#Ted Swindley

[larryland]

REVIEW: "Always...Patsy Cline" at the Sharon Playhouse

REVIEW: “Always…Patsy Cline” at the Sharon Playhouse

[a-year-of-musicals]

Day 192/365 - Always... Patsy Cline

By Ted Swindley

The story is based on the true story of Patsy Cline's friendship with Houston housewife Louise Seger.

Having first heard Cline on the "Arthur Godfrey Show" in 1957, Seger became an immediate and avid fan of Cline's and she constantly hounded the local disc jockey to play Cline's records on the radio.

In 1961 when Cline went to Houston for a show, Seger and her buddies arrived about an hour-and-a-half early and, by coincidence, met Cline who was traveling alone. The two women struck up a friendship that was to culminate in Cline spending the night at Seger's house - a friendship that lasted until Cline's untimely death in a plane crash in 1963.

The relationship, which began as fan worship evolved into one of mutual respect. It is the kind of relationship that many fans would like to have with their heroes.

Over a pot of strong coffee, the two women chatted about their common concerns. When Cline finally left for Dallas, her next job, the two women had exchanged addresses and telephone numbers. Seger never expected to hear from Cline again, but soon after she left, Seger received the first of many letters and phone calls from Cline. The pen-pal relationship provides much of the plot of the show.

The play focuses on the fateful evening at Houston's Esquire Ballroom when Seger hears of Cline's death in a plane crash. Seger supplies a narrative while Cline floats in and out of the set singing tunes that made her famous - Anytime, Walkin' After Midnight, She's Got You, Sweet Dreams, and Crazy - to name a few.

The show combines humor, sadness and reality. It offers fans who remember Cline while she was alive a chance to look back, while giving new fans an idea of what seeing her was like and what she meant to her original fans. The show is named after how Cline would sign off her letters to Seger “(Love) Always... Patsy Cline”

Favourite Songs: Shoes, Crazy, Who Can I Count On, I Love You So Much It Hurts, Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue), Walkin’ After Midnight, Shes Got You, You Belong To Me and Always.

Favourite Character: Seger

She shows us Patsy from the perspectives of both a fan and a friend - a most valuable narration of her life.

[showbizchicago]

Reviewed by: Matthew Perta

Highly Recommended

Photos by: Michael Brosilow

Whenever I read a good book, see a great movie or experience theater at its best, I fall to pieces.  Not literally, mind you, but I do go a little crazy – it’s like that’s all I want to talk about.  At the risk of sounding a little too corny, let me rein it in a bit here and tell you about a rip-roaring show.

I saw recently that tore my little old heart to pieces, it’s called Always…Patsy Cline, the season finale in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s quaint Stackner Cabaret.

Originally created by Ted Swindley and based on a true story, Always…Patsy Cline is about the phenomenal friendship that blossoms between Patsy Cline, a country music superstar gifted with an exceptional vocal range, and Louise Seger, a devoted fan.  Seger becomes Cline’s most ardent follower after hearing her sing on the Arthur Godfrey television show.  The two meet face to face at a honky-tonk bar in Houston and become best friends – Seger even invites Cline to stay over at her house before heading off to Dallas for another gig.  The friendship continues well after Cline heads off to Dallas – the two exchanged letters right up until Cline’s tragic death in a plane crash outside of Nashville in 1963.

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Kelley Faulkner, a New York native now residing in Milwaukee, reprises the role of Cline which she first played at The Rep back in 2012.  I’ve seen Faulkner before, just recently as Adelaide in The Rep’s Guys and Dolls, but as Patsy Cline is astonishing.  Faulkner perfectly captures Cline’s warmth, and her expressive, one-of-a-kind singing style and smooth as silk voice.  All eyes in the house were transfixed on Faulkner as she brought to life Cline’s wide-ranging repertoire of tunes including “I Fall to Pieces,” “Sweet Dreams” and “Crazy,” along with Cole Porter’s “True Love” and many more.

Sharing the stage with Faulkner, Tami Workentin (who’s performed with the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre in Chicago) brings down the house with her deliciously wild yet touching turn as Cline’s No. 1 fan Louise Seger.  Seger’s hilarious – and raunchy – exchanges with the audience are pure gold.  And nobody I know can sway their hips in excitement while wearing tight jeans as well as Workentin can.

Always…Patsy Cline is a rollicking good time, filled with melodious tunes, laughter and love, taking us back to simpler times.  This show provides us with the escape we need from a world that’s growing increasingly more jaded, but at the same time, it fits into the hot topics of today: empowering women and treating them with respect.  Director Laura Braza elicits performances from Faulkner and Workentin that pack such a punch it’s obvious Cline and Seger, both married

to less-than-spectacular husbands, took charge of their respective lives, thumbed their noses at men and formed an unbreakable bond.

