All articles published in The Lamron at SUNY Geneseo

Geva Theatre’s production of “Superior Donuts” crafts perfect combination of heart and humor

Time is winding down to see Geva Theatre’s production of “Superior Donuts,” but this funny, quietly explosive tour de force is one that can’t be missed.

The play follows an old hippie named Arthur who runs a doughnut shop in Chicago, Ill. Arthur, who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War, is haunted by what he sees as his own cowardice.

Cue an enterprising college dropout named Franco Wicks who practically wrenches a job from Arthur’s reluctant hands. Franco has about a billion ambitious ideas for improving the shop, but his real dream is to get his “great American novel” published. At first, Arthur resists Franco’s exuberant optimism, but eventually learns to hope again and fight for what matters.

For a comedy, the show has an astounding – and at times devastating – amount of heart. The dexterous wit of the dialogue never obscures the genuine emotion that permeates each scene.

Playwright Tracy Letts’ command over storytelling is incredible. He draws in viewers with his irresistibly likable characters, so that when they triumph, their joy is tangible, and when he drops the hammer on them, it’s breathtakingly painful.

Skip Greer disappears into the role of Arthur, using his scraggly beard and shuffling slouch as walls to keep out other people. James Holloway is fantastic as the enthusiastic Franco Wicks whose open and friendly demeanor makes him the perfect person to draw the hermetic Arthur out of his shell. This perfect foil relationship makes the bond between Arthur and Franco feel as real as if audience members are peering through a storefront into actual people’s lives.

Even the smaller characters are remarkably genuine, including a delightful Mary Jo Mecca as hard-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside Officer Randy Osteen. Jeffrey Evan Thomas appears in only two scenes as a giant Russian thug, but even he is allowed a few sweet, show-stealing moments.

Part of what makes “Superior Donuts” seem so intimate and real is the set, which looks so much like a real doughnut shop that it is tempting to go up and sit on one of the stools at the counter. The actors work with real props like coolers, paint and coffee machines, so the action onstage is rarely static.

“Superior Donuts” will run until Sunday April 29. Tickets start at $25 and can be reserved by calling (585) 232-4382 or visiting Geva’s website at gevatheatre.org. Student rush tickets are available for $10 with a student ID for all non-sold-out performances beginning 15 minutes before curtain time. This unforgettable show is the one to catch.

Geva Theater Center Showcases Student Talent

Every year, Geva Theatre Center’s Young Writers Showcase puts out a call to Rochester-area schools for short student plays. Out of approximately 50 plays submitted this year, six were chosen for staged readings in May and later fleshed out into a full production by professional theatre companies that ran from Oct. 22-23.

Freshman physics major Krystalyn Sadwick, one of the winning playwrights, got the idea for her 10-minute play when the phenomenon known as “hero syndrome” came up in a writers’ circle. Hero syndrome is when a character can get away with everything because they’re the hero of the story but, as Sadwick pointed out, “If you run away from the cops, they might catch you. Yes, you might get eaten by that giant.” She was especially interested in the idea that heroism could be something negative, even dangerous, and she decided to see how it would pan out for students in a dragon-slaying school.

“Hero Syndrome,” her first play, follows Mick, a new dragon-slaying recruit, as he tries to escape the authoritarian Healer who wants to cure him of his delusional fantasies, such as killing a dragon with one hand tied behind his back. In the process, his syndrome spreads hilariously to his mentor and fellow student, Caleb.

The play didn’t start immediately, and while the audience was starting to shift and mumble, one of the cast members concealed in the audience answered his cell phone, prompting angry remarks from the unsuspecting viewers around him. Their bickering escalated until the actors stormed from the seats to the stage and revealed the trick. The stunt set the tone for the rest of the play, which garnered several big laughs from the audience.

Senior Brian Clemente had a hilariously uptight take on mentor-turned-hero Caleb, and freshman Taylor Walders played Arthur, the tattletale straight-man to both Mick and Caleb. Junior Katrina Kaasik, a veteran of Geva’s Young Writers Showcase, played the terrifying healer with all the warmth of a glacier. “Every now and then you see that she’s a little bit crazy,” she said of her character.

