Halloween Movie Review: Dragonfly

       I guess it's kind of a stretch to call this a Halloween movie; it only had two mildly spooky scenes.  I think it's a mistake to classify it as a supernatural thriller too. There were supernatural elements, but it wasn't particularly thrilling.  Really, it was a series of missed opportunities.  The premise, and even the resolution, could have been worked into a good movie.  Instead they just have KCos running around pestering sick kids and chilling with Kathy Bates.  

       The title is a misleading.  Dragonfly.  It implies that that is somehow important or relevant to the story.  It is not.  His wife liked dragonflies, so early on, after her death, a rolling dragonfly paperweight helped to convince him that she is trying to communicate from beyond the grave.  That's it.  You've probably seen the poster so you're thinking what about that abstract drawing of a dragonfly that reoccurs.  Nope.  It's a (spoiler alert) waterfall.  No connection is ever made between the fact that she loved dragonflies and this recurring image that she is using to communicate strongly resembles a dragonfly.  It's like the writers didn't even notice the similarity.  That's a serious missed opportunity and one that would have helped the film immensely.  (Notice I didn't say it would have saved the film.)   It could have been the connecting thread.  They could have set it up like: KCos sees the dragonfly image, knows it's her and wonders what she's trying to tell him with the dragonfly.  It would still have worked for it to be the waterfall of her accident.  The dragonfly represents the waterfall!  But no.  It doesn't.  It's just a map image of a waterfall.  Any similarities to the dragonfly are unintentional.  The titular dragonfly is completely irrelevant.  

(Also, why is the waterfall significant?  He always knew where the crash was.  He went there early on in the film.  The location of the crash wasn't a mystery, they just never found the bodies.  Never mind.)

 

     I was okay with the resolution.  He finds his baby.  That's nice.  The setup for that was pretty heavy handed early on, but it still made for a happy end.  I didn't hate the movie; it just wasn't very good.  

(Also, I think Kathy Bates was a lesbian.  But it was subtle.)

      

Spinoff Debrief

     Back in 2009, right on the heels of House on the Cliff, I came across a play called The Second Lady by Jack Sharkey.  I was looking for a simple, small-cast comedy for my second show with Houghton College.  Second Lady had a lot of good, but the ending was just too ridiculous.  I toyed with rewriting the ending a bit, but ultimately I passed on it in favor of Jake’s Women. 

     Cut to 2011, after the ordeal that was Father of the Bride, I wanted something light and fun.  Second Lady popped into my head, but that stupid ending was still a problem.  The humor was right, so I decided to see what else old Mr. Sharkey had up his sleeve.  That’s when I found Spinoff.  Here’s my review from my first dry reading of Spinoff:

Looks like I've found a strong candidate for the Spring play. Its brisk pace and quick dialogue give Spinoff a fresh comedic feel. It's the story of an inside bank robbery gone wrong. The six characters that make up the cast each play a part in making this initially contained scenario spin out of control. It's quirky and it's very funny. It's the kind of play I'd go to... it's the kind of play I'd be in!

November 2011

     Now as the story goes, I did not do Spinoff because it was requested I do a classic. That led to my selection of The Glass Menagerie, which in turn, ended up being my last show with Houghton College.  It’s a long story.  You probably know it already. 

So now it’s 2015, and I just finished a production of Spinoff as director and cast member.  It had been in the back of my mind for a long time and when the opportunity came up to do a show as part of the Summer Reading Program at the library, I knew it was finally time for Spinoff.

     Turns out, my old review ended up being both accurate and prophetic.   I didn’t start out planning to direct and act in Spinoff.  In fact, I asked five other guys to play Peter before I reluctantly took it myself.  Because we were partnering with the David A.Howe Public Library, we didn’t have much flexibility with the show dates and it just wouldn’t work for the fellas I knew.   On the bright side, I got to work with Eric and Ben again not just as their director, but as a cast member too.  That was a great experience.  I was dead certain that Crimes of the Heart, would be my last show with Eric and thought surely Wise Women would be my last with Ben.  I’m glad I was wrong on those counts.

      Rounding out the cast was Kendra (whom I only directed once, Allegro), Anna (Plucky Pipsqueak, Allegro and The Odd Couple) and Meg (#steelymags).  It was good cast and fun to work with.  We had a lot of good times… ice cream, taco parties, Chinese buffets, Anna and Meg’s lack of cultural knowledge. The show was as funny and as fun as I’d hope it would be.  I had my doubts here and there, but we rallied and the audience roared.

