1999 - 2000 Season

Romeo & Juliet | A Childs Christmas in Wales | Otherwise Engaged | Sleuth | Candida | You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

"It's a Good Show, Charlie Brown"
Cast of Actors' Summit brings 'Peanuts' alive
By Kerry Clawson, The Akron Beacon Journal

Happiness is knowing that the gang at Actors' Summit is keeping the late Charles Schulz's beloved characters alive with the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

The professional theater offers a joyous colorful rendition of the 1967 musical, which spawned 13 national and 15 international companies. This adorable show, based on Schulz's Peanuts comic strip, was revived on Broadway last year.

It's a tribute to the creator that the talented Actors' Summit cast offers just the right blend of mirth and pathos to this show, which offers a fast-paced series of darling vignettes in the life of Charlie Brown. Leading the cast are Frank Jackman as the hapless, forlorn little blockhead, Charlie Brown, and Sally Groth as the overbearing, crabby bully, Lucy.

From the grave philosophizing of the blanket-clutching Linus (Gerard Neary) to the wild antics of the imaginative beagle Snoopy (Colin Cook), this family production is a delight. And the vignettes are short and energetic enough to hold the attention of even the youngest kids.

The set is eye-popping too, featuring a vibrant blue black wall and oversize blocks in primary colors of green, yellow, blue and red. The stage floor is painted the same way, as is Snoopy's doghouse.

As Snoopy, Cook has one of the hardest jobs in the show, remaining onstage the whole time. Cook hams it up beautifully as he inserts Snoopy into all of the action, from mimicking Schroeder playing the piano to collecting Valentines to howling along in the Glee Club Rehearsal.

Of course, Snoopy spends plenty of time lounging on top of his doghouse. But in one of Cook's most hilarious romps, Suppertime, he begins his celebrations of food with operatic bravado and ends up kicking his legs in show-tune style, using a huge bone as a cane and wearing a sequined hat.

In some of the show's other great moments, Cook makes Snoopy's maniacal hung for The Red Baron come alive, and Linus does a comical dance with a blanket. The strongest ensemble number is Book Report, with each character sweating out a 100-word writing assignment.

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown won't be remembered for its profound musical value, but it does have many catchy, recognizable tunes, including the title song, T.E.A.M. and Happiness.

The Actors' Summit cast sings adequately as an ensemble, with Groth and Jackman standing out in vocal quality. Unfortunately, Groth sounds best in her mezzo-soprano upper range, yet her voice sounds too adultlike for the role of Lucy at this point.

As Charlie Brown, Jackman hasn't shaved his head or worn a wig with just one curlicue on it. But this adult is totally believable as the little boy with the perpetually perturbed look on his face, a "failure" who's afraid no one likes him.

The show wouldn't be complete without its ode to baseball, Charlie Brown's bittersweet brush with success flying a kite or Schroeder playing Beethoven while Lucy woos him. And one mustn't forget the cute Little Red-haired Girl, the focus of Charlie Brown's hopes and desires.

Actors' Summit truly has struck the heart of every child with its lively Charlie brown, the company's 10th production and final show of the 1999-2000 season.

Candida (3 Reviews)

Actors' Summit delivers confident 'Candida'
By Tony Brown, The Plain Dealer

It sounds like a plot worthy of George Bernard Shaw himself:

An artistic directors of a small professional theater in an industrial town thinks so much of his talents that he assigns himself to direct and start in a Shaw comedy.

In the case of Neil Thackaberry, Actors' Summit of Akron and "Candida," which opened over the weekend, the joke is on us, and delightfully so.

Thackaberry and his can-do company serve up this most human of Shaw's plays with a full head of frothy fun and dollop of loving kindness to boot. Despite onerous circumstances (the company performs in a space resembling a gymnasium while waiting to occupy its new home), this is a small gem of a show.

Shaw, so given to political posturing and broad-stroke moralizing about mankind, wrote in "Candida" a personal and intimate story of love. And he created one of his tenderest and wisest female characters, for whom he named the play.

Thackaberry directs with a drawing-room stateliness that matches designer Robert Stegmiller' antiques-filled set and befits the play. But he also throws in a surprise or two, including an occupied chair that falls backward to the floor, looking for all the world like an unplanned accident.

