Max and Louie Productions to Stage ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’

Max and Louie Productions to Stage ‘What the Constitution Means to Me’

Playwright Heidi Schreck’s highly impactful and timely memoir, What the Constitution Means to Me, winner of Best American play, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, opens Max & Louie Productions upcoming 2023 theatrical season, running at The Marcelle Theatre, April 6-23rd in St. Louis..

“When in the Course of human Events it becomes necessary to recover from the fatigue and grief that we have all experienced, Max & Louie Productions presents the opportunity to feel uplifted, to galvanize, and to explore just what the Constitution means to You,” said Stellie Siteman, Producing Artistic Director.

This boundary-breaking play breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how it will shape the next generation of Americans. Fifteen-year-old Heidi Schreck earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. What the Constitution Means to Me is inspired by the prompt she received on these tours: draw a personal connection between your life and the Constitution. Actor Michelle Hand brilliantly resurrects Schreck’s teenage and present self to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women in her family and the founding document that shaped their lives, digging into its beauty, aspirations, contradictions, and failures.

The cast includes Michelle Hand, Joel Moses, Riley Carter Adams, Aislyn Morrow, and Maahi Saini.

Nancy Bell Directs.

Critic’s Pick! “Brilliantly Crafted Show, Harrowing, Funny, and Humane, that accesses the political through the deeply personal. A Masterful Act of Storytelling.” – New York Magazine

What the Constitution Means to Me will run at the Marcelle Theatre, 3310 Samuel Shepard Drive, Saint Louis, Missouri 63103. Free secured parking.

The dates of the production are April 6- April 23, 2023. Tickets are now on sale at maxandlouie.com or by phone at Metrotix (314) 534-1111.  Tickets are priced from $15-$50

Max & Louie Productions has received its Missouri ArtSafe certification. To ensure that we may create safely, present safely, and attend safely we pledge to Covid-19 Safety Protocols which patrons are encouraged to view at Max & Louie Productions’ website at www.maxandlouie.com

Actors/Director Bio’s and Headshots  

Michelle Hand* (Heidi) is delighted to work with this creative team to finally put the skills she honed as a middle-school debater in the Bellarmine Speech League to good use. More recent stage appearances include Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at The Repertory Theater of St. Louis, Sugar in Tiny, Beautiful Things at Max & Louie Productions (St. Louis Theater Circle Award Nomination) and Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis (St. Louis Theater Circle Award Nomination). She is so grateful for the many opportunities she has had in the span of her career, from co-founding the Orange Girls Theater Company, to appearing in the Off-Broadway premier of Day of the Dog, to collaborating with the great companies, the great actors, and the great theater artists of St. Louis in over 40 productions.  Thank you for your continued support of this community.  This one is for Basil.

*Member of Actors’ Equity

Joel Moses (Legionnaire) St. Louis credits include The Christians (West End Players), Bronte Sister House Party (SATE), Laughter on the 23rd Floor (New Jewish Theatre), The Zoo Story, and The Dumb Waiter (St. Louis Actors’ Studio). He spent several years with the Organic Theater Company in Chicago where favorite performances included Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Emilie: la Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight, The Diviners, and playing the title role in King Ubu.

Other Chicago credits include work with First Folio Theatre, Assassination Theater, 16th Street Theater, Theatre Y, and Stage 773. He received his MFA in Acting from Northern Illinois University and studied abroad at the Moscow Art Theatre. This is Joel’s first appearance for Max & Louie Productions!

Riley Carter Adams (Debater) is a 7th grader at John Burroughs School. When she was seven, Riley created her first YouTube vlog channel, Black and Girly with Miss Riley. She has performed in a plethora of youth and equity theatre productions on several stages with COCA, Gateway Center for Performing Arts, Kirkwood Youth Theatre, Ignite Theatre Company, Union Avenue Opera, The Black Rep, The Rep, and The Muny. In 2019, Riley made her television debut in a recurring role in a Showtime Original series entitled On Becoming a God in Central Florida, co-executive produced and starring Kirsten Dunst and executive produced by George Clooney. 

