two articles about reviewing

blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2008/05/the_role_of_theatre_reviews.
html#comments
Should reviews include five-star ratings? Is it barely possible that a review might be more interesting than the artwork it sets out to review?
Should reviews describe or prescribe? Is a synthesis of journalistic (in the moment, what was it like, consumer-advocate reporting) and academic criticism (long-term view, cultural context, placing a particular show within the performance tradition) possible or even desirable?

ALSO:
www.salon.com/books/feature/2008/05/22/critics/
Makes the point that academics, with all the "Death of the Author" stuff about how everything is culturally implicated and therefore value judgments are impossible, are undermining the entire critical enterprise.
With the rise of sites like Rotten Tomatoes and the laying-off of movie critics across the land and the rise of legions of blogger-critics, isn't it really true that nobody needs or wants critics anymore?
We can all be critics.
Or is there a conflation here? It's certainly true that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.
But is it NECESSARILY elitist to suggest that not all opinions are equally valid?
Americans, with our democratic traditions, tend to distrust the so-called experts. Who are those pointy-headed guys,anyway? Who are they to tell me what I should or should not like?
But then what if they're not TELLING me? I mean, if my opinions conflict with theirs, I can start my own blog, right?

staging Les Miz

www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20080521_Rethinking.html

Howard Shapiro in the Phila. Inquirer, May 21:

Producer Cameron Mackintosh chose a few theaters in 2006 as places that could restage and re-envision Les Miz. (Except for cut-down school shows, it was supposed the be staged the same way everywhere since its '85 RSC premiere.)
It's opening this week at Philadelphia's Walnut Theater: no turntable, cast of 36, big one-piece barricade, emphasis on story over spectacle, numerous other staging changes. Implications for the Aug. 9-23 production at CdA Summer Theater?

don't even joke about it

Bobo sincerely apologizes to everyone he upset or frightened on Saturday morning.
Didn't mean to do it. Sorry it happened.
I guess he learned that, like terrorism and bombs in airports, suicide is not something to joke about.

For context (the allusion to the David Mamet joke-review):
See the comments to the March 3 entry on this blog, "Spoilers"
and
www.villagevoice.com/news/0811,why-i-am-no-longer-a-brain-dead-liberal,374064,1.html

also, Mamet in the May 2008 Vanity Fair, being interviewed:
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
My idea of perfect happiness is a healthy family, peace between nations, and all the critics die.

For all those of you out there with schadenfreude:
Bobo got a flat tire during the the bike portion of his triathlon Sunday and couldn't continue the race. Serves him right.

Bowen is alive and well

Michael Bowen is alive and well.
You may not think much of him as a theater critic, but he's alive.

I am very, very sorry for having caused people such anguish and worry. I am touched by your concern.
Obviously my little joke backfired badly.
Let me explain. As avid readers of this blog (are there any?) may recall, the post I just erased was based on a David Mamet joke in which he won a contest for writing a perfect something. He won for writing the "perfect" theater review. The entry I had posted was a close paraphrase of that Mamet joke.
Except it wasn't taken as a joke. And for that, I'm really sorry.

I'm driving to Walla Walla today to do a triathlon. I'm having a great day -- looking forward to it. It's beautiful. I am very sorry to have caused an uproar and scared people - mortified, actually. I've just had some wonderful, perceptive, caring phone calls from several people. It was not my intention to cause anyone any worries. I'm sorry I did so. More on Monday.

Max Mendez as Sweeney Todd at Halloween

Audition for *Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street* (concert version)
audition on Wednesday, June 25, at 6:30 pm at Spokane Civic Theatre
needed: 20-30 men and women, age 18-70
rehearsals on Sunday nights in October
performances on Halloween and Nov. 1 at 7:30 pm
If you have previously participated in an In Concert production (Jekyll & Hyde, Evita, Into the Woods), you are not required to audition for this show -- unless you want a particular role. Prepare 16 bars of a song from a role you wish to be considerered for. Bring your own sheet music.
Directed by Yvonne A.K. Johnson yvonne@spokanecivictheatre.com
Musical direction by Carolyn Jess
Max Mendez, choir director at NIC, will sing the title role.

