Review - "Thanks For The Memories" at La Quinta Playhouse, CA

The question of whether a playwright can successfully blend two creative art forms, in this case radio and live theatre, into a winning evening of entertainment becomes a bit of a no-brainer in the case of "Thanks For The Memories" by local Coachella Valley playwright and director/ critic/journalist Gary Walker. Walker's paean to old-time radio which was recently produced at the La Quinta Playhouse, in La Quinta, CA is a loving testament to an art form that, I'm sorry to say, is long gone from the American entertainment scene.

Radio dramas, comedies, and soaps were the standards of home entertainment long before TV or the internet was invented. In the 1930s and 40s the writers, actors, and producers relied on the imagination of the listeners to "see and feel" the story that was taking place in their kitchens or living rooms every day and night. Radio was an important member of every family. It provided news, entertainment, and necessary information - like the next day's weather report or which cereal or laundry soap to purchase on the way home from work that night.

Walker's story is set in 1959 and revolves around the people and characters of radio station KRUM, Portland, Oregon, as they go through their last day on the air. The station which refused to change its format, is closing due to a changing listenership, low ratings, and the vagaries that plague any small market owner-operated radio station or business. As the audience, we see the actors at their mikes reading their character dialogue in the radio show within the play. We also get to know the station personnel and how each reacts to KRUM radio's final show. Walker is no stranger to the genre of old time radio. His Saturday Radio Matinee productions begins its fourth season in the Coachella Valley in October of this year.

Comparisons are odious at best, but one can't help being reminded of Garrison Keillor's homage to rural midwest life in Lake Wobegone, Minnesota, via his long time radio show "Prairie Home Companion". It was a staple on Public radio stations across America for over 25 years. However, in Walker's Oregon, the characters are just as irrascible, just as rural, just as whimsical, and just as interesting as any characters Keillor dreamed up. Walker, who also directs the production, has created a true ensemble of talented actors. One of the unique aspects of "Thanks For The Memories" is that every performer is, or was, a member of one or more of the country's professional unions, including two performers who actually performed on various radio shows of that era.

The cast features local piano and jazz-singing legend Yve Evans as Millie Farmer, the music director of the station. Former movie and TV actress Patsy Garrett plays Mavis Krum, the owner-operator who must close down her radio station and pink slip her friends and employees of many years. Real life announcer Don Martin plays Wendell Chiles, the local boy who got his announcing start at KRUM and then moved on to the big time. John Rayner, a retired New York actor, and now a playwright in his own right, portrays the cumudgeonly Claiborne Calhoun, while Shep Sanders, a Chicago native, who performed in radio serials and also in movies and TV with Steve McQueen and John Wayne, plays Chick Little the station engineer. Broadway star, actor/singer Donna Theodore, who still can be heard and seen performing concerts and one-woman shows in the desert and Los Angeles, plays Georgia May the former wife of Wendell Chiles who still has feelings for him but won't admit it, and Wayne Tibbetts, an actor/director/dancer who plays Milo Manning, "the man of a hundred voices" - which kinda says it all about his character and role in the show. Every small radio station in America in those days had a "Milo Manning" stashed somehere in a back room who was on call 24/7.

It was a sweet slice of nostalgia that was lovingly performed and produced by a professional cast and looked it. No matter the actors were mostly retired. If you closed your eyes from time to time, they sounded pretty young, or at whatever age your imagination wanted them to be. That was the beauty of radio. It was the ultimate anonymity trip - and if you were an older actor it got even better - you didn't have to memorize your lines anymore. Ahh, the good old days of radio.

Baghdad Comes To California

If one motors up twenty miles north from Palm Springs to Joshua Tree, California, it looks and feels like just annother sunny spring day in Paradise - until that is, you enter the High Desert Cultural Center Blak Box Theatre.

Once inside, you find yourself in an alien environment. You are visually and audially transported to the middle east. Once the haunting call to prayers by an unseen muzzein diminishs and the echos of the street sounds fade throughout the theatre, the audience hears the powerful roar of Huey helicopters approaching. The roar is deafening and disorienting as it surrounds the audience capturing our senses and our imaginations - we and the players in the production - are now about to experience "Another Day In Baghdad".

The current play at the Joshua Tree theatre is a diary of sorts, written by retired Iraq War veteran Major David A. Tucker II. The story is told from the point of view of the troops in the field. It is their stories and their experiences we witness - without the benefit of Washington "spin doctors" or media bias. Program notes inform us that all the weapons, uniforms, and gear employed buy the actors in the production is authentic.

The plot, such as it is, follows a squad of Army reservists from the time they board their aircraft and deploy to Baghdad, to the time the when they return home from that tour of duty a year later.

Along the way the audience is exposed to the realities of war and to the decisions and choices that must be made when an Army is engaged in all aspects of war. Forget John Wayne and Hollywood war movies. This is not your grandfather's war story. This is now. This is the story of a conflict and the dilemma confronting the young men and women of America today. The dilemma is the need to serve, to obey, and do "the right thing" and still be true to oneself in a 21st Century Army. That's a tough job for the under 30 group. But, it's an even tougher assignemnt for the older professional soldiers who must lead them.

"Another Day In Baghdad" is co-directed by New York professional actor and playwright Ron House, and actor/director Rebecca Havely. This directing duo puts their creative heads together in a clever and imaginative way; resulting in a taut, compelling drama that is devoid of "anti-war" or "pro-war" positions and polemics which is so popular with today's newspapers, TV, radio, and Washington insiders and pundits.