In 2020, she starred in the local Nine PBS sensation A New Holiday, directed by Brian Owens and co-written with Sophia Stephens.  Riley currently voices the character of the effortlessly brave, Nevaeh Campbell, in the animated series, Drawn In, a collaboration between nine PBS and Lion Forge animation. She was featured in The Muny’s 104th season casts of Camelot and The Color Purple and starred as Matilda in COCA’s summer mainstage production of Matilda the Musical and in the New Jewish Theatre’s World Premiere of The Bee Play, as Paris. Riley enjoys writing in her journals, drawing, reading, learning new vlogging techniques from her favorite YouTubers, and spending time with her family and friends.

Aislyn Morrow She/They (Debater) attends Grand Center Arts Academy and will graduate in May 2023. She has appeared in Godspell, as Morgan, Milk Like Sugar as Myrna Desmond and in She Kills Monsters as Lilith Morningstar/Lilly, at Grand Center Arts Academy and most recently, Our Town at the Sun Theatre all directed by Michael Musgrave-Perkins.

She has also appeared in A Year with Frog and Toad, as Lizard, Squirrel, and Mole, with Fly North Theatricals, directed by Colin Healy, and in Ranked- A New Musical, as Jacquie, at COCA, directed by Grace Austin. When she’s not performing in theatre or musical theatre, Aislyn enjoys being the cheer captain of Titans Cheer Team at Confluence Preparatory Academy.

Maahi Saini (Debater) attends MICDS and is in 8th grade. She has appeared in two MICDS plays Happiest Day in Moneyville USA and A Collection of Aesop’s Fables.  Maahi has multiple public speaking awards, most coming from a foundation called NSF (North South Foundation), where they are given a prompt one minute before they speak. “It’s called impromptu for a reason!” 

She enjoys playing volleyball and squash and watching every sport possible especially ice hockey and football. Maahi enjoys spending time with friends and creating and editing video content. Maahi has always had a passion for drama and is so grateful for this opportunity!

Nancy Bell (Director) is an award-winning actor, director, and playwright with a body of working spanning thirty years. Her plays Blow Winds, Remember Me, The World Begun, Good in Everything, Old Hearts Fresh, and The New World were produced at Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, where she served as Playwright-in-Residence. Elsewhere, her plays have been developed or produced in California, New York and elsewhere.

As a performer, she has worked at Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Geffen Playhouse and dozens of others nationally. Among many other TV and film credits, she appeared on Star Trek Voyager and as Susan Bates on the long-running soap Guiding Light. 

As a director, she has worked at Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, the New Jewish Theatre, St. Louis Actors Studio, COCA, and elsewhere. Nancy is Associate Professor of Theatre at Saint Louis University. www.NancyEllenBell.com  

‘The Christians’ Offers Outstanding Acting in Thought-Provoking Play

‘The Christians’ Offers Outstanding Acting in Thought-Provoking Play

By Lynn Venhaus
Playwright Lucas Hnath doesn’t ever flinch, and neither does his lead character, Pastor Paul in “The Christians,” an examination of faith and influence in a 21st century megachurch.

In an innovative move, the West End Players Guild is presenting this thought-provoking drama in the Union Avenue Christian Church, not their usual stage in the basement.

It’s just one of director Ellie Schwetye’s smart moves, and the setting adds an authenticity for this examination of faith and doctrine.

It’s not a typical megachurch plot, where there is often reason to deride piety. The characters are sincere, which makes it more powerful.

Pastor Paul has discarded his church’s traditional fundamentalist Christianity in favor of a more inclusive and universal Christianity. When he announces to his congregation that he has come to doubt a core belief – well, this does not go over well.

He thinks other religions have valid points. Oh, the horror. This rocks everyone to their core. Chaos will ensue.

Ten years ago, his church was a modest storefront, but now it houses thousands, with all sorts of amenities. It’s paid for, and all seems to be going well. How does one man unite a church – and then, suddenly, divide it? Can internal politics tear down things built up with love?

As Pastor Paul, Joel Moses digs deep, showing us his pain over his flock’s revulsion, and how those closest to him turn on him. He’s aghast, for while he expected this sermon to be controversial, the reaction stuns him. Their foundation – and relationships – will crumble before our very eyes.

As this unsettling drama unfolds, the cast is pitch-perfect, making sure each character is not black-or-white, but many shades of grey. Each has a crisis of faith, and this creates thought-provoking content. And interesting confrontations as they all seem at different crossroads.

