EMAV Review: 'Tight End' reveals dreams blocked and tackled

McKenna Castro as 'Ash' with Miles Nelson as 'Sam.'

★★★½☆ - Satisfying

It’s impossible not to get caught up in the influence of small town high school football in Majestic Repertory Theatre Company’s satisfying three and a half-star, regional premiere presentation of TIGHT END, By Rachel Bykowski, which runs through March 24th.

For student Ash (don’t call her Ashley) Miller (strongly played by McKenna Castro), the daughter of a late legendary quarterback for Westmont High, her life focuses on trying out for and making the Westmont football team. Football is in her blood. Her dream is to catch the winning touchdown pass for the Westmont High Titans’ Homecoming game. In order to make the team, Ash will have to prove she is one of the guys even if that means sacrificing her body for the love of the game.

Her self-belief and determination eventually win over her Mom, Darla (Cristina Florea), her Coach (Adam Martinez), and her quarterback, Sam Jones (Miles Nelson). The heartfelt, passionate performances of this acting ensemble carry the audience along an emotional roller-coaster as they each share personal memories while working to protect and guide Ash on her daring quest.

Director Troy Heard does a wonderful job balancing the intimacy and the pressure of his cast’s interaction throughout. His production team has created a well-defined, compressed setting in such close proximity to the audience that they are toe-to-toe with actors breaking the fourth wall to speak with them directly. The team includes scenic and sound design by The Design Ninjas; costume design by Mary Wantland; and lighting design by Gina Manago.

Adam Martinez as 'Coach.'

Playwright Rachel Bykowski, a Chicago native, writes “To explore the many facets of womanhood and raise awareness to social issues. I find myself analyzing male/female power dynamics, male privilege, and gender roles. The question, “What does it mean to be a woman,” haunts my characters. My womanhood, anger, and playwriting are tangled together in these knots of words I call my plays.”

Her full-length plays have been featured with The National New Play Network (NNPN) in a workshop at the Kennedy Center for the MFA Playwrights’ Festival in 2016. She was a top 20 finalist for CulturalDC’s Source Theatre Festival in 2017, received Honorable Mention for the Jane Chambers 2017 Student Playwriting Award, and was the runner-up for the 2018 Todd McNerney Playwriting Award. Tight End had its World Premiere in 2017 at the 20% Theatre Company in Chicago and was chosen as one of the Best Shows in Chicago that year.

The number of girls playing tackle football is still low compared to boys — of the 225,000 athletes in Pop Warner youth football programs, for example, just 1,100 are girls. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, of the 5.5 million Americans who report playing tackle football, 596,000 — or 10.9 percent — are female.

It is notable that more girls want to play even as annual survey by the National Association of State High School Federations reported that participation in high school football went down 3.5 percent over the past five years.

#EatMoreArt #vegastheatre #vegasculture #vegasarts #majesticrep #review #theatre

EMAV Review: 'The African Company' at NCT was funny, furious and uniquely American ★★★★

Maurice-Aimé Green as 'James Hewlett'

Images by Josh Hawkins, UNLV Creative Services

★★★★☆ - Delicious

Did you know that there was an African Theatre Company in 1821 America?

During Nevada Conservatory Theatre’s (NCT) delicious 4-Star production of "THE AFRICAN COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD III”, we learn that 6 years before New York abolished slavery and 40 years before the beginning of the Civil War, this theatre company existed. William Henry Brown, a free black American, organized a production of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

What do the words of a dead White poet mean to a group of Black actors? Everything, actually. After all, these are artists forced to spend their days disguised as maids and waiters. Hiding their gifts along with their feelings, until the sun sets and the time comes to discover themselves in Shakespeare's poetry. His writing demanding that everyone find their own way through his words, haters be damned. A backstage story like no other -- funny, furious and uniquely American.

Breanna McCallum as 'Sarah'

Shakespeare is the chosen cultural battleground in this inventive retelling of a little known, yet pivotal event in the history of America’s first black theatre company. Knowing they are always under prejudicial pressures from white society, and facing their own internal shakeups, the African Company battles for time, space, audiences and togetherness. The Company presents classic plays at a theatre in downtown Manhattan for both black and white audiences. But they are challenged when they dare to put on Shakespeare’s Richard III at the same time as the powerful and popular Park Theatre. Carlyle Brown’s humorous and touching play, based on real-life events, dares to ask the question: does Shakespeare belong to everyone?

Brandon Dawson as 'The Constable Man' and Cameron Stuart Bass as ' William H. Brown'

Their competition, Stephen Price, an uptown, Broadway-type impresario, is producing Richard III at the same time that the African Company's production and has promised a famous English actor overflowing audiences if he plays Richard in Price's theatre. Fearing the competition of the African Company's production, which is garnering large white audiences, Price manipulates the law and closes down the theatre. The Company rebounds and finds a space right next door to Price's theatre. At the rise of curtain of the next performance, Price causes the arrest of some of the actors in a trumped-up riot charge. The play ends with the Company, surviving, its integrity intact, and about to launch an equally progressive new chapter in the American theatre: They'll soon be producing the first black play written by black Americans of their day.

Maurice-Aimé Green as 'James Hewlett' and Riyadh as 'Papa Shakespeare'

The very capable cast included Cameron Stuart Bass as William H. Brown; Maurice-Aimé Green as James Hewlett; Brandon Dawson as The Constable-Man; Nate Marble as Stephen Price; Breanna McCallum as Sarah; Riyadh as Papa Shakespeare; and Lauren Washington as Ann Johnson.

Lauren Washington as 'Ann Johnson'

Director Melissa Maxwell did an admirable job keeping the action moving and getting the ensemble comfortable and confident in their transitions between the play-within-a-play. The designers created an intimate and authentic proscenium stage, with an exposed backstage above the curtain line and an ample apron in front of the proscenium arch.

The production and design team includes scenic designer Trevor Dotson, lighting designer Andrew Killion, co-sound designers Megan Thompson and Lina Lim, costume designer Hailey Eakle, technical director Ryan Pope, dramaturg Dr. Lezlie Cross, and production stage manager M. Sohaa Smith.

Carlyle Brown is a writer/performer and artistic director of Carlyle Brown & Company, based in Minneapolis. He is a Core Writer of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, and an alumnus of New Dramatists in New York. He has served on the board of directors of The Playwrights' Center and Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for the nonprofit professional theatre and is a member of the board of the Jerome Foundation. He is the 2006 recipient of The Black Theatre Network's Winona Lee Fletcher Award for outstanding achievement and artistic excellence, a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2010 recipient of the Otto Rene' Castillo Award for Political Theatre, and 2010 United States Artists Friends Fellowship.

The next production at NCT is Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding, directed by Allegra Libonati and running March 8th through March 17th.

#EatMoreArt #vegastheatre #NCT #UNLV #Theatre #Review #Stalter #vegasculture #vegasarts

EMAV Review: 15th Annual Dam Short Film Festival was an impressive event

Pictured: 'Tricks'

The 15th annual Dam Short Film Festival was the Boulder City institution’s first without co-founder Lee Lanier, but the leadership team of John LaBonney and Tsvetelina Stefanova pulled off an impressive event without him, drawing in record attendance and proving that DSFF remains the most enjoyable and exciting festival in the Las Vegas area. I made it to nearly all of the programs during the four-day festival, and many were nearly sold out, especially the two Nevada programs and the always popular comedy block. Even the late-night Underground program, featuring movies too risqué for the daytime Boulder City general audience, had a long line of people waiting to be admitted before doors opened.

'The Traffic Separating Device'

There were memorable films in almost every block that I saw, and as LaBonney had touted before the festival began, the selection of documentaries this year was especially strong. I saw some affecting documentaries on serious subjects, but my favorite was the goofy lark “The Traffic Separating Device,” about a street in Stockholm where a metal ramp meant to prevent cars from traveling on a bus-only route causes entertaining havoc. It’s really just 15 minutes of hapless drivers getting flat tires or other damage from the ramp because they failed to read street signs, but director Johan Palmgren turns it into a very funny meditation on municipal improvement.

'Quiet Sundays'

There was also a lot of humor in John Morgan and Rob Hampton’s “Super 8 Daze,” about the directors’ own efforts as kids in the 1970s to replicate Hollywood blockbusters with their Super 8 home-movie cameras. That combination of humor and heart also showed up in Chris Riess and Amy Hill’s “Hula Girl,” about the woman who, with her husband, initially introduced the hula hoop to America (and got no credit for it), as well as in Katie Kemmerer’s “Quiet Sundays” (winner of the award for best student film), about NFL fans in the U.K. Kemmerer does a great job of making NFL fandom seem like something fresh and new, via profiles of some very endearing fans who love a sport that is about as popular in their country as, say, curling is in the U.S.

'Sweetheart Dancers'

The winner for the best Nevada film was another documentary, Ben-Alex Dupris’ “Sweetheart Dancers,” a profile of a gay Native American couple fighting to be accepted into a competition for traditional tribal “sweetheart” dances. It’s a heartwarming and well-crafted piece, one of several standouts among the Nevada films (disclosure: a short that I co-wrote was also featured in the Nevada program).

Other local highlights included the offbeat comedy “Hello Darling,” from former “Absinthe” star Anais Thomassian, and “Tricks,” from UNLV alum Conor Hooper. Thomassian builds an absurdist story around a slightly unhinged character and a variety of oddball situations, recalling the anarchic vibe of her former stage show. And Hooper (along with writer RaQuel Harwick) takes an overly familiar student-film premise and turns it on its head in a clever way.

