My Secret Language of Wishes The Black Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

My Secret Language of Wishes
Leaves You Wishing for More

In 2002, New York playwright Cori Thomas changed trains in Times Square when the sight of two young women stopped her in her tracks. One, able-bodied and white, held the hand of an African American woman whose twisted limbs made walking difficult at best.

Intrigued, she wondered about their connection. “It was interesting to me to see a Caucasian as the caregiver,” Thomas wrote, in an e-mail interview.

So intrigued was she by the image of these two strangers she couldn’t get the questions out of her mind: Where were they going? Why wasn’t the girl in a wheelchair?

Thomas satisfied her need for answers by making them up.

The result: My Secret Language of Wishes, a play recently performed by the St. Louis Black Repertory at the Grandel Theatre.

“What is love?” is the play’s opening line, uttered by Jo, an attorney who eventually represents the 17-year-old disabled girl named Rose. “Love is complicated,” concludes Jo, a closeted lesbian.
Who most loves Rose — and her penchant for wearing dozens of barrettes at once — is evident early on. It’s Dakota, the 24-year-old gum-chewing, midriff-baring blonde who wants to adopt Rose. But so does a rich, older black woman named Brenda who’s got money and a racial match on her side. But what drives her relentless desire to take in a special-needs teenager when she clearly doesn’t want be her hands-on caretaker?

As Rose, Vanika Spencer, a freshman at St. Louis Community College, amazingly spends a continuous full hour in act one, flailing her hands, pulling at her clothes and uttering random sounds. Her jerky movements are tempered by almost-graceful quality and the struggle with which she forms her words has a ring of authenticity.

Thomas’ simple but profound use of language is heartbreakingly beautiful as illustrated by Rose’s description of what she loves about Dakota’s baby powder scent.

“You can … breathe in the smell … and it feels like her … hugging me,” Rose labors to explain.
As the custody battle ensues, the play examines the issues of race, class and sexual orientation while progressing to its unexpected conclusion.

A final facet of Dakota’s unconditional love is revealed when we experience the character of Rose as the perfectly able person she is, when she sheds the palsied persona and stands up straight for a moving soliloquy.

“That Rose is in my head,” this version of Rose articulates clearly. “And Dakota can see her.”

by Nancy Larson

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy Fox Theatre

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy
entertains the young at heart

Stepping into Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy with expectations that measure it up to the Canadian extravaganza with a similar name will leave an audience disappointed, but alone, the smaller U.S.A.-based production is actually spectacular in its own right.

Brilliantly playful clownish acrobats, beautifully costumed aerial performers and contortionists and a dazzling rainbow of animal characters perform their incredible stunts on a psychedelic jungle backdrop while the audience gasps and marvels at the strength and precision of each performer. Though a certain childlike silliness maintains itself throughout, adults will not find themselves nodding off behind the Playbill. Olympic trained gymnasts and expert circus performers display their craft seriously against an impressively colored and costumed backdrop, leaving very little for circus cynics to complain about.

Although at times the songs seemed a bit pop-ish and cheesy, Amanda Restivo as Mother Nature sings them with gusto. She glitters across the stage, interacting with characters and encouraging audience members to be themselves. The songs are mostly fashioned for the younger set, which makes the cheesy nature of the music acceptable.

Jared Burnett, the show’s violinist looks like a Nordic god as he serenades each act with artful precision. Taller than all the other cast members, he plays a large tree, which sways and bends to his own tune. The violin music weaves gorgeously through the air as contortionists and aerial performers loop their bodies in ways that boggle the mind.

It’s difficult to pick one particular moment in the fast-paced show that outperforms the others. However, most noteworthy are the balancing giraffes, who defy gravity and physical logic by somehow staying poised atop stacked cylinders, and the juggling frog percussionist, Andrey Averyushkin, who uses nine balls to drum out a catchy beat.

Overall, Cirque Dreams is a refreshing take on the circus experience, whether you’re a child or you just want to be one again for one night in time.

by Solange Deschatres

Falla Guitar Trio The Ethical Society

The Falla Guitar Trio brings romance to St. Louis

Classical guitar is the “dressy casual” of the music world. It’s hard to imagine a jeans-wearing guitar player strumming alongside a tux-and-tails cellist. But the Falla Guitar Trio takes on JS Bach, and there is actually very little strumming involved — or jeans for that matter.

