News & Reviews

FLC actors make the most of the amphitheater
May 30, 2006
By Zane Lyon | Special to the Herald

Fort Lewis College's new summer series "Voices in American Drama" got off to an exceptional start Thursday. Warm weather and a cloudless sky greeted the nearly 40 people who gathered outside at the campus amphitheater to see the first in the series: "An Evening of Experimental Shorts," and the discussion that followed.

The summer’s dramatic readings in the Voices in American Drama series started Thursday in the Fort Lewis College Amphitheater. The series will continue on the last Thursday of every month through August at 8 p.m.

In June, the players will read "Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas," a political comedy about the Senate race between Helen Douglas and Richard Nixon. Admission is free. A discussion will be held after the performance.

Auditions also will be held for the July and August readings at the Fort Lewis College Theatre Building, 6 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. Saturday. Bring a prepared monologue or material will be provided. Call Tina Satter at (971) 222-5088.

Readings were done with scripts in hand and props were minimal, limited to only chairs and crates. The focus was on dialogue, which ranged widely during the six selections, each of which ran from 10 to 20 minutes.

The pace made for an often-shifting mood, ranging among comedy, drama, poetry and violence. Even a touch of sci-fi found its way in. The theme of personal relationships remained constant: how we have them, lose them and are changed by them.

"Obligation," the opening act, featured conversations taken from a full-length play by James Ashby, directed by Lisa Kramer. Actors Gage VanderMeer and Stephen Juhl played a couple looking back at dating, marriage, and their pragmatic decision to finally fall in love on their fifth wedding anniversary. Sharing traits with "Annie Hall,", VanderMeer's role as the increasingly shrill wife, and Juhl's monotonal "whatever you say dear" husband, created a halting discourse that reached near absurdity.

In contrast, Don Doane built up a tense, subdued atmosphere with the next piece, "Dreams in Smoke"by Cliff Hershman, directed by Tina Satter. In an argument with his son (Chris Calagias), Doane did an admirable job portraying a father who had given over his control and his family to his failures.

The works of local writers were featured. Isolation and longing in deep space were the subject of two monologues by Kurt Lancaster, an assistant professor at Fort Lewis, who directed his own pieces. Desiree Henderson read the monologues in a compelling and emotional display. The excerpts were from "Letters from Orion," performances from which can be seen online at lettersfromorion.com. "A Single Dram of Heaven, a work by Tina Satter, another local writer and the production coordinator behind the summer series, was also showcased.

"Unrest" by Katie Griesar, the most experimental short, that was the highlight of the evening. Joseph Martinez wandered between fear, infatuation, and denial as a writer trying to reinvent his memories of April, a dead lover. Martinez's character tries to remove himself from his past through transference and transformation, turning his guilt and passions into real demons. At the height of his paranoia even his tape recorder assumes the voice of April and begins talking back. In the final scene Martinez lays April to rest, kissing her goodbye, but his earlier displays of madness leave the situation feeling far from resolved and the audience unsettled.