'Hello Darling'

The comedy program is always a hot ticket, but there was appealing comedy sprinkled throughout the festival, and in the main program, I preferred the dry humor of the brief sketch “Message Erased” (about a woman going through an entire emotional journey while attempting to leave a voicemail message) over some of the broader, more crowd-pleasing offerings. In other programs, the dark comedy “Forget About It” was a particular standout, with its cynical, violent (but sort of sweet) take on a woman’s response to her partner’s admission of cheating.

'Forget About It'

“Five Star Fouad,” starring Dominic West (one of a handful of celebrities who popped up in shorts over the course of the four days), also puts a sunny, upbeat comedic take on a violent subject, with West as a bank robber taking a ride share for his getaway. And the highlight of the Underground program was the surprisingly sensitive BDSM-themed comedy “Platypus,” which had its world premiere at last year’s Nevada Women’s Film Festival.

This was the second year that DSFF featured an official music video program, curated by Stefanova herself (who’s also a member of local band Same Sex Mary), which has been a welcome addition (and showcased work from a number of local musicians). With LaBonney and Stefanova in charge and putting their own stamp on the festival, along with a dedicated crew of support staff and volunteers who return year after year, DSFF is well-positioned to head into its next chapter.

#EatMoreArt #vegasfilm #DamShortFilmFestival #BoulderCity #Review #film #Bell

EMAV Review: 'Small Mouth Sounds' is a near-silent tour-de-force ★★★★★

★★★★★ - Irresistible

We’ve often heard “acting is reacting” but that is an over-simplification. It’s really not that easy. Not by a long shot. The toughest job an actor can face is being on the stage without any lines to speak. For without lines, most people would ask, how does an actor let you know what is going on, what their motivation is, what is bothering them–what their innermost thoughts are–at the crux of a scene?

Silence your electronic equipment and breathe in…breathe out. Breathe in…breathe out. Those are only a couple of the “Small Mouth Sounds” you’re going to hear as A Public Fit presents Bess Wohl’s delightful, quirky play. You’ll hear even less speaking. Yet this talented ensemble evokes laughter and tears without a need for Silent Screen-type captioning.

Six people gather at a woodland retreat to make peace with what life is shoving (or has shoved) at them, or simply “find themselves.” As directed by Ann-Marie Pereth, “Small Mouth Sounds” is a tour-de-force. Consider it a Master Class, not only in acting but in life.

The cast portrays a cornucopia of disparate characters: Jan (Timothy Cummings) is the follower dealing with loss, Rodney (Mario Peoples) is the experienced-at-this hunk, Ned (Marcus Weiss) is easily confused and unsure, Joan (Valerie Carpenter Bernstein) is the exhausted caretaker and partner of Judy (Dina Emerson) the cancer patient, Alicia (Jamie Carvelli Pikrone) is a hot mess and deals with a different kind of loss albeit no less (immediately) painful than Jan’s. Then there is the unseen Teacher (Erik Amblad), who leads the group through their week of silence and does the most speaking via a god mic.

Assisted by Josh Wroblewski’s beautiful atmospheric lighting, Eric A. Koger designed a wonderful set that provides everything from classroom to bunkhouse to forest. Add in sound by Arles Estes and the effect is complete immersion.

Without dialogue, how does one gather even the most basic of information? The way we all do. Every day as we interact with everyone around us. By shrugs, by exasperated sighs, by smiles, hand gestures, head nods or shakes, or the short verbal phrase here and there; an “I guess,” or “Whatever.” How we interpret those signals determines our immediate emotional reaction. Interesting how alike and together in the world we all are, isn’t it?

In the end, what you find funny, what brings you to shed a tear, will depend upon where you are in your own journey. That determines how you interpret the display of humanity on the stage. One thing is guaranteed, this production will move you.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday - Saturday; 2 p.m. Sundays through March 10

2 p.m. Saturday March 2, 9

Where: The Usual Place, 100 S. Maryland Parkway

Tickets: $25 - $30 (www.apublicfit.org)

Producer: A Public Fit; Artistic Director: Ann Marie Pereth; Producing Director: Joseph D. Kucan; Director: Ann Marie Pereth; Set Design: Eric A. Koger; Lighting Design: Josh Wroblewski; Sound Design: Arles Estes; Costume Design: Mariya Radeva-Nedyalkova; Stage Manager: Brandi Blackman

#EatMoreArt #APublicFit #Theatre #Review #Atreides #downtown #vegasculture

EMAV Review: LVLT's Classic Doll’s House is timely

Photos taken by Kris M. Mayeshiro/ km2creative

★★★½☆ - Satisfying

Henrik Ibsen’s drama, “A Doll’s House,” was published and performed in the late 1880s. With the fight for women’s equality still raging today, the election of so many women to legislatures around the country brings the play’s ideals front and center.

The original sparked much controversy and adaptations abound (even a radio version). Using a literal translation by Charlotte Barslund, Frank McGuinness’ 1997 adaptation sticks closely to the original and won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.

This LVLT production, directed by Jane Walsh, is stylized. It takes on a Dickensian London atmosphere introducing the characters delivering gifts. Actors greet with hugs and kisses, or foul expressions depending upon the relationships yet to play out; dialogue is mouthed, while the children are busy with a period hand-clapping game. Once the gifts (children’s blocks) have been placed on a bookshelf, everyone exits, and the actual play begins.

As Nora, Olivia Hernando flits and twirls and dances around the stage, delivering a laughing, silly, naïve Scarlett O’Hara-type damsel. She’s never in one place for long and very self-absorbed. Hernando retains that even as her transgression(s) are revealed. Only when she’s faced with complete destruction do we see any convincing conflict. The change from woe-is-me to self-determination happens in a sudden realization rather than slowly deriving from a discussion with a family friend. Hernando further muddies the waters as the only actor to deliver dialogue in very precise, stilted enunciation.

Her husband, Torvald, is played effectively by Shane Cullum as he first coddles, then slowly becomes concerned for Nora’s mental welfare as she has trouble with a dance he taught her years before. His hands, then body shakes as he reads of her crimes and realizes what they will do to the family. Subsequently, reading a letter absolving her, Cullum again takes his time in the realization; thought processes expressed slowly as things sink in and his excitement and relief mount.

Marni Montgomery-Blake delivers a steady performance as Kristine Linde, Nora’s childhood friend. Her displeasure with Nora’s selfishness is displayed behind softly delivered words, and she moves with the confidence of a woman who has faced her own difficulties in life and come to terms with needing to provide for herself as well as a desire to care for others.

The villain of the piece comes in the form of one Niles Krogstad, played with finesse by David Ament. He’s subtle when he needs to be and overtly threatening when that ploy doesn’t work except when Krogstad turns his back in a position of weakness.

Like Hernando, Steve Webster plays his character (Dr. Rank) very stylized. His delivery at first is very sing-song in a beautiful tenor, later meshing with the remainder of the cast in a more realistic portrayal.

The nanny (Martha Bowers) and two children (Jack Davison and Lila P. Fisher) round out the cast. The kids are adorable – as kids should be – and their performances are convincing. Bowers has trouble meshing words with physicality, though, when she reveals a troubled background.

Stephanie Daniels has provided beautiful period costumes. She’s given the men silk cravats, a delightful party gown for Nora, and even Rank dons a colorful vest. Raphael Daniels-Devost lights the small stage well. The only thing which sticks out is the bright light shining through the fourth wall window; it comes up and dims out as if days pass within seconds.

The lovely, simple set by Chris Davies evokes the time period and the proper station of a family on the lower rungs of upward mobility.

When taking liberties in stylizing a classic such as this, it would seem permissible when dealing with onstage smoking. The lighting of a cigar would be best left out completely, rather than so unconvincingly mimed.

Though direction muddies at times, Walsh brings it all round full-circle with the curtain call as actors carry on the blocks (which slowly left), to be replaced on the shelf.

Though the play is 131-years old, it’s timely, rapidly selling out as the 2017 sequel “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” written by Lucas Hnath, will be presented as part of the Mainstage series May 3-19.

What: A Doll’s House

When: 8 p.m. Thursday - Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday through February 24

Where: Las Vegas Little Theatre-Fischer Black Box, 3920 Schiff drive

Tickets: $14 - $16 (702-362-7996; www.lvlt.org)

Producer: Las Vegas Little Theatre; Director: Jane Walsh; Set Design: Chris Davies; Lighting Design: Raphael Daniels-Devost; Sound Design: Joey Jevne; Costume Design: Stephanie Daniels; Stage Manager: Cassidy Bonifacio

#Theatre #Review #LVLT #Atreides #EatMoreArt #vegastheatre #vegasculture

EMAV Film: Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival is a welcome showcase of Jewish culture

Still from 'Working Woman'

As the longest-running film festival in Nevada, the Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival has years of history and a vibrant, supportive community to draw on, which allowed festival founder and director Joshua Abbey to make every screening at this year’s festival free to attend. Although the festival program has slimmed down in recent years (this year’s schedule had only eight feature films, spread out over nearly three weeks), Abbey still has impeccable taste, and he’s developed an impressive ability to program challenging and innovative films that also cater to the interests of the festival’s sponsors.

