THE GAZETTE
Thursday, January 30, 2014 bo
STARS
Continued from Page B-1 interested in the relationship between intimacy and technology, in particular with younger people,” Roussève said. “We always battle with technology in the classroom … Rather than being so hardnosed about it, I thought, ‘I’m going to kind of explore why all of us are mediating our human contact through technology.’ That was really the jumping off point.” After cultivating ideas with his students, Roussève used his summer, winter and spring breaks from school to work with his company to “deepen and expand” those concepts. He also brought in dramaturg Lucy Burns to develop the storyline. “The text is so little so I have to pay attention to the economy of the words and pay attention to the character coming through and a story being told,” said Burns, who is also an associate professor in Asian American Studies at UCLA. “That’s primarily what I was asked to pay attention to …” Burns said she has seen Roussève’s work over the years and has even given him feedback on some of his pieces, but this marks the first official partnership between the two. Through its main character, “Stardust’s” narrative deals with “issues of homosexuality and acceptance, bullying, the power of art and technology’s
influence in our society.” “[I thought], who would be the most marginalized person possible?” Roussève said. “Someone who really needed technology as his only … form of communication … He’s ostracized from the broader world but his own African-American urban community is [also] ostracizing him for being gay.” Dancer Kevin Williamson said part of the thrill of being in “Stardust” is the opportunity to bring his own experiences and background to the stage. “I think I bring a really, really intense interest in the work,” Williamson said. “I get to weave my own experiences with gender and [what that means, and] my own experience as a gay man.” Williamson is a graduate student at UCLA and called Roussève a mentor. The two met while Williamson was an undergraduate student at the university. “His show inspired me so much and gave me freedom to move with my own choreographed show,” Williamson said. The pair reconnected at an awards show in 2008 and Roussève invited Williamson onto the “Stardust” project in 2010. In commissioning the piece, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center has not only signed on to present the show, but the venue has also worked
FRED NELSON
Eugene Valendo and Michael Dunlop rehearse a scene from 2nd Star’s upcoming production of “Funny Money.”
MONEY
Continued from Page B-1 of money. The kind of money that usually belongs to nefarious people. The kind of nefarious people who come looking for guys who stole their money, accidentally or not. 2nd Star Productions will bring those hilarious hijinks to life in Ray Cooney’s farce “Funny Money.” The show, filled with mistaken identities and crazy misadventures, opens Friday at the Bowie Playhouse. “Ray Cooney is sort of Great Britain’s answer to Woody Allen,” director Fred Nelson said. “… [Henry] has to rush to convince first his wife then his friends … that he has got to get out of the country with this money. … It’s a very over-thetop British bawdy comedy.” During the course of the evening, Henry has to employ various tricks in order to get people to believe him while characters in the show pretend to be other people in an attempt to keep the money secret, Nelson said. “The plot gets more and more convoluted until, in the end, all these people are rushing around playing all these different people trying to safely escape Great Britain with this money and their lives,” Nelson said. Nelson has been a fan of “Funny Money,” for a long time. He was in a production of the show 20 years ago in Guam, where he did other Cooney shows. “They were the time of my life,” Nelson said. “Last year … at 2nd Star, I was in a Ray Cooney comedy with Eugene Valendo and I knew that if I ever got the opportunity to direct the other Ray Cooney comedy, which is ‘Funny Money,’ that [Valendo] would be perfect to play the nebbish character, which in this play is Henry Perkins.” Things are also looking up for 2nd Star Productions. Nelson
FUNNY MONEY n When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, Jan. 31 to Feb. 16 n Where: Bowie Playhouse, 16500 White Marsh Park Dr., Bowie n Tickets: $22 n For information: 410-7575700, 301-832-4819, 2ndstarproductions.com
said the company recently found out they had been nominated for several Washington Area Theatre Community Honors awards for last year’s production of “It Runs in the Family,” which is also a Cooney play. “[Valdeno] and I have been nominated for WATCH best acting awards,” Nelson said. “2013 was 2nd Star’s first year as a WATCH-eligible theater … and they came out of the gate as the underdog and garnered just a whole bunch of nominations and won several of them. I, myself, won best actor in a musical for playing Tevye in ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ “2nd Star in Bowie is really making a big splash in the tristate area. I think it’s a justification of the hard work we’ve been doing.” Nelson said he hopes people in the area realize now they don’t have to drive all the way to the big city and pay a lot of money to see quality productions. “There is quality, awardwinning theater happening right here,” Nelson said. “I’ve done nearly 200 plays all over the world, from small theaters to big ones. I’ve done it all. The work that 2nd Star Productions has been putting out over the past couple of years is really world-class stuff. I’m hoping people will wake up to the fact that [this] kind of entertainment is easily available to them.” wfranklin@gazette.net
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Text will be projected onto large screens during “Stardust,” opening Friday at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. closely with Roussève to engage the local community in a dialogue about some of the issues “Stardust” deals with. “[The Clarice Smith Center] has done some amazing innovative thinking about connection with the community,” Roussève said. “ … You get very
much used to the same set of ideas; we’ll do a master class or a Q&A session ... I mentioned to [the center] about the strong spiritual message in the piece. What if we could contact a conversation with the African-American spiritual community?” In November, Roussève came to
VALERIE OLIVEIRO
Washington, D.C., and visited several African-American churches to talk about marriage equality. “ … We had a great conversation around the African-American church and ‘Stardust’ and marriage equality,” Roussève said. “I thought that was so thrilling.”