Desert Rose Theatre

Mesa’s Desert Rose Untames its Shrew -- The Get Out

This season will go down in Valley theatrical history as the one in which William Shakespeare was stretched to his wackiest extremes - for good or ill. There was The Shakespeare Theatre's god-awful cyber-"Macbeth" back in September. ("Is this a Palm Pilot I see before me?")  More recently, Mesa's Southwest Shakespeare Company ended its debut run at the Mesa Arts Center with a "Much Ado About Nothing" that attempted to fuse the Bard of Avon with live mariachis. (Watching the three musicians sitting stage left, waiting for their cue, was absurdly funny.)  But the golden foolscap goes to Mesa's Desert Rose Theatre, a meager strip mall playhouse, and its current season-ending staging of "The Taming of the Shrew."  Fusing the energy and free-for-all style of Italian commedia dell'arte (think old-school vaudeville meets the carnival) to Shakespeare's tale of women's lib versus the alpha male, the company has managed to make the play silly in all the right ways.  Desert Rose's production is directed by its star, Katherine Stewart, who strip-mines the text for gags and finds moments of sheer absurdity, funny overacting and even a "Three Stooges" routine or two. It's such a slapstick show, it employs an actual slapstick.  (This "Shrew's" absurdity knows no bounds: By the time a school lunch tray makes its way onto stage as a prop, one is apt to think, "Who's in charge here?")  Stewart, as Kate, dyes her beautiful mane a red as fiery as her character's temperament and delivers a performance with little subtlety, all scowls and growls. And her Petruchio, Toby Ambrose, is an unlikely but commanding lead. Their initial meeting is a knock-down, drag-out sparring match. Literally.  With so much madcap wackiness going on, it comes as a welcome surprise that we also have real feelings for this Kate and Petruchio, and for the relationship that's been strangely forged between the two, as Stewart's character softens and Ambrose's visibly calms.  Which makes for a "Taming of the Shrew" that works on two levels: It aims for the funnybone but also hits the heart.

Wild Time in Padua - Ha-HAH! -- Goldfish Publishers

Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” is among the Bard’s most accessible comedies. His hints of the Commedia dell’ Arte style of farce creates a knockabout comedy that is as enjoyable as it is discomforting for modern audiences. There have been many revisionists who have attempted to reduce the markedly chauvinistic tone that pervades the entire script. Katherine Stewart, however, is a classicist, unconcerned about such modern trivialities as equal rights and spousal abuse and not worried about presenting Petruchio’s (Toby Ambrose) Stockholm syndrome handling of willful Kate (Stewart) as the Bard originally intended. For Stewart, the play’s the thing, but in stressing the Commedia, she turns this production into a Punch-and-Judy show where everyone is at the smart end of the slap stick (one is brilliantly used onstage). As a result, this “Shrew” is silly, over-the-top, presentational, and impossible to dislike.  Of course, having Stewart in the lead has its benefits. This classically trained actress proves to have a funny bone and knockabout timing. As she and Ambrose tumble for each other-literally-they propel forward a show with several strong supporting performances, and a few underwhelming ones, as is wont for this fledgling company. Ambrose matches her performance blow-for-blow in the best acting job I’ve yet seen from him. His Petruchio is a braggart, a blowhard, and a buffoon, but Ambrose also imbues him with a likeability and a basic wisdom that we can’t help but appreciate.  When Stewart and Ambrose are locking horns, they make a wonderful duo. Several others keep the show a laugh riot for much of the time. Few classical pieces are presented with equal parts of care and abandon. I recommend supporting this militantly unrevisionist company’s work.

