Friday night, October 22, 2021, was a very big night for a small but important theatre, one of a select few that are the very soul of Baltimore theatre history. After nineteen months of darkness thrust upon them due to Covid-19 lockdowns and mandates, The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre, that diminutive little workhorse in the step down basement on St. Paul Street, opened again with a light fanfare and a comfortable crowd of faithful patrons to kick off their 59th Season.
A visibly emotional Fuzz Roark, longtime managing artistic director of the organization (those who know him would consider him more like its heart and lifeline), took the stage for a brief but very effective curtain speech. After welcoming back his audience, and thanking his production team and cast, he outlined the voyage his stalwart company has been on since March 13, 2020. The uncertainty. The doubt. When they would reopen. If they would reopen. Were audiences ready to come back? But with the favorable ending now in the past, he also introduced several Covid-19 related, grant-funded upgrades they have installed into the theatre in the past year for audience comfort. Most notably, the overly-loud, outdated heating and cooling units have been upgraded with a state-of-the-art HVAC air purifying system, which now maintains a steady, comfortable temperature throughout the house with only the quietest of gentle fans audible.
For their return, Spotlighters made a safe, sound, and under the circumstances, very smart selection to remerge: an evening of eight 10-minute plays by frequent collaborator Mark Scharf. With so much uncertainty on behalf of Covid-19— audience safety, actor safety, and financial output— a series of 10-minute plays ask a conservative investment from all involved as times stabilize. Plus, as the writer himself points out in the program, if you find yourself disliking the offering you chose, hang on for a few more moments and it’s over, replaced by another that may be more to your liking.
One author, two directors, and seven actors produce a varied evening of Scharf’s works that all touch on elements of human loss—loss of friends, lovers, possessions, life, faculties, or time. The very capable corps of performers (Nick Cherone, Sean Eustis, Terri Laurino, Glen Charlow, Mike Papa, Beverly Shannon, and Sam David) couple up in various vignettes playing often extremely different characters. No charges of type-casting tonight.
In the first act, Monument opens with Cherone and Eustis as old friends having a surface discussion about a roof repair job, until it no longer is. Our Place finds Laurino and Charlow at an old favorite restaurant, where she needs to provide the words for both as her husband slips in and out of dementia fogs. Like White on Rice is an experimental piece, a one-act where every line Cherone, Papa, and Shannon have to deliver is a cliché yet has to make sense. And Wilderness closes with well-meaning neighbor Charlow attempting to alert homeowner David on the overgrown, disheveled mess she has let her lawn become, before their tyrannic HOA gets involved.
Act two returns with Replay, finding Papa haunted in the middle of the night by his inability to have saved a mentally unstable ex-lover (Eustis) from harm. Off the Grid showcases Laurino’s comic abilities as a homeless woman making a harried executive (David) question her life choices. In Making Time, Laurino quickly changes gears to be a sympathetic ear to Cherone who has just received some bad news. And the finale, The Last Ten, inspired by the recent false alarm North Korean missile attack on Hawaii, concerns a couple choosing how to spend what may be the last ten minutes of their lives.
Sharing the actor pool evenly, directors Erin Klarner (Our Place, Wilderness, Replay, The Last Ten, Monument) and Jen Sizer (Like White on Rice, Off the Grid, Making Time) utilize compatible styles so that the evening is relatively seamless from piece to piece in both directorial and acting styles. Which is not an easy task, considering the smorgasbord of vignettes runs from tragedy (the powerful Replay) to tender (the sweet Making Time) to broad comedy (the highlight of the evening Off the Grid) to the quasi-absurdist novelty Like White on Rice, the only creative misfire of the evening which feels more like a segment of Who’s Line Is It Anyway? allowed to go on too long. But hey, a few more minutes and….new show.
The performers are all an invested and balanced lot, and deftly handle the varied roles provided them. But standouts of the evening are Laurino as the sassy homeless woman of Grid segueing directly into the warm, sympathetic listener in Making Time, and Papa, gut-wrenching as the insomniac reliving what he could have done differently in Replay. He’s also the most successful of the game actors giving Rice a spin.
Again, what better way to dip one’s toe back into the theatrical pool than an evening of light theatre that gives us a taste of what’s to come in bigger doses. The Spotlighters team were in top form from vaccine/ID check to box office to concessions to ushering to hosting to the main event. It did not seem like a return, but as if they had been operating continuously like a crisp, professional team all along. Considering this local landmark theatre now bears the name of its founder and patron saint Audrey Herman, the evening conjured up the sentiments of the highlight of one of Miss Herman’s signature roles, Dolly Levi at the Harmonia Gardens. Everyone was determined to impress and provide the best service we’ve been missing for so long. Fuzz, the board, the volunteers, and the creative talent at Spotlighters, it is truly nice to have you back where you belong.
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours with one intermission.
Scharf’s Shorts…an evening of eight short plays runs through November 7, 2021 at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre— 817 St. Paul Street in the historic Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore City in Maryland. For tickets call the box office at (410) 752-1225 or purchase them online.
