2004 was a good year for drama in the Tampa Bay area. It was the year in which Todd Olson of American Stage reinforced his theater's rank as best in the Bay area with one fine production after the next. It was the year in which Anna Brennen of Stageworks found a set designer — R. T. Williams — who could create stunning environments, and the year that Gypsy Productions started to look genuinely professional. 2004 was the year of Finer Noble Gases, a demented dream of a production in a university black box theater; and the year of Hypoxia Zone, an impressive new work by an important local talent. Finally, 2004 was the year that three new companies — Acorn Theatre, Salerno Theatre Company and Hat Trick Theatre Productions — offered plays and musicals to a cautious public. OK, their first shows were imperfect; but any year that brings us three new theaters is notable.
Anyway, enough with the introductions. Here are the 10 best locally produced plays of 2004. Maestro, some music, please, for…
1 Anna in the Tropics. This handsome American Stage production of Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-winning work brought us an Ybor City fraught with love, lust and jealousy, and inhabited by a passionate people who gambled on cockfights and each other's fidelity. Anna is the story of Conchita (Karen Garcia), a woman whose husband (Jose Antonio) has betrayed her, and who looks for revenge with handsome "lector" Juan Julian (Joe Masi). Jeff Dean's cigar factory set was startlingly realistic, Todd Olson's direction was inspired (as was his casting), and Amy J. Cianci's costumes vividly communicated 1920s Ybor. No other experience all year was anywhere near as powerful.
2 All My Sons. Arthur Miller's early drama is about a businessman who may have caused the deaths of 21 airmen, and about the son who demands that the truth be known. This Stageworks production soared because of acting: Steven Clark Pachosa as earnest but cagey Joe Keller, Kevin Whalin as Keller's idealistic son Chris, and Kelly Sardinas Lambert as Chris' beloved Ann. Then there was Eileen Koteles, who as Keller's wife gave us glimpses of a misery almost too painful to contemplate. Director Anna Brennen once again shone, and R. T. Williams' set was a perfect upper-middle backyard. In sum: a dazzling ensemble effort.
3 Finer Noble Gases. University productions are supposed to be amateur, right? Wrong. The TheatreUSF version of Adam Rapp's Finer Noble Gases was a revelation, demandingly artistic and occasionally magical. Rapp's comedy is about two stoned-out young men, hilariously played by Michael Wiley and David Black, living in an epic wreck of an apartment house. As directed by Kerry Glamsch, their story became a metaphor for the chaos and anomie that is modern life, and for the moments of grace that even a junkyard can't obscure. Glamsch is that rare thing among Bay area directors: he's not just a traffic cop, he's actually creative. Has any pro theater got the guts to hire him?
4 God's Man in Texas. The setting for David Rambo's play is the campus of Rock Baptist Church, a Houston behemoth that includes a football stadium, dinner theater, two swimming pools and a shopping center. Presiding over Rock is 81-year-old Pastor Dr. Philip Gottschall (the intimidating Warren Hammack); aspiring to his job is Dr. Jeremiah "Jerry" Mears (the resourceful Matthew Carlton). As these two fight it out, we're asked to consider: Is spiritual ambition more spirit or ambition? This American Stage production, skillfully directed by Van Huff, brought us flawed men of faith but never failed to take faith seriously. As such, it was a welcome presence in a too-often agnostic theater scene.
5 Spinning Into Butter. Rebecca Gilman's play is about white racism, especially among the supposedly "enlightened" sorts who embrace political correctness. Setting her parable in a New England college, Gilman shows us a supposedly unprejudiced population. But things aren't that simple — and when a black student finds racist slurs tacked to his door, Dean Sarah Daniels begins a search for her own buried bigotry. The key actors in this American Stage production turned in luminous performances — especially Julie Rowe as Dean Daniels and Brian Shea as Professor Ross Collins. But the real discovery was the play itself: an honest, uncompromising look at the lingering poison of race hatred.
6 I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Who would have guessed that a musical on the subject of modern relationships would be so incisive? In Joe Dipietro's play, lovers are beset by anxiety, impatience, egotism, indecision, skepticism and panic — and that's just Act One. Jimmy Roberts' music was catchy, and the four performers — Heather Krueger, Shelly Trocolli, Jonathan Van Dyke and Mark Raumaker — were simply endearing. This wasn't love out of a Disney movie; this was the real thing with all its worries and surprises. Kudos to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center for putting it out front.
7 Hypoxia Zone. This beautiful play by Tampa author Kim Hanna is about three women friends who meet for a weekend on a Florida island and, unrestrained by the presence of husbands or children, bare their troubled souls to one another. The Stageworks production couldn't have been any tighter: Robin O'Dell, Bonita Agan and Eileen Koteles were terrific as the three leads. R. T. Williams' beach house set was impeccable, and Anna Brennen's direction was characteristically intelligent. Watch for future plays by Hanna: She's one of the most promising writers in the Bay area. And she's just getting started.
8 Chesapeake. In American Stage's Chesapeake, Ned Averill-Snell offered a memorable performance as Kerr, a performance artist who, after an act of political mischief, finds himself turned into a dog. Whether standing up for artistic integrity or hunkering down for a bitch in heat, Averill-Snell was delightful; and then he surprised us again by playing Kerr's nemesis, Senator Thurm Pooley, and finding the humanity beneath the caricature. Lee Blessing's play may be an art-lover's wish fulfillment, but thanks to Averill-Snell (and director Jeff Norton) it was satisfying and hilarious.
9 Bent. This was the best show of Gypsy Productions' inaugural season, a harrowing tale of the persecution of gays in the Holocaust, and a necessary reminder of what can happen when the ruling class in a society doesn't love its neighbor. Daniel Harris and Lawrence W. Buzzeo played two gay German men who found themselves sentenced to labor in a Nazi concentration camp. As they tried to survive sadistic guards and bitter conditions, we were reminded of the thousands forced to wear the pink triangle, most of whom were murdered or died of hunger or disease. Trevor Keller's direction was solid, and Buzzeo and Keller's set, of stone walls in disrepair, seemed to suggest that human evil has an all-too-ancient pedigree. In sum, this was a difficult, important experience.
10 Much Ado About Nothing. Where would we be without American Stage's annual Shakespeare in the Park? We were offered one Shakespeare masterpiece last year, and though it had its adventitious aspects — irrelevant music, distracting set — it still blessed us with the inimitable Beatrice and Benedick, deceived into loving each other, and Claudio and Hero, deceived into separating. Anna Stone was a shrewd Beatrice, Phil Wilcox was a terrific Don Pedro, Steven Clark Pachosa was a wonderful Leonato, and Bob Devin Jones was a nefarious Don John. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays — at this rate, we'll be geezers by the time we see them all. Will somebody please address this situation?
That's 2004. I hope your 2005 is spectacular.
And may all your dramas be romantic comedies.
This article appears in Dec 29, 2004 – Jan 4, 2005.