A little less than half a year after its last Combat Theatre outing, Bunny Gumbo returned to the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center for another two-day festival of skits written and performed in 24 hours. The only limitations on the productions were the 24-hour time limit and subjects and settings that were drawn from a pair of hats.
June 6th, 2008
DAY ONE:
Fleet Street Flat Tops
Playwright: Steve Midthun
Director: Todd Denning
Subject: Conspiracy Theory
Setting: Barber Shop
Midthun crafts an inspired, if relatively lightweight comic script around the conspiracy theory in a barber shop concept. Robert W.C. Kennedy plays the Barber of Seville who has ended-up opening a shop with Sweeney Todd (Brian Roloff.) It’s a fun premise, but once it gets going, Midthun seems to have difficulty knowing where to take it.
Santa Mojo
Playwright: Derrick Pawlak
Director: Reva Fox
Subject: Santa Clause
Setting: Longshoreman’s Bar
Marti Gobel plays a bartender at a seedy bar that plays host to a thin, scruffy, beardless Santa Claus (Neil Haven) who is hit on by an overly excitable longshorewoman (Reaca Pearl.) Pawlak manages some good lines that are well-delivered by the cast, but there really doesn’t seem to be enough of a plot here to tie everything together.
Tats for Tots
Playwright: Randy Rehberg
Director: Dennis Johnson
Subject: Grandparents
Setting: Tattoo Parlor
Rehberg takes an interesting turn on an interesting juxtaposition with Dan Katula and Toni Inzeo playing grandparents of a kid who just turned 18 (Ken Williams.) Family tradition is to take an 18 year-old in for tattoo on their 18th birthday whether they want to or not. A nice premise well executed by the cast, but the extended flashback to the grandparents’ younger years in front of the television was more than a bit tiresome.
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Sweatin’ To The Oldies
Playwright: Patrick Holland
Director: Sophia Dhaliwal
Subject: Dream Ballet
Setting: Sweatshop
The first half of the first program ends with one of the best pieces of the weekend. Angela Iannone and Logan Adams play women who have escaped Mexico to work sweatshop jobs in the US. The dream ballet is a remarkably concise depiction of Mexican immigrants running across the border that makes the whole affair look almost graceful.
INTERMISSION
Attack of Dr. Franken-Girlie’s Bikini Monster in 3D
Playwright: Tony Wood
Director: Laurie DeMoon
Subject: Poison
Location: Dr. Frankenstein’s Castle
The program returns from intermission with a fun, albeit obvious bit of comedy. Wood takes Dr. Frankenstein to be Rachel Williams as Dr. Frankenstein’s sister (who is also a doctor.) The plot progresses predictably in a story of a woman who finds herself stranded in the castle. Kind of fun but exceedingly forgettable.
Aint It Funny How Zen Slips Away
Playwright: Michael Moynihan
Director: Katie Landa
Subject: Godzilla
Setting: Church
Though putting Godzilla in a confessional booth (or perhaps behind a pulpit) would’ve been interesting, it’s probably too obvious. Moynihan goes in an interesting direction with this one that almost works. Dimminutive Amie Losi plays the big lizard, who turns out to be an undercover US government agent working in Japan. Stephan Roselin plays the agent who has come to contact her in a Zen Dojo. A fun comic premise, but derivtatiuve. And the ending is a bit abrupt.
The Mutineer
Playwright: Jim Thibodeau
Director: Bo Johnson
Subject: Mutiny
Setting: Loch Ness
This one ended up being one of the best of the weekend. Thibodeau’s straightforward treatment of mutiny on the Loch Ness was a simple comic framework for what ended up being the best ensemble of the evening. Nate Press played a man captured and taken aboard a classic pirate ship on the famed Loch. Doug Jarecki pummeled quite a bit of comedy out of his role as a classic crippled pirate who has been confined to a wheeled platform. In her best role of the weekend, Amy Geyser played a hook-handed pirate captain killed in the end of the skit. Geyser was unable to keep from laughing as Jarecki wheeled over to her to make sure she had passed away--each prod causing her to laugh. The death scene seemed like it would keep going indefinitely until some five to ten minut later when Jarecki sgave-up and said, “We’ll just let her drift off from here,” ushering in the end of the skit. Funny stuff.
The Gift That Gives Back
Playwright: Jon Van Slyke
Director: Brad Bingheim
Subject: The Gift of the Magi
Setting: Doll Factory
The first night ended on a relatively weak comic bit no doubt originating from Van Slyke’s rather unfortunate subject/setting drawing. The skit played out pretty much the way one would expect with a few standard stage comedy shticks thrown-in to keep it all going until the end of the first program.