At LVJFF, that means there will always be movies about the Holocaust, and this year was no exception. But documentary “Who Will Write Our History,” which has been collecting accolades at multiple film festivals over the last few months, has more to offer than some of the drily educational documentaries that LVJFF has programmed in the past. Not that it isn’t educational, but it’s more than just a collection of talking heads and archival footage, and it focuses on an aspect of Holocaust history that hasn’t already been picked over in dozens of other movies.

Namely, that’s the preservation project led by Emanuel Ringelblum in the Warsaw Ghetto, documenting everyday lives of Polish Jews during the Nazi occupation. Director Roberta Grossman mingles the traditional scholar interviews with narration taken directly from eyewitness accounts and re-enactments of the events they describe. Those re-enactments can be a little stiff, but they give the story greater urgency, and enlisting a couple of talented, well-known actors (Adrien Brody and Joan Allen) as the main narrators lends a bit of sophistication to the presentation.

Of the eight features in this year’s festival, seven were documentaries, and providing a bit of information about a lesser-known part of Jewish culture or history is a reliable way for the festival to entice patrons. That was the function of the amusing (but frustratingly superficial) documentary “Shalom Bollywood,” about Jewish performers in the early days of India’s film industry, but I preferred the more oblique approach of opening-night film “The Museum,” an impressionistic portrait of the Israel Museum directed by Ran Tal. Tal strings together vignettes about various exhibits and employees at the massive history and art museum in Jerusalem, turning what could have been a bland promotional video into a lyrical meditation on Israeli and Jewish identity.

Director Alan Berliner also takes an impressionistic approach to his 2012 documentary “First Cousin Once Removed,” which showed at a program sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association of Southern Nevada. A record of the declining years in the life of Berliner’s cousin, renowned poet Edwin Honig, “First Cousin” is an often heartbreaking chronicle of Alzheimer’s, but Berliner’s use of non-linear editing and elliptical meditations built around Honig’s own decaying recollections ensure that the movie is a personal artistic statement rather than a tearjerking public service announcement.

Moment from 'The Museum'

The only narrative film in this year’s festival, the Israeli sexual harassment drama “Working Woman,” occasionally comes close to public service announcement territory, and the trajectory of its main character, a wife and mother heading back to work to support her family while her husband opens a restaurant, is fairly predictable as soon as she starts working for an overly familiar older man. Even if the progression from inappropriate comments to full-on sexual assault is easy to see coming, director Michal Aviad handles the subject with sensitivity and takes the time to build fully realized lead characters (including the harasser himself), and star Liron Ben-Shlush makes for a sympathetic, assertive protagonist.

'Working Woman'

The festival closed with the hourlong documentary “Balabustas,” directed by Abbey himself, which is set to be available soon for free on YouTube. The collection of interviews with various influential Jewish women in Las Vegas is more valuable as local history than as cinema, chronicling the growth of the city alongside the growth of its (initially tiny) Jewish community. Originally shot in 2005, the interviews themselves are fairly rudimentary, interspersed with some vintage photos, and there isn’t much connecting material to unite the film as a whole. Still, the packed screening was a rallying point for the local Jewish community, and after 18 years, the festival itself serves the same purpose, providing a welcome showcase of Jewish culture for anyone interested in exploring it.

#Bell #film #vegasfilm #EatMoreArt #vegasculture #Review

EMAV Review: Cockroach Theatre's "Anarchist" is brilliant madcap mania ★★★★★

★★★★★ - Irresistible

Cockroach Theatre is presenting a new adaptation of “Accidental death of an Anarchist” by Dario Fo. The Italian-born playwright was the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature and was best known for his comedy criticizing everything from government to the Catholic Church. This new adaptation by James Sandlin Ashby is farcical but you won’t find any slamming of doors. This is more in the true spirit of Commedia dell'arte (a popular form of early Italian play) wherein the cast and audience are in on the jokes, and improvisation is welcome.

Deftly directed by Allegra Libonati, the production is full of vivid sparks, colorful fireworks, and madcap mania. It is, in short, a brilliant production.

From the moment you are escorted into the venue you are immersed in the experience and the laughter starts. It rarely lets up. But, I warn you this is not the type of farce where you want to lose focus – you’ll miss some of the gags. A scene change might make you think of the old “Batman” TV series, a scene may remind you of a Three Stooges bit, and some characters may harken to mind “The Pink Panther”’s Inspector Clouseau. All of it will both remind you about the current dour reality of our world and make you forget it at the same time.

Brett Alters as Maniac heads the superb cast. His physical comedy is great, and using sleight of hand manages new surprises at every turn. His comedic timing with a line, punching the punch line with wrinkled, brow brings this performance to a new level. He easily slips from one character to the next with a wink and a nod. And, lest you begin to doubt the validity of the jest, he’ll drop the ruse just long enough to make sure you pick it back up.

Christopher Brown (Deputy Chief), Annette Houlihan Verdolino (Commissioner), Brian Sloan (Bertozzo), Jillian Austin (Journalist), and Brent Mukai (Officer) round out the superb cast. They not only support Alters, they support one another in a waterfall of comedy. I would find it difficult to extoll the ways in which each actor shines.

The production values from Jesse Soper’s scenic design to Rosalie Chaleunsouck’s sound design are top notch. Rising above are the props of Rebecca Sass. Yes, she deserves special notice and you’ll realize why when you see this show.

There are so many things that I refuse to let you in on because it would spoil the experience. You’re going to have to fully trust me on this one. If you’re looking for fun and laughter, look no further.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday – Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday through February 10

NO PERFORMANCE on February 1 due to First Friday.

Where: Art Square Theatre, 1025 S First St, #110

Tickets: $20 - $25 (www.cockroachtheatre.com, 725- 222-9661)

Producer: Cockroach Theatre; Artistic Director: Daz Weller; Director: Allegra Libonati; Scenic Design: Jesse Soper; Lighting Design: Ellen Bone; Sound Design: Rosalie Chaleunsouck; Cosume Design: Abby Stroot; Props: Rebecca Sass; Production Stage Manager: Marni Lewis

#Theatre #Review #Cockroach #downtown #vegastheatre #vegasculture #EatMoreArt #Atreides

Medusa Underground Film Festival off to a great start for women in film

'Daughters of Northern Darkness'

Launching a new film festival is never easy, and local filmmaker Heidi Moore took on the task of putting together the female-focused Medusa Underground Film Festival almost entirely on her own, willing it into existence based on her own taste in movies and her connections among female experimental filmmakers. That meant that the first-ever event catered to a niche audience, but it also made Medusa into something genuinely unique, a glimpse into the kind of strange, bold and often off-putting movies that don’t usually get programmed at film festivals. In that way, it had a lot in common with the late, lamented (at least by the small number of people who attended it) PollyGrind festival, which was a similarly strange and sometimes inaccessible collection of films reflecting the unique tastes of its creator, Chad Clinton Freeman (who’s since left town).

Over the course of three days, Medusa showcased dozens of short films and one feature, Dylan Mars Greenberg’s ReAgitator: Revenge of the Parody (Greenberg also gave a short musical performance on the festival’s first night at Backstage Bar & Billiards). The idiosyncratic selections included some fairly straightforward genre fare, but also made room for many, many films that were more or less unclassifiable, from a movie produced by Pornhub to a music video for a death metal cover of Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood.” Plenty of the movies were baffling or unpleasant or both, but even the worst offerings were interesting and memorable, worth slogging through for their sheer oddness and audacity.

'Parlour Tricks'

Some of my favorite films at the festival were built around goofy jokes, like the TV-commercial parody Daughters of Northern Darkness, an ad for a “black metal Barbie” that amusingly skewers the stereotypes of the Scandinavian heavy metal genre in the context of an ad for fashion dolls. That’s pretty much the definition of limited appeal, but it made me smile, as did the Australian short The Apocalypse Will Be Automated, in which a group of friends are thwarted in their efforts to flee from zombies by their uncooperative self-driving car. I also enjoyed the wry humor of the stylish Parlour Tricks, a black and white short that starts out as a typical ghost story (complete with séance and ouija board), only to turn absurd when the medium accidentally conjures up the spirit of a dog. Those horror and sci-fi pieces played alongside abstract oddities like Eileen O’Meara’s Panic Attack!, an amusing animated ode to anxiety, which was darkly funny without any genre elements at all.

'The Apocalypse Will Be Automated'

A lot of the heavier, more serious films just came off as obtuse, but the films that sustained a tone of dread could be very unsettling. My favorite among those was Nicole Goode’s Supine, about a lonely taxidermist who picks up a hitchhiker. Goode builds a tender dynamic between her lead characters, which makes the eventual deadly outcome all the more horrifying (if also kind of sweet). Liz Tabish’s To See You, a pastiche of paranoid 1970s thrillers, also succeeds at building emotional tension that pays off with a horrific climax.

'Supine'

The Study room at the Artisan (where the films showed on Saturday and Sunday) looked full with only 15 or so people in the audience, and some screenings had decidedly lower attendance. But any audience at all for an event like this is promising, and among the people who attended, there was a strong sense of solidarity and community, especially for the filmmakers sharing their work in an environment full of supportive women. The important thing is for Medusa and Moore to build on that, to invite more creators to share the kind of weird, alienating, distinctive visions that can only be appreciated at a festival like this. In that sense, Medusa is off to a great start.

'Panic Attack!'

