Review: Assassins- Camarillo Acorn

Dark comedy takes aim

Musical explores nine assailants of American presidents

By Cary Ginell

originjazz@aol.com

Camarillo Acorn

DANGEROUS—Sara Jane Moore (Julie Bermel) meets Lynette“Squeaky”Fromme (Randi Saxer) in this dark comedy about presidential assailants. “Assassins” plays through Nov. 4 at Camarillo Skyway Playhouse. Courtesy Barbara MazeikaJohn Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald:

 “Move your little finger and you can change 

the world.” That sentence sums up Stephen 

Sondheim’s “Assassins,” a sneeringly cynical 

musical that groups nine historical 

presidential assailants in a “Twilight Zone”-like 

revue of comic malevolence.

Not only is it one of the more difficult 

Broadway shows to perform, its dark premise is revulsive to many theatergoers.

Originally staged off-Broadway in 1990, “Assassins” closed after only 73 performances. 

Two years later, a London production fared no better.

When “Assassins” finally reached Broadway in 2004, it won five Tony awards, including 

Best Revival of a Musical.

Camarillo Skyway Playhouse producer Dean Johnson and director Brian Robert Harris 

deserve double points not only for attempting to stage the show but for doing so right 

before Election Day.

“Assassins” memorably traverses time and space, with historical criminals interacting with 

one another. Where else can Charles Guiteau, who shot President James Garfield in 

1881, clumsily seduce Sara Jane Moore, who took a potshot at Gerald Ford 

nearly a century later? The bizarre confluence of the deluded assailants 

and their perverted rationales is tied together in the setting of a shooting gallery, 

run by a gruesomely jovial carnival barker played by Louis Graham.

Familiar patriotic numbers such as “Hail to the Chief” and Sousa’s “El Capitan” march 

are stretched and distorted to reflect the twisted perversion of the characters’ 

polluted patriotism.Sondheim’s score is deliberately dissonant, with the singers’ 

parts often sonically at odds with Susan Calkins’ three-piece orchestra.

Sondheim customized the songs to the eras in which each assassin lived, “The Ballad 

of Booth” sounding like a Stephen Foster banjo ditty and the love song John

 Hinckley composes for Jodie Foster deliberately amateurish.

The Camarillo cast labored for four months on the difficult songs, and although much 

of the singing is shaky at times, the acting is universally excellent, with several 

performances standing out. Jim Seerden is shattering as Samuel Byck, 

who was foiled in a 1974 attempt on the life of Richard Nixon. A raving lunatic in 

a Santa Claus suit, Byck rants to conductor Leonard Bernstein through a 

hand-held tape recorder and then to Nixon himself.

Randi Saxer plays Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, one of the lesser-known acolytes of 

mass murder mastermind Charles Manson until she took a shot at Gerald Ford in 

1975. A beguiling actress much more attractive than the plain would-be murderess 

she is portraying, Saxer is chilling in a particularly bloodthirsty performance. Her 

duet with Eric Umali as Hinckley in “Unworthy of Your Love” is the musical highlight 

of the show.  Alex Choate plays John Wilkes Booth with self-pitying nobility. 

The scene in which he and the other assassins persuade a suicidal Oswald (Andy Justus) 

to shoot down John F. Kennedy is superbly disquieting.

In this circus full of triggerh appy fruit- cakes, Julie Bermel’s Sara Jane Moore is 

the nuttiest of all. A foppish five- time divorcee, Moore missed Ford only because 

her gun was misaligned. Bermel’s whacked-out scene with Saxer’s Squeaky is 

horrifically funny as they joust about their respective obsessions.

Kyle Johnson as anarchist Leon Czolgosz ( President McKinley’s assassin), 

Evan Boelsen as Guiteau and Luis Soto’s anguished FDR sniper Giuseppe Zangara 

are equally creepy and effective. Kellie Holm ties everything together as The Balladeer, 

who acts as the Greek chorus of the show.

