hot fusion

SECOND ANNUAL FESTIVAL BRINGS IT ALL HOME
By Faye Sholiton

Last May, the word FusionFest entered the Cleveland lexicon. The Cleveland Play House coined it to describe a three-week collaborative event that showcased new work in the performing arts. Before the curtain dropped on that first effort, producers Mike Bloom and Seth Gordon were already discussing its sequel. Once philanthropist Roe Green agreed to reprise her supporting role, Bloom and Gordon were off and running.

FusionFest returns this month in a streamlined form, now 12 days long. Bloom believes a more compressed time frame “will generate a bit more fusion.” Some of last year’s partnering organizations (among them Opera Cleveland) declined, as they had no events planned for this time frame, but five groups return: Dobama Theatre, Karamu, the Jewish Community Center, Cleveland School of the Arts and Verb Ballets.The last is presenting Dreamweaver, an evening of surrealism in dance. Additional musical programs are planned for the Play House Club Cabaret (see Live Times).

The play’s the thing at this year’s festival, with more than a dozen productions and staged readings of new works. Of those, three are solo pieces. Two are politically themed plays that have already found national audiences. Four were written by members of the Cleveland Play House Playwrights’ Unit. All but three of the playwrights have local or Ohio connections.

Lincolnesque:This political comedy by John Strand has generated plenty of buzz since its premiere last year in San Diego. In this skewed view of the Washington political establishment, a blocked congressional speechwriter borrows rhetoric from his older brother, a once-respected political strategist who now believes he’s the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln. Among the most deluded people are voters who are too desperate for a charismatic candidate to notice they have fallen in love with the words of the 16th president. Bloom, who directs the production, is excited to find a solid political comedy at a time when,“comedy itself is an endangered species.” Lincolnesque runs through May 20.

Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted: Many Hollywood artists were targeted for blacklisting during the infamous McCarthy-era communist witch hunts of the 1940s and ’50s. Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Spartacus, Exodus and Roman Holiday) ultimately survived his lengthy banishment, but he remained critical of Americans’ gullibility. In Trumbo, the screenwriter’s son Christopher adapts his late father’s rather colorful correspondence for a no-holdsbarred show. Elsewhere, Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, Joe Mantegna and Brian Dennehy have already performed the title role. When Bloom tapped film and television star Robert Vaughn for the Cleveland production, he had no idea how appropriate his choice was: Vaughn’s University of Southern California doctoral dissertation was entitled “Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting.”

Lunacy: Kent writer Sandra Perlman premieres her script in a Dobama production directed by Play House associate director Mark Allen Gordon. She wrote the play to answer Walnut Street Theater’s call for scripts honoring the memory of Edwin Forrest, America’s first great leading actor. Among Forrest’s achievements was tackling the role of King Lear while still in his 20s. Perlman picked the moment in 1827 when the actor decided to research that role in an asylum. Her script, which was read in last year’s Next Stage Festival, won Walnut Street’s development prize. It runs through May 27.

The two remaining professional productions are solo performance pieces. One, Emergence-SEE! is written and performed by native Ohioan Daniel Beaty. He explores the meaning of freedom as dozens of contemporary characters respond to a supernatural sighting of a slave ship in a New York harbor. Ruby Dee saw this work three years ago and moved it to a 750-seat space in Harlem, where 3,000 people made reservations.It went on to a sold-out, extended run at New York’s Public Theatre. Kenny Leon directs.

Iona Morris, who appeared earlier this season in the Play House production of Cuttin’Up, returns with her solo show For You. In it, she pays tribute to her late father and Cleveland native, Greg Morris, best known for playing Barney Collier in the original television series Mission: Impossible. She describes his struggle as a black actor trying to land a second role – one that would not relegate him to stereotype.

A performance piece is also featured in Next Stage, a series of one-time readings of works-in-progress. Local actor/playwright Nina Domingue performs Wade in the Water, a response to the tragedy still unfolding in her native New Orleans. Last season at Cleveland Public Theatre, Domingue performed her haunting Mo Pas Conin, a glimpse of life in the pre-Katrina Lower Ninth Ward. In this piece, she gives voice to 11 friends and relatives who mourn what’s been lost – and yearn for what might yet be restored.

Cleveland native Richard Brooks has the second Next Stage spot with his play The Free and the Brave. Brooks, best known as assistant district attorney Paul Robinette on TV’s Law & Order, is also a film director and producer and an R&B recording artist.Now he’s penned a story about a talented young artist who must choose between struggling on his own – his integrity intact – or accepting help from others.

Next in the series is Cleveland playwright Eric Coble’s new play For Better. Its subject is life in the cell phone/Internet/Blackberry age, where virtual love might have to be enough for a generation in constant motion. The work was commissioned by the prestigious National New Play Network, which promises productions at three member companies in the 2007- 2008 season.

Rounding out the Next Stage is Cleveland playwright Mike Sepesy’s drama The Alice Seed. His play explores the themes of loss and recovery, but through a magical lens. A grieving mother discovers that her dead child can be returned to earth, literally, as a growing flower. Now the surviving adults must understand why this ghostlike creature has returned.

FusionFest partner Karamu changes the pace with a staged reading of The Funkentine Rapture, by Ben Blake and Lee Summers, with music and lyrics by Summers. An 18-member cast takes us back to the ’70s with this musical comedy, a story about an aspiring funkmaster suddenly locked in a battle of good versus evil.Terrence Spivey directs, anticipating a full production in the 2007-2008 Karamu season.

The final reading is Solomon’s Blade, the winning script from this year’s Dorothy Silver competition. The JCC selected this script by Cleveland native Lisa Beth Allen, who now lives in New Mexico. She tells the story of a custody battle that crosses cultural lines – in this case a Palestinian woman who wants to adopt a Jewish infant.

Finally, the Cleveland School for the Arts presents its annual spring offering of three student-written, -performed and - directed works.

Audiences are encouraged to return often to FusionFest. Coupon books are available for discounted tickets and parking fees are reduced to $5. For ticket prices and a performance schedule, visit www.clevelandplayhouse.com or call 216-795-7000.

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