1950s don't get much respect. If the decades of American culture had a high school reunion, I'd imagine the varsity letterman 1940s dancing with the prom queen 1980s, while the '60s and '70s shared a smoke under the bleachers and the 90s bragged about their stock portfolio. All the while, the 1950s would hover in the corner of the gym with a glass of punch. But the '50s were more than the quaintly unhip province of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver; for in the fertile ground of postwar conformity and anti-Communist paranoia grew the seeds of countercultural revolution that would blossom in the last half of the 20th century. Such is the thesis of the Southern Winds Theatre's heartfelt family drama Kitchen Recipes.

“The 1950s you never saw on TV” is the tag line for this premiere performance of writer/producer Steve A. Rowell's script, and it's an apt one. In our collective memory, the '50s bask in the comforting glow of the cathode ray tube, a seductive facade of wise parents, obedient children and responsible government. From the sublime (Joe DiMaggio's achievements on and off the field) to the obscene (“Tailgunner” Joe McCarthy, as he is approvingly referred to), in this show the fledgling medium defines the decade. Kitchen Recipes, under the direction of David McElroy, aims to challenge our kinescoped myths by tracing the devolution of one nuclear family.

A television cooking show serves as a framing device, establishing the pointed metaphor of three siblings — or “entrees” — prepared from the same “ingredients” but with divergent results. Betty (Jennifer Paccione) is a daddy's girl turned bitterly estranged; Charlie (Tyler Cravens) is the wayward prodigal son seeking redemption in the priesthood; and James (Derek Ormond) is the neglected middle child, grown into a dyspeptic TV executive married to the medium that raised him. We encounter them in the modern day as they struggle with the decision to commit their elderly father Albert (Alan Sincic) to a nursing home. The play then flashes back to the purchase of the family home, as we trace the evolution and dissolution of their family unit.

Bonnie Sprung's efficient set is a monochromatic abstraction of the prototypical family kitchen — white cabinets and Philco fridge hovering in a black void around a Formica dinette. Within those confines we are introduced to the newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Sanders. Albert is clearly smitten with the vivacious Rose (Marylin McGinnis) but not blind to the emotional instability hiding behind her sparkling eyes. There is a dangerous mania in her that she struggles to suppress, and with the birth of each child we watch her self-control erode. The role is an emotional workout, spanning the gamut from childlike glee to abject hysteria, and she attacks each note. She captures the charmingly seductive quality that can accompany mental illness, whether in a spokesmodel-inspired fugue or shyly struggling with the advances of a lecherous neighbor (Eric Kuritzky). Sincic is fine in the less flashy role, stoically chronicling the journey from hopeful new father to dissipated old man.

The heart of the show is concerned with children, and each sibling is given at least one moment to shine: James facilely slips in and out of TV character impressions as a defense mechanism; Charlie allows flashes of his angry past to show through the cracks of his newfound holiness; Betty makes a desperate, years-too-late bid for paternal acceptance.

Rowell's deliberately constructed script is chock-full of parallels and echoes. Sometimes it is too carefully built for its own good; the script is narrowly focused on these characters' defining traumas to the exclusion of the quirks and contradictions of real family life. As a memory play it can be forgiven vagueness in the particulars of period, but some moments (an overly prescient coming-out scene) ring anachronistically false. The direction tends toward the theatrical, with characters loudly declaiming when they might more naturally be having an intimate conversation. But by the conclusion there is a gentle honesty in the play's bittersweet anticlimax. This may not be the easiest family to watch, and for some audience members the issues may hit uncomfortably close to home, but there is much to admire as this passionate cast throws everything into it — including the kitchen sink.

From the Orlando Sentinel arts@orlandoweekly.com

Click here to purchase a copy of "Kitchen Recipies."

Wednesday, December 4, 2002

Last modified at 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Theater without the frills

By Patti Levine-Brown

Clay County Line correspondent

The stage lights come up, but the set is sparse. The actors are all sitting around a table, but they are not in costume. A play will begin shortly, but the audience won't see a lot of action.

