In my recent post not quite reviewing four presentations I had seen at Vassar/New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theatre over the past few years, I lightly mentioned that before several of them we were asked (admonished, really) not to leak information about the shows on the Internet. In the interest of brevity, and perhaps to avoid feeling like a brat, I understated my feelings about that request while also refusing to completely comply with them.
I do support the idea of creating safe spaces for developing works, so while I found the announcements to be rude and ill-advised, I kept my tongue more than I normally would. So I was quite happy--and felt a bit vindicated in my feelings--to see that the New York Times featured a comment from another avid theater-goer on such preshow announcements. It mentions Powerhouse in particular, and I agree with much of what is said there. The discussion in the readers' comments has been quite lively.
Since then, I have taken another visit to Vassar and seen two more shows, one staged play and one play reading. The first had no preshow announcement and the second talked about how pleased they were to present the author's work and then made a sort of throwaway remark about not giving any other comments. Perhaps I'm projecting, but I assumed that was a backhanded response to the NYT discussion.
Now, in the marked absence of such a prohibition, I feel almost obligated to review the two works I saw. So those posts may be forthcoming shortly. In the meantime, I recommend jumping into the conversation at the Times. Industry folks are reading, and audiences should take every opportunity to give them feedback.
Over the past few summers, I've seen four Powerhouse Theatre shows at Vassar College as part of their annual collaboration with New York Stage and Film. Nero, Whisper House, and The Nightingale were concert readings of musicals by Duncan Sheik (famous for that incessantly played kind-of-twee song Barely Breathing and, of course, for Spring Awakening). F2M was a fully staged play by Patricia Wettig (famous as an actress in Thirtysomething and in Brothers & Sisters).
I think Wettig's play F2M has legs, but I wish the explanatory bits had been less cliched, handled better than as in an after-school special (both in the actual explanations and how they were clunkily folded into the surrounding dialogue). I know many theater audiences know nothing about transgender issues, but the play spends so much time saying what being transgender is and isn't that it shortchanges the really interesting questions the play raises about its impacts on a college-age transgender person and those who love the person. I've read and watched a lot about this (which is how I know how cliched the dialogue is), and the play still managed to raise at least one issue that I had never considered. Serious kudos for that, but it happened late in the play and was barely explored. Keira Keeley's portrayal was excellent, restrained, and very real, though.
For the concert readings, the audience is reminded that in the Internet Era, there are few safe spaces for artists to hone their craft without widely circulated criticism and to please honor that by not filming the show or talking about it with your invisible friends. [See my newer post for an update on this policy.]* So I won't do real reviews for these shows, but I do want to tell you a bit about my experience so far and encourage you to take the beautiful drive or MetroNorth train ride up to Poughkeepsie to check it out for yourself sometime. (Please click MORE at the bottom to read about Nero and The Nightingale.)
Whisper House Score by Duncan Sheik, book and co-lyrics by Kyle Jarrow. Copied from the Old Globe Theatre's website (the show got a fully staged run there after the Powerhouse workshop):
It’s 1942--at the height of World War II--and Christopher, an imaginative young boy, is sent to live with an aunt he’s never met: Lilly, a reclusive woman who serves as the keeper of a remote lighthouse. Not yet comfortable in his surroundings, Christopher begins to hear strange music no one else can hear seeping through the walls. It doesn’t take long for him to suspect the lighthouse may be haunted, and these ghosts tell him that Yasujiro, a Japanese worker that Lilly has employed, should not be trusted. Is Christopher’s imagination getting the best of him? Or are these ghosts warning Christopher about the very real dangers that lie ahead?
I love this show and hope it comes to New York. It's a simple but touching story, and I think it's brilliant that--like in Spring Awakening--the songs take place outside the narrative, this time with the ghosts commenting on the action but not really taking part in it. Please go listen to the concept album Sheik recorded with the golden-voiced Holly Brook. I'm particularly fond of Better to Be Dead, And Now We Sing, and especially The Tale of Solomon Snell. I listened to the recording on repeat for weeks when I got it and am still completely in love with it.
Here's a video for the Whisper House song Earthbound Starlight:
