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<\/a>Samuel Martin Lewis and Sarah Kelly. Photo by Lemon Melon.<\/p><\/div>\n
War Stories<\/em> itself, though, is not as fun as the theatre, I\u2019m afraid. The story<\/em> is interesting, and has some clever lines, but the play would be half as long if the quartet of actors didn\u2019t pause…at…every…single…period. It was driving me nuts on opening night! I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the fault of the actors themselves or the director. Or, as I suspect, a combo. But it is the worst kind of acting. You\u2019re supposed to learn that in Acting 101! (Clearly, this group was absent that day.) I just wanted to run on stage and shake them, and ask them if they’ve\u00a0ever<\/em> heard people talk in real life!!! (By the middle of the second act, I was wishing that I could give them all the pill that Dick Van Dyke\u2019s character gives the ballet conductor on the Ed Sullivan Show, at the end of Bye Bye Birdie<\/em>, so they would just speed it up already!)<\/p>\n Roxanne Jaeckel and Samuel Martin Lewis. Photo by Lemon Melon.<\/p><\/div>\n The delivery of all four of the participants was like bad audition monologues. Ones where the actor does not get the part! The beginning of War Stories<\/em> is actually monologues from each character, and it\u2019s a technique they use throughout, to differing degrees of success. But they all have very uncomfortable physicalities, which are very distracting.<\/p>\n When I saw the play, Roxanne Jackal, as the \u201cpretty girl,\u201d (which she is<\/em>,) kept doing that horrible thing of slapping her thighs every few sentences. Have you ever seen anyone do that off-stage?! Ever<\/em>?! I think not.<\/p>\n And Sarah Kelly (who also wrote<\/em> the show, so she should know better!,) seemed to be trying hard to keep herself from not making that same mistake, by constantly holding her hands in front of her solar plexus and \u201cEensy Weensy Spider<\/em>\u201d-ing them. That was maddening to watch. Samuel Martin Lewis didn\u2019t do either of those physical annoyances, thank goodness, but he just delivered every single line in a low-key manner.<\/p>\n Roxanne Jaeckel and Alexander Carroll. Photo by Lemon Melon.<\/p><\/div>\n At least Alexander Carroll tried to bring some life to his \u201cbad boy\u201d character. He was by far the best one on stage here. (This was weird, though\u2014he was the only one with a costume change! The other three all stayed in their one outfit the whole time\u2014except for a blanket and an apron–even though it takes place over an unidentified, and hard to figure out, period of time. But \u201cJake\u201d went from a leather jacket to a tee shirt to a long-sleeved polo shirt, all black, of course, to show us that he\u2019s a bad boy. The multiple tops prompted my friend Alice to say that his performance had \u201cmany layers.\u201d Funny comment.)<\/p>\n By the way, these are far from the worst performances I\u2019ve ever seen; it\u2019s just that their bad acting habits are so egregious that it\u2019s hard to concentrate on what they\u2019re saying. They need to clean-up those faulty techniques right away. (And Roxanne needs to work on her lisp, too. I know that people ignore the ones that Drew Barrymore and Emma Stone have, but lisps are like nails on a chalkboard to me, especially in actors, who work on every other part of their craft. And lisps are so easy to fix!!! My Speech Chairman father had plenty of private clients when I was growing up, and he fixed them in a matter of just a few sessions. I know casting people who won\u2019t cast anyone with a lisp; they\u2019ve told me that they feel that actors who have one are lazy.)<\/p>\n Samuel Martin Lewis and Roxanne Jaeckel. Photo by Lemon Melon.<\/p><\/div>\n All that being said, the show is entertaining enough. And the price of admission is inexpensive enough; it\u2019s just about the same price as a movie nowadays! And there\u2019s something about live theatre that feels so much more like an evening out than going to a movie. And Actors Workout Studio is right in the middle of the NoHo Arts District, so you can go for a bite before or after the show. Or both! It\u2019s a great area for a date.<\/p>\n And hopefully, by the time you see the show, the actors will have taken all this to heart, and started correcting themselves. (That\u2019s why I write this to being with; I give this constructive criticism because every weakness can<\/em> be fixed by them.) And if not, at least you all get to see what I\u2019m talking about! And, I\u2019m told by many of my readers, that\u2019s why they take me up on my theatre\/dining\/movie\/music\/art suggestions to begin with! It’s considered half the fun.<\/p>\n War Stories<\/em> running through March 5, 2017<\/strong> WAR STORIES This play is at a sweet little theatre in the Valley that\u2019s new to me. I love being introduced to places like this! It\u2019s very cute and comfortable, with cheery personnel. (If you can’t climb steep stairs, though, make sure you don\u2019t have to use the restroom when you go to Actors Workout<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
\n Actors Workout Studio \u00a04735 Lankershim Blvd. \u00a0NoHo \u00a0818-506-3903 \u00a0www.edm.ticketleap.com\/war-stories<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"