Danger: Actors at work (and busting their chops in delightful comedy)!

Wayne David Parker, Terry Heck and Kyle Mitchell Johnson

Although Norm Foster will likely never win a Pulitzer Prize for his work, there's a reason why he's the most-produced playwright in Canada - and why Tipping Point Theatre in Northville has produced one of his shows in five of the last six seasons: because they're pretty damn funny.

Office Hours, Tipping Point's latest (which runs through Dec. 23), is also a treat for actors and directors who are up for an interesting challenge thanks to the play's not-so-typical structure. Rather than tell a single story from beginning to end, Office Hours features six seemingly unrelated tales set in six different offices scattered throughout an unnamed city. But be forewarned: Pay close attention to even the most irrelevant-sounding names and bits of dialogue, as they may become important plot points later in the show.

And that's what's so much fun about Foster's script: watching as he weaves his various threads into a connected whole, right down to the show's final moments.

Having a well-written script is one thing, of course, but it needs a sharp director and fine team of actors to successfully bring it to life. The performance I saw last weekend certainly proved that Foster's work was indeed in fine hands!

Beth Torrey, after having earned the distinction last season of  directing Tipping Point's all-time top-selling play (Sexy Laundry), returned to work her comedic magic on Office Hours. And she assured its success by returning two longtime Tipping Point favorites to dominate the stage: Wayne David Parker and Ryan Carlson. Then she added to the mix Terry Heck (who earned a 2015 Wilde Award nomination for Tipping Point's Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike) and new-to-Tipping Point Sarah Hawkins Moan and Kyle Mitchell Johnson, and the result this past Saturday was a delightful evening of laughter.

Because half the fun (more or less) is experiencing the plot unfold for yourself with little or no knowledge of the plot beforehand, I won't say too much more about it. But the other half of the fun (more or less) is watching how each actor is called upon to create a handful of unique characters and how they keep them separate as the night progresses so the audience doesn't get confused with their every subsequent appearance. It ain't easy - but they sure make it look that way, with top-notch performances by the entire cast.

Bartley H. Bauer's set and Kellie Dugan's props work hand in hand defining each office with the simplest and quickest of changes.

The Bottom Line: Tipping Point Theatre consistently offers a quality and entertaining product to its customers, which is why it continues to be among the top producers of live theater in Southeast Michigan.

For complete information about Office Hours, CLICK HERE!

Ryan Carlson and Sarah Hawkins Moan

Unsung heroes: Designers who add character to their shows

The set of American Buffalo at The Jewish Ensemble Theatre

As a critic, it's my long-held belief that designers can play an important role in boosting a production from one level to the next. In fact, their work can often add as much character to a show as do the contributions of its director and actors, just as designers can improve the quality of the storytelling through the efficient and effective use of space. Yet critics and theatergoers alike often ignore the contributions of these artists when discussing the shows they see. (And yes, I myself have been guilty of this at times over the years.)

It's no secret that Metro Detroit is blessed with an abundance of creative and skilled designers whose work can be seen in theaters throughout the year. Two recent productions served to reinforce just how important their work is to the success of a production.

The first was a few weeks ago when I attended the Detroit Repertory Theatre's season-opening production of Swimming Upstream by playwright Rich Rubin. The Rep is known for its shepherding of new plays and new playwrights, and this world premiere was enjoyable, but ultimately not very notable because of two things: a script that tries too hard to shoehorn the topic of climate change into a romantic comedy about a marine biologist whose specialty is saving salmon (and the world) from extinction, and the lack of spark and sizzle between its two lovebirds. (Sandra Love Aldridge as the biologist's mother, however, lit up the show with every appearance.)

But what I loved about the production was director Harry Wetzel's design for the set. Noted for his many years of design work at the Rep (among other things), I was impressed this time by his efficient use of space. Rubin's story unfolds in four separate places - an office, a restaurant and a couple of apartments (or houses) - and Wetzel was able to fit all of them onto the Rep stage simultaneously using multiple levels to help keep each location roomy, unique and separately identifiable.

What's more, his design allowed him as the director to ensure that scene changes were especially quick and short - and there were a lot of them - thereby not slowing down the action for more time than was necessary. As such, the story flowed from one scene to the next in rapid succession with just enough time in between for the audience to catch its breath and shift its attention to what happens next.