*Man of La Mancha*: opening-night review (delayed)

An idealistic old knight asks his lady for her trust and a token of her favor; the whore responds by spitting on his quest and tossing him a dishrag. This face-off between Don Quixote and Aldonza exemplifies the conflict between face-the-facts realism and imagine-it-otherwise idealism in Man of La Mancha (at Spokane Civic Theatre through June 15).
Ever the idealist, Quixote (Patrick McHenry-Kroetch) caresses the dirty towel and pronounces it “gossamer.” Those who chuckled — and there were many in the opening-night audience — were probably thinking along the lines of “deluded old fool.” But McHenry-Kroetch’s persuasive line reading conjures the power of the imagination. If we don’t keep striving to break free of the muckheap we’re stuck on, Quixote seems to ask, then what’s a life for?
And yes, he steps up and delivers on the famous anthem that everyone remembers. Somehow he manages to combine a powerful baritone with tottering movements in "The Impossible Dream," showing us Don Quixote's vulnerability and stoic endurance in the same moment. When the tempo dwindles as Quixote contemplates being “laid to my rest,” McHenry-Kroetch lingers in repose for a moment before rousing himself to continue: resolute striving embodied in the song’s action. Galloping through the title song and holding his love-longing tight in “Dulcinea,” his performance ranges — often in the space of just a few moments — from feeble to virile, from despondent to aspiring.
Director Troy Nickerson devises some effective sequences: two stylized horses that appear out of nowhere; the way that Quixote gazes longingly at his Dulcinea and pursues her across the stage during a crowd scene; later on, a stylized rape sequence that while not ugly enough, didn't shy away from ugliness and human corruption, either.
While musical director Gary Laing’s ensemble sounded thin in the overture, it propelled the self-assertion of “It is I, Don Quixote” and provided a nicely understated, guitar-strumming introduction for an “Impossible Dream” that soon after soared.
Scenic and lighting designer David Baker bathes his Spanish dungeon in golden light at some junctures, then plunges it into ominous darkness. And his menacing drop-down staircase underscores the scariness of the Spanish Inquisition.
Nickerson's production contains many fine moments — the realistic/idealistic confrontations between McHenry-Kroetch and Tami Knoell as Aldonza, full of tension; the ensemble's energy as the costumes fly out of the trunk and the play within a play gets produced inside the prison; the pathos of the final sequence (Quixote's "death" and "resurrection"); the creepy magic of the Knight of the Mirrors episode, in which Gavin Smith’s bossy realist compels Quixote to see himself, really see himself.
But the conflict of practicality and imagination, so striking in the holding up of the mirrors, seems underemphasized elsewhere: The Civic’s *La Mancha* approximates the ideal, but it’s also, at several junctures, earth-bound. For one thing, Dale Wasserman’s book of the musical is so episodic that it prolongs the evening unnecessarily. Sure, it’s possible to explain what the scene with the padre hearing confession from two women was all about. But can anyone explain how the show would be harmed if it were cut? Similarly, the second act’s gypsy fantasia has Quixote repeatedly seeing the bright side of tawdry circumstances — which we’ve seen him doing before, repeatedly. It’s filler.
Nickerson settles for a jokey approach (slapstick muleteers, that goofball Sancho) that instead of pitting idealism against humans the way they really are, poses a debate between idealism and humanity's exaggerated silliness. Take the “it’s a shaving basin”/”no, it’s a golden helmet” sequence. Here and in the earlier praising of the kitchen trollop Aldonza, Quixote’s exaggerations are received with a kind of forehead-smacking “How can he possibly see things this way?” attitude. But what’s needed instead is more in the way of how Aldonza, being repeatedly told that she isn’t worthless at all but worthwhile, gradually is converted to Quixote’s hopeful perspective. The Golden Helmet of Mambrino is both valuable and ridiculous, and Quixote’s imaginings need to be seen through both sets of lenses.
In the early going, Knoell didn't seem to be in strong voice; later on, she wasn't bitter enough in spitting at Quixote's quest and damning humankind for the crime of being born. In “I Really Like Him” and “A Little Gossip,” Gary Pierce fails to project melodies. Then he camps up Sancho Panza’s comic mannerisms so much that the sidekick seems planted on the side of the realists instead of ever coming over to his master’s idealistic point of view.

