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Chico Enterprise-Record (Chico, CA)
July 22, 2004
Section: Features
MARTHA MAYR - Special to the E-R
"Working," the fourth and final summer offering of Court Theatre's summer season at Chico State University, kicked off Tuesday. On opening night an ensemble cast of 11, clearly working hard themselves, played to a nearly full house.
The musical, based on the book of the same name by Studs Terkel, is a poignant tribute to the unsung heroes of America's work force. The play examines the one-third to one-half of the waking lives that most Americans spend on the job through the eyes of an ironworker, waitress, phone operator and others. Visiting choreographer Michelle Pietri, who brings with her impressive theater experience from the New Orleans area, may deserve much of the credit for the show's panache. These laborers and service people don't trudge through their vocational musings they twirl, they whirl and glide through the play's transitions with style. Ashley Morgan Monroe, who was notable in last week's "All About Ives," very nearly steals the show again from the talented cast. Her powerful voice infuses the choruses with depth and her solo numbers are beautiful. Monroe's presence is just as delightful in her silent asides as a cubicle dweller and annoyed restaurant patron as it is in her primary roles as a cleaning woman and assembly-line worker. Marcus Sams also shines again in the ingeniously staged and catchy number "Brother Trucker." He's also spot-on as a rascally lifelong parking attendant in "Traffic Jam," and as a bored UPS deliveryman. The entire play is a bittersweet reflection of thankless careers. Guest actor Paul Wrona, perfectly cast as an "everyman," plays a stonemason enraptured with stone. Similarly, Kate E. Babb inhabits the character of a waitress with an irrepressible spirit. Subtle actress Katie Brown, however, observes as a project manager that "jobs aren't big enough for most people." She rebels against the tendency to define ourselves by our job, explaining simply that "sometimes I do things for a living." The entire production explores the ambivalent relationship workers have to work. Playing a hooker, Anne Lester blithely states that "what you do is what you are," but as playing a discouraged third-grade teacher she expresses crushing disillusionment. The lone white-collar worker in the play, Michael Biggs as a corporate executive, spouts the truism "Unless there are losers we can't have winners." The musical number "Un Mejor Dia Vendora" is one of only two slightly awkward portions of the performance. The irony of young, shiny, mostly Caucasian Chico students expressing the anguish of long-suffering immigrant farmworkers is too obvious to ignore. The maudlin "Father and Sons" is an unusual choice for the ending of the play, considering that most of the vignettes support the struggle against mundanity. The one aspect of "Working" that threatens the otherwise buoyant performance is the actual music backing the singers. The canned soundtrack, consistently a notch or two too loud, hinders some performances. Karla Ruth Gilbert's fantastic singing as an underappreciated housewife is partially drowned out by the music. Court Theatre's work has paid off. It's no work at all to enjoy this musical treat.Photo: Ashley Morgan, (right to left) Karla Gilbert and Kate Babb practiced a scene from Court Theatre's production of "Working" at Harlan Adams Theatre at Chico State University Saturday.
(Glenn Fuentes/Enterprise-Record)
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2004 Chico Enterprise-Record. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the
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