Set A Spell productions with Maryaska Theatre at
at City Lit Theatre, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr
Through Feb. 11
( 773 ) 991-1341
BY CATEY SULLIVAN
Living the Dream consists of an ensemble of twentysomething struggling actors talking about their trials and tribulations as twentysomething struggling actors. In other words, it's a show that seems predestined to be so much naval-gazing twaddle.
But thanks to the Set A Spell ensemble's collective sense of self-deprecating humor and the ensemble's honest, warts-and-all portrayal of their often ridiculously naïve selves, Dream is, more often than not, touching and funny. Deftly directed by Gregory Peters, the cast—Kaitlin Byrd, Justine Turner, Layne Manzur, James Dunn and Lindsay Verstegen— spins individual stories with a minimum of angst and a maximum of humor.
Take, for instance, the vignette when Byrd, frustrated, highly defensive and cluelessly underwhelming, interviews for graduate programs with the gatekeepers at several elite theater schools. 'But I won an acting award!' she finally sputters, and in that moment, you see her recognizing both her own ridiculousness ( An acting award from an undergrad program in Lincoln, Neb.? Right. That's a golden ticket to anywhere. ) And the fire-eyed determination of a young woman who knows what she wants and isn't about to let some ivory tower academics discourage her.
Also good is Manzur's open-a-vein honesty when he talks about a heart problem that had him going into seizures as the dead Tybalt in a production of Romeo and Juliet. When you're 26 with a 75-year-old heart, health insurance takes priority over your career aspirations, he explains. And so we see Manzur spending 90 percent of his time fielding calls from abusive morons as he works the switchboard at a telecommunications giant, and squeezing in auditions on the side.
Director Peterson has done a terrific job in keeping the vignettes sharp and self-aware. A bit where the actors ponder their reviews ( 'He said I have a 'mocha-chocolate' voice,' ' Justine puzzles. 'I'm going to take out a copyright on the word 'verisimilitude,' ' Dunn announces dryly. ) is skewering and smart.
The actors aren't always playing themselves. Dunn has a nice turn as a powerful, predatory, Tony-winning director who seduces fresh-off-the-bus boys by weaving an oily web where an artificial overlap between physical passion and art invariably leaves hungry young actors naked. He's also good playing Verstegen's boyfriend, who breaks up with her in part because you just can't apply the Meisner technique to your sex life and expect things to go well.
Then there's Byrd, trying to be one of the cool kids for a deodorant ad audition and winding up stranded in the rain, sans umbrella, in a white halter top.
Like the best vignettes in the production, there's universality to the scene's sadness and absurdity to it.