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June 17, 2004
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June 17, 2004 |
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Kids Playhouse marks milestone with musical
A wide swooping of the arms and a dramatic swish of hips coupled with incessant prattle create the kind of energy with attitude that YS Kids Playhouse director John Fleming wants from the scene-stealing Starlets on stage. The cacauphonous commotion sets the stage for the precise moment when the air is sliced in two and everything cedes to the comic line. “Comedy is spontaneous,” Anna Forster said during a YSKP rehearsal earlier this week. “Some comedy is physical comedy,” Michaela Greco said. “I’ve said the funniest lines with just a monotone voice,” Maggy Hild said. The actors in Summersglow, the first of two productions YSKP will present this summer, proferred suggestions about how they had learned to create comedy during the last three weeks, when they rehearsed for five hours a day, every day. They agreed that timing was central to the comic formula. In other words, keep moving, and as their mantra goes, no personal 15 minutes of fame allowed. The way Fleming explained it, comedy is “all about rhythm.” He communicated the play’s rhythm by clapping a fixed but lively beat to teach the cast to feel a common tempo. The rhythm dictates the stylized, visual physicality that focuses on body shape, movement and well-timed dialogue to elicit laughter and emotion and to communicate beyond the script, he said. Fleming’s sophisticated approach to youth theater parallels the profound and contemporary message of Summersglow and challenges the young people to grow beyond their comfort zone and raise their awareness of both personal performance and group cohesion. In short, he pushes them hard. “I think that YSKP as a kid theater is kind of moot at this point,” he said. “It’s as sophisticated as any other theater, and this particular show is very ambitious.” Summersglow, written by Minneapolis playwright George Sand, marks the 10th anniversary of the Kids Playhouse. It is also the eighth original script commissioned for the theater. According to cast members, the production is about a film director who in the making of a musical is forced to deal with the capitalist commercial entities that threaten to compromise her artistic vision. Two things that add to the musical’s unique realization are the original score by musician and former Yellow Springs resident Tucki Bailey, and the technical prowess of Springfield video artist Brian Springer. The show makes use of three video cameras and a stage sprinkled with TV screens of all sizes and shapes that beg the questions: what is reality and how do we hold on to what’s really important in the face of cultural and media pressures? The cast includes 34 youth, ages 9 to 17, from Yellow Springs, Dayton, Springfield and Xenia. This summer’s second production, Parrot, will be performed at the end of July and involves an additional 30 youth, Fleming said. One fifth of the youth come from outside Yellow Springs, which increases the cultural diversity in the village and helps support the village’s efforts for residential and business growth, Fleming said. After this year YSKP will lose its company manager, Diane Davis, who has been with the theater almost since its inception and has played an instrumental role in its growth, Fleming said. Davis helped create a board and directed most of the administrative work behind the scenes. She plans to remain on the board, but will turn over her management responsibilities to Lisa Hunt of Springfield at the end of this season. Summersglow opens next Wednesday, June 23, and continues Thursday–Sunday, June 24–27, and Wednesday–Saturday June 30–July 3, at the Antioch Amphitheater. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m.
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