il ■ U//214 4B UPPER ARLINGTON NEWS July 2, 1986 4 g ‘Ah, Wilderness!’ captures changing patterns of family Eugene O'Neill was the opened their twentieth anni Hartman is comfortable on bel of the family, the reader son of James O’Neill, an versary season with a well- a'stage and can fill that stage and “free” thinker. Irish immigrant who came produced and very touch or be a part of the back ingly played production of ground, he can command Nat Miller (David Cald- to the United Stales at the will) is Mrs. Miller’s brother age of five. Ah, Wilderness. It is a play focus or give focus to anoth of a slower-paced lime — a er, one thing many actors and “Uncle Sid” to the fam Eugene O’Neill, went ily. He has a salesman’s per from private schools to play about family life and cannot do. Princeton University but family values and the conti sonality, is a flashy dresser nuity of that life and it’s val The rest of the Miller fam can drink too much, and ev was dismissed at the end of a eryone loves him most of year because of failing ues. ily is played by Catherine grades. The next five years We meet the Miller’s in ater as an equity artist. Broadway productions Randazzo as mother, Essie the time. he worked as a common sea the family home in a small Director Dr. Charles Do-: which includes his favorite Miller; Arthur, the son The story is about the man and held laborer jobs in town in Connecticut. Fa drill and professional actor, role of Jay Follet in All the home form college (Tim family, growing up, and ac Argentina. Eugene was both ther, Nat Miller is owner Michael, had last worked to Way Home. Obviously, Do- Gregory); Mildred (Bethany ceptance of others. It is also an actor and stage manager and editor of the towns gether in 1970 for a summeij drill and Hartman work well Bangeman), the still at home about patterns of life. The for short intervals with his newspaper. Nat Miller was theater production of Har together as Hartman’s por daughter; Tommy (Brad Eg- changes in the patterns from father’s trouF>e. This was fol played by Michael Hart vey. Hartman has worked trayal of the father, Nat gert), the youngest son; and July 4, 1906 to July 4, 1986 lowed by being a reporter. In man, on his second return to on Broadway in Sherlock Miller, was warm, humor the middle son, Richard, are legion, yet in some ways 1912, he entered a sanatori this Otterbein Summer The- Holmes and numerous off ous and very believable. (Steve Geyer) who is the re the same. um where he was a tubercu 1. lar patient. It was there that O’Neill decided to become a playwright and his first step was to read all the plays written by Jenrik Ibsen and I August Strinberg. i Eugene O'Neill’s first pro c fessionally produced play. Beyond the Horizon, re ( ceived the Pulitzer Prize for ( drama in 1920 followed by 1 Pulitzer Prize-winning I Anna Christie in 1922 and Strange Interlude in 1927. In 1936 he became the sec ond American to be award ed the Nobel Prize for litera ture. Ah, Wilderness! (1932) was one of O’Neill's few in cursions into comedy and is a very successful play with audiences throughout the world. The Otterbein Summer Theatre again proved the universal app>eal of O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness as they 0tt6rb6in orsd roturns for Ah, Wildornoss O "Hainan and ^S^^scenery and sewmg up cos man Charles Dodrill for the By Dana Stone actors and actresses have tumes, Cox said. SNP Staff Writer first time in 16 years, he “Creating the scenery was put in long hours getting Michael Hartman, a 1970 said. . ^ , a big job because it had to be Otterbein College graduate, “It’s fun working with the ready to put on Ah, Wilder built from scratch," she has experienced some per student thespians in the ness!, Cox said. They re said. "It has to look realis hearsed three times a day for sonal and theatrical nostal play," he said. ‘T learns as tic." gia since returning to cam much from them as they eight days prior to its open The play will be per pus to appear in Ah, learn from me." ing, which was yesterday. formed tonight through Sat When the student per Wilderness! Hartman has appeared in urday at 8i30 p.m. and Sun Hartman, who has ap Sherlock Holmes on Broad formers weren’t rehearsing, day, June 29, at 2 p.m. peared on the New York way and in So Long on they were busy building stage and in television com- Lonely Street, an off-Broad- - mercials, portrays the father way play, according to Chris of the main character in Cox, an Otterbein actress. Wilderness. The Eugene O’ He has done some national Neil play, a romantic story television commercials for about a 16-year-old boy Pepsi-Cola and Miracle growing into manhood in Whip salad dressing, she early the 20th century, runs said. until next Sunday in the Arena Theater in the Cam- Steve Geyer portrays Richard, Hartman’s theatri pus Center. “The play is a warm, nos cal son who falls in love. The talgic piece," he said. "And father of Richard’s girl is un it’s nostalgic for me to come happy when he finds out back to Otterbein a few days that the boy reads poetry. early and see some old As a result, he tells his friends." daughter to get rid of him, Hartman, who appeared said Tod Wilson, the play’s in a 1983 Otterbein produc business manager. In the tion of Elephant Man, will end, everything works out work with play director and? best, and boy gets theater department chair- girl. ■ ■■ Thursday, June 26,1986/(rhe Columbus flispatch/9 C ISION Nostalgic picnic worth joining By Nancy Gilson Dispofch Arts Reporter takes himself a little too seriously Ah, wilderness. Ah, nostalgia. REVIEW — a touch of self-deprecation Ah, tradition. would have added some needed Otterbein Summer Theatre is bite to the production — but he celebrating its 20th anniversary Abl Wilderness continues has deftly captured the high- through Sunday in the Campus minded, squirmy anxiety of ado with a nostalgia piece, Eugene Arena Theatre at Otterbein lescence. O'NeiH’s cheerful Ah! Wilderness. College. This production and indeed, Dodrill has chosen a leisurely the whole season, is like a family pace, perhaps appropriate for the picnic with lots of members com in dutch” and “water closet.” (It’s 1900s setting. Still, the production ing home to recall good times and the bathroom > Charlotte Dou feels stodgy and every perform add to them. In all, Otterbein will gherty overcomes the disadvan ance would be improved with bring back nine of its theater tage of youth to give a poignant snappier deliveries. graduates —■ actors, designers and portrayal of the spinster aunt and As often happens at Otterbein directors who have gone on to David Caldwell is never better the designers have worked a little professional theater. Equity actor than when playing her devoted magic in the tiny basement Arena Michael Hartman, a 1970 gradu but drunk admirer. Theatre in the Campus Center ate, heads the cast of Ah! Wilder WITH HIS fresh face and Fred Thayer has fashioned a ness. He’s the father in this turn- slight build, Steve Geyer looks beautiful Victorian home and Pe- of-the-century domestic comedy. exactly right in the pivotal role of tie Dodrill has designed crisp, con fopn-aee son, Richard. Geyer genial costumes. THIS PLAY is a comfortable, if obviously dated selection. O’Neill is better known for his bitter, Greek-like tragedies such as The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey Into Night. Some say that with Ah! Wil derness, about the growing pains of an adolescent boy, O’Neill fan tasized about what his own boy hood might have been under hap pier circumstances. The play ! takes place during the Fourth of ‘ July, 1906, in a small town in Connecticut. Family crises revolve ! around an unmarried aunt, her , tippling suitor and the teen-age ! son’s first brush with demon rum and puppy love. It all seems espe cially old-fashioned compared to today’s teen angst movies such as The Breakfast Club. j Otterbein’s production, direct ed by Charles Dodrill, is played straight. Hartman’s father is a moral newspaper owner who de fends his children even if it means i offending a major advertiser. The I mother (Catherine Randazzo) ' fusses around the house and ob- jects"ttrsucH language as “getting