Posted November 18, 2015in Center Stage
While interviewing visiting New York actors, I’ve been told many times that they began in community children’s theater. The latest was Cedar Rapids native Elizabeth Stanley, now starring in “Bridges of Madison County.” She claimed she “owed a lot” to little companies in eastern Iowa. Around Des Moines, young Stanley
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Posted November 11, 2015in Center Stage
Over the years, “The Bridges of Madison County” has become more of a woman’s story. The No. 1 novel of 1993 by University of Northern Iowa graduate and professor Robert James Waller never much developed its female lead. Francesca, the farm wife whose fling with a photographer provides the plot,
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Posted November 04, 2015in Center Stage
When the executive producer of Pilobolus tells me his dancers have “a sandbox attitude,” he says it proudly. “We make all our work collaboratively,” explains Itamar Kubovy. “We’re always, in some way, talking to each other.” Kubovy has helped create a number of the famed troupe’s pieces, and he was
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Posted October 28, 2015in Center Stage
The other night, I heard a jazz singer cover an old chestnut about how “wives should always be lovers, too.” An earworm from the “Mad Men” era, the song urges housebound spouses to stay foxy, “ready for love.” In 2015, the singer brought it off as a gag and tweaked
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Posted October 21, 2015in Center Stage, Featured Story
“The Illusionists” might seem like a super-sized machine. Versions of the show are playing Broadway, London and elsewhere. Dan Sperry, one of seven magicians coming to Des Moines, tells me the production “looks like the MTV Video Awards.” He and the others pull off everything from card tricks to hair-raising
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Posted October 14, 2015in Center Stage
To review “Columbinus” seems almost obscene. More than a play, it’s a holocaust, revisiting the devastation at Columbine High School in 1999. The second act unfolds entirely in the words of the shooters and their victims. Since then, too, the country has witnessed the terrifying truth of one of the
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Posted October 07, 2015in Center Stage
Tim Wisgerhof liked the lamp. The prop arrived just before a late rehearsal of “Bad Jews,” and Wisgerhof, as set designer, had to approve. Just seeing the man’s smile, you knew the lamp would work; its heavy shade like a weight hanging over some actor’s head. The set, a Manhattan
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Posted September 30, 2015in Center Stage
“Improv-nesia” is the word for it, according to the members of Comedy Xperiment. The Des Moines troupe has been doing its special brand of improv for years now, and yet the players find it hard to recall individual shows. Even the bits that rocked the Stoner Theater soon drop out
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Posted September 23, 2015in Center Stage, Featured Story
John Viars, director of “Into the Woods,” gets the crowd scenes. In big numbers like “First Midnight,” he shuttles his glittery troupe in all directions. The comings and goings create a sense of urgency, which can seem lacking in Stephen Sondheim’s fairytale pastiche. Its storylines can seem scattered, never isolating
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Posted September 16, 2015in Center Stage, Featured Story
As you bask in Repertory Theater of Iowa’s luminous production of “Broadway Bound,” by Neil Simon, at times nothing on stage shines so brightly as Kerry Skram. Always a local standout, here she plays Kate Jerome, mother to Stan and Eugene. The boys hope to write funny stuff for this
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