Theatrical Tidal Waves from TitleWAVE
That Park Bench Skirmish Near You Might be A Touring Production

You're walking through a city park, and suddenly you see two strange women get into each other's face on a nearby bench. Do you slink away? Call the cops on your cell phone from behind a tree? This month, you oughta pull up a lawn chair or a blanket and watch the fireworks. Because the Park Bench Tour is back, thanks to the dedication of playwright Greg Vovos and director Mindy Herman of TitleWAVE Theatre.

The pair were involved in the first two outdoor tours sponsored by Charenton Theatre -- Vovos directed The Zoo Story in 2000 and I'm Not Rappaport in 2001 while Herman stage managed the shows. "We've both really missed doing edgy free theatre in the park," says Vovos over coffee at the Gypsy Bean Cafe where I talked with the dynamic duo last week. "Zoo Story taught me something about Cleveland audiences. You gotta love 'em: they can take in challenging material and laugh their way through it."

"After Zoo Story, I'd been bugging Greg for years to write a female park bench play, and he finally got around to it," says Herman. The result, a 70-minute drama-with-laughs titled Becomes Her, was featured in Cleveland Public Theatre's Little [Box] series last November. Vovos and Herman liked the result, and after searching for theatres to mount it, they finally decided to tour it themselves under the auspices of TitleWAVE Theatre, the production company headed by Vovos.

"I had been leery about using TitleWAVE to produce my own work," admits Vovos, "but finally Mindy convinced me that we ought to do it." He needn't be shy about self-promotion: the playwright/director's ten-minute plays have been among the best-written shows of the Short Attention Span Festivals the company has mounted over the past two years.

Becomes Her is a confrontation between two women who meet on, yes, a park bench: a depressed woman in her 40's (Molly McGinnis) who is contemplating suicide and a mouthy teenager (Faye Hargate) who has just learned she is pregnant and wants advice. "I like the idea of doing heavier issues in a non-heavy setting," says Vovos. "The piece is funny, human, and real," says Herman. "It's as much fun as you can have in a play about pregnancy and suicide," she laughs.

The TitleWAVE tour began last weekend at 7PM in the Cleveland Museum of Art's Fine Arts Garden. This week it moves to Lincoln Park in Tremont; then it's on to Rockefeller Park and a closing weekend at Edgewater Park. "Bring a chair, a blanket, a picnic, a friend," says Herman.

The show is no cost and (expectedly) open to the public, but donations are requested. With one Equity actor and no institutional funding secured yet, the company is taking a big risk. "But hey, that's okay," says Vovos. "If TitleWAVE loses money on free theatre for Clevelanders -- so be it."

Check out The Park Bench Tour on Fridays and Saturdays at 7PM thru Saturday 8/2. Visit the TitleWAVE website at http://www.titlewavetheatre.com.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Linda Eisenstein lindaATcoolcleveland.com
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