Faulkner’s role as Cline requires her to make multiple costume changes throughout the show.  One of those costumes is a cowgirl dress, fringe and all, created by Milwaukee-based designer Leslie Vaglica.  The other costumes, striking in color and style, add immeasurably to Faulkner’s superb portrayal, reminding us of the girlish charm and keen fashion sense for which Cline was known.

Always…Patsy Cline also reminds us, particularly those of my generation that were too young to remember Cline, that one of the most beautiful voices ever heard in concerts and on the airwaves in the 20th century was unfairly snuffed out way too early.

Always…Patsy Cline sings and laughs its way into human hearts now through May 20 in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stackner Cabaret, located at 108 E. Wells in downtown Milwaukee.  For tickets visit www.MilwaukeeRep.com or call (414) 224-9490.

Kelley Faulkner Is Astonishing In Milwaukee Reps “Always…Patsy Cline” Reviewed by: Matthew Perta Highly Recommended Photos by: Michael Brosilow Whenever I read a good book, see a great movie or experience theater at its best, I fall to pieces. 

[dramatistsguild]

DG National Report: Houston by William Duell

@dramatistsguild 

I had the pleasure of meeting, getting to know and interviewing Ted Swindley (Always…Patsy Cline, Honkey Tonk Angels), the guest of honor at the Texas Playwrights Festival at Stages Repertory Theatre last summer, and the founder of Stages as well as the original Texas Playwrights Festival. I learned from Ted how culturally and theatrically influential Stages has been in the Houston region since its first season in 1978. It was the first theatre to mount Houston, regional or world premieres of a variety of ground-breaking works, both plays and musicals. Here are just nine from its first five seasons: Bent (Martin Sherman, 1982), Buried Child (Sam Shepard, 1979), The Diviners (Jim Leonard, 1981), Getting Out (Marsha Norman, 1980), The Gin Game (D.L. Coburn, 1982), No Exit (Jean-Paul Sartre, adapted by Paul Bowles, 1981), Red Rover, Red Rover (Oliver Hailey, 1978), Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (Christopher Durang, 1982), and both male and female versions of Whose Life Is It Anyway? (Brian Clark, 1981). I had to debate with myself over which of the premieres to include given that, during these years, Stages mounted 51 full-length productions, not including its touring productions or the shorts it produced during the first playwrights fest in 1982.

           Will Duell: How did you do it? Some seasons you were producing sixteen to nineteen full-lengths!

           Ted Swindley: We were crazy! (laughs) Well, we were crazy, young, ambitious and in love with good theatre. When I started Stages, I looked at the landscape: There was the Alley and not much else. I was shocked that a city this size didn’t have anything like Off Broadway or cutting edge theatre or a theatre promoting new works. I decided we should and I will. I wanted Stages to stimulate thought regarding racism, ethnicity, sexual evolution, international politics, and I wanted not just the Texas Playwrights Festival but some of our regular season to focus on Texas writers, so that we lived up to the name of a regional theatre.

           But we were crazy! When we started out, in an old brewery near downtown, we would sometimes perform nearly to midnight, have excited people in the audience stay till 1:30 AM or later, then get up the next morning and do it all over again. A receptionist used to answer the phone for us, “Hello, this is Stages, your 24-hour theatre!” And we really were!

           We knew what we were doing, but we wanted to do it all. I wanted to direct Paul Bowles’ version of No Exit. This was during an economic downturn. I told our managing director I wanted to close the season with it. He said, “Ted, you’re going to close the theatre with it.” But I did direct it, it was a hit and we ended up extending it.

           Still it was the support from the theatre and playwriting community that gave me the confidence to try anything. Marsha Norman was a mentor and an inspiration who, by the way, dedicated Stages when we took over the new two-theatre facility in Houston's historic, renovated Star Engraving Building on Allen Parkway. After seeing a performance of Getting Out that I directed, when I was lacking confidence about keeping the theatre afloat, she told me, “Ted, if you know the what, the how will take care of itself. And you know what theatre is.” This helped me a lot; it’s stayed with me ever since. These are words to live by. I’m very pleased with all we did, very content with everything that happened and that I’ve spent my life in the theatre.

           WD: Any words of wisdom you’d like to offer playwrights to live by?

           TS: Three words: Tell great stories.    

wduell@dramatistsguild.com