Weekend Comedy (August, 2006)
Reviews
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"Don Long as Frank elevates horse’s patootness to an art form and often manages to be
funny doing it. He has perfected the sideways glance and a certain imperious angle of the
head. That, along with his swagger, rescues Frank from just being a negative whiner who
is very used to having his way to someone you could come close to sympathizing with. . .
Lucia Welch makes Peggy far more patient with Frank than he deserves, but her character
presents a realistic picture of someone who has learned to have a life while being married
to Frank. . . Andrew Cope’s Tony is very comfortable being a rich kid and living with his
girlfriend. He is disheveled and polite almost to a fault. He has a shy grin that solves any
mystery as to why Jill hangs out with him. . . Cope just looks like a spoiled rich kid and the
fear he shows when Jill wants him to be a grownup is real. . .Emily Roberts as Jill adroitly
makes the switch from sweet girlfriend to young woman who suddenly knows what she
wants. . .Director Jeff Fenter has staged this comedy by Jean and Sam Bobrick with the
audience on two sides of the set. For the most part that works. At one point Peggy actually
cooks bacon and eggs for Frank. The smell of breakfast and freshly perked coffee almost
makes you want to try to mooch a piece of bacon from Frank, but he’d probably just stab
your hand with a fork without blinking an eye."
- Penny Rathbun
Plano Insider
1947 Radio version of
"It’s A Wonderful Life" (December, 2006)
"With tin cans, bubble wrap, shoes and who knows what other objects, Ameristage
Players has recreated a holiday classic as a radio play. And in amongst all that sound
effects paraphernalia is also a talented ensemble cast. . .You may not think a performance
of a radio play would be interesting to watch, but a story performed for the ear has a lot of
visual interest. It's fun to see what the actors do when they are not in front of the
microphone and it's always fun to watch a sound effects artist at work. . .
Russell Johnson heads the cast as George Bailey, the man who aches to get out of his
hometown to see the world. Johnson has his own interpretation of the role and only
occasionally lapses into Jimmy Stewart cadence, but that is almost unavoidable. His voice
gives everyman Bailey a likeable quality that would come right through the radio, if the
audience were listening over radios.
Nora Erhardt plays Mary Hatch, the girl who sets her cap for George while she is still in
elementary school. Nora's voice sounds like Mary looks, the all-American girl who wants to
buy and fix up the old Sycamore place and she eventually gets her wish.
Aleisha Force plays Violet, the town's wayward girl, various mothers and female neighbors
and the bank examiner. She makes her characters sound so believable they are easy to
imagine.
Jason Rice plays the part of Clarence, the angel with competency issues, in a way that
causes the audience to think up a Clarence different from the movie. Rice's Italian new
homeowner is a hoot. He manages to create a lovable ethnic character while avoiding
doing a cartoon accent.
Don Long has a couple of scenes where he plays several characters by himself, jumping
from one voice to the other with deftness. As Mr. Potter he sounds villainous with only an
occasional hint of Lionel Barrymore.
The wordless presence literally in back of the whole show is the director Jeff Fenter. Often
he is invisible, just doing his job in the background, but he gets audience attention now
and then with the use of sound effect items. It probably isn't intentional, but it adds to the
fun of the show. One of his special moments is when he makes the sound of feminine
footsteps with white satin, open-toed pumps on his hands.
This is a quiet show that has an oddly calming effect. It's like a little respite from the red
and green chaos we call Christmas."
- Penny Rathbun
Frisco Enterprise
The Sweetest Swing In Baseball (August 2007)
"Plays about contemporary art and plays set in mental wards: two crowded sub-genres in
American drama. The Sweetest Swing in Baseball is both at once – and technically falls
into the "plays about baseball" category as well.
In Rebecca Gilman's drama, a painter named Dana Fielding has a meltdown when her
latest gallery show tanks and her boyfriend leaves her the same night. After a suicide
attempt, she finds the hospital a comfortable place. Her insurance, though, will only pay for
a 10-day stay. When the new friends she makes on the ward advise her what her options
are, she pretends to believe she's baseball star Darryl Strawberry.
Ms. Gilman is a formidable (and controversial) figure these days, and we've seen only a
couple of productions of her work hereabouts. All the more reason, then, to be grateful to
AmeriStage Players for mounting The Sweetest Swing in Baseball in Plano's Cox Building
Playhouse. Greg Michniak directed the show, reviewed at Thursday's performance.
The production is strongest in its two youngest performers, both still undergraduates.
Christa Hinckley makes a superb Dana – if a less convincing Darryl. But then Dana's not
supposed to be a convincing Darryl either. From the character's nervousness of the
opening scene to her wounded vulnerability later, Ms. Hinckley convinces us that she's an
accomplished artist at least a decade older than she really is.
The other four performers all have to play dual roles – and they all do better as the patients
and doctors in the hospital than they do as the people in Dana's outside life. Dillon
Maroney is especially touching as Michael, the gay alcoholic programmer in rehab. The
budding friendship between Dana and Michael becomes the emotional spine of the play.
Gary, the sociopath, may be the piece's most intriguing character. Andrews Cope captures
the guy's weirdness but not the danger. Mr. Cope is rather tentative throughout – you'd
never guess this was the same actor who was so good in Contemporary Theatre of
Dallas' The Last Night of Ballyhoo last year. Shannon W. Brock overdoes the empathy of
the doctor she plays and the pretentiousness of the gallery owner, but she has some nice
moments as each. Tiffany Kellerman has the least clearly defined roles and doesn't give
us her own take on them: Are Dana's suspicions of her friend Erica justified, or is she just
being paranoid?
That kind of ambiguity is both the strength and the weakness of The Sweetest Swing in
Baseball. Every relationship in the play blurs into something else – the way Dana's
personality begins to blur into that of the celebrity she is impersonating. It's a cool device,
but eventually we want some answers about just what Ms. Gilman thinks about all this."
-Lawson Taitte
Dallas Morning News
Ameristage Players’ production of “The Sweetest Swing in Baseball” doesn’t quite hit it out
of the park but it scores enough homeruns to win the game.
Rebecca Gilman’s play about a young artist who does not understand why she is
successful goes way beyond the 20-something generation’s general dissatisfaction with
life.
The main character Dana Fielding, played by Christa Hinckley, ends up in a mental
hospital as a result of a suicide attempt.
She fears re-entering the real world especially after she finds out her insurance will only
pay for a 10-day stay in the hospital. She thinks she needs to be there much longer. To
deal with this common problem she hatches a plan to convince her minders that she
thinks she is the baseball player Darryl Strawberry.
If this were a baseball game Hinckley should be named most valuable player. As artist
Dana Fielding she presents a convincing portrait of a young woman so wracked with self-
doubt she cannot enjoy an exhibition of her paintings. She hides in a back room worrying
that nobody is buying them.
Hinckley’s wraith-like demeanor conveys the neuroses of an artist in a way that makes the
audience hope that a character will come on and explain that life isn’t really all that bad.
Other characters do attempt that, but Dana is determined to disbelieve how brilliant she is
as an artist. Her method of coping, by becoming Darryl Strawberry, is the heart of the
game. Dana gets so good at it she appears to convince even herself that she is a
baseball player fallen from glory. Her anti-wraith moves are worth the trip.
The gallery owner Rhonda, played by Shannon Brock, tries to comfort her artist, but doesn’
t succeed. Brock plays Rhonda as a woman who thinks she is encouraging her artists, but
only manages to sideline their personalities. She announces her entrances in a very
entertaining way as she steams on stage resplendent in artistic raiment from head to foot.
Brock shows more of a human, vulnerable side when she plays one of the doctors treating
Dana. She must, for a few short moments, forsake the professional persona of a doctor, to
talk about the dreams she never pursued in her life. That is a tear-inspiring moment.
Tiffany Kellerman as Erica, Dana’s friend and agent, creates questions about Erica’s
motives. Just when it seems she is very concerned about her friend’s well being, the
enthusiasm she shows for Dana’s hospital paintings cause doubt that all of the reasons
for her concern about her best friend’s health might not be altruistic. Kellerman is a
wonder of ambiguity in this role.
She also plays one of the hospital minders with white-coated authority.
Andrews Cope as Roy, your friendly, local psychopath ups his batting average with this
role. He makes insanity seem cool, especially when he’s doing pushups while delivering
a good bit of dialogue. It’s fun to watch him coach Dana on how to be Darryl Strawberry.
Cope manages to underscore his psychopath with a patina of danger.
He also plays Dana’s boyfriend and nails the cute but superficial, self-absorbed 21st
century kind of guy character.
Dana doesn’t hold a monopoly on Sturm and Drang. A fellow patient is Brian, played by
Dillon Maroney. Both Brian and Dana need to understand that life just isn’t all that dire.
Maroney’s Brian has a fatalistic tinge that Maroney portrays along with all the niceness
under the crooked tie.
Greg Michniak’s direction has people walking around the stage and seldom connecting. In
the first act hardly anybody touches anybody else. That works to emphasize the characters
and their dilemmas.
For a well-acted show that raises questions about life in this century as well as artistic
inspiration go experience Ameristage’s “The Sweetest Swing in Baseball.”
