‘The 39 Steps’
SRO THEATRE COMPANY, COLUMBUS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, 549 FRANKLIN AVE.
614-427-3324, www.srotheatre.org
The slapstick comedy pays tribute to director Alfred Hitchcock.
10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. Friday; 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
$22, or $20 for students and senior citizens; $17 and $15 for the Friday matinee
To mark the 30th anniversary of the first drugs to combat AIDS, Short North Stage is ending its season with a re-imagined “Angels in America.”
“Perestroika,” the second half of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning fantasia about sex, politics and religion in the 1980s, will open on Friday at the Garden Theater. Part one, “Millennium Approaches,” began performances on June 1.
The play is suggested for mature audiences because of profanity and brief nudity.
“At first, most people think of it as a play just about AIDS. But I don’t see that as the over-arching theme,” said JJ Parkey, actor and co-director with Artistic Director Edward Carignan.
“In beautifully poetic language, Kushner writes about moving through devastation in your life and how to cope with grief and loss,” Parkey said. “That’s what ends up resonating.”
Virginia composer Tom Albert wrote the instrumental score, commissioned by Short North Stage. Many regional theaters commission original scores for their “Angels” productions.
“Tom offers an ethereal score that evokes the minimalist music styles of the 1980s, with themes for each character,” Carignan said.
“The music and puppetry gives the play a fresh look and impact, as part of our mission to revisit and re-imagine classic works within the American canon of modern theater,” he said.
Parkey suggested the idea of using puppets — designed by Tristan Cupp in collaboration with Dayton’s Zoot Theatre Company — to portray about 20 smaller roles, including angels.
“They are life-sized kinetic forms with a more surreal feel, since most supporting
characters are more dreamlike in a fantasy world,” Cupp said from Dayton.
Besides each playing a human role in the ensemble piece, eight actors double as black-hooded puppeteers for angels, ancestors and other bit parts. The puppets range from 5 to 10 feet tall; the largest angel (operated by seven actors) has a 15-foot wingspan.
“It’s a neat retelling of the story,” Parkey said, “a good way to frame it with the magic of puppetry and music.
“Some people were leery about the idea, but Kushner calls it a ‘gay fantasia,’ and