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Monday, October 6, 2008
WSU’s ‘Raisin’ not just a history lesson
DAYTON — If you haven’t seen it for a while, or ever, it’s easy to relegate Lorraine Hansberry’s 49-year-old play “A Raisin in the Sun” to the category of dusty old classic on the shelf.
Approached with the fresh vitality Wright State University Theatre is taking in its season-opening production in the Festival Playhouse, “Raisin” is a cornerstone of American theater and a living drama that connects past to present.
As directed by Mary Donahoe, the play is far more than two crucial scenes emphasized at the expense of others. In one, Walter Younger (Bryant Bentley) and Mama (Monica Williams) discover he has lost two-thirds of his father’s life insurance benefits in a scam. In the other, Walter redeems himself to spearhead the family’s move into the known and unkown — an all-white Chicago suburb.
Other moments contain fewer words, but Donahoe has made them just as expressive. One example comes in Act 1 when Mama tells Walter that his wife Ruth (Shawn Storms) may be considering an abortion. She’s right there in the room, but doesn’t speak. The tension and energy that flows between the three of them until Walter leaves to find a drink explains things the text doesn’t.
Especially in Act 1, the staging elevates Ruth’s importance.
Played by Jasmine Batchelor, college student Beneatha’s scenes with rich, shallow suitor George Murchinson (Jeremy Gaston) and Nigerian student Joseph Asagai (Brandon L. Kelly) illustrate two mainstreams of African-American thought, but are also entertaining and amusing.
Stivers School for the Arts student Trey Melvin’s relaxed and happy portrayal of young Travis Younger also helps make this a confident and hopeful “Raisin,” not an angry or doubting one. The pain Walter reveals upon learning the cost of one dream turns out to be more a reason to care about him than to condemn him.
The production is dedicated to Dayton actor and director Sheila Ramsey, who is recovering from a serious illness. It marked the successful debut of acoustical improvements to the WSU theater, where the spoken word sometimes used to vanish in the air.
“A Raisin in the Sun” will continue through Sunday, Oct. 12, in the WSU Creative Arts Center. Tickets are $17-$19. Call (937) 775-2500.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or tmorris@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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DCDC celebrates 40th with extended family
The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company opened its 40th season Saturday, Oct. 4, with “Footprints,” a program by four choreographers who had performed with the troupe and were trained by its founder, Jeraldyne Blunden.
A near-capacity audience saw the one-night performance at the Victoria Theatre.
Preceded by a video presentation about the company, the dancing was interspersed with onstage introductions — of staff, board members and supporters.
The lone premiere was “Still Present” by Gina Walther, a direct and symbolic tribute to Blunden in three movements to songs by Marlena Shaw, Shirley Horn and Dizzy Gillespie that evoked her personality, indomitable drive and the pleasure she took in bringing out the best in others who didn’t know they were capable of it.
Maurita Elam’s costumes lent a tinge of Egyptian nobility to eight dancers who proceeded in front of an evolution of colors by lighting designer Matthew P. Benjamin. Powerful dancer Alise Craig was given an opportunity to display her more expressive side in a solo.
Sometimes a dance work grows in stature years after its premiere. So it is with Dwight Rhoden’s “Beyond a Cliff.” Now an internationally known dance-maker, he was a novice when he took the new choreographer’s leap of faith and ego for DCDC in 1991 to music by Michael Shreve, Olfra Haza and Martin Birkenstock.
The second movement was a solo for Sheri “Sparkle” Williams, but the sections juxtaposing different combinations of performers were most compelling.
Rhoden’s dances generally brim with big, flashy movements done rapidly without restraint. It was a pleasure to be able to linger over motifs, shapes and developments done more deliberately — dancers chopping the air with two hands pressed together sideways, undulating their hips as a result of stepping quickly forward in tiny, rolling steps, or repeatedly pulling their spread feet together on the floor, then pushing them apart on straight legs.
Shonna Hickman Matlock’s 2002 duet “Unresolved,” performed by Crystal Michelle and William B. McClellan Jr. to music by Henryk Gorecki, not only doesn’t tie up loose ends with a clear conclusion, it finds its strength in that. Almost simultaneously, this couple experiences attraction and rejection, or the urge to embrace another and the will to go one’s own way.
The theatricalized worship service of artistic director Debbie Blunden-Diggs’ “In My Father’s House” has become a company signature that serves two purposes: reviving the faithful and initiating the newcomers — both dancers and audience members.
It taps and expresses the spirituality that represents a major tributary of DCDC’s heritage. The abdominal contractions, hovering backward descents to the floor, whirling turns, falls and outstretched curving arms are challenging, but leave room for individual expression.
G.D. Harris has claimed the role of the caring and inspirational pastor every bit as securely as he has the solo “Ostrich” (Awassa Astrige), which he performed again in New York in September.
Those who missed the performance can still see the celebratory DCDC exhibit “Balancing Point” at the Link Gallery, 519 E. Fifth St. The photographs and art works by Andy Show, Tess Little and Terry Hitt will continue through Nov. 1. Call (937) 224-7707 or go to www.linkgallery.org.
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