THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509130095
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: Montague Gammon III
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
The Little Theatre of Norfolk has found a pathway to success. In the upcoming year, the venerable group is holding a course that has been charted over several years of steady growth.
That course follows a line connecting the certain appeal of the tried-and-true with the lure of that which is novel.
``We're not out there performing for ourselves,'' notes Phyllis Guinazzo, chairperson of the Play Reading Committee. Guinazzo explains that the scripts chosen for production in 1995-96 all answer one question, ``What does the audience like?''
Surveys and attendance figures repeatedly have rated Agatha Christie as the biggest box office draw at LTN, according to comments artistic director David Burton made last year. A fortuitously timely production of Christie's courtroom drama ``Witness for the Prosecution,'' reviewed below, kicks off the season.
Between Nov. 3 and Nov. 19 the Little Theatre will offer a less famous, light piece called ``Weekend Comedy,'' by Jeanne and Sam Bobrick. If the script is not familiar, the basic plot certainly is.
Two couples have accidentally rented the same Catskill cottage for a weekend. One couple is young, demonstrative and very much in love. The other is an older pair in which the husband is overly devoted to his office job and set in his ways. His wife had planned their vacation as a way to loosen him up.
There exists a raft of plays in which characters of very different personalities are forced together by some event that also serves to isolate them from the rest of the world. Following their pattern, one may safely assume that, after an initial period of conflict, the foursome in ``Weekend Comedy'' finds in one another some source of self-understanding, or impetus for change, or both.
Opinions about the third show of the year may be strongly divided.
Next to Agatha Christie's writings, Little Theatre audiences have expressed a preference for Tennessee Williams' works. ``Sweet Bird of Youth,'' a 1959 composition of Tennessee Williams, starred Geraldine Page and Paul Newman when it played on Broadway. The Little Theatre will present it on the weekends of Jan. 5-21.
Coming two years before the unquestionably important ``Night of the Iguana,'' The show today is considered as either the next to the last of Williams' major works or the play that first marked a significant decline in his powers.
The story of an aging movie actress and her young gigolo confronting their respective pasts stirred controversy with its perceived frankness about sex when another local theater produced it two decades ago, but that controversy was in no way bad for box office receipts.
Whatever one may think of the script, it offers two plum roles. If LTN can cast the leads well, those performances will dominate audience reactions.
After ``Sweet Bird'' the Little Theatre will present ``The Sisters Rosensweig'' by acclaimed contemporary playwright Wendy Wasserstein. Rights to amateur performance just became available, and LTN will be one of the first community theaters in the country to produce this play, Feb. 23 through March 10.
Although Wasserstein, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has a reputation as something of a politically aware author, there is a formulaic sound to the plot of this play, in which three middle-aged siblings reunite and come to terms with their differences.
Wasserstein's skill at characterization and ability to create sharp dialogue should guarantee that the work is interesting, and the lead roles will appeal to the most accomplished and experienced local actresses.
Conventional wisdom has it that closing a season with a musical comedy is the best way to sell season tickets for the succeeding year, and there is little reason to argue against that theory. The Little Theatre will be the first local theater in many years to produce ``Call Me Madam,'' with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin.
The original 1950 show starred Ethel Merman in the romantic story of a Washington, D.C., hostess who is appointed ambassador to the Principality of Lichtenberg. As with the two shows that precede it in the season, the script has a strong central role that could showcase the best local talents. It will open April 26 and close May 19.
A number of the performers now active at the Little Theatre arrived in the three years when David Burton was president of the group, or during last year, his first as artistic director. Burton is credited by everyone close to the Little Theatre as being the driving force behind a revival of enthusiasm that has increased attendance and season ticket sales while enlarging the pool of volunteers from which performers and backstage workers are drawn.
Burton, himself an accomplished song and dance performer, will direct ``Weekend Comedy'' and ``Call Me Madam.'' Leslie Draper, who made his directorial debut at LTN just a couple of years ago after several seasons of being a stalwart performer, is directing both the Agatha Christie and the Tennessee Williams plays.
It will be interesting to see the results of this concentration of artistic control in the hands of only two directors. Both have produced some admirable work, but this season will bear the stamp of their artistic sensibilities almost exclusively.
The key to continuing success for LTN will be their ability to open the group to an ever-increasing number of talented volunteers and receptive audiences. A reversal could come only if their dominance is perceived as excluding new talent or as rejecting those who are already active in the Little Theatre. by CNB