With his jutting chin, jug ears, half-moon eyes and thickset torso, Thackaberry thunders and blunders in a dignified, stuffy and preacherly way as the Rev. James Mavor Morrell.

As the rival for the love of Morrell's wife, Mark Ross gives a fleshily foppish and tortures quality to Eugene Marchbanks, the 18-year-old smitten both by an older woman and his own poetry.

Sally Groth, with her combination of strong features and porcelain complexion, captures all the timid strength and unassuming wisdom of the title character. Completely at ease in Candida's Act 3 speech, in which she chooses between her suitors, she delicately but firmly decides.

Among the minor character with which Shaw enriched his play, Mary Mahoney's Prosperpine "Prossy" Garnett dogs her tormentor with an Act 2 show of indignation in the fact of Marchbanks' presumptions. Tim Keo breezes in and out as the Rev. Lexy Mill, Morrell's curate. And Richard B. Brown gets at the boorishness of Mr. Burgess (Candida's father) even if he needs help with his lines and should reconsider that Cockney accent.

Although "Candida" is three acts, not is longer than 35 minutes. And although it is technically a classic, it is a perfectly adorable little way to spend an evening out.

'Candida' candidly tackles love
Actors' Summit performers balance cynicism and humor in dark comedy
Kerry Clawson, The Akron Beacon Journal

Actors' Summit's Candid is classified as a comedy but the audience shouldn't expect a barrel of laughs, considering that the play's serious, darker side forms its core.

Candida was written by George Bernard Shaw, a socialist who saw the stage as a soapbox. His voice is clear in the character of the Rev. James Morell, the politically powerful clergyman/orator played by Neil Thackaberry.

The story takes place in late 19th-century London, in the drawing room of St. Dominic's parsonage. Thackaberry is quite believable as the self-impressed Morell, who seems more in love with his speaking talents as a preacher that he is with bringing believers to the fold.

This overly confident preacher is soon beleaguered with doubts presented by a mere boy, the sniveling, love-struck poet Marchbanks. Mark Ross brings Marchbanks to a pathetic light, portraying him as a young man gone hysterical with love.

The object of both men's affection is the winsome Candida, Morell's wife, whom he loves selfishly. Actress Sally Groth sets just the right airy tone for this charming woman, up until Candida realizes the conflict that is going on right under her nose.

Her breeziness is most welcome, considering neither male character is likeable - Morell for his smug superiority and Marchbanks for his desperate viciousness. But Morell's superiority is shaken when Marchbanks attacks him and tells him he doesn't deserve to live in the same world with his angelic wife.

Shaw didn't take much stock in romance, and his cynicism is evident in lines such as this one from Marchbanks: "I suppose a machine (typewriter) could be made to write love letters. they're all the same, aren't they?"

On the humorous side, the spunky secretary Prossy, played by Mary Mahoney, is an entirely likeable foil to the lovelorn Marchbanks. She, too, is in love with a married person and is jealous of his spouse, but she doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve.

Candida's father, Burgess, also adds humor to the show. Richard Brown plays him as a completely foolish and self-serving man, but honestly so.

In one of the play's technical distractions, a stage light flickered repeatedly through the first two acts at the Balch Street Community center. One also wonders how the staging could have been changed to prevent actors having their backs to the audience at times. (The audience sits in a "U" around the stage.)

Until the third act, Candida is oblivious to the hatred that has developed between her husband and Marchbanks. but she finally takes charge with a ferocity that is both surprising and admirable.

Audiences should be most interested in seeing how Candida resolved the situation.

One of Actors' Summit's goals in presenting the play was to pose timeless questions of sexual politics within one's own household. The play achieves this by questioning severely which sex is really the weaker one.

'Candida' brilliant in Akron production
Andrew J. Tonn, Wooster Daily Record

George Bernard Shaw's "Candida" is being brought brilliantly to life by the players of Actors' Summit performing at the Balch Street Theater.

"Candida," written by Shaw between 1894 and 1895 and first performed in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1897, is a domestic story that chronicles the relationships between the Rev. James Mavor Morrell, a passionate conservative socialist preacher, his staff, his wife Candida, her industrialist father and a poet, Eugene Marchbanks. The story is one of love and politics and the nature of truth.

