G2 The Boston Globe FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2019
Insider
A
lthough the summer the-
ater scene hasn’t exactly
been quiet, the beginning
of September marks the
official start of the sea-
son. Theater companies large and
small are trying out new work, new ap-
proaches to spaces, as well as return-
ing to crowd favorites. Here is some of
the exciting work that will be strutting
area stages in the coming weeks.
‘LITTLESHOPOFHORRORS’
“There’s a little bit of monster in all
of us,” Yewande Odetoyinbo says with
a laugh as she prepares to play the car-
nivorous plant Audrey II in the Lyric
Stage Company’s “Little Shop of Hor-
rors.”
The musical, the first big hit for Al-
an Menken and Howard Ashman
(“The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the
Beast,” “Aladdin”), traced a lonely flow-
er shop assistant whose plant becomes
a blood-thirsty carnivore during a total
eclipse. While the ever-growing plant
brings new business to his struggling
shop, its need to feed creates other
complications.
Although Odetoyinbo is known for
a commanding stage presence
(“Breath and Imagination” at the Lyric
and “Caroline or Change” with Moon-
box), for the run of the show, the audi-
ence will only hear her voice in two
great blues-funk numbers, “Feed Me
(Git It)” and “It’s Suppertime.” During
rehearsals, she says, she had the op-
portunity to play opposite other actors,
but once the sets and props are in
place, puppeteer Tim Hoover manipu-
lates the growing and demanding
plant, matching the puppet’s move-
ments to her voice.
“Tim works really hard to fit Au-
drey II to me,” she says. “It’s a team ef-
fort.”
Even though she will be crammed
in the band loft with the musicians
during performances, Odetoyinbo says
she doesn’t sit still.
“Iusemybodyandgesturestoadd
the emotion behind the words,” she
says. “But I’m learning how to use the
microphone as another acting tool.”
Although audiences won’t get to see
her during the show, Odetoyinbo says
she’s been talking to costume designer
Marian Bertone about wearing a green
sequined gown for her curtain call.
“She said, ‘We’ll see.’ ”
Lyric Stage, Boston. Aug. 30-Oct. 6.
Tickets$40-$79. 617 -585-5678,
http://www.lyricstage.com‘THELIFESPANOFAFACT’
At a time when falsehoods are given
gravitas through repetition and facts
have become fungible, “The Lifespan
of a Fact” seems to have tapped into
the zeitgeist.
But Sam Weisman, who is directing
the first regional, post-Broadway pro-
duction of the play at Gloucester Stage
Company, says the story is timeless.
“It reminds me of what I encoun-
tered as a young actor and director in
Hollywood,” says Weisman, who di-
rected “George of the Jungle,” “Bye Bye
Love,” and “What’s the Worst That
Could Happen.” “It’s the age-old strug-
gle between the emotions and the in-
tellect.”
The play pits an experienced author
against an eager young fact-checker
assigned to resolve outstanding ques-
tions before a magazine story goes to
print. Based on a true story, the play
was written by Jeremy Kareken, David
Murrell, and Gordon Farrell. The argu-
ments that ensue onstage are often
funny and reveal as much about ac-
cepted assumptions as they do about
what it means to be truthful.PITTSFIELD — Watercolors cap-
ture light like no other medium, so it’s
easy for a skilled artist to paint some-
thing shimmery that goes down like
penny candy — brief, sweet, and for-
gettable.
Barbara Ernst Prey has deeper con-
cerns. In 2017, she painted a monu-
mental image of the Massachusetts
Museum of Contemporary Art’s new
wing. “Borrowed Light,” her exhibition
now at Hancock Shaker Village, spot-
lights the work, design principles, and
spirituality of the Shakers.
The religious sect settled in the
Berkshires in 1780, building a com-
munity based on racial and gender
equality, sustainability, and pacifism.
They expressed their ideals in spare,
harmonious designs. The architecture
at this living history museum includes
a round stone barn, home to the com-
munity’s economical systems for farm
work such as milking cows. In “Wood
Work,” Prey depicts the barn’s hub
with the same scrupulous attention to
structure, texture, and interior light
that she employed at Mass MoCA.
