Year in theater, dance: Indie pride

2007 in review

Year in theater, dance: Indie pride

By Jay Weitz

Much has been made in recent weeks of Columbus officially branding itself the "Independent Art Capital of the World." Naming something doesn't make it so, of course. But it's exhilarating that Columbus takes justifiable pride in something that doesn't involve sports teams battering each other. Our Indie Art Capital movement embraces all the local creative arts that will help Columbus grow into its new title. As 2007 ends, we celebrate the best local theater and dance performances that have played their own part in that growth.

Theater

Best Plays

Martin McDonagh's inquiry into the nature of storytelling, The Pillowman, capped a year at Contemporary American Theatre Company that also included superlative productions of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and Edward Albee's Seascape. Actors' Theatre honored the namesake of its outdoor home with a relevant and resonant Mary Stuart by Friedich Schiller.

Best Musicals

Charles Mee's The Trojan Women 2.0 uses music in often deliciously ironic ways, and the Ohio State University Theatre did a (literally) bang-up job. The touring Must Don't Whip 'Um from Cynthia Hopkins and Gloria Deluxe at the Wexner Center was a worthy complement to her Accidental Nostalgia. Broadway Across America Columbus' tour of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd was piping hot.

Best Female Performances

Monique Pappas was a bundle of quiet strength as Berniece in The Piano Lesson. Ashlee Mundy's crazed Cassandra stood out in The Trojan Women 2.0. Julie Ann McMillan as Queen Elizabeth and Eleni Papaleonardos in the title role were the twin pillars of Mary Stuart.

Best Male Performances

A whirlwind of energy, Bryant Bentley powered The Piano Lesson in the role of Boy Willie. OSU alum Glenn Peters returned to the school for a star turn as the Stage Manager in Our Town. It's impossible to single out any one of the stunning core ensemble in CATCO's Pillowman: Malcolm Callan, Geoffrey Nelson, Jonathan Putnam and Christopher Marlowe Roche.

Best New Work

Matt Slaybaugh's Tomorrow is the Question made for an exhilarating two hours of political theater from Available Light.

Dance

"Independent Art Capital of the World," we hope. But there was a time within living memory when Columbus was indisputably the dance capital of Ohio, a title to which we still retain at least a plausible claim. This year, BalletMet filled much of the often fallow August with its 30 X 30 celebration of said anniversary. Sadly, I was traveling and unable to attend any of it, but let me (again) fully endorse the idea of dance during the summer. In chronological order, here are the other dance highlights of 2007:

OSU Dance, "From Ginsberg to Strauss..." (especially Jenai Cutcher's Just the Beguine, Sarah Lehman's Ramble on Avenues and Kathryn Enright's Core) (February)
Columbus Movement Movement, "Columbus Dances II" (especially Julie Brodie and Kora Radella's Adjust Accordingly and Susan Sanborn's Kristin Come Home) (February).
Stanton Welch's Blue, BalletMet's "Rendezvous at the Riffe" (February)
OSU Dance, "OSU Dance Downtown Rocks 2007" (May)
OSU Dance, "Assorted Impulses" (May)
Adam Hundt's Kid A-O.K., BalletMet's "Sports Spectacular" (October)
OSU Dance "Small Dances for Small Spaces" (especially Tania Isaac's Stuporwoman and Bala Sarasvati's NO/ON) (November)
Kennet Oberly's Goldberg Variations, Columbus Dance Theatre (November)

Columbus has long had a solid base of creativity centered on such places as OSU and the Wexner Center, Columbus College of Art and Design, Milo Arts, the Short North and Otterbein College, to name just a few.

Even as we lost such venues as the Third Avenue Performance Space and the Short North Playhouse in the past decade, we've gained places like Columbus Dance Theatre's Fisher Theatre, the BalletMet Performance Space, Junctionview Studios and Available Light's AVLT Gahanna.

Now if Columbus can only learn to retain and nurture developed artists and performers — just as we've long been able to give birth to them — we'll be well on our way to becoming a true creative capital.

December 27, 2007