The direct action of the play, presented in three acts, all takes place in the drawing room of the Morrells' home. The excellently designed set presents the essence of a comfortable, late-Victorian room in use by a scholar and preacher.

The antique furniture and decorations all present the correct period and lend an authentic ambiance which the costumes match virtually faultlessly.

The six-person cast, led by A. Neil Thackaberry who both directs and stars as the Rev. Morrell, is to be commended. Each cast member delivers a confident and absorbing performance.

Thackaberry, with his physical size, deep voice and confident manner, is perfect as the good but self-absorbed preacher. Both he and the character he portrays are, no doubt, equally in love with words and their proper arrangement, cadence and delivery.

While it might seem odd that Thackaberry both stars and direct, when you see him you will know why: he is perfect for the role.

Sally Groth, in the title role as Candida, lends a subtle and perfectly balanced performance. The character of Candida is written as a woman who inspires devotion due in equal parts to her beauty, compassion and goodness. Groth makes you believe that there is such a woman. She is beautiful and her acting is intelligent and sensitive.

Mark Ross, as the aristocratic young poet Eugene Marchbanks, also delivered a telling performance. Marchbank's character is typical of a certain type of late, foppish Romantic who possessed neither the talent to write original verse nor the daring to be a genuine Decadent.

Marchbanks falls in love with the older Candida and, horrified that she must perform ordinary household duties and live with a man not up to his own poetic standards, decides to take her from Morrell.

By the end of the -play, Candida decides between the two men and gives them lessons in love, truth and how to properly treat a woman. She delivers insight into both their personal weaknesses and strengths and shows the two men that they are not so different from each other as they want to believe.

It is a deeply human play that, all sexual politics aside, is a moving affirmation of love between men and women.

In his program notes to the production, Thackaberry notes, "Candida is a classic in every sense of the word, open to fresh interpretation in every succeeding generation. Its debates on gender and class seem extraordinarily contemporary."

This sentiment echoes the assessment of Shaw's work by Haskell M. Block who, on page 299 of "Masters of Modern Drama," writes, "In his lifetime, (Shaw) moved from the gaslit bleakness of the 1850s to the mushroom clouded Atomic Age.

"To rapid and far-reaching changes which reduced other to despair and bewilderment, Shaw responded with deep concern, but with zestful good humor as well. With the optimism of 'a confirmed Life Force worshipper,' he ushered in the turbulent 20th century without fear; he knew and accepted the fact that the modern experience is rooted in revolution and process."

Sleuth

Witty 'Sleuth' packs plenty of plot twists
Wry Actors' Summit whodunit keeps audience on edge of seats
By Russ Musarra, The Akron Beacon Journal

Anthony Shaffer concocted the ultimate game of "Gotcha!" when he wrote Sleuth.

The 30-years-old mystery, which is being staged by Actors' Summit at the Balch Street Community Center, will keep you on the edge of your seat with its clever twists of plot and turns of phrase.

And when it's over, you'll want to spill the beans to your friends - but won't. Because you won't want to spoil the many surprises that unfold.

(If you saw the 1972 film version, brilliantly performed by Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, you'll know what I mean.)

Sleuth, which opened Friday evening, revolved around a one-upmanship struggle between two Englishmen, Andrews Wyke, a wealthy writer of detective mysteries, and Milo Tindle, and urbane London travel agent who is having an affair with the writer's wife, Marguerite.

Ever the refined gentlemen, Wyke (himself engaged in an extracurricular alliance with a "goddess" named Tea) invites Tindle to his home in the country so they can discuss things in a civilized manner.

After a few sips of Scotch, it becomes apparent to Tindle - and the audience - that Wyke has something up his dressing gown sleeve. Soon fists fly. Shots are fired. Blood is spilt. Detectives are dispatched.

But this is no ordinary whodunit. In fact, it's a whodunnit that is revealed through witty dialogue deliciously delivered by Neil Thackaberry, as Wyke, and Morgan Lund, as Tindle.

To say more about the story would spoil the fun, but too much cannot be said about the inspire performances by director MaryJo Alexander's cast.

Thackaberry and Lund were outstanding in Arthur Miller's The Price, the theater company's inaugural production last April, and their work together in Sleuth is of like quality and sets a high mark for the rest of the cast to strive for.

The action plays out on a two-level set, which designer Bob Stegmiller dressed with borrowed furnishings that create the look of the interior of an English manor house in the community center auditorium.