Due to the unsettling subject matter, gunfire and frequent profanity, “Assassins” is definitely not for 

children. But if you appreciate imaginative black comedy, you’ll have a blast.

“Assassins” plays through Nov. 4. For tickets, call (805) 388-5716 or go online to 

www.skywayplayhouse.org.

http://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/news/2012-10-05/On_The_Town/Dark_comedy_takes_aim.html

Review: The Woman in Black- Stage Happenings

THE WOMAN IN BLACK

By: Robert Lilly

http://www.stagehappenings.com/Robert_Lilly/reviews/_2012/womaninblack.php

One of the longest running and most successful ventures in the history of the London theatre scene has now been brought to Oxnard. The Woman in Black is a fascinating and ambitious undertaking presented with a unique style of storytelling seldom seen in Ventura County.

The majority of shows produced in area fall into a predictable pattern of production and presentation. The Woman in Black, currently on stage at the Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard, does not fall in to that convention. The tale is told in a distinctive and creative way that exposes local audiences to one of the traits that made this show a long running sensation on the British Stage.

At the onset, we find an awkward and nervous “actor” (Terry Fishman) in the throes of reading aloud from pages of a manuscript that he himself has penned. Now voicing it for the first time, he is urged on to better his performance by a young professional actor and director (Curtis Cline). Soon we learn that both men are in a theatre with the shared goal of telling the story of Arthur Kipps to the public, but with very different motives. The younger sees the deep dramatic value of the yarn, both as a human experience and as a haunting ghost story; whereas the writer of the tale wishes only to unburden his soul of the events he lived by speaking them in a public forum. As the play within the play unfolds, we see what is ostensibly a final dress rehearsal of a multi layered autobiographical play that the two men have prepared for public consumption in the local London theatre district. In their play, Cline plays the part of the Kipps as a younger man, and Fishman takes on the roles of the various people that Kipps met along the way, all of whom are brought together by the recent death of a mysterious and troubled woman who lived and died secluded in a house so surrounded by marshland that the path to it is only visible at low tide.

The “actors” guide us through the story of the unsuspecting and diligent Kipps on his journey to the enigma of a woman’s now empty house. In due course, we discover that whenever the ghost of the woman in black is seen, a child dies. As they prepare their story for presentation, they discuss story-telling techniques of the late Victorian age, including the recent innovation of recorded sound and modern theatrical ambiance. All the while they remain under the constant and watchful eye of the ever present Woman (Debbie Price) dressed all in black, whose existence is a source of both fear and excitement to the men as they prepare their production. Their play, as well as ours, culminates in a startling dream like a final scene where reality is intermingled with the supernatural and eventually we see that the storytellers have become a part of the narrative as they told it.

So successful was the original stage production that it was made in to a film of the same name, starring a now grown Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame as the youthful Kipps. The movie focused on the ghost story, but it is the unusual structure and individual boldness of concept that made the stage play such a hit. Those essentials are alive in this production and are further supported by strong acting and many fine production elements.

Fishman takes on the mammoth task of building a multitude of diverse characters, all the while playing a man learning to be an actor. He skillfully delineates dialects and his face tells a different story for each character he plays. Cline plays well the energetic and younger version of Kipps, and Price adds mystery and presence in the silent title role. Director Tom Eubanks braves the difficult script well and succeeds particularly well in building a strong relationship between the two male leads. Eubanks offers up a skillfully staged production that makes use of every inch of the intimate theatre. The costumes suggest well the time and the set by Eubanks is a prime example of ingenuity and inventiveness, though it is at times under used. The show occasionally lacks the jump that one desires in a ghost story, but strong characters, able performers, and a clear grasp of the theatrical value of the piece are well at work here. This show is as difficult as it is stirring and deserves to be performed more often by venues such as this.