The all-black clad trio quips cleverly and easily with the audience between sophisticated syncopated melodies, the relaxed ease of the nature of the instrument leading the show. However, as Bach rolls out with soothing sweetness and overwhelming complexity, it is easy to lose sight of exactly what kind of instrument the minstrels play. Wait; was that a cello I heard? A harp? Do I hear horns? Not quite an aural mirage, ghosts of orchestras past billow behind each polyphonic interplay.

Orchestral canons aside, the powerhouse behind the trio is flamenco. With famed flamenco artist Adam del Monte wildly flirting with the strings, the Spanish flare heats and intensifies. The trio picks up speed, creating ethereal moments when the Spanish Gypsy spirit leaps from the instruments and swirls dizzyingly overhead. Each song drifts suddenly to silence as quickly and delicately as it picks up, leaving a breath-catching moment before the audience realizes the movement has come to an end.

Samuel Barber’s “Excursions, Op 20,” a rich slice of Americana, is a refreshing selection. It’s a thick wedge of rhythm and blues sandwiched between all of that sizzling Latin flavor. The trio swear that first movement, “Un poco allegro,” seems to make a reference to “Woody Woodpecker,” and, indeed, the “ha ha ha ha ha,” is distinct among the rapid banter of the three frenzied guitars. Whether it was Barber’s intent to make the reference is a mystery. In a Slow Blues Tempo” is exactly what its name implies, adding a casual and tangy down home twist to the more regal overall performance. “Allegro molto,” the third movement of the Barber piece, opens the door of the barn ever wider, with a bluegrass sound that makes overalls sound like a good idea.

The group’s original works call deeply again to the Latin flamenco sound. Most notable is composer and founding member, Kenton Youngstrom’s “Say What,” which delicately combines Latin, jazz and blues notes in a medley that is both playful and serious in its progressive sound. Del Monte’s “Dahab” creates an intense rush of Middle Eastern and Brazilian influenced delight, incorporating guitar slapping techniques and finally a small amount of strumming.

“We don’t really know any more songs, so we’ll just make something up.”
The improvised encore is like a Latin beach dream, falling in and out of songs that make faint references to Frank Sinatra and others. The complicated music tumbling from the simple instruments defines a creative and casual romance. The rich tones of the mastered instruments lend an intensely polished air to even the most casual piece.
And it didn’t have to wear a penguin suit.

by Solange Deschatres

The Pageant

Victor Wooten and JD Blair
collaboration is a family affair

“Two minds, one groove. Bringing the funk to you,” repeated bassist Victor Wooten introducing his recent appearance with drummer JD Blair at The Pageant.

The “2 Minds, 1 Groove” tour brings this talented duo together for the first time since 1998.

“This whole things is off-the-cuff, a complete improvisation,” revealed Wooten, who’s also known for his work with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

With the air of a coupla guys fooling around with guitars, drums and synthesizers in their garage, these renowned musicians jammed their hearts out for more than two hours. Early on in the first set, a small boy — later, we learn he’s Wooten’s 8-year-old son, Adam — came onstage to drum on his dad’s guitar strings. Before the break, Adam reappeared behind a small drum set to accompany his sister Kaila, 11, as she sang India.Arie’s “Better People.”

“Where’d y’all get that [talent] from?” Wooten asked the audience, rhetorically.

Probably the same place Wooten got his. The youngest of five musical siblings, he began performing at 5 with the Wooten Brothers Band.

Highlighting the moments between this jazz/funk concert were several Blair comedy bits. Bragging about his ability to say the alphabet backwards, Blair physically turned around and began, A, B, C … . At one point he took pictures of the audience taking pictures of him.

Set two included a version of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and the Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood,” along with several other covers by the Fab Four. Later, as the audience rocked, Wooten’s hand moved so fast on his guitar that it became a blur.

Toward the end, it seemed we would have the pleasure of hearing another of Wooten’s four offspring. A tiny boy, who looked to be about 4, ran out onstage, saw the audience and did an about-face, scampering back into the wings.