"Love not what thou art, but only what thou may become," says Don Quixote. Idealists get such a bum rap: Realists are always decrying them as impractical, when all practicality gets us is too much focus on all the things that keep us hemmed in. The tilter at windmills is like that inconvenient, bothersome voice inside all our heads that's always urging us to do better: Being quixotic can be obnoxious.
The Civic’s *Man of La Mancha* sounds and looks great. (They may have gotten a windfall of Renaissance costumes, but Susan Berger and Jan Wanless impressively built up all those slashed sleeves and floppy breeches.) In McHenry-Kroetch’s performance generally — and in the simple way Knoell renames herself, acceding to the old knight’s vision of Dulcinea — it creates some inspiring moments. A better production, however, would have demonstrated how gritty realism is merely jaded and self-limiting, and how idealism can become self-blinding. By playing up the impracticalities of Quixote's insistence on striving for a better life, Nickerson's show settles for humor when it could have contained a genuine debate.

25 and out

The 25th Playwrights Festival Forum at Spokane Civic Theatre will also be its last. Despite a format change (six short plays performed on each of six nights, over two weekends) and the addition of acting workshops (and Sandra Hosking as a second playwright in residence, joining Bryan Harnetiaux), the Civic's board has voted to discontinue PFF. That's unfortunate, because it cuts off one of the community theater's most distinctive features.

La Mancha (very partial)

Yes, he steps up and delivers on the famous anthem that everyone remembers. Patrick McHenry-Kroetch's performance as the idealistic knight in Man of La Mancha (at the Civic through June 15) ranges from virile to feeble. Somehow in "The Impossible Dream," he manages to combine a powerful baritone with tottering movements, showing us Don Quixote's vulnerability and stoic endurance all in the same moment.
As exceptional as McHenry-Kroetch is, however, a number of factors contribute to make the Civic's production good but less than stellar. Some of it is Dale Wasserman's book, which is so episodic (especially in the first act) that most of the narrative momentum (and even coherence) is frittered away. Director Troy Nickerson settles for a jokey approach (slapstick muleteers, goofball Sancho Panza) that instead of pitting idealism against humans the way they really are, poses a debate between idealism and humanity's exaggerated silliness. In the early going as Aldonza, Tami Knoell didn't seem to be in strong voice; later on, she wasn't bitter enough in spitting at Quixote's quest and damning humankind for the crime of being born.
On the other hand, scenic and lighting designer David Baker bathes his Spanish dungeon in golden light at some junctures and has provided a menacing drop-down staircase. Nickerson directs some effective sequences: two stylized horses that appear out of nowhere; the way that Quixote gazes longingly at his Dulcinea and pursues her across the stage during a crowd scene; later on, a stylized rape sequence that while not ugly enough, didn't shy away from ugliness and human corruption, either.

"Love not what thou art, but only what thou may become," says Don Quixote. Idealists get such a bum rap: Realists are always decrying them as impractical, when all practicality gets us is too much focus on all the things that keep us hemmed in.
The tilter at windmills is like that inconvenient, bothersome voice inside all our heads that's always urging us to do better: being quixotic can be obnoxious. Nickerson's production contains many fine moments -- the realistic/idealistic faceoffs between McHenry-Kroetch and Knoell, full of tension; the ensemble's energy as the costumes fly out of the trunk and the play within a play gets produced (not too much, but not in too Spartan a fashion, either) inside the prison; the pathos of the final sequence (Quixote's "death" and "resurrection"). A better production, however, would demonstrate how gritty realism is merely jaded and self-limiting, and how idealism can become self-blinding. By playing up the impractialities of Quixote's insistence on striving for a better life, Nickerson's show settles for humor when it could have expressed a genuine debate.

