REVIEW: Over Our Head Players’ Snowdance Comedy Festival

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•Review: Over Our Head Players’ Snowdance Comedy Festival |

•February 1st, 2010 | By Erik Koconis

•      Before I was told about Over Our Head Players’ Snowdance Comedy Festival I didn’t know anything about it.  I have a feeling I wasn’t alone. Still, every seat was filled Racine’s intimate Sixth Street Theatre, which doesn’t have a bad seat.

Snowdance closing ceremonies 2008. Photo courtesy of website.

Director and production manager Rich Smith planned the evening well, as each short play built on the energy of the previous one. The plays, submitted from all over the country, cover the entire spectrum of genres, from cute romantic comedy to the absolutely absurd.

The atmosphere was celebratory; the cast appeared to have as much fun as the audience. Each player had a special niche.  Tom Amacher’s — in white shorts, dress socks and sandals — embraced the ridiculous. Elizabeth McGregor and John Adams’ were comically and strikingly innocent. Abrasive Ron Schulz was the bull in the china shop. Mona Lewis’ specialized in expertly cheesy, schmaltzy camp.

During scene changes between plays, they offered local humor and tongue-in-cheek history lessons.  Somehow I didn’t mind that they were just reminding us all to go buy refreshments during intermission or turn off our cell phones.

Rich Smith, Creative Director of Over Our Head Players, holding Best in Show trophy 2008. Photo courtesy of website.

One of the best perks of this show: You get to vote for your favorites. It’s like a reality show, but with actual merit. My favorites included WI native Tim Bohn’s story about a young man’s first foray into ice fishing, Boston’s Rick Park’s lovers’ quarrel between two dolphins on a bus, and a soap opera parody where a couple discovers that their couch is pregnant, written by Iowan William Coleman.

The festival is irreverent, playful and quick.  If you want to sit in a room full of happy people and smile for a couple of hours, go see this show.

Over Our Head Player’s Snowdance Comedy Festival runs from Jan. 29th-Feb. 28th at the Sixth Street Theatre in Racine.  Votes will be tallied and winners will be announced on the final night of the run.  Visit Over Our Head Players or call 262-632-6802 for more information.

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Pop absurdist play by Bill Coleman

selected for production at Snowdance Festival

12/22/2009

William S.E. Coleman

A one-act comedy by William S.E. Coleman, professor emeritus of theatre arts at Drake University, is one of 11 plays selected for performance at the Sixth Annual Snowdance Comedy Competition.  

Coleman's "How Now, Brown Couch?" was chosen from 241 entries from 30 states, Europe, China, Canada and Australia. 

The bill of plays will be staged by the Over Our Head Players at the troupe's Sixth Street Theatre in Racine, Wis. The performance of these plays will open on Jan. 29 and run through Feb. 28. Once the premiere run is completed, Coleman's play will be available to other theatres. 

Coleman describes "How Now, Brown Couch?" as pop absurdist. The play deals with how a very average middle-class married couple reacts when they discover that their aging and well-worn living-room couch is pregnant. 

Two more plays by Coleman win awards, productions 

In less than two years, Coleman has received six international awards for his stage plays, and a total of nine productions. Three of these awards were for full-length plays. In addition, one of his screenplays was optioned for production. 

Two of his plays were presented last summer, in very different locations: 

•Santa Ana, Calif.: "The Morning After the Night Before," a two-act, full-length comedy, was selected out of 150 entries for the Third Annual Panndora's Box Festival of New Plays. The international call resulted in five plays presented at the festival in June at Santa Ana's Breath of Fire Theatre.

•Fairfield, Iowa: "April in June," a romantic comedy, was selected and produced by the Iowa Play Festival of Writers, Directors and Actors. The play appeared on a bill with five other plays in July at Fairfield's Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts.

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008 12:21 PM CDT

CCS Staff Writer

Seasons of Success

An artists colony of two enjoys

continuing success in the performing arts 

They said it wouldn’t last.

More than three decades ago everyone thought that William S. E. Coleman had lost his mind when he began dating Linda Robbins. Here he was a successful theatre arts professor at Drake University, an internationally recognized director, actor and playwright who had just returned from a year-long sabbatical in London with his two sons and a daughter-in-law. Linda was a young woman beginning a career in music, making her mark as a classical and jazz pianist, French horn and vibes player, completing her studies as a music education major at Drake, and starting up a business in piano tuning. When they met at a party, showing horror films no less, something clicked.

It made more sense that Linda was drawn to Bill. “I was always attracted to older men, having been brought up in a lively home with a father who was a half century older than I was. I found Bill to be the most interesting, creative, and intelligent man I had ever met. He was also divorced which meant he was available. At first my friends all thought I was crazy, even though they admired and respected him. I just thought I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time and that he saw something in me. We were meant to be.”

Unlikely as the pairing was, insane as it appeared to be, something about this couple seemed to work. They met on Labor Day, 1975, and married a year and a half later. She became Linda Robbins Coleman and they became a formidable team. “Most of our friends said it wouldn’t last six months,” they both agree, “but we proved all of them wrong.” In the following years “Doc and Linda” have been a driving force in Central Iowa culture both individually and as a team.