After Wooten and Blair’s first goodbye and then, an encore, the lights went up and we went home feeling like we’d been reminded of the purpose of music: to experience all emotions through sound.

by Nancy Larson

HotCity TheatreDavid Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross"

Glengarry Glen Ross’ is a tale of hungry salesmen
whose desperation eats them alive

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Two guys walk into a bar, one, a young whippersnapper office manager named John Williamson, played by Christopher Lawyer, wields his power over the other aging real estate salesman Shelley Levine, played by Bobby Miller, whose professional glory days are a distant memory. This is the opening scene of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross,” whose characters really are the butt of a cosmic joke. But while the audience laughs, the characters are not having much fun.

Many of us have been, at turns, Williamson and Levine: up and coming and down and out. And before this presentation by HotCity Theatre at the Kranzberg Arts Center is over, the two men also find themselves in one another’s highly polished wingtip shoes.

Mamet’s examination of desperation and greed illustrated, by an office shared by five salesmen — there are no women in this play, save one female bar and grill employee who appears for less than 30 seconds to bus a table — resonates deeply in today’s economic climate. While office Rolodexes and card files shout “1984!”, the year the play was written), razzle-dazzle sales techniques, professional betrayal and personal angst whisper of timeless themes in the cutthroat business world.

In a nod to Arthur Miller’s examination of Willy Loman, another washed-up guy who sells for a living, “Glengarry Glen Ross” sometimes is referred to as “Death of a F%#@ing Salesman” because of its repetitive-by-design use of the “F” word. Using various forms of it — noun, verb, adjective and adverb — literally hundreds of times during the play, Mamet’s characters would employ the “F” as a preposition if they could. And the audience, whose shock wore off before scene two, would be delighted.

But one snippet of a powerful monologue by successful salesman Rick Roma, played by Jerry Russo, contains no words that start with “F”: “Bad people go to hell? I don't think so. If you think that, act that way. A hell exists on earth? Yes. I won't live in it. That's me.”

Though small-but-swaggering Roma seems to be at peace with his less-than-ethical decisions and actions, we ultimately see that he, too, acts out of his own distress.

But it is similarly ethically challenged and profoundly sad Levine we understand most of all. Miller doesn’t just act the part of Levine; he channels him, using his entire body, his shuffling feet and deep sighs, speaking volumes about Levine’s never-fully-explained anguish. Twice, after literally begging for good sales leads, he swallows hard and begins, “My daughter … .” But both times, he is interrupted; we never learn what tragic circumstance has befallen his child.

Still, with only those two words tugging at our hearts, we feel sympathy for her — and him.

“Always be closing” is the mantra of this pack of real estate rogues. But when this play closes, it’s not really over, as it leaves you pondering its meaning for many days to come.

by Nancy Larson

Powell HallBolero

Two arts beat as one when
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
perform Bolero

Whether the Bolero audience mostly applauded the musicians or the dancers was difficult to determine. But several rounds of standing ovations sent a clear message that patrons thoroughly enjoyed a recent sold-out collaboration between the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at Powell Hall.

A subdued opening number featured a partial orchestra paired ballet with Bach, as a dozen or so dancers performed to “Allegro form Brandenburg Concerto No. 3” and to a cello solo in “Bouree I and II” from “Suite in E-flat.” After the first of two intermissions, the audience was treated to a solo clarinet performance by Scott Andrews, which garnered another enormous round of applause.

No dancers accompanied Andrews, but their reappearance during the lively “Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs” sparked an energy like that of putting a lit match to an accelerant. Men and women dressed androgynously in black suits executed modern dance movements in synchronicity, bringing to mind a pack of nose-to-the grindstone corporate drones in the workaday world.

Suddenly a few renegades broke out and frolicked in a playfully choreographed routine that stood in stark contrast to the conformity of the other dancers/professional robots. This reminder to live life to its fullest and be true to one’s self reinforced the bold reputation of the Hubbard Street company.

After a second intermission, it was time for the SLSO to take center stage as the full orchestra played the featured composition: Ravel’s “Bolero.” Under the energetic direction of conductor David Robertson, the music hypnotized the crowd as it swelled to its passionate conclusion. And while the Hubbard Street performers did not take the stage in this number, the audience could not help but dance in its seats.

At the evening’s end, the rich pairing of the SLSO and Hubbard Street dancers had satisfied all my cultural senses while whetting my appetite for more such artistic alliances.

by Nancy Larson