(partial, draft review)

coming up in Spokane-area theater

MAY
Talking With, through May 17, CenterStage
Oleanna, Interplayers, through May 18
Hollywood Arms, through May 18, Civic Studio
Into the Woods, through May 24, Lake City Playhouse
The Tempest (reading), May 4 and 18, St. Mark's Episcopal, Moscow
Proof, through May 18, EWU
Annie, through June 8, SCT at SCC
Man of La Mancha, through June 15, Civic Main
Antigone, May 29-June 8, SFCC Spartan Theatre

JUNE
Playwrights Festival Forum, June 5-14, Civic Studio
All Shook Up, June 7-21, CdA Summer Theater
Pot Luck, June 12-15, CenterStage
Forever Plaid, June 26-July 27, Idaho Repertory Theatre
La Cage aux Folles, June 27-July 12, CdA Summer Theater
The Nerd, June 28-July 29, Idaho Rep

JULY
Alexander and the Horrible ... Day, July 3-24, Idaho Rep
The Sound of Music, July 4-Aug. 31, Leavenworth Summer Theatre
Twelfth Night, July 10-Aug. 1, Idaho Rep
Once Upon a Mattress, July 19-Aug. 2, CdA Summer Theater
Sugar (the musical version of Some Like It Hot), July 19-Aug. 29, Leavenworth Summer Theatre
Kiss Me, Kate -- July 30-Aug. 28, Leavenworth Summer Theatre
Love Letters, July 31, Idaho Rep

AUGUST
Hate Mail, Aug. 1, Idaho Rep
Les Miserables, Aug. 9-23, CdA Summer Theater
The Importance of Being Earnest, Actors Rep, Aug. 22-Sept. 6

SEPTEMBER
Doubt, Sept. 19-Oct. 4, Actors Rep
Nunsense, Sept. 19-Oct. 11, Lake City Playhouse
Capitol Steps, Sept. 20, INB Center
Oklahoma! -- Sept. 26-Oct. 26, Civic Main

... AND Best of Broadway Spokane has apparently added (for two nights only, Nov. 29-30) ... The 29th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee !

dinner theater is ending at CenterStage

CenterStage is (already?!) five years old. It has raised $40,000 this year through March, plus $65,000 in pledges it hopes to see realized by the end of this month, and has announced a capital campaign with a $225,000 goal by November.
Sprinklers may be required for all three levels; in response, the board of directors is "taking direct oversight of a five-year plan for all capital improvements."
Don Swanson becomes executive director, with Tim Behrens concentrating on being artistic director and his wife Leslie Ann Grove returning to duties as music director.
*Talking With* closes tomorrow; Behrens will do one of the McManus plays (*Pot Luck*) over Father's Day weekend; and apparently that'll be it for dinner theater at CenterStage. The board says that "dinner theatre events will be curtailed for the foreseeable future," so that "more focus" can "be placed on the success of ella's Supper Club and CenterState Catering and Events."
They're also soliciting "catchy" names for the first- and second-floor spaces.
In five years, CenterStage has paid a thousand performing artists and put on 30 theatrical productions.

Costumes, anyone?

Spokane Civic Theatre Costume Shop Sale
Saturday, May 31, from 9 am-3 pm
Buy, buy, buy!

