Design posters for these shows in development below:
Judgment of the Eye
Play Reading
Written by Simon Bowler
January 17 at 7:30pm, January 19 at 2:00pm
The play centers around Han Van Meegeren, a struggling Dutch artist in the 1940s who realizes he has a talent for art forgery. After being panned by art critics and unable to sell his own work, Han begins forging paintings in the style of Dutch masters like Vermeer and Frans Hals and selling them through his friend and art dealer Theo. Though initially only planning to sell one fake painting, Han gets drawn deeper into the criminal underworld of art forgery as he makes millions of dollars selling his fakes.
When Germany invades Holland, Han comes to the attention of the Nazis who want him to sell looted artworks. Han plays along, selling Goering several forged “Vermeers” in exchange for the Nazis returning some 200 stolen Dutch national art treasures.
After the war, Han is arrested and accused of being a Nazi collaborator for selling Dutch national treasures. To escape execution, Han claims the paintings sold to the Nazis were actually clever forgeries made by him. He offers to paint a new Vermeer to prove his artistic skill. Though skeptical, the police give him a month to complete the painting. As Han races to finish, the extent of his forgery ring starts to unravel through flashbacks and testimony of those involved – his ex-wife Jo who turned a blind eye, his friend Theo who brokered the deals, even Emma the secretary of the duped art expert Bredius.
In the climactic trial, Han represents himself and argues he is not a traitor but an artist exposing the subjectivity and ignorance of the art world’s experts. Though found guilty, his sentence is reduced based on returning looted Dutch art from the Nazis. In the end, Han is celebrated as a flawed genius who fooled the entire art world.
The play explores deeper questions around the value and meaning of art, subjectivity in judging creative works, the fine line between copying and forgery, and how history comes to reevaluate art and artists over time. With echoes of the real-life story of the artist Vermeer himself, the play looks at how and why some creative individuals struggle for recognition in their own time.
Loch Lomond
Musical Reading
Music by Neil Douglas Reilly
Director Jeff Whiting
January 24 at 7:30pm, January 26 at 2:00pm
1745. The height of the Scottish Jacobite rebellion. When two Scottish rebel brothers are captured by the English, they are faced with an impossible choice, a ticking clock, and the end of their heroic ambitions. With only six hours left until their fate is decided, brothers Lyle and James must reconcile their desire for freedom and glory with their loyalty to each other… and their love for the women they leave behind.
Genius
Musical Workshop
Music by Ilene Reid
Director Michael Heitzman
Music Director Alan Plado
January 31 at 7:30pm, February 2 at 2:00pm
Leander Starr is irresponsible, egotistical, even criminal. But he’s a Hollywood genius, so everyone forgives him.
Until…
…that fateful night at the Oscars when he shows the world not just his bare buttocks, but his naked contempt for the honors heaped upon him. BOOM! WOW! Off we go, shot from a cannon into the farcical musical comedy of GENIUS, set in the Esquivel-groovy sixties. BEEP BOP WOW!
Fleeing a rabid press, a dogged IRS agent named Gruber, and a bevy of bitter ex-wives and mistresses, Leander flees to Mexico City with his faithful manservant, Alistair–only to discover that the hacienda where he seeks refuge is run by the ex-starlet of his first breakout movie, Yucatan Girl, who thinks he might be her ticket back to the silver screen.
But also in residence is the writer Patrick Dennis, writer of Auntie Mame (and yes, Genius, in a stroke of meta irony), who Leander cheated out of royalties. Having been stalled by writer’s block for years, Patrick starts to believe that another martini-soaked spin in the Leander washing machine might just shake loose a decent screenplay. CHA CHA CHA
The movie-within-the-musical that ensues is born of duplicity and desperation, shot on expired film stock, financed by a lecherous, cigar-chomping crook, and starring Leander’s secretly beloved and regal ex-wife, Lady Joyce….along with Leander’s estranged daughter, Emily Drexel Morris, a sheltered debutant who comes alive in the heat of the desert sun under the simmering gaze of co-star Miguel, who draws her away from marrying the perfect Dick. BOOM! WOW! BESAME MUCHO!
The twists and turns that follow are a roller-coaster of addictive songs and farcical surprises that lead someplace totally unexpected: to Leander finally learning the true meaning of love and selflessness, all observed with wry commentary by the traveling Mariachi band.