Actors' Summit is staging Sleuth there because construction of its theater at Canal Place has been delayed by the city of Akron, which has ordered a revision of plans.

Otherwise Engaged

Comedy, tragedy pair up in 'Otherwise Engaged'
Cikra strikes balance in showing key character's charm and dark side
By Kerry Clawson, The Akron Beacon Journal

Simon Gray's Otherwise Engaged is a dry, witty British comedy that begins as an irreverently funny play, but ends up as something altogether different.

From the beginning of the opening production Friday at the Balch Street Community Center, the Actors' Summit ensemble engaged members of the audience by drawing them into Simon Hench's living room outside London, where all the play's action takes place.

Simon, played by Alex Cikra, wants only to be alone and listen to his Wagner. But his home becomes a nonstop revolving door through which numerous uninvited guests come to unload their problems.

Director Neil Thackaberry sought Cikra out for the role of Simon, adding Otherwise Engaged to the Actors' Summit season because of him. Cikra, known for selecting his roles carefully, chose will in playing this intellectual publisher.

Simon is central to the play, remaining on stage the entire time. Cikra strikes an excellent balance in making Simon a charming, likable character initially, only gradually revealing how completely emotionally detached he is.

The comedy's dark side gains ground in the second act, with tension mounting as each character reveals his or her emotional baggage to Simon. Numerous blowups and even a tragedy result, yet Simon remains largely unruffled.

This is an intellectual play that's full of repartee between characters who are upper-class, literary types. All of the actors do such a fine job of delivering their juicy, fast-paced dialogue that even with assumed British accents, very few lines are lost. No one can be accused of slipping in and out of accents, either.

Part of what makes this comedy of manners so funny is that all the characters talk plenty, but they never really heed each other. Simon is the glibbest of the bunch, with plenty to say but nothing that's sincere.

Things are not what they appear to be in this play. Every time we thing we understand a character, playwright Gray throws in a twist that unravels our perceptions.

Otherwise Engaged is far from family fare because of sexual content, adult themes and a peppering of crude language. Yet even when Simon viciously insults one of his visitors, he does so in such a humorously mannerly fashion that viewers never see beyond his exterior gloss.

Among the other cast members, Tonya Beckman plays a convincingly alluring yet vindictive Davina. Mark Ross also does an admirable job as Dave, the student mooch who flings himself freely all over Simon's furniture and takes his food and money. Dave's sudden bursts into Simon's apartment are especially funny because of their perfect timing.

One thing that didn't work in this play was the decision to turn the role of Jeff, the literary critic, into a woman's part. Thackaberry's goal was to provide an additional role for an actress.

While Lisa Ortenzi played the role quite capably, it was jarring to hear the other characters call her Jeff. Yet even if the Jeffs had been changed to "Susan," making the character w woman added a whole new sexual dimension to the play that the playwright didn't intend.

Round out the accomplished cast are Jack Warren, who plays Simon's insecure brother Stephen; Frank Jackman, who plays the hapless Wood, and MaryJo Alexander, who portrays Simon's fed-up wife, Beth.

Thackaberry's goal in presenting the play was to offer a comedy for grown-ups that would really make audiences think.

He can be assured that this show does make the audience ponder the intricacies of human relationships. Although the play was written in 1975, it still rings true that those who remain emotionally isolated often bring pain and devastation to others.

A Child's Christmas in Wales (3 Reviews)

'A Child's Christmas in Wales' an affectionate celebration of family
By Thomas Harper, The Review

"A Child's Christmas in Wales" is poet Dylan Thomas' nostalgic evocation of a boyhood holiday spent with friends, and in the warm and pleasurable eccentric embrace of family.

Several years ago the piece, which can be recited in about 15 minutes, was expanded into an evening's entertainment for the Great Lakes Theater Festival by Jeremy Brooks and Adrian Mitchell.

That expanded work can currently be seen and heard in a beautifully rendered production by Actors' Summit, Akron's new professional theater group.

Performances through Dec. 30 are in Sandefur Theater located in Guzzetta Hall on the campus of The University of Akron.

The great deal of love brought to this production is also a reflection of Thomas' obvious love for the people of his childhood.

