RSS | 
Twitter
| 
Be a fan!
Little Lake newcomer eager to create role for U.S. audience
"I auditioned, and here we are," he told me Saturday. "I'm thrilled to be part of this project. As an actor, it's an amazing opportunity. This play has never been done in the United States, and to have the ability to create a role for an American audience is an actor's dream."
DiGiulio and director Sunny Disney Fitchett hesitated to offer many tidbits about the plot, though one commented that DiGiulio's character may be the son abducted from Ray (Warren Ashburn) and Eileen (Lynne Franks) when the couple vacationed 22 years earlier in Florida. Is the stranger an impostor, or do Eileen's maternal feelings for the young man indicate beyond doubt that he is their son?
Fitchett gives "They Have Oak Trees in North Carolina" her highest praise. It's "character driven, character driven, character driven," she said, which might mean she likes directing it as much as she liked directing "Painting Churches," "Becoming Memories," "Enchanted April," "Lost in Yonkers" and others plays that put relationships under a microscope.
Rate This Story:
1 the lowest - 5 the highest
Current rating:
Fitchett typically has a full plate as any Little Lake season winds down, and this year is no exception. After leaving "North Carolina," she'll direct "Madeline's Christmas" for the Fall Family Matinee Series. And DiGiulio is busy, too. In December, he'll guide Michael Cristofer's "Breaking Up" for his theater company, the No Name Players.
In person
So uncomfortable was Ella Fitzgerald when she chatted with her fans between numbers that critic Rex Reed once wrote "Ella should never talk."
Now, 13 years after Fitzgerald's death, it's ironic that the weakest moments in "Ella" at Pittsburgh Public Theater force the legendary vocalist, played by Tina Fabrique, to leave the concert stage and, in monologues, bare her soul to the audience.
Under Rob Ruggiero's direction, "Ella" tries to look behind the superstardom and show us the woman Fitzgerald was offstage - and I stress the word "tries." Though sympathetic and respectful, it bypasses subjects I hoped the show would address: the effect racism had on her career, for instance, and her feelings about other artists, the composers whose songs she made famous and the fickleness of the music business.
Truth to be told, I learned more about the First Lady of Song by reading CD liner notes at home than I did from listening to the clichés in Jeffrey Hatcher's piecemeal script.
But magic happens every time Fabrique goes to the microphone and brings flawless Ella-style delivery to songs such as "Night and Day," "The Man I Love," "How High the Moon," "The Nearness of You" and "Mr. Paganini. By becoming Ella Fitzgerald, not simply turning out a commendable impersonation, she gives Public patrons the show-stopping, rooftop-lifting performance of the year.
Imperfectly plaid
Since Shirley Haviland Pohl referred to her new show, "Temporarily Tartan," as a work in progress, I don't feel guilty for describing the first-ever production, too, as a work in progress.
And I don't mean it pejoratively. The show, which opened two weeks ago at the Crowne Plaza Cabaret Dinner Theatre in Bethel Park, needs fine tuning and maybe even some lengthening before Shirley and her producer husband, Jude, should invite reviewers in to pounce or praise.
At less than 90 minutes, with too many dead spots between songs, "Temporarily Tartan" reminded me of a child struggling gamely to take his first steps. Coax it, love it, support it and whatnot, but understand this: It's going to be a while before it gets anywhere.
The Pohls recognize talent when they see it, though, and they have a good, gung-ho cast in Lou Valenzi, Jerry Communale, Ralph Valenzi and David Ford.
Doug Shanaberger covers theater for the Observer-Reporter. He can be reached at ds7f@andrew.cmu.edu.
