Mollie Bailey´s Traveling Family Circus Featuring Scenes From The Life of Mother Jones
Tampa´s Alley Cat Players have never been satisfied with the usual theater spaces. Instead, they´ve produced shows at nontraditional venues — for example, the ¡Viva La Frida! Café y Galeria and the Covivant Art Gallery. But earlier this year, Alley Cat brought an unusual play to a new space which looks like it will become their permanent home: the NT Village Music Garden in downtown Tampa. The play was awkwardly titled, and with a minimal set and a large brick wall as a backdrop, it was the surprise production of the 2003-04 season. Yes, the play was episodic and fragmentary, and yes its looks at circus impresaria Mollie Bailey and labor organizer Mother Jones didn´t add up in the end. But this show had acting that was nothing short of luminous and, in the still-raw Music Garden space, the ultimate effect was magical. Noreen Maier-Hartley was endearing as strong and loving Mollie Bailey, and Ned Averill-Snell was charming as her infatuated husband Gus. As Mother Jones, Clare Ward exuded righteous indignation, and the other seven actors, representing the Bailey family and various circus members, were all vivid presences. Jo Averill-Snell´s direction was daring, and Lloyd Pearson´s lighting made the unfinished ¨black box¨ of the Music Garden theater a place of enchantment. In fact, the real star of the show was the new Music Garden space. In a season wherein new theater companies were moving into old venues — the Friday Morning Musicale and the HCC Ybor Theater — Alley Cat, somehow, managed to find this fresh location and to put up a show there that tantalized and surprised. Call it pluck. Hats off to the Cat.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.