SVSU's "Moon Over Buffalo" charms with its words and physicality

From left, Keith Schnabel, Amanda Moths, Cassidy Morey, Lexee Longwell and Isaac Wood

review and photographs by Janet I. Martineau

Frank Capra meets William Shakespeare.

Half the cast performing “Cyrano” and the other half “Private Lives.”

Backstage shenanigans galore and four doors leading to it.

Yep, Ken Ludwig’s Moon Over Buffalo,” which opened Wednesday at Saginaw Valley State University, sounds like a farce and is a farce -- one that also is ode to the love of theater and movies.

The more you know about theater, and to a lesser degree movies, the more charmed you will be with this production directed by Richard B. Roberts -- like one set of dialogue using the titles of Capra movies, with the music playing pre-show, and with the Jerry Dennis set design and all of its 1950s era artifacts. 

Rusty Myers

Playwright Ludwig leaves no stone unturned into mining everything into farce -- a hard-of-hearing woman, a veteran acting couple involved in affairs, a mistaken identity, confusion on which play is to be performed, their  daughter with two boyfriends. And it all goes faster and faster, and gets more and more involved, until it in one fell swoop  rights itself.

Rusty Myers and Cassidy Morey play the veteran acting couple, and there is a HUGE amount of physical activity on the part of Myers. He must be exhausted at the end of the show having been beaten by his wife with a copy of Variety, gotten drunk and devoid of most of his clothes, fallen off the stage, fallen onto the couch, wandered in and out of all the doors. 

This is his show, really...he is the driving force with it more than the rest of the cast... and he delivers 100 percent.

Another goody in the cast is Amanda Moths as the hard of hearing and elderly mother of Morey’s character. She has a tart tongue, totters around the stage, and is a hoot with  what she heard vs. what was really said because of her suffering ears. Moths, though she is but a collegian, plays elderly well.

The rest of the cast handles the slamming doors section with a spot on sense of timing as well as the  other cuckoo demands of the script very well -- in particular Morey, Lexee Longwell as the visiting daughter and Dakotah Myers as one of her two boyfriends.

Many farces are more about physical action than the words spoken. This one is different in that, since it is spoofing theater and movies, the words actually play an equal role. Thankfully all the cast members speak them with clarity and conviction, making the words almost funnier that the play’s physical action.

At one point the Rusty Myers character mutters that his company is the House of Usher Repertory Theater. So make sure you hone in on every word in the script .

Can’t say much more than that so as not to spoil the fun of the storyline and action. Suffice it to say well directed, well acted, well costumed and staged, and a great light night  of madcap fun at the theater.

“Moon Over Buffalo” plays through Sunday.

Landscapes a varied view at Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra concert

review and photos by janet i. martineau

Landscapes was the theme of Saturday night’s Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra concert at the Temple Theatre.

And, oh, what a varied picture the three works on the program provided -- chirping birds, thunderstorms, an Appalachian hoedown, countryside peacefulness.....and a constant shimmering noise throughout the orchestra that allowed each listener to create his or her own landscape.

That shimmering comment refers to the first piece on the program conducted by Brett Mitchell’s -- a minimalist one by John Adams, titled “Common Tones in Simple Times.”

Tones is the operative word here. As Mitchell said at its outset, the piece has no melody, no theme, “just listen for color...and maybe with your eyes closed.”

To describe it is impossible. To hear it was a challenge but a rewarding one. Although contemporary minimalist compositions tend to leave this listener cold, this one did not.

Angela Fuller and Brett Mitchell

Suffice it to say that virtually every instrument shimmers in sound -- that is the only word I can muster.

 There are the  ebbs and flows (pulses, modulations) of various instruments as they are the primary sound and then fade as another instrument rises over ever so slowly. There are very low sounds and high ones. A marimba here and and two pianos there.

A sameness of sound yet differences...the color Mitchell referred to. Yet, also, a small sense of rhythm to it all.

Adams defines the work as if one was seeing the surface of a continent from the window of a jet plane, and says the piece is influenced by long camera pans and  film techniques. 

Perhaps for him but this listener remained earthbound, eyes closed with images of nature in all its variances sparking so much it became overwhelming.

This piece made if difficult to settle into the rest of the program, for some reason, as the mind kept processing it (and thinking what a nightmare it must be to play, and we would LOVE to see what the score looks like).

The second piece on the program was also composed by a contemporary American -- one steeped in classical music but who is known for collaborating with country music folks.

Nothing minimalist here at all. Even a hint of two of Aaron Copland. And with true guts, a two movement piece played without pause and encompassing both classical music violin playing and country music genre fiddling. This is the Appalachian hoedown referred to in the second paragraph.

Edgar Meyer, a bass player, is the composer, and he created the piece in 1999 for the Grammy-winning American violinist Hilary Hahn. Playing it in Saginaw was Angela Fuller, principal second violin with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

It too was a work of much color -- but also the more traditional melodies and themes. At  the outset, Fuller’s violin was whisper quiet and simple; tranquil. But then came that second fiddling movement, a retreat, some bassoon intervention, and then more high energy from the soloist.

People laugh at me when I say my two favorite kinds of music are classical and country (or country and classical, depending on the mood of the day). Thank you Edgar Meyer for proving they can share a piece together and make it work.

Concluding the evening was Beethoven’s No. 6 (Pastoral), a true oldie and goodie, which Mitchell conducted without a score before him.

Its five movements are titled “Awakening of Cheerful Feelings on Arriving in the Country,” “Scene by the Brook,” “Merry Gathering of the Country Folk,” “Thunderstorm” and “...Thankful Feelings After the Storm.” It totality it is peaceful and relaxing, even with the storm.

Premiered by the master in 1806, it also proves mankind across the decades and  miles across the ocean are linked by its love of simple things as the piece celebrates moods evoked by the weather and nature.

It is the “Brook” movement with the chirping birds -- nightingale on flute, quail on oboe and cuckoo on clarinet. Great stuff perfectly played, as was the entire piece under Mitchell’s baton.