#Bell #film #vegasfilm #Review #vegasculture #EatMoreArt

EMAV Review: Outcast miscreants kill in LVLT's 'Assassins' ★★★★½

Photo Credis: Kris Mayeshiro @km2creative.com

★★★★½ - Delicious

Stephen Sondheim’s musicals have entertained and fascinated for years. With few exceptions, if it’s a Sondheim show it’s a hit. His lyrics always carefully move the story arc and build character at the same time, his music is always deeply layered and usually difficult to sing. “Assassins,” with a book by John Weidman (based on an idea by Charles Gilbert) is rather more of a revue than a typical musical, and a dark-comedy vaudeville one at that.

For its original run, previews sold out indicating the draw of a Sondheim work but Frank Rich noted in his NY Times review, “Assassins will have to fire with sharper aim and fewer blanks if it is to shoot to kill.” Yet, the show, reworked, has been a staple around the globe and won both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 2004.

Currently kicking off 2019 at Las Vegas Little Theatre (LVLT), directors Walter Niejadlik and Gillen Brey have assembled quite a talented onstage ensemble. From all appearances, the entire production team came together as an ensemble, as well. From Ron Linblom’s wondrous two-story set to Candice Wynant’s superb costume choices for each required period everything melds into a perfected melody. Even the sound design by Mike Olsen lends credence with an Emma Goldman (played with finesse by Tiffany DeStenfano) speech with a microphone effect that cuts in and out.

Backed by a 13-piece orchestra under the direction of Toby McEvoy, 17 new and familiar faces grace the stage giving voice to Sondheim’s notes. There are some standout performances, as there always are in any given production.

April Sauline as the Balladeer ties the vignettes together and finds the heart behind the comedic. Two newcomers to the LVLT stage, Stephan Maeder playing the lovelorn John Hinckley and Lucy Angelo giving life to oddball Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, combine their voices for a beautiful “Unworthy of Your Love.” Maeder brings a hang-dog attitude to his portrayal of Hinckley and actually makes one begin to feel sorry for him.

Though Angelo’s high range hit a few flat squeakers in the solo portions, her portrayal throughout the show was thoroughly engaging. In scenes with Halle Lyons, as Sara Jane Moore, both Angelo and Lyons made a great pair of failed presidential killers. Lyons has a wonderful time as Moore, the verbal timing and physical comedy rolls easily.

Another newcomer, Meric Barkey Lewis Pittman immediately grabs attention with a deep rich baritone even in speaking. His statesman-like portrayal of Leon Czolgosz brought a dignity to the man who killed William McKinley, yet the sense of his social awkwardness is always there.

The failed attempt on Richard Nixon’s life is brought hilariously to life by Jacob Moore. Though Moore doesn’t get a solo or duet to sing he provides a steady, complete drunken, beer-swilling Samuel Byck to life in a pair of solo scenes.

The ensemble numbers are well staged and choreographed, scene changes are smooth and rapid. Nothing feels out of place, each beat of the show hits on target.

You might wonder how a show about killers and would-be killers of presidents could be funny. But “Assassins” is a political sideshow spanning the centuries, from Lincoln to Reagan, as noted in the ensemble-performance of “Another National Anthem,” bringing outcast miscreants together to humorous effect, and this production hits the right notes.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday - Saturday;

2 p.m. Sunday ( additional 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan 26)

Through February 3

Where: Las Vegas Little Theatre, 3920 Schiff drive

Tickets: $22 - $25 (702-362-7996; www.lvlt.org)

Producer: Las Vegas Little Theatre; Directors: Walter Niejadlik, Gillen Brey; Musical Director: Toby McEvoy; Choreographer: April Sauline; Set Design: Ron Lindblom; Lighting Design: Ginny Adams; Sound Design: Mike Olsen; Costume Design: Candice Wynants; Wig Design: Betty Sullivan-Cleary; Stage Manager: Cindy Lee Stock; Running Crew: Ernest Medina, Chris von Uebbing

#Theatre #vegastheatre #EatMoreArt #Review #Atreides #LVLT

EMAV Review: Majestic Rep's Spring Awakening blossoms then soars ★★★★★

★★★★★ - Irresistible

Lord Alfred Tennyson wrote, “In the Spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Only it’s not so delicate as Tennyson states. It rises up full-bore like a heat-seeking missile. But what happens when that young man and the girl he seeks have no real idea of what is happening?

You can find out as Majestic Repertory presents “Spring Awakening,” the rock musical with book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik which was based on the 1891 play of the same title by Franz Wedekind. The 2006 musical won eight Tony Awards under the direction of Michael Mayer.

Under the astute direction of Troy Heard, the Majestic production soars. Each and every piece of this puzzle is perfectly in place. It’s a tough show with some tough subject matter; it’s not only awakening sexuality that is brought to light.

The cast is headed up by Nicholas Lamb as Melchior and Callie Maxson as Wendla. They aren’t Romeo and Juliet-type star-crossed lovers, they are two teens seeking truth and love amidst a society – much like today’s – intent on keeping them in the dark.

Lamb has a beautiful tenor that fills the room with hope and vivacity and darkness and grief. This young actor takes the very soul of the character and bares it almost as if he needs you to see through the sinew and veins to the raw nerve endings. His is an incredible performance so fully rendered I dare you to walk out at the end of the play unmoved.

And he’s matched beat for beat by Maxson. When the two come together in scenes and in song, such as “Word of Your Body” and “Guilty Ones,” their portrayals and voices blend perfectly. Maxson carries her joy and then confusion and sorrow on her sleeve, we are able to see her work through the emotions, we see the gears turning as she remains always in the moment.

The characters of Moritz (Joel Ruud) and Martha (Tatum Rajsky) are especially tormented, and Ruud and Rajsky are up to the task. Both actors allow the haunted look associated with their plight under an exterior that belies their reality.

Michael Sullivan, plays all the Adult Men, and Kate Sirls renders the Adult Women. Both actors switch smoothly between roles. Each character comes across believable and separate.

The remaining ten characters are brought to life by a wonderful supporting cast of actors. Not a single one disappoints in any way. However, RJ Viray is a particular standout as he makes direct visual contact from time to time; each emotion reflected not only in stance but in his eyes.

The choreography by Jenna Szoke is fitting of a rock musical though still manages to invoke the time period of late 19th Century Germany. Movement provides an interesting, sometimes jarring, counterpoint and juxtaposition to the emotions of a number emitting the bottled-up sexual energy longing to be freed.

Yale Yeandel’s simple thrust stage is overhung with bare tree branches and softly glowing lanterns serves multiple settings. Abby Stroot’s costumes – particularly the boys – are period and detailed. And, Marcus Randolph lights it all in a mixture between harshness and soft-focus enhancing the mood of each scene.

While the production is about teenage angst the theatre offers a cautionary word: There are sexual situations, language, and brief nudity. What may surprise you is the realization that, as art imitates life, we haven’t progressed much at all as a society in these matters.

An important end note: Due to scheduling the rental cost of the microphone kit tripled for this production. The theatre is trying to raise $5,000 during the run of this show to purchase equipment. It’s a very worthy cause and I encourage you to make a donation.

When: Thursday - Saturday 8pm; Sundays 5pm through February 10

Tickets: $15 - $28 (www.majesticrepertory.com)

Producer: Majestic Repertory Theatre; Director: Troy Heard; Musical Director: Andrew Tyler; Choreography: Jenna Szoke; Lighting Design: Marcus Randolph; Scenic Design: Yale Yeandel; Costume Design: Abby Stroot; Sound Design: Kat Gonzalez; Technical Director: Joe Hammond; Stage Manager: Cory Covell

#Review #Theatre #MajesticRep #Atreides #downtown #vegastheatre #vegasculture #EatMoreArt

EMAV Review: NBT's pristine 'Nutcracker' is one of their best yet ★★★★★

Snow featuring Jaime DeRocker as The Winter Fairy.

★★★★★ - Irresistible

There was a clarity of artistic vision this year to Nevada Ballet Theatre's holiday presentation of "The Nutcracker" at the Smith Center. Guided by choreographer James Canfield with répétiteur Tara Foy, the company hit the sweet spot in its seventh year of staging Canfield's own unique version of the 1892 ballet, set to the original score by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 novella "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King." The collaborative elements inherent to the always beautiful, art-nouveau-look show--including sets by Patricia Ruel, costumes by Sandra Woodall and Christopher Larson, and lights by Peter Jakubowski--coalesced seamlessly and overflowed with a generous spirit and a remarkable sense of immediacy. The mood was one of carefree exuberance both onstage and off during the second Friday performance. The Christmas Eve 'Party' scene with its soft lighting and splendid Victorian dollhouse feels like it is filtered through the memory of young heroine Clara, danced by Emma Mcgirr with head-to-toe, adolescent awakening. The vignettes featuring parents and children are focused and festive, and include social dances and boys and girls doing boyish and girlish things. Even the bewildered grandfather, played by Enrico DeMarco, hams it up with his "flossing" moves. Caroline MacDonald as Clara's jealous sister Louise flirts with Clara's love interest the Nephew, played with amusing befuddlement by Benjamin Tucker (who later dances the Nutcracker and the Prince). His uncle and Clara's godfather is the clockmaker Drosselmeyer, and Steven Goforth reprises the role with a distinguished and tenderhearted presence. Drosselmeyer brings gifts to wow the crowd, like the stuffed bear danced by Oslaniel Castillo with acrobatic glee, and mechanical dolls Harlequin and Columbine, danced by Michael Caye and Betsy Lucas. The clock peals and Clara dreams she is miniature like her nutcracker, brought to life by Drosselmeyer. With her porcelain dolls and toy soldiers escaped from their cabinet, she and the Nutcracker battle the Rat Queen, danced with panache by Christina Ghiardi, and her Rat army underneath the towering Christmas tree. The scene feels abbreviated, but remains eerie as McGirr moves with frightened stiffness and duets with Goforth in hypnotic slow-motion under stark streams of light.

