Art DeConciliis knows he can act, knows he can direct and knows he can have a positive influence on the people working around him. But even with all the credits under his belt (over a hundred so far, combining acting and directing achievements), was he ever aware of his potential as a mentor?

Maybe not until last month when, at Little Lake Theatre, he started rehearsing "The History Boys," Alan Bennett's celebrated comic drama that follows eight intensely bright and spirited friends through their years at a middle class private school during the 1980s.

You've heard educators mention the teachable moments they seize in and out of the classroom? Well, thinking as a teacher ought to, DeConciliis did more than reward his young cast members - Mishan Blecher, Danny Bradley, Troy Bruchwalksi, Grant Carey, Hardy Kern, Carl Mitchell, Corey O'Connor and Jordan Walsh - with high marks for memorizing their lines and serving the play in a professional manner.

"I gave them homework," Mr. D (the perfect nickname for a mentor) told me on Sunday afternoon. "I wanted them to think as their characters think and to know what their characters, in the play, know. And I tested them. I'd point to the script, at references the characters make, and I'd say 'What does this mean?' I didn't want them to fake anything in their performances. Then sometimes I'd just throw Uta Hagen theory at them and hope their eyes wouldn't glaze over. I gave them what I didn't have when I was their age, starting out as an actor."

Not that he compares directing the "boys" to shaping unmolded clay.

To the contrary, they had the fire-in-the-belly enthusiasm and also the diversity DeConciliis hoped for when he held auditions at Little Lake's annual open-call day. Kern, for instance, played the lead in "Dracula" last fall at Peters Township High School, and Carey specializes in musical theater roles at Upper St. Clair. Mitchell, a Peters grad, will major in astrophysics at Lehigh University, and Blecher, another Upper St. Clair-ian, avidly studies all things related to forensics.

As for "The History Boys," which opens Thursday night and runs through July 19, DeConciliis describes Alan Bennett's play as "an honest look at how we begin to develop our values ... (one that) asks 'What do we bring to knowledge and what do we take from it?'" The cast includes Bill Bennett, Phillip Bower, Mark Cox and Arlene Merryman, who portray the boys' teachers and, at times, their adversaries.

Curl up & die

Usually I'm the first person to shout an ear-splitting "No ... not this time ... not ever!" at audience participation shows, better known in the biz as interactive theater, but I enjoyed "Shear Madness" in the CLO Cabaret at Theater Square enough to consider going back for a second look.

What's not to like? Bruce Jordan's farcical whodunit took 30 years to reach Pittsburgh (the original dates back to 1978 at a theater in Lake George, N. Y.), and now that it's the Cabaret attraction at least through the end of September, you'll want to applaud this wonderfully weird "Clue"-like exercise for hanging on until it became, according the Guinness Book of World Records, the longest-running play in American theater history.

That's right - a play, not a musical.

Director Bob Lohrmann and producer Van Kaplan get a gold star for breaking tradition with the first non-musical in a space that previously gave a home to "Forever Plaid," "Forbidden Broadway," "Always ... Patsy Cline" and "The Big Bang." Pittsburghers haven't exactly been deprived of musicals lately, and, besides, in "Shear Madness," which takes place in a hair salon, it's fun watching Neil A. Casey, Tom Schaller, Kristiann Menotiades, Greg Johnstone, Ingrid Sonnichsen and Mark Tinkey exuberantly run through a maze of murder mystery clichés as if they had Ellery Queen hot on their trail.

Audiences run along with the actors, mostly to help the tough-guy investigator (Schaller's character) separate the red herrings from the actual evidence and to, finally, indentify the guilty party. Stay on the ball and pay close attention to every detail in the first act, no matter how trivial what happens in front of your eyes might seem. If someone momentarily holds a bottle of shampoo, dials a phone or hides behind a door, make note of it. You'll have fun amateur sleuthing at this fast-paced cat and mouse game.

To make reservations, call 412-456-6666.

Home