All three student-actors were tapped by director Michael Herman, an adjunct theater professor at Geneseo who also runs the Outer Loop Theater Experience in Rochester.

“Since my company is about new work and supporting new talent, I always initially think and look to students as possibilities first,” Herman said. Professional actor Michael Sheehan played Mick, but Clemente said, “I never got the air from him that he was a professional actor and he was above us.” Kaasik agreed and added that, “Because it’s a young writer’s thing everyone wants to help each other out.”

The actors and directors were afforded a lot of creative input. “You want to respect the work but if something’s not working you have to bring it up,” Clemente said. “[Sadwick] was very willing to go along with our thoughts.” Sadwick responded well to the criticism and wrote two more drafts after the initial reading, which culminated in the fun and energetic show that premiered at Geva.

“It wasn’t what I imagined at all,” Sadwick said, adding that it was still fun to see the audience interpretation side of things that you don’t get from other mediums. After the first staged reading, she said she realized, “what I think is perfectly clear isn’t,” and that on stage “it’s easier to see what people are having trouble with.”

According to Herman, the showcase is helpful because “the actors get exposure into the play development process,” and it “gives hope to aspiring and emerging playwrights” by providing them with a support group in the theater community.

Striking production of RENT takes over Wadsworth Auditorium

Winter may not seem like the season of love, but Vocal Miscellany’s production of RENT will give Geneseo something to sing about.

RENT follows a ragtag band of irreverent artists through a year of living, struggling, laughing and crying together in the New York’s Bohemian Lower East Side. Relationships bloom, tempers flare, and hearts break as each character tries to find their place in a world stricken by AIDS and corporate greed.

The cast pumps up the energy in “Rent,” the first full ensemble song that combines full, fantastic vocals with visually absorbing choreography. Other group numbers are just as dazzling, with excellent vocal balance and clever movement which often explodes off the stage and draws the audience into the show.

Though the entire cast is remarkably talented, several standouts deserve recognition. Junior Jake Roa plays dying composer Roger Davis with a riveting, desperate intensity that absorbs the audience, especially in his heartbreaking and beautifully rendered solo, “One Song Glory.”

Senior MaryElisabeth Kimbark is dynamic and vibrant as club dancer Mimi Marquez, transitioning from vivacious to vulnerable on a dime. Her vocal talent shines in both solos and ensemble songs.

The part of performance artist Maureen Johnson is played hilariously by junior Becky Hoffman, who steals the end of Act I with her side-splitting “Over the Moon” musical monologue.

Even the actors in smaller background roles are remarkably distinctive, immersing themselves in quirky characters that are just as interesting to watch as the leads. Senior Leora Bernstein belts a stratospheric descant in “Seasons of Love” and Michelle Geisler is hysterical as both a binocular-toting bum and a worried Jewish mother.

The graffiti-covered set has a grungy charm, filled with ladders, tables, and stairs that the dancers exploit to the fullest. With actors regularly scattered across every level of the stage, the visual energy is explosive. The set also presents one of the musical’s biggest problems. Due to its minimalistic variations from scene to scene, it’s often hard to place the characters both spatially and temporally, and the audience is forced to rely solely on dialogue cues to figure out when and where they are. On occasion, the skilled pit band or the ensemble overpowers the solos in volume, and vital lyrics by some of the quieter cast members get lost in the jumble.

But what the crew lacks in sound quality they make up for in spectacular lighting effects. In the opening number alone there were more lighting changes than one often sees in an entire show, and the transitions were effortless and dazzling.

Vocal Miscellany’s production of RENT is one of the first performances by a college in the Western New York area since its twelve-year Broadway run ended in September 2008. The RENT ensemble returned to Geneseo on January 3 and practiced up to nine hours a day, an effort that shows in their crisp and impassioned performance.

RENT will play in Wadsworth Auditorium from January 28- 30 at 8 p.m. Tickets are on sale in the Brodie Box Office.