Gregg Witman - Robert Borzych - Tom Hall
 

In this haunting play three survivors of abuse are poised to commit an act they hope will free them from their debilitating past. Like the albatross referred to in the title, with unflinching honesty, imperfect beauty, loyalty, and courage, the characters captivate us with their determination to soar.
 

Greg Wittman (Mike) is happy to be making his debut appearance with 6th @ Penn theater. He began performing in his hometown of Chicago doing theater and several national commercials including Hanes (with Michael Jordan). A north county resident for the last five years, Greg recently played Malcolm in Moonlight's Bedroom Farce. Television credits include Scrubs, Wicked Wicked Games and Lincoln Heights. Outside the theater Greg enjoys golfing and watching his beloved Chicago Cubs.




 

Robert Borzych (Dean) at Sixth and Penn – Beside Herself (Auggie Jake), Torch Song Trilogy (Alan), and Down South (Bob)(in conjunction with the Fritz Theatre)  –  Elsewhere - Robert has appeared through out many of San Diego’s other noted regional theatres including North Coast Repertory, The Old Globe, Lyceum, Theatre in Old Town, La Jolla Stage Company and Diversionary theaters.  Over the years he has played roles as diverse as a knife wielding killer, a psycho analyst surfer, an emotionally damaged UPS driver, a 1950’s comedy writer, and a narcoleptic angel…all of which, for the most part, have had little to no similarity to his everyday life. He has also been featured in numerous film and commercial projects. Robert’s next big project will occur at the end of this production, when he will jet off to Europe to mountain bike his way through the countryside’s of Germany and Prague. 
 

Thomas Hall (Terry) last performance at 6th @ Penn was as the poet Percy Byshhe Shelly in Howard Brenton's Bloody Poetry. He recently appeared as Simon Bliss in Noel Coward's Hay Fever at the Moonlight/Avo Playhouse, and as the bedridden Nick Davies in Alan Ayckbourne's Bedroom Farce, also at the Avo. Tom also appeared as Greg Poynter in Relatively Speaking at the North Coast Repertory Theatre, as well as productions at the Diversionary Theatre, and he served as the male understudy for The Love of Three Oranges at the La Jolla Playhouse. In North Carolina, he portrayed the manic-depressive Dale Harding in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the culture-obsessed Serge in Yasmina Reza's Art, the grieving father Carol Newquist in Little Murders, and a schoolteacher on trial for teaching Darwinism in Inherit the Wind, among others. Tom has a B.A. in Theatre from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington

 

Bud Coleman (Nicky) and Carol, his "Portuguese Princess" love to travel and volunteer for numerous events and ushering for plays.  Hi is an amateur artist, likes South West decor, movies and spending time with his two sons in the Bay Area.

Ira Bateman-Gold (Playwright) is a name Dale Morris picked as a pseudonym.  He's written 15 plays, 9 of which were produced in the 70's & 80's.  None have been published.  A Hundred Birds is the one he's least embarrassed by. His message to children who have been abused is: It's wasn't your fault.
 

Dale Morris (Director) As an actor Dale is a member of Actors' Equity Association and the Screen Actors' Guild.  He is the founder and artistic director of 6th @ Penn Theatre and publisher of San Diego Theatre Scene Newsletter.  After almost six years of acting and managing the theatre, this is his directing debut at 6th @ Penn.
 

Andrea Fisher (Stage Manager) is a new transplant to the San Diego area, having come to us from South Carolina. Though Scenic Design, Carpentry, and Scenic Painting have always been passions of hers, Stage Management will always be her great love in the Theatre. She has Stage Managed over 40 productions of Theatre, Dance, Symphonies, and Opera; some of her favorites include W;t, Oklahoma!, Angels in America, The Marriage of Figaro, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and of course, A Hundred Birds.