The poet serves as both narrator and participant in the action. Given that dual role, the choice of a college-age actor to portray the adult and the boy Thomas was a wise one especially as Keith Stevens performs with intense conviction and an enormous sense of confidence.

The action is set mostly on Christmas Day in the small seaside town of Wales (Giamorganshire) that is Thomas territory. The young Dylan shares in the anticipation of the big day with his parents, engaging played by Wayne S. Turney, a Cleveland Playhouse veteran, and Sara Showman.

After that initial scene on a small upstage platform that seems too limiting for the actors, the play opens up as Dylan roams the town, accompanied by best pals Tom (Colin Cook) and Jack (Dan Dandle), and head for the frozen beach (magically conjured with the simplest of means) where boyhood adventures are convincingly played out.

Later in the play, a pair of young female cousins, Brenda (Caitlin Cook) and Glenda (Elizabeth Cook) winningly take their feminist innings on the beach. In case you're wondering about the similarity of last names, all three Cooks are siblings in real life, knowledge of which adds an extra ingredient to the fun.

But the heart and soul of "A Child's Christmas in Wales" is found in the gathering of several aunts and uncles who bring to the celebration their gifts for Dylan, including a "pirate's wig" and an outrageous knitted head warmer, along with loving quirky personalities.

Does every citizen of Wales speak in such poetic terms on a high holiday, even if not on a daily basis? And with such harmony? Under A. Neil Thackaberry's direction, the Actors' Summit offering is a superb exercise in ensemble playing, with the added factor of some improvisation.

In addition to the above mentioned actors, the ensemble is made up of Lisa Ortenzi, Frank Jackman, Julie Anne Carlson, Lawrence J. Cook (real father of the siblings), Scott Davis, Linda Wyler and Kari Kandle, and our affection for them grows through the evening.

They don paper party hats from traditional party "crackers," sing carols and other fold-flavored songs, and in one extended sequence they take turns telling ghost stories in a funny can-you-top-this fashion.

At the end, the relatives depart and the young Dylan is left alone to speak some words to "the close and holy darkness" before he sleeps.

The production works very well in the intimacy of Sandefur Theater, pulling the audience into the celebration. Robert Stegmiller's simple, uncluttered set and fine lighting, and MaryJo Alexander's handsome costumes of the 1920s add greatly to the picture.

"A Child's Christmas in Wales" is a carefully-wrapped gift. Its giving properties extend beyond the less than two hours running time (including one intermission), and adds to the "scrapbook" of our own holiday memories.

Delightful adaptation of poet's memories
Marianne Evett, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

If you're tired of Scrooge and his ghosts this holiday season, try a modern classic: poet Dylan Thomas' memories of his Swansea boyhood, "A Child's Christmas in Wales." The Actors' Summit, a new professional company in Akron, offers a lively, thoroughly engaging production through Dec. 30 at Sandefur Theatre in Guzzetta Hall at the University of Akron.

The adaptation, by Jeremy Brooks and Adrian Mitchell of the Royal Shakespeare Company, sticks close to Thomas' prose poem, with its mouth-filling images and sly wit. Not much plot there, except for the presentation of an archetypal Christmas day - from the moment the child Dylan finds his stocking in the dim morning light to his bedtime prayer to the "close and holy darkness."

When this adaptation was presented at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in the early 1980s, I found it nice but rather slow going. The Actors' Summit production, however, expertly directed by Neil Thackaberry, is a treat. You feel part of the family in the intimacy of Sandefur, and their holiday spirit is catching. This production does shortchange the poetry, and not everybody in the large cast is equally good. But the whole has such a merry pace that you don't mind.

Furthermore, Thomas refuses to get sentimental. Aunts and uncles squabble and gossip; Dylan detests his girl cousins, who return his scorn; the new gas oven burns the turkey (the day is saved by the mysterious and magical Aunt Elieri). Christmas carols can be sung straight, such as a lovely "In the Bleak Midwinter" that starts the show, or parodied - "Adeste Fideles" becomes a tirade against bad boys. Robert Stegmiller's three-tiered set allows the story to flow, and MaryJo Alexander's costumes look just right.