Mirella Costa Neto as Winter Fairy and Sergio Alvarez as The Snow Prince.

The most awe-inspiring moment occurs when the curtain abruptly drops to reveal a wondrous, wintery land with snowflake stars and full moon floating in an inky sky. Under blue moonlight and gently falling snow that builds to a flurry, the corps de ballet in translucent tutus swirl like snowflakes with sweeping, sequential movements and pretty patterns. Mirella Costa Neto is a luminous yet feisty Winter Fairy, and her clean lines and sassy style add warmth to the chill. She and the tranquil Sergio Alvarez as the Snow Prince make a complementary pair, and he does elegant grand jetés and multiple tours en l'air in his solo work. The "Enchanted Fairyland" features gnarled ropes for trees with lights that beam like sunlight through leaves. Cheerful sprites and the corps as watercolored, dragonfly flowers waltz about, and each fairy has her own distinct personality and bug-like movement. Ghiardi is joyful with her fluid fouettés as the Spring Fairy, MacDonald is bright and fluttery as the Summer Fairy, and Lucas is earthy and energetic as the Autumn Fairy. As the Sugar Plum Fairy, Jaime DeRocker exudes kindness and grace and plays up the fairy movements with clipped pointe work and crisp piqués. Having Clara and the Prince present the "Divertissement" reinforces the idea that these dances are gifts. The "Spanish" pops with Rachel Thomson, Katherine Zimmerman, Caye, and Robert Mulvey as spicy Toreadors. The "Arabian" features an assertive Brooke Lyness with Alvarez as the peacock who descends in his cage for a duet of gliding splits and sensuous lifts. He opens his dazzling plume, and the audience swoons. In the "Chinese," gone are the stereotypical movements, but it's an endearing piece featuring Krista Baker, Isabella Kowalski, and Ryan McNally. The charismatic Jun Tanabe is a showstopper in the "Russian" with his virtuoso leaps and multiple tours, along with Rachel Ackerman, Jordan Mcintosh, and Danielle Maas. And David Hochberg as the flamboyant "Mother Ginger" with dancers from NBT's Academy as her children bring down the house with their acrobatics and high-caliber dance technique.

Students of Nevada Ballet's school put their training to work.

The "Grand Pas de Deux" puts focus back on Clara and her handsome Prince. McGirr and Tucker enjoy each other and their mutual affinity is palpable. They embrace each pretty lift and difficult lateral twist as a moment that marks a growing emotional intensity, and when McGirr does an arabesque penché into a kiss from her kneeling Prince, their devotion feels complete. The grand "Finale" and "Apotheosis" feature bits from each dance with performers in curtain call and brings the show full circle. With Christmas only days away, the children in the audience filled the air with "Oohs" and "Aahs" and a collective feeling of anticipation. That's what it's all about.

#LasVegasArtsandCulture #SmithCenter #NevadaBallet #NBT #Review #Dance #Theatre #vegasculture #EatMoreArt

EMAV Review: 'Love's Labour's Lost' brings the Bard's banter to life at NCT

★★★☆☆ - Satisfying

The Nevada Conservatory Theatre (NCT) presents a satisfying 3-Star production of Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" at the Judy Bayley Theatre (Nov. 30 - Dec. 9).

One of Shakespeare's earliest comedies, “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (written around 1594-95) details a pact made by the King of Navarre and three of his courtiers who swear off women in order to focus their energies on intellectual pursuits. The oath is quickly forgotten, however, following the appearance of the Princess of France and her entourage.

The play has all the hallmarks of a Shakespeare comedy: Letters are misdirected, disguises are donned and secret soliloquies are overheard by others. There’s a show within the show, and a few fools to keep the humor high. And through it all is that wonderful wit: wordplay in which “Shakespeare seems to seek the limits of his verbal resources, and discovers that there are none,” to quote the scholar Harold Bloom.

“Love’s Labour’s Lost” is unique in the Shakespeare canon because so much of its action relies on formal groupings of characters. In the main plot the courtly groups of men and women function very much as gender-defined units in a battle of the sexes that ultimately exposes the immaturity and pretentiousness of the young men.

Several of the male characters in the comic subplot are drawn from ancient comic traditions. The word “fool” is a technical term in Shakespeare’s plays. The fool in Elizabethan drama is someone employed to entertain a king or a duke or any other rich person who needs someone to entertain him. The convention in Elizabethan drama is that the fool is the most insightful and intelligent man in the play -- not to be confused with a clown who, in Shakespeare’s time was a simple rural man – a yokel.

These more exaggerated comic characters – which can be traced back to classic Roman comedy and the Italian commedia dell’arte tradition – are well characterized in this production: the braggart soldier (or miles gloriosus), Don Adriano de Armado (Equity Actor Jonathan Smoots) is a fantastical Spaniard who is at the center of the play's comic subplot, the courtship of Jaquenetta. Costard (Guest Artist Brandon Burk), the earthy slave (one of Shakespeare’s clowns), is an unsophisticated country bumpkin with an underlying shrewdness, who vies with Don Armado for Jaquenetta; Holofernes (UNLV senior Noah Keeling) is the stereotypical pedantic schoolmaster, conceited and quick to dismiss those he perceives as intellectually inferior, the commedia dell’arte figure of the Doctor.

Every company member handled the text “trippingly on the tongue”. Additional ensemble members include: Keach Siriani-Madden as King Ferdinand of Navarre; Delius Doherty as Berowne; Aimé Green as Longaville; Jacob Noble as Dumaine; Sarah Rice as The Princess of France; Amanda Guardado as Rosaline; Sydney Story as Maria; Gabrielle Silveroli as Katherine; Myles Lee as Boyet; Jacob Sidhom as Moth; Nicole Holbrook as Jaquenetta; Dawson Mullen as Dull; Ryan Baker as Sir Nathanial; and Johann Heske as Monsieur Marcade.

The Bard’s canon is tough work, certainly, but that is precisely why it continues to be essential knowledge and training for actors today. Luckily, Shakespeare continues to be the mostly widely taught playwright for actors and students around the world. Director and Guest Artist, Sandy Ernst, brings her considerable directing and teaching experience to bear in keeping the action moving across scenic designer Trevor Dotson’s royal outdoor courtyard of Navarre in the Pyrenees. Costume designer Katie Dennis admirably dressed the players in 1918 period attire. Lighting designer Andy Killion, along with sound designers Rosalie Chaleunsouck and Kaliah Silva, seamlessly supported time, place, and atmosphere throughout.

The Shakespeare Society’s artistic director, Michael Sexton, has said that “Becoming familiar and acquainted with Shakespeare’s work is good for any human being. It’s good for the soul. If one gets the opportunity to perform Shakespeare at a high level, it’s a privilege and an enormous joy. It’s one of the things that only we in the theater can do.”

Photos by: Katie Dennis Design

#Theatre #Review #NCT #UNLV #Stalter

EMAV Review: Nerve cells connect 'Incognito' at A Public Fit ★★★★☆

★★★★☆ - Delicious

"Who tells the story of self? That's like asking who thunders the thunder or rains the rain. It is not so much a question of us telling the story as the story telling us." (Paul Broks, neuropsychologist)

Neuropsychology is the science of analyzing the relationship between personality, performance, and the anatomical and physiological structure of the brain. Broks is one practitioner who asks the question: What is the relationship between the brain and the mind and the self?

"You can learn a lot about the brain, but you don't necessarily learn much about the self because that's a different layer of existence. What makes a person unique is how the mind utilizes the brain, and how the mind is shaped by interacting with other minds to form the self.”

Audiences are miraculously transported to a theatrical illustration of this very conundrum in a delicious 4-Star presentation of Nick Payne’s “Incognito”, the first production of the 2018-19 Season by A Public Fit Theatre Company (APF), which runs through December 16th in co-production with Cockroach Theatre Company at the Art Square Theatre.

Four gifted actors play a combined 21 characters within the play’s three artfully interwoven stories: A pathologist steals the brain of Albert Einstein; a neuropsychologist embarks on her first romance with another woman; a seizure patient forgets everything but how much he loves his girlfriend. “Incognito” braids these mysterious stories into one breathtaking whole that asks whether memory and identity are nothing but illusions.

“Incognito” features Tina Rice, Jasmine Kojouri, Marcus Weiss, and Erik Amblad. Each member of this exceptionally supple quartet transfers the dramatic energy of their multiple characters as if part of one shared central nervous system – like synapses found where nerve cells connect with other nerve cells to guarantee that the signal of the brain reaches its destination. They switch characters at the drop of a hat and fluidly move between wit and deeper emotion. Through and through it is a compelling, humane story enacted by absorbing characters with whom we feel a connection.

