Review: 'Late Night Comedy at Planet Ant'
Red rocks, audience flocks to Planet Ant on Thursday nights
My friends thought I was nuts.
There I was, sitting in a theater at 11 o'clock on a Thursday night waiting for a show to begin. "No one will be there," my friends predicted. "It's a Thursday. People have to work the next day. Plus, you won't be able to keep your eyes open that late!"
Well, they were wrong – on all counts.
For when "Late Night Comedy at Planet Ant" finally hit the stage at around 11:10, I was surrounded by 30-plus wide-eyed, energy-filled twenty-somethings – and one woman who tipped the scales in my direction – all of whom were eager to get the party started. (As Margaret Edwartowski, the queen bee of the Ant's Improv Colony, later told me, "This is early evening for us.")
And party they did, beginning with plenty of free beers provided by two of the show's performers, and whatever alcoholic beverages people brought in themselves. (Bribing theater critics with booze is much appreciated, but not necessarily a wise idea – especially if a certain critic is taking medication that shouldn't be mixed with alcohol. What a show THAT would have been!)
But even without the liquid refreshments, I suspect, the audience would still have been as primed and eager to participate as they were last Thursday night.
Who knew that late night Thursdays could be so boisterously fun?
The format of the show is simple: The night opens with a 30-minute set by the female improv duo Bottles of Red, and after a 10-minute or so intermission, 3 guys named joe takes the stage for 30-minutes of improvised rock 'n' roll. It's a cool match that provides an equal opportunity shot at fun and laughter.
Bottles of Red features Detroit's "first ladies of Detroit's improv scene," Nancy Heyden and Edwartowski. The crimson-haired performers – hence the name -specialize in "long-form" improv, a style that delves more into character and story development than the quick and easy payoff. Since the two have worked together for more than a decade at Second City and other venues, it's easy to see they can read each other's minds – which helps move the skits from moment to moment and scene to scene.
Although each of Red's seven skits last Thursday night generated roars of laughter from their appreciative audience, the two were especially inventive as upstairs tenants who plan to pop in uninvited at a birthday party downstairs with a cake and a surprise announcement for the celebrant who doesn't know he's the real father of one of the women. In another, Heyden shows up for a job interview, only to be insulted and denigrated by Edwartowski. The final scene – about two Southern Belles after the same man, Radcliffe – was shaping up to be the best of the night, but it was cut short because of the strict 30-minute show rule.
The looser, sillier portion of the evening begins the moment 3 guys named joe command the stage. (Actually, it's Dustin Gardner, Pat Loos and Topher Owen – none of whom is named Joe, but what the hell.) Calling themselves the "world's greatest improvisational rock 'n' roll band," the trio riff on a variety of topics, but mostly on sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll – three subjects that seemed near and dear to the young folk in the audience.
It's a free-wheeling half-hour, with most of the accompaniment provided by the usually quiet Loos on a guitar that needs a good shave. Gardner provides the most manic moments, while Owen is the cigarette smoking, beer-swilling, not always in control ringmaster who never stops smiling. (No, it's not gas; I suspect it's because his brain is moving at such a high rate of speed that he arrives at a punch line long before the rest of us do.)
Although their humor might not be suitable for the more delicate or sensitive souls among us, there's no disputing the fact that they ARE funny, and when they seriously TRY, their musical voices do indeed blend well.
"Late Night Comedy at Planet Ant," featuring the improv team of Nancy Hayden and Margaret Edwartowski as "Bottle of Red" and the three-part harmonies of improv rock group 3 guys named joe, hits the stage every Thursday night at 11 p.m. at Planet Ant Theatre, 2357 Caniff, Hamtramck. Tickets: $5 For information: 313-365-4948 or http://www.planetant.com.
The Bottom Line: Life late night Thursdays are a whole lotta fun these days at Planet Ant!
Professional Theater News from Around Town:
Compiled by Donald V. Calamia
RetroFEST – The Long and Short of It
BEVERLY HILLS – Heartlande Theatre Company will present its first ever "Play-By-Play RetroFest" on Tuesday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Seligman Family Performing Arts Center at Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills. The "RetroFEST" is a fundraiser for the 2006 Michigan Theatre Festival of New Works and will be composed of short plays selected from the first nine years of HTC's celebrated "Play-By-Play" marathon.
"We've had so many wonderful plays included in the marathon. We could easily have filled several evenings," said Jan Radcliff of Heartlande. "Knowing we only had one night for the 'RetroFEST,' we concentrated on putting together two hours that would be representative of the diversity and quality of work we've presented over the years."
