![\"Deric](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/rsz_2017_our_town_0123.jpg\")
<\/a>Deric Augustine and Sandra Mae Frank. Photo by Jenny Graham, as is the big one at the top of this page, of Russell Harvard, Alexandria Wailes, and Troy Kotsur.<\/p><\/div>\n
But I\u2019m just going to come out and say it: I do not get the adoration of\u00a0Our Town<\/em>, in general.\u00a0 I know that many people think the same thing, (because they\u2019ve admitted as much in private,) but it\u2019s like\u00a0The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes<\/em>\u00a0to me\u2014no one wants to appear not smart enough to love this classic play.\u00a0 But, even with my 147IQ, and having lived a lifetime of more culture than most people can even begin to imagine, and with my parents being high school Speech and English teachers, (which means they both taught this play forever,)\u00a0I still don\u2019t get the attraction of it.\u00a0 I was hoping that, once I saw it performed, I would<\/em>, but no luck.\u00a0 I tried to stay engaged, but the story<\/em> is honestly a bore and a half.<\/p>\n So, I have to separate this production<\/em> from the actual 1938 play by Thornton Wilder. You know what I think of the play itself, so now here\u2019s my review of this actual production at the Pasadena Playhouse.<\/p>\n Photo by Jenny Graham.<\/p><\/div>\n It\u2019s performed\u00a0as written, and in the same manner that it has always been done on stage. Which means you need great concentration because there are no good visuals, (unless you\u2019re a fan of chairs and ladders and floor-length ecru and gray dresses,) it\u2019s super-long and drawn-out, (there are three<\/em> acts totaling about three hours, with an end that makes no sense) and very<\/em> old-fashioned, (it takes place between 1901 and 1913. Oysh.) And just to make it even longer, they announce some cast members at the beginning! But, I think that\u2019s also written into the script. [Note: Upon reading this review, my proofreader told me that she\u2019s never seen the play, but saw the old movie version of Our Town<\/em> and \u201cloved it!\u201d She added, \u201cIt is<\/em> an old-fashioned and kind-of boring story, but I’m an old-fashioned boring person!\u201d So, as with just about everything in life, this is a case of different strokes for different folks. I just wanted to give you another opinion here.]<\/p>\n Having speaking and<\/em> signing actors is a gargantuan undertaking, which I admire. I cannot even imagine what rehearsals must have been like! But I had a bit of mixed feelings seeing it this way. I definitely appreciate deaf theater, and I find sign language beautiful, graceful, and intriguing, but because of my brain issues, it\u2019s hard for me to follow so much movement at one time. And I couldn\u2019t figure out who to watch\u2014the speaker or the signer. They also kept changing actors to play some of the same characters, mainly the Narrator, who is the central character, so it was all a bit confusing.<\/p>\n Dot-Marie Jones, Alexandria Wailes, Annika Markes, and Marie France Arcilla. Photo by Jenny Graham.<\/p><\/div>\n But every single actor in this production is excellent.\u00a0 Some speak, some sign, and many do both!\u00a0 I\u2019m amazed that there are so many good hearing<\/em> actors who can also sign<\/em>! Some of them appear to have just learned ASL for this production, but still, it\u2019s all most impressive. I applaud them all for that. Their effort is mind-boggling!<\/p>\n And it struck me how entertaining and humorous the non-hearing actors are in their parts; they can\u2019t hear the hearty laughter that permeated the opening night audience for much of the first two acts, yet their timing, especially with facial expressions and physicality, is spot-on! Wow.<\/p>\n I enjoyed them all<\/em>, but especially\u00a0Harold Foxx, who, as the milkman, conveys more with his face<\/em> than many actors do with his or her voice<\/em>!\u00a0 I just wish that he had a bigger part in this show.\u00a0 I could not take my eyes off him.<\/p>\n The entire cast stays on stage the whole time, even when not participating in the action, which is a staging device I dislike in any<\/em> show; I personally get distracted by it because I keep thinking of how I would hate doing that. (And have<\/em>!) It made me wonder if the original Our Town<\/em> is the one that started it, which would make sense.<\/p>\n Photo by Jenny Graham.<\/p><\/div>\n On a side note, this is really all I knew about Our Town<\/em> prior to this opening night: When I was a kid, and my sister was in high school, she asked me to help her rehearse a monologue from it for a class.\u00a0 She was playing the deceased girl who was begging her mother (played by yours truly in rehearsal) to look at her, but the mother, of course, did not know the girl was there, so she just went about her business, with her back to her daughter for the scene.\u00a0 But me being me, even back then, every time my sister would plead, \u201cMama, look at me!,\u201d I would turn around and make faces. Charming, I know.\u00a0 (Shocking that we don\u2019t speak now, isn’t it?)<\/p>\n I can\u2019t for the life of me figure out why any theatre would produce this oh-so-old-fashioned, ultra-long play at this time, especially with so many creative works just begging for exposure.\u00a0 My friend posited that perhaps it was somehow connected to the Playhouse\u2019s hundredth anniversary, but I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 And I would not get it even\u00a0then<\/em>! I don\u2019t know what the play is trying to show us other than people live and die. Duh.<\/p>\n Sandra Mae Frank, Annika Marks, and Marco Gutierrez. Photo by Jenny Graham.<\/p><\/div>\n Overall, though, I\u2019m grateful that I finally saw this classic play. Even though it did not get to me, at all, I feel that every student of theatre needs to see it once, even just to know what it is.<\/p>\n Lastly, on a super<\/em> side note, I noticed that\u00a0Pasadena Playhouse\u00a0recently overhauled their website, making it pretty stark-looking.\u00a0 I\u2019m always a fan of simplicity, (as you can maybe tell with the design of this<\/em> e-zine,) but their pared-down site just looks somewhat sad to me.\u00a0 But worse than the site is that they did something new with their programs, as well, which I hope they change back soon.\u00a0 First of all, the print in the actors\u2019 credits is so small, it resembles the bottom line of an eye test!\u00a0 Even more inconvenient is that they put all the actors\u2019 pictures on one page, and not right next to each bio.\u00a0 This way, if you want to know\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0Who\u2019s Who, you have to keep referring back to that one page, which I doubt most people will be as dedicated as I am to do.\u00a0 And those pix are not even in alphabetical order!!!\u00a0 Who has the time to go digging for the info?!\u00a0 It\u2019s a disservice to the actors as well as to the audience members. Just sayin\u2019.<\/p>\n Our Town<\/em>\u00a0running through October 22, 2017<\/strong> OUR TOWN No matter what else I say in this review, first and foremost I recognize the excellence of this production of Our Town, which is a joint venture of the Pasadena Playhouse and Deaf West Theatre West.\u00a0 And because of that successful collaboration, it\u2019s performed in both spoken\u00a0English and\u00a0American Sign Language, which is fascinating<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>
\nPasadena Playhouse \u00a039 South El Molino Avenue \u00a0Pasadena \u00a0626-356-7529\u00a0\u00a0www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"