Her attention to windows in this
show recalls Vermeer. These paintings
are quietly luminous and anchored in
the everyday. “Spindles” captures the
late afternoon splash of light from a
window onto shelves full of yarn —
ocher, crimson, indigo, spooled and in
hanks. They glow and throw honeyed
shadows.
In pieces such as “Spindles” and
“Channeled Light,” in which slanting
sunlight pours through a window onto
a bucket and wash basin, the artistnods to Shaker women’s work. Prey’s
composition, like Shaker designs, finds
grace in ordinary tasks. The light, cut
by diagonal shadows, draws the eye to
the basin as if it were a fount. The wall
behind it, worn and discolored, has a
scruffy incandescence. Light and color
were intrinsic to the Shakers’ expres-
sion of the sacred.
You can stroll around HancockShaker Village to see the sites Prey has
painted. At the hour I visited, sunlight
did not bathe the yarn shelves. I might
not have even noticed them. But it’s a
painter’s job to notice, and to draw out
the nuance and light in what the rest
of us ignore. Prey has that eye and thathand, and like the Shakers, what she
makes touches the divine and has
staying power.Cate McQuaid can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow
her on Twitter @cmcq.“Last Night at Bowl-Mor Lanes” is a
comedy about friendship and compe-
tition written by Greater Boston Stage
Company artistic director Weylin
Symes. The world premiere, which
runs Sept. 5-29 at the Stoneham the-
ater, is set in a bowling alley, with two
old friends trying to settle a score with
one last game. “Last Night at Bowl-
Mor” features two of Boston’s grand
dames of the theater, Nancy E. Carroll
and Paula Plum. The dynamic duo
took a break from rehearsal to talk
multitasking in front of an audience.Q.How’s your bowling form?
NancyE.Carroll:I can hit a tennis ball
and a baseball, and I made it to the
Olympic trials in gymnastics with a
floor routine, but all my bowling balls
go directly into the gutter.
PaulaPlum:Well, I’m from Lynn, so
candlepin bowling was something onedid as a kid, but I’m not an athlete.Q.Is it a challenge to bowl onstage
while remembering your lines?
Carroll:It’s crazy. The sound cues are
tied to the pins falling [which happens
offstage], so not only do we have to re-
member the conversation we’re hav-
ing, we have to remember which
frame we’re on, keep track of the
score,andrememberwhoseturn itis.
Plum:We’re both used to being on-
stage a lot, but the logistics of this one
— the timing and the traffic — make it
challenging and fun.Q.The action of the play revolves
around an intense competition be-
tween these two old friends. Is that
something you can relate to?
Plum:I’m pretty competitive. I don’t
want anyone to tell me how to do it.
Carroll:But we’re not competitive witheach other. This is only the fourth time
we’ve worked together, and it’s such a
pleasure to share the stage with some-
one you really enjoy being with.Q.What appealed to you about the
script?
Carroll:It’s fun to play women who
have such a long history together.
They’ve witnessed a lot.
Plum:It’s also rare to see female pairs
of comics who are evenly matched.
These two women, Maude and Ruth,
balance physical comedy with inter-
esting backstories. We’re having a lot
of fun with that.Presented by Greater Boston Stage
Company, Stoneham, Sept. 5-29.
Tickets $42-$57, 781-279-7885,
http://www.greaterbostonstage.orgTERRY BYRNEA painter’s eye for light and life
GALLERIES| CATE MCQUAID
BORROWED LIGHT: BARBARA ERNST PREY
At Hancock Shaker Village, 1843 West Housatonic St., Pittsfield, through
Nov. 11. 413-418-9100, http://www.hancockshakervillage.org“Channeled Light” (left) and “Wood Work” (above) are part of the
Barbara Ernst Prey exhibition at Pittsfield’s Hancock Shaker Village.GLOUCESTER STAGE COMPANYGREATER BOSTON STAGE COMPANYPaula Plum (left) and Nancy E. Carroll star in the Greater Boston Stage
Company production of “Last Night at Bowl-Mor Lanes.”
Acting is right up their alley, but bowling? That’s a struggle.
