Bronze

Pat Launer Review Jean Lowerison Review

Jeannine Marquie	Jeannine Marquie (Cheryl) is happy to have transplanted to San Diego from Ventura County. In her four years here she has had the pleasure of performing for Sledgehammer Theatre in Kid Simple, Diversionary Theatre in Brave Smiles, Starlight Music Theatre in Sound of Music, in NPI's production of The Lost Player’ Rapunzel, A Christmas Carol at the SD Repertory Theatre, The Miser at La Jolla Playhouse, North coast Repertory's Leading Ladies, Cygnet's The Matchmaker and most recently in The Breakup Notebook. She has also had the rewarding experience of touring with the Playwright's Project's Hyper Focus and The La Jolla Playhouse's 2005 POP Tour Bay and the Spectacles of Doom! Thanks to the most supportive cast ever (Ruff you too) and to light of her life, Jen.
John Martin	John Martin (Marty) Last seen in Diversionary Theater's production of It's a Fabulous Life. Roles include, Gloria Swansong in Diversionary Theater’s production of Friends of Dorothy, with which he co-wrote, Fred in Kiss Me Kate, Norman in The Dresser, Charlie Brown in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Edward Rutledge in 1776, and The Ghost of Christmas Present, in A Christmas Carol, with the late John Carradine. Film’s include featured roles in Happy Hour, with Rich Little and Jamie Farr, and Return of The Killer Tomatoes, with George Clooney.
Kim Strassburger	Kim Strassburger (Maggie) is thrilled to be with Bronze again! San Diego credits include: All in the Timing (ion Theatre-Resident Artist); Biedermann and the Firebugs (Cygnet Theatre); Bronze, A Dream Play, Kid Simple, Medea, and Berzerkergang (Sledgehammer Theatre); Story Theatre (North Coast Rep). Regional credits also include Macbeth, Othello, and As You Like It. Much love as always to family and friends!
Geoff Yeager	Geoffrey Yeager (Joe) is thrilled to be working at 6th @ Penn again! He would like to thank his wonderful cast and director for all of their support. He was last seen in the Playwright's Festival at The Old Globe and played Riff Raff in Rocky Horror along side his father, which was a great honor to be on stage with one another. Geoffrey's work has been seen all around San Diego, from Coronado to El Cajon. His favorite roles include: Charlie Brown in You're a Good Man Charlie Brown; Danny Zucko Grease; and Jeff Barry in Leader of the Pack. He continues to study theatre and improve in his passion. He would like to thank his mom, father, Stan,m Mike, and his Nikki. Thank you all for your love.