Keith Stevens carries the show as Dylan. Rather tall, he looks (and acts) boyish enough, and can create a gentle innocence as well as a mischievous streak he shares with his friends Tom (Colin Cook, with a sweet boy soprano voice) and Jack (Dan Kandel, a tenor who also sings well). Their walk down to the sea with cousins Brenda (Caitlin Cook), who is secure in the knowledge of her superiority, and Glenda (Elizabeth Cook), who is the youngest and a perennial loser, is a high point of the show.

Most of the grown-ups get a little solo turn, in which Thackaberry has encouraged them to be over the top - but the material demands it, and it fills the show with exuberance. Scott Davis' postman is wonderfully drunk; Frank Jackman's park guard (who has an incredible moustache) trembles with rage. Wayne S. Turney makes a benign Father, always ready with tales of his own youth, and Sara Showman is a placid and loving Mother (except, of course, when her turkey burns).

Auntie Hannah (Lisa Ortenzi) likes to lace her tea with rum; Uncle Glyn (Lawrence J. Cook) is the family radical, whose revolutionary opinions are either tolerated or ignored. Uncle Tudyr (Scott Davis) likes to be a spoilsport; Auntie Bessie, his wife, has migraines (no wonder). And Kari Kandel, slim and pretty as Aunt Elieri, does capture the mystery that makes Dylan's crush on her feel true.

Evoking holidays in gaslight era
Actors' Summit puts real families onstage for nostalgic Christmas
Russ Musarra, The Akron Beacon Journal

We've all sat around the dinner table after a holiday meal and reminisced about holidays gone by.

Such reminiscences are the threads of a lush tapestry titled A Child's Christmas in Wales, adapted for the stage by Jeremy Brooks and Adrian Mitchell from poet Dylan Thomas' children's book and presented by Actors' Summit at the University of Akron's Sandefur Theatre.

Thomas' tale captures the essence of family life in Swansea, Wales, in the years after World War I, when gas stoves were new to the home and electricity wasn't yet available. In these simpler times, families gathered in living rooms and entertained each other with stories, poems and songs.

Keith Stevens heads the 14-member Actors' Summit cast as Dylan, the young man who shares memories of one Christmas past and as Dylan, the child, from the moment he awakens on Christmas morning until he says his prayers at the end of the festive day.

Two families provided nearly half of director Neil Thackaberry's cast for this family story.

Lawrence Cook plays Dylan's Uncle Glyn. Cook's son, Colin, plays Dylan's pal, Tom, and the town fireman. Cook's daughters, Caitlin and Elizabeth, play Dylan's combative cousins, Glenda and Brenda, who don't let their Christmas party attire stand in the way of a good after-dinner scrap.

Kari Kandel and her brother, Dan, play Dylan's Aunt Elieri and pal Jack, respectively. At 12, Dan is the youngest member of the cast and a first-time performer, although that wasn't apparent at Friday's opening performance.

Thackaberry's cast is long on experience, beginning with veteran Cleveland actor Wayne Turney, who deftly plays Dylan's father, and Sara Showman, whose portrayal of Dylan's mother marks her return to the stage after a three-year absence.

The cast is also long on musical talent, displayed in the singing of a variety of Christmas songs, some familiar, others less so, from the Welsh tradition, all beautifully presented in flawless harmony without accompaniment.

Two solo numbers of note were Kari Kandel's Calon Lan (that's Welsh for shining heart) and Colin Cook's Adeste Fidelis in Latin. Both were performed in the context of the family's after-dinner entertainment.

Poet Thomas' dialogue flowed as richly as the music in vignettes that presented realistic people, warts and all, such as the aspirin-popping Aunt Bessie (Linda Wyler), who is seldom without a headache; Uncle Tudyr (Scott Davis), whose unpleasant demeanor provokes headaches; and Aunt Hannah (Lisa Ortenzi), who drinks spirits only on special occasions.

Davis also plays the town constable and the postman, who happily accepts a glass of holiday cheer as he makes his rounds.

Rounding out the cast are Frank Jackman, who doubles as Uncle Gwyn and a town character named Smoky, and Julie Anne Carlson as Aunt Nellie.

Life wasn't perfect in the Thomas household that Christmas Day. A fire in the kitchen ruined the turkey (and provided an amusing cameo for Colin Cook as the fireman). But the family made the best of a bad situation. That's what made the day memorable.

