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In 1999, Freeport’s Sean Michael O’Donnell and Todd Collar started a community theater quite a stretch distant from Pittsburgh’s Cultural District. In Natrona. And, for five years, The Olde Bank Theatre regularly attracted audiences from nearby Allegheny River towns.
The enterprising pair is again near the river, slightly closer to Downtown’s professional offerings. They’ve just inaugurated The New Olde Bank Theatre in Verona, a small, second-floor playing space once a Knights of Columbus meeting hall. Based on completely filled seats Saturday night, it looks as if they’ve found a new and interested community.
The debut offering is Return to the Moral Abyss, 95 minutes’ worth of five comedy sketches by O’Donnell (an occasional CP contributor), most of them justifiably brief.
Some have inventive comic premises and quite funny lines; others seem obvious and overdone. Seventeen performers, with varying degrees of skill, work earnestly to entertain in various small roles. Among them, Alex Love, Lori Barrage and Vincent Chelkowski seem the most polished, able to avoid playing as broadly as many other cast members.
Two pieces work well. In one, “The Accidental Intentional Death of Miss Connie Jones,” a would-be suicide telephones a help hot-line where she gets off-the-wall advice while being measured for a garment. The other is “Three Women in a Restaurant Waiting,” where ladies of varying ages compare experiences about their men, who haven’t showed up yet. Neither has the waiter.
O’Donnell has come up with clever ways to link the plays. So, after Connie contemplates ending her life, he sends up Chekhov’s Three Sisters despairingly pondering death. Then three other women find a kind of sisterhood, after which two people suffer a first date in a similar restaurant.
O’Donnell relies heavily on bits about same-gender sexual re-alignments, and on having actors drop out of character to comment on theatrical effects. As director, he also provides lots of action and props, especially in the over-long and amateurish final piece, “Disaster! (The Play!),” which includes more stops, starts and staggers than you’ll find on a rusty roller-coaster.
Interestingly, few cast members have more than one role among the 20 characters, meaning O’Donnell and Collar found plenty of people interested in appearing only briefly in such an off-beat location. And the producers also managed to find an audience — which, based on Saturday night’s full house, means ticket-buyers having a good time.
Return to the Moral Abyss continues through Sun., June 29. The New Olde Bank Theatre, 722 Allegheny River Blvd., Verona. 412-251-7904 or www.newobt.com
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2008.
The review by Mr Spencer of the New Olde Bank theatre’s production of “Return to the Moral Abyss” appears to be an interview piece for WQED for a job as documentarian of Pittsburgh History and geography.
Is it a coincidence that Mr. Spencer’s first review of the Olde Bank Theatre(See August 2001) was fascinated to the point of poetry with the drive to Natrona and the construct of the building that housed the Olde Bank Theatre. and NOT on the production itself?
Much like this review of the New Olde Bank Theatre once again strikes iron with the pontification of the general location of the theatre and the history of the building that now houses the New Olde Bank Theatre.
Mr. Spencer, this was not meant to be a Rick Sebak Pittsburgh retrospective or a WQED episode of, “Things that aren’t there anymore.”
A wee bit more concentration on the performance itself, and its cast would have been more welcome and far more enlightening.
If I want a history of the buildings of Verona, I will wait for Rick Sebak to bring his grinning mug to WQED to tell me all about it.
That being said;
EVEN RICK SEBAK on WQED during an episode of “Things that aren’t there anymore” would have spent more time on this performance when covering Historical buildings in Verona, than you did who allege to have been in attendence at one of the performances.
To Gordon Spencer
Like, that’s your opinion man.
You can’t keep bringing that type of negative energy into local theatre.
man.
I disagree with “Unsilent Majority”. The review was balanced: one paragraph on history of the company; one paragraph on location of the theatre; and 6 paragraphs on the “production itself”.
The sketches were NOT uniformly funny, and while some of the actors were very good, several were amateurish. All in all, the review was fair – and even a bit kind. To have gone into more detail would have hurt a few feelings. I think the reviewer kept in mind that the company is an enthusiastic group of locals who will not be giving up their day jobs – standard for community theater groups. The small venue was filled in large part by uncritical friends and relatives of the very large cast, also standard for community theater. The situation reminds me of Waiting for Guffman.
The thing is, if you want a friend, buy a dog, and if you want someone to tell you your personal performance and the overall production were terrific, talk to your grandmother. Critics don’t come to stroke your egos. There’s always room for improvement, at least until one gets to the Tony level. And he was right about the “same gender sexual realignments.” If 2 female characters are heterosexual throughout the skit, why do they abruptly get into a liplock? Ditto, one straight woman groping another straight woman’s breasts. Very bizarre.
O’Donnell and Collar did do an excellent job in designing and remodeling the space into an intimate theatrical space. Unfortunately the very steep steps leading to it were difficult to climb for some older members of the audience.
Verona is a definite improvement over the distressed Natrona neighborhood where the company used to be located. Let’s hope they are successful in their new endeavor.
To Interested bystander
Like, that’s your opinion.
man.
To An interested bystander:
Of course, after all the Tony’s are the pinnacle of talent.
One need look no further than the 1996 Tony winner for an actor in a Musical(Lou Diamond Phillips)
and the 1999 Tony winner for actor in a Musical(Tom Wopat, Luke Duke for crying out loud). TO see very clearly that the Tony’s represent the BEST of the Best.
and on the subject of my dog
My dog has far more talent than either Lou Diamond Phillips or Tom Wopat.
and he is not my friend.
To add my two cents…I thoroughly enjoyed the performances. I am not a relative nor a “friend” of an individual in the show. My issue with Mr. Spencer’s review was in relation to all that he clearly missed. The show that he seemed to not “get” entitled “Disaster” was a mockery of 1970 disaster films. I believe the point was to pay homage to the absurdity, the intentional poor acting, the stating of the obvious, slapping & making out, bursting into horrible songs & etc…. Not an insult to the viewer’s intelligence. Of this , Spencer missed the mark. Talented actors portraying over the top performers. It’s sad that he couldn’t laugh with the rest of us, as he clearly stated the packed room was chuckling heartily. Oakmonters & Veronians are excited to welcome the New Olde Bank Theatre.
Thank you for your time.
From Gordon Spencer
I truly welcome seeing four people taking the time to comment on my review. In 7 years writing reviews in Pittsburgh I have never seen that much response to any one piece before. It’s great when theater-goers tell me what they think about what I said; reviewers rarely get interested feedback or criticism of any kind. I can learn something from that. Such response also tells me that Sean and Todd have dedicated fans. Great!
I’m also delighted to see that someone still has a copy of a review I wrote in 2001 (saying “to the point of poetry.” Thanks.) I no longer have a copy of the piece myself and I regret not being able to read it to see and understand comments from “The Unsilent Majority.” However it’s possible that back then I may have decided to spend my limited allowed print space commenting on the experience of being there, possibly trying to avoid saying too much negative, honoring the sincerity of the producers. I do remember being astonished to see live theatre in such a neighborhood and admiring the producers for trying that.
I still admire Sean and Todd’s ability to generate audiences with such loyalty. It is my responsibility to convey to all readers, not to just those already loyal, ideas about what to expect and to pass along opinions. It would be astonishing if everyone agreed with everything I say. But readers have to decide for themselves if they want to attend based on how they interpret any reviewer’s perceptions. In fact, most producers will tell you that it’s word of mouth from pleased audiences which sell tickets, not what reviewers say.
I will always appreciate any reader feedback.
You see what this kind of negative energy brings to the City Paper Gordon Spenser? Do you see what this kind of negative energy brings to the City Paper Gordon Spenser?