-Penny Rathbun
Plano Insider
funny doing it. He has perfected the sideways glance and a certain imperious angle of the
head. That, along with his swagger, rescues Frank from just being a negative whiner who
is very used to having his way to someone you could come close to sympathizing with. . .
Lucia Welch makes Peggy far more patient with Frank than he deserves, but her character
presents a realistic picture of someone who has learned to have a life while being married
to Frank. . . Andrew Cope’s Tony is very comfortable being a rich kid and living with his
girlfriend. He is disheveled and polite almost to a fault. He has a shy grin that solves any
mystery as to why Jill hangs out with him. . . Cope just looks like a spoiled rich kid and the
fear he shows when Jill wants him to be a grownup is real. . .Emily Roberts as Jill adroitly
makes the switch from sweet girlfriend to young woman who suddenly knows what she
wants. . .Director Jeff Fenter has staged this comedy by Jean and Sam Bobrick with the
audience on two sides of the set. For the most part that works. At one point Peggy actually
cooks bacon and eggs for Frank. The smell of breakfast and freshly perked coffee almost
makes you want to try to mooch a piece of bacon from Frank, but he’d probably just stab
your hand with a fork without blinking an eye."
- Penny Rathbun
Plano Insider
1947 Radio version of
"It’s A Wonderful Life" (December, 2006)
"With tin cans, bubble wrap, shoes and who knows what other objects, Ameristage
Players has recreated a holiday classic as a radio play. And in amongst all that sound
effects paraphernalia is also a talented ensemble cast. . .You may not think a performance
of a radio play would be interesting to watch, but a story performed for the ear has a lot of
visual interest. It's fun to see what the actors do when they are not in front of the
microphone and it's always fun to watch a sound effects artist at work. . .
Russell Johnson heads the cast as George Bailey, the man who aches to get out of his
hometown to see the world. Johnson has his own interpretation of the role and only
occasionally lapses into Jimmy Stewart cadence, but that is almost unavoidable. His voice
gives everyman Bailey a likeable quality that would come right through the radio, if the
audience were listening over radios.
Nora Erhardt plays Mary Hatch, the girl who sets her cap for George while she is still in
elementary school. Nora's voice sounds like Mary looks, the all-American girl who wants to
buy and fix up the old Sycamore place and she eventually gets her wish.
Aleisha Force plays Violet, the town's wayward girl, various mothers and female neighbors
and the bank examiner. She makes her characters sound so believable they are easy to
imagine.
Jason Rice plays the part of Clarence, the angel with competency issues, in a way that
causes the audience to think up a Clarence different from the movie. Rice's Italian new
homeowner is a hoot. He manages to create a lovable ethnic character while avoiding
doing a cartoon accent.
Don Long has a couple of scenes where he plays several characters by himself, jumping
from one voice to the other with deftness. As Mr. Potter he sounds villainous with only an
occasional hint of Lionel Barrymore.
The wordless presence literally in back of the whole show is the director Jeff Fenter. Often
he is invisible, just doing his job in the background, but he gets audience attention now
and then with the use of sound effect items. It probably isn't intentional, but it adds to the
fun of the show. One of his special moments is when he makes the sound of feminine
footsteps with white satin, open-toed pumps on his hands.
This is a quiet show that has an oddly calming effect. It's like a little respite from the red
and green chaos we call Christmas."
- Penny Rathbun
Frisco Enterprise
The Sweetest Swing In Baseball (August 2007)
"Plays about contemporary art and plays set in mental wards: two crowded sub-genres in
American drama. The Sweetest Swing in Baseball is both at once – and technically falls
into the "plays about baseball" category as well.
In Rebecca Gilman's drama, a painter named Dana Fielding has a meltdown when her
latest gallery show tanks and her boyfriend leaves her the same night. After a suicide
attempt, she finds the hospital a comfortable place. Her insurance, though, will only pay for
a 10-day stay. When the new friends she makes on the ward advise her what her options
are, she pretends to believe she's baseball star Darryl Strawberry.
Ms. Gilman is a formidable (and controversial) figure these days, and we've seen only a
couple of productions of her work hereabouts. All the more reason, then, to be grateful to
AmeriStage Players for mounting The Sweetest Swing in Baseball in Plano's Cox Building
Playhouse. Greg Michniak directed the show, reviewed at Thursday's performance.
The production is strongest in its two youngest performers, both still undergraduates.
Christa Hinckley makes a superb Dana – if a less convincing Darryl. But then Dana's not
supposed to be a convincing Darryl either. From the character's nervousness of the
opening scene to her wounded vulnerability later, Ms. Hinckley convinces us that she's an
accomplished artist at least a decade older than she really is.
