Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 15, 1994 TAG: 9401150087
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KAREN L. DAVIS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Winner of the 1993 Mill Mountain Theatre New Play Competition, Sambol's play beat out about 425 other entries nationwide. Established in 1986, the competition encourages and presents the best in innovative theater by emerging American playwrights. The winner receives $1,000 and an opportunity to stage a full production during the Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works.
Winning the competition "made my year," Sambol said. "Because I've done so much work with Mill Mountain, I'm very aware of their quality and high standards, and I knew this play would get terrific production."
Seven of Sambol's one-act plays have been produced as Mill Mountain Theatre Centerpieces. Once such production, "Order Me a Miracle," incorporated the Mill Mountain star, which Sambol learned about when he lived in Roanoke for about a year around 1963.
"I was in the last class at Ogden Elementary School before it became the Odgen Senior Center," Sambol said.
Now 38, Sambol has written about 25 plays, some of which have been produced in New York and Los Angeles. His early interest in drama was inspired by his mother, who was in the theater. And he still has that first play he wrote at age 8 hidden away somewhere.
He worked on "The Straight Man" for about 17 years. The three-act play "has been read several times in New York and had a few `almost' productions." Sambol said.
The Mill Mountain production blends music, magic, dance and stand-up comedy in a cabaret-style fable set in today's comedy world. The story centers on Peter Evett, the "straight man" in the long-running comedy team, Evett & Bromfield. After his partner opts for a solo career, Peter plunges into an uncertain job market.
The play addresses the emotions of someone who has lost a job and must start a new career. Peter must re-evaluate his current relationships as he struggles to start over. Sambol presents Peter in each relationship with his wife, son, mother and agent as a comedy team metaphor.
"A comic without a straight man is still a comic," Sambol said, "But a straight man without a comic is nothing."
That idea inspired Sambol to examine teamwork in relationships in his play.
The straight man in a comedy team is the one "who feeds the straight lines, sets up the joke and focuses the gag," Sambol said. The comic then explodes off of the straight man's lines. But the straight man "gives the duo that bridge between the team and the audience."
Dean Martin was the straight man in the Jerry Lewis-Dean Martin combo. In Rowen & Martin, Dan Rowen was the straight man and Dick Martin was the goofy one.
A good straight man is hard to find, too.
"In vaudeville, the straight man usually got paid the most, got top billing and had the most clout," Sambol said.
"The Straight Man," directed by guest artist William Gregg, previously with Richmond's TheatreVirginia, continues in Theatre B at Center on Church through Jan. 30.
The nine-member cast features Richmond actor Davis Hall as Peter Evett and Broadway and television actor Michael Goodwin as Ernie Bromfield. Viewers may recognize Goodwin from his roles in the TV series, "Dynasty," "St. Elsewhere," "Matt Houston" and "Falcon Crest." Other cast members include Clif Morts, Martha Perantoni, John Lewis, Jeanne Boisineau, Kyle Puccia, Stephanie Lynge and Martha Weise.
Original music is composed and performed by guest artist Wayne Hosford of New York.
From Feb. 1-6, three staged readings will be presented as part of the Festival of New Works. "A God in the House" by Peter Selgin, about a terminally ill woman's desire to die, will be presented Feb. 1 and 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. "Gun Play" by Tom Dunn, about gang membership and teen violence, will be read script-in-hand on Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 5 and 6 at 2 p.m. This play contains strong language. On Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 5 at 8 p.m., "Where the Sun Never Sets" by Robert Clyman involves the audience in a mystery puzzling an entire family stymied by one member's cult involvement. Tickets to all staged readings cost $5.
The next Centerpiece production on Mill Mountain Theatre's Main Stage will be "Katie & Josh" by Jo Weinstein, presented script-in-hand on Jan. 19. Weinstein, Mill Mountain Theatre's Literary Manager and playwright-in-residence, has written the play based on a block in the AIDS Quilt. Centerpieces start at 12:15 p.m. and are free to a brown-bagging lunch crowd.
"The Straight Man," part of the Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works, plays through Jan. 30 in Theatre B of Mill Mountain Theatre. 342-5740.
Keywords:
THEATER REVIEW
by CNB