'Wit' wowed its audience
By Julie Jensen, ARGUS/DISPATCH -- February 14, 2003

I think it's safe to say that New Ground Theatre's production of ``Wit'' affected me more profoundly than anything I've ever seen onstage. After the final curtain, it wouldn't go away.

Corinne Johnson of the St. Ambrose University drama faculty turned in a magnificent performance as Vivian Bearing, PhD, a woman afflicted with ovarian cancer looking back at her life and dealing with her unfunny present situation with wry humor.

She first appeared in a baseball cap to hide the hair loss caused by chemotherapy, and one supposed some hair was hiding under it. Not so. Her skull was shaved.

Asked if that wasn't a huge sacrifice for the sake of playing a role, Ms. Johnson said, ``If I had gorgeous, shining tresses, I would have felt a lot worse.''

It's an exhausting role, and after each performance, she said, ``I just wanted to go home and sit quietly by myself.''

She added, ``I was happy for a chance to act in something meaty because that makes me a better director. I direct more than I act.''

The last scene which silhouettes Vivian Bearing with upraised arms hailing the dawn of eternity is unforgettable.

Denise Heinrichs of Davenport saw ``Wit'' four times, here and elsewhere, because Margaret Edson, the playwright, is her friend.

``We knew each other in Washington, D.C.,'' Ms. Heinrichs said. ``She majored in Italian in college and went to Rome to be a tour guide at the Vatican. She also worked as a bar maid in Hills, Iowa, for three months because she came out here to meet her sister's fiance, my nephew.''

The Pulitzer-prize winning playwright is now a kindergarten teacher.

News and notes
-- No one who saw Opera@Augustana's opening performance of ``The Tender Land'' could have guessed that Christopher Scott, who played Top, one of the drifters, had been in an accident that totaled the car he was in earlier that day. His body language showed cocky self-assurance despite some painful ribs. Mr. Scott is the choir director at Broadway Presbyterian Church, Rock Island.

-- Patti Flaherty has written another murder mystery for It's A Mystery, the dinner theater troupe. This one, ``Hunt for Murder,'' made its debut on Valentine's Day at the Abbey Station, Rock Island. It's set in an English manor house during a fox hunt. Yoicks!

-- Corinne Johnson had a spectacular January. Besides her own success, one of her students, Dan Hale, won the American College Theatre Festival's Irene Ryan scholarship competition for the region and will advance to the finals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. April 18.

She said, ``When his name was announced from the podium, I told my husband it was better than my wedding day. He said he understood.''

Mr. Hale is a junior -- a wisp of a fellow who has been studying juggling, unicycling and the gymnastics of street performers, and he designed most of the routine for the winning comedic piece he performed with St. Ambrose junior Rusty Koll. He also delivered an Irish monologue that was anything but funny in the competition.

He'll star in the next St. Ambrose production, Neil Simon's ``Brighton Beach Memoirs.''

-- Dan Sheridan, who was in the staged reading of my play, ``Tribal Rites,'' was one of the semi-finalists for the regional scholarship competition. He was in high school then, but he played a young married man with great assurance.

Coming up on stage
-- Davenport Junior Theater will present ``Winnie the Pooh'' Feb. 22 and 23 at the Mary Nighswander Theater on the Annie Wittenmyer campus. Davenporter Margie Rogal wrote the version they are performing. Saturday performances will be at 1 and 3 p.m. and Sunday shows are at 2 and 4 p.m.

-- The music departments of Davenport's Central and West high schools will hold their annual Great River Performing Arts Workshops on Friday and the Great River Show Choir Invitational on Saturday.

A new feature this year is a performing arts college fair with representatives from area colleges with strong fine arts programs presenting information and answering questions.

The workshops will be jazz, hip-hop, salsa, swing, ballet, character, Stott's Pilates, choreographic cleaning, solo singing techniques and motivation. Five of the professional instructors will fly in from Los Angeles.

More than 1,000 students from four states will be involved in the Great River Show Choir Invitational. Six of 23 show choirs will be chosen to perform Saturday night at the Adler Theatre.

Great River tickets are $10 for the whole day and $8 for the final evening competition, available at the door.

-- North High School will host its annual Big Dance Feb. 28 March 1. It features concert-choir and show-choir competitions and has been scheduled a week later than the Central-West events so Davenport students can participate in both.

-- The last time Awele Makeba was in the Quad-Cities as a Visiting Artist, she wowed her audiences as a storyteller. On Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Quad City ArtsCenter, she'll perform a one-woman stage play which she wrote, ``Rage is Not a 1-Day Thing!'' It's documentary theater that examines the untaught history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This wind-up to Black History Month is free.

Let me know what's happening because my crystal ball has never been very reliable. Call me at (563) 355-7246; write to me at 2802 E. Locust St., Davenport, IA 52803; or e-mail me at McDonaldJulie@ambrose.sau.edu. 

Julie Jensen covers the local theater scene in Onstage, running the third Sunday of each month in Entertainment.

Return to News&Reviews Page