The Summer on Stage
Guys and Dolls garnered a standing ovation in its glorious opening night at SBCC’s Garvin Theatre last Friday in a production that deserves kudos not only for its smartly-matched and crisply-directly 25-member cast – with plenty of chemistry in the two main couples – but also for its impressive full-scale set, terrific live orchestra, and clever choreography. The classic Tony-winning musical still clearly has lots of life 73 years after its Broadway debut, with Frank Loesser’s most memorable tunes still leaving the audience with a song in their hearts.
Guys and Dolls continues at the Garvin through July 29, but this weekend also brings three new productions to our more locally-centric stages.
Can You Hear Me Now?
A coma might seem a bit of a stretch for comedy, but there’s a catch for the character in question in Santa Barbara-based playwright Claudia McGarry’s I Can Hear You, Damn It!, which has its premiere at Center Stage Theater on July 22-23. Audrey, played by Bojana Hill, is indeed in a coma after collapsing, but she’s in the process of recovering and can hear the confessions, complaints, apologies, and other secrets shared by family and friends at her bedside.
Damn It! is the second fictional dramatic comedy by the prolific McGarry, who wrote several historical dramas before shifting to a more personal focus during the pandemic.
“Normally, people hold back on saying what they want, but if they think you can’t hear them, they feel much more liberty,” said McGarry, who came up with the concept when she found herself talking to a friend who was in a coma for a few weeks before recovering.
While the family members’ bedside babble probes a variety of emotions, the comedy comes from the audience being aware of Audrey’s reactions to their words, as Hill shares her thoughts from the wings while a similarly-dressed mannequin lies in the bed. Then there’s the funny antics of her wanna-be-actress nurse – played by Heather Terbell Wilson, McGarry’s real-life OB-GYN/actress-improviser – who practices auditioning for various roles for the inanimate Audrey after the visitors leave.
The nurse acts out everything from Shakespeare to tap dancing to the famous restaurant scene from When Harry Met Sally.
“She’s basically doing all my favorite scenes,” McGarry said. “But Audrey is sick of it.”
Fortunately, even in the unlikely event that audiences don’t fall for all of the action, they won’t have to hide their reactions for long – the play only runs for just over 60 minutes.
“I hate intermissions,” McGarry said. “I won’t ever write a play that goes much longer than that. And this one is action packed.”
Visit www.centerstagetheater.org.
Laughing at Summer
The Alcazar Theatre in Carpinteria is opening its third annual Laugh Out Loudsummer comedy series, an evening of short comedic one-act plays of about 10 minutes each to lighten the load of the dog days of summer. The series’ scope has expanded yet again for 2023 and now boasts eight plays, four directors – although Asa Olsson, Alcazar Ensemble’s founding creative director and board president, will helm three and star in another – and a cast that totals 17 community actors.
LOL also expands to six shows over two weekends, July 21-30, each featuring all eight plays for a plethora of hilarity: A Fare Ride by Matt Thompson, The Prodigal Cow by Mark Harvey Levine, The Best Escape by Carolyn West, Day One by Ross Gordon Brown, Who’s There? by Lisa Marciano, Gatecrashers by Peter Pitt, and People Will Talk and Sandbox, both by Scott Mullen.
Visit www.thealcazar.org.
Summer Launching Off
UCSB Theater/Dance’s ninth Launch Pad Summer Reading Series gets underway this weekend with the first of three staged readings of new plays-in-progress by award winning playwrights as the culmination of an intensive four-day workshop between the writer, director, and student actors. Melinda Lopez’s Power Trio, which is about immigration and inspired by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, performs July 21, while Strange Birds, by E. M. Lewis, a mysterious dark comedy about an unusual family, plays July 27. Closing out the series on August 3 is James Still’s Everybody’s Favorite Mothers, which tells the story of Jeanne Manford, co-founder of the pioneering LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, and other courageous mothers who came together for their children during a time when homosexuality was still illegal in 49 states. (Launch Pad will also have a full preview production of the play next February.)
The free readings in UCSB’s Studio Theater begin with a reception to meet the playwright and are followed by a Q&A with the cast and crew.
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