     Over the years, I considered trying the actor/director thing, especially considering how difficult it can be to get men to participate sometimes.  I was always curious how it worked. I wondered if I’d enjoy it.  Well, I have my answer now.  I don’t think I’ll ever do it again.  Maybe some small one-scene role, but never a full-fledged lead.  I felt like I could never really focus on being the director or on my performance as an actor.  It all worked out in the end and ended up being a good experience overall.

I’m already excited about our next production.  We are diving into the murder mystery genre, with what will be the large casts we’ve ever had.  I’ll be glad to be back in the director’s chair for that one.

Press Release & Production Note: Spinoff

Press Release:
This July as part of the “Escape the Ordinary” adult summer reading program the Friends of the David A. Howe Public Library will be sponsoring a Valley Theatre production of Jack Sharkey’s wacky, bank-heist comedy, Spinoff. 

                Tired of his middle-management job at the bank Willy Nicholas (Eric Mikols) devises a scheme to rob the bank and ride off into the sunset with his flighty girlfriend Vicki (Kendra Mikols).  In order for the heist to work, however, Willy needs the help of his employee, Peter Colton (Nic Gunning).  He manages to switch their brief cases, causing Peter to unwittingly carry the money out of the bank!  Things seem to be going according to plan until Peter’s daughter Laurel (Anna Schilke) and her boyfriend Carlos (Ben Layman) discover the stolen money and hide it, assuming Peter was behind the robbery.  Just as everything begins to get sorted out, a curve-ball in the form of Sheila Mahoney (Meg Specksgoor) shows up.  Instead of Rio, Willy and his unwilling accomplices might just end up in jail!

                These special performances will be free of charge and will run in the Nancy Howe Auditorium on July 25 at 7:00 p.m. & July 26 at 2:00 p.m.

I didn't do a typicall director's note this time around, but here's my production note from the program:

We are very excited to be back in the David A. Howe Public Library as part of the “Escape the Ordinary” Adult Summer Reading Program.  We want to add a special thanks to the Friends of the DAHPL for sponsoring our show.  We have had a great time working on Spinoff and have enjoyed the new challenge of doing a farce comedy, a first for us.  If you’d like to hear about future productions, send us an email at thevalleytheatre@gmail.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

 

Odd Couple Debrief

     I guess my thing is doing debriefs way later so that they are no longer relevant or interesting. Odd Couple debrief.  The road to The Odd Couple has been a long one.  We brought the scripts and planned it as a follow-up to our first show, She Loves Me.   It stalled because of casting.  We picked it up again a few years later, even had an audition, then two people dropped, and we were out again.  Following last year's production of the female-driven Steel Magnolias, we really wanted to do a male-centric show and decided to just roll the dice and hope we got the guys we needed.  We did, but before I go there, more on the process.
Welcome to my unnecessary

      In the original cast, we envisioned me as Felix, Ethan as Oscar, Noelle Winkens and Kari Teno as the Pigeon Sisters, and Mike as one of the poker buddies (probably Vinnie).  None of that happened.  The potential poker buddies were always in rotation.  We had a few randoms in the mix.  One time, we did a read through with Ethan and me as Oscar and Felix, Mike as Vinnie with Dan Cristo and Steve Rudd sitting in as Speed and Murray.  I would have loved to have been a part of that show.  It was dynamite.  Dan and Steve were great, but they both lived out of state.
      By the time we got around to doing it, not only were Eric, Michael and Ben gone, but Ethan too.  Obviously, that presented a casting issue.  Considering our run in Art, we decided to switch it up and put me as Oscar and Mike as Felix.  We did auditions for the rest and ended up with a fun cast, both iterations of it. (We had to do some recasting for the Angelica shows.)

     I try to imagine how it would have felt playing Felix.  I think I would have liked it.  It would have been more of a challenge for me.  I think I would have gotten into it.  I'm definitely better suited to Oscar though.  Luckily, Mike as Felix was just so good.  Hilarious and unpredictable.  I've been in lots of plays with lots of people.  (It's true.)  I've had a few great stage partners.  (Heather Nicholls, Ethan Stowell, I'm looking at you.)  Mike is definitely near the top of that small list.  We adapt well to each other's rhythm and occasionally communicate telepathically.  Doing the show for as long as we did and in multiple venues really solidified those roles and our stage relationship.  I feel confident we will do The Odd Couple together again.   Maybe next we should try The Producers.  Maybe in 30 years, The Sunshine Boys.  

