Last Chance to See THE DENTIST at the Merry Month of May Festival.
After a rollicking month, the Merry Month of May Festival winds up its festivities May 27th. Presented by MoonBeam.Net Productions, the Festival is currently holding court at Manhattan Repertory Theatre, located at 303 West 42nd Street.
The highlight of the Festival is Jason Shilling Kendall’s THE DENTIST or BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR MOUTH. Set in both “long ago” and “right now,” the work combines farce, the art of clowning, extreme physicality and the Commedia dell’Arte style – all to ensure that true love conquers all, those who are misguided learn the error of their ways (with a little help) and everyone (or most everyone) lives happily ever after.
Also running at the Festival this week is William Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT. In addition, on Friday, May 27th at 10:30pm (after THE DENTIST) is DONNA’S LATE-NIGHT CABARET – a revue of the music of award-winning composer Donna Stearns, featuring original music to many of Shakespeare’s bawdy and soulful lyrics.
A Festival Line-up for this week follows:
THE DENTIST or BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR MOUTH
written by Jason Shilling Kendall
directed by Blake Bradford
technical direction by Wayne Yaeger
costume design by Jessa-Raye Court
Featuring: Evan Alboum, Joel Bischoff, John Carey, Barbara Charlene, Amanda Garry,* Emma Gordon, Melissa Macleod Herion, Wyatt Kuether*, Maggie Lauren*, Jared R. Lopatin, Steven Ungar *
* – Member of Actors’ Equity
An AEA Showcase
Pantalone, he of the corpulent girth, extended ego, aged years and extreme wealth has decided to take the lovely (and much younger) Isabella as his new bride, despite the fact that she is in love with his son Oratio, and he with her. It’s up to Pantalone’s crafty servant Pedrolino to save the day. Aided by Isabella’s maidservant Isabella, her self-absorbed brother Flavio, a very angry doctor and a host of other characters (including Pantalone’s nymphomaniac daughter), Pedrolino concocts a scheme to make Pantalone believe he has the worst breath in history, figuring that while Pantalone goes to seek the help of a dentist, the young lovers will have time to run away together. (Ever notice how young lovers always seem to need help in these sorts of stories?)
However the path of true love never runs smooth, nor do schemes to keep it so, it seems; and Pedrolino has to contend with a rhyming witch, several misguided suitors for Isabella’s hand, and some candy that has a very unusual effect upon whomever so shall decide to take a taste – all the while trying to keep his own plans on track. A hit at the 2000 International Fringe Festival, THE DENTIST was also staged at the Duplex Cabaret in New York for several weeks in 2005.
The playing dates for THE DENTIST or BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR MOUTH are as follows:
May 4th – May 27th
Thursday-Saturday at 8pm
TWELFTH NIGHT
by William Shakespeare
directed by James Alexander Bond **
original music composed by Donna Stearns
Featuring:Â Michael Bernstein, Erin Caldwell, Gavin Hoffman, Marc Improta, Shashanah Newman, Adam Raynen*, Christopher James Reed, Charles J. Roby *, Eric Sherr*, Brandon Wardell*, Elizabeth G. Wilson
* – member of Actors’ Equity
An AEA Showcase
** SSDC contract
As the play begins, Viola finds herself shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria. Believing her twin brother Sebastian to be drowned, she disguised herself as a man and, calling herself Cesario, enters the service of the lovesick Duke Orsino, who is head over heels in love with Lady Olivia who, in turn, has sworn off all romantic attachments for a period of seven years as she mourns the deaths of her father and bother. Undaunted, Orsino enlists the disguised Viola in an attempt to woo Olivia. Complications arise when Viola falls for the Duke and Olivia falls for Cesario. Things get even more confusing when Sebastian arrives on the scene, leading to further misunderstandings and unforeseen problems.
TWELFTH NIGHT blends some of the Bard’s most famous themes: disguising one’s gender, separated twins, mistaken identities and implausible coincidences. There are also some very interesting underlying themes present, such as for some to be happy, others must suffer; as well as more than a bit of unrequited love – both man for woman and man for man.
The playing dates for TWELFTH NIGHT are as follows:
Sunday, May 21st to Wednesday, May 24th at 8pm
DONNA’S LATE-NIGHT CABARET
music, book and direction by Donna Stearns
Choreographed by Ria Mae Binaoro
Featuring:Â Laura Mae Baker, Joshua David Bishop, Amber Bogdewiecz, Kyle Cheng, Aundre Chin, Megan Cooper, Esmeralda, Hannah Fairchild, Annemieke Farrow, Floryn Glass, Clara Barton Green, Joseph Hamel, Melanie Hopkins, Dawn Jones, Ashley Rebecca King, Jared R. Lopatin, Juliet Markowitz, Jennica McCleary, Aurora Nessly, Yvette Newsome, Brendan Rothman-Hicks, Jaki Silver, JessAnn Smith, Renee Threatte, Debra Wassum
A racy pop-broadway-jazz cabaret revue of Shakespeare-influenced songs written by award-winning songwriter Donna Stearns. (No steeenking madrigals!) The program features her songs ripped from the Bard’s plays and her critically-acclaimed, “Best-Of-The-Fest” musical All The World’s A Stage. Come hear Proteus sing “Who is Silvia”, Celia lament upon a “Midnight Pillow” for her Rosalind, and Orlando croon “You Make Me Moist.”
Performance dates: May 5th – May 26th
Friday and Saturday at 10:30pm
Tickets:Â $10.00
Jason Kendall (playwright of The Dentist) is in the casting pool of Cirque du Soleil in their clown group. THE DENTIST was inspired by the clowns and feelings of Cirque combined with the work Jason did at Blue Lake, California at the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theater, as well as extensive clown training and performance in Austin, Texas. Jason specializes in the direction of farce and comedic plays, having directed “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (all-minority cast), “Twelfth Night” and “Measure for Measure” at the New York Comedy Club. Elsewhere he has directed “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls”, “All the World’s a Stage” (a farcical musical based on “As You Like It”), “Don Juan in Hell”, and “Merry Wives of Windsor.” Jason also is the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Saturdays, a minority-outreach reading series of Shakespeare.
MoonBeam.Net Productions specializes in the performance of classic and classic-like work. They strive to find works that succeed in creating a vital actor-audience experience, which is impossible in the static media of film and television. They emphasize the actor as the central storyteller; utilizing all their available skills and talents that come to their greatest power in live performance. To them, the theatre is the playground of the attentive mind.
The Merry Month of May Festival will run from April 30th – May 27th at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre, located at 303 West 42nd Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues) on the 3rd Floor. Tickets for each production are $18.00 ($10.00 for the Cabaret) and can be purchased by calling 212-352-3101 or going to www.theatermania.com. Additional information can be found at www.moonbeam.net//MMM.