The Woman in Black runs through Sept. 16th at the Elite Theatre in Oxnard. http://www.elitetheatre.org/

Review: The Farnsworth Invention- Ventura County Star

Ventura County Star

'West Wing' creator explores the birth of TV in Camarillo play Who invented TV?

• By Rita Moran
• Posted August 1, 2012 at 2:47 p.m.
• http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/aug/01/west-wing-creator-explores-the-birth-of-tv-in/

A world without television would be a world few today could imagine. But there was such a world, just as there was one without radio, and without motion pictures.

Thanks to Philo T. Farnsworth, a Utah farm boy with a flair for electronic and mechanical invention, TV arrived sooner than it might have, even though he didn't always get full credit for his crucial contributions.

The battle among a multitude of potential innovators at various U.S. research and business sites is a focus of Aaron Sorkin's play "The Farnsworth Invention," now on stage at Camarillo Skyway Playhouse. At 13, Farnsworth was the youngest to envision all-electronic television and his insights were phenomenal. Sorkin, who many TV fans will remember as creator-writer of "The West Wing" series, brings the same kind of quick-and-clever dialogue to the stage that he did to the tube. That's both a virtue, thanks to the riveting intensity it produces, and a bit of a drawback as technical information comes at an audience fast and furious, leaving some at opening night missing essential strains of the argument, while at least catching the funniest of the comeuppances delivered. Farnsworth's relentless drive and many-faceted mind can at times be as confusing as it is compelling.

Central figures in the cast do their utmost to deliver the information-laden lines crisply and persuasively. Best at communicating the fast-moving text is Patrick Beckstead in the title role. From the opening scene when as a bumptious student he asks his new science teacher if he can skip the basic course and the teacher says no, it's obvious something's in the air. The next day Farnsworth produces his "homework," a mass of papers that cover the entire course, and the teacher changes his mind.

From that moment on, Beckstead, as convincing as a grown up as a kid, fuels Farnsworth's fire though endless experimentation on crucial elements of TV transmission, working with only a few friends who are equally surprising innovators.

The major confrontation of the play, it turns out, comes from another young man, David Sarnoff, who emigrated with his mother and siblings from Europe to America in 1900, when he was 9. Sarnoff was a driving force in the expansion of radio, eventually heading Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and alert enough to recognize the possibilities of television as an even more world-changing communications force. Of course, it took quite a while before the technical problems of making television actually work were solved. And possibly, some shenanigans to latch on to Farnsworth's key work. The smooth Sarnoff is effectively played by Eric Mello, who gets to utter the words that define him in Sorkin's play, "The ends do justify the means … that's what means are for."

Sorkin's play has been criticized by some history buffs for its crucial courtroom scene in which Farnsworth loses the patent-right contest. It seems that he actually won, but that would have made a different kind of story. The explanation centers on the fact that there was more than one legal skirmish and that Farnsworth lost some even while ultimately winning and going on to invent many other patents in his areas of interest.

Director Elissa Anne Polansky effectively handles the cast of 23, many in multiple roles, with action taking place against a simple backdrop that includes a second-level area to accommodate a continuous flow of scenes. There are familiar faces in the cast along with welcome new ones, all obviously committed to a serious performance of the play, presented for the first time on a major county stage.

But the most striking element of the production comes at the opening when two large screens on either side of the stage come alive with unforgettable television moments, from grainy shots of Walter Cronkite announcing John F. Kennedy's death and the appropriately unearthly sight of an American walking on the moon to silly flash-by shots of Lucy and Desi, "All in the Family" and Richard Nixon gamely intoning "Sock it to me!"

Now that television and other means of mass communication have flooded the world the question no longer seems to be how are we going to communicate with the rest of humanity, but can we try to make what we send out worth the electronic trip?

"The Farnsworth Invention" may not be the most colorful drama onstage, but it is a timely reminder of what life was like before TV, and how much struggle went into making it a reality.

