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Stage: hot tickets
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 5, 2002
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The scene is Central Park on a summer Sunday afternoon, and a man named Peter is seated on a bench and reading; another man, Jerry, approaches. So begins The Zoo Story, the play that first brought attention to its author, Edward Albee, in 1959.
The Zoo Story has been widely praised -- Norman Mailer called it the best one-act play he'd ever seen -- and analyzed to the hilt, with Jerry often interpreted as either a Christlike figure or a psychopath, setting the tone for the playwright's controversial career. Albee's latest play, The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?, is about, of all things, a man who has fallen in love with a goat. It won this year's Tony Award for best new play.
The Zoo Story, starring Don Moyer, left, and James Wicker, is being staged by Dog & Pony Productions in the Shimberg Playhouse of Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. It opens Friday and runs through Sept. 22. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $10. (813) 229-7827 or toll-free 1-800-955-1045.
Herbalist's work blossoms into a play
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Aubrey Hampton has a penchant for writing biographical plays, on figures ranging from George Bernard Shaw to Thomas Edison to Groucho Marx. His latest foray into the bioplay genre is Bach Among the Flowers, which considers the life and work of Edward Bach, an English doctor who promoted the healing power of plants. He is known for the Bach flower remedies.
As founder of Aubrey Organics, a natural cosmetics company in Tampa, Hampton shares a kinship with his subject. "Because of my interest in herbs, and working with my mother, who was a herbalist, Dr. Bach has a special place in my heart," he says. "I take the Bach flower remedies, but the unique man he was is the real reason I've created a play about him."
The cast of Bach Among the Flowers includes, from left, Steven Clark Pachosa, Ron Sommer and Michael Owens. The play opens tonight at Gorilla Theatre, 4419 N Hubert Ave., Tampa, and continues through Sept. 22. Show times are 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $15-$25. (813) 879-2914.
Heroism in the checkout lane
[Times photo: Krystal Kinnunen]
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Ali Smith is better known as a novelist than playwright. Born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1962, she has written a prize-winning collection of short stories, Free Love, and the stream-of-consciousness novel Hotel World, a Booker Prize finalist in 2001.
Trace of Arc is a play by Smith in which a "grocery store clerk hears a voice other people don't, and her oddly similar customers speak only in advertising jingles, but management frowns on questions," according to a release announcing a production of it by Alley Cat Players. "Ali Smith's play asks, 'When should you speak up?' and, 'What will it get you if you do?' "
The all-women cast includes Alley Cat co-founders Jo Averill-Snell, pictured here, and Teresa Gallar, as well as Bridget Roney, Crystal Haralambou and Clara Haight. Mary Ann Bentley is the director.
Smith's play opens Friday and runs through Sept. 22 at the Silver Meteor Gallery in Ybor City. Show times are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $5 and $7. Artists' Night is Monday, with an 8 p.m. show and $5 admission. (813) 231-8478.
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