Review: FSU/Asolo Conservatory cast shines in short comedies in Sarasota
In his remarks before shows, FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training director Greg Leaming is fond of reminding the audience that the performers on stage represent the future of American theater.
If what Leaming says is accurate, the future of American theater is vibrant.
The conservatory opened its 2015-16 season Wednesday at the Cook Theatre in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts with two hilarious one-acts, Christopher Durang's "The Actor's Nightmare" and Tom Stoppard's "The Real Inspector Hound." They're both briskly directed by Leaming and, between the two plays, they feature all 12 of the Conservatory's second-year students.
Their contributions to the future of American theater may be theoretical at this point, but right now they're providing marvelous and self-assured performances and a very funny evening of theater.
It's not all about the actors, of course. Leaming has chosen two smart and wacky plays by two of greatest contemporary playwrights. They're packed with references that will make them especially fun for theater buffs, but those semi-inside jokes are just a bonus. Both plays are riotously funny even for people who aren't regular theater-goers.
Durang is one of the most frequently produced playwrights on American stages in recent years. Asolo Repertory Theatre staged his Tony Award-winning "Vanya and Sonia and Sasha and Spike" just a couple of years ago.
This play's only about a half-hour long. Durang wrote it to be paired with one of his best known plays, "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You." In "Nightmare," we meet a man who's apparently in the middle of an uncomfortable dream. He can't remember his name, but he's pretty sure he's an accountant, yet he finds himself in a theater, about to go onstage in play he hasn't rehearsed. Worse yet, the play morphs in mid-scene from Noel Coward to Shakespeare to Beckett to Robert Bolt.
Scott Kuiper is wonderfully befuddled as the central character in his own nightmare, and his Everyman look and demeanor in the part are perfect. It would be easy for an actor to take the character's fumbling and embarrassment over the top, but Kuiper's restrained throughout, and funnier because of it. He gets great support from the rest of the cast, especially Danielle Renella as the stage manager and Kelly Elizabeth Smith as his cohort in the Beckett play.
Stoppard's "The Real Inspector Hound" lambastes both theater and theater critics equally. The hour-long play has two pompous and inept critics seated off to the side, watching and commenting, and composing their own self-aggrandizing reviews, as a silly Agatha Christie-style murder mystery unfolds onstage. Their conversation is a delight to listen to, very reminiscent of the dialogue in Stoppard's early masterpiece "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," and his parody of drawing-room murder mysteries (particularly "The Mousetrap") is riotously funny.
The entire cast is hilarious once again. Brett Mack and Brandon Maldonado, as the two critics, handle Stoppard's quick and complicated dialogue facilely, and the cast of the play-within-the-play are all delightful. The script incorporates everything from pratfalls to intellectual satire and the entire cast executes it all flawlessly. Jillian Courtney, Jessie Taylor and Smith (again) are among the standouts. The sets and lights by Chris McVicker and costumes by Becki Leigh are lovely, and the sound design by Rew Tippin is pristine.
It's tempting to name every single student actor because they're all really wonderful. But there's time. This is the first show of the season, and they've got plays by David Ives, William Shakespeare and Ingmar Bergman ahead of them. The early indication is that there will be ample opportunity to praise each of them
Details: Through Nov. 22, Cook Theatre at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $29 standard, $14.50 student. Information: 941-351-8000, asolorep.org.
This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Review: FSU/Asolo Conservatory cast shines in short comedies in Sarasota ."