In addition, Thomas Schraeder's complementary lighting design helped define and focus the story's ebbs, flows and emotional beats.

As such, the show was well served by both artists.

That's also the case with The Jewish Ensemble Theatre's production of David Mamet's  American Buffalo, this time by pretty much it's entire design team.

The first thing I noticed as I entered the theater was the realism of its set. Mamet's story unfolds entirely inside a resale shop, and so set designer Elspeth Williams and property designer Harold Jurkewicz seemed to go all out in jointly creating a junky storefront that screamed "come in and browse" - so much so, that I observed several theatergoers wander about the front of the stage prior to the performance trying to check out as many of the goodies as possible. And at intermission, one gentleman seemed ready to walk on to the stage and take a closer look, but he thought better of it after hesitating a few seconds.

But what really impressed the heck out of me was how the inclement weather was handled - the rain against the windows, the thunder and the lightning - that in most productions come off as fake or artificial. Not here, though, thanks to Williams (as technical director) and the contributions of additional team members Neil Koivu (lighting design) and Matt Lira (sound design). Together their efforts were so effective and realistic that I briefly wondered if the windows of my car were closed when I first heard the torrential rainfall hit the storefront glass.

Enjoyable as the production was, however, it wasn't as powerful as I expected, mostly because some of the ingredients provided by Mamet - a rather tough taskmaster when it comes to wordplay and understanding its subtext - were under served or delivered a bit too cautiously.

For those unfamiliar with his work, Mamet is known for creating characters - often hyper-competitive alpha males - who live on the fringe of society or who are barely scratching the surface of the ever-elusive American Dream. In American Buffalo, a seemingly average junkshop owner is anything but, as we learn Don (Lynch R. Travis) is not above a little breaking and entering to increase his operating profit. Nor is his friend and accomplice, "Teach" (Matthew David), who worms his way in to a deal Don made with a recovering neighborhood junkie (Shane O'Connor).

Mamet's tight, street-smart dialogue - filled with subtleties, wordplay and varying degrees of manipulation among the characters as they jockey for power and control - is laden with profanity, and characters often talk over one another. Yet there's a rhythm to his words, an intensity, which eschews the usual line delivery found in the majority of plays. And that was what I felt was missing from parts of the production, which resulted in some of the interpersonal dynamics among the characters feeling a little off to me at times.

(I'll admit here to being spoiled by The Abreact's production back in 2008, which saw the interplay among and between the three characters sizzle from stop to finish.)

One final note: In his biography in the program, O'Connor says, "I'm sorry for always playing drug addicts on stage. At least it pays the rent." My words of advice? Don't be sorry! It was an absolutely amazing performance - so much so that I was ready to take him to a recovery clinic immediately after the performance to get him cleaned up!

* * * * *

Swimming Upstream runs through Dec. 23 at the Detroit Repertory Theatre. For show details, CLICK HERE!

American Buffalo runs through Dec. 10 at The Jewish Ensemble Theatre in West Bloomfield. For show details, CLICK HERE!

Swimming Upstream at The Detroit Rep with
Yanni Papadimos, Sandra Love Aldridge and Audrey Lovy

Life still sucks (or not): Two theaters and two directors approach the same script so differently, yet get equally entertaining results

Every so often, theatergoers have an opportunity to view firsthand what impact directors, actors and designers have on bringing a script to life when two or more theater companies produce the same show a few months apart from one another. The result, they'll discover, can be as different as night and day.

Critics, too, can have a lot of fun with such occurrences, as when Bridgette Redman (then a regular freelance critic and entertainment writer for the Lansing State Journal) and I got together several seasons ago and crafted a series of columns comparing and contrasting three productions of Doubt that took place over a short period of time. (For us, that was a lot of fun, and the reader response was great!)

Already this season we've seen two very different productions of Life Sucks, Aaron Posner's "irreverent variation on Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya" - the first at Open Book Theatre in Trenton this past September, and currently at The Ringwald Theatre in Ferndale.

