Talkeetna youth put on quite a summer show

August 17, 2007

BY J.J. HARRIER

Frontiersman

TALKEETNA - The Sheldon Community Arts Hangar in Talkeetna came to life Wednesday as the Denali Arts Council Summer Stock series premiered “Black Comedy, White Tragedy” to a small local audience, with a large response.

The two-act play, primarily written, acted and produced by local middle and high school students, lasted a little over two hours with a completely different message in each act.

“Black Comedy,” written by Peter Shaffer, is a farce in one act.

“Black Comedy” takes a hilarious look at the antics of a group of characters feeling their way around a pitch black room - although the stage is, of course, actually flooded with light. Starving artist Brindsley Miller (Forrest Leo) is in a bit of a pickle. He's about to marry Carol Melkett (Jenny Birdsall), whom he loves. But he has reservations because of her overbearing father, Col. Melkett (Matthew Krepel), who is on his way over for dinner. As the fuse blows in their apartment, the audience sees chaos ensue with unexpected guests dropping by. Miss Furnival (Kayti Krepel), the goody-goody next door neighbor, stops by along with neighbor Harold Gorringe (Ian Mannix), who lets slip he has been having an affair with Brindsley for three years. As lights and matches are lit for our characters, the lights drop and we see acting in reverse, which works quite well. Brindsely is interrupted by potential art buyers (Riley Foster) and a woman he is still having relations with (Madison Maynard) to create the scene of ultimate havoc and humor, ending with the notion that, ironically, our poor Brindsley lives in the dark.

It works.

Astonishing is the attention spent on all details that make “Black Comedy” a classic in theater, like convincing British accents, thought-out slapstick and impeccable timing. It's all there. In this production, performed by extremely talented 12- to 19-year-olds, the small ground stage in the old Talkeetna plane hangar plays second fiddle to the talent really happening on stage.

Leo and Birdsall play off each other wonderfully as they encounter more blunders in their scheme to please “daddy-poo.”

Mannix not only perfects his gay British character, but also gives Gorringe a believability and charm worthy of Hugh Grant.

Birdsall, 18, has acted on this stage before in other Summer Stock productions. This fall she plans to attend college at Southern Oregon University in Ashland as a visual arts major, where she'll continue to expand on her acting abilities.

“This has been a great experience,” Birdsall said. “But I'm ready - ready to meet new people and have new experiences.”

Director Emilie Pechuzal, who has directed musicals before for Summer Stock, said that this is the first year a comedy was chosen for her young troupe of actors.

“These guys thought it up and hunted me down,” Pechuzal laughed. “It works, and they had so much fun doing this play.”

The other half

“White Tragedy,” part two of the play, is the brain child of Forrest Leo, a 17-year-old graduate from Susitna Valley High, who wrote the play after deciding “Black Comedy” needed a piece to accompany it. The result is a 40-minute chess board battle between anarchist pawns, drunken bishops, sultry rooks and bumbling knights. The Beastie Boys and Rage Against The Machine soundtrack the stage as an elaborate combat scene takes place between one of the anarchists and King's knight. As sophomoric as this scene is by today's Hollywood standard, the teenage cast perform a marvelous and time tasking scene worth noting.

In the play's program, Leo claims, “This is not a play that is meant to move nations or change lives; it is meant to make you laugh.”

Judging from the reaction from the crowd, it did just that.

Raised in Talkeetna, Leo has written plays for production before, performing two years in a row at the Denali Art Council's Summer Stock.

“I figured ‘what the heck,'” Leo said. “I'd been kicking around ideas with this chest board for a month or so [and] nothing happened. One day, the idea of a group of anarchy pawns popped into my head for some reason. Then I tossed it around with other people and got good feedback.”

“White Tragedy” contains little reason in it's message, a message Leo claims he “left out,” other than the utter ridiculousness of government and how society can be humorous without much provocation.

This fall, Leo plans on traveling to New Delhi, Nepal and Europe for a couple of months, and he is unsure if he wants to continue on to college.

“Black Comedy, Black Tragedy” plays 7:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday at the Sheldon Community Arts Hangar in Talkeetna. Tickets are $15, $10 for Denali Arts Council members and $6 for students.

Contact J.J. Harrier at 352-2269 or valleylife@frontiersman.com.