Mike Schulz: State of the Art: Area Theatre 2008

Here are a few articles in the end of the year River Cities Reader and snippets about some of our shows and actors.
"Consequently, RCReader.com also offers a more exhaustive - and potentially exhausting - look at 2008's theatrical achievements with three additional articles: "Acting Class: A Dozen Memorable Performances"; "Take Five(s): Ensembles, Pairings, Debuts, Technical Achievements, Shockers, and Accidents"; and "Summer's Stock: May through August with the Area's Seasonal Theatre Troupes."

The Essentials 2008: A Dozen Names to Remember
Jaci Entwisle
Some area performers are known for their work at a specific area venue. Given time, Entwisle might be known for her work at all of them. A senior at St. Ambrose University, she performed for no less than five different theatre groups in 2008, bringing her sharp focus, beguiling ease, and justifiable confidence - to say nothing of that beautifully rich, low voice of hers - to each and every one. Entwisle appeared in The Taming of the Shrew, Life's a Dream, and The Merchant of Venice (also serving as that production's lighting master) alongside the Prenzie Players, portrayed one of Almost, Maine's romantics at Harrison Hilltop, gave a hysterical performance in the Riverbend Theatre Collective's Kimberly Akimbo, delivered a charismatic female lead in Playcrafters' Promises, Promises, and even found time for a show at St. Ambrose, joining in the merriment of Seussical Jr. Just imagine what Entwisle can accomplish after May, when she finally has some time on her hands ... !

Eddie Staver III
Saying that Staver is a really good actor is like saying that Quad Cities winters can get really cold. It's true, of course, but you know ... . Duh. In 2008, this frequent one-man show was a literal one in the Green Room's Fully Committed, and offered a thrillingly volatile Sam Byck in the venue's Assassins. Staver was a spectacularly sloshed Christopher Sly for the Prenzie Players' The Taming of the Shrew, and gave a feral, stunningly brave performance in the group's Life's a Dream. Circa '21 recruited him for the summer comedy Empty Nest, and again for autumn's The Full Monty. He provided subtlety and a powerful "Stella-a-a-a!!!" for Harrison Hilltop's A Streetcar Named Desire. And he ended his year opposite Kimberly Furness - Streetcar's Blanche DuBois - in the Curtainbox's dramatic romance Danny & the Deep Blue Sea. If you saw even three of those shows, you have a good idea of Staver's protean talents. If you didn't see even two of them, you were missing out.

Acting Class: A Dozen Memorable Performances
Chris Moore, The Taming of the Shrew.
This Prenzie Players offering was the only 2008 play I saw twice, which makes me doubly floored by Moore's superbly crafted, devastatingly funny Petruchio; boasting an exquisitely relaxed command of Shakespearean language, the actor was authoritative and sincere, and his offhanded wit had me laughing 'til I cried. Unfortunately, Moore's brilliant turn was our one and only chance to catch the actor in theatrical action this year. Would asking for at least twice as much theatrical output in 2009 be asking too much?

Take Five(s): Ensembles, Pairings, Debuts, Technical Achievements, Shockers, and Accidents
Shockers

The Merchant of Venice.
Shakespeare purists might've griped, and not without reason, about the liberties taken in this Prenzie Players production. But when, within the show's first few minutes, the subtextual romantic entanglement between Andy Koski's Antonio and J.C. Luxton's Bassanio was made quite obvious - via some enthusiastic action on a strategically placed couch - you were surprised not just by this newly overt relationship, but by how dramatically (and subversively) it made you re-think the Bard's entire play.

Life's a Dream.
One of Eddie Staver III's acting gifts is that he nearly always appears emotionally naked on stage. In this Prenzie Players take on Pedro Calderón's classic, he was oftentimes required to be physically naked, as well. As the man-beast Sigesmund, Staver's scenes in his jail cell were ferociously daring, but there was nothing tawdry about his costume-less stunt; the actor made such an imploring connection with his audience and fellow performers that it's doubtful anyone was looking anywhere but into his eyes.

...Unexpected and (Happy) Accidents

The Taming of the Shrew.
Prenzie Players offerings frequently open with a half-hour "pre-show" in which you're shown what characters are up to in the 30 minutes prior to the first words of text. For March's Shakespeare comedy, the play was preceded by an open-mic event - included to help explain Christopher Sly's drunkenness - in which actors and audience members were invited to share a song or a reading. And while the show's opening night was filled with hilarious moments, I'm not sure any topped the monologue delivered by Andy Koski, who enacted a tonally perfect interpretation of ... Keanu Reeves in Johnny Mnemonic. "Whoa," indeed.

The Merchant of Venice.
October's Prenzie Players production, meanwhile, unofficially began with Koski and fellow actor Stephanie Moeller standing outside the Village Theatre, begging passers-by to boycott the evening's performance. (The production's profanity and gay relationship, their characters insisted, were in very poor taste.) On my way into the venue, the duo came up to me and initiated a debate on theatrical propriety. I happily played along. And afterwards, I spent five minutes fielding questions from two fellow attendees convinced that the stunt was real, with one gentleman stating that if this closed-minded pair had approached him, "I would've given them a piece of my mind!"
Man, I love theatre.