Joseph Garner is impressive as the associate pastor Joshua, who must stay true to his values. Rachel Hanks is strong as Pastor Paul’s faithful wife Elizabeth — but begins to doubt so much about their relationship and work. And then loyal parishioner Jenny, played by a fiery Chrissie Watkins, must speak her truth. Michael Byrd has a small role as Elder Jay.

Hnath, a favorite of West End Players Guild, first produced “The Christians” at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky., in 2014. It premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2015, and then had its Chicago premiere at Steppenwholf Theatre Company in 2016. He is the son of a minister.

Among its accolades – “The Christians” was nominated for two 2016 Drama Desk Awards, for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actor in a Play, and then nominated for the 2016 Lortel Award for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play. It won the 2016 Outer Critics Circle Award as Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play

This production is a St. Louis premiere, and is one of the strongest dramas of the year.

West End Players Guild presents Lucas Hnath’s The Christians Dec. 2-11 at Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union in the Central West End. For more information: westendplayers.org.

Photos by John Lamb

Dynamic Duo Showcase in St. Louis Actors’ Studio Compelling One-Acts

Dynamic Duo Showcase in St. Louis Actors’ Studio Compelling One-Acts

By Lynn Venhaus
By the numbers: 2 one-act plays, 2 renowned 20th century playwrights, 2 professional actors, a 97-seat black box — with COVID-19 protocols in place — and one professional theater company restarting its 14th season.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. One thing is for certain – the awards magnet St. Louis Actors’ Studio has re-opened with the edgy, gritty dramadies that it specializes in, re-emerging with an acting showcase on stage at The Gaslight Theatre.

After being dark during the public health crisis of 2020 and 2021, pre-vaccine, these early 1959 works by two iconic individual voices, “The Zoo Story” by Edward Albee and “The Dumb Waiter” by Harold Pinter, are vivid and evocative some 60 years later

It’s all the ingredients necessary to create a mesmerizing live theatrical experience.

Newcomer Joel Moses announces his arrival in St. Louis with two masterful portraits, holding his own with veteran William Roth, who is also the company’s artistic director. The original 14th season was called “Two to Tango,” and their pas de deux is a master class in duet acting.

William Roth as Peter and Joel Moses as Jerry in “The Zoo Story.” Photo by Patrick Huber

Starting with Edward Albee’s first play, “The Zoo Story,” it’s immediately apparent that we are in for something special. The one-act, written in 1958, is where Albee, a rebellious youth with wealthy adoptive parents, crafted a work by using themes we’d become more familiar with as he explored dark societal issues.

He won three Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, and his 1962 masterpiece “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” won the Tony Award. “The Zoo Story” is where it all began, thus creating a sea change in American postwar theater, and won the 1960 Obie Award.

As powerful today as when it first appeared in regional theater (rejected by New York status quo), “The Zoo Story” is about isolation, loneliness, class and economic disparities, dehumanization of marginalized people, and the pitfalls of living in a material world.

All of that is brought to life in finely tuned performances by Roth and Moses as Peter and Jerry. They meet on a park bench in Central Park one sunny Sunday afternoon.

Peter, as is his custom, is reading a book in solitude. A married publisher of some means has two daughters, two cats and two parakeets.

He intrigues Jerry, who engages Peter in conversation. As is immediately obvious, Jerry has issues – lonely, disconnected, desperate, he craves companionship. He has no filter and no boundaries, a lost soul.

It’s apparent who is the have-not in this twosome. Jerry’s façade cracks early, and his behavior becomes increasingly alarming. As unsettled as Peter is, his manners allow him a sense of decorum, until the situation escalates.

What was disturbing back in 1960, when the play was first produced off-Broadway with William Daniels and George Maharis as Peter and Jerry, remains distressing today – but for different reasons. Back then, such unstable behavior hadn’t been normalized by society – it was shocking. Sadly, we can see what’s coming by looking through the rear-view mirror of 2021. This is what happens, Albee says, when people are discarded as worthless by society.

Albee’s trademark biting dialogue is handled with seamless agility by Roth and Moses, under the thoughtful direction of Wayne Salomon.

A legendary local theater artist, Salomon’s skill is expected – and the finesse attended to this production is admirable. He has polished both plays until they gleam, like the genuine gems they are.

The setting benefits from Patrick Huber’s panoramic view of