In trying to describe their differences in a way that paints a very specific picture, I came up with the following analogy (imperfect though it may be): Open Book's production was like walking into a neighborhood restaurant where you find tables draped in white linen with flickering candles on top, impeccable service provided by a polite and polished waitstaff dressed in clean and perfectly pressed black uniforms, and a kitchen that runs like clockwork; on the other hand, The Ringwald's production was like having dinner at a truck-stop diner where flirty waitresses refer to you as "honey" or "darlin'" more times than you can count, uniforms reflect the staff's personal styles and choices, the flurry of activity in and out of the kitchen occurs at various (and often breakneck) speeds, and orders are barked in to and out of the kitchen with a mix of urgency and humor.

Neither is better than the other; the experiences are simply different. Very different. What's the same, though, is the ultimate result of your dining experience: a fun and memorable visit that accomplished what you hoped for and expected - a tasty, fully satisfying meal.

That's close to how I view the two productions. But if pressed for a more deeper (but equally incomplete) comparison about the style (not the substance) of each show, I'd say that it was if the Open Book production was set in the normally quiet estate of Grosse Point natives, whereas The Ringwald introduced us to that loud and rowdy bunch down the street who occasionally wakes us up in the middle of the night.

Again, both approaches are equally valid. Yet two directors interpreted the same material in significantly different ways. And even the designers brought a different look and feel to their respective productions. (Harley Miah's impressive lighting design for the Open Book production, for example, still sticks with me today.)

Because of choices made by the shows' directors (Krista Schafer Ewbank at Open Book and Joe Bailey at The Ringwald), a natural result is the different flow to how each story unfolds. Plus, since each actor brings their own unique skills and choices into their work, it's also expected that the actors playing identical roles will interpret them differently. And that's certainly the case with these two productions. (For more about Open Book's production see my post from this past September.)

For those who enjoy observing how different actors can play the same role so differently, Dyan Bailey as Pickles was radically different from Mandy Logsdon's, just as Bryan Lark's Dr. Aster was not in the same universe as Jonathan Davidson's. And Jane MacFarlane's Babs had little in common with Linda Rabin Hammell's, just as Sydney Lepora's Ella was worlds away from Caitlin Morrison's. But that didn't matter, as each fit snugly in to the worlds created by their directors.

Standouts in The Ringwald's production include Joel Mitchell, who runs rings around pretty much every other actor in town when it comes to playing pompous asses like The Professor. (He's also pretty damn good in other roles as well, as evidenced by his seven Wilde Awards nominations and two wins over the past 16 years.) The way he plays with certain words - both vocally and visually - adds important color to his dialogue.

Also impressive is Joe Bailey as Vanya. In yet another masterful performance, Bailey dives deep into his emotional well to bring all of Vanya's heretofore hidden pain to the surface. It's heart-wrenching to watch, made more so by his expert use of hand gestures and facial expressions to accentuate his words.

But it's Kelly Komlen who truly tears your heart out as Sonia, The Professor's daughter and Vanya's niece. Secretly in love with Dr. Aster, she believes he's out of reach - mostly, she believes, because she considers herself to be homely and he only dates hot, attractive women. (Their age difference doesn't seem to dawn on her; from his point of view, she's simply the younger niece of his life-long best friend.) Her last act meltdown was so powerful I couldn't help but ask Komlen afterward how she can go home and relax right after the show. Her answer made me laugh - and made total sense.

Lights by Brandy Joe Plambeck and the set by Jennifer Maiseloff served the concept well. I especially loved the painted scenery on the upstage and stage left walls.

So what's the moral of my story, you may be wondering? Directors matter. So do actors. And every so often its nice to have an opportunity to be reminded why that's so - and what impact they have on bringing a script to life.

The Bottom Line: If you're curious about which production I liked best, you'll be disappointed. Both were highly enjoyable. But they were also quite different - and that's what I love about live theater! And in this specific case, I went to The Ringwald knowing and appreciating the types of work they do, and they met and exceeded all of my expectations. As usual.

To see how on the mark or off base I am, you have only two more chances to catch Life Sucks at The Ringwald: today at 5 p.m and tomorrow at 8 p.m. For complete information regarding The Ringwald Theatre, CLICK HERE!