There is a human interest aspect to the production that's worth mentioning. When director House cast Greg Crabill, a real-life naval Commander and military doctor in the role of the Commander in the play, he didn't forsee the possibilty of his leading actor being called up and deployed to Afganistan, which of course, is exactly what occured just three weeks before the opening. House then had to make a few artistic decisions. First, in the interests of time, he stepped into the role himself. Second, he asked Havely to co-direct to keep everything on an even keel.

The cast of fifteen, three of whom have never acted before, aquit themselves most convincingly, right down to the three small children's roles. Standouts are: Corbett Brattin, as the Top Sargeant. Sherry Powell as the arab translator, Manuel Rincon, as Mustafa, Abe Daniels, as the Lt. Colonel, Jeff Wood, as Sgt. Calloway, Amanda Villalobos in dual roles of Fong and an arab protester, Steven Hernandez, as Peters, ( his conflicted and embittered speech at the end sums up, I imagine, what a great many veterans in his situation must feel. It is delivered with passion and poignancy and heard by the audience with compassion and understanding. ), and leading the production with a most convincing and solid acting job is Ron House, as the Major and Commander.

The High Desert Cultural Center in Joshua Tree, only a stone's throw away from the Marine Corps Base at TwentyNine Palms, is to be commended for presenting what could have been construed as too controversial a subject matter to present to its patrons. Any play dealing with a hot button issue, such as the on-going Iraq war situation could become a hard sell to the community. The hi-desert area is proud of its label as "military country". To their credit both the residents and military base personnel have responded to the play and it's thought provoking message in the proper light. It's a production that deserves to be seen no matter your personal political position.

"Another Day In Baghdad" plays Fridays, at 8 pm, Saturdays at 7 pm with Sunday Matinees at 2 pm until Sunday, April 27th. Call the box office at 366-3777 for tickets and reservations.

Role of the Critic / Role of the Audience ... As I See It

My dear anonymous letter writers, if you think it is so easy to be a critic, so difficult to be a poet or a painter or film experimenter, may I suggest you try both? You may discover why there are so few critics, so many poets.

- Pauline Kael, "I Lost It at the Movies"

Most people believe the role of a critic/reviewer is an easy one. However, that role is often misunderstood. I agree with Ms. Kael who hit the proverbial nail on the head. Being a critic/reviewer isn't easy or very popular. For starters, both audiences and reviewers alike are there to enjoy the production. The audience has the expectation they are going to see a play, show, or movie that meets a certain personal acceptance and enjoyment level. The reviewer goes hoping to see his or her expectation level exceeded. No one goes to the theatre thinking "I'm not going to like what I'm about to see."

A positive attitude on the part of the audience can actually enhance the enjoyment of the impending performance or it can soften the blow of disappointment when the play fails to live up to the hype or expectation. In the case of those audience members who went looking for more and came away disappointed, all they can do is shrug, grumble about the play saying it stunk, and then tell their friends to forget about going to see it. Those that enjoyed the experience, however, become the bearers of great news and music to the ears of the performers, to say nothing of anxious theatre producers looking for that mega hit and long lines at the box office.

Nothing speaks as loud as "word of mouth" praise; it's the most powerful validation and best form of advertising one can receive. Performers are in the business of performing in front of audiences and the more the merrier!

For critics, we don't have the luxury of dismissing the entire evening with a shrug and then go home to the comfort of a loving family or loyal pet. We are at performances to observe, evaluate, and report on the experience of the evening for the benefit of those not in attendance.

A popular held belief by the public is that critic/reviewers go to see plays or movies hoping they are bad so they can write witty and clever reviews denigrating the actors, the director, and the other technical elements; and by so doing, elevate their own importance. Nothing could be further from the truth, at least, not by the reviewers and critics I've known. To a person, we all wish that every production we review will be worthy of the audience's hard earned dollar outlay and applause.

In our effort to assist both audience and theatre producers and performers, we like to think we can make a contribution by offering a professional and experienced independent eye to the proceedings; someone who can be relied upon to offer a fair and honest evaluation of what went on at the theatre that night.

Sometimes the review disappoints those we know in the production. But friendships with performers have to take a back seat when it comes to maintaining standards and credibility with readers or listeners. One doesn't have to be cruel or mean-spirited. One doesn't "kick the chorus girl" just because the star sings off key. We just try to be as professional as one can when doing the job.

I have been attending plays for over 50 years and have been writing reviews and critiques for more than 40 years. I have been an actor, writer, producer, director, and a passionate supporter of live theatre and movies since I can remember. I'm a member of several professional unions and can honestly state I am eager to see all creative endeavors not only succeed, but flourish and thrive. I'm married to an actress who also directs, so all forms of creative art are a very important component in our lives. I would like that component to become important in the lives of others, as well.

My role as a critic/reviewer is to report what is presented on the stage at the performance I attend. Good, bad or indifferent, I always look to see if the performers achieved what they set out to do. What are they trying to accomplish and how successfully have they done it ? That's the main criteria and measuring stick I use. Imagination, innovation, and the marshalling of the available technical elements is also a major factor, as is the vision of the director. Sometimes these elements are MIA and the critic is faced with a review that is not going to please the producing organization.

I always try to be positive in my criticism, offering a suggestion or two where appropriate, which might help shore up an unsteady scene or moment. Remember: it's easy to criticize a problem area but one should also be prepared to offer solutions to fix it as well. I also take into consideration the disparity between the professional actor working along side the non-professional performer in the same production. It doesn't happen very often in most of the cities where I review, but it does take place every now and then.

Your role as the audience is to attend live theatre and be open to new experiences and allow the performers to write on the blank slate each of us brings to the theatre that evening. When the performers capture lightning in a bottle, and the theatre gods smile down on the stage, it can be a magical moment indeed, and an evening one remembers for years. So enjoy and savor your next theatrical experience.