OPAL, as seen onstage currently at Kalliope Stage in Cleveland Heights—in the area premiere—is a longish one-act piece of musical theater, with book, music and lyrics by Robert Lindsey Nassif. The work is based on the childhood diary of Opal Whitely, but there are questions regarding the authenticity of the diary, as well as the author.
The production, directed by co-founder Paul F. Gurgol is excellent. He is an absolute wizard at moving twelve actors around Kalliope’s small stage area. He does this by using nearly all of them in a sensible fashion as scenery, scenery changers, and props as well as people. The set by Russ Borski—which mainly portrays a logging camp in Oregon—would do credit to a much larger and wealthier theater than Kalliope Stage. Costumes by Dana Romeo are entirely appropriate to the time and place. Sound by Dave Glowacki and Lighting by Lance Switzer do much to convey the passing of time and movement of the settings from clearing to forest; dawn to midnight, and storm to forest fire. You could go to a lot of theater and not see better.
Kalliope makes much of being an acoustic space—no amplification, which is a very good thing. However, some voices can be too large for the small space, and can be uncomfortable, even in the fifth and farthest row from the stage. Voices that are great in a much larger auditorium are overwhelming in such an intimate area. Music Director Brad Wyner kept all the words and music together in fine style.
There was not a weak voice in this group; diction was sometimes not as clear as might be wished for, but intonation was not ever in question. The major quibble is with the material. It seemed like a very long vignette (or maybe a series of shorter vignettes) from “How the West was Won”. There are several stories being told simultaneously (beginning with a Prologue and continuing through eight ‘scenes’) with no clear emphasis on just which one is the most important. There is Opal, of course. And then there’s The Mamma—the woman who fosters Opal—almost against her will. There’s the lumberjack—the man who wears grey neckties; The Thought-Girl and The Girl that has No Seeing; and the laundress—Sadie McKibben; the other six actors portray various characters and act as ‘storytellers’ throughout.
Dani Apple as Opal is a talented young singer/actress. She is eminently believable in her long, arduous role, although she’ll be even more so as she learns to control her voice a bit better. The Mamma of Ayeshah Douglas was fine as the embittered woman who so desperately needs help that she’s willing to take in the foundling who she’ll never be able to understand. Her capitulation in the final scene was touching. R. Scott Posey as the lumberjack acts and sings with such authority he can hardly be blamed for having the two girls fall in love with him. The Thought-Girl, daughter of the lumber mill owner was perfectly portrayed by Jodi Brinkman, while Kris Comer was marvelous as The Girl that has No Seeing. Sadie McKibben emerged toward the end of the evening as one of the main characters, and was enthusiastically brought to life by Marla Berg, with a wonderful Irish brogue.
The storytellers were Halle Barnett, Tonya Broach, Joseph Haladey III, John Jensen, Elizabeth Rudino, and Justin Tatum.
I kept wishing for more story, though, and would happily have exchanged a few of the stranger bits for more continuity. Even with a child as the central character, OPAL isn’t really suitable for younger children. Still, the strong production values make it well worth seeing for adults or teens, and kudos to Kalliope Stage for bringing it to our attention.
Next up is a world premiere musical—“Coming to America”, opening February 9, 2006.
OPAL runs through December 18. For tickets or information visit the web-site: http://www.Kalliopestage.com or call (216) 321-0870.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATadelphia.net (:divend:)