‘Urinetown’: It’s a privilege to ‘be’ in UA musical

Oct 25

Becca MartinUncategorized 1 Comment

This story appeared Oct. 22 in the What’s Up section. It’s “reprinted” here for folks interested in the Broadway-hit musical.

STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE Sara Jane Robinson and Liam Selvey are the narrators and Greek chorus in “Urinetown,” on stage this week at University Theatre.

By Becca Bacon Martin
bmartin@nwaonline.com
Take a squirt of “Sweeney Todd,” add a drizzle of “Singin’ in the Rain,” mix in a whiz-bang of slapstick melodrama, put a timely and serious message at the heart of the play and wrap it in a candy coating of comedy.
That’s “Urinetown” — the musical, not the place, a difference immediately pointed out in the University Theatre production.
Within the play, being exiled to Urinetown is literally the end of the world. Even though it doesn’t have a happy ending, the musical promises to make audiences laugh at its premise — that people in this dystopian society must pay to use public restrooms — and at the same time, think about its message — that if mankind doesn’t take better care of the planet, the future could be this bleak.
“I think audiences will receive it on their own terms, and many people will enjoy it just based on its entertainment value,” says director Kate Frank. “But by end of the show, many people will be asking themselves what we should be doing now to prevent this dark scenario.”
“Urinetown,” which opens at University Theatre tonight, won three Tonys when it premiered on Broadway in 2001. Frank says it was selected for the UA season because “it’s so funny and so clever, the music is so wonderful, and students were so enthusiastic about doing it.”
“There’s a lot of different musical styles, and it all has to be very strong and very tight, because it’s a parody of musical theater,” she adds.
On a set that could have been designed for “Rent” or “Avenue Q,” the show opens with an immediate shattering of the fourth wall. That interactive style is perfect for Liam Selvey, who plays Officer Lockstock, the play’s narrator.
Selvey explains that he started juggling and doing comedy with his father, Harmless T. Jester, when he was 9 and was a street performer until he enrolled in the UA drama department at 23.
In “Urinetown,” “there’s a more direct relationship with the audience, and that’s always been fun for me.”
He introduces Officer Lockstock with “authority and gravity to his words, like a 1950s-public-service-announcement kind of police officer,” but the comic character soon turns sinister.
“‘Urinetown’ plays with the idea that nobody is good or bad,” Selvey says. “You see the stereotypes right away, but those lines get blurred as the play goes along — and that arc is really exciting to follow.”
Penelope Pennywise, proprietor of Urine Good Company’s Public Amenity No. 9, is clearly a villain, says Echo Sibley, a second-year MFA actor from Eureka Springs.
Already armed with a master’s degree in vocal performance and working on a second master’s in acting, Sibley “was excited about playing an older woman who has some bitterness to her,” and besides, she says, she knew she wanted to sing her favorite song in the show, “It’s a Privilege to Pee.”
Like many of the characters, Miss Pennywise ultimately has a change of heart. Hero Bobby Strong does not.
“It’s very easy for me to relate to Bobby,” says Jim Goza, a Fayetteville native and UA senior. “The show carries a lot of strong economic and corporate and political undertones, and I myself am rather active in those areas.”
Goza draws corollaries between the water crisis in “Urinetown” and “big oil” in real life, and like Bobby Strong, he intends to take a stand, traveling, acting and delivering the message when he gets out of school.
“I’m willing to make sacrifices and be patient.”
The denizens of “Urinetown” are not, and that brings the play to its dramatic conclusion.
“The playwright really says that we don’t have the capacity to change to save ourselves,” director Kate Frank says. “But I think saying that so darkly provokes the audience to disagree.”