DAY TWO
After respectably torrential rains resulting in flash floods and at least two building collapses in the city of Milwaukee, Bunny Gumbo started its second evening with a piece from Tony Wood.
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Water In The Loo
Playwright: Tony Wood
Director: Katie Landa
Subject: Napoleon
Setting: Men’s Room
Wood manages a clever script about a Napoleon (Dan Katula) infesting a restroom in a second-run suburban discount multiplex. In two evenings, Amie Losi has the opportunity to play both Godzilla and an exterminator specializing in historical dictators. It’s relatively inspired silliness that is up to par with some of Wood’s best work.
This Terrible Plight
Playwright: Jim Thibodeau
Director: Brad Bingheim
Subject: Gigolo
Setting: Panic Room
A casual piece that seemed to be written almost in a stream of consciousness, this piece starred Neil Haven as an ostentatious and effeminate gigolo being shown around a fabulously expensive house he wishes to buy. It was fun and forgettable.
Hide and Seek at the County Jail
Playwright: Patrick Holland
Director: Tom Reed
Subject: uhh . . . hide and seek
Setting: a . . . county jail
Bo Johnson plays a warden in a risky little piece by Patrick Holland that ended up going over quite well. This was the only play of the whole weekend that wasn’t a comedy of some sort. Not only was it serious straight ahead drama, Holland had the scenes play out in reverse order (a la Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible.) The plot, involving a multiple murder at a county jail, may not have been particularly deep, but it was captivating enough to hold one’s attention completely from beginning to end.
Zombie Detention
Playwright: John Van Slyke
Director: Maureen Kilmurry
Subject: that would be . . . “Zombies”
Setting: they’re in detention . . . in high school.
With impressively bizarre showings by Wood (Water In The Loo) Jarecki (The Master of the Method) and Holland (Sweatin’ to the Oldies) over the course of the weekend, there were a lot of bizarre shorts over the course of the weekend, but Van Slyke's Zombie Detention really piled on the Weird. Brian Roloff played a principal overseeing detention . . . with a shovel on his belt. The three students in detention followed The Breakfast Club model . . . Nicholas Harazin played the tough loner, Amy Geyser played the privledged princess and Anne Miller played the zombie. Evidently zombies have been granted the same status as the living and are simply trying to lead normal lives like the rest of us. It’s a touching comedy featuring that tender first romantic embrace between two zombies. Oddly, it ended up being really sweet in spite of staged depictions of concussions and dismemberment. Cute.
INTERMISSION
The Kids Are All Right; Really, The Kids Are All Right
Playwright: Randy Rehberg
Director: Raeleen McMillion
Subject: deja vu
Setting: a daycare
Eric Westphal, Eric Cherney and Robert W.C. Kennedy play children with adult intellects and affectations who plot an escape from a day care center looked after by Tami Rentmeester. This one went on for kind of long in spite of some rather clever takes on the tired, old "adults playing babies" comedy shtick. (Eric Westphal could be seen at one point casually holding his pacifier between his middle and index fingers as though it was a cigaretteclever.) Oddly enough , this one ended by paying comic homage to the last scene of The Breakfast Club.
THS
Playwright: Derric Pawlak
Director: Reva Fox
Subject: prisoners
Setting: a casting couch
John Maclay and Ken Williams played conjoined twin female convicts looking to be cast in a deodorant commercial. Sadly, this wasn’t nearly as interesting as it probably sounds. (It did, however, remind me of a rather interesting documentary piece seen on the TLC network some time ago about two teenaged girls who share the same body from the shoulders down. The fact that this is fascinating is very important as it has absolutely nothing to do with the short.) It’s a vaguely comic piece that was pretty well-executed, but largely forgettable.
Pushing Daisy
Playwright: James Fletcher
Director: Denis Johnson
Subject: bouncers
Setting: a janitor’s closet
In one of the best shorts of the weekend, Nate Press plays a guy who has always had a crush on a popular, attractive girl (Reaca Pearl) while a less popular girl (Toni Inzeo) silently pines after and fusses over him. The short follows through on the premise pretty predictably, but a good ensemble and some delicately written dialogue made this one of the weekend’s best.
The Master of the Method
Playwright: Doug Jarecki
Director: Todd Denning
Subject: method acting
Setting: a gunfight
Sophia Dhaliwal plays the greatest method actor alive. Rachel Williams plays the actress who wants to take her place. The cast, which also included Marti Gobel as an acting coach to both rivals, managed to carve refreshingly good comedy out of Jarecki’s staler jokes. When Jarecki’s sctipt was at its best, Master was sheer fun. Tall, thin, savvy and magnetic, Dhaliwal was a coolly casual human exclamation point onstagethe perfect ending of the weekend’s final performance.