Patrick McHenry-Kroetch

Patrick McHenry-Kroetch
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek

as Don Quixote in *Man of La Mancha*
Spokane Civic Theatre
May-June 2008

crossed swords

crossed swords
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek

*Man of La Mancha*
written by Dale Wasserman
music by Mitch Leigh
lyrics by Joe Darion
directed by Troy Nickerson
musical direction by Gary Laing
Spokane Civic Theatre, May 16-June 15, 2008

Man of La Mancha

Man of La Mancha
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek

Gary Pierce as Sancho Panza
Patrick McHenry-Kroetch as Don Quixote
in *Man of La Mancha*
Spokane Civic Theatre
May-June 2008

Performing cooperatively

A performing arts discussion group linked to the Spokane Arts commission met recently and has scheduled another meeting late this month for the purpose of exploring possibilities for a cooperative marketing association among local theaters (something along the lines of the biweekly "On Stage" group theater ad that has been running in, yes, *The Pacific Northwest Inlander.*

Less turf protection and more synergy is what's needed: Audience members who enjoy a performance at Theater A are more likely to be receptive to the idea of attending a show at Theater B. Graying audiences are sold on the idea of reading a newspaper and taking time to attend a live production; younger folks, not so much. They get their news online; consult Rotten Tomatoes more than they read full reviews; and they can see that video and audio on demand, right now to your iPhone/Blackberry/PDA is already, practically, upon us. What can theater offer them? They crave what's real: actors up in their faces, running through aisles and across overhead ramps; actors whisked in a moment from kitchen-sink realism to dream sequence to interactive exploration of what they just witnessed. Theater's on the edge in a way that let's-do-60-takes-and-make-it-perfect movies aren't. People of all ages enjoy watching the guy spin plates, even if the plates fall. (Bobo's ripping off MaryAnn Johanson's review of *Redbelt* in Thursday's *Inlander* here.)
So let's market theater to young people, all people -- and give 'em what they can't get from DVDs/ Wiis / CDs.

no Tony for Cheyenne

www.playbill.com/news/article/117686.html
and
tonyawards.com

At least he gets mentioned in literally the same sentence as Kevin Kline. Too bad. He wuz robbed.

And who's this Sondheim fellow to whom they're giving a lifetime achievement award?

Bobo got to vote (as a member of the American Theater Critics Association, la-dee-dah) on the regional theater award, which went to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. It can be revealed now, after the fact (they're very secretive about such stuff), that unlike the previous 4-5 years, there really wasn't much competition this year: CST had it in the bag.

So *August: Osage County* got seven noms (two leading actresses up against each other), but the big news is *In the Heights* getting 13 and *South Pacific* getting 11.

Four name actors competing in Actor-Play! Can Kelli O'Hara knock off Patti LuPone for Actress-Musical? Director-Musical pits Seattle's Bart Sher vs. Arthur Flippin' Laurents! Tune in a month from now!

And the Tonys' Best Actor in a Musical is ...

... a name well-known around Spokane Civic Theatre? Possibly.

Michael Kuchwara of the AP ends his Tony-nominations prognostication article this way. For best actress in a musical, he lists a few possible nominees in advance of tomorrow's announcement, then adds ...

... and maybe Kerry Butler, the roller-skating heroine of "Xanadu."
Cheyenne Jackson, Butler's co-star in "Xanadu," might gain an actor-musical nomination with other leading contenders including Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer and star of "In the Heights"; Stew, who did the same for "Passing Strange"; Tom Wopat, the beleaguered husband in "A Catered Affair"; and perhaps Roger Bart of "Young Frankenstein."

Cheyenne Jackson for "Xanadu" ... which Kuchwara calls "the quirky little musical that fashioned gold out of the most leaden movie musical ever made." Well, fingers crossed.

*Proof* at EWU

Wednesday-Sunday: May 14 and May 16-17 at 7:30 pm; 2 pm matinees on Thursday, May 15, and Sunday, May 18
University Theater, Cheney
Tickets: $5
directed by Sara Goff
Just 80 seats for each performance, right up there onstage with the actors. And Patrick Treadway is playing the mathematician-father, Robert. Goff "asked around town for an actor I could trust" and hired Treadway sight unseen.