The other four performers all have to play dual roles – and they all do better as the patients
and doctors in the hospital than they do as the people in Dana's outside life. Dillon
Maroney is especially touching as Michael, the gay alcoholic programmer in rehab. The
budding friendship between Dana and Michael becomes the emotional spine of the play.
Gary, the sociopath, may be the piece's most intriguing character. Andrews Cope captures
the guy's weirdness but not the danger. Mr. Cope is rather tentative throughout – you'd
never guess this was the same actor who was so good in Contemporary Theatre of
Dallas' The Last Night of Ballyhoo last year. Shannon W. Brock overdoes the empathy of
the doctor she plays and the pretentiousness of the gallery owner, but she has some nice
moments as each. Tiffany Kellerman has the least clearly defined roles and doesn't give
us her own take on them: Are Dana's suspicions of her friend Erica justified, or is she just
being paranoid?
That kind of ambiguity is both the strength and the weakness of The Sweetest Swing in
Baseball. Every relationship in the play blurs into something else – the way Dana's
personality begins to blur into that of the celebrity she is impersonating. It's a cool device,
but eventually we want some answers about just what Ms. Gilman thinks about all this."
-Lawson Taitte
Dallas Morning News
Ameristage Players’ production of “The Sweetest Swing in Baseball” doesn’t quite hit it out
of the park but it scores enough homeruns to win the game.
Rebecca Gilman’s play about a young artist who does not understand why she is
successful goes way beyond the 20-something generation’s general dissatisfaction with
life.
The main character Dana Fielding, played by Christa Hinckley, ends up in a mental
hospital as a result of a suicide attempt.
She fears re-entering the real world especially after she finds out her insurance will only
pay for a 10-day stay in the hospital. She thinks she needs to be there much longer. To
deal with this common problem she hatches a plan to convince her minders that she
thinks she is the baseball player Darryl Strawberry.
If this were a baseball game Hinckley should be named most valuable player. As artist
Dana Fielding she presents a convincing portrait of a young woman so wracked with self-
doubt she cannot enjoy an exhibition of her paintings. She hides in a back room worrying
that nobody is buying them.
Hinckley’s wraith-like demeanor conveys the neuroses of an artist in a way that makes the
audience hope that a character will come on and explain that life isn’t really all that bad.
Other characters do attempt that, but Dana is determined to disbelieve how brilliant she is
as an artist. Her method of coping, by becoming Darryl Strawberry, is the heart of the
game. Dana gets so good at it she appears to convince even herself that she is a
baseball player fallen from glory. Her anti-wraith moves are worth the trip.
The gallery owner Rhonda, played by Shannon Brock, tries to comfort her artist, but doesn’
t succeed. Brock plays Rhonda as a woman who thinks she is encouraging her artists, but
only manages to sideline their personalities. She announces her entrances in a very
entertaining way as she steams on stage resplendent in artistic raiment from head to foot.
Brock shows more of a human, vulnerable side when she plays one of the doctors treating
Dana. She must, for a few short moments, forsake the professional persona of a doctor, to
talk about the dreams she never pursued in her life. That is a tear-inspiring moment.
Tiffany Kellerman as Erica, Dana’s friend and agent, creates questions about Erica’s
motives. Just when it seems she is very concerned about her friend’s well being, the
enthusiasm she shows for Dana’s hospital paintings cause doubt that all of the reasons
for her concern about her best friend’s health might not be altruistic. Kellerman is a
wonder of ambiguity in this role.
She also plays one of the hospital minders with white-coated authority.
Andrews Cope as Roy, your friendly, local psychopath ups his batting average with this
role. He makes insanity seem cool, especially when he’s doing pushups while delivering
a good bit of dialogue. It’s fun to watch him coach Dana on how to be Darryl Strawberry.
Cope manages to underscore his psychopath with a patina of danger.
He also plays Dana’s boyfriend and nails the cute but superficial, self-absorbed 21st
century kind of guy character.
Dana doesn’t hold a monopoly on Sturm and Drang. A fellow patient is Brian, played by
Dillon Maroney. Both Brian and Dana need to understand that life just isn’t all that dire.
Maroney’s Brian has a fatalistic tinge that Maroney portrays along with all the niceness
under the crooked tie.
Greg Michniak’s direction has people walking around the stage and seldom connecting. In
the first act hardly anybody touches anybody else. That works to emphasize the characters
and their dilemmas.
For a well-acted show that raises questions about life in this century as well as artistic
inspiration go experience Ameristage’s “The Sweetest Swing in Baseball.”
-Penny Rathbun
Plano Insider