Ruff Yeager	Ruff Yeager (Playwright/Director) is the Artistic Director of Vox Nova Theatre Company, a collaborative workshop for theatre artists he founded with an emphasis on the playwright and new works for the stage. His San Diego directing credits include Bronze, [sic] (Sledgehammer Theatre); Friends of Dorothy, Bent, Something Cloudy Something Clear (Diversionary Theatre); Closer (Backyard Productions); Stage Directions, A Man of His Word (Playwrights Project). His recent awards include two KPBS Pattes for Outstanding Direction (Bronze) and Outstanding Original Music (Tongue of a Bird), a San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Play (Bronze), and a Playbill Award for Best New Play (Losing Mother). He will direct Medea for Sixth@Penn in the fall in a new translation by Dr. Marianne McDonald and his newest creation, A Christmas Carol: Tiny Tim’s Brand New Musical will be produced by Vox Nova Theatre Company at Sixth@Penn Theatre this holiday season.
BACKSTAGE WEST *Critic’s Pick Ruff Yeager's engaging new play, directed by the playwright with stylish precision, shows the apparent influence of several theatrical antecedents. On one level it is a skillful and efficient contribution to the thrilling melodramatic sub-genre that might be labeled "Desperado in the Diner." Much as in Robert Sherwood's "The Petrified Forest" (1935) and Mark Medoff's "When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?" (1973), "Bronze" features a gun-toting transgressor who terrorizes people in a cafe. There is also a plainly acknowledged debt to the episode in "A Streetcar Named Desire" where Blanche tells of the humiliation and suicide of her husband. And there are echoes as well of Albee: of George's mortified "Burgen" monologue in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and of Jerry's aggressive self-destructive shame in "The Zoo Story." For the repeated and varied leitmotif of Yeager's play is personal and public humiliation. Surprisingly, the pistol-waving menace is not a career perp, but Cheryl, a delicate celebrity figure-skater driven round the twist because she has just been awarded the bronze medal, although she seemed a shoo-in for the gold, after suffering the indignity of taking a universally televised tumble during the Olympics. At gunpoint she forces the others to relate their own life stories of disgrace. But for Cheryl there is no sorrow like unto her sorrow; her degradation rates the full six.
*FIGURE-HATE* Pat Launer - San Diego Theatre Scene - 9/6/07 THE SHOW: Bronze, the 2005 drama written and directed by Ruff Yeager. He’s revisited and reworked the piece, which premiered at Sledgehammer Theatre, for a production at 6th @ Penn. This is one half of the back-to-back, diner-set productions Yeager is directing, using the highly detailed (slightly reconfigured) scenic design of Nick Fouch. The other show is the delightful Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. THE STORY: Cheryl is an Olympic figure skater who was going for the Gold, pressured by her parents to live a life she wouldn’t have chosen for herself. On the fateful final night, she takes a fall – two, in fact – and winds up with the Bronze medal, and a big, resentful chip on her shoulder. She wants pie – and revenge. So she comes to Maggie’s diner, grabs a gun and holds the hapless denizens hostage. She curses and sputters and terrorizes, and then things take an even nastier turn. She forces each of her captives to relate their most humiliating moments, after which each will be scored (according to the same point system as the Olympics). And then Cheryl tells her whopper of a story. The sum total provides a dark, cynical, occasionally comical view of personal and communal failure, American-style, underscored by anguish, voyeurism and emotional bondage. THE PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: There were some weaknesses in the original play, and though they’ve been alleviated, other soft spots have surfaced. Yeager (who won a Patté Award for his directorial inventiveness with Bronze) has eliminated the show-opening ‘mime’ that foretold later actions. That bit was enigmatic but intriguing. Now, the play starts in the dark, and stays that way for some time. The timing is a little confusing. The fateful night seems to have occurred some 18 months ago. In the original script, it appeared to have happened earlier that day, which clearly explained Cheryl’s impulsive stopoff in an all-night diner. But this time around, we learn what happened after her Fall, through multiple flashbacks, which detract – and distract – from the action. We have become so absorbed in these fragile, damaged characters that we’re annoyed when they have to step out of character -- to play Cheryl’s father or coach or cabbie. These backstories could easily be conveyed in a sentence or two during Cheryl’s lengthy monologues, so the intensity and suspense aren’t interrupted. But no gripe with the performances; they’re uniformly superb. Yeager has created truly compelling characters, and a tight ensemble brings them pulsing to life. Jeannine Marquie is outstanding as Cheryl, a cute, pert pixie with a mouth that would make a trucker blush. Her anger is palpable, as are her pain and vulnerability. John Martin is terrific, reprising his role of the occasionally lucid junkie with the somewhat shocking, life-destroying, Streetcar Named Desire secret; and Kim Strassburger returns as the level-headed, maternalistic Maggie, who had a seminal lapse in both those areas at one dark, ugly moment of her life. Yeager’s son Geoffrey, who did the mime opener two years ago, has stepped into the shoes of the security guard, a tough Italian with a shameful story that, like all the others, has shaped and distorted his existence and self-perception. The play forces us to look into the abyss of our All-American obsessions -- spilling guts and schadenfreude, winning at all costs and watching other people squirm. THE LOCATION: 6th @ Penn Theatre, through September 26 THE BOTTOM LINE: Best Bet
Bronze Jean Lowerison G & L Times Broken dreams and old humiliations are on display in local playwright Ruff Yeager’s 2005 Bronze, playing through Sept. 26 at 6th@Penn Theatre, directed by the playwright. The scene is a San Diego diner, where foul-mouthed young ice skater Cheryl (Jeannine Marquie) holds three people hostage. Olympic hopeful Cheryl was expected to take home the gold (“Scotty Hamilton said so, and he’s god”); instead she fell and had to settle for the bronze. Now she has wheedled a pistol from Joe (Geoffrey Yeager), a Target security guard, and used it to threaten him and two other people: Maggie (Kim Strassburger), owner of the diner, and the harmless addict Marty (John Martin), whose moments of lucidity provide much-appreciated comic relief from the tension. In flashbacks, it becomes evident that Cheryl’s pursuit of her mother’s dream of Olympic gold is an attempt to keep up with her brother, soon to be graduated from medical school as a gynecologist (“Dr. Pussy,” Cheryl calls him). But Cheryl, with all her bravado, doesn’t want to kill anyone. She wants them to share their humiliations with her, to help her lighten the unbearable load of the third-place finish. So she forces each to tell a story of personal degradation. It’s a tribute to Yeager’s writing, which acknowledges a plain debt to the plots of Petrified Forest and When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? and includes echoes of American playwriting greats Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee, that Bronze comes across as original and riveting theater. It helps that Yeager has a seasoned cast, three of whom were in the first incarnation of the play at Sledgehammer Theatre. Strassburger’s solid, rational mother figure brings a steadying influence; in fact, she almost talks the distraught skater out of the gun. Geoffrey Yeager (the director’s son) is fine as “guy’s guy” Joe, whose clumsy autograph requests precipitates the problem. Martin has carefully crafted his interpretation of the brain-addled Marty so that every look and gesture conveys meaning. New to the cast is Marquie, who not only looks great in her flashy skating outfit, but convinces as Cheryl, whose disappointment has finally reached the explosive stage. Kudos to Yeager for a fine play and excellent direction, and thanks to his fine cast. Those in search of good theater need look no further than the Yeager-directed double-header at 6th@Penn. Bronze plays through Sept. 26, 2007 at 6th@Penn Theatre. Shows Sunday at 7 p.m.; Monday through Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. For tickets call (619) 688-9210 or visit www.sixthatpenn.com.