Weisman says on the surface the
play has two people locked in a philo-
sophical debate, but he says “it’s sur-
prisingly funny and quite moving.”
He’s tapped Gloucester resident
and stage favorite Lindsay Crouse to
play the editor who tries to keep the
two men on track.
Gloucester Stage Company, Glouc-
ester, Aug. 30-Sept. 22. Tickets
$15-$48. 978-281-4433, http://www.glouces-
terstage.com‘SUNSETBOULEVARD’
Creating the right dramatic atmo-
sphere for “Sunset Boulevard,” the An-
drew Lloyd Webber musical based on
the 1950s film, requires a set design
that brings the audience right into
Norma Desmond’s home.
“We’ve created an immersive envi-
ronment,” says North Shore Music
Theatre resident designer Kyle Dixon.
As soon as the audience steps into thetheater, they will be surrounded by
100 framed images of Norma along
with dozens of chandeliers.
“Everyonewillknowimmediately
they are in Norma’s world,” says Dixon.
That world is a faded mansion
owned by the former silent film star,
played by Tony winner Alice Ripley
(“Next to Normal”). When a struggling
Hollywood screenwriter stumbles in,
he gets caught in Norma’s web of ob-
sessions around an imagined come-
back.
The centerpiece of Norma’s world,
though, is the grand staircase in her
mansion, which the North Shore pro-
duction is committed to replicating de-
spite the theater’s arena-style seating.
After the production team made
the rare decision to eliminate a num-
ber of seats, Dixon designed a sweep-
ing staircase with a light and airy feel-
ing, which allows Norma to make her
grand descent for her “final closeup”
while being visible to every audience
member.
“Every design involves a lot of math
to make sure all the angles work and
the audience can see everything,” says
Dixon. “But I also work closely withthe lighting designer and the painters
who can add more nuance and emo-
tion to the structures I design.”
North Shore Music Theatre, Bever-
ly, Sept. 24-Oct. 6. Tickets $61-$86.
978-232-7200, http://www.nsmt.org‘TINYBEAUTIFULTHINGS’
Dramatizing advice letters might
seem like a static exercise onstage, but
Jen Wineman, who is directing “Tiny
Beautiful Things” at Merrimack Reper-
tory Theatre Sept. 11-Oct. 6, says the
beauty of the play is that it’s as much
about the people as it is about the advice.
“Tiny Beautiful Things” is adapted
by Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek
Wedding”) from Cheryl Strayed’s “Tiny
Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and
Life From Dear Sugar,” a collection of
advice columns she wrote for the liter-
ary website The Rumpus.
“In a way, the play is Sugar’s jour-
ney,” says Wineman. “Sugar was
Strayed, a writer who was not a thera-
pist but was offering her honest re-
sponses to people who were reaching
out to her in pain, in disappointment,
in despair.”
With Sugar/Strayed at the center,
the action takes place in several rooms
in her home as she responds to differ-
ent letters.
“At one point, Sugar is reacting to a
transgender man whose parents have
disowned him,” Wineman says. “On-
stage, we can have actors portraying
the parents, as Sugar imagines their
reaction and empathizes with the
man’s pain.”
Wineman says the timing of the
Dear Sugar columns coincided with
Strayed writing “Wild,” a memoir of
her solo hike of the Pacific Crest Trail
when she was coping with her own
devastating loss. Sugar’s ability to help
her readers “get unstuck” makes the
theatrical experience uplifting and of-
ten humorous.
“I’m not a big fan of theater as ther-
apy,” says Wineman, “but that doesn’t
mean it can’t be cathartic. Sugar’s
compassion and empathy bring people
together, and the stage allows us to
dramatize that, even if it’s only in
Strayed’s imagination.”
Merrimack Repertory Theatre,
Lowell, Sept. 11-Oct. 6. Tickets
$24-$66. 978-654-4678, http://www.mrt.orgTerry Byrne can be reached at
[email protected].STAGES| TERRY BYRNE
The curtain rises
on a fall season
with plenty to offer
From left: Mickey Solis, Derek
Speedy, and Lindsay Crouse in
the Gloucester Stage Company
production of “The Lifespan of
aFact.”