HARTFORD May 23, 2009: The Door - A Musical made it's debut at The Theater for the Performing Arts, Hartford. The evening show was an incredible performance. This musical is a rendition of the original play, The Door, written by playwright, pastor and television producer, J. Stan McCauley. Marcus a. Jarvis, who made his debut as director, composed and produced the music and songs. The cast consists of both seasoned and non-seasoned performers and include, Chareese Carter (actress | singer), Victoria Cruse (debuting actress | singer}, Imogene Ellison (actress | singer), Visalah Ellison,(actress | singer) Marcus A. Jarvis (actor |dancer | composer | singer and more), Marlene P. Jarvis (debuting actress | singer}, Gerry Williams (actor | singer | gospel mime |radio broadcast host and more), and Vilinda McGregor Williams (actress | singer | fine artist).
The Music. Marcus A. Jarvis composed an awesome series of songs relating to each of the play's main characters and their story. Each song is stand alone and unique. Each is incredible and top shelf. To open the musical, Jarvis composed an instrumental piece that combines a classical temperament, seasoned with jazz and gospel chord structures, resulting in an incredible melodic journey of life's ups and downs. Soulful, with intricate rhythms, the underlying melody calls to mind shades of Duke Ellington's unique composition style, rendering the piece unforgettable.
The Dance. Mercy Revealed (a praise dance group from Bibleway Temple Nation in Hartford) member, Sazjanee Stringer, choreographed and performed an exceptional dance scene to the opening instrumental that sets the tone for what is to follow. Stringer, a high school student at Hartford's Arts Academy, wowed us with her ability to take a difficult instrumental composition -- especially for someone 16 years old -- and so accurately convey the underlying theme of the play through her solo dance.
Th Cast. Chereese Carter's character, "Charlene," is a mother who has lost one son to gang violence resulting in his death. Her surviving son has begun to follow in his deceased brother's footsteps of drugs and violence. Gerry Williams portrays "Lenny," Charlene's surviving son." The audience is pushed to the edge of their seats in fear and anguish when "Lenny" physically attacks his mother, beating her down onto the couch as "Charlene" tries to persuade "Lenny" to leave the life he is living. "Lenny" storms off stage in his rage and "Charlene" transforms the scene's darkness into one of hope through her incredible song delivery .
Vilinda McGregor Williams portrays, "Beverly," who is a self-made millionaire by stopping at nothing to achieve her wealth and fame, including murder. "Beverly" is not easily persuaded that her life is missing some of the most fundamental elements, humanity and service to others. "Beverly" insists that she is a self made woman and expresses her loathing of those who are less fortunate. In the end, she finally comes around and expresses her freedom from the clinging only to material wealth and loathing of others with her wonderful delivery of her in song.
Mother and daughter in real life, Imogene and Visalah Ellison, portray mother and daughter in the play. Their performance is riveting, taking us on a journey of generational abuse that is so deftly portrayed by each. The audience is swept up in an emotional whirlpool as the "daughter" acts out her mother's abusive ways that she learned from her "mother" by burning her doll as a form of discipline. The "Mother" sees her daughter burning her doll and in turn, takes a "hot comb" and burns the hand of the "daughter." Imogene and Visalah's performance was done so well, one not needed to know their character names. Their duet at the end of their scene is equally riveting, as both are accomplished singers.
Making their debut on stage are Marlene P. Jarvis "Linda Carrington" and Victoria Cruse "Tina." "Linda Carrington" is a wealthy woman who is white and delves into racism in a way that while raw is comedic. Although new to the stage, Jarvis performed with ease and confidence, allowing the audience to easily journey down a difficult path through subtle humor. "Tina" is a prostitute addicted to drugs and has been consistently betrayed by those whom she trusted, especially men. "Tina" finds solace in her usage of drugs, telling the audience that her drugs are her only friend. Cruse is amazing in her portrayal of Tina. Never faultering or skipping a beat, Cruse brought her character to life, displaying her talents both as an actress and singer.
Marcus A. Jarvis, besides directing the play and composing the original score, also acts in the play. His character is "Charlie," a "happy" drunk who has fallen into bad times after serving in the military. "Charlie" starts out with much humor, causing us to laugh as he captures everyone with his playfulness. But then the darkness appears when "Charlie" stops being humerus and tries to shoot himself with his gun. The humor turns to irony as "Charlie" becomes frustrated with the realization that his gun is unloaded. His scene ends with an a song, "I'm Just A Soldier trying to Find My Way Home" that, like the rest of the music, is grand bth in delivery and composition.
Every good musical has a grand finale. The audience awaits that final moment when all come on stage to sing one last time before the final curtain. The final scene of this wonderful musical begins with "Charlene," whom "Lenny" thought had died of heart failure, entering on stage and singing with "Lenny," "God Will Show Up Right On Time," also an original piece. And so the entire cast comes out on stage, joining "Charlene" and "Lenny" in singing this final song. "You better get up! Don't you give up! God will show up, right on time."
The End. Like all great stories, the ending is filled with hope and high spirits.
