Audience gets in on the act for 'The Devil'

By BARBARA FREDRICKSEN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 15, 2000

Don't say "summer doldrums" to Diana Forgione. She doesn't believe they exist.

The crowds showing up for her Avenue Players' production of The Devil and Daniel Webster at the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center have exceeded her expectations and then some.

It is no mystery why. After the show about the famous Mr. Webster's legal sparring with the devil for the soul of a New Hampshire farmer, the actors invite the audience members to come up on the stage, have some wine, cheese and fruit, and, with the help of several attorneys, debate the points of law brought up by the play. It is a thought-provoking story, probably Stephen Vincent Benet's most popular, and the Players do it up to a fine turn.

This is the second summer this ambitious theatrical group has done an audience participation play, much to the delight of the audiences.

"We had a super grand weekend," Ms. Forgione said of the opening shows. More than 325 patrons came, and most of them stayed to debate. "We were running around trying to find enough food," she said.

Many of those who came were also at last year's production.

"We had people saying, "What are you going to do next year?' as they were leaving this show," Ms. Forgione said.

For this weekend's performances, city community affairs administrator Kathleen Monahan has persuaded three of the Tarpon Springs City Commission members to go up on stage and sit as members of the jury, another interesting twist in this play. (You have to go to see who and when.)

"I'm so nervous about the commissioners being up there," Ms. Forgione said. "But maybe if they see it from the stage itself, they'll become even more enthusiastic about our group."

The play has its final performances at 8 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center, 324 Pine St. Tickets are $10, including the after-show talk-back and refreshments.

The Avenue Players will not be finished for the summer after the curtain comes down Sunday.

On Friday, they're doing a read-through of The Man Who Came to Murder, a play by former television sitcom writer Lee Sheldon, who now resides in Palm Harbor.

Set in 1984, it is the story of John Crispin Blake, a grouchy actor who has broken both legs and is in a wheelchair. When he starts digging a hole for a swimming pool, he unearths a 1950 Plymouth with a body inside and starts on a cross-continent search for the killer.

The readers will include many of the players in the current show and in the one coming up, Amadeus.

"Lee wanted to listen to how his words sounded," Ms. Forgione said. "He has a tremendous feel for words."

The reading is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Tarpon Springs Cultural Center, 101 South Pinellas Ave. (Alt. 19). Admission is free.

Amadeus won't be presented until the late fall, but 10 of the men's elaborate costumes have already arrived, Ms. Forgione said.

"I have a thing about costumes," she said. "I think the (actors) should have them ahead of time so they can walk around in them, get used to how they feel. Those costumes aren't like regular clothes; you stand differently when you're wearing them. Just having those costumes on gives the actors ideas about how a character may use his hands or place his feet. They learn how to work out things so they don't look like cardboard cutouts."

The Players will do the show in Tarpon Springs, then, in February, go on the road to do three shows at Stage West Community Playhouse in Spring Hill.

As if the oft-maligned Cavalaire Park in downtown New Port Richey didn't have enough problems, what with unexpected costs and little shade, the contractor accidentally built 2 feet of the north side of the tiny park on someone else's property, according to Michael Ryan, owner of the Pasco Building that houses Beef and Ale, Cafe Grand, and several other businesses and offices and upon whose property the park infringed.

"It would have wiped off two of my parking places," Ryan said. So he made the city remove the 2 feet of curbing. "There are still a couple of inches on my lot, but I guess that's okay," Ryan said.

I just had to ask him if he had a tad bit of revenge in his heart when he parked his somewhat aromatic garbage containers right next to the park, once that curb was removed.

"None at all," Ryan said with a laugh. "It's just if I had them within 25 feet of the road, I'd have to build an enclosure around them." The spot by the park is more than 25 feet from any public street, he said. And he is no fan of the city-mandated enclosures.

"With those enclosures, people just dump stuff over the fence," Ryan said. When the garbage truck comes, it empties the trash bin, then sets the container back down on top of the other garbage, he said. Besides, with the enclosures, the trucks often have to maneuver their wheels around, which tears up asphalt, he said.

"Like it is, the truck can just back up to it and empty it with no problem."

Ryan acknowledges that the garbage is something less than an attraction for potential park users.

"My Dumpster probably stinks," he said. "Oh, I know it stinks. And I would feel bad about it, except that it's a non-functional, unused park."

There has been talk that the city might put big, European-style umbrellas in the park to provide some relief from the sun, which would be pretty and stylish.

Then all we'll need are some gas masks, and we'll be set.

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