Assortment
Your local-theater roundup: Beowulf Alley shines; LTW does its best; and Invisible Theatre is doomed by lame material
By JAMES REEL


This week, Tucson theater is reduced to the B-list: bees, boards and bingo. One play concerns the family of an amateur beekeeper; another examines an even more dysfunctional family of thespians; and the third follows a group of friends to a bingo game.

All three plays are well-performed, and all are, to some extent, comedies, but the quality of the material does not in every case rise to the quality of the production.

The best total package comes from Beowulf Alley, which just opened Charlotte Jones' Humble Boy. Up to a point, it's a riff on Hamlet, set in contemporary, provincial, middle-class England, but the parallels are not exact. In Humble Boy, a young man comes home from school upon the death of his father, and learns that his mother has been carrying on with another man. (Not that I'm giving anything away, but in this play, unlike in Hamlet, the father is not a murder victim.) There's an Ophelia figure, the young man's discarded girlfriend; there's also a Polonius stand-in, a rather befuddled spinster neighbor. The young man even has a little suicide soliloquy, and by the time one character starts rattling off the scientific names of garden plants, you expect mad Ophelia herself to pop in with, "There's rosemary--that's for remembrance."

Humble Boy is more or less a comedy, though it's not a Hamlet spoof; Jones merely appropriates some of the Bard's preoccupations and gives them a modern spin. And the humor isn't the sort that generates many laughs along the way; it's something that causes you to smile a bit as it happens, and remember warmly once you leave the theater. Despite the Shakespearean conceits, the clever naming of the characters and Jones' careful attention to structure and pattern, this is an emotionally honest play about real family dynamics.

Not that Jones doesn't indulge in one writerly trick after another. Apparently inspired by Hamlet's puzzling over whether to be or not to be, Jones populates Humble Boy with multiple bees; the dead father was an amateur beekeeper. The household's queen bee is named Flora Humble; she's the stern, adulterous widow, played with steely hauteur by Cynthia Jeffery. The character seems rather limited early on, but by the end, Jones and Jeffery alike have developed Flora's previously unseen dimensions.
Similarly, Royce Sparks initially plays the Humble boy of the title, Felix, as a hesitant, rather slow fellow who stutters on words beginning with B, but gradually reveals the character's intellect and emotional depth. Elizabeth Leadon, as Felix's ex-girlfriend, Rosie, is all prickly stem in no immediate danger of wilting. Roxanne Harley gives a sweet rather than officious performance as the omnipresent neighbor (in the first scene, she's dressed like a refugee from a Beckett play, suggesting that she's as existentially adrift as the Humble family). Roger Owen is intentionally rough and menacing as Flora's lover.
All this, well-directed by Howard Allen, plays out on a lovely garden set designed by too many people to name here; costumer Lori Franklin-Garcia gets everything exactly right, starting with the unflatteringly tight, preppy white cricket outfit in which Felix first appears, a visual manifestation of how poorly Felix himself fits his surroundings.

Felix, the post-doc astrophysicist, may be hoping in vain that a theory of superstrings will bring the universe into elegant symmetry; surely, that seems unlikely in the Humble household. As presented by Charlotte Jones and the Beowulf Alley team, it's more of a teeming hive, producing equal measures of honey and sting.

'Humble' a comedy, plain and simple | www.azstarnet.com ®

'Humble' a comedy, plain and simple www.azstarnet.com ®

Accent
'Humble' a comedy, plain and simple
By Kathleen Allen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 05.02.2008

Three years ago, director Howard Allen was on one of his regular treks to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival when he saw Charlotte Jones' "Humble Boy."
He's been itching to direct it ever since.

"I recognized that it is a wonderful comedy about a family," said Allen, who directs the Beowulf Alley Theatre Company production opening next week.

"Every single character in the play leads you into the center of the play. There are six characters in all, and they are all wonderful parts for actors."

"Humble Boy" is a comedy, plain and simple, said Allen (not related to this writer).
"It has amazingly huge, wonderful laughs," he said.

At the center of "Humble Boy" is Felix, an astrophysicist in his mid-30s.
He was in search of a unified-field theory when he was called home for his father's funeral.
There he is confronted with a mother who never seemed to care much, her kinda creepy boyfriend, a one-time love and the gardener.

Unity, he finds, must include the insanity of family.
The play has been called "Hamlet"-inspired, and playwright Jones has said Shakespeare's tragedy was on her mind when she wrote it.

"The more I thought about the mother/son relationship . . . I saw parallels with 'Hamlet' that I decided to embrace," she said in an interview to Colorado Back Stage.
"The opening situation can be compared to 'Hamlet,' when the son comes home for his father's funeral, but that's it," said Allen.

Mostly, said Allen, "the writing is spectacularly good. It's rich. There are wonderful set- ups and payoffs in the journeys of every one of the characters. All the stuff you look for in a really wonderful comedy."
And, he adds, "there are some poignant moments in the story that will also surprise you.
"And laughs."

Benjie Sanders / Arizona Daily Star Elizabeth Leadon plays Rosie and Royce Sparks stars as Felix Humble in Beowulf Alley's production of "Humble Boy."

● Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.

Tom Stoppard's rich comedy certain to delight | www.azstarnet.com ®

Tom Stoppard's rich comedy certain to delight www.azstarnet.com ®

Accent
Tom Stoppard's rich comedy certain to delight
By Kathleen Allen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 03.14.2008

Beowulf Alley Theatre continues its season with a production of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia." Here's a rundown of what to expect.

The playwright: Just the name "Stoppard" can bring people to the theater. The English playwright has penned some of the most thoughtful and provocative plays in contemporary theater — and does it with a great love and care for language. Among them: "The Coast of Utopia," "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead," "Rock 'N' Roll," and "Jumpers." He also co-wrote screenplays for "Brazil" and "Shakespeare in Love."

The story: It's more complicated to explain the story than it is to see it.
It switches back and forth between two time periods, 1809-1812 and 1989, at the same place, an English country home in Sidley Park.

In 1809, the teen in the house is tutored in mathematics by Septimus Hodge, a friend of the poet Lord Byron, who is a visitor in the home.

In the 1989 household, a writer is looking into the life of a hermit who once lived on the grounds; and a professor of literature is looking into why Byron so quickly fled England for the European continent.
The themes: Oh, you know, the usual ones: the connections between the past and present; mathematics; chaos; physics; thermodynamics; love; poetry; the classics; landscape architecture. All wrapped up in a pretty compelling comedy.

The Arcadia in the title: That would refer to an idyllic setting similar to Utopia. The famous painting "Et in Arcadio Ego" by the French artist Nicolas Poussin depicts a nymph and shepherds reading a tomb inscription that translates to "I who am now dead, also lived once in Arcadia."

What critics have said about the play: "'Arcadia' is Tom Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a play of wit, intellect, language, brio and, new for him, emotion. It's like a dream of levitation: You're instantaneously aloft, soaring, banking, doing loop-the-loops and then, when you think you're about to plummet to Earth, swooping to a gentle touchdown of not easily described sweetness and sorrow."— New York Times

"(Stoppard) has never burned brighter or more kindly." — Time magazine
"This is a brilliant, brilliant play. A play of ideas, of consummate theatricality, of sophisticated entertainment and of heartache for time never to be regained." — Sunday Times (London)


Preview
"Arcadia"

• Presented by: Beowulf Alley Theatre.
• Playwright: Tom Stoppard.
• Director: Dave Sewell.
• When: Previews are 7:30 p.m. Thursday and next Friday; opening is 7:30 p.m. March 22. Regular performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 1:30 p.m. Sundays through April 13.
• Where: Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, 11 S. Sixth Ave.
• Tickets: Previews $10; regular performances $16-$19. Discounts with Web site purchase.
• Reservations: 882-0555 or www.beowulfalley.org.
• Running time: 21/2 hours, with one intermission.
• Cast: Sophie Gibson-Rush, Gary McGaha, Brandon Pittman, Royce Sparks, Tom Bushee, Victoria McGee, Grant Wheeler, Chris Farishon, Rachel Morgan, Chax, David Dudley and Nathan Shaw.

● Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.

Relationship skits are fresh, thoughtful in Beowulf show | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

Relationship skits are fresh, thoughtful in Beowulf show www.tucsoncitizen.com ®:

"From out of nowhere, Beowulf Alley Theatre Company has come up with a huge hit. 'Fifth Planet and Other Plays' by David Auburn is sketch theater at its most charming. Funny as well as thoughtful, fresh as your favorite organic veggies." Grade: A

Published: 01.24.2008
Relationship skits are fresh, thoughtful in Beowulf show
CHUCK GRAHAM
Tucson Citizen


From out of nowhere, Beowulf Alley Theatre Company has come up with a huge hit. "Fifth Planet and Other Plays" by David Auburn is sketch theater at its most charming. Funny as well as thoughtful, fresh as your favorite organic veggies.

After having endured seasons of local theater where the newest play on the menu would be a Neil Simon comedy (and everybody had one), Auburn's poignant humor is irresistible.
We're not talking quick quips and snappy retorts, or silly pratfalls and rude noises. We're talking sweet and thoughtful sketches that leave you smiling, appreciating life a little more. Plan on time for a drink or cup of coffee afterward. You'll surely want to talk about this show.
Auburn was just getting started as a playwright when he wrote "Proof," the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play of 2001 that he subsequently rewrote into a successful film in 2005. Talk about a fast start.

Most of these sketches were written before "Proof" turned Auburn into an overnight success. This is writing filled with the joy of living rather than the ego of clever brain-flexing.
All the skits are about relationships, basically. Single people wondering if they will ever meet The One. Married couples wishing they could put the magic back into their marriage. Divorced people, of course. Other lonely people peering into the bare light of an open refrigerator.
Desperate as these characters sound, each of them displays the most amazing courage under fire. Nobody loses hope. Jokes become weapons, firebrands of light to hold back the darkness.
Irony is also an active ingredient. At the curtain call on opening night it was almost impossible not to rush the stage and give each actor a big hug.

Structurally, the longest pieces are the first one, "Fifth Planet," and the last one "We Had A Very Good Time." In between are five more of various lengths and elaboration.
A few props and a couple of costume touches set each scene and determine the situation. Summers directs with a light hand, eschewing any impulse to exaggerate the dialogue.
"Fifth Planet" is a sketch with 44 scenes. Many last just a few seconds. Like remembering a yearslong relationship, the highlights flash by in no time.

Stephen Cruz plays Mike, a guy fooling around with a small telescope after work. Johanna Hudson is Veronica, a professional astronomer who thinks Mike is just a dumb janitor at the observatory where both are employees. As they get to reluctantly know each other, the caste system of academic protocol keeps them apart.

Once both lose their jobs, they become more like equals. Sort of.
To keep all these stories fluffed up, Summers has assembled a cast of 14 remarkable players. This gives her the chance to keep introducing new faces. All of them, in roles big or small, maintain the quality of a balanced ensemble. The matching of so many talents brings additional joy to the evening.
The actors are: Danielle Shirar, Jeremy Womac, Victoria McGee, Steve McKee, Roger Owen, Chris Farishon, Samantha Cormier, Josh Galyen, Edgar Burton, Alan Crombie, Elise Lopez, Joel Charles, Hudson and Cruz. Cast as stand-ins are Jonathan Northover and Taylor Genovese.

Grade: A

Seven shorts by David Auburn combine into a festive three hours at Beowulf Alley

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Confronted With Issues

PUBLISHED ON JANUARY 24, 2008:
Confronted With Issues
Seven shorts by David Auburn combine into a festive three hours at Beowulf Alley
By JAMES REEL

As did John Patrick Shanley in 2005 (see the review of Doubt elsewhere in this issue), David Auburn won the double-whammy of a Tony and a Pulitzer in a single year--2001, for his mad-mathematician play Proof.

Before Auburn so impressed the establishment with that conventionally structured full-length work, he made his name with a clutch of cockeyed and engaging little one-act comedies which may be found in Beowulf Alley's new production, Fifth Planet and Other Plays.
In these seven short works, Auburn tends to reveal, bit by bit, not what happens next, but what, exactly, happened before. It's an important difference that allows for greater shading of character (we must rely on the characters to interpret and color their stories rather than just act them out) than would otherwise be possible in a piece lasting as little as five minutes.

A particularly suave example of this opens the evening and lends the production its title. Fifth Planet falls into 44 short scenes, the first of which are blackouts lasting just a few seconds and involving little or no dialogue. At first, it looks like it's going to be something quirky and quasi-inscrutable in the manner of David Ives, but eventually, Auburn falls into a more conventional, if compact, storytelling mode, with the two characters ultimately engaging in normal, full-fledged conversations. Mike, we come to understand, is a janitor at an observatory who sets up his own little telescope on a nearby hill, hoping to find something new in the heavens while his wife watches the same old movie on TV ad infinitum. He develops a passing acquaintance with an arrogant astronomer named Veronica.

The primary events take place offstage and are only grudgingly recounted to us through the two characters' conversations. Of course, it's what happens between Mike and Veronica that's of central importance, and the play, named after Jupiter--which Mike keeps his eye on--might better be titled Binary System, for two stars that orbit each other without colliding. Stephen Cruz, as Mike, makes a fine impression even without opening his mouth (he'll be replaced in some performances by Taylor Genovese). Johanna Hudson isn't quite as successful as Veronica; her performance is a bit too childlike, as if she were a little girl pretending to be a smug astronomer.

Miss You is a very compact telephone play about love and unfaithfulness; Samantha Cormier and Alan Crombie do a good job of delineating two characters each, switching in the time it takes a phone to ring. Damage Control is Auburn's most conventional item here, with a hapless consultant (Steve McKee) trying to prepare his political-executive boss (Roger Owen) for a speech regarding a scandal the politician has gotten himself into. This is the jokiest and most skitlike piece on display and gets the best audience response, even though--through no fault of the actors--the characters are the least nuanced of the evening.

Three Monologues is the most difficult playlet to parse; it's a slice of a woman's lonely life, narrated sensitively by Chris Farishon. Next, Auburn treats his characters a bit viciously in Are You Ready? Here, a man (the deft Jonathan Northover on opening night, Josh Galyen thereafter) tells us one awful thing about himself after another, never quite realizing how lousy his entire life is. There's a final twist of the knife involving two people who are strangers to him and each other (played by Victoria McGee and the amusingly bitchy Edgar Burton).

What Do You Believe About the Future? involves 10 actors, each given only a number, talking about ... well, look at the title. It's amusing, but doesn't really develop into anything. In contrast, We Had a Very Good Time is quite well fleshed out. It concerns a young married couple (the very appealing Danielle Shirar and Jeremy Womac) on their last day of vacation in an unnamed foreign country. She wants to follow the guidebook to the bitter end; he's had enough and would just like to chill out at a movie. They part company for the afternoon; she hooks up with a very odd tour guide (also played by Womac), and he has an awkward encounter on the street with a native woman (Shirar again). Despite the silly details, anyone who has done any independent foreign travel will recognize the truths in this piece, truths about how we fall into certain patterns of communication, and how our ongoing relationships can be altered by even brief encounters with strangers.

This all adds up to nearly three hours in the theater, including intermission, but the variety of Auburn's subjects, his deft dialogue, the engaging cast and the right-to-the-point direction of Nell Summers make the time pass quickly. It's a fine, funny way to be confronted with issues of trust, self-reliance, betrayal and the caprices of fate.

Fifth Planet and Other Playspresented by Beowulf Alley Theatre Company7:30 p.m., Thursdays-Saturdays; 1:30 p.m., Sundays; through Feb. 1011 S. Sixth Ave.$16-$19, with internet discounts882-0555; http://www.beowulfalley.org/

One-acts capture 'snippets of lives' | www.azstarnet.com ®

One-acts capture 'snippets of lives' www.azstarnet.com ®:
Published: 01.11.2008

One-acts capture 'snippets of lives'
By Jane See White

SPECIAL TO THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Actually, it was an accident that Nell Summers found her newest directing project — Beowulf Alley Theatre Company's presentation of "Fifth Planet and Other Plays," by David Auburn.

"It just fell into my hands," she says now.
Summers had gone to collect a donation for another theater company she works with — a box of costumes, jewelry and a bunch of plays. Looking through the materials, she picked up the Auburn plays.
"I don't usually have time to read the plays, but this was the first one I picked up — seven plays in one book," Summers says. After just a few pages, she was hooked.

"It is seven self-contained, one-act plays, none having anything to do with the others. Snippets of lives. They're all so different that anyone will be able to find something in it," she says.
Auburn won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for "Proof."

"Fifth Planet" tracks two observatory workers over the course of a year in a series of brief encounters — 44 short scenes.

"There's so much Auburn doesn't write down — it's a really tight story, that first play. It unfolds — it has so much to do with the actors' communicating what's going on in their minds to the audience," says Summers.

"When you read it, you can hear the actors saying these lines — but there is just one hidden intent behind each line, so it's challenging. We have had to search for each of those."
For the seven plays, Summers has assembled a "huge" cast of 15 actors.

In "Are You Ready?" three people drawn to the same restaurant are changed instantly. In "Damage Control" a politician and his aide address a crisis. "Miss You" involves four people, three relationships and telephone technology.

In "What Do You Believe?" 10 people sitting in chairs that reflect their personalities share their thoughts.
"One is obsessed with the idea that in the future all sorts of transportation are going to hover," says Summers. "Another believes that in 2020 people will kill themselves because they won't be able to get into a really good New Year's Eve party. They're very different."

"Three Monologues" is about a woman's solitude, and "We Had a Very Good Time" tracks a couple on a trip to a frightening foreign country.

"I like all the plays," Summers says. "You can't say who's your favorite, like a mother with kids. They're all interesting and unique in their own ways."

PREVIEW
"Fifth Planet and Other Plays"
• Presented by: Beowulf Alley Theatre Company.
• Playwright: David Auburn.
• Director: Nell Summers.
• Where: Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, 11 S. Sixth Ave.
• When: Previews at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and next Friday; opening is 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19.
• Tickets: Previews, $10; regular performances, $16-$19, with discounts available at www.beowulfalley.org online or 882-0555.
• Running time: About 2 hours, plus one intermission.
• Cast members: Stephen Cruz, Johanna Hudson, Jeremy Womac, Roger Owen, Danielle Shirar and Steve McKee.
● Jane See White is a Tucson-based freelance writer.
All content copyright © 1999-2008 AzStarNet, Arizona Daily Star

"Previews, $10; regular performances, $16-$19, with discounts available at www.beowulfalley.org online or 882-0555."

Our 2007 Mac Awards

Accent
Our 2007 Mac Awards
By Kathleen Allen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 01.04.2008

Our 2007 Mac Awards www.azstarnet.com ®:

"Terry Erbe was the tender George in Beowulf Alley Theatre's production 'Of Mice and Men'; Stephen Elton was the simple-minded Lenny. Erbe was able to eloquently balance his character's anger at Lenny and his faithful love for him. Elton gave the mildly retarded Lenny an honest innocence."

Beowulf's "The Woman in Black" was a spooky ghost story enhanced by incredible sound effects and fine acting.

Beowulf Alley Theatre presents "Fifth Planet and Other Plays"

Beowulf Alley Theatre presents "Fifth Planet and Other Plays"

Contact: Beth Dell
(520) 622-4460
email: theatre@beowulfalley.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Beowulf Alley Theatre Company Presents Fifth Planet and Other Plays
Third show of the season is an Arizona Premier

TUCSON, ARIZ. (Dec. 19, 2007) — Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, 11 S. 6th Ave., will present “Fifth Planet and Other Plays,” a collection of one acts by David Auburn. The show previews Jan. 17 & 18 at 7:30 p.m. Preview tickets are $10. Performances run Thurs. – Sat., Jan. 19, 24-26, 31, Feb. 1-2, 7-9, 2008 at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees Jan. 20, 27, Feb. 3 & 10 at 1:30 p.m. Tickets range from $16-$19 with internet discounts available online at http://www.beowulfalley.org/ or call 882-0555. Nell Summers directs this production that explores how fate impacts the human experience.
# # #

Black, White and Gray

KUAT-FM KUAT-FM Radio:
Cue Sheet
by James Reel

"...a play I highly recommend."

On a farm outside Johannesburg, South Africa, there lives a little girl named Elizabeth Grace. She spends so much time in the big, fragrant syringa tree on the property that her nanny, a patient Xhosa woman named Salamina, calls the girl Lizzie Monkey. The syringa tree is a place of small wonders, as well as a hideout and a refuge--not only for Lizzie, but for her Xhosa and Zulu neighbors trying to avoid brutal encounters with the white authorities.

The Syringa Tree is also a play by the South African-born playwright and actress Pamela Gien. It involves 24 characters--white and black, young and old, male and female--all played by a single performer. That's Patagonia resident Belinda Torrey, in a fine production now on stage at Beowulf Alley Theatre.

You’ll find the full review here.

Tucson Weekly : Arts : White Conscience

Tucson Weekly : Arts : White Conscience:

"... in a fine production now on stage at Beowulf Alley Theatre. ... there's absolutely nothing amateurish about her [Belnida Torrey] performance in The Syringa Tree. Indeed, she pulls off the one-woman show with aplomb, holding the stage through two full hours of text, bringing her primary character from childhood to maturity, and sometimes convincingly playing three or four different characters in a single conversation."


PUBLISHED ON DECEMBER 13, 2007:
White Conscience

Apartheid in the 1960s is the focus of Beowulf Alley's impressive one-woman play
By JAMES REEL


On a farm outside Johannesburg, South Africa, there lives a little girl named Elizabeth Grace. She spends so much time in the big, fragrant syringa tree on the property that her nanny, a patient Xhosa woman named Salamina, calls the girl Lizzie Monkey. The Syringa tree is a place of small wonders, as well as a hideout and a refuge--not only for Lizzie, but for her Xhosa and Zulu neighbors trying to avoid brutal encounters with the white authorities.

The Syringa Tree is also a play by the South African-born playwright and actress Pamela Gien. It involves 24 characters--white and black, young and old, male and female--all played by a single performer. That's Patagonia resident Belinda Torrey, in a fine production now on stage at Beowulf Alley Theatre.

Torrey seems to have spent most of her adult life as a science teacher, and she calls herself a "hobby actress." But there's absolutely nothing amateurish about her performance in The Syringa Tree. Indeed, she pulls off the one-woman show with aplomb, holding the stage through two full hours of text, bringing her primary character from childhood to maturity, and sometimes convincingly playing three or four different characters in a single conversation.

Lizzie is a white girl, the daughter of a doctor, growing up in 1960s South Africa, a fine time to be white and privileged, but a hellish time to be black. Under apartheid, the indigenous people were subject to severe restrictions on when and where they could live, work and travel. If you were black and happened to be out without the proper documentation, or even merely out past the curfew for blacks at night, and you saw the police coming down the road, the best thing to do would be to clamber into the nearest tree and hope to avoid another harassment, arrest or beating.

Lizzie's family, of mostly English descent, has no sympathy for the apartheid system, which was instituted and fostered mainly by the Afrikaner, or Dutch-descended, population. Of course, apartheid wouldn't have been possible without the complicity of the English South Africans, and not every Afrikaner was a maniacal racist, but the situation is almost always simplified for dramatic purposes.
Lizzie has no idea what's going on. She knows her parents don't like the Afrikaner minister who lives next door, and she knows that the minister's daughter is bossy and unpleasant but still an interesting friend to have across the fence. She knows that the Xhosa and Zulu men and women working for the white families in her neighborhood are interesting, too, but she can't quite grasp why they're so jumpy at night, and why their evenings of tale-telling around a campfire fall apart whenever a police cruiser comes down the road. Lizzie's is an enchanted world of fairy dust in sunbeams, and blue glitter drifting from a beloved clown, and white family and black friends she loves.

Lizzie begins to get an education in social realities when Salamina, her beloved nanny, gives birth to a child who is not properly documented. Lizzie's family conceals the birth, and the little girl herself, for several years, although Lizzie doesn't grasp who, exactly, is risking what. Later, a white relative is murdered for no real reason by a Rhodesian freedom fighter, and this finally signals the end of Lizzie's childhood idyll. How she comes to terms with all of this when older is the subject of the play's later scenes.

Torrey spends most of her time in character as the young Lizzie, presenting her as spoiled but innocent, not too awfully cutesy, and not so self-centered that you lose sympathy for her. Most impressively, toward the end of the play, Torrey gives us a grown-up Lizzie who is quite obviously the same character, if still a bit childlike; it's difficult to maintain this kind of continuity when you're jumping forward 20 years, from child to adult, but all the more necessary here, so the adult Lizzie doesn't get lost among all the other characters.

Salamina is equally well drawn: slower but constantly moving, her voice coming from deep within her belly. No doubt dialect coach Eva Wright offered some significant help to Torrey in sorting out the characters, and director Roger Johnson has kept Torrey focused; he also kept the action fluid. The story plays out on a very simple set, a rough swing suspended above the stage, with a curtain of streamers behind. A change in scene is usually signaled by a dip in the lights, or by Torrey passing briefly behind the streamers--just enough to define the structure of the play (which initially seems very stream-of-consciousness) without becoming clunky.

If there's something to complain about here, it's that we're seeing yet another story of apartheid told from a white person's point of view. How many apartheid dramas can you name that truly center on blacks, rather than white crusaders? Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena, the film Catch a Fire and a couple of others, but beyond that, apartheid becomes a vehicle for stories about white conscience.
Yes, The Syringa Tree is about white conscience, but it's also about the bonds between people. And any play in which people of color are persecuted because they lack the proper documentation will have particular resonance during our own sometimes unsavory immigration debates.

The Syringa Treepresented by Beowulf Alley Theatre Company7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 13-15; 1:30 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 1611 S. Sixth Ave.$10-$19882-0555; beowulfalley.org

Apartheid tale features remarkable solo flight | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

Apartheid tale features remarkable solo flight www.tucsoncitizen.com ®:

"Beowulf Alley Theatre is presenting Belinda Torrey as that multifaceted narrator in a production by the Tin Shed Theater of Patagonia, directed by Robert Johnson. Her performance is a remarkable solo flight that reminds us the policy of apartheid was a political construction. "

Apartheid tale features remarkable solo flight
CHUCK GRAHAM
Published: 12.13.2007


As the world sorts out its racial differences, stories such as "The Syringa Tree" resonate.
Pamela Gien of South Africa has written a compelling play about one girl's coming of age and loss of innocence during the last days of apartheid.

The construction of the play, as much as the story, gives "The Syringa Tree" its relevance. Gien developed it as a full-length theater piece in which one actor plays 24 characters. There are males and females, young and old, black and white.
The challenge for the actor is to give full range to all these characters as each one acquires a specific personality.

For the audience, transported to South Africa, the experience is like listening to a story of an important incident as told by the village storyteller.

Beowulf Alley Theatre is presenting Belinda Torrey as that multifaceted narrator in a production by the Tin Shed Theater of Patagonia, directed by Robert Johnson. Her performance is a remarkable solo flight that reminds us the policy of apartheid was a political construction.
During this time in South Africa there were many white people and many black people who genuinely cared for one another. Just as in Europe there were gentiles trying to save Jews from Hitler's persecution.

Because there are so many characters in Torrey's tale, it is a little difficult to follow, particularly in the first act as we sort out the sounds and mannerisms that go with each person. The stage set consists of a large white circle painted on the floor and a backdrop consisting of long strips of dyed cloth. A child's swing hangs in the center of the circle.

Torrey wears a simple, neutral-colored dress. She doesn't have any props. To imply a change of scene she slips behind those strips of cloth and comes back out a few seconds later. Occasionally some sound effects or a change in the lighting will add a new dimension.

Parts of Gien's story are autobiographical. The play begins with Elizabeth at age 6, sitting on that swing with her back to the audience. We follow her through adolescence and on to adulthood when she marries an American.

By birth Elizabeth is white, English and South African. Her father is a doctor. The family lives on a farm near Johannesburg. Her live-in nanny is Salamina, a black treated with respect as an essential part of the family.

To establish the setting, Elizabeth talks about her childhood, telling of incidents such as playing outdoors, getting all muddy and being washed off with a garden hose. We also learn that the homes of black servants don't have any plumbing.

There is a humorous visit from the church minister, a man so overweight he can barely fit into the family's nicest living room chair. Then a black child is born in the home and its presence is hidden from the authorities.

By the time Elizabeth is a teen there are anti-apartheid demonstrations in the streets. White people dare not visit the townships where black people live, particularly after dark. Having the correct identification papers is essential for everyone.

After intermission there are riots, demonstrations and raids as South Africa civilization flies apart. Violence touches Elizabeth's family as well, but in the end there is also resolution.
Grade: B

'Syringa Tree' a tale of apartheid

'Syringa Tree' a tale of apartheid www.azstarnet.com ®


Published: 12.07.2007
'Syringa Tree' a tale of apartheid
By Kathleen Allen
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

It's not often that a play reaches out and grabs an actor by the shoulders and says, "Do me, do me."
But it happened to Belinda Torrey with "The Syringa Tree," which Beowulf Alley Theatre opens today.
"I have a background that's so similar to the author's background," she said in a phone interview from her Patagonia home. "Not only can I do this, I really have to do it. It's a real personal story for me, as well."

"The Syringa Tree," written by Pamela Gien, is the tale of two families, one black, one white, and the two children born into the household they share in 1960s South Africa, when apartheid was still a heavy albatross around the country's neck.

Gien grew up in South Africa, and though the play is largely fiction, it's based on two actual events from her life: her grandfather's murder when she was 10, and the birth and concealment of her nanny's child.
"I was raised in a house with black nannies," Torrey said. "My nanny was my rock. She left when I was around 12, and I was devastated. When I read this story, I said, 'Oh, I know this story. I know how this girl feels.' "

Though largely told through the eyes of 6-year-old Elizabeth, the one-woman play requires Torrey to play about 22 characters.

Not a big deal, she said.

"It's surprisingly easy," she said, explaining that she often assumes voices and different characters when she tells stories.

"I especially do it with my siblings," she said. "They know what's going on. People who don't know me think I've fallen off the deep end."

And while the play takes place in a particular country at a particular time in history, it's a universal one, said Torrey.

"The story spans four generations," said Torrey. "It would be unusual if there were people in the audience who hadn't experienced the loss, goodbyes, reunions, that happen in this story. Everyone is touched."

Preview
"The Syringa Tree"
• Presented by: Beowulf Alley Theatre Company.
• Playwright: Pamela Gien.
• Director: Roger Johnson.
• When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Thursday through Dec. 15; 1:30 p.m. Sunday and Dec. 16. No performance Saturday.
• Where: Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. 6th Ave.
• Tickets: $14-$19.
• Information: 882-0555 or www.beowulfalley.org.
•Cast: Belinda Torrey.
• Running time: 2 hours, plus one intermission.

● Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.

Talking to herself habit helps Torrey to play role | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

Talking to herself habit helps Torrey to play role www.tucsoncitizen.com ®:
Published: 12.06.2007

Talking to herself habit helps Torrey to play role
CHUCK GRAHAM
Tucson Citizen Published:

Patagonia, Ariz., is not generally known as a hot spot for theater. But Belinda Torrey grew up in New York City. More specifically, on Long Island. Then she lived in Montana and in the Puget Sound area before life's travels brought her to Patagonia 11 years ago.

But earlier this year another Patagonian, Roger Johnson, handed Torrey a copy of the script for "The Syringa Tree" by expatriate South African playwright Pamela Gien.

Johnson and Torrey worked up their production, giving five performances at Patagonia's own Tin Shed Theatre.

When Beowulf Alley Theatre here in the Baked Apple announced it was looking for shows to present, Johnson contacted the theater. Talks ensued and the dates were set.

"The play starts when the child is 6, she is remembering her own grandparents. By the end of the play, she is 35," Torrey said. "To be doing it is such an honor for me. I always want my performance to be a tribute to my own nanny, who meant so much to me."

Fast-rolling characters in 'Stones' gather no moss | www.azstarnet.com ®

Fast-rolling characters in 'Stones' gather no moss www.azstarnet.com ®

Fast-rolling characters in 'Stones' gather no moss
By Kathleen Allen
Arizona Daily Star Tucson, Arizona
Published: 11.16.2007

Hollywood and rural Ireland.

Can't you just see the sparks fly?

The two meet head-on in 'Stones in His Pocket,' the season-opener for the Beowulf Alley Theatre Company. "

Jonathan Northover and Matthew Copley handle the roles that range from an American diva who can't quite grasp the musical Irish accent ("Don't worry," her director tells her, "Ireland is only 1 percent of the audience") to an aging Irishman who is the last surviving extra from the filming of the John Wayne movie "The Quiet Man" (released in 1952).

The changing of characters is done in an instant, with the crook of the body, or the wave of a hand.

There are wonderful moments in this production, especially Northover's diva, Caroline Giovanni, who was an airy hoot, and Copley's director's assistant, a delicious nervous Nellie.

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Rise of the Downtrodden

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Rise of the Downtrodden:
PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 15, 2007:

Rise of the Downtrodden
'Stones in His Pockets' turns discontent, exploitation into a funny, positive experience By JAMES REEL

Director Susan Arnold doesn't slight the play's comedic elements, but she does seem more interested in the serious implications of the second half; she and the actors downplay the obvious satire a bit--the performances would surely have been more over the top at some other local theaters--and end up treating Charlie and Jake with real integrity. So there's a lower bellylaugh count during the performance, but, thanks to this restraint, the play leaves a longer aftertaste.

Northover and Copley perform heroically, changing characters as quickly as they may swerve to left or right as they stride across the stage. And each character is quite distinct; once every figure has been introduced, you know instantly which character has now taken over an actor's body. Northover's accents are more diverse and precise than Copley's, but otherwise, the men are well-matched as smart performers. They are nicely supported by Jon Marbry's sound design and Bill Dell's lighting.

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Dramatic Comedy

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Dramatic Comedy:
PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 8, 2007

Dramatic Comedy

Beowulf Alley looks to get back on track with the acclaimed 'Stones in His Pockets'
By JAMES REEL

Beowulf Alley Theatre is switching off the ghost light and illuminating the stage with a new show, Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets. The Irish comedy has won several awards since its premiere in 1999, and it garnered three Tony nominations in 2001.

2 actors to play 15 characters in 'Stones' | www.azstarnet.com ®

2 actors to play 15 characters in 'Stones' www.azstarnet.com ®:
2 actors to play 15 characters in 'Stones'
By Levi J. Long ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona Published: 11.02.2007"

It's taken three years to bring "Stones in His Pockets" to Tucson audiences.
Now with those pesky licensing agreements and final casting choices out of the way, the Beowulf Alley Theatre Company is ready to open the award-winning play next week as the first production of its 2007-08 season.

Dogs put on a show | www.azstarnet.com ®

Dogs put on a show www.azstarnet.com ®:
"Dogs put on a show"
By Levi J. Long
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona Published: 07.06.2007

"Bark! The Musical"
Presented by: Arizona Onstage Productions.
• When: Preview is 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Regular performances are 8 p.m. next Friday and July 14 and 2 p.m. July 15. The run continues through July 29. Final show is 6 p.m. July 29.
• Where: Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave.
• Length: 90 minutes; no intermission.
• Tickets: $20 for preview; $27.50 for other performances. Student and senior discounts available.
• Information: 882-6574 or www.arizonaonstage.org.
• Cast: Liz Cracchiolo, Jody Mullen, Kit Runge, Stephanie Sikes, Marcus Terrell Smith and Shayna Vercillo.

The 11-performance run in Tucson marks the Arizona premiere for "Bark!"
It is scheduled to debut in November off-Broadway in New York.

In addition to Memphis and Los Angeles, "Bark!" has received mostly critical and audience acclaim in Chicago; Palm Springs, Calif.; and Portland, Ore.

During its two-year run in L.A., the show was named a Critic's Pick by the Los Angeles Times and sold out for most shows.

Beowulf hosts a few jazz gigs | www.azstarnet.com ®

Beowulf hosts a few jazz gigs www.azstarnet.com ®: "Accent
Beowulf hosts a few jazz gigs
Tucson, Arizona Published: 05.20.2007"

Beowulf Alley Theatre has this cozy little space in Downtown Tucson. Perfect for plays ("Of Mice and Men" is playing there these days).

But it's also quite a cool spot for jazz, which may be why Beowulf is hosting a few jazz gigs these days, dubbing them "BeBop Meets Broadway."

At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, you can catch the smooth sounds of jazz singer Debbie Lun, who breathes life into torch songs and scat. She's performing with musician Tony Frank, who has played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Mantooth, Carl Saunders, Shirley Horn and Mike Vax; and keyboard player Lamont Arthur, who lists composer, arranger and producer among his accomplishments.
Beowulf Alley's at 11 S. Sixth Ave. Tickets are $25. Call 882-0555.

— Kathleen Allen, Arizona Daily Star

Steinbeck classic makes wonderful local theater | www.azstarnet.com ®

Steinbeck classic makes wonderful local theater www.azstarnet.com ®:
Steinbeck classic makes wonderful local theater
By Kathleen Allen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 05.11.2007

Dreams blossom and shatter with such intense swiftness in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" that one can get dizzy watching it.
But watch it you must. Beowulf Alley Theatre's production of the play about two farmworkers who long for a place of their own is a rich, nuanced piece that reminds us of the frailty, and cruelty, of human nature.

This is a powerful piece of theater, with poetic language, well-drawn characters, and wonderful foreshadowing of events without ever telescoping them. If you want to see a play that is exquisitely constructed, "Of Mice and Men" is it.

The Courtland Jones-designed set on the Beowulf stage evoked the dusty Salinas Valley and rickety shack that serves as home to migrant farmworkers. Russell Stagg's lighting conjured up the bright light of day and the moody hues of sunset. Jon Marbry's pristine sound made us see birds flying overhead and hear crickets talking to each other.

But it was the actors who really brought Steinbeck's work to painful, vivid life at a preview performance last Friday.

This production veered from most — a robust Terry Erbe played George, whom Steinbeck described as a slight man. Stephen Elton was the mildly retarded Lennie. Steinbeck envisioned this character to be large and lumbering; Elton is actually more slender than Erbe.
We've some advice: Get over the size issue quickly. While physically Steinbeck saw the two as an unlikely pair, Elton and Erbe were able to draw their characters so sharply that size did not matter.
Elton, at times, seemed a bit too bright for Lennie, but he captured the innocence of the character who loves to stroke soft things and longs to care for rabbits on the the farm he and George dream they will one day have.

Erbe's ability to get angry at Lennie for his naivete and still show his love was so well-rooted you never doubted his character.

Slim, the kind-hearted ranchhand, was given gentle life by Brian Wees, and Gregory Sweet was heavy with sorrow and loneliness as Candy, the one-handed ranch worker whose best friend and reason for living was his elderly dog.

This play is saturated with dreams denied and heartbreaking loneliness. It's kind of depressing, truth be told.

But it's also a rich tale of a friendship that goes so deep and true that hope survives.
Director Glen Coffman understood that and directed with a clean, knowing hand.

"Of Mice and Men" can shatter you. But it's also an exhilarating theatrical experience.

● Contact Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.

Beowulf Alley scores big with 'Of Mice and Men' | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

Beowulf Alley scores big with 'Of Mice and Men' www.tucsoncitizen.com ®:

Published: 05.10.2007
Beowulf Alley scores big with 'Of Mice and Men'
CHUCK GRAHAM
Tucson Citizen

What a season it's been for the Beowulf Alley Theatre Company. After setting a higher standard for local theater last January with the downtown company's atmospheric thriller "The Woman In Black," BATC followed with the well-received special stage effects of "Black Comedy" by Peter Shaffer.

Now we have an even more haunting production in John Steinbeck's Depression-era tale, "Of Mice and Men." Director Glen Coffman draws finely shaded performances from Terry Erbe and Stephen Elton as George and Lennie, a pair of migrant farmworkers in rural California, adrift and deprived of any chance to earn a decent wage doing physical labor. Their determination to be resourceful is a poignant reminder that government cannot be trusted to take care of its people.

Steinbeck was writing about poor families ripped apart in the 1930s when America's economy fell apart. Erbe's portrayal of the rough-mannered but good-hearted George is a compelling portrait of the kind of blue-collar guy we like to think built our country. Hardworking, honest and determined to keep everyone honest.

George's patience with the simple-minded Lennie proves George could have been a good family man. Instead, the misfortunes of this failed economy have turned George into a drifter who makes the man-child Lennie his family.

Elton amplifies the effect by playing on Lennie's almost infantile innocence, completely unaware in his gentleness that he has the physical strength of a giant. George and Lennie, always bickering like a married couple, share a kind of co-dependence in finding reasons to dream beyond their next paycheck working California's struggling farmlands.

The rest of the cast is equally strong, building together like a finely tuned ensemble, adding the story's elements of racism and ageism that ring even louder in our present time of civil rights awareness and of boomers nearing retirement.

grade: A

Tucson Weekly : Arts : High Standards

Tucson Weekly : Arts : High Standards: "

PUBLISHED ON MAY 10, 2007:
High Standards
Beowulf Alley Theatre turns in an impeccable 'Of Mice and Men' production
By JAMES REEL

"...how well-cast this show is from top to bottom"

"The entire production has been assembled with similar quiet care. The acting tends to be subtle and anti-melodramatic, yet heartfelt; the pacing is deliberate, yet never feels pokey. All in all, Beowulf Alley does a fine job of rescuing Of Mice and Men from its low status as required reading in high school English."

"Terry Erbe as George and Stephen Elton as Lennie waste little time in establishing their uneasy fraternal bond onstage, and they also quickly set themselves apart from actors who have played their roles in film adaptations. Elton finds more in Lennie than just a big, retarded oaf; he's basically a 4-year-old, with a child's full range of emotional complexity. Erbe doesn't play George as a fast-talking operator; he's a somewhat rough, common man with common sense, and a little knot of decency that, to his surprise, has been bunching up inside him over the years. "

"The rest of the cast--including David Alexander Johnston, Tim McKiernan and the single-named Darwin--is as fine as the players already mentioned. My one small reservation concerns the good and versatile Amy Erbe as the woman whose actions precipitate the final tragedies; in the context of this production, I would have expected her to make more of her character's loneliness, even at her most flirtatious. "

"As usual at Beowulf Alley, the set design (Courtland Jones), sound (John Marbry), costuming (Kyle Schellinger) and lighting (Russell Stagg) meet high standards--the standards set by this production's acting and direction. "

Migrants' dreams of the '30s still relevant today | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

Migrants' dreams of the '30s still relevant today www.tucsoncitizen.com ®:

Migrants' dreams of the '30s still relevant today
CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen
Published: 05.03.2007

While threats of global warming hint at turning the Southwest into another Oklahoma dust bowl, we can consider the Depression Era story of Lenny and George in John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men.' The two migrant workers following their dreams while hoping for a change in their luck are in California, just the next state over, believing one day they will have a place of their own where no one can tell them what to do.

Although the play's time period is the 1930s (the novella was published in 1937), its theme of rootless loneliness among homeless men is considered quite timely. In Tucson, especially, communities of migrant workers are as real as the freeways and air-conditioned high-rise office towers. Problems caused by low pay and callous bosses belong to everyone.
Beowulf Alley Theatre Company brings us this production, directed by Glen Coffman, with George played by Terry Erbe and Stephen Elton cast as the mentally slow Lenny. Elton is Beowulf Alley's founding artistic director.

Also taking roles are David Alexander Johnston, Amy Erbe, Greg Sweet, Tim McKiernan, Brian Wees, Jonathan Hicks, Nate Weisband and Darwin.

additional information
IF YOU GO
What: "Of Mice and Men," presented by Beowulf Alley Theatre Company
When: previews 7:30 p.m. today-Friday; opening 7:30 p.m. Saturday and continuing 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 1:30 p.m. Sundays through May 27; special fundraising performance and barbecue, 1:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave.
Price: $10 previews, $14 Thursdays, $16- $18 general admission, $65 performance and barbecue
Info: 622-4460, www.beowulfalley.org

'Mice' is always compelling | www.azstarnet.com ®

'Mice' is always compelling www.azstarnet.com ®: "

Published: 05.04.2007

'Mice' is always compelling

By Kathleen Allen
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Please don't call John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" an important piece of literature.

Yes, yes, we know: The story of itinerant farmworkers, the mentally challenged Lennie and his protector, George, is a classic. That's why Beowulf Alley Theatre is staging the play as its season closer.

But it's not ponderous, or dull. And that's what Beowulf's artistic director, Stephen Elton, is afraid people will think when it's called "important."

"When you hear a play is important, I think it's boring," said Elton, who plays Lennie, the big, lumbering, simple-minded half of the famous Lennie and George team.
Instead, Elton said, it's a play that you almost have to watch it's so compelling.

"I compare it to when you're flipping channels on a Saturday afternoon and you come across a movie you've seen before. You know the story, but still you have to watch it. 'Mice and Men' is that kind of play — you have to pay attention to it, even if you know it."
George and Lennie have a tight bond and a common dream: They want to save enough money to have their own little farm.

"It's the struggle of the everyday guys, Lennie and George, as they try to get the American dream," Elton said as he explained the pull of the play.
"The dream of freeing yourself of the bonds of employment and working for yourself. They just want to do their own thing."

Terry Erbe, who plays George, said that the weaving in of the dream ethic is what makes the story, published in 1937, so timeless.

"I think clutching at the American dream is still very much part of our lives," he said after a school day at Catalina Foothills High School, where he teaches drama.
"It's about wanting a little place, and making a better life. I think that's universal. And Steinbeck does it in a way that goes back to the storytelling roots that we have. There's something eloquent about the pictures he paints."

George is a character Erbe embraces, even as he struggles to learn a massive amount of dialogue.

"George has got a big heart," said Erbe. "I don't think he would take on the care and feeding of Lennie if he didn't. At the same time, it's frustrating for George because Lennie will never grow up. I think George is a man at odds with his surroundings."
As for Lennie, Elton was determined to play him as an innocent, rather than a man with mental retardation.

"He's an innocent, but his bubble is very small," said Elton. "He relies on George to tell him what to do. In life, when you run across somebody like Lennie, it may take you five or 10 minutes to know that something's wrong. I wanted to play Lennie like that."
Both men have a profound respect for the friendship of the characters, and for their dreams.
"What I take from the play, and what I hope the audience will take, is how the themes are so current — loneliness, wanting a friend and wanting the American dream," said Elton. "I think we can all relate to what George and Lennie are going through."

Preview
"Of Mice and Men."
• By: John Steinbeck.
• Director: Glen Coffman.
• Presented by: Beowulf Alley Theatre.
• When: Preview is 7:30 tonight; opening is 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Regular performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 1:30 p.m. Sundays through May 27.
• Where: Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave.
• Tickets: Thursdays, $10; other performances, $18 (discounts if purchased at www.beowulfalley.org). The 1:30 p.m. Sunday performance is $65, which includes a barbecue, music, hobnobbing with the cast and crew, and the play.
• Information: 882-0555.
• Cast: Terry Erbe, Stephen Elton, David Alexander Johnston, Amy Erbe, Greg Sweet, Tim McKiernan, Brian Wees, Jonathan Hicks, Nate Weisband.
• Running time: About 21/2 hours, with one intermission.
• Look for: The review in next Friday's Accent.

● Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.