While the short play form has become very popular, it was barely a blip on the theatrical radar screen in 1997 when the Play-By-Play marathon debuted.
"Ten years ago the term 'short play' conjured up images of comedy skits – something you'd see on 'Saturday Night Live,'" said Mary Rychlewski, also of Heartlande. "And while some of the submissions we receive [for HTC's annual marathon] really are skits, many more of them are plays with fully realized characters, themes and story arcs.
Local playwright, Kitty Dubin, whose play "Mimi and Me" will be performed during the "RetroFEST," agrees. "I teach playwriting at Oakland University and my students have to write 15-minute plays. I tell them that a short play must have the same dramatic elements of a full length play. The challenge is just incorporating them in a shorter time period."
For those who think writing fewer pages requires less effort, M.V. (Maggie) Patton, author of "Housewife with an Attitude", says, "Writing short plays isn't easy. You have to zero in on a small moment of life, reach in and pull out details that tell a compelling or funny story in 10 pages, with a beginning, middle and end. It's an art unto itself and when it's done well, a short play can have a memorable affect on the viewer."
Aoise Stratford, whose play "Elephants & Coffee," will be part of this year's "RetroFEST," enjoys watching short plays as much as she likes writing them. "I love short play festivals for their range. It's not just the 'well, if you don't like one, you might like the next one,' aspect of variety, it is simply the sheer scope of what writers are writing about that intrigues me. More voices means a bigger picture of the world we live in, more chances to be surprised, moved, annoyed, delighted."
Short plays also provide opportunities for a greater number of writers – even established writers like Dubin -to see their work actually produced. In addition to "Play By Play," Dubin's short scripts have also been produced in the Turnip Festival, the American Playwrights Festival and the Love Creek Theatre Festival, all of which are in New York City. "Mimi and Me", the same play that's being performed in the "RetroFEST," is also part of a national traveling theatre festival entitled, "6 Women Turning 60 in '06" that is currently touring the country.
And oftentimes, shorter plays become the basis for longer pieces.
"They have been the starting off point to all my full length plays," says Janet Torreano Pound of Pontiac. Her short play "Empty Nest Blues," will be included in the "RetroFEST" and is one of three marathon plays that form the core of "Birds of a Feather", which will be professionally produced this spring at Trinity House Theatre in Livonia. "It is so much easier to commit to something that you feel may actually have a chance of getting produced than spending a year or more of your time for something to sit on a bookshelf."
The success of the short play format does have its downside.
"It is usually the full length plays that generate income for writers," says Aoise, "so there is this band of writers out there who are being constantly produced, have national reputations and earn virtually nothing. The short work format can and sometimes does lead to interest in longer works, but this is very often not the case, and writers thinking that the short play festival is the key to the door marked 'full length productions' may be well advised to think about other ways to market their longer work."
Despite this, most writers, like Maggie Patton, are happy to see the proliferation of opportunities for short plays. "Getting a short play produced is much more competitive now than when I first started writing them 10 years ago. There are many more theatres producing evenings of short plays, but there are even more playwrights out there writing them. It just proves that there's an audience out there wanting short form entertainment. Short plays are getting a lot more respect these days."
Admission to "Play-By-Play RetroFEST" is $15.
The Seligman Performing Arts Center at Detroit Country Day School is located at 22305 W. 13 Mile Road, on the southwest corner of 13 Mile Road & Lahser in Beverly Hills
To find out more about Heartlande Theatre Company's "Play-By-Play RetroFEST" call 248-988-1094 or visit Heartlande's website at http://www.heartlande.com.
Silent auction to benefit the Williamston Theatre
WILLIAMSTON – The Williamston Theatre will hold a silent auction at its next Open House on Thursday, April 13 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. All proceeds will support
the first scheduled fully-mounted production at the Williamston Theatre this summer.
Items available for purchase will include antiques, services at Williamston area businesses, sports memorabilia and theatre collectibles. Among the items offered will be: autographed Spartan sports memorabilia; NBA 2006 All Star Memorabilia; autographed posters from "The Lion King" and "Jersey Boys"; antique senate bench; antique pump organ; dinner for four at the Red Cedar Grill in Williamston; dinner for two at the Red Cedar Grill in Williamston; Ann Arbor Get Away Package including lodging, dining and theatre tickets; private dance lesson with Elizabeth Williams; guided meditation session with Julie Woodward at Wholistic Life Services; family portrait by Williamston photographer J.D. Small; and an original oil painting by local artist Emily Lilly-Lacca.
