[NEOPAL]Berko review: Humana Festival

[Roy Berko]

Humana Festival is theatre-goers dream weekend

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	


>From May 2 through the 21st, the Cleveland Play House
complex will be host to FusionFest, an ambitious
offering of new works.  The events will include
presentations from Cleveland Opera, the Cleveland
Museum of Art, Verb Ballets, the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Dobama Theater, Karamu House, Jewish
Community Center, City Music Cleveland, Cleveland
School of the Arts, and Shaker Heights High School. 

Thus, CPH will be the only regional theatre in the
country offering a new works festival that includes
opera, ballet, theatre, dance and music.  But, it is
not the only venue to offer new works.   One of the
most exciting and ambitious is the Humana Festival of
New American Plays which is now in its 30th year at
the Actors Theatre of Louisville.  Humana is so well
regarded that the American Theatre Critics Association
presents its yearly awards during the festival.

>From March 31 to April 2, the festival hosted theatre
reviewers and drama professionals.  In two-and-a-half
days attendees saw eight selections which, in reality
were 6 full-length plays, 3 ten-minute plays and 17
short plays (‘NEON MIRAGE’).

Each script received a full-scale professional
production, not just a staged reading.  The shows had
professional casts and the technical work was top
flight.  The authors were all well established
scribes.   Major play script publishers, theatrical
agents, representatives from major theatres looking
for scripts to produce were all present.  A well
received production could mean a lot of money and fame
for an author.

It was interesting to hear informal comments about
each play from representatives of papers such as
Variety and representatives from New York, Los
Angeles, San Diego, St. Louis, Miami and Cleveland. 
Yes, Cleveland was well represented.  Tony Brown of
the PLAIN DEALER and I were there representing the
critics.  Joyce Casey of Dobama Theatre, David
Shimotakaraha and Pandora Robertson of Groundworks
Dance were also present.  And local playwright Eric
Coble had his play ‘NATURAL SELECTION’ staged.  

The likes and dislikes of the viewers reflected their
theatrical philosophies.  One reviewer, who favored
esoteric and cutting edge scripts, praised ‘HOTEL
CASSIOPEIA’ and ‘ACT A LADY.’  The former, by Charles
L. Mee, mirrored the life of artist Joseph Cornell,
who used articles of junk to create his collages. 
Like his art, the script was a fragmented view of
Cornell’s longing, loneliness and heartbreak.  The
latter, by Jordan Harrison, was a gender-bending fable
of a play-within-a-play which attempted to display the
power of the theatre to illustrate the male within
every female and the female within every male.   I
found both plays wanting.

Though praised for the performance by its author,
‘LOW’ by Rha Goddess was too long and a bit preachy. 
The African American writer probed mental illness, how
to cope with drugs and the plight of the homeless. 
Cutting the last ten minutes would add much to the
power of the script and intensify its meaning.  We
didn’t need the morale preached to us.

I felt the best shows were Sharr White’s ‘SIX YEARS,’
Theresa Rebecks’ THE SCENE’ and ‘Eric Coble’s ‘NATURAL
SELECTION.’  Though all could use some doctoring, they
each held the audience’s attention and I could see
them as a candidate for being staged by one of
Cleveland’s professional or semi-professional
theatres.

‘SIX YEARS’ concerned a World War II veteran who fails
to return to his wife and family for six years
following the conflict.  The play examines damaged
souls who, by the closing curtain, have flipped in
their security.  Though the ending is a little self
evident, the emotional highs and lows are audience
involving.  This might be a script that
convergence-continuum would want to explore.

‘THE SCENE,’ which takes place in New York, concerns
four people who find themselves playing scenes in
their lives, scenes which reveal each of their
vulnerabilities and motives.   The script is ready for
production.  With an excellent cast it could  be
positively received by a traditional audience.  It’s a
show that would fit nicely in a Dobama or Beck’s
studio theatre season.

In ‘NATURAL SELECTION’ Eric Coble digs into his years
of living on American Indian reservations to examine
what life might be like in the not-so-distant future
when the only way to replenish the “stock” of the
Culture Fiesta Theme Park’s Native American Pavilion
is to venture into the wastelands of North America and
find one.  It forces the viewer to examine living in a
world in which people find reality in cyberspace.  It
also examines the changing role of culture.  At times
paralleling the Noah story, the observer is forced
into the Native American concept of the flood, the
fifth world of the land of the rainbow.   

Though the ending is a little dragged out, with some
retooling, the play could do well in an off-Broadway
or theatre which has a thinking audience.  The script
is generally surreal, funny, and engaging.  Several
reviewers shared that ‘NATURAL SELECTION’ was their
favorite show.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  The Humana Festival is a
theatre-goer’s all-you-can-view opportunity.  
Hopefully, the Cleveland Playhouse’s FusionFest can do
for the local theatre and the Northcoast area what
Humana has done for Louisville.


Roy Berko's web page can be found at www.royberko.info.  His theatre and dance reviews appear on NeOHIOpal, an on-line source.   To subscribe to this free service via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.fredsternfeld.com/mailman/listinfo/neohiopal.

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