A narrator explains the scene and the characters begin reading. Unlike productions with elaborate sets, costumes and costly overhead expenses, Reader's Theater is a simple and inexpensive way to present an unpublished playwright's work.

Actors have a chance to read parts with emotion and feeling, but they don't spend weeks rehearsing and then appearing in a full stage production.

Last week, the Orange Park Community Theatre hosted just such a program. A cast of 11 presented Orlando playwright Steve Rowell's Kitchen Recipes. Rowell, the author of about 20 plays, also had this particular play presented by Reader's Theater participants in New York and Los Angeles.

The plot revolves around the Sanders family, which includes Albert, Rose and their three children, Betty, Charles and James. The drama follows the family through their ups and downs over nearly 50 years. The dialogue is crisp and Rowell touches on some serious problems experienced by average American families, including mental illness, homosexuality and suicide.

Rowell understands that the existence of such problems was in direct contrast to the way television characterized the American family in the 1950s, with such programs as Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver. He makes this point in the play when one of the Sanders children has to see a doctor because he does not want to do anything but watch family television sitcoms. However, in the midst of all this family's difficulties, Rowell appropriately places humorous situations within the story line that help the audience understand the characters, and make the family more realistic.

Director Layla Shaner described the play as having a classic story line.

"This is a story about a married couple, their troubles with each other and the problems that can come with raising kids," said Shaner. "I think our audiences could relate to these things and I believe that is something they really liked about the play."

Susan Carcaba, who read the part of Rose Sanders, had never taken part in a Reader's Theater production. She said the experience was a great exercise.

"In my 40 years of theater experience, I had never seen or done any Reader's Theater and I felt it was time," Carcaba said. "This is a well-written play with some strong characters and I am glad that I got involved."

Veteran Orange Park actor Linda French, who has attended many Reader's Theater productions, said the experience can be very beneficial to an actor.

"This kind of theater gives an actor the opportunity to try something without a lot of commitment and see if the audience likes it," French said. "It is a good testing ground."

Ray Patterson, who read the part of Albert Sanders, said Reader's Theater is also a good way for people who are considering acting to try it out.

"For someone who thinks they might want to be in theater, this is a good starting point," said Patterson, who has worked in theater for 30 years. "It offers someone an opportunity to try something, but it doesn't require much time."

Rowell said this kind of production is harder on an audience because they have to invision the play in their heads.

"I am more open to ideas that I get from members of the audience than I am from ideas that come from people in the theater because an audience sees a play as living and breathing material," Rowell said. "I have gotten some good response from people in the audience and the things they have said may cause me to do some rewriting."

Audience member Grey Duncan said Reader's Theater gives the playwright a chance to see how an audience reacts to his work.

"These plays haven't been produced yet, so if changes need to be made, this is a good time to do it," Duncan said. "It is also a great way for a theater to get something up and going with little expense. It doesn't take a big investment for a theater to put a production like this on stage."

Jonathan Dickey, a student at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, described his first-time experience with Reader's Theater as food for the brain.

"I came because I heard the play was good, and I must say I enjoyed the whole thing," Dickey said. "You have to think and see the pictures in your head and I like that kind of challenge."

Scott Broughton, who read the James Sanders and Father Murphy parts, said Reader's Theater also can challenge the actors.

"It's difficult for an actor because you can't use body language, but I truly enjoyed the challenge," Broughton said. "I like the writer's work, I love the play, and I think it would be great to do it in a larger stage production."

Narrator:

I am very excited about today's program. We are going to create three uniquely different entrees using the same basic ingredients.

Three very different lives develop as children grow up, depart and then return home in this memory play.

Top(left to right):Steve Rowell, Lorraine Stobbe, Jeff Berry, Sarah Paulding, Matt Nowosielski, H. Clark Kee, Josie Lawson Middle(left to right):Lina Cloffe, Eric Hanson, Michael Bernstein
Bottom: Lorree True, Ruthanne Gereghty

Kitchen Recipes

 I find the play to be sensitive, with interesting characters and relationships. 