Together they collaborated on more than 30 productions at Drake; became the only foreigners allowed to observe rehearsals of the Greek National Theatre at Epidauros for eight years; founded the prototype of the Friends of Drake Arts; researched, wrote, proofed and edited the acclaimed book “Voices of Wounded Knee;” gave multi-media lectures about Buffalo Bill Cody both here and abroad; co-founded the Iowa Composers Forum and served as its home office for its first ten years; researched the assistance of the Danish people in helping to save the Jews during WWII; and supported each other’s creative potential. This is only a partial list and doesn’t even begin to include what they have accomplished individually, either. It is safe to say that no married couple in the arts in Iowa have had as many performances, awards, and productions on a national and international scale as Bill and Linda Coleman.

  

His “Golden Years” Are Truly Golden

Although he retired from Drake University in 2002, William refuses to slow down and accept the fact that he should act like an octogenarian.

“This year I turned 82. It’s been a great year for me as a writer. I doubt that many younger writers have had as good a 12 months as I have had.

Two of my full length comedies received major international awards - one included a production, another a pending Equity reading and an option. Eight of my plays received productions - three in Des Moines, two in Chicago, one in Florida, one Pennsylvania, and one in Sydney, Australia. Four were selected from an international call for plays.

My romantic comedy, ONE GOLDEN MOMENT (the basis of the screenplay “Kefi”), won the first place Grindstone Award in the Jennerstown (PA) Mountain Playhouse’s Annual International Comedy Competition. The award includes a cash prize, an Equity reading of the play in September, 2008, an all expenses trip (for Linda and me) to the reading, and an option for production through 2010.

For coverage, go to:

 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08220/902310-59.stm

This month I accepted an Option/Purchase Agreement from Los Angeles based Adventures in Film, Inc., a production company headed by Ira Besserman, for my romantic comedy, “Kefi.” My screenplay is based upon my full-length stage play, “One Golden Moment”, which won the Jennerstown Mountain Playhouse’s International Comedy Competition in July. The two events are not connected, but they are a wonderful coincidence. 

Besserman’s previous credits include “When a Man Falls in the Forest,” starring Sharon Stone and Timothy Hutton, and “Johnny Was,” which starred Patrick Bergin, Vinnie Jones, Eriq La Salle and Roger Daltry. Besserman also worked as an associate producer with Christopher Lloyd. If the film is realized, it will be shot entirely in Greece and mainly on a Cycladian island. 

 

These are the other productions and awards my plays received during the 2007-2008 season:

My one-act play “Twilight Time” was presented as part of a bill of 10 plays, Night Caps 2 from June 5 to June 15, 2008, at the Lincoln Square Theatre, Chicago.

In an international call for plays, a short version of my long one-act “Smith” was produced May 31, 2008, by Darknight Theatrical Productions on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

My full-length comedy “The Morning After the Night Before,” after receiving the Acrosstown Repertory Theatre’s James Sunwall International Comedy Award, was produced in Gainesville, Florida,  July  28, 2007, at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Writing for the Region Festival.

“Closing Time” was produced as part of a cycle of plays dealing with the Seven Deadly Sins – “An Evening of Delicious Sin” – by the Iowa Scriptwriters Association April 24-27, 2008, at the 4th Street Theatre, Des Moines. Coleman co-founded the ISA in 1997 with five other Iowa writers, served as the first president, and has remained a driving force in the organization. The “Sins” project was conceived and organized by Coleman, with assistance by Mrs. Coleman.

“A More Perfect Union,” was produced by Lucubrations in their Short play Series April 8, 9, 15, 16, 2008, at the 4th Street Theatre, Des Moines, IA.

A long version of “Twilight Time” was presented from October 5 to 13, 2007, at the Blacktown Community Theatre, Sydney, Australia, after being selected in an international call for plays for their annual “4-Shorts Plus.

In an international call for one-act play dealing with dreams, my “After Midnight” was one of eight plays selected for production from August 16 to 19, 2007, in the Lebanon (PA) Community Theatre’s Annual Play Writing Competition.

“May I?” was produced by the Drama Workshop at the 2007 Iowa Fringe Festival 9 (July 19-22, 2007).

In November, 2007, Drake University flew Bill to the Coast and honored “Doc” with a party of Theatre alumni in Los Angeles. More than 50 former students ranging from thirty years of graduates attended this get-together. In June, 2008, more than forty alumni gathered to celebrate their years with “Doc and Linda” at a luncheon in Chicago. All told, since his retirement from Drake in 2002, the Coleman’s have received more than 2,800 emails, letters, phone calls, and visits from their students at Drake. “My thirty-seven years at Drake were incredible,” Bill says, “and I was blessed to have a quality of student that put the theatre department on the map. In recent years our students have been nominated and/or awarded five Emmy’s, two Obies, and an Oscar, along with many other regional and national awards.”

It’s All Music To Her Ears

If success is contagious, then Linda Robbins Coleman has caught the bug.

Blessed with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy and optimism, she admits that marrying Bill Coleman isn’t the only thing in her life that seems implausible.