St. Pete Sojourn

Oct 22

Becca MartinUncategorized No Comments

St. Petersburg, Fla., wasn’t as beachy as I expected. And it didn’t seem as historic, as venerable, as New Orleans. That surprised me, too. (But only because I hadn’t done my homework. It wasn’t incorporated until 1892.)
Nestled on a peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, St. Pete — as everyone calls it — was sunny and mild in early October, a welcome get-away from that sudden cold snap in Northwest Arkansas. I saw only a tiny part of what I wanted to see: I was there on business. With my boss. And a raft of observant journalists at the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors. Made it hard to sneak away!
Here’s what I did see:
— There’s a trolley route around downtown that lets you sample the history and architecture of St. Pete without walking. And it’s only 25 cents every time you get on! It will also take you from your hotel to the pier, some of the museums and lots of restaurants.
— The water is beautiful — and cold! At least it was on Spa Beach near the pier. If you’re expecting the vast beaches of the Florida coastline, you’ll be disappointed; they’re 45 minutes away on the Gulf of Mexico. Spa Beach is about the size of a big living room.
— The sand is white and soft and perfect for walking and toe wiggling.
— The pier is an odd inverted pyramid filled with an aquarium, shops and restaurants. The burger joint on the top floor offered an amazing view of the pink-and-orange sunset over Tampa Bay. And a lot of the cuisine has a Cuban influence, a very different taste sensation from my beloved Creole and Cajun.
— Also at the pier, you can feed the brown pelicans for $5 — that’s $1 per dead fish. And probably one fish per bird, because they know who their friends are.
— St. Pete is home to one of the largest collections of art by Salvador Dali in the world. AASFE conference-goers got a 30-minute tour given by a docent with a large black suede shoe on her head. After all, Dali was a (really THE) Surrealist.
— There’s also a “Collection” of Dale Chihuly’s amazing blown glass. It’s $15 and worth every penny.
— One of my favorite stops was the verandah of the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel. The salmon-colored Mediterranean Revival building, which opened in 1925, feels a lot like the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs and the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs had a baby on the bay. It was a lovely spot for a glass of iced tea.
Like any travel story, this one is best told with pictures. Hope you enjoy as much as did!

A Final Farewell

Oct 04

Becca MartinUncategorized No Comments

I know obituaries don’t generally make it to someone’s blog. But this one is the final chapter in the saga of my dad.

Wayne Martin

Harold Wayne Martin, 75, died Sept. 29, 2010, at his home in Pettigrew.
Wayne was born Jan. 10, 1935, in Pettigrew, the only child of H.O. and Elva Martin. On Oct. 27, 1956, he married Velma June Baker, a high school classmate from Flemings Creek. They had two sons, Howard James in 1958 and Daniel Patrick in 1962.
Except for a short time working in the sheetrock business in Wichita, Kan., before he married and three years with June in La Habra, Calif., where he worked for the post office, Wayne spent his life in the hills and meadows of Madison County. He cut and hauled timber and raised chickens and cattle as business ventures, hunted and trapped as hobbies and was a member of the Masonic Lodge. He also spent many hours giving back to his neighbors, serving as a First Responder and as a reserve deputy for the Madison County Sheriff’s Department. In 2007, he was honored as Reserve Deputy of the Year.
When the Mooney-Barker Drug Store, which belonged to his grandmother, Helen Mooney Barker, was sold at auction in 1986, Wayne began a friendship with the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale that would last the rest of his life. He always worked to preserve the history of Pettigrew, whether that meant raising funds for the school turned community building, visiting schools to speak, donating or loaning pieces of the past for exhibits at the museum or spearheading Pettigrew Day, the annual homecoming and celebration of the town’s boom days at the turn of the 20th century.
In the last months of his life, Wayne compiled a pictorial book, “Pettigrew, Arkansas: Hardwood Capital of the World,” his final collaboration with the Shiloh Museum. It was completed in time for Pioneer Day on Sept. 11, 2010, in St. Paul.
Wayne is survived by his wife, June, of the home; his sons, Dan of Fayetteville and Jim of Van Buren; three daughters-in-law, Carla Gray Martin of Fayetteville, Brenda Seaton Martin of Van Buren and Becca Bacon Martin of Fayetteville; three grandchildren, Amanda, Patrick and Hannah; and a host of family and friends.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, 2010, in the chapel of Brashears Funeral Home with Larry Joe Johnson, minister, officiating. Interment will be in the Brashears Cemetery under the direction of Brashears Funeral Home of Huntsville.
Pallbearers will be Chuck Stout, Darren Pavis, Jim Ferguson, Dan Engel, Simon Keck and Jody Keck. Honorary pallbearers will be the staff of the Madison County Sheriff’s Department.
The family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, 2010, at the funeral home.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History.