     To sum it up, The Odd Couple was good.  We had fun.  It was exciting to do a tour of three venues.  That's something I hope to explore again.  The problem I face with acting now is that I can't help but miss directing.  I love Neil Simon and this script particularly.  It's a guys show.  I would have loved to have directed it with a cast of fellas I've worked with before.  Maybe I'll do that someday too. Maybe I'll direct Hilary and Amanda in the female version. Maybe I'll play Felix someday. Regardless, I don't think The Odd Couple and I are done with each other just yet.

For more on Neil Simon tune in to this special episode of my podcast!

Press Release: The Odd Couple

We finished our three-city tour of The Odd Couple in Angelica.  We had a a few weeks in between that and our shows in Houghton & Wellsville.  We had a few cast changes and had to adapt to a significantly different space.  It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.  Here's my press release for the final set of shows.

This month the Angelica Players will be hosting The Valley Theatre for a production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple directed by Amanda Cox.  The Odd Couple (made famous by the movie starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon) is one of Simon’s most enduring and well known plays.  With a script full of clever characters and zingy one-liners, it remains popular nearly 50 years after it first debuted on Broadway.

Felix Ungar (Mike Cox) is shocked to discover that his marriage of twelve years is over.  Homeless and distraught he shows up for his weekly poker game, hosted by the sloppy Oscar Madison (Nic Gunning), looking for a little sympathy.  Oscar reluctantly offers his pal a place to stay.  Felix wastes no time whipping Oscar’s messy bachelor pad into shape, much to the dismay of Oscar and his poker buddies (Chris Tetta, Jon Brennan, Dave Brubaker and Will Tetta).  The close quarters begin to test the boundaries of Oscar and Felix’ friendship.  Things go from bad to worse when Felix botches a double date with Oscar and their ditzy upstairs neighbors, the Pigeon sisters (Ksa Curry and Anna Schilke), leading to a bombastic and hilarious confrontation of epic proportions.  Can this mismatched pair patch things up in time to save their once great friendship?

Shows run at the Angelica Free Library on Friday, December 12, and Saturday, December 13, at 7:00 pm with a matinee at 3:00pm on Sunday, December 14.  Tickets are $6 each and can be purchased at the door or ahead of time at the Angelica Sweet Shop.  For more information contact thevalleytheatre@gmail.com or find them online at facebook.com/valleytheatre.

For more on Neil Simon tune in to this special episode of my podcast!

New Job

I mean, at this point it's not that new.  It will be a year on January 13.  In that time, I've gotten pretty settled here at the David A. Howe Public Library.  There are things I miss about Houghton.  I miss Chris and Sharleen.  I miss having student workers.  I miss the semester schedule.  But I don't fit into an academic library setting, particularly that one.  I started in public libraries and it's good to be back.  This is really the setting I belong in.  I'm free to try to new things, get creative.  If things work, great.  If they don't work, then it's back to the drawing board.  No big deal.  

At this point, I've overused this line, but people go to academic libraries because they have to and public libraries because they want to.  It makes a big difference.  I'm enjoying leading the book clubs.  It's been fun booking authors.  (So far Archer Mayor, Julia Spencer-Fleming and Joyce Carol Oates!  #stephenking2016)  It has it's drawbacks, but they are far outweighed by the good.  We are getting ready to hire some new staff members, which I'm hoping will be good.

The building itself is great, despite it's lack of office and staff space.  There is a 300 seat auditorium attached where Valley Theatre performed Steel Magnolias and one stop on our three-city tour of The Odd Couple.  Having a genuine theatre space available is great, and is an excellent job perk.  

All in all it's a pretty good deal.

Proof that Odd Couple is actually happening

    Since we wrapped She Loves Me in 2008 we've been planning to do The Odd Couple.  Well, 2014 is the year it happens! This isn't the official press release or anything, just a little blurb I wrote for the library newsletter.   Still, I thought it ought to be preserved since it is the first official news of our long-awaited production of The Odd Couple. 

After their well-received production of SteelMagnolias earlier this year, Valley Theatre returns to the Nancy Howe Auditorium with Neil Simon’s classic comedy The Odd Couple, directed by Amanda Cox.  The Odd Couple (made famous by the movie starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon) tells the story of two friends, sloppy Oscar Madison and fussy Felix Unger, who are forced to move in together after their marriages crumble.  The close quarters begin to test the limits of their friendship and put their unexpecting neighbors and pals right in the middle of their domestic squabble.    Shows run November 21-23.  For more information contacting thevalleytheatre@gmail.com or find them online at facebook.com/valleytheatre.

(We plan to have shows in Houghton too, but the specifics are still being worked out.)

For more on Neil Simon tune in to this special episode of my podcast!