Directors Ann Marie Pereth and Joseph D. Kucan maintain a lively pace throughout the evening, skillfully balancing playwright Payne’s ability to meld complicated philosophic and scientific tenets with simpler human struggles. The production team has kept their components intentionally modest so as to ensure that our focus remains fixed on the thought-provoking human interaction before us. Kudos to Mariya Radeva-Nedyalkova (costumes), Ellen Bone (lighting), Yale Yeandel (sets), and The Dog & Pony Show (sound).

Nick Payne is the recipient of the 2009 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright, 2012 Harold Pinter Playwright’s Award, and the 2012 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play for Constellations. The play was originally produced in the USA by Manhattan Theater Club at City Center in May, 2016. As Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times:

“Mysteries swirl in storm clouds in Nick Payne’s “Incognito,” enough to fill many seasons of cliffhanger soap operas. The subjects of these tantalizing puzzles include questions of paternity, a man who murdered his wife on their 30th wedding anniversary, the secrets that lovers keep from each other and the disappearance of an essential anatomical part of a great scientist.”

“Yet the biggest mystery of all, the one that dominates every aspect of this lively, self-examining drama of ideas, is the very apparatus that you’re using to make sense of this sentence. I mean your brain.”

Incognito, written by Nick Payne and directed by Ann Marie Pereth and Joseph D. Kucan

Presented through December 16th by A Public Fit Theatre Company at Art Square Theatre, 1025 South First Street, Las Vegas, NV 89101.

#APublicFit #Downtown #Cockroach #ArtSquare #Stalter #Review #Theatre

EMAV Review: A ball at LVLT's 'Ballyhoo' ★★★★½

★★★★½ - Delicious

“The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” Alfred Uhry's 1997 Tony Award-winning play, takes a solid look at anti-semitism in the South. The action is centered around the Atlanta Jewish community's annual Ballyhoo Ball (a Jewish cotillion) during the excitement surrounding the 1939 premiere of “Gone with the Wind” and the breaking out of World War II in Europe.

Directed by Rob Kastil for Las Vegas Little Theatre (LVLT), the production wisely mines the humor and slips in the right amount of poignancy in all the right places. This is really an ensemble piece and Kastil has treated it as such with quite a capable cast. After an initial stumbling over a couple of missed lines and despite stepping on laughs, this cast grabs the reins and gallops along without missing a beat.

Scene breaks are numerous but the pacing never suffers because of them, thanks to an excellent Running Crew. And, thanks to Mike Olsen’s very appropriate sound design, the music at first retains the moment then transitions us smoothly into the next scene.

Marty Weaver delivers a steady Adolph Freitag, the patriarch of the clan. Weaver represents the calming influence to each imagined catastrophe in a houseful of women worried about invitations to the Ballyhoo Ball and marriage proposals from the right men. He’s always in the moment and his timing is on point.

Act Two introduces us to Peachy Weil played with obnoxious delight by Michael Blair. His antics, both physical and vocal, bring laughter even with a running gag because Blair so easily and convincingly slips from one emotion to another.

Throughout, Shane Cullum, Dani Andino, and Mary Claire Owen keep pace and deliver perfect support. Cullum takes the brash Joe Farkas and grounds him; Andino plays Reba Freitag with great droll humor; and Owen brings needed understated softness to the educated Sunny Freitag.

The widowed Boo Levy is a whirlwind of activity and has more to say than any situation requires. Teresa Fullerton dives into the character with her usual verve. She’s a dervish of activity. In those moments she isn’t directly involved, Fullerton stays facially in the scene but, instead of some worried fidgeting or hand-wringing, her hands plunge stiff-armed to her sides.

As her daughter, Lala Levy, Stephanie McCue lands some good lines with Scarlet O’Hara over-the-top drama to good effect. McCue has the Southern Belle antics down pat almost as if she’s channeling Vivian Leigh. At times it gets to be a bit too much but she delivers the final line of Act 1 with sheer perfection.

Production values are all top-notch. The set, designed by Ron Lindblom, is a glorious depiction of a large Atlanta home on Haversham Road (a real Atlanta street). Ginny Adams’ lighting genuinely bathes the set; Stephanie Daniels’ costumes are on point for the period and Lala’s Ballyhoo gown is a showstopper.

If you’re looking for something heartwarming that isn’t yet another version of “A Christmas Carol,” if you want some good laughs instead of schmaltz, look no further than LVLT’s “The Last Night of Ballyhoo.”

What: The Last Night of Ballyhoo

When: 8 p.m. Thursday - Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday through December 16

2 p.m. Saturday, December 8

Where: Las Vegas Little Theatre, 3920 Schiff drive

Tickets: $22 - $25 (702-362-7996; www.lvlt.org)

Producer: Las Vegas Little Theatre; Director: Rob Kastil; Set Design: Ron Lindblom; Lighting Design: Ginny Adams; Sound Design: Mike Olsen; Costume Design: Stephanie Daniels; Wig Design: Betty Sullivan-Cleary; Stage Managers: Brie Marielle, Jeremy Williams; Running Crew: Audrey Bernal, Chris Davies, Michael Ferruzza, Ernest Medina, John Pattison

#Theatre #Review #LVLT #Atreides

EMAV Review: NBT sinks its teeth into menacing and moody 'Dracula'

★★★★½ - Delicious

In the spirit of Halloween, Nevada Ballet Theatre gave a haunting presentation of Ben Stevenson's 1997 neoclassical ballet "Dracula" last weekend at the Smith Center. Full of sensational visual effects and otherworldly dancing, the show was led by artistic director Roy Kaiser in his first full season with NBT, and rehearsed by répétiteur Dominic Walsh, who worked extensively with Stevenson. On Friday night the second cast was haunted by a few mishaps, perhaps due to nerves. But the house was full and the audience appreciative, and seemed just as beguiled by the sinister Count Dracula as his minions who populated the stage.

Choreographer Stevenson kept the setting in Transylvania for his scenario, and altered the narrative of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic novel--discarding some characters and creating new ones with their own storyline--to better fit the structure of a story ballet in the vein of romantic classics of the Victorian era. For the musical score Stevenson and music arranger John Lanchbery chose pieces by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, who was also contemporary to the time and whose piano-driven style fit their aesthetic.

The stylized choreography and design--scenery by Thomas Boyd, costumes by Judanna Lynn, and lighting by Christina R. Giannelli (after Tim Hunter, executedby Peter Jakubowski))--also seem influenced by German Expressionism, particularly in the first and third acts in Dracula's dark and foggy castle. The silent film "Nosferatu" (and its underlying campiness) seems an inspiration for some of Stevenson's movements for Dracula's 18 undead Brides, who are a surreal corps de ballet as they move with arms outstretched and hands and fingers bent into claws. Their wraithlike movement also reminds of the Wilis from the ballet "Giselle."

Dracula, danced by Benjamin Tucker with a sensuous and sardonic vibe, pulsates his hand like a magnet so the Brides follow his command. They look like eerie apparitions with their white hair, skin, and tattered, diaphanous gowns, which the dancers flick as they move so the fabric looks like traces of ectoplasm hanging in the air. They glide about in serpentine formations and fall like dominoes in a circle, and there's a neat pas de six with quick, sequential movements. And Tucker with Brides Brooke Lyness and Rachel Thomson perform a fascinating pas de trois of symbolically sexual lifts and promenades.

This Dracula is a lusty fellow, and he quenches his thirst by feeding on beautiful young maidens. His crazed, bug-gobbling assistant Renfield, danced with acrobatic, manic energy by Robert Mulvey, kidnaps Flora from the peasant village nearby, and delivers her in a ghostly carriage drawn by skeleton horses. Christina Ghiardi as Flora has an effortless quality of movement with delicate phrasing, and transforms believably from innocent maiden to snarling ghoul. Dracula ravishes her during their pas de deux, and while she and Tucker had problems with a few lifts they delivered on many others, like when he carries her like a rag doll on his hip as she tries in vain to run away. He glides Flora and all his victims around because they are powerless to resist.

Horror and hopelessness segues to lightness and joy during the second act in the picturesque peasant village, when townsfolk gather to celebrate the courtship of coquette Svetlana, danced by Betsy Lucas, and young Frederick, danced by Michael Caye. In contrast to the monochrome tone of Dracula's castle, the town and its people are colorful and full of life. The corps perform an energetic folk dance with a ribbon/maypole dance for the girls and a pole dance for the boys, along with a charming character dance performed by Enrico DeMarco as the Innkeeper and Krista Baker as his Wife. And there's an excellent miming sequence by Monika Rostomian as the Old Woman, recounting stories about her life.

Lucas and Caye compliment each other both physically and personality-wise, though here too there were problems with lifts. But they both craft vibrant characterizations and pull off difficult dancing in their variations that sometimes have awkward movements. Lucas is luminous as she delivers turns both en pointe and with flat foot and gives some deft demi-ballonés, and Caye tosses of beautiful leaps and tours a la seconde. Then Dracula shows up to ruin it all.

He abducts Svetlana but before he transforms her into a bride with his bite, Frederick and the villagers arrive at the castle to thwart his evil ambitions. It's a scene of madness and mayhem, but good triumphs over evil and Dracula perishes in the most explosive way. The flying effects (by Flying by Foy) are so good it's impossible to tell that Dracula has a stunt double, played by Robert Fulton. And Dracula's gorgeous, heavy velvet cape, which looks like a bat with a huge wingspan, must be daunting to dance in.

