British Panto Comes Alive in Princeton

Despite the impediment of multiple snowstorms, a panto production of Jack and the Beanstalk drew full houses at the Stuart Country Day School's Stuart Little Theater yesterday, with another show this afternoon.

The brain child of the Variety Theater Team--Zoe Brookes, Per Kreipke and Todd Reichart--the show features community actors of all ages in a spoof of Princeton life, replete with comic takeoffs on town/gown tensions, a highly choreographed rantfest of wouldbe mayors, a cameo by the mayor herself, songs of love and yearning, a dancing cow, an economist who lectures Jack on the "means of production" before trading a dubious but fortuitous envelope for the cow, a standout performance by Ruth Schultz as a highly gymnastic telescope,

and keystone interventions by Campus Security.

I play woodwinds in the band, which I see from the program is called "The Hokum and Hackery Consort of Yooniversity", directed by Michael Jacobsen.

The play begins with a talented mime, who is then shooed off the stage by the director, who explains that British pantomime does not fit the American definition. Thus commences two afternoons and an evening of high hilarity, many months, brainstorms, and snowstorms in the making.

Climate Theater: A Playwriting Debut

Having written a lot about climate change, and not seeing any substantive action to address this deepening global tragedy, I started imagining theatrical scenes a couple years ago. January 18 marked the first performance by professional actors of two of these scripts. Thanks to the One-Minute Play Festival and Passage Theatre for this opportunity.

The plays can be found in an online video  at minute 58:00 (Stronger Than the Storm?) and 40:40 (When Time Went On Forever).

Here's some background:
Last month, Passage Theatre in Trenton hosted New Jersey's 4th annual One-Minute Play Festival, "showcasing 50 Brand New one-minute plays by New Jersey's best playwrights." They were nice enough to include me in that group. An email mysteriously but gratifyingly appeared in my inbox one day this past fall, inviting me to submit exactly two plays, each of which was not to exceed one minute in length.

I used it as motivation to squeeze the theme of climate change into the one minute format. No problem!

According to the 1MPF's website, "The One-­Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) is a NYC-­‐based theatre company, founded by producing artistic director Dominic D’Andrea, and is America’s largest and longest running short form theatre company. #1MPF is a barometer project, which investigates the zeitgeist of different communities through dialogue and consensus building sessions and a performance of many moments."

Twenty cities now have One-Minute play festivals, with each one drawing from its own region's playwrights, directors and actors. This year's material in NJ was heavily influenced by Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. Five directors and five groups of actors each performed ten pieces, with no breaks inbetween. Very exciting.

The online video documents the January 19 performance. The show's intro starts at minute 12:10 on the video. My two plays are at 40:40 (When Time Went On Forever) with actors Steve Caputi and Susan Gaissert, directed by Steve Gaissert, and at 58:00 (Stronger Than the Storm?) with actors Amy Crossman and Scott Brieden, directed by Artem Yatsunov. Other plays before and after the "Stronger than the storm?" also explore NJ's response to Hurricane Sandy, including a piece by Clare Drobot that asks the question, "How can you be stronger than an inanimate force of nature?"