Tampa Bay theater saw setbacks this year, but also some encouraging steps forward. We lost top actress Colleen McDonnell to Los Angeles, and Acorn Theatre to some limbo from which it may still — one hopes — return. Salerno Theatre became increasingly important in its Gulfport space, and Hat Trick Theatre reached a new high with When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? The most consistently satisfying seasons came from Stageworks and Jobsite Theater, while American Stage continued trying to please some theoretical Mr. and Ms. Average. Meanwhile, Gypsy Productions became increasingly professional, and Gorilla Theatre confused everyone with the question: Are we a producing company or a space for other troupes to borrow? As for the year's 10 best: they were:
1. The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?
Edward Albee's scandalous play is about a world-famous architect who falls in love with a goat, has sex with her and then faces the rage and bafflement of his wife and son. As brilliantly acted by Steven Clark Pachosa in a Jobsite Theater production, protagonist Martin Gray was truly in love; and as he challenged all our assumptions about what is permissible, he made playwright Albee's real theme — the question, is there an infallible source of our moral law? — painfully clear. Monica Merryman was terrific as Martin's wife, and Eric Burgess as his gay son was desperately in need of a father he could respect. Director Karla Hartley treated this uniquely passionate and philosophical play with all possible seriousness, and the result was stunning.
2. Frozen
The deliberate murder of a child is among the most horrific of all crimes. But author Bryony Lavery, in her riveting play Frozen, asks us whether a man who himself has been abused and damaged since early childhood can be forgiven for such an atrocity. Lavery shows us the twisted, hateful perpetrator — played brilliantly by Richard Coppinger — and also the dead child's stricken mother — played with heart-rending realism by Monica Merryman. Then she asks us to judge. As directed by Stageworks' Anna Brennen, Frozen was chilling and sad and relentlessly original.
3. The Pillowman
A writer, Katurian, is hauled into a police station in an unnamed totalitarian state. As two cops alternately manhandle and interrogate him, he learns that someone has been carrying out the details of his most violent tales. Is it he himself, or perhaps his mentally challenged brother? Is Katurian culpable for imagining such violence, and is there anything in the world besides story, story and story? Jobsite Theater brought us Martin McDonagh's amazing play in a formidable production, with splendid acting by Steve Garland as Katurian and Paul Potenza as his pitiful, unpredictable brother. The experience was fascinating — and harrowing.
4. Shirley Valentine
This one belonged to Bridget Bean, the prodigiously talented actress in the title role of Willy Russell's drama. Bean's Valentine was a 42-year-old Englishwoman who had almost given up on life when a friend invited her on a vacation to a Greek island. On that vacation, Bean/Valentine confronted more than the Aegean; she faced freedom and destiny and her own past, and she had to decide whether life still had something to offer. Nancy Cole was the superb director of this lovely Gorilla Theatre production, and in Bean she found just the luminously "ordinary" middle-aged woman that Russell's text demanded. Brava Bridget!
5. Stop Kiss
This ingratiating drama wants us to feel as sharply as possible the distance between a bigot's picture of lesbianism and the genuine, deeply felt love between two women. So it interweaves two stories: the developing friendship and love felt by protagonists Callie and Sara, and the aftermath — at a police station and a hospital — of a brutal gay-bashing assault that leaves Sara in a coma. As directed by the notably talented Kerry Glamsch for Stageworks and Gorilla Theatre, Brittany McLaughlin as Callie and Aisha Duran as Sara easily won our sympathy. And they showed us once again that art can be a powerful force for good.
6. Bug
In the age of Guantanamo and the warrantless wiretap, the essential dramatic text may just be Tracy Letts' Bug. The play, presented this year by Gorilla Theatre, is about Agnes and Peter, two lovers who become increasingly convinced that the army has filled their world with insects in the prelude to a bug attack on Baghdad. Are these characters delusional — or are we delusional when we imagine that our government is too decent to subject us to such abuse? Jessica Ferrarone and Tim Seib were the two bug-obsessed lovers, and Steve Garland was a smarmy army man who might have had all the answers. Was it fantasy or the Bush Doctrine? Only Condi Rice knows for sure.
7. When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?
Five likable characters — a modern cowboy, a waitress who loves her mother, a handicapped gas station owner, a professional violinist and an intelligent importer — are degraded, abused, roughed up and demeaned by a vicious brute of a Vietnam vet for no other reason than his bad temper and their proximity. Mark Medoff's play, written in the '70s, is a scorching re-evaluation of American virtue and American iconography. In the fine Hat Trick production, Joe Winskye directed ably, Jack Holloway starred, and the audience looked on helplessly. Where have you gone, Roy and Dale?
8. Three Days of Rain
Richard Greenberg writes some of the most intelligent dialogue to be heard in contemporary American theater. He also knows how to construct a plot: in this case, the story of three children of architects seeking to discover the secrets of their parents' lives. The American Stage production was all about virtuoso double-acting: Julie Rowe as a cold Northerner and neurotic Southerner; Brian Shea as a hard-to-hold world traveler and a stuttering, self-despising genius and Scott Lucy as a charming young modern and his equally charming father. So it finally didn't mean much? Still, it was great fun.
9. The Music Man
If you had any doubt about the seriousness of Mike Mathews' Salerno Theatre Company, this was the show to put it to rest. With ingratiating Jerry Slutzky as the charlatan Harold Hill and melodious Donna Anderson as Marian the Librarian, this musical treasure, directed by Peter Palmer, proved that Salerno is for real and capable of sustaining an evening of professional theater. The evidence was everywhere, from the syncopated chanting of "Rock Island" to the infectiously rhythmic "Ya Got Trouble" and the infinitely romantic "Till There Was You." The Music Man is an American classic and deservedly so; the Salerno production reminded us why.
10. Psycho Beach Party
Charles Busch's campy comedy is mostly an opportunity for actors to have fun with '60s stereotypes and to expose the camouflaged sexuality of the beach movies of the day. And the fine Gypsy Productions cast, as directed by the talented Derek Baxter, was up for it. Best of all were Michael Titone, who played the part of good-girl Chicklet (think Gidget) with real panache and intelligence, and Brad Minus, who, as the ultra-superficial surfer Star Cat, gave one of his best performances ever. Trevor Keller's beach set was cheerfully attractive, and the comedy's silly costumes, by Keller and Daryl Epperly, were designed to make us smile. In short: one of Gypsy's best productions ever. Let's see more of director Baxter.
And that's the long and short of it. Now I get to look forward to the best of 2007.
To all my readers: Have a Happy New Year.
And may all your dramas be romantic comedies.
This article appears in Dec 27, 2006 – Jan 2, 2007.