<font size="4">Oxygen-depletingly FUNNY--all the more so because the
situations are all familiar! Lissy Gulick<br></font><br><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cuser%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">WORTH A DATE</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br>
</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘Romantic Fools’ offers a humorous take on love</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">January
17, 2011 by <a href="http://the330.com/author/akron-beacon-journal/" title="Posts by
Akron Beacon Journal">Akron Beacon Journal</a> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kerry Clawson<br>
Beacon Journal staff writer </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many people would agree
that trying to find the right mate is one hairy proposition.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Playwright Rich Orloff
expands on the many humorous possibilities this quest for romance may take in
his two-person comedy <i>Romantic Fools</i>, starring Shani Ferry and Keith
Stevens at Actors’ Summit in downtown Akron. That includes
everything from a caveman showing up at a woman’s door for a blind date to a
Stepford husband driving his wife crazy with his perfection.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Actors’ Summit presents 10 of the
play’s original 12 scenes, each a sketch comedy in its own right. Oberlin
graduate Orloff also wrote <i>Big Guys, </i>a comedic<i> </i>riff on
unscrupulous business executives that Actors’ Summit produced in 2009.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The theater is using its
production of <i>Romantic Fools</i> as an opportunity to give some young
directors experience. Directing is shared by co-artistic director Neil
Thackaberry and Peter Voinovich, Daniel Taylor and Shawn Galligan.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The comedy’s leading
lady and man bring to life the many outlandish mutations love may take with
ease and humor, with both holding the stage for nearly two hours.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This comedy has a
men-are-from-Mars-women-are-from-Venus core that receives a bit of an edgy treatment.
That includes numerous references to foreplay, sex and body parts that actually
add up to a sweet brand of humor when heard in context.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s a relationship
laugh fest for grown-ups, given some of the play’s strong language and sexual
references.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The play succeeds in
blowing up all of our neuroses about dating to over-the-top proportions. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ferry’s a tiny dynamo as
a hot-cold dating interest who gives new meaning to sending a man mixed
signals.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or how about the bar
scene where the woman doesn’t accept a drink because her mind jumps to the
heartache, chaos and divorce that will ensue if she dares to become involved?
That relationship’s spent before it’s started.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Voinovich directs one of
the funniest scenes in the play, when an unlikely aphrodisiac leads to a tryst
behind a couch that has the couple flinging various items of clothing and
undergarments toward the audience.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Stevens, who’s the male
love interest for most of the play, also takes a turn as an over-the-top
wedding planner with really bad quips. But his finest moment comes when his
bachelor Andrew dives into a huge pasta bowl in search of an engagement ring.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The play’s battles of
the sexes turn into the perfect visual power struggle when the man and woman
arm-wrestle atop a bar while flinging insults at each other. Accomplished
comedic actors Ferry and Stevens layer insult upon insult with perfect
alacrity.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But later, as their
characters pretend to get into a knock-down fight during some prenuptial
jitters, they create a feeling of genuine love and affection.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sure, Orloff’s material
contains plenty of male-female stereotypes. But it’s the truths we see in these
tales’ extremes that make us laugh.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br></span></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Comedy: </span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Romantic Fools.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Through Jan. 30, 8 p.m.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Actors’ Summit, Greystone Hall, 103 S. High St., Akron.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Onstage:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Shani Ferry and Keith
Stevens.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Offstage:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Rich Orloff,
playwright; Neil Thackaberry, Shawn Galligan, Daniel Taylor and Peter
Voinovich, directors; Amanda Lin Boyd, stage manager; MaryJo Alexander,
costumes/props; Kevin Rutan, lighting; Taylor and Voinovich, sound.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tickets:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> $27-$30; senior
citizens $24 Thursdays and Sundays; students, $7. Additional dinner option $25
each or $10 for children 12 and under, through this Sunday. Dinner begins at 6
p.m. before evening performances, or after matinee performances.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="4"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Information:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> 330-374-7568 or <a href="http://www.actorssummit.org/">http://www.actorssummit.org</a>.</span></font></p>
<font size="4"><br clear="all"></font><br>-- <br>Neil Thackaberry<br>Co-artistic Director<br>Actors' Summit, a professional theater<br>103 South High Street<br>6th Floor<br>Akron OH 44308<br><div style="display: inline;">
</div><br>
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