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Play's girls give hope for the futureBy PETER SMITH
© St. Petersburg Times, What on this sphere is more beautiful than a calm, silly, confident, childish, graceful, adolescent girl? After seeing The Wind Beneath Our Wings, the only possible answer is "absolutely nothing." At the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Shimberg Playhouse last weekend, 11 girls danced, sang, told secrets and let us know things we've forgotten or (if we are unlucky) we never knew. As these talented people revealed themselves, they offered laughter, tears, insights and hope for the future. From the tale of a rooster named Altoid to their relationships with their fathers, they gave us a clear-eyed knowledge of what being a girl is like. Monica Bishop Steele's words rang so truthfully in the hands of these delightful girls that not a thought in the show could be denied. As the show opened, we were told of the silence necessary to hear a bird's song, "the most beautiful song in the world." When the girls spoke of their self-images, the book Reviving Ophelia came to mind. The play and the book remind us that our children are more fragile and more tough than we realize. As we try to take care of them, make them strong and confident, the world seems to fight us at every step. The Wind Beneath Our Wings reminds us of what the world gains by losing that fight, what we gain when our daughters are encouraged to be themselves. Working with traditional Noh and Kabuki movements, the cast created an exquisite world for the audience. Steele, Jeff Norton's beautifully simple movements and the girls -- Sara Collins, Jamie Haft, Devon Ibarguen, Coryn Karp, Amanda Landesberg, Courtney Moors, Ellen Registrato, Kelly Ross, Rhea Rossiter, Khushbu Shah and Stacy Volland -- presented us with real pleasures, the kind available only to open hearts and minds.
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From the wire |
