Friday, March 23, 2012

Fertile Ground 2012

Portland's Fertile Ground is a 10-day festival of new plays that takes place in January each year.  This year there were over 100 productions on the boards, ranging in scope from staged readings up to fully staged productions.  I was fortunate to be cast in three projects this year:  "Triptych Americana" written and directed by Karen Alexander-Brown, "Fully Loaded Russian Roulette" a collection of six one acts produced by Edward Lyons Jr. and Dug Martel, and "Jerusalem Story" written by Sharon Sassone and directed by Jeremy Benjamin.

"Triptych Americana" is composed of three short vignettes of American life. In "Precipice", I played Benny, a man whose marriage and life are on the verge of falling apart after the onset of medical problems.  In "Transparent" I played Rich, a businessman who is too busy and self absorbed to notice the things around him.  In both of these pieces, Pat Janowski played my wife.  Two very different relationships, same actress.

Jack Wells, Tom Stutzman, Gordon Romei, Karen Alexander-Brown, Pat Janowski, Jon Farley, Angela Freeman


"Fully Loaded Russian Roulette" was a collection of six one-acts, each by a different author.  I was in two of them.  One of these was "Breakfast Knives" by Wally Jones.  I played "Dream Jillian", the dream counterpart to the character Jillian in the story.  The main story and a dream were enacted on stage simultaneously, then eventually merged into a single crazy finale.  The other one-act was "The Good News" by Dyami Clement.  The play is a farce which concerns two young men and the mother of one of them who is lying dead on the floor.  What exactly caused her death and was it murder?  I played a police detective who investigates briefly, then decides to get out quick.  Karen Farley played the deceased mother, who talks to the other characters from beyond the grave.


Me as the noir'ish police detective in "The Good News."

Karen Farley as Martha,  Jon Farley as the cop


"Jerusalem Story" is a re-setting of the Romeo and Juliette story into modern-day Israel.  I played Rabbi Lawrence, a prominent figure working to bridge the Isreali-Palestinian divide.  Though effective in winning many considerations, he ultimately is unable to prevent the demise of the young lovers.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of this production.

No comments:

Post a Comment