By Jim Lowe
Staff Writer
On Aug. 7, Weston Playhouse premiered Vermont’s first entry into the world of original post COVID-19 streamed theater. In “One Room,” 14 short one-person plays, commissioned by Vermont’s oldest professional theater, face the sequestered life of the pandemic in intriguing ways, from tragic to comic, but mostly intriguingly human. (They can be viewed, together as a 97-minute compilation or individually, on YouTube via the theater’s website.)
And the positive response wasn’t limited to Vermont. It was immediately named a New York Times “Critic’s Pick” by co-chief theater critic Jesse Green.
“This collection of 14 original works,” Green wrote in his review, “most of them 5 to 8 minutes long, makes a case for the solo direct-address form as the irreducible essence of theater, an essence that even a pandemic (or iPhone) can’t denature.”
So far, theater has had the least success of major art forms during the pandemic, but there’s no giving up. The night before Weston’s premiere, the Berkshire Theatre Group opened its production of “Godspell” in a tent behind the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the first production — and only so far — to meet the onerous requirements of Actors’ Equity Association (the actors’ union to which Weston is also contracted) in the United States.
The night before that, Opera North opened its socially distanced concert production of Mozart’s fairy tale opera, “The Magic Flute,” outdoors at the Blow-Me-Down Farm in Cornish, New Hampshire. The production, featuring 10 young professional singers and a 24-piece orchestra, minimally staged, was repeated Aug. 8. It was the first live opera production — and only so far — in the United States.
But, so far, no live theater in Vermont.
“One Room” opened Weston Playhouse’s Reimagined Season 2020 in response to the limitations of the pandemic. Leading American playwrights were commissioned to create plays that explore the questions: “What makes a home?” and “What stories might be hiding in its ordinary rooms?” Each writer was joined by a professional director and actor to record their monologues.
The result, despite the limitations of one actor, were often — though not always — compelling. The New York Times and I are in total agreement as to the most powerful. Green wrote:
“In the evening’s standout, a play by Noelle Viñas called ‘Zoom Intervention,’ a mother undergoing chemotherapy talks online to her son, a drug addict she can no longer allow into her home. (The emotional danger he has always brought with him is also now a literal one.) Simple as the setup is, the Off Broadway treasure Liza Colón-Zayas gives it the full complexity of drama: Her wrenching, radiant performance imbues the mother with so much love that it nearly (but not quite) swamps her anger.”
Taking a poke at 21st-century romance, David Cale’s “The Actor,” the woman tells of her affair with a colleague while filming on location. Her husband’s response, including a bit of revenge, brings the woman to an unexpected new — and happier — place. Director Sunday Evans creates a homey atmosphere, with virtually nothing, that makes the intimacy of the storytelling irresistible.
The Times found the happy ending of “The Actor” “shallow,” which I attribute to New York City theater cynicism. A Vermont hick, I found it touching and satisfying.
Susanna Gellert, Weston’s executive artistic director, directed the humorous “Goodnight Nobody” by Alena Smith. Michael Braun is the young man who tells of the old woman next door who unexpectedly left him a small fortune. It twists and turns with wit and charm while remaining unexpected.
The productions boast some star power, too. Dael Orlandersmith, familiar to Weston audiences as playwright and actress, wrote “before the witching hour/pandemic blues,” a poetic look at New York City in the pandemic. Alfre Woodard is a kindergarten teacher waxing eloquent in In Will Eno’s “A Room of Nobody Else’s.”
Perhaps most charming is Dana Delany in “The Visitations,” directed by Mike Donahue, trying to decide whether she’s being visited by ghosts or is losing it. It’s a delightful comic romp.
Is this satisfying theater? Hardly. But it’s a step we need to be taking on the way there — whenever there happens to be.
Weston will continue its Reimagined Season 2020 later this summer with “Songs for Today,” introducing new works from Weston’s family of musical theater writers, expressing in song the stories they want to tell today. For “Postcard Plays,” a multi-media exploration of story and form, commissioned writers will respond to a picture postcard of a rural American image by Skye Chalmers with a play script, which will premiere this fall. And “Beyond the Fourth Wall” will be an educational series of interviews, discussions, and special guest appearances, hosted by Gellert.
Weston Playhouse is making substantial moves in the direction of tomorrow’s theater.
Jim Lowe is theater critic and arts editor of The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus and the Rutland Herald, and can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]
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