It's also interesting theatrically, with the device of going back and forth in time. I saw Sideman, which uses the same type of device.  It worked really well and encouraged me to believe that Kitchen Recipes could work in the same way.

 The device of the cooking show narration is good.  I liked it even better on

rereading the play.  -  Lorree True, Director, Deptford Players,NYC

Strong psychological family drama has long been a main course of American

theatre, and Steve Rowell's Kitchen Recipes dishes up a filling offering with

 distinct flavors and textures.  At the center of the play is the compelling

 exploration of the mother's suicide and the lasting impact it has on her

 widowed husband and three children even as they age.  Rather than one day's

journey into darkness Kitchen Recipes is a parade through for decades from

the 1950s well into the next century accurately depicting the new culture

 shaped by the suburbs.  Steve's use of culinary metaphors provides a welcome contrast to a stern tale told with intelligence and understanding. His efforts

should be encouraged and nurtured.-Susan Rowland, Limelight Theatre St. Augustine, Florida 

I read Kitchen Recipes just a few days ago, and I really liked it. I couldn't put it

 down the whole flight, even though the stewardess kept saying something

 about tray tables. Anyway, it's great stuff. I really enjoyed it. Sean Daniels, Dad's Garage, Atlanta Georgia

Kitchen Recipes is a full length play in two acts told in a nonlinear format.  The play

depicts a family starting out in the 1950s in suburbia and follows them for sixty years.

 It is told in a non-liner format and incorporates a narrator who drifts through the play and the players representing their lives in cooking metaphors.

ACT I

        2000 - Three siblings sit at the kitchen table and discuss the next day.  They are

taking their father Albert, from the home he has lived in for thirty years and putting

him into a nursing home.

        1950's Rose and Albert Sanders are newlyweds.  They are busy with their lives

creating the new social structure of the era.  They raise their children and relate to

neighbors.  Rose has an affair.

        2000's Later in the evening, all three awake and continue bickering and

remembering.

1960-70's The children grow into adulthood and bring on problems.  Rose commits suicide and leaves a note.  Albert finds the note but can not bring himself to read it.  He hides it in a kitchen drawer.

ACT II

1970s  There is a funeral.  The tree siblings look for answers, trying to deal with what

has happened.

1980-90's  The children return to their father on independent visits relating their new

lives and attempting to stay in touch.

2000   The brothers and sister gather their fathers belongings and get him ready to go.  Albert stands at the drawer where the note is hidden but even now can not open the

note.

The Future - The new owners of the house are awakened in the night to find Albert,

suffering from Alzheimer's, in a clutter in the kitchen.  The couple find the unopened note in the clutter and read it to a catatonic Albert.

5 Family Members

ALBERT SANDERS - Male seen from his twenties to his eighties. He is desperately

trying to hold his fragile family together.

ROSE SANDERS - Female seen from her early twenties to late fourtys.  A mentally

disturbed wife and mother who has trouble coping with the freedom of suburbia.

BETTY SANDERS  - Female seen from her teens to early fifties.  A lesbian trying to

cope with her sexual preference and her family through the 1950s and 1960s.

JAMES SANDERS - Male seen from his teens to fifties.  A disenfranchised individual

who looks to television to fill his emotional void.

CHARLES SANDERS - Male seen from his teens to his fifties.  Lost soul searching

for personal satisfaction.

NARRATOR  -  An unchanging ghostlike presence that guides the audience through the lives of the family by means of a television cooking show.

ENSEMBLE

ACTOR #1  Female late twenties.

 Lizzy Evans neighbor and friend of Rose

ACTOR #2  Female late twenties.

Jane Franks  neighbor and friend of RoseWoman – inhabits house after

the Sanders.

ACTOR #3  Male early thirties.

                Ken Franks & Neighbor who seduces Rose.  Psychiatrist who examines James

ACTOR #4 – Male early thirties

        Dan Evans, Neighbor and friend of Albert. Man – inhabits house after the Sanders

Unit set - Kitchen that is remodeled between acts

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