Goff, who directed EWU's *Our Country's Good* in March, is a first-year theater professor at Eastern who arrives her with an MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, and who worked at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Her undergrad degree is from Western Illinois. She replaces Gene Engene, who retired, in the tenure-track position.

*Proof* is "an intimate play," says Goff, "so I didn't want it in a big proscenium. The set is interesting — we have the porch and the backyard behind a scrim for the opening of the play."
Goff doesn't mind maintaining a sense of ambiguity at the end of David Auburn's play. "I don't mind the mystery," she says. "Is [Catherine] crazy? I'm not sure. But when there's a play about a phenomenal father/daughter relationship that shows the fine line between genius and madness, I want to do it."

The Not-Much-Glory of Our Days

Steven Booth (Lake City High School; Cats, Smokey Joe's Cafe and Pippin at CdA Summer Theater) was all set to star as Will, the leader of the quartet of high school guys in the new Broadway musical at Circle in the Square, *Glory Days.*

After 17 previews and just one official performance, *Glory Days* has closed.
Ouch.

Whoopi for Tony

Tony nominations are out Tuesday. Whoopi Goldberg will host the June 15 telecast. She's been on Broadway herself three times — can you name the shows? (no cheating, now)

Playwrights Festival Forum, June 4-15

Six new plays in rotating repertory from June 4-14 at Spokane Civic Theatre's Firth J. Chew Studio Theatre
Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Fridays-Saturdays at 8 pm
Tickets: $14
Plays include
Will Gilman's Always
D.J. Edmiston's Workshopping Shakespeare
Bryan Harnetiaux's Antipasto
Matt Harget's 15 Minutes
Anthony Arnold's Oracle & the Scribe
Sandra Hosking's Con Science

Call Sandra Hosking at (509) 953-9928 or e-mail her at sandrahosking@hotmail.com

Also:
a one-woman show by Megan Cole on Sunday, June 15, at 1 pm -- tickets: $14
Cole will also conduct two free workshops:
a master workshop on auditions -- Saturday, June 14, from 9 am-noon
an
"Playwrights and Actors Can Be Friends" from from 2-5 pm

Actors Rep auditions on May 18

Audition for next season at Actors' Repertory Theater of the Inland Northwest
Sunday, May 18, from 1-5 pm
by appointment only
at SFCC's Spartan Theater, Bldg. 5, 3410 W. Fort George Wright Dr., Spokane
Write mweaver@actorsreptheatre.com
Call (509) 570-2745
Prepare two two-minute monologues, classical and contemporary; bring a photo and resume.

ARt will also hold season auditions in Seattle on Friday, May 9, as well as in San Francisco on Monday-Tuesday, June 2-3.
Five productions a year, 15 performances each.
Productions rehearse for three and a half weeks followed by two and a half weeks of performances. Visit www.actorsreptheatre.com.

ARt’s 2008-09 season will include The Importance of Being Earnest, Doubt, Relatively Speaking, Swansong, and Steel Magnolias, Rehearsals for the first production, The Importance of Being Earnest, begin July 28 for an Aug. 22 opening.

