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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Actors’
Summit offers clever comedy about smart technology <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns
= "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">News-Herald,
Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times
Courier<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">This
review appeared in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Times </I>papers
11/12/09</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">“Lo!
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Men have become the tools of their
tools.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">So
lamented philosopher Henry David Thoreau in his reflections on the decay of
humankind at the hands of new technology.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Of
course, this was written in 1854, before the telephone.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Today, with instantaneous, omnipresent
electronic communications infiltrating every facet of our personal and
professional lives, we are plugged in, interconnected and multi-tasking.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thoreau would be grief-stricken.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">One
man’s pain is local playwright Eric Coble’s pleasure.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">For Better</I>, currently on stage at the
Actors’ Summit theatre in Hudson, Mr. Coble offers his unique satirical
perspective on how wired we have all become in this age of wireless
technology.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His romantic comedy
revolves around a group of young professionals and their significant others—that
is, their iPhones, laptops, Bluetooths and Blackberries.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Karen
is preparing for her marriage to a man she has come to love through texting,
tweeting and email.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Her sister,
Francine, and brother-in-law, Michael, live a long-distance relationship where
technology simultaneously brings them closer together and tears them further
apart.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Their friends Stuart and
Lizzie are excessively connected, technologically, but find themselves very much
alone.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">On
the outside of all this techno-activity is Karen’s father, Wally. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He is much like Thoreau--perplexed and
perturbed by all these new-fangled inventions.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He yearns for the simpler times, when a
phone was just a phone.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">To
showcase the miscommunication that occurs in this new age of telecommunications,
the playwright rarely places his characters in the same location at the same
time, yet requires them to share the stage.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Director A. Neil Thackaberry addresses
this challenge by choreographing rather than staging this production.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Performers strategically and fluidly
move about in the same space as if to music, engaging in e-conversation but not
each other.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Also
well choreographed are the wonderful moments when dialogue mutates into the
controlled chaos of cross-conversations, </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN">three-party
conference calls, and simultaneously read instant messages and emails.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is executed to perfection by a very
talented six-member cast.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Less
well executed are some of their acting choices.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Constance Thackaberry as Karen, Sally
Groth as Francine and Larry Seman as their Dad make it difficult to find real
people in the rather broadly drawn caricatures the playwright has created for
them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They have impeccable comic
timing, but they tend to play their satire too big for the intimate Actors’
Summit theatre space, which is inconsistent with the other performances.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Keith
Stevens as Michael, and Tony Zanoni and Jen Walker as his friends, Stuart and
Lizzie, turn in more natural performances.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>They manage to balance believable personas with absolutely hilarious
delivery.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The drunken
cross-continental phone conversation between Michael and Stuart is a master
class in comedy.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">A
particularly impressive piece of acting involves Mr. Zanoni and the Verizon
catchphrase “can you hear me now?”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Intended as a clever advertisement for trouble-free wireless service, the
catchphrase has come to mean quite the opposite and is a running joke in the
play.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mr. Zanoni cleverly
transforms it into his character’s personal call of
desperation.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">There
is no better evidence that men have, indeed, become the tools of their
tools.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">For
Better</SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
is a clever comedy about smart technology and the people who use it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The play runs until November 22.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For tickets, which range from $26 to $29
($7 for full time students), call 330-342-0800 or contact
<U>www.actorssummit.org</U>. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>