The Open House is open to the public. Founding members and board members will be available to give tours and answer questions.
The Williamston Theatre is Michigan's newest professional theatre company. Its first production will be "Additional Particulars" by Ed Simpson, opening June 16 and running through July 29. The Theatre is a not-for-profit organization and all donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.
The Williamston Theatre is located in downtown Williamston at 122 S. Putnam Street (1.75 miles north of exit 117 off I-96).
For additional information, call 517-655-SHOW or log on to http://www.williamstontheatre.org.
W. K. Kellogg Foundation supports development of Plowshares Theatre Company
DETROIT – Plowshares Theatre Company of Detroit has begun a project to enhance its institutional capacity and resource development.
The project is funded by a $43,445 grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. The project begins in March 2006 and concludes in February 2007.
"Building the institutional capacity of Plowshares will strengthen our service [to] our patrons, provide more programming opportunities for our artists and increase the efficiency and management of the company," said Gary Anderson, co-founder and producing artistic director of Plowshares Theatre Company. "Program ideas such as youth productions and a year-round training program will finally get off the ground now that we will have someone specifically dedicated to raising support for them."
Efforts will focus on the addition of a new full-time development director for the company and the establishment of an annual fund development campaign that includes individual, corporate and foundation support. This campaign will lead to greater long-term support of the company and its programs.
Individual donations campaigns such as the Plowshares 1000 and Plowshares Partners Programs will be folded in to a comprehensive development strategy that will grow the number of donors and diversify the sources of support for the long-term.
"The vision of Plowshares is to be a world-class regional theatre representing the mark of excellence of Detroit and its artists," Anderson said. "Our vision begins with the artist and ends with the audience. Our challenge is to nurture both."
Plowshares Theatre Company is a nonprofit arts organization formed in 1989 to produce plays and programs that inspire, exhibit and affirm African-American life. Since its inception, Plowshares has served the people of Southeastern Michigan by providing an artistic forum for the discussion of tolerance and creating awareness between communities. Now, coming to the end of its sixteenth season, Plowshares has received an unprecedented number of awards as well as regional and national recognition. Today, it is a well-respected and honored Michigan arts institution.
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 "to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive, and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions, and healthy communities.
To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and community development.
For information about Plowshares Theatre Company, call 313-872-0279.
Gilbert & Sullivan's 'HMS Pinafore' sails into Dearborn"S Ford Community & Performing Arts Center
DEARBORN – The internationally acclaimed Carl Rosa Opera Company, fresh from its sell-out UK tour, brings its production of Gilbert & Sullivan's much loved comic opera "HMS Pinafore" to the stage of Ford Community & Performing Arts Center on Saturday, April 8, 2006.
"HMS Pinafore" is a hilarious tale of love, hypocrisy and mistaken identities that unravels when the Captain's daughter falls secretly in love with a common sailor.
The Carl Rosa Opera Company, Britain's oldest opera company, is a unique touring organization of 65 musicians, singers and technicians that have produced high quality, entertaining opera productions throughout the United States and Europe since its founding in 1873.
The Center, located at 15801 Michigan Avenue at Greenfield, is unique among community centers, being the largest municipally owned recreational complex in North America. Designed to bring mind, body and spirit together, the facility features a world-class theatre, state-of-the-art health facility, extensive conference/meeting spaces and a senior center
Ticket prices for The Carl Rosa Opera Company's performance of "HMS Pinafore" range from $34-$43.
For information, including a calendar of events, call 313-943-2354 or visit The Center's Web site at http://www.dearbornfordcenter.com.
BoarsHead's Second Company presents 'Dangerous Obsession'
LANSING – It has been said that love is the most powerful force known to man. It has the power to bring out the very best in us while simultaneously revealing the very worst parts of our character. N.J. Crisp's British thriller, "Dangerous Obsession," explores this darker side of love as a man, obsessed with his wife's affair and tragic accident, seeks revenge against the ones who ruined his marriage.
"Dangerous Obsession" will run as the final show in the Dark Night Series, which is completely produced, performed and promoted by the Second Company, the intern staff of The BoarsHead Theater. This series grants them a valuable opportunity to learn how theater is created as an art form and as a business.
"Dangerous Obsession will be staged April 10 and 11 at 7 p.m. at The BoarsHead Theater, 425 S. Grand, in downtown Lansing.