Romeo & Juliet (3 Reviews)

'Romeo and Juliet' worth wait
Actors' Summit comedic version of Shakespeare's classic takes love story to new heights, despite set
By Russ Musarra, The Akron Beacon Journal

Director Neil Thackaberry apologized to the opening-night audience for the thrown-together look of his Romeo and Juliet set. He needn't have bothered. Once the action began Thursday evening, the audience was mesmerized by the sights and sounds of the Actors' Summit ensemble.

The opening had been twice-delayed because of construction problems at the new theater at Canal Place, but it was worth the wait.

Thackaberry's 21 cast members brought William Shakespeare's 400-year old love story to life at Greystone Hall, the former Masonic Temple, where the troupe's first three shows were presented earlier this year.

They performed with such skill and passion, the set could have been made of packing crates and it wouldn't have mattered.

Tony Petrello and Sally Groth are strikingly attractive as Romeo and Juliet, so it's no surprise that sparks fly the moment their eyes meet across a ballroom in an early scene, when neither is aware of the other's identity.

But they bring more to the roles than pretty faces. Both capture the playfulness of young love and the depth of despair over the bloody feud between their families, the Capulets and the Montagues.

The famous balcony scene - so often parodied as to make the dialogue seem hackneyed - was exquisitely performed and provided a memory to be savored.

Paula Duesing is marvelous as the Capulet's nurse, who suckled Juliet as a baby and tends to her needs to the end. Her blustery character provides some of the play's funniest moments before it evolves into tragedy.

Director Thackaberry lived up to his promise to play the first half of the play as a comedy, and it worked.

Colin Cook tickled the funny bone as Capulet's illiterate servant trying to deliver written invitations he cannot read, and Morgan Lund was over the top as Mercutio, whose wry quips continued until his dying breath.

Lund also was fleet-footed in his dueling scene with Peter Voinovich, who plays Juliet's cousin, Tybalt. In fact, all of the action scenes are well choreographed and realistically executed.

Alex Cikra and Dyan Colpo gave solid performances as Lord and Lady Capulet. Howard Slaughter and Marci Paolucci had less to do as Lord and Lady Montague, but did it will and with regal bearing.

Tim Perfect looks like we was born to play Friar Laurence. Phillip Weems plays the Prince of Verona with a royal demeanor and beautiful bass voice.

MaryJo Alexander's costumes and Eric Benjamin's musical background were like just the right seasoning to a favorite dish.

What light through yonder window breaks?
Actors' Summit production about star-crossed lovers shines
Robert Durbin, West Side Leader

The idea of taking in another version of Romeo and Juliet probably isn't at the top of your list. In fact, you might just groan at the idea of seeing it again.

But don't judge too soon. Actors' Summit Director Neil Thackaberry has come up with a view on this work that is fresh, witty and compelling.

Most productions I've seen play down the bawdiness in Shakespeare's tale. Thackaberry's troupe goes for it, especially in the pun-laden ramblings of Mercutio (Morgan Lund) and his perfect foil Benvolio (Tim Keo). Lund and Keo convincingly capture - in leering expression and near-nasty physical gestures - the steamy atmosphere in which Shakespeare's ill-fated, lusty teenagers fall in love.

In this play, which is one of Shakespeare's earliest attempts at tragedy and which was written in the same period as his great romantic comedies like A Midsummer Night's Dream, we see a disarming shifting of mood from the comic and lighthearted to the sobering and portentous.

Under Thackaberry's direction, the blend of these seemingly disparate elements works. I think it is because he given free rein to each, as an example, Mercutio to both tease and menace Juliet's nurse (excellently conceived and portrayed by Paula Duesing). The nurse's warning that they may go too far (itself a drama-laden pun) underlines the banter that pushes the scene along.

This play moves. The run-away fervor of the two lovers to be together runs parallel with the impediments and ominous consequences that are quickly gathering against their reckless union.

Though nearly three hours long, including the one intermission, the pace that Shakespeare put into a plot driven by a race against time and temptation is matched by the rapid and well-timed dialogue among this gifted cast.

Sally Groth was fetching as Juliet in the performance I saw. Groth embraced the emotional highs and lows of her role, all the while engaging us so that we could feel the great strain Juliet is under as Groth is torn by thoughts of family and position. Plus, the freshness and vulnerability that she gave to Juliet was captures in the little French ditty that Thackaberry has her sing. Groth has a lovely voice and used it to charm both her Romeo and the audience.