'The Farnsworth Invention'

Aaron Sorkin's take on Philo T. Farnsworth's battle to create television in the early years of the 20th century will be staged through Aug. 26 at the Camarillo Skyway Playhouse, 330 Skyway Drive, Camarillo. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $18 general, $13 seniors, military and students; and $10 children 12 and younger. Call 388-5716 or visit skywayplayhouse.org.

Email Rita Moran at ritamoran@earthlink.net.

© 2012 Ventura County Star. All rights reserved. 

Review: Perfect Quiet Place- Ventura Breeze

Perfect Quiet Place is disquieting
by Jim Spencer & Shirley Lorraine, Ventura Breeze


An old radio drama opened with the question, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?”
One answer is: playwright Tom Eubanks does.


Tom Eubanks, a long time Ventura- based business professional and fixture on the Ventura County theater scene, is also a seasoned author of books and plays. His newest script, a psychological thriller entitled Perfect Quiet Place, is the current production at Oxnard’s Elite Theatre Company.


The play delves into themes of delusion, deception and reality chal- lenging circumstances through the experiences of Hannah, a 16-year-old who lives in the girls’ dorm at a learning institution.


At first, all seems common place as the action opens with Hannah and her dorm mates sharing their exuberance about circumventing the curfew rules. But incongruous elements begin to emerge when Hannah notices items are starting to disappear from her room which, oddly, doesn’t seem to have a lock on door. Then, there’s the peculiar night watchman who is always around and whose contradictory explanations of actions and events set off mental alarms for Hannah, and the audience as well.


As a thriller, Eubanks’ script is exceptionally well constructed. The early exposition is both entertaining and quick, setting up the audience for later surprises. He employs appropri- ate generational dialogue to adroitly add layers to the characters until they become engagingly complex. Just when the audience feels it has latched onto the story’s directional thread, Eubanks’ next scene effectively twists the picture to generate a totally new perspective.


On a deeper level, Hannah’s journey also delivers several thoughtful insights on some cause and effect issues related to the human psyche as it deals with, as Hamlet put it, “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”


So, Hannah’s Perfect Quiet Place turns out to be rather complicated. Without an ensemble of skilled actors on stage the potential of a breakdown with the audience becomes a possibility. The Elite’s four-member cast, under the direction of Brian Robert Harris, is more than up to the test and they all deliver rich performances.

Andrea Muller exudes genuineness and acting aplomb as Hannah. Annie Sherman is particularly memorable and convincing in the dual aspects of her portrayal of Deidre, Hannah’s dorm mate. Hayley Silvers gets to display a scope of emotional diversity as Logan, Hannah’s other dormie. Michael Chandler is variously creepy, kindly, con- f licted and menacing as the mysterious man known as Marshall.


Eubanks’ script also invites the audience to closely focus on detail. As a result, minor inconsistencies may seem more apparent, such as characters who don’t change clothes even though a week has supposedly elapsed, or dialogue statements and patterns that seem unnecessarily rep- etitious or tempo inhibiting.

The Elite Theatre Company’s of Perfect Quiet Place offers a chance to be entertained and emotionally enticed. It continues through May 27, 2012 at the Elite’s home, The Petit Playhouse, 730 S. “B” St., in Oxnard’s Heritage Square. Tickets: $15-$17. Information and reservations: 483-5118. www.elite theatre.org. 

Review: Perfect Quiet Place- Stage Happenings

Perfect Quiet Place

By Robert Lilly, StageHappenings.com

Ventura County has a thriving arts community. There are full theatrical seasons being offered by more than a dozen performance spaces spread out over ten major cities. However, original full length works are a rarity in the area. The world premier of Perfect Quite Place, presented by the Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard, is a rare opportunity for local theatre patrons to attend the initial performances of a previously unproduced work close to home.

