Page 18 Thursday, July 16, 2015 The Westfield Leader and The Scotch Plains – Fanwood TIMES A WATCHUNG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. PUBLICATION

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Photo Courtesy of Jeff MazzolaON SET...Westfield High School sophomore, Julian Mazzola, addresses theaudience on camera on the set of Nat Geo Kids. The 14 year-old is one of the hostsof the children's educational series that is filmed in New York City and airs on theYouTube Channel.

Tony Nominee Beth MaloneInspires Aspiring Thespians

By DEVON YANVARYSpecially Written for The Westfield Leader and

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood Times

CRANFORD – Packed tightly intothe Cranford Drama Club this pastFriday was a crowd of aspiring ac-tresses and actors from the CenterStage Program, excitedly awaiting thearrival of Tony nominee Beth Malone.

Just as one would expect from aBroadway star, Ms. Malone came in,fresh off the train from the New YorkCity itself and began her interviewwith former co-workers and long-time friends Valarie Pineda and ChrisJohnson.

Ms. Malone spoke to the Center Stagestudents about making a dream into areality, and how much of a nightmarethat can sometimes be. Through seri-ousness and humorousness, she usedstories from her own life, which every-body listened to attentively.

Discussion of odd-jobs, like wait-ing tables and diving forklifts, tookthe forefront of the interview, as Ms.Malone illustrated to the teenagersthat there is always room for changeand success, no matter what path inlife you’re currently on. Similarly, thetopic of doubt was discussed; theuncertainty of following one’s dream,and that ever-present thought of “isthis right for me?”

And while some motivationalspeakers would have preached aboutendless possibilities, Ms. Malonespoke frankly about choices—spe-cifically how having too many choicesis actually not as helpful as one wouldthink.

“Every decision takes you in a di-rection,” she said. She went on to saythat having too many choices cansometimes lead us away from ourgoals and how sometimes options canbe distractions. Malone stressed theimportance of saying “no,” becausethis can often leave us open to betteror more well-suited opportunities we

may have missed otherwise.Finally, Malone spoke of failure.

She expressed having tried her veryhardest, on multiple occasions, andstated that she still failed despite herefforts. What made this a wonderfulmessage was her acceptance of herfailures and her final thought statingthat failing is fine because things havea way of “working out anyway.”

In her opinion, she stated that to“be kind to yourself and value your-self” was one of the most importantthings we can do.

After 30 minutes of questions, around of Pictionary broke out be-tween Ms. Malone and Mr. Johnson.The two faced off to see who draw thebest hints, to which the Center Stagestudents found absolutely hilarious.

Their laughter echoed well into thelast round, and ended just before they

switched roles with Malone, andtreated the performer to a perfor-mance of their own. A brief segmentwas taken from their upcoming show“When You Wish Upon A Star – ADisney Cabaret,” which containedsongs from The Lion King and Tarzan.

The event ended with a group pic-ture, and Ms. Malone saying goodbyeand hurrying off to catch the 4:15p.m. train back to the city so that shecould get ready for the next showingof Fun Home, her current Broadwayrole. The silence that followed waswistful as the teenagers clearly en-joyed their visit with Ms. Malone andstill wanted more time with her.

Only when one girl shouted, “Sheis so cool!” did the teens finally breaktheir professional façade to excitedlyrecount the experience they had alljust shared.

Alliance Repertory TheatrePresents Venus in Fur at Mondo

By SUSAN M. DOUGHERTYSpecially Written for The Westfield Leader and

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood Times

SUMMIT – Hot and steamy is notthe weather forecast, but describesthe chemistry onstage in Venus inFur, Alliance Repertory Theatre’sshow now playing weekends at theintimate basement theatre in theMondo Brownstone Building inSummit. The stage is always a per-fect medium for fantasy role play-ing and there are layers of it inDavid Ives’ play. This intriguingtwo-actor play comes alive with thetalent of two amazing actors andartful direction of veteran actor/di-rector David Christopher,

A thunderclap opens the scenewhere writer/director Thomas (theperfectly cast Jeff Ronan) is wrap-ping up auditions for the day. He’s abit on edge since he hasn’t able tofill the major role of Vanda for hisplay. A striking girl in a belted trenchcoat (coincidentally named Vanda -the versatile Christy Richardson)blows in like a hurricane gust full ofbluster and irritation. She’s upsetbecause of the torrential rain, a heelcaught in a subway grate and a per-vert on the train that was trying tomolest her.

Amid a string of F-bombs, sheexplains that although she’s hourslate for her scheduled appointmentfor the audition, she figures she hasnothing to lose by attempting to talkthe director into giving her a chanceto read for the part. When she takesoff her trench coat, she’s dressed ina black leather bustier, garter belt

and black stockings, a black leathermini skirt and a dog collar. Thomascorrects this actress when she refersto his play as “S and M porn.” Heinsists it is a great love story. Andthe sparring begins

When Thomas hesitates in lettingher audition, classic self doubt thatplagues most actors overtakesVanda. She tells him she realizesshe’ll never get the role. “...I’m tooyoung, I’m too old. I’m too big. I’mtoo small. My resume’s not longenough.” She supposedly “gets” itand prepares to leave. But the pasde deux is in full swing. She has agoody bag filled with props andcostumes that she wriggles in andout of through out the 90-minuteshow.

Mysteriously, Vanda has a copyof the full script. Thomas is takenaback, but she claims it was sent toher by her agent. A few other weirdcoincidences emerge: her name isn’ton the list of auditioners, her re-sume is strangely weak, and sheseems to know the script by heartalthough she says she barely glancedat it. She has a plausible explana-tion for every improbable “coinci-dence.”

A cat and mouse game ensueswhen Vanda morphs from hardenedcaterpillar in leather to elegant but-terfly in a flowing, cream – coloredfrock. Her crude, Brooklyn dialecttransforms into perfectly articulatedEnglish, British flavor. She takeson feminine, elegant posture, voiceand mannerisms of the charactershe is supposed to play. Watch Ms.

Richardson’s body language – fromher smile, posture, and stance, sheis a master in presenting two dia-metrically opposed characters in theblink of an eye.

While they role play, informationabout Thomas’ personal life spillsout of Vanda. He’s intrigued yet abit frightened as to how she knowsso much about him. Mind gamesand manipulation mingle with selfrevelation to produce an entertain-ing evening. Both Mr. Ronan andMs. Richardson elicit laughs andgasps because of their expert deliv-ery and razor-sharp timing.

By the end of the night, Thomasand the audience don’t quite knowthe motivation of what he has writ-ten. But the journey for self realiza-tion of the play within the play is athrilling one.

If you didn’t get to see this pro-vocative play about the role of powerand manipulation when it was onBroadway, put it on your must seelist in the next two weekends. Fortickets, call (908) 472-1502.

www.goleader.com