Tony Petrello's Romeo had a tougher time of it. He is a fine actors and certainly looks the part, but the night I saw the play there was no demonstration of conflicting emotions by which to draw the audience to him, except in the second-act scene in which is character worries obsessively about what Juliet will think of him. That scene was well done.

Tim Perfect gave a finely crafted portrait of Friar Laurence, a character who tries to calm the moral torrents and turmoil of warring families and enthusiastic love.

Alex Cikra and Dyan Colpo (as Lord and Lady Montague) and Howard Slaughter and Marci Paolucci (as the Montague counterparts) gave nicely drawn characterizations. They freely conveyed parents who are baffled and outraged by their children's behavior and enraged and undone by the forces that seek to destroy their families and notions of community.

A nod also goes to Colin Cook, who carried off a number of bit parts (various servants as well as Balthazar) with poise and confidence. He has a fine comic sense and did yeoman's work helping to change and create the various moods that develop during course of the play.

The rather austere set works in this drama, in large part thanks to MaryJo Alexander's lavish and appropriate costumes and Robert Stegmiller's lighting design.

Star-crossed lovers return with success
Linda Einsenstein, The Plain Dealer

When a classic play has been done and redone, it gets increasingly harder to see it in a fresh light. With "Romeo and Juliet," it's nigh impossible: there have been so many memorable adaptations, from "West Side Story" to Baz Luhrmann's lurid 1996 gangster movie, our recollections can haunt a production like unwelcome ghosts.

But good theater is always about there here and now - about making an audience enter into the immediacy of the moment, and making that moment sing. From that perspective, A. Neil Thackaberry's intelligent production at the Actors' Summit is a moderate success. It doesn't always ignite, but when it does, it's incandescent - with several outstanding performances striking sparks to banish those hovering shades.

At first, it seems as if the main interest of the Akron production will be in its character parts, because of the two scene-stealing old pros who dominate its early scenes. Paula Duesing's garrulous Nurse fusses and flaps and growls her way into the audience's heart. And Morgan Lund's sexy, piratical Mercutio is a spellbinder - hands conjuring Queen Mab's fairy court like a master magician, poetry and double entendre and mocking insults falling off his tongue as though he's just invested them.

Lund is so magnetic that poor Romeo (Tony Petrello) comes off even more colorless in contract; he's like the good boy hanger-on in Mercutio's hard-drinking bad-boy posse. There's something stolidly nondescript about Petrello's looks and manner, the reliable student council treasurer who inscrutably got cast as the hot-blooded lover - he's competent, but somehow he doesn't quite connect.

But once Juliet shows up, it almost doesn't matter, because Sally Groth is so passionate and luminous, she has enough fire for a dozen Romeos. Groth stakes her claim on the play from the moment she appears on her balcony in her white nightdress, face shining by candlelight, silently sounding out Romeo's name over and over like a teenager writing "Mrs. Romeo Montague" in her diary. Groth convinces us that it is Juliet's passion that drives the play - she's like a female Mercutio, in love to the extremes and ready to act on them, who can move from a petulant rage to a poetic swoon on the turn of a dime, always a pleasure to watch.

Thackaberry keeps his company of actors moving around Robert Stegmiller's multilevel platform set. He takes care to make the audience understand everything that is going on, including spelling out the bawdy jokes, which are plentiful enough that the first act is like a 16th -century Comedy Central. MaryJo Alexander's period Renaissance costumes are lush, with brocades and velvets and fur-trimmed robes - although Romeo's black doublet and leather pants only manage to make me look nerdier.

Ensemble standouts include Tim Perfect preaching moderation as the pragmatic Friar Laurence and Alex Cikra as a malignantly sallow Lord Capulet. As the Prince, Phillip D. Weems looks and sounds regal with his resounding basso profundo, but needs work with diction. The sword fights are well-staged, especially that between Mercutio and Peter Voinovich's brutishly threatening Tybalt.

Actors' Summit is a professional, not for profit, 501-c-3 professional arts organization. We are seeking volunteers and board members. For more details, email us or call MaryJo or Neil at 330-342-0800.

Actors' Summit is working under a developmental agreement with Actors' Equity Association (the Union of professional Actors and Stage Managers.)