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
What's Happening With The Door
The Door has been on a long journey, including going on the road around the northeast and beyond. It has gone from being a strictly religious play, steeped in metaphor, to a musical play. Once again the gears are shifting and the play's journey will start down a new path -- The Door will be made into a movie. In it's original version, the play consisted of six vignettes wherein the characters tell a story of overcoming some of life's most excruciating obstacles (drugs and alcohol addiction, prostitution, child abuse, and death through gang violence and suicide) by turning to Jesus Christ. This is portrayed by a physical knock on a large door (that is placed center stage and remains there throughout the play) by Jesus Christ. Christ is never seen or actually heard. Each character answers the knock at the door and then engages in a monologue with Jesus Christ about their current way of living. In all but one vignette, the character heeds Christ's call.
This version of the play has done well within the religious community. Since its debut ten years ago, the play has been performed either in a church or to a targeted religious audience almost as a ministry or learning tool on how to live life through faith. At this juncture, the play is stepping into the mainstream.
Enter on stage is FrontStage executive producer and founder, Marcus A. Jarvis, who composed and produced the songs and music to the play, and FrontStage producer and script writer, S. Valeria McCall, who is rewriting the script.
On May 23rd, The Door became a musical. Jarvis kicked it up a notch by composing and producing an awesome series of songs relating to each of the play's main characters and their story. Each song is stand alone and unique. Each is incredible and top shelf. To open the musical version, Jarvis composed an instrumental piece that combines a classical temperament, seasoned with jazz and gospel chord structures, resulting in an incredible melodic journey of life's ups and downs. Soulful, with intricate rhythms, the underlying melody calls to mind shades of Duke Ellington's unique composition style, rendering the piece unforgettable.
Mercy Revealed (a praise dance group from Bibleway Temple Nation in Hartford) member, Sazjanee Stringer, choreographed and performed an exceptional dance scene to the opening instrumental that sets the tone for what is to follow. Stringer, a high school student at Hartford's Arts Academy, wowed us at the musical debut on May 23rd with her ability to take a difficult instrumental composition -- especially for someone 16 years old -- and so accurately convey the underlying theme of the play through her solo dance.
The cast for the musical version were exceptional, some seasoned performers and others performing for the first time. Chereese Carter's character, "Charlene," is a mother who has lost one son to gang violence resulting in his death and faces almost losing her surviving son who has begun to follow in his deceased brother's footsteps of drugs and violence. Gerry Williams portrays "Lenny, Charlene's surviving son." The audience is swept away in fear when "Charlene" tries to persuade "Lenny" to leave the life he is living. "Lenny" physically attacks his mother leading her to an incredible song of pain and hope.
Vilinda McGregor Williams's character, "Beverly," takes us through the corporate world where money rules. "Beverly" is a self-made millionaire who has stopped at nothing to achieve her success, including murder.
Mother and daughter in real life, Imogene and Visalah Ellison, portray mother and daughter in the play. Their performance is riveting and has the audience swept up in an emotional whirlpool as the daughter acts out her mother's abusive ways that she learned from her mother by burning her doll as a form of discipline. Their duet at the end of their scene is equally riveting, as both are accomplished singers and performers.
Making their debut on stage are Marlene P. Jarvis "Linda Carrington" and Victoria Cruse "Tina." "Linda Carrington" is a wealthy woman who is white and delves into racism in a way that while raw is comedic. A new comer to the stage, Marlene Jarvis performed with ease and confidence. "Tina" is a prostitute and addicted to drugs. Cruse is amazing in her portrayal of Tina and wowed the us with both her performance. No doubt, we will see more of both actresses.
Marcus A. Jarvis, besides directing the play and composing, mixing and producing the original score, also acts in the play. His character is "Charlie," a "happy" drunk who has fallen into bad times after serving in the military. "Charlie" starts out with much humor, causing us to laugh as he captures everyone with his playfulness. But then the darkness appears when "Charlie" stops being humerous and tries to kill himself. Fortunately, the gun is not loaded. His scene ends with an a song, "I'm Just A Soldier trying to Find My Way Home" that, like the rest of the music, is grand.
The final scene of this wonderful musical play has "Charlene" whom "Lenny" thought had died due to heart failure, entering on stage and singing "God Will Show Up Right On Time" also an original piece. Their delivery is equally awesome to the rest of the cast, who join them in song. Like all great musicals, the ending is filled with hope.
The obvious next step is kicking up the script a notch or two. Val McCall, script writer and editor, had this to say.
"In my own faith, we often put together skits depicting parables from the Lotus Sutra or writings from the Gosho (Buddhist scriptures and writings) on how to live life through faith that encourages the "audience" to overcome the fundamental darkness (original sin) in their lives. I believe that each religion sets out to teach its believers how to live life constructively and how to serve. My goal is to broaden the reach of the play's concept beyond a Church setting thereby appealing to a wider audience. I also want to unify the six separate stories of the play by further developing the main theme -- how do we overcome life's obstacles or not."
McCall is under a tight deadline to rewrite the script. She is determined to have it completed in time for existing cast members to learn new lines and new movements so that the movie can be filmed on schedule. Anyone reading this are invited to audition for the movie version. An open call for auditions (actors/actresses, singers, dancers) will be announced within the next couple of weeks. Be sure to check often -- and join -- FrontStage network for audition schedule announcements.
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