Review: Guest Artist by Paradox Players
by Michael Meigs

Steubenville, Ohio -- with all respect due to the inhabitants of that town of 19,000, it sounds about as far away from theatre civilization as one could get.  It's in those rough hills of east Ohio, forty miles west of Pittsburgh and facing east into West Virginia.  Playwright Daniels uses the Steubenville bus station as the run-down unlikely setting for the encounter of a famous playwright on his way down and an awestruck aspiring writer dreaming of a future not centered in the wing-nut and fastener factory that's the family business.

 

Steubenville's the birthplace of Dean Martin, a point of local pride commemorated by a poster next to the doors to the toilets.  Here's further background, not available either in the script or in the program: Steubenville was also the birthplace of porn and B-film actress Traci Lords and of playwright Jeffrey Hatcher (Hatcher's Wikipedia entry calls it "a gritty Ohio River town better known for its mob connections, houses of ill repute and industrial detritus than for its literary sons and daughters").  Steubenville's downtown Grand Theater movie palace has been closed since 1979 and only just escaped demolition in 2010 thanks to the quixotic efforts of a community group.

 

Tyler Jones as the earnest young writer Kenneth Waters assures visiting playwright Joseph Harris that the Steubenville community theatre group is really quite good; their director won a 'Steubie' last season.  "A what?" snaps Joe Penrod as the visitor, who has been sleeping on a bus station bench because Waters had dozed off while waiting for the arrival of his 1:30 a.m. bus.

 

Daniels' piece is a two-character play with three actors; Craig Kanne as the ticketmaster provides grumbly comic relief, long-winded bus announcements, officious loudspeaker reprimands and, as required, covert pint bottles of liquor at outrageous prices.  The movement of the piece is governed by the initial characterizations:  the ill-tempered, arrogant Great Man with a Pulitzer Prize for drama ten years before and a writer's block ever since; the small town worshipper with his play script in his backpack, desperate to stop the playwright from getting drunk and from getting on the 6:35 a.m. bus back to New York.  It's an extended dance, one that shifts over the course of the wee hours between star/fan,  master/servant, teacher/pupil, snarling age/hopeful youth -- to a bargaining game involving money for whisky, a reading of the hopeful's play script and the struggle over whether the Great Man will flee to avoid catastrophe and humiliation before the rankest of amateurs.

 

The rhythm of the piece is captivating.  Director Karen Jambon orchestrates the dialogue and movement with keen ear and eye.  The two leads, Austin stage veterans, are singers as well as actors.  Though not a word is sung on this stage, the action is taut, varied and superbly modulated throughout.  When has-been Harris in excess of alcohol and ego starts proclaiming in performance in the waiting room, Jones frantically shushes him and Kanne roars through the P.A. system; other passages are staccatto, largo, syncopated or simply quiet.

 

A throw-away note to the prop master: the play script featured in key scenes of the set-to between these two characters looks like it's no more than about ten pages long, hardly bulky enough to call forth the resulting reactions.

 

Joe Penrod is a convincingly run-down rascal, and this performance is close to his recent portrayal of Lawrence Jameson, arch con man and phony prince in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Georgetown Palace and at the State Theatre.  He's much more bark than bite; this Joseph Harris is less degenerate and not as far into the bottle as the lines might suggest.  We're entertained by his pomposity and a restraint of attack that keeps him from crushing his admirer completely.  He's not even a convincing alcoholic: he leaves that half-liter of Johnny Walker Red largely untouched on the ticketmaster's counter.  We have ample sympathy left for him when the plot twists in the final scenes, revealing his vulnerability and unextinguished desire to write truth for the stage.

 

Tyler Jones with his mild mannered good looks and easy smile has regularly appeared onstage in agreeable second-banana roles, but here he shows nuance, comic timing and emotional depth.  Complex emotions play within him in an action that's farce and yet a deeply felt learning experience.   He never hits a false note.  It's a part compounded of excitement, dismay, hope, humiliation, grieving and the semblance of authentic sympathy between the two very different lead characters.   In this piece Jones demonstrates the talent that won him a 2008 B. Iden Payne award for portraying Hap in Death of A Salesman.

 

Recommended!     Be sure to reserve; Howson Hall at the Unitarian Universalist Church near 45th and Lamar is a small venue with strong community support.

 

EXTRAS

Click to view images and to hear Michael Lee's two-minute feature on KUT's 'Arts Eclectic'

Click to view the program for Guest Artist by Jeff Daniels by the Paradox Players

 

 

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Guest Artist
by Jeff Daniels
Paradox Players

October 14 - October 30, 2011
Howson Hall, Unitarian Universalist Church
4700 Grover Avenue
Austin, TX, 78756