NBT's lush presentation of "Dracula" is a phantasmagorical treat.

Photos by Alicia Lee Photography

#Bennett #NBT #SmithCenter #Review #Dance #Music

EMAV Review: “Oh What A Night” you'll have at Signature Productions! ★★★★★

★★★★★ - Irresistible

Oh What a Night it was, indeed! If you're looking for irresistible, 5-Star entertainment singing, banter, & precision choreography, just ask any audience member who sang along and gave a standing ovation to this crowd-pleasing production, through November 10th at the Summerlin Library Theatre.

The popular Las Vegas revue, Oh What A Night: A Musical Tribute to Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons was written by Motown producer and creative consultant George Solomon, conceived and directed by award-winning producer/director Michael Chapman, and choreographed by Paul Holmquist.

You almost don’t believe the four performers are singing live, until their remarkable a cappella rendition of “Silence is Golden” proves that to be true. Noteworthy in its tight harmonies and clarity, and without a backing track, the voices are left to stand on their own and were up to the challenge. On the opening weekend, four rock-steady musical theatre performers -- Brandon Albright (a regular with Signature Productions), Colin Cahill, Taylor Campbell, and Christian Nielsen -- "nailed it" perfectly.

They are four of nine artists who will be performing in this local production. Others include: writer George Solomon, choreographer Paul Holmquist, James Bullard, Katch Gray, and Rob Hyatt. Solomon formed the tribute group with Holmquist and director Michael Chapman in 2008; and there's a pool of about 40 singers who tour and perform across the globe.

Since the show isn't a biography, the performers aren't playing characters. They are being themselves onstage and each cast member brings something unique. Split into two 45-minute sets with a 20-minute intermission, the show did provide a number of highlights – literally hitting all of the highest notes easily, which made the program even more memorable.

Although many have compared the show to stage musical Jersey Boys, writer and performer George Solomon said Oh What a Night! is not a biography.

“It’s more of a variety show; it’s a concert but with a lot of humor, a few costume changes and a lot of great dancing.”

While Jersey Boys is a scripted musical biography of those boys from Jersey, Oh, What a Night! is an intimate concert and tribute that features the Four Seasons’ hits, several Top Ten releases not in Broadway's Tony Award-winning show, and Frankie Valli's biggest solo hit from the movie Grease!

The show actually started in Las Vegas in 2008. It was an immediate success and what used to be only four cast members has grown into a wonderful talent pool that performs all over the world. Oh What A Night! spans two decades of magic music-making, from early 1960s doo-wop (Rag Doll) to late '70s disco (Who Loves You). Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons were at their prime during the 1960s and 70s. More than 40 years after their last release, their music has managed to stand the test of time.

Executive producer Karl Larsen, his production team, lighting designer Elizabeth Kline, Board members, and all of their dedicated volunteers should be as delighted as their audiences with this top-notch, high energy production.

#Stalter #Theatre #Review #Signature #summerlin

EMAV Review: Majestic Repertory's "Measure for Measure' breaks the barrier between Las

(Photo: Majestic Rep put Shakespeare in the Limelight.)

Majestic Repertory Theatre recently produced a satisfying interactive immersive theatrical “experience” (that's the key word) for local audiences inspired by one of Shakespeare's rarely produced -- yet extraordinarily relevant -- plays. The production ran from September 27th through October 21st.

Artistic Director Troy Heard assembled a merry band of revelers to create a very original "interactive and immersive experience" –limited at any given performance to eighteen audience members who met up with eighteen cast members -- to explore eight different settings in the City of Lost Wages circa 1977. Depending on which character you met at the opening of the evening, there were at least twelve different storylines you could follow. If you came with a group, you were most likely split up.

For this production of “Measure for Measure: The Immersive Experience”, the production took audiences on a unique, personalized, emotional journey. Patrons were fully immersed in the seedy world of Lost Wages, in the middle of the action, moving from room to room and interacting with the characters one-on-one. They got to play and laugh and make new friends in Lost Wages, during this 65-minute journey that involved moments of sitting, standing, travel...and a little disco dancing. There were accommodations throughout the space for those who could not stand for long periods of time. Because of the intimate design of the show, only eighteen tickets were sold for each performance and many performances were sold out!

(Photo: Natalie Senecal and Kyle Jones.)

Mayor Vincent "The Duke" Greyson took a sabbatical and left Deputy Mayor Angelo Santoro in charge. The most virtuous public servant in town, Santoro implemented all the ancient laws - tearing down casinos, brothels, and putting one particular favorite son on the chopping block for knocking up his fiancé before the official vows are exchanged.

It's left to a young nun-in-training to sway Angelo's decision...but the results are not what she expects!

Given the limited space within the “awesome, little playhouse right downtown,” (as self-described theater geek Kate Turner Whiteley has called it), the production team did a masterful job creating eight different settings in the City of Lost Wages. Kudos to Creator and Director Troy Heard, Co-Director Natalie Senecal, sets by The Design Ninjas, costumes by Kathy Wusnack, lighting by Marcus Randolph, and sound by Joey Jevne.

The multi-talented ensemble of wild revelers / disco dancers included: Jessie Johnson, Kyle Jones, Natalie Senecal, Rebecca Reyes, Joel Ruud, Charlie Starling, Rowan Morris, Amanda Guarado, Roxanne Farrar, Ronn L. Williams, Richie Villafuerte, Lissa Townsend Rodgers, Angel Mendoza, Josh Sigal, Venus Cobb, Cory Covell, Bob Gratrix, and Dimo Gerenski.

For those new to “immersive theater” (as was I, before attending three performances): Immersive Theatre is all about creating participative theatre experiences where audience members give up their “observer’’ status to become co-actors of the storytelling process -- and sometimes co-creators of the narrative. Audience is inside the space, walking through site-specific installations, oftentimes choosing what scenes to see to create site-responsive theatre. Each performance is unique because the audience is never the same!

(Photo: Majestic Rep welcomes the audience to their stage)

While researching “immersive theatre”, I also ran across Anca Doczi, Ph.D., actress, researcher and applied drama practitioner who is currently undertaking practice-based research at the Centre for Performing Arts Development, University of East London. Her latest project is MEMODROME, an applied drama technique she has coined and developed to explore performed testimony and simultaneous dramaturgy. I found that Anca – much like Troy Heard, Majestic Repertory Theatre’s Artistic Director – continues to try different methodologies, especially immersive and participative theatre, to represent contemporary life and the social dynamics of the communities around us.

As Shakespeare wrote it, Measure for Measure stages the interweaving of sexuality, morality and power. On the one hand, the plot shows the traumatic consequences of extending the legal surveillance of social behavior into the bedroom; and on the other, it shows how hard it can be to expose and condemn the misuse of public power for sexual purposes. It is a play that is as timely and resonant in the early decades of the 21st century as it was at the beginning of the 17th or end of the 19th century. [Kate Chedzgoy, British Library: “Discovering Literature” project, a free online learning resource that provides unprecedented access to the British Library’s unique literary and historical collections.]

A proven artistic strategy, isn’t it?

Yes and no. Theatre has always been around, but today it looks quite different from fifty years ago. And the immersive effect today is indebted to very central, new digital technologies, which don’t themselves have to appear at all, yet have already changed our perceptual behavior and our hunger for experience profoundly. The panorama pictures of the nineteenth century are analog precursors of this. But what the new technological development is changing at the moment is that you don’t connect this immersive element to the situation of an overview anymore, but experience it as someone thrown into it, into the thick of it, and at least as much in the quality of the perpetrator as that of the witness. In contrast with the peephole stage, in virtual space, you don’t look at the things, but enter yourself into this space. [THEATRE AND IMMERSION: “YOU ENTER YOURSELF INTO THIS SPACE”, Christine Wahl, The Theatre Times, Nov 2017, Germany]

Everyone involved in bringing this innovative, interactive, immersive theatrical “experience” to Las Vegas audiences deserves our applause and can proudly hold their heads high.

#Theatre #Review #MajesticRep #Downtown

EMAV Film Review: 'Dealer' a strong calling card for local talents ★★★☆☆

★★★☆☆ - Satisfying

A sort of all-star jam of notable local filmmakers, the omnibus feature “Dealer” showcases contributions from five Las Vegas filmmakers and/or filmmaking teams: Lundon Boyd, Jeremy Cloe, Mike and Jerry Thompson, Ryan and Cody LeBoeuf, and Adam Zielinski. First premiered at the Las Vegas Film Festival in 2016, the movie is finally being released to the public this week on VOD from Amazon and in a limited theatrical run in LA. Although it’s been in limbo for a couple of years, “Dealer” remains a strong calling card for local talents, who display some of their greatest strengths in their individual segments.

Boyd writes, directs and stars in the movie’s wraparound segments, which establish his character Kelly as an aimless slacker, bored with his job as a casino card dealer and frustrated with a life that he feels is going nowhere. Kelly gets an unexpected jolt when he arrives home to discover his roommate Trevor (Chris Russell) covered in blood, and Trevor’s mysterious boss Mr. X (indie film staple Pat Healy) informs Kelly that he’ll be taking over Trevor’s drug-delivery route, whether he likes it or not.