“I am fortunate that I have exceeded all of my childhood dreams. Here I am, a woman in Des Moines, Iowa who has only a Bachelor of Music Education degree, and yet I have managed to put together a life that far exceeds anything I could have dreamed of. I’ve gone from being “jazz chick” and a piano tuner to becoming the first Iowa woman to serve as Composer in Residence with a symphony orchestra. I’ve gone from pumping gas to being the first Iowa woman to hear my music performed in the “major leagues” on a concert by the Milwaukee Symphony. Most composers struggle to hear their music performed once, and yet I’ve been blessed that my works are performed all through the United States and abroad, not once but many times. It has been a remarkable life.”

The last two seasons are a reflection of Coleman’s career. While she juggles many things, including care-giving her elderly mother, running two households, and helping her husband with his business, Coleman continues to be in great demand as a composer.

“I am grateful for the internet, and for computers in general. I have been composing on the computer since 1987, and it has made all the difference. I cannot imagine having to copy parts by hand, or having to hire copy assistants to get my music out. I am grateful for another reason as well, since my own handwriting isn’t easy to read.”

Coleman has been amazed at how her music seems to reach out and touch people. In the past sixteen years she has been performed and broadcast by more than 60 organizations and orchestras in more than 26 states, as well as in England, Europe, and Canada. In Iowa she has been performed by ten orchestras, and served as Composer in Residence with both the Wartburg Community Symphony from 1995-96 and the Cedar Rapids Symphony from 1994-96 and 2001-02. In less than ten years the Cedar Rapids Symphony performed seven of her works, some of them more than once.

“It was an incredible experience. I fell in love with that orchestra from the first moment I heard them. I still serve on the Artistic Committee, and I think they are one of Iowa’s greatest cultural treasures. It broke my heart to see those pictures during the flood of 2008. But they are amazing, and will survive this challenge and be even stronger than before.”

In 1999 she traveled to England to hear her British debut with her “biggest hit so far” titled “In Good King Charles’s Golden Days.” “It’s an overture based on something I wrote for Drake Theatre and then expanded to a full symphonic piece. It’s been performed from Hawaii to the U.K., and throughout the United States. It was my first orchestra piece, and is my most performed.”

In recent years she has had the enviable experience of many orchestras performing her music in consecutive seasons. “That is almost unheard of for anyone but Beethoven, Mozart, or the other DWEMS (Dead White European Males). Last season the Garden State Philharmonic in New Jersey performed my tone poem, “For A Beautiful Land.” This piece was commissioned by the Cedar Rapids Symphony for the Iowa Sesquicentennial, and has been performed throughout the USA. What was amazing was that the following season the Garden State conductor programmed my “Hibernia Suite,” for string orchestra for their “Irish Spring” concert.’” Although Coleman wasn’t able to attend the performance in March, she had audience members who she’d never met email her to praise the performance. “Like I said, the Internet is wonderful,” Coleman exclaims.

The same thing happened in Oklahoma. Last season the Bartlesville Symphony ended their season with a performance of “For A Beautiful Land” on a concert featuring the violinist Mark O’Connor. And this season they opened with a gala concert celebrating the Oklahoma Centennial, the 50th anniversary of the orchestra and the 30th of the conductor with that orchestra using my suite, ‘The Celebration! A Symphonic Jubilee” on a concert with the Canadian Brass. “It was a wonderful experience, and they invited me to join them for this concert. It was a wonderful weekend, with a big write-up in the newspaper, a proclamation by the governor, and a huge celebration.”

Coleman sometimes finds it difficult to keep up with the demand. “I’ve had to slow down on accepting commissions for new works in recent years due to all the other things going on in my life. It also keeps me quite busy keeping up with the performances of my established music since I handle my own publishing business. Currently I am finishing a string orchestra suite for an orchestra in Iowa and am about to begin another commission for another orchestra to be performed in the 2009-10 season. In between I have parts to send to various organizations and orchestras throughout the country. When the phone rings I never know where the next performance will be!”

Coleman’s efforts and accomplishments haven’t gone unnoticed. In 1999 she was awarded the National Honorary Membership in the professional music fraternity, Sigma Alpha Iota. This is the highest honor the organization awards to members. In 2000 she became the 8th person to be inducted into the Hoover High School Hall of Fame here in Des Moines.

On May 16, 2008, she was awarded Drake University’s distinguished Alumni Achievement Award at the Drake National Awards Dinner. This honor is bestowed annually to one individual for outstanding achievement in a career or profession and reflects the pride of Drake University in those achievements.

“It was an incredible evening at the end of a wonderful year,” Coleman says. “I felt like I’ve come full circle. Drake has been such a part of my life since I was five years old. I was humbled and honored to be awarded this recognition.”

http://www.drake.edu/video/project_alumniawards08/

http://www.drake.edu/news/dbletter/eblue/

Linda Robbins Coleman has no trouble summing up everything that has happened, both with her husband William and in her own creative experience. “It truly has been a wonderful life.”

For more information please go to

http://web.mac.com/lindarobbinscoleman/