Bring a Life Preserver to See Moby Dick -- Goldfish Publishers

Desert Rose Theatre is located in the Westwood Shopping Center at the corner of University and Alma School and the proprietors have done a fine job of making a storefront into a reputable theater building.  From a technical point of view, Director Katherine Stewart has done a very credible job. Her staging is clever and includes creating a church from a platform, a longboat from a bench and the prow of the Pequod from the bodies of her actors. The pantomimes used to create the effects of a storm and the attack by the white whale were superb. Her lighting and sound effects, including a strobe, (she is a one woman staff apparently) are very good and the small audience area was enveloped in the aura of the sea and the ship. The use of underscoring music usually reserved mostly for film was excellent. Costumes (again by Stewart) were very well done, especially since she picked up on the theme of good and evil, (black, white and grey) in the colors used.  Marshall Glass as the profligate Elijah was tremendous. He had the gait, the voice and the attitude down perfectly. Glass also did a very good job as Second Mate Stubb and even appeared as Queequeeg a couple of times. Caswell in his role of Starbuck did well as did Barbara Wood and Jennifer Shoemaker in their various personages (all male of course). They were quite convincing. Clifford Reid in the role of the carpenter was very realistic. And Ishmael (Hunt) was suitably eager and bright eyed as the young sailor.  All in all, this version of “Moby Dick Rehearsed” was an exciting theater experience.  It is worth seeing… you will enjoy some good scenes on stage. And the theater space tucked into this unassuming Mesa shopping center is really terrific.

5 People to Watch -- The Get Out

2. Mesa’s Desert Rose searches for new home in fourth season.  Could things go worse for Katherine Stewart’s Desert Rose Theatre? Apparently so.  By the end of the Mesa playhouse’s third season, its disasters — last-minute cast changes, broken technical equipment, multiple delayed openings — were as typical as the magical productions Stewart and company managed to pull together from the ashes (Shakespeare, Wilde, an enrapturing dramatization of “Moby Dick” last season).  When Stewart learned last month that she’d soon be facing an impossibly prohibitive spike in rents for her intimate 50-seat venue — going from a deal paying a percentage of her modest box office receipts to $2,400 a month — it almost seemed par for the course.  “I feel like I’m in some kind of Stanley Kubrick war movie,” Stewart said. “I’m having the flashbacks and everything.”  Fortunately, Stewart negotiated a last-minute deal to stay at her space for an October production, “Doctor Faustus,” and after that run, two of her volunteer actors have offered a possible venue at downtown Mesa’s Heritage Academy — a charter school across from the Mesa Arts Center — whose theater is about four times larger and boasts a newer lighting system.  “It’s a tentative 'yea!,’” Stewart said.  In the meantime, Stewart is using her current theater to star in David Lewis’ one-woman Marilyn Monroe bioplay, “M.M. xx,” running Sept. 13-Oct. 6.

MVPs: Our picks for this season's best actors -- The Get Out

DOUBLE THREAT The good news: Sibling actors Katherine and Christina Rae Stewart turned in stellar performances this season — Katherine, a complex triumph in the Marilyn Monroe bioplay “M.M.xx” at her own Desert Rose Theatre; Christina Rae, smoldering as the devil Mephistophilis in Christopher Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus” on the same stage, directed by her sister. The bad news: Katherine had to shutter her 55-seat storefront theater space at the end of 2007, in the wake of a prohibitive rent hike, forcing fans of the plucky 3-year-old troupe to wonder if they’d have to cut an April production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”  WHAT’S NEXT: Desert Rose found temporary shelter for its “As You Like It,” in the theater at downtown Mesa’s Heritage Academy, opening April 17.

Chris Page's Top 10 Theater Productions of 2007 -- The Get Out

9. “M.M.xx,” Desert Rose Theatre.  Who knew young classical actress Katherine Stewart could tackle the enigma that is Marilyn Monroe, could sustain a two-act monologue about the platinum icon, could elevate David Lewis’ drifts of purple prose into something wonderful and tragic? Boy, did she.