opening-night review of *Oleanna*

at Interplayers through May 18

David Mamet’s recent pronouncement that he is “no longer a brain-dead liberal” clarifies the imbalance in his 16-year-old play *Oleanna.* Back in 1992, the patriarchal professor seemed more condescending, his cowering student more justified in her accusations of sexual harassment. But now it’s clear where the play’s sympathies lie: It portrays the professor as well-intentioned victim, the student as vengeful harpy of thought-control.
Unlike the genuine moral quandary that a good production of John Patrick Shanley’s *Doubt* engenders (did he really do it? is she actually wrong?), Mamet’s *Oleanna* tilts its sympathies one way. If Carol comes to resent the patriarchal system of teacher-experts so much that she convinces herself it’s best to participate in the dismantling of John the professor’s life, then she is a monster of political correctness run amok. Mamet, by showing his hand, lost the opportunity to explore further the ways in which higher education fails to foster critical thinking — fails even in the straightforward task of teaching students what they don’t already know.
In the play’s second half, of course — and in unexpected ways — the teacher/student power positions are reversed. And Interplayers’ production (through May 18) is solid enough to convey the startling power of Mamet’s script. The second-act raising of the stakes, role reversals and outbreaks of rage all come as surprises. And now, years after the culture wars of the ‘90s (but still embroiled in them), it’s easier to see how grades and tenure — and getting at the truth of what education does to teachers and students, regardless of the outward trappings of achievement – might be what matters most to the almost-but-not-quite-Utopia of higher education in America.
Toward the end of the short first act — and it’s a short but thought-provoking evening, less than 90 minutes long, including the intermission — John Henry Whitaker comforts his student in a way that illustrates both the strength and weakness of his performance. Sitting on the love seat in his faculty office where he has just gotten uncomfortably close to Carol and her insecurity, Whitaker extends his arms toward her while remaining seated across the room from her. He can express compassion, all right, but he’s not really going to commit to the idea.
There’s a glimmer of payoff — as the p.c. charges mount up against him, Whitaker’s slow burn of resentment becomes seething and unsettling — but he keeps his affect too noncommital, and mostly at the same level throughout. Whitaker doesn’t really let go with John’s sarcasm about his tenure committee; there isn’t enough contempt evident. At the same time, Whitaker succeeds in conveying John’s teaching instincts: He wants his student to question her assumptions, fine, but does so in a supercilious way. He wants to teach, and doesn’t know how to talk to her; she wants to learn but lacks the necessary self-confidence. They’re both trapped, though Gunnarson has the intensity that Whitaker lacks, imbalancing the play in ways that make it seem as if the student’s playing for big stakes while the professor’s remaining too smug. Even when his character stands to lose much, Whitaker’s “Don’t you have feelings?” came off less as a *cri de coeur* than as a bored observation.

Karen Kalensky directs with energy, keeping the tempo quick and the speech interruptions staccato. She has Carol sidle up to the professor’s chair, without hitting too hard at the symbolism of a power-grab. Both actors interrupt one another and engage in a lot of sidelong, tentative glances, emphasizing the prickly terms of their debate.
Gunnarson makes her character’s transitions believable, from hyper-self-critical mouse to hypercritical mouthpiece of radical feminism. In the first act, her big eyes, long face, crumpled body language and evident sense of exasperation combine to depict a student with such low-self regard that she can’t imagine herself learning anything. Desperate for self-improvement, she turns to the first accessible teaching source she finds — not her professor, but the unspecified “Group” that indoctrinates her into leveling serious charges against John. In the early going, with her fists balled up in frustration and self-contempt, she calls herself “bad” and “stupid” — and it’s pitiable until you see her steely-eyed determination later to throw those same insults at her would-be teacher. “How do you get out of the need to fail?” she asks, poignantly, in one of the evening’s several riveting moments. Mamet may have written Carol as a villainess. but Gunnarson does a great deal to weld together the mousy/radical halves of her character.
Janna Creswell’s costumes help trace the debate’s reversals: from tweedy to dapper to disheveled for the prof, and from sloppy-casual to mannish-severe for the student. Maynard Villers has choreographed a final confrontation that packs a wallop.

*Oleanna*

*Oleanna*
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek

by David Mamet
with Piper Gunnarson and John Henry Whitaker
Spokane Interplayers Ensemble
May 1-18, 2008

Mamet at Interplayers

Mamet at Interplayers
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek

Oleanna, directed by Karen Kalensky
through May 18 at Interplayers

Gunnarson and Whitaker

Gunnarson and Whitaker
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek

Mamet's Oleanna
May 1-18, 2008
Spokane, Wash.

professor vs. student

professor vs. student
Originally uploaded by Sir Andrew Aguecheek

Piper Gunnarson and John Henry Whitaker in David Mamet's *Oleanna* at Spokane Interplayers Ensemble, May 2008; directed by Karen Kalensky