Perfect Quiet Place tells the story of a young girl who is trapped in a world where her perceived reality is becoming increasingly suspect. The action opens on Hannah (Andrea Muller) with two of her schoolmates (Annie Sherman and Hayley Silvers) at a private high school in California. Her musical studies are forced to take a back seat to the disruptive and sometimes downright odd behavior of her friends and the school’s night watchman (Michael Chandler), whose presence is a source of both concern and mockery for the teenage girls. Hannah brokers a fragile peace between her volatile friends and succeeds in conversing with the night watchman, but in doing so, becomes increasingly aware that what she knows as truth is far from reality. When things begin to disappear from her room, Hannah drifts between uncertainty and unease and is ultimately compelled to confront the ever-changing world in which she lives. She soon finds herself under the care of a doctor who further muddles her life picture, leading Hannah to exclaim “You’re curing me of everything good in my life.” No longer able to trust her own mind, she is flung into a life and death battle for survival that culminates in a ferocious physical encounter that she can only escape by overcoming her own fear and rising above the chaos that surrounds her. In the end, she is left reaching out to something unknown, longing for escape or redemption.

The versatile pale green dorm room set fits well the three-sided stage in the pleasant surroundings of the intimate lower level playhouse, and the technical elements are strong for the most part as is the pleasing theatrical ambiance missing in many of the southland’s smaller venues. Author Tom Eubanks offers a script that seems to delight in keeping audiences off kilter with varying degrees of success. The direction, though pedestrian at times, succeeds best in the final moments of the show and is unafraid of the ambiguous ending that is strangely fitting given the unorthodox structure of the play. Each member of the four person cast delivers moments of effectiveness in their difficult dual roles, although it is the youthful Muller who accomplishes the most laudable feat in her role as the distressed heroine of the story. Onstage from beginning to end, she successfully brings a childlike exuberance and fresh-faced hopefulness to the character of Hannah, despite the trials that she must endure. The Elite Theatre Company’s production of Perfect Quiet Place is a praiseworthy venture in the ring of presenting original works, and sounds loudly the bell for other small theatres to do the same.

Perfect Quiet Place runs until May 27th at the Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard. http://www.elitetheatre.org/

Review: Perfect Quiet Place- Ojai Valley News

Joyce McWilliams raves about the Elite Theatres newest original production

Eubanks' new play showing in Oxnard 

Author: Joyce McWilliams Ojai Valley News contributor

Ojai Valley playwright Tom Eubanks' play, "Perfect Quiet Place," is now playing at the Elite Theatre's Petit Playhouse in Oxnard through May 27.

Eubanks has written several plays, "American Right," premiere Elite Theatre, "Self Storage," premiere SPT, and is presently working on a new play, "In the Midst of All That Was." His novel, "Worlds Apart," was released in 2010 and he has just completed his second novel, "The Plunge." Eubanks is a two-time REP award winner: Best Actor in a Comedy Performance, 2000; and Director for "Equis" in 2001.

"Perfect Quiet Place," a psychodrama, has some spine-chilling moments and mysterious unravelings as we share in the plights of the three young students presented by Andrea Muller (Hannah), Hayley Silvers (Logan) and Annie Sherman (Deidre).

Fine ensemble performances are given by all three. Michael Chandler as Marshall was well-cast in this ambiguous, eerie role.

The entire cast gave each character its unique quality and each was totally believable. Sound and lighting design is by Ojai's own Steve Grumette and the set design by is by Bob Decker.

There are some surprising turnabouts in the plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I don't wish to reveal too much of the story and spoil your fun, especially if you're a mystery lover. This play is unusual and mysterious from beginning to end, thanks to playwright Eubanks and director Brian Robert Harris.

The Elite Theatre company is a member ofthe Four Star Theater Alliance which includes:Ojai Art Center Theater, Santa Paula Theater Center, Camarillo Skyway Theater, Conejo Players'Theater, and the High Street Arts Center. 

To Reserve tickets:

805-483-5118

http://www.elitetheatre.org/