From there, Kelly heads out on four different misadventures in criminal activity, over the course of a single 24-hour period. Although each segment is written and directed by a different team, Boyd holds the entire movie together as Kelly, returning as filmmaker for a mid-movie interlude and for the wrap-up at the end. Even when Boyd isn’t the one behind the camera, he makes sure that Kelly is the same overwhelmed, confused yet strangely affable guy, and he conveys a sense of character development over the course of the disparate segments.

Maybe it’s a little tough to believe that Kelly could go through all of these experiences in a single day (or at least manage to do so without dying and/or going insane), but the movie takes on a surreal, sometimes dreamlike tone that indicates not everything is meant to be taken literally. That’s especially evident in the middle two segments, from the Thompsons and the LeBoeufs, in which Kelly experiences inexplicable misadventures with some extremely odd characters.

The Thompsons pair Kelly up with a disturbingly cheerful henchman known only as What’s His Name (played by Mike Thompson) for a darkly funny descent into an absurdist murder plot, with a surprising amount of pun-based humor. Mike Thompson is hilarious as the stone-cold killer who really, really loves wordplay, and he has a great dynamic with Boyd.

The LeBoeufs get into even stranger territory, as Kelly makes a delivery at a swanky hotel (shot at the Artisan) to a mysterious Romanian man who’s storing a giant eel in his bathtub. This segment is the most impressionistic and bizarre stretch in the movie, and it’s also the one that would work the best as its own standalone short film (it’s no surprise that the movie requires another connecting segment from Boyd to get Kelly back on track for the final delivery).

Cloe’s and Zielinski’s segments are more straightforward, with Cloe creating a sweet (but sometimes clunky) comedy about Kelly connecting with an optimistic young woman who’s just getting her life together, and Zielinski coming up with a fast-paced action piece that teams Kelly up with a reckless undercover cop (Luke Jones). Both of these segments are solid and watchable, but they don’t exhibit the same creativity and distinctiveness as the contributions from the Thompsons and the LeBoeufs.

The overall package has the balance of a good shorts program at a film festival (and “Dealer” in fact played at Boulder City’s Dam Short Film Festival in 2017), while also offering a mostly satisfactory wrap-up in Boyd’s concluding segment. All of the filmmakers involved have worked on other projects since “Dealer” was completed, but now that it’s available to a wider audience, it should provide a good boost for some deserving talents.

“Dealer” is available for digital rental or purchase via Amazon Video. It opens November 3 at the Ahrya Fine Arts by Laemmle in Los Angeles.

#film #Bell #Review

EMAV Review: Sin City Horror Fest 2018

For its second year, the Sin City Horror Fest moved from Downtown’s Eclipse Theaters to the Brenden Theatres at the Palms, attracting a relatively small but devoted audience of horror fans. Thanks to the dedication of its founders (local filmmakers Drew Marvick, Mike Lenzini, Justin Bergonzoni and Darren Flores), the festival is on its way to becoming a local institution, with a third year already planned. The gregarious and prodigiously bearded Marvick was on hand to introduce every feature film and shorts block, and his enthusiasm for the material was infectious, even at screenings with only a handful of people in attendance.

As a genre, horror has a lot of range, and the feature selections included the surreal drama The God Inside My Ear and the cult-movie documentary Survival of the Film Freaks (with Vegas locals William Powell of the Sci Fi Center and filmmaker Jimmie Gonzalez among the interviewees), in addition to more traditional horror offerings. My favorite features at this year’s festival provide solid variations on familiar horror formats, though, with worthwhile takes on found footage (The Lost Footage of Leah Sullivan) and ’80s-style supernatural spooks (The Night Sitter). Within predictable, well-worn frameworks, both movies deliver interesting, appealing characters, engaging stories and effective scares.

Lost Footage follows the found-footage template exactly, presented as the unedited footage captured by the title character (Anna Stromberg), a college student working on a school project about an unsolved murder in a small town. Could there be something supernatural lurking in the now-abandoned house where an entire family was brutally mutilated? Obviously yes, and the movie never really pretends otherwise, setting Leah and her affable cop love interest (played by director Burt Grinstead) up for certain death by the end. But Grinstead is much more rigorous about the found footage concept than the filmmakers behind the many, many other lazy takes on the format can be, and there’s a believably naturalistic quality to the performances.

The Night Sitter is a fun throwback-style horror-comedy about a small-time thief posing as a babysitter who ends up having to fight supernatural forces at the house she's attempting to rob. It’s silly and full of plot holes, but also stylish and quite entertaining, with impressive special effects and charming performances all around, especially from lead actress Elyse Dufour, who makes her fake-babysitter grifter into a heroine worth rooting for. Like a lot of current indie horror movies (including several shorts and features at SCHF), Sitter pays homage to the ’80s horror golden age, but it never panders to the audience, and its references exist to serve the plot and characters, not the other way around.

Among the shorts, there were perhaps too many films that got that balance wrong, but there was still plenty to like in the five shorts blocks, with even more stylistic diversity than in the features. I was especially impressed with a couple of shorts that deal with what happens after the end of the zombie apocalypse, when people attempt to return to some kind of normalcy. Honeymoon explores how a cured zombie repairs her marriage, and Riley Was Here depicts two broken people deliberately activating the zombie virus in order to forge a connection.

Other shorts that stood out include the award-winning Smiley Death Face, a clever, nearly dialogue-free film that manages to make emojis scary; the eerie Baghead, which turns a reunion with dead loved ones into a grim revenge story; the goofy post-apocalyptic stop-motion animated comedy Hammer Down; the dreamlike VHS-inspired sci-fi/horror piece The Chairman; and the darkly comedic demon-summoning tale Stay.

This year’s festival also hosted a screening of John Carpenter’s original 1978 Halloween, to coincide with the release of the new sequel, and Marvick hopes that settling into the new venue will allow next year’s SCHF to recruit more special guests and schedule more retrospectives. There’s lots of potential in a Vegas horror festival, and SCHF is clearly just getting started.

#Bell #film #Review

EMAV Review: Forget ‘cute kitten’ videos, comedy is raining Cat and Dog at CTC ★★★★★

★★★★★ - Irresistible

With all that’s going on in the world, with the rise in anxiety and blood pressure, we could use a little comedy; something to laugh at. Cockroach Theatre Artistic Director Daz Weller brought two short plays by a couple friends in Australia.

“The Dog,” by Brendan Cowell, and “The Cat,” by Lally Katz, have both, according to Weller, played successfully in Sydney, and elsewhere Down Under, but this brings their talent to tickle the funny bone in the U.S.

Director Matthew Morgan has chosen his cast well; Anthony Meyer, April Sauline, and Jonas Woolverton, do double duty and appear in both plays.

“The Dog” takes place in–where else–a dog park. Yale Yaendel’s set puts the action against a cyclone fence, complete with a rather full Doggy Waste Station which foreshadows trouble, and the fun starts immediately.

Meyer kicks things off with Sauline as dog owners who meet for the first time. In a series of scenes, Woolverton appears as Ben’s roommate, Marcus. There are the expected antics as the two men woo the same woman. Though the two men don’t appear together until the final scene, the tension between them is always evident. While Sauline basically plays the sounding board allowing the men to vent, she’s steady throughout, and her timing is impeccable.

The cliché goes “like cats and dogs.” But “The Cat” is the second act of the evening. If this decision was his, Morgan showed brilliance with the order of things. The script is witty, a bit far out, and he assigned the roles perfectly.

This time, Yaendel uses the entire performance space, giving us a variety of locations, each one specific. And Ellen Bone lights everything so well, overlapping cues to keep the action moving along at a clip.

And, here is where the cast truly shines. Meyer and Sauline play dual roles in this one. Meyer is Albert, who is being divorced by Alex, and appears as Jeff, Alex’s new lover; Sauline plays Alex, and Albert’s new lover, Sophie. Got it? Good. The divorcing couple must share custody of the Cat.

If it’s possible to steal the show, Jonas Woolverton does it, even though Meyer and Sauline match him point for point. They’re all always in the moment, but, if you know cats at all, Woolverton’s Cat is perfectly convincing in movement and antics.

One of the surprises of this script is that it’s a musical. I refuse to give away the other surprise because, to my delight, it caught everyone off guard. Alex and Albert have a duet that is hauntingly beautiful; you can’t help but be moved as they deliver “In My Life,” by composer Aurelien Budynek. Meyer has a nice baritone, clear and vocally acute. Sauline’s lovely alto is a perfect match and the two voices blend with precision.

There’s only one choice of the entire evening that bothered. Woolverton is clad in a black body suit, complete with tail, a rhinestone collar, and a headpiece with ears…that move the entire time. There were times my attention was drawn to the ears instead of actor’s actions. The worst part about those moments–audience laughter signaled I missed something.

Regardless, forget the cute kitten videos on Facebook. This is a completely delightful evening. It funny, it’s poignant, and I promise you’ll get plenty of laughs. And if you miss one or two jokes, it’s still one completely satisfying night at the theatre.

[Word count: 570]

What: The Dog / The Cat

When: 8 p.m. Thursday – Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday through November 11

NO PERFORMANCE on November 2 due to First Friday.

Where: Art Square Theatre, 1025 S First St, #110

Tickets: $15 - $25 (www.cockroachtheatre.com, 725- 222-9661)

Producer: Cockroach Theatre; Artistic Director: Daz Weller; Director: Matthew Morgan; Scenic Design: Yale Yaendel; Lighting Design: Ellen Bone; Stage Manager: Rebecca Sass

#Cockroach #Theatre #Review #Atreides