A Steinbeck classic for season finale | www.azstarnet.com ®

A Steinbeck classic for season finale www.azstarnet.com ®
A Steinbeck classic for season finale
Tucson, Arizona Published: 04.27.2007

Beowulf Alley Theatre Company's season ends with a classic: John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men.'
The play, which opens in previews on Thursday, is about a simple-minded migrant farmworker, Lennie, and his friend and protector, George.

The production is directed by Glen Coffman and stars Stephen Elton as Lennie and Terry Erbe in the role of George. Previews are 7:30 p.m. Thursday and next Friday, and opening is 7:30 p.m. May 5 at Beowulf, 11 S. Sixth Ave. Preview tickets are $10; regular performances are $18.

See next Friday's Accent for an interview with Elton and Erbe.
– Kathleen Allen "

Art flexes muscles at old gym equipment site | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

Art flexes muscles at old gym equipment site www.tucsoncitizen.com ®:

Art flexes muscles at old gym equipment site
TEYA VITU
Tucson Citizen
Published: 04.12.2007

"Glass artist Karen Ehart arrived first 4 1/2 years ago and Beowulf Alley Theatre gave the block a prominent presence in June 2004. The Drawing Studio plans to move next door by September"

"We've been fortunate enough to stay patient," said Steve Gibson, Johnny's son and the property manager. "Beowulf are fabulous tenants. Now we couldn't be more pleased to be associated with The Drawing Studio."

For the present, Beth Dell, administrative director at Beowulf Alley, cherishes getting an arts neighbor.
"I am incredibly grateful to the Gibson family for having such a dedication to the arts to do this," Dell said. "I look forward to having people next door who have a true understanding of the arts. It will be a mini little arts district."

'Black Comedy' sheds light on human foibles | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

'Black Comedy' sheds light on human foibles www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

'Black Comedy' sheds light on human foibles
By CHUCK GRAHAM
Published: 03.15.2007
Tucson Citizen

"The singular scene design for Beowulf Alley Theatre Company's new show, 'Black Comedy' by Peter Shaffer, is the downtown company's most elaborate ever."

"Guest director Nancy Arnfield does her own ante-upping by having the actors add lots of inappropriate touching, which gets still more laughs. Performed in 90 minutes without an intermission, 'Black Comedy' becomes a physical workout for the actors, choreographed and timed to enhance the meaning of that phrase 'body language.'"

"'Black Comedy' does have its underlying social commentary about people with secrets, staying true to their values and all the rest. But in this production, the laughs come from watching people fall. Just as in telling jokes, the timing is everything."

'Black Comedy' sheds light on fun | www.azstarnet.com ®

'Black Comedy' sheds light on fun www.azstarnet.com ®:

By Kathleen Allen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 03.15.2007

"Key to a successful farce is timing, and these Beowulf actors had that down. Brian Taraz, especially, who played the huffy Harold thick with a righteous sense of indignation, showed a keen sense of comedic timing."

"Director Nancy Arnfield has fashioned a play that has a quick pace and a natural façade, which makes the farce even more farcical."

"...this Beowulf production sheds lots of light on the humor, and it smacks of a good time."

In the cast, from left, Stephen Cruz, Barbara Flanary
Armstrong, Abe Taltre, Brian Taraz and Nicole Stein.
- david sanders / arizona daily star

Beowulf Alley brings a rich farce to town | www.azstarnet.com ®

Beowulf Alley brings a rich farce to town www.azstarnet.com ®

By Dennis O'Flaherty
SPECIAL TO THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona Published: 03.09.2007

It's a mix volatile enough to blow the roof off the theater.

It's rare that the words "farce" and "Peter Shaffer" are said with the same breath.
After all, Shaffer has written such tense and tragic dramas as "Amadeus" and "Equus."
But then there's his "Black Comedy," which Beowulf Alley Theatre opens Saturday.
That's where "farce" comes in.

And it's just the kind of play director Nancy Arnfield loves to shape.

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/172464

'Thumbs' gets thumbs up - WildLife

'Thumbs' gets thumbs up - WildLife

'Thumbs' gets thumbs up
Play preview
By: Alexandria Kassman
Issue date: 2/1/07 Section: WildLife

When local playwright Gavin Kayner's production company, Piquant Plays Productions, went looking for a venue to perform his play "Thumbs," Beowulf Alley Theatre Company seemed like a perfect venue due to its intimate size and comfortably pristine new interior.

With a 99-seat store-front theater located in the heart of downtown Tucson, BATC's future as an artist-driven playhouse looks hopeful. Additionally, BATC is proving to be a great place for promising theater students to audition for exciting roles.

More letters | www.azstarnet.com ®

More letters www.azstarnet.com ®:

More letters
Tucson, Arizona Published: 01.22.2007

"After reading the Star's description of 'The Woman in Black,' playing at Tucson's Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, my family decided to attend last Friday's performance. What a pleasure to relax in the story-telling of two fine actors, Roberto Guajardo and David Alexander Johnston. I felt like we were in a British drawing room listening to a mysterious tale that totally drew in each member of my family. All for about the price of a movie ticket. There's nothing like high-quality live theater.

Deborah H. Hildreth
Teacher, Vail "

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Virtual Reality

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Virtual Reality:

PUBLISHED ON JANUARY 25, 2007:
Virtual Reality
Three excellent plays all deal with perception in entertaining ways
By JAMES REEL

"The Woman in Black is an English ghost story with greater ambition than you find in most such genre pieces."

"Guajardo and Johnston carry the evening with a steady sense of character and an undercurrent of dread. Guajardo plays a half-dozen figures in the story and gives each his own physical comportment and English regional accent. "

"But what makes this play most effective is its atmosphere, which is superbly established by the set and sound design."

"This is by far the most sophisticated use of sound I've heard in a Tucson production, outside of Arizona Theatre Company."

The stars shine in gothic tale at Beowulf Alley | www.azstarnet.com ®

The stars shine in gothic tale at Beowulf Alley www.azstarnet.com ®

By Gerald M. Gay
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 01.19.2007

"The Woman in Black" finds strength in its actors"

"[Roberto] Guajardo shines ... he managed to bring to life an entire town of people, from Mr. Jerome, the firm's nervous, apprehensive local agent, to Keckwick, the strong and silent carriage driver. "

"[David Alexander] Johnston was no slouch either. ... The two kept a strong rapport whether the scene called for levity or heart-stopping horror."

"If you are more into Edgar Allan Poe and less of a "Saw II" fan, the play has enough suspense and quality acting to keep your adrenaline pumping."

'Woman in Black' lets you see what's not there | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

'Woman in Black' lets you see what's not there www.tucsoncitizen.com ®:

Published: 01.18.2007
CHUCK GRAHAM

"... astonishing performance of "The Woman in Black" at Beowulf Alley Theatre "

"Directed by Terry Erbe, this elaborate production takes local theater to a new level of excellence. Around the finely balanced two-person cast of David Alexander Johnston and Roberto Guajardo are layered a detailed stage set and precise series of haunting theatrical effects that are remarkably effective. "

Local theatrical productions | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

Local theatrical productions www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

photo: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/photos/2007/01/11/l37713-1.jpg



"THE WOMAN IN BLACK": Seeking nothing less than to scare the pants off its audience, Beowulf Alley Theatre Company is opening this play by Stephen Mallatratt, adapted from the book by Susan Hill. A production has been running continuously in London for 17 years, so it must be pretty scary. Terry Erbe directs this show, featuring Roberto Guajardo and David Alexander Johnston. The story centers on a young lawyer sorting through the final affairs of an elderly widow who lived in an isolated estate along a marshy spot of England's eastern coast. The more he discovers, the more he feels haunted by past events in the widow's life. When: The production opens Saturday and continues through Feb. 4. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 1:30 p.m. Sundays; preview shows 7:30 p.m. today and Friday. Where: 11 S. Sixth Ave. Price: $14-$18 general, $10 for previews Info: 882-0555, http://www.beowulfalley.org/

'The Woman in Black' | www.azstarnet.com ®

'The Woman in Black' www.azstarnet.com ®

By Sherilyn Forrester
Special to the Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona
Published: 01.05.2007

Most theaters work diligently to fill their seats.The folks at Beowulf Alley are hoping their audiences will be jumping out of theirs.Beowulf's production of "The Woman in Black," which opens next week, is a uniquely theatrical ghost story that has been scaring and thrilling theatergoers for more than 17 years.

