By Virginia Schneider
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 6/17/2023 – If you want to kick your Summer off to a perfect start, go see playwright Eric Anderson’s gem of a play, Back Porch, at the Victory Theatre in Burbank.
It’s 1955 in the most boring stretch of prairie poor Kansas has to offer (at least if you’re a teenager) when all of a sudden, Hollywood arrives in your backyard to shoot a major film – Picnic – with none other than William Holden and Kim Novak in tow. Holy cow! For 18-year-old Gary (Isaac W. Jay) who loves everything about the movies and nothing about prairie life, his dreams just came true, so it’s time for a comical full out panic attack. His little brother Del Wayne (Cody Lemmon) sees it as the adventure of a lifetime.
Their widowed father Barney (Karl Maschek) along with friend and neighbor Millard (Jonathan Fishman) aren’t as enthusiastic about those strange Hollywood types. As for the family’s boarder, singing teacher Myron (Eric Zak), the movie stars are the devil in celluloid. But when a handsome stranger in the form of Holden’s stand-in, Bill (Jordan Morgan) is invited to the house by Del Wayne, all their lives irrevocably change.
Cody Lemmon is spot on, giving a multi-layered portrayal of young Del Wayne, at turns inquisitive, rambunctious, effervescent, wistful, sometimes all at once. Director Kelie McIver gives Lemmon full use of the set as his personal jungle gym, to display his zest and playfulness.
Isaac W. Jay’s emotions effortlessly run the gamut from nerdy awkwardness, to gleeful passion to heartbreaking reality, growing up right before the audience. His character’s emotions, humor, and brilliant mind swim in his eyes. Jordan Morgan delicately walks the line between the latchkey loner, with his desire for acceptance and connection, and the blinding need that drives him away from both. Morgan and Jay’s scenes are magic, thanks to McIver and intimacy director Amanda Rose Villarreal’s ability to mine tiny moments as both characters find the discomfort and delight of first love.
Karl Maschek’s Barney is a loving father stuck in his own sorrow, trying to do the right thing but uncertain how. He’s supported by Fishman’s faithful and devoted Millard, who owns the stage with his brotherly wisdom and quick wit. Zak’s perfectly awkward and comically endearing Myron the singing teacher, with his emotional energy tempered by the propriety of duty eventually bursts with humanity when he breaks free and finds his own voice.
Director Kelie McIver has cast well and done a brilliant job of staging on the postage stamp size stage so that it seems much larger. This is helped by a beautiful scenic backdrop by set designer Kenneth Klimak which conveys a vast, misty hued prairie. Klimak has also recreated the perfect old cottage porch set, with wicker furniture, beautifully lit by lighting designer Carol Doehring. Along with sound designer Cinthia Nava, McIver has created terrific period appropriate pre-show music with everything from Prado’s Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom to Foggy Mountain Top by the Davis Sisters, even old Tootsie Roll ads. (Nava and McIver also get one of the play’s best laugh lines with a little ‘bird song.’) Stunt Director Brett Elliott provides clever and dramatic choreography for some of the play’s most stunning moments.
At the heart of it all is Eric Anderson’s brilliant, pitch perfect dialogue and lovely story telling. Anderson writes from experience, recalling when the film Picnic did indeed come to his small Kansas town to shoot. His re-imaging of that excitement and the humor and humanity he imbues his characters feels so natural and real. Anderson has let his older characters, rather appropriately, voice ever so subtly, various accepted prejudices of the era which like laces, later in the play will tighten around the characters, threatening them to conform. By play’s end, laces have burst and everyone steps into the uncertain future with hope.
Performances of Back Porch take place on Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. from June 2 through July 9. All tickets are $25.
The Victory Theatre Center is located at 3324 W. Victory Blvd in Burbank, CA 91505.
June 2 – July 9:
• Fridays at 8 p.m.: June 2 (opening night); June 9; June 16; June 23; June 30; July 7
• Saturdays at 8 p.m.: June 3; June 10; June 17; June 24; July 1; July 8
• Sundays at 4 p.m.: June 4; June 11; June 18; June 25; July 2; July 9
For information and to purchase tickets, call (818) 533-1611 or go to onstage411.com/BackPorch.