"(The Last Class)... is followed by the deeply intense new work, A Hundred Birds, by Ira Bateman-Gold, a nom de plume for the director, Dale Morris. Morris surprises with his muscular, sometimes Mametian writing, his crackling, rapid-fire dialogue and the depth of his understanding of male camaraderie, pain and cruelty -- and unexpected humanity. The play centers on the need for exorcising, hopefully healing, vengeance. At the mysterious and enigmatic beginning, there are three men onstage, one bloodied and bound, the other two nervously circling him and awaiting their partner in crime, their ‘leader.’ When he finally arrives, the whole complex picture is revealed.

Each of these pathetic losers, each showing early promise academically or personally, was cut short at age 12, emotionally crippled by “cornholing,” sexual abuse by the older man they are now holding captive. As each of their stories unfolds, we’re struck not only by how damaged they are, how haunted and destroyed -- intellectually, sexually, professionally and emotionally -- but also by how seductive the predatory behavior was -- and remains. They want to kill the man for doing what he did. But they keep dancing around the act, recoiling from the finality of it, because the man was, in fact, the only adult who paid attention to them, listened to them, seemed to love them. It’s painful to hear the details and even worse to see the results of this monstrous act. But these three are determined to get their pound of flesh, in the hope that it will turn their lives around. It doesn’t seem likely. But we get caught up in the pain of these men, and their ravenous need for closure and healing.

As director, Morris has cast outstandingly well, and elicited superb performances from the trio of actors (as the bound-and-gagged victimizer, Bud Coleman never says a word). Robert Borzych makes a welcome return to local stages – as attractive and charismatic as before, but more mature, centered and emotionally raw. Greg Whitman is wonderful as the jittery Mike, the least intelligent, educated and accomplished of the three, the one who blames himself most and is the last to let go of his hurtful, harmful fantasy. Spurring them on, the strongest of these sad stooges, the one who cringed and cried at the killing of 100 innocent birds, the one who incites this catastrophic catharsis, is the riveting Thomas Hall, whose piercing intensity and dramatic credibility are spellbinding. This play will haunt you. It’s Morris’ efforts to exorcise his own demons, only recently recognized and acknowledged. The piece provides a peek into a world and an experience you’d rather not know; but hiding doesn’t make it go away. And understanding the survivor mentality is what this impressive Festival is all about.

NOTE: This is not Morris’ first playwriting effort. He’s written about 15 plays; nine have been produced – in Chicago, San Francisco and York, PA – primarily during the 1970s-‘80s. When the Human Rights Festival submissions failed to include any plays about child abuse, Morris says “I decided to give it a go and see what would happen.” What happened is very good indeed.

THE LOCATION: 6th @ Penn Theatre, through June 4. These plays alternate with Lemkin’s House, which runs through June 18. The Festival continues through August 12.

MORE FROM THE FESTIVAL: On June 10, 6th @ Penn will host several short literary events relating to human rights and the human spirit at The Hillcrest Association Book and Literacy Fair. Presenters will include Marianne McDonald (at 11am, reading from her plays, poetry and The Last Class); Gayle Brandeis, reading from her delightful, San Diego-set, prize-winning novel, The Book of Dead Birds (11:55am); and poet Catherine E. Martin, recently transplanted from New York, via Seattle, reading her latest work (12:10pm). "

One Hundred Birds, by Ira Bateman-Gold
6th@Penn Theatre, 3704 Sixth Avenue, Hillcrest
Directed by Dale Morris; cast: Greg Wittman, Robert Borzych, Thomas Hall, Bud Coleman; scenic design, Kevin and Brenda McFarlane; lighting, Mitchell Simkovsky
Playing through June 18; for days and times call 619-688-9210.


"The lights come up. We're in a room under repair: boards tilt against bare walls; faux blue marble fireplace. In the center's a silver tarp and a blindfolded old man slumped on a chair. There's blood on his bandaged right arm and the blindfold. His left arm sticks out, as if broken. If he's alive, he's barely breathing.

He looks like a political prisoner, between interrogations and in no shape for another. But the two nervous guys standing over him don't wear uniforms. Bearded, gruff Mike's in jeans and black, something-about-Chicago T-shirt, Dean's in white shirt and slacks. At first it's hard to put the two men, late-twenties/early-thirties, together with the old man, since they talk about this and that. Dean, for example, says he met his new wife in rehab and loves their honesty, based on the truth-telling the 12-step program demands.

