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style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#3c3c3c>Ensemble’s ‘Alabama Story’ strikes a familiar,
formidable chord</FONT></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
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align=center><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Member, American Theatre Critics Association</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">Kenneth Jones’ “Alabama Story” may have
been a 2014 </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>finalist
for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, but the play – currently
on stage at Ensemble Theatre – seems inspired by the works of Harper Lee and
</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Thornton
Wilder</SPAN></FONT><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">.</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Like “To Kill a
Mockingbird,” this play is a social-justice drama that </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
color=#222222>addresses issues of race, class and gender in the American Deep
South in the not-so-distant past.</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"> </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">It is based on the
true story of how a gentle and agenda-free </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ">children’s book about the forest nuptials of two bunnies –
one black and the other white – stirs </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">the blind passion of
a segregationist Alabama State Senator (</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-family: tahoma">Joseph
Milan)</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: tahoma">
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">in
Montgomery, the Cradle of the Confederacy, in 1959.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "> His campaign to rid the South of </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">“The Rabbits’
Wedding” crosses swords with graciously defiant librarian Emily Reed
(</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-family: tahoma">Anne
McEvoy) and her protective young assistant (<SPAN style="COLOR: ">Cody
Kilpatrick Steele</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: tahoma">).</SPAN></FONT><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"></SPAN></P>
<P style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#222222>And, as does “Our Town,” the story unfolds
metatheatrically and the storytelling is intriguingly
romanticized.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
color=#222222 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#373737>Everything on stage is presented in a slightly heightened manner
as c</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
color=#222222>haracters occasionally direct-address the audience, time and place
become pliable, and a self-aware central character </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">assumes </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#373737>control over the onstage action.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
color=#373737 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#373737>Director Tyler Whidden does a marvelous job of
making all this work in Ensemble Theatre’s Ohio premiere production of this
play.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#373737><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'>For
more of this article, go to </SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>