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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels October 21, 2004 AHS plays reminds, 'You can't take it with you' By Robert Miller Tidings Reviewer Ashland High School Theatre sets itself high standards and continues to earn awards and accolades. It isn't content to put on a show that will appeal to an audience of family and friends. It reaches out to the legitimate playgoing public by offering fare that is daring and diverse and moreover tests the young actors to the uttermost. Behind it all is producer Betsy Bishop, the driving force and enthusiastic encourager. No wonder she garnered the Art Teacher of the Year Award from the Southern Oregon Art Council and has been honored the past three years by inclusion in "Who's Who Among American High School Teachers." Consider the offerings for AHS' 2004-2005 season. Opening in the Mountain Avenue Theatre on October 28 is "You Can't Take It With You" ("It" being money) by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. David Thompson is the director and more than 65 students are involved as cast and crew. Often described as the quintessential American farce, it achieved a run of 837 performances, opening in New York in 1936 and winning the Pulitzer Prize that same year. It had major revivals in 1965 and 1983 and was presented by OSF in 1994. The movie version came out in 1938 and won the Oscar for best picture. Was there ever a wackier household than that of 75-year-old tax dodger and dart player Martin Vanderhof? His daughter Penelope dabbles in playwriting and painting, as much the dilettante as the dilly-dallyer. Her husband Paul is a fireworks fiend spending his time concocting new crackers in the cellar, with his cohort Mr. DePina, a former delivery man who somehow came to stay. Then there's Essie, one of Vanderhof's granddaughters, a candy-maker and aspiring ballerina who is, not surprisingly, always on her toes, and no less than when Madame Kolenkova comes a-tutoring. The dance music is provided by Essie's husband, Ed, as adept on the xylophone as on the printing press. So, hello, young lovers. How does Alice, Vanderhof's other and younger granddaughter, fit in this mad house? Actually, she's the "normal" one who has fallen in love with Tony, the son of a wealthy Wall Street broker. Their love scene that closes Act 1 is faithful and funny and as charming as ever today. They soon learn that the course of true love never does run smooth. But, of course, there's a happy ending. A challenging choice is "Rashomon," the play by Fay and Michael Kanin, based on stories by Japanese author Ryunsoke Akatugawa ("The Rasho Gate," 1915 and "In a Grove," 1921). It was produced in 1959 at the Music Box in New York and achieved a run of 159 performances under the direction of Peter Glenville, with Noel Willman and Claire Bloom playing the samurai warrior and his wife, and Rod Steiger as Tajomaru, the bandit of ill repute. Angus L. Bowmer's Vining Repertory Company presented it at Ashland's Varsity Theatre late in 1961. Ashland High School is set for four performances (January 12-15) under the direction of Katherine Gosnell who has had an extensive experience in stage management for OSF and has many directing credits. The action occurs in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, about a thousand years ago at the edge of the Rashomon Gate, at a police court, and in a nearby forest; a single setting of three locales. Aside from the characters enumerated above, there are the wife's mother, a Buddhist priest, a woodcutter, a wigmaker, and a medium. The magistrate is an unseen presence in the position of the audience. It is an engrossing drama of ambush, rape, and murder; an event viewed from three different perspectives. And what is the truth? There is a classic fight scene in the play, and AHS is fortunate to be able to draw upon the expertise of Christopher DuVal (Dromio of Syracuse and Ephesus in this year's OSF "The Comedy of Errors"). Of course, it was the 1950 film of "Rashomon" that earned immense eclat and launched Toshiro Mifune's acting career (he played the bandit). In 1964, a western remake called "The Outrage" was dismissed as "pretentious fizzle." As for author Akutagawa, he committed suicide in 1927 at age 35, but a literary prize for promising new Japanese writers, awarded semi-annually, was established in his honor in 1935. After this year's scintillating production of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," performed with remarkable professionalism, the expectations are high for AHS' 2005 musical (May 5-7, 12-15). It will be a great opportunity for the collaboration of both music and performing arts students. The choice is likely to be made in November, when preliminary auditions are held, possibly from "Guys and Dolls," "Godspell," or "Little Shop of Horrors." What is certain is that Richard Jessup, former artistic director of Rogue Music Theatre and long associated with musicals at the Britt Festival, will be the director and choreographer. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams