February 9, 2018

Songs of Alfonso El Sabio on Spotify

Excellent work in class yesterday. One young woman hates men and man-things with a hatred incandescent and, currently, productive of striking poetry. Hate, though, as inspiration is both narrow and short-lived. I hope she blazes into something else before the fire goes out.
 
Jim Cavener’s review of Night Music appeared after the production was blown to pieces:

Theater review: 'Night Music' a local premiere at Magnetic Theatre
Jim Cavener Published 9:47 a.m. ET Feb. 8, 2018
Magnetic-Theatre-Logo.jpg
(Photo: Courtesy photo)

Prolific writer, literature professor, musician, gallery owner and Renaissance man David Brendan Hopes is back onstage again in his hometown at The Magnetic Theatre in the River Arts District, where his "Uranium 235" recently saw its world premiere.

This time around it's another local premiere of a script titled "Night Music," though it is not a musical and bears little resemblance to Andrew Lloyd Webber's memorable tune "The Music of the Night" from "Phantom of the Opera."

It might cheapen the enterprise to describe "Night Music" with the cliche of a coming-of-age story, though it is surely partly that. But a "growing-up odyssey" feels a better moniker. 

And an odyssey it is, maybe even an "odd-yssey,"  with a series of vignettes featuring three young persons in maybe nine contrasting scenes or episodes. Not for a moment could Hopes be accused of the annoying habit of some playwrights of creating choppy, episodic TV-style "sitcom" scenes. He's much too fine a writer to stoop to that gimmick.

The show opens with two young lads camping out in an Appalachian forest at summer camp. The dialogue is intriguing, with adolescent (or boyhood) philosophical insights — crickets and owls and stars, oh my! They fantasize on the sounds the stars are making; they reflect on eternal verities with charming abandon. Thoughts on universality make their "heads feel funny." Life gets a bit more complex by the introduction of a young woman into the mix.

The three young-'uns grow into college students, the hormones race a bit more and relationship dynamics get confusing. The author has proposed a sort of subtitle for the show, in the question: "How would you be different if your first love had been someone else?" A question worth pondering in the lives of each of the audience, but surely in terms of how young Philomela, Cleve and Jesse grow through the various chapters (for want of a better word) in their young lives. Hopes' imagination is its usual unusual and, not surprisingly, quite fertile.

And about this cast of 20-somethings — okay one is only 19 — playing their own ages and that of the previous decades: two are current students of Hopes' at UNC Asheville; the third is post-college but blends with the others quite convincingly. The sole female in the cast is created by Serena Dotson-Smith, one of the UNCA students who does directing and technical theater at Theatre UNCA. She's convincing at each of the various stages of the drama, first through her "spaniel ears" hairdo of childhood, then into more mature coiffs.

The other current UNCA student, Samuel Quinn Morris, gives us Cleve, a somewhat nerdy, dweeb-like young man. In real life Morris has appeared in "Uranium 235" and will direct another Hopes' script on campus later this year. His innocent and vulnerable Cleve is very effective and touching.

The role of Jesse, given by Nick Biggs, is quickly growing from a child to man, each with convincing delivery. Nick is also a visual artist, a musician and does comedy. He is new to our stages but has a promising future here if he sticks around.

The set design merits special note. There are two large screens that are moved about a bit, usually symmetrically balanced on each side of the stage. They are backlit but not rear projections. Various cutout panels are placed on the screens, creating a silhouette that suggests the locale. Clever concept and quite nicely executed by Julia Cunningham, whose goal was to "create a dream-scape that is reminiscent of the ephemeral and elusive nature of memories." She succeeds.

Director Christine Eide has worked with Asheville Lyric Opera and Opera Carolina, so it is appropriate that she should take on a project called "Night Music," although there is no music involved save for transitional scene sounds. But the show's title is somewhat explained in the context of the story and script episode. It's a pleasant romp for a first-time production. Additional mountings could strengthen the message and the delivery.

Jim Cavener can be reached by email at jimcavener@aya.yale.edu.

IF YOU GO
What: "Night Music" by David Brendan Hopes.

Where: The Magnetic Theatre, 375 Depot St., Asheville.

When: 7:30 Thursday-Saturday through Feb. 17.

Tickets: $16 via themagnetictheatre.org or 828-239-9250.

*

On that front, I get updates on how the blocking and staging are being changed, and how last night, anyway, tickets included drink vouchers because one of the actors was doing it book-in-hand. Ruinous, ruinous. I can’t seem to get over it. Eyes welling in the car. I drove to Eden’s and bought flower seed for the spring. That helped. I stopped at the Arboretum and hiked in the clear agate light, beside the healing waters of Bent Creek. Chainsaws were going in the near distance, so it wasn’t as peaceful as it might have been, but it was what I needed. Walked some in the formal gardens, made more formal yet by the austerity of winter. The fact that I never had to lean against a tree to catch my breath indicates that the incessant gobbling of iron pills may be having some effect. Came home and slept four hours. Now the bloodstone light dims in my narrow study window.