Allan Edmands and Zoë West in Bird-On-A-Cliff’s Proximity.
Starting this weekend (Thursday, December 1, Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3) and running (with the exception of Saturday, December 10) thru next weekend we look forward to Proximity, an original play by actor, musician, playwright, Steve Russomano directed by Bird-On-A-Cliff’s guiding light, David Aston-Reese. The one act satire will be performed at Woodstock’s Community Center, which — being a de-sanctified church — is most “site specific,” as Proximity concerns a down and out church. “Thank God, for the Community Center, because no House of the Lord in town would dare have us,” enthuses Bird-On-A-Cliff’s Elli Michaels. The company, which has been providing Woodstock with outdoor Shakespeare performances for over a decade, is to be congratulated for producing an unknown playwright in a season which traditionally rewards “old chestnuts.” The play stars Zoë West, Allan Edmands, Chris Bailey, Morgan Thrapp, co-producer Elli Michaels, and this year’s hardest working local actress, Terri Mateer. For details see birdonacliff.org.
No one quite knows whether PAW will be invited back to the Town Hall for its 2012 season. Town Supervisor-elect Jeremy Wilber (who began his first, unsuccessful, bid for town office as a playwright penning scathingly scatological tracts plumbing the septic dysfunction of a then politically constipated township, performed at the “site specific” Town Hall, which, in those days hunkered nearby a rather-ripe smelling section of the Sawkhill Creek) made welcoming comments during his campaign. In it s present configuration the side-of-a-shoebox stage remains a singularly challenging space. And while PAW might indeed be most grateful to be re-instated, “a colony of the arts,” could and should do much better for its 50-year-old-local-theater company. This year PAW’s coffer-refilling “WinterFest,” hosted by the Kleinert-James Arts Center, will feature Funny Stories by our own award-winning Audrey Rapoport and her LA-based comedic colleague, story-teller James Judd. It should be noted that St. Gregory’s Church of Woodstock has offered to extend its vaulted space to PAW again, and that rave reviews concerning the hospitality of that sanctuary-on-loan to actors on the lam, was noted by one an all during the run of Lucy.
Shaun Kanter, of Voice-theater, back briefly in Woodstock between productions of her own plays in various U.S. cities, “can’t quote an exact title,” because she hasn’t yet secured the rights, but hopes to follow the groundswell of excitement surrrounding this summer’s living-room production of Hay Fever, with another play set with actors interspersed with audience, in the not-too distant future.
It’s difficult to pin-point the exact source of my fascination with this most minimal mode of theater. Essentially it concerns a strange amalgam of humility and virtuosity; humility, because the actor is denied a large audience with which to fan their ego. There is also humility on the part of some audience members who, prior to such immediacy, have considered acting little more than “pretending to be somebody else.” Virtuosity, because that spectator will undergo an intimacy with actors unavailable in traditional theater; an intimacy which, when produced “on screen,” is — after all — a picture thrown on a wall. In fact, the audience in site-specific theater is called upon to rise to a new level of appreciation. For instance, the rustling of a program, or the gratuitous clearing of a windpipe, becomes unacceptable. And lastly, virtuosity, because the actor is so nakedly near that the role must be perfectly integrated within the role-player, or “the act” is soon spotted and “the actor” ratted out. It’s like swimming with sharks, but just who is the power, that is, “hunter,” and who the hunted, can switch from actor to spectator in a second. We may be overwhelmed and in awe, or unimpressed and — in most apparent and abject apathy…merciless in our blank lack of appreciation. It might then be concomitant upon the audience to feign enjoyment where there is none — whereupon, indeed, the spectator is called upon to forge acting skills, themselves…
Having been critical of the new Woodstock Playhouse’s summer season, allow me to recant: Although I’m unfamiliar with this musical adaptation, properly done, Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” is a unique experience for a child and parent. Foreshadowing our inevitable “adult” anxiety concerning illness, age, dying, and death while sugar-frosting such existential angst with a time-honored, heart-warming cheer…we wish the Playhouse production a huge success, and expect “Burn This” next year…++