Admission is FREE.
For more info or to see production photos of this show, visit http://www.boarshead.org.
From Our hallowed Halls of Education:
LCC shows us 'The Biz'
LANSING – Lansing Community College's Performing Arts Department presents "The Biz," a musical revue about the business of show business and life in the theatre. Janine Novenske Smith directs the students in music from shows including "Spamalot," "Chicago," "The Producers," "A Chorus Line," "On The Town," "Follies," "Cabaret" and more.
Performances will be held Friday, April 7 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 9 at 3 p.m. in Dart Auditorium, located at 500 N. Capitol in Lansing.
Admission is free.
For complete information, call the LCC Performing Arts production office at 517-483-1488.
Three one-act operas in Varner Studio Theatre
ROCHESTER – Oakland University's Department of Music, Theatre and Dance presents "Three One-Act Operas" in the Varner Studio Theatre on Tuesday, April 11 at noon and 8 p.m.; and Thursday, April 13 at 7:30 pm.
"The Impresario" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, directed by Robert Arbaugh, is a comic opera performed in English about an Impresario who tires of the grind of managing a theatre. Frustration with soloists and finances bring him to the brink of retirement, but his stage-struck assistant plots with a Banker to provide enough cash to keep the theatre open. The Banker, sugar daddy to a mature diva and an untried soprano, juggles to keep both women happy – and apart, until fate brings them together at an audition for his newly financed project.
"The Game of Chance" by Seymour Barab, directed by Fred Love, is set in a garden where a Representative, the eternal messenger of fate, brings three young women her dearest wish. One chooses wealth, another chooses fame and a third desires a lover. The now rich woman misses her real friends, the famous author yearns for love and the third young woman finds marriage tedious. Even the Representative is dissatisfied with life and wishes he had an assistant to help him with his overwhelming duties.
"Le Portrait de Manon" by Jules Massenet, directed by Fred Love with English translation by Dr. Michael Gillespie, is set to a French libretto by Georges Boyer. It was a sequel to Massenet's 1884 opera "Manon," widely regarded as his masterpiece. "Le Portrait de Manon" has rarely been performed. Inside a castle in a French province lives Des Grieux, a middle age man overwhelmed by mementos, especially those of his beloved Manon, now gone. Aurora, a young attractive girl and love-interest to Des Grieux's nephew, bears a striking resemblance to Manon. Des Grieux forbids the relationship between Aurora and his nephew citing her lower status to their family, until Aurora's true origin is revealed.
Admission is free.
For complete information, call the Varner Box Office at 248-370-3013.
Community Theater Corner:
Sunsets announces holocaust themed play, 'Dear Esther'
LANSING – Sunsets with Shakespeare is pleased to announce that its next production will be the powerful holocaust themed play, "Dear Esther."
The play will run Friday April 14 at 8 p.m., Saturday April 15 at 8 p.m., Friday April 21 at 8 p.m., Saturday April 22 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday April 23 at 2 p.m. All shows will be at the R E Olds Anderson Rotary Barn located at Woldumar Nature Center, 5739 Old Lansing Road.
The play, written by Richard Rashke, tells the story of Esther Terner Raab who participated, along with 300 other Jews, in the largest death camp escape of World War II. Esther was featured in Rashke's book "Escape from Sobibor" and the miniseries of the same name, and as result, she found she was invited to tell her story to school children in New Jersey. Her journey from ghetto to death camp to freedom generated hundreds of letters from children expressing their love, concern and outrage. Those letters form the skeleton of this play.
The play works to dissect the soul of a survivor, exploring issues of death, belief in God, revenge, hatred, justice, luck, guilt and memory.
The Sunsets With Shakespeare production will be directed by Dan Pappas with technical design by Ryan Covey. The production will feature Nancy Bieber as Esther today, Erin Cline as a younger Esther, and an ensemble cast including veteran actors Bob Murrell, Marie Papciak, Kevin Knights and Todd Heywood. The show will also introduce Waverly High School students Tony Alan and Rita Hourani. The special movement for the show was conceived and choreographed by Roberta Otten-Mason.
The Saturday April 22, 2 p.m. production is a special event sponsored by the City Pulse and will feature a talk back about the play with actors and community leaders following the production. The special event was designed as an alternative way to protest the Nazi rally in downtown Lansing by remembering those who have been the victims of Nazi violence in history.
Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 for students, seniors, and Woldumar Nature Center Members.
For more information, please log on to http://www.sunsetswithshakespeare.com.
