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Critics' choice:Theater: "Jazzland" (CATF), "Experiment/Air Pump" (PTP/Olney), "U.S.A"
(American Century), Harold Pinter-One Acts (Scena), "Glory of Living" (Didactic), "Taming
of the Shrew" (Chesapeake Shakespeare)

 
        Best Acting: Scott Whitehurst (CATF),Stephen F. Schmidt/Tara Giordano (PTP Olney),
Maggie Glauber (Forum), Paul Morella/Helen Hedman (PTP), Brian Hemmingsen (Solas
Nua), David Bryan Jackson (Scena), Will Gartshore/Stephen Gregory Smith (Signature),
Cassie Platt (Didactic), Kelly Taffe (Center Stage),Dan Istrate (Faust),Andrew Long
(Frozen),Jennifer Crooks (Chesapeake Shakespeare), Deborah Hazlett (Olney),  Geraint
Vyn Davies (Love's Labor Lost)


Didactic Theatre Company's "The Glory of Living" should come with a
warning that Rebecca Gilman's award-winning play is a perfect fit for
Didactic's challenging mission to bring a different perspective on universal
topics.  And the playwright's  strong statement is realized in her brutal sexual
world of a trashy southern couple who wreck havoc on society through
exploitation, rape and murder.  The analogies continue with the wife
complaining for the room service to come and clean up the room just as she
makes the anonymous phone call to the police for them to find the mess of
bodies that she has shot.  Can society clean up the current overwhelming
violence, nudity and profanity of the first act as the couple move into that
stark (and barely furnished) world of the criminal justice system?  Casie Platt
in her debut as Lisa is excellent as the character for whom there is no easy
explanations for her multiple roles as victimized wife, sexual predator, and
cold blooded murderer.  While Clay Steakley's Clint is consistently the greasy
relentless influence of evil stalking the world, he did not pull the trigger.  Platt,
as Lisa, must be believable to convince a jury or, in the case of the audience,
that she is something beyond the obviously guilty victim.  The play is
conveniently set among the poor white trash class in a tri-state area of the
modern south. It chisels away at preconceived notions in this dump of
human existence and amorality until it uncovers the diamond that is the
reason for its seemingly unrelated title.  This company does a fine job with
the challenge of starting with the unpleasant story ripped from the headlines
for a cheap crime show and turns it into something for the heart.  Kudos for
the behind the scene designers: Colin K. Bills (set), Esther Van Eek (Props),
Kathleen Geldard (costumes), and Erik Trester (sound).  
(Reviewed by Celia Sharpe)