Friday, July 3, 2009

Theater review: The Man with the Pointed Toes

By Lyle Huchton of John Garcia's The Column

Have you ever had a piece of watermelon on a hot summer's day? By eating it you may have to spit out a few seeds, have some of the sticky juice run down your arm or dribble on your shirt but none the less, it is still so sweet and even more refreshing. As is the current offering from Artisan Center Theater in Hurst, The Man with the Pointed Toes.

The story is a simple one. A rancher with no education or social skills falls in love with the girl of his dreams but needs to be "coached in culture" to ensure he can obtain said girl. So he hires a tutor to train him in the ways of the world. Teacher falls in love with rancher. Rancher falls in love with teacher. Bitchy, gold-digging fiancee is in the way ... we all knows what happens next.

In this case the Texas rancher (Tom Corterel) is being played by Alan Earl. Earl, with his young Ron Howard "awe shucks" looks and deep dimples should make a fine candidate to portray Tom. He starts out well enough, but did not make a believable transformation to the educated man he needs to become. He fumbled around most of his lines and stayed on one note through the whole performance.

His two simple minded ranch-hands, Hank Stover and Lem Reed, competently portrayed by Loren Gray and Daniel King bring a fresh approach to the characters without being too stereotypical. Grey's Hank is hilarious, both in action and tone. King plays the perfect foil to his "fool."

Laura Tolsma looks like she stepped onto the stage straight off the pages of a 1965 Sears and Roebuck catalog. Her interpretation of the school marmish Florence, reminded me of the voice and diction teacher I had in college, "get" not "git" and "anything" not "innything." As subdued she was in the first act is counterbalanced with her blooming second act. She plays a drunk scene that splinters the furniture and maintains that same energy until the end.

Carlos Ayala makes the most of his part as the lovable Jose Gonzales, lone housekeeper/butler/cook for the ranch.

Rounding out the cast are Chris Janvier as Link Hanson, the no-nonsense ranch manager, Dan Fergus as Randol Wright and Adi Salgado as Pam Wright, his gold-digging daughter who is a dead ringer for a teenage Annette Funicello on a bender of bitter pills.

Please forgive me if I do not say enough good things about the costume and make-up/hair design for the women of this cast. Designers Dee Ann Blair and Brenda Jones (costumes) and Ryan Smith (make-up/hair) did their homework. This, my fellow designers, is how you do vintage costumes. Perfect in fit and character appropriate, the work here is spot on. The men, however, lack a little polish. By adding a few choice accessories, a vest, a pair of suspenders, a few bandannas here and there, would fix this right up.

Set and lighting designer Jason Leyva gives the group a fine place to play. I only wish director Dan Nolan, Jr. would have taken advantage of this space. The static action moved from dining table to couch to bar and back again. Stage Manager Cassondra Plybon keeps the show up and running.

On a final note, I want to share the overwhelming sense of community I got from my visit to Artisan. From the moment I arrived, I felt welcome and at ease. (I was even offered candy from a fellow audience member.) Other theaters could learn a lot from this special camaraderie. Back to my reference to the slice of watermelon: If you are like me, you won't mind a bit discarding a few seeds and wiping off a little sticky mess to get to the sweet rewards of The Man with the Pointed Toes.

Pegasus News content partner - John Garcia's The Column

See more stories in:

• Arts > Fine Arts > Theater > Plays