"She know about your former wives?" asks Mike.

"No."

The room is part of an apartment complex getting converted to condo. And the man on the chair, it turns out, abused Mike, Dean, and Terry, who shows up later, when they were in the fifth grade. He was an "atom bomb" in their lives. And now they'll make him pay. Or should they?

One Hundred Birds, by local playwright Ira Bateman-Gold -- which may be a pseudonym for Dale Morris, artistic director of 6th@Penn -- recalls William Mastrosimone's Extremities, in which a victim turns the tables on a rapist. It also recalls the movie Pulp Fiction, in which the bad guys -- Tarantino's pet device -- pass the time talking about interesting things. In Birds, Mike, Dean, and Terry talk about llamas having long necks and about supporting impoverished children overseas, black holes (at length, and heavy on the metaphorical links), and a pyramid of 100 birds on Diego Garcia atoll (more metaphor). They also discuss their marriages -- eight, among the three of them, and seven divorces -- and drench the stage in misogyny.

The set pieces go on too long and not only diffuse tension, they detract from the play's strength. Bateman-Gold knows how to write dialogue for actors -- "what to leave in," as Bob Seger once sang, "and what to leave out" -- loading fragments of speech with nonverbal information. You can feel the men's torment in what they can't express: the struggle between what remains of their humanity versus wanting revenge. But just about every time the one-act begins to ratchet up the emotions, however, it swings into a lecture culled from the Discovery Channel or NPR.

The 6th@Penn production, part of that theater's Human Rights Festival 2007, rivets when the writing does. Greg Wittman heads the cast as Mike, the least articulate and most torn between two evils. Robert Borzych gets much of Dean's confusion, including the sense that, since the fifth grade, he and the others have remained arrested, incomplete. Thomas Hall has the most difficult task. In the second half of Birds, Terry has several lengthy monologues. Hall has the requisite intensity but often repeats vocal patterns and keeps returning to the same pep talk, re-urging Dean and Mike to finish the job -- as if revenge alone can make them whole."

 

A Hundred Birds
Reviewed by C. Kish
San Diego Theatre Scene

"Ira Bateman-Gold’s A Hundred Birds haunts you like a bad dream that’s played over and over and over again. Sadly, while waking up screaming and soaked with sweat, you begin to realize that it’s not a dream at all. It’s a sad truth staring directly at you that will never go away.

The text of the drama takes on child abuse and allows us to see both sides of this ugly interference upon the human condition. Three men, all abused by the same man, reluctantly follow through with a plan to minimize their pain and suffering that they've carried around with them on a daily basis as a result of years of sexual abuse from Nicky.

Director Dale Morris does everything right on this one. He angles the action in such a way that the feelings from all of the victims pummel the abuser in a rightful, direct manner. Nicky is planted center stage but remains mute and perhaps that’s the beauty of the staging; no words could ever argue justification for such heinous actions on his part. Morris continues to march his competent set of actors so they connect with one another, re-group and then connect once again. The pace, timing and delivery are on target.

The trio of abused kids (Greg Whitman/Mike, Robert Borzych/Dean, and Thomas Hall/Terry) feel comfortable in their unique portrayals. Somewhat expected, each individual was affected in different ways; however, the playwright allows the dramatic journey to reveal both sides of the equation, taking some of the beast out of the abuser though he whispers not a word.

Borzych plays Dean with the right amount of butch-bravado neediness that comes out real-to-life. Wittman’s Mike is drawn with an almost objective coolness that matches a character that still seems a bit lost to the past. And Hall’s Terry character seems driven with just the right amount of adrenalin that wants justice for acts committed against all three boys.

This is a powerful drama with a balanced perspective and opens the Resilience for the Spirit Human Rights Festival 2007 on the proper note."

(A Hundred Birds runs through June 18th; call for tickets at 619-688-9210)