"It's just wonderfully frightening," says Terry Erbe, who is directing Roberto Guajardo and David Alexander Johnston in this Stephen Mallatratt adaptation of the book by Susan Hill."

Even though the book is a really good read and is very scary, I think the play works even better," adds Erbe. "The conventions of the theater — that are particular to the theater — really enhance the effect of the story and how it is told."

Snapshots: arts in the news | www.azstarnet.com ®

Snapshots: arts in the news www.azstarnet.com ®
Tucson, Arizona Published: 12.29.2006

Improv show is going public, and you're invited to join laughs.

LaughingStock Comedy Company is rarely seen around these parts. At least not in public.

But this year, for the second year in a row, it's bringing its show to Beowulf Alley Theatre Company.

And the troupe of six very funny people turns it into delicious comedy. Right then and there. Is talent wonderful or what?

Mac Awards time | www.azstarnet.com ®

Mac Awards time www.azstarnet.com ®

By Kathleen Allen / Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 12.29.2006

Best Actress
Lesley Abrams in Beowulf Alley's "Frozen"

Best Comedy
Beowulf Alley's production of Anton Chekhov's "Four Farces"

Best Drama Nominiations
Beowulf Alley's "Frozen"
Beowulf Alley's "Fiction"

Best Actress Nomination
Alida Gunn's turn as Abby in Beowulf Alley's "Fiction"

Laugh out loud | www.azstarnet.com (r)

Laugh out loud www.azstarnet.com ®

Published: 12.21.2006

Laugh out loud

"I can't even watch the news. When I do, I take out my Bible and look at the Book of Revelation and check things off."

— Drew Carey, during his Improv All-Stars' Green Screen Tour stop at Casino del Sol's AVA, Sept. 24, 2005.

•If you're a fan of improv, check out the local Laughing Stock Comedy Company in six shows: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, next Thursday and Dec. 29-30 and 1:30 p.m. Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 at Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, 11 S. Sixth Ave. Tickets are $17 through Beowulf, http://www.beowulfalley.org/, or 882-0555.

•Tickets went on sale Monday for George Lopez's shows Feb. 23 and 24 at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, which will be taped live for his first HBO standup special, "America's Mexican." Tickets — $32-$72 — are available through Ticketmaster, 321-1000.

• Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed — Bookmans, 6230 E. Speedway. Local improv comedy troupe. 7:30-8:30 p.m. Dec. 29. Free. 440-4436.

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Beowulf Alley Theatre Company hires a new Administrative Director

December 18, 2006 Contact: Beth Dell
badell@beowulfalley.org
(520) 622-4460

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Tucson, AZ)—Beowulf Alley Theatre Company announced today that Beth Dell has been hired as the new administrative director. Dell is the second full-time employee to be hired to the organization, which will celebrate its second year in Tucson’s downtown.

Dell will be responsible for administering all non-production matters for the theatre, including daily operations, accounting, facility rental, marketing, advertising, publicity, fundraising and development.

“We are excited to have Dell join our growing theater company,” said Board President Roger Rikkola. “The Company has recognized that to sustain its current success and growth it needed a fulltime Administrative Director to complement the programs developed by its Artistic Director. Beth fills that need by bring to the Company a strong background in theater administrative management.”

Prior to moving to Tucson 10 years ago, Dell’s professional experience includes finance, accounting, development and fundraising for both non-profit and for-profit companies. She also worked with several theatre companies in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. areas. Dell graduated from the University of Arizona, Magna Cum Laude, with a bachelor’s degree in Theatre Production. She has stage managed for Arizona Repertory Theatre, Invisible Theatre, Arizona Onstage Productions, Arizona Opera, Borderland Theater, Utah Shakespearian Festival and Disney MGM Studios.

Beowulf Alley Theatre Company is a non-profit arts organization committed to producing daring and distinctive productions for the Tucson community. Beowulf Alley celebrates the intelligence of the actor, the vision of the director, the words of the playwright and the power of the theater.

11 South 6th Avenue · Tucson, AZ 85701
622-4460
www.beowulfalley.org

Capote's 'Memories' lush, loving | www.azstarnet.com ®

Capote's 'Memories' lush, loving www.azstarnet.com ®

By Kathleen Allen
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 12.08.2006

"Now here's the way the holidays should be launched"

"Glenda Young, exuding the kind of at-home warmth you find in just-out-of-the-oven home-baked cinnamon rolls"

"Providing music, ambience, and some well-timed dog barking is the talented Martie van der Voort"

"This is a delicious little piece, full of much of what the holidays should be full of — generosity, warmth, kindness. "

"Here's hoping it's fruitcake weather in the Old Pueblo every year. "

'Holiday Memories' a child's house of innocent dreams | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

'Holiday Memories' a child's house of innocent dreams www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

By CHUCK GRAHAM
Tucson Citizen

If you like your Christmas plays short and sweet, "Holiday Memories" is the one-act to see.

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Bittersweet Nostalgia

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Bittersweet Nostalgia
By JAMES REEL

The play is derived from Truman Capote's prose reminiscence of one particular Christmas during the time when, as a 10-year-old, he'd been sent to live with distant relatives in tiny Monroeville, Ala. Most of the relatives were not especially child-friendly, but for the most part, they could be ignored, because one among them, an aunt called Sook, turned out to be the best friend a lonely boy could have.

A Christmas Memory is a model of its genre, the lyrical prose making its effect not through arcane vocabulary or provocative imagery but through the artful arrangement of fairly simple words. At Beowulf Alley, that narrative is delivered by Jeff Scotland as the adult Truman.

Glenda Young is equally fine as Miss Sook. Young neatly conveys the easily bruised joy and innocence and essential strength of the character.

The young Buddy is often played by an adult, but here, the role is taken by an authentic sixth-grader, the enthusiastic and likable Will Bostwick.

This week's hot 5 events | www.azstarnet.com ®

This week's hot 5 events www.azstarnet.com ®
Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, a young and artistically sturdy ensemble, brings the emotionally fraught storytelling of Truman Capote to its Downtown stage with "Holiday Memories," a show that has promising written all over it.

Capote's 'Memories' a fresh entry among holiday plays | www.azstarnet.com ®

Capote's 'Memories' a fresh entry among holiday plays www.azstarnet.com ®: ... something brand-new to Tucson's Christmastime stage: Truman Capote's "Holiday Memories," an adaptation for the stage of two classic Capote short stories.

Tucson audiences will see an adult Capote, played by Jeff Scotland, sharing the stage with his younger self, played by 11-year-old Will Bostwick. The older Capote remembers and interacts with his younger self as they share a spartan but delightful Depression-era Christmas with Capote's beloved maiden aunt Sook, played by the much-loved-by-Tucson-audiences Glenda Young.

Word play: In 'Fiction,' pen is mighty painful | www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

Word play: In 'Fiction,' pen is mighty painful www.tucsoncitizen.com ®

"What is the sound a heart makes when it is broken tastefully? Director Jennifer Bazzell has a pretty good idea. Though the sound may be quieter than most, it is no less painful."

Beowulf Alley troupe to stage Dietz's intriguing 'Fiction' | www.azstarnet.com ®

Beowulf Alley troupe to stage Dietz's intriguing 'Fiction' www.azstarnet.com ®

Beowulf Alley troupe to stage Dietz's intriguing 'Fiction'

Exploring lies we tell ourselves | www.azstarnet.com ®

Exploring lies we tell ourselves www.azstarnet.com ®

"...it's one of the more nuanced plays Dietz has produced of late.
And it has that rich, rich language.
That, combined with a fine production, makes this one to see. "

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Dear Diary

Tucson Weekly : Arts : Dear Diary

"Fiction is one of his [Dietz] most successful efforts yet produced in Tucson"