The Inn Crowd -- Goldfish Publishers

I believe that Desert Rose Theatre often reaches beyond its grasp, which I consider a worthwhile endeavor. I mean, seriously, Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer”? It’s the kind of title I get excited about with fond memories of the musty book assigned for my British Drama class and the musty professor who taught it, but look at me. It’s this academic kinship I share with DRT’s Artistic and Production Director Katherine Stewart that has me looking forward to seeing her next classic conquest. She handles this comedy with an absolute belief in its ability to entertain a modern audience that forces it to be true even when it may prove too wordy to some.  Stewart and DRT’s determination is hampered only by its razor-thin budgets and not-quite consistent ensembles. However, this little-company-that-could should continue to strive, because it is a learning process that is proving to help those who remain in the repertory under Stewart’s tutelage to expand their abilities. I can only imagine the results that a healthy-sized grant could do for them.

Doctor Faustus Goes Goth -- The Get Out

There's no better Halloween-time play for a classics theater company to stage.  Desert Rose director Katherine Stewart (who played Marilyn last month) makes full use of the text's gothic appeal: Her cast dons fishnets and eyeliner, tattoos and raven-black wigs. Even the demonic minions of the first act move with the herky-jerky style of a horror-movie ghoul.  Yet it's the casting of Christina Rae, Katherine's sister, as Mephistophilis that stands out as this production's defining stroke of creativity.  Reimagining the devil as a sexy seductress overseeing Faustus' (Troy Gleeson) hubric downfall is a clever twist, allowing the actress - who's proven a knack for sultry, empowered characters - to use dashes of devilish charm to flesh out what otherwise would have been a two-dimensional part.

From a Crypt, New Life -- Goldfish Publishers

Save for under very rare circumstances, I forgo reviewing the premier production of a new theatre company. However, Desert Rose Theatre, a new classical company with an impressive list of future productions, specifically invited me alone to critique their “Romeo and Juliet.” Artistic Director Katherine Stewart has been planning this company for two seasons. Stewart is a gifted actress, and here proves herself an adept director as well, with a few flourishes in big scenes like the party and balcony that show a ready understanding of her text and space. A few of her cast of fifteen stand out. True to a first time effort, a few last minute cast changes are painfully apparent, especially Stewart’s stepping in to become Sister Lawrence after losing a cast member a week before. However, even when she’s reading from a book, she is able to connect strongly with her cast members. Fortunately, her strongest actors are in important roles, so that her production rests heavily on shoulders that are mostly able to bear it.  When your two best actors are filling the roles of Romeo (Scott Brooks) and Juliet (Christina Rae Stewart), hope springs eternal. Brooks is a handsome, magnetic Montague, especially when working with the junior Stewart. The connection between them is visceral. For her part, Stewart is one of the best Juliets I have seen in the valley. She follows the character arc religiously, moving her charge from innocence to experience gracefully. When the couple woo each other on the balcony, it is full of such giddiness and unbridled youthful hope that it establishes itself as the best offering I’ve witnessed of this moment since seeing it produced at the Delacourt Theatre in New York’s Central Park over 20 years ago. Throw in the transgendered but straight-faced offering of Jere Van Patten as the Nurse, and you have many scenes that are a delight to watch. Van Patten’s presentation is jovial and broad, and he trips sprightly over the double entendres that his masculinity presents.

Pretty Dimned Funny -- Goldfish Publishers

Katherine Stewart knows her classics, and shows her expertise with such things as fan etiquette and other social graces. The stage pictures are dumbshows of social status and current alliances. She maneuvers the actors around the tiny stage fluidly, even during party and other mob scenes…. it is, as Lord Augustus is prone to say, “pretty dimned funny,” and that’s enough to get me to recommend it.

‘Noise’ May Be Desert Rose’s Swan Song -- The Get Out

We die-hard devotees of Katherine Stewart’s plucky classics troupe — those of us who’ve come to love the impoverished but clever productions inside Stewart’s gritty, slathered-black storefront space…. Desert Rose’s strength, its quixotic charm, comes when director Stewart and her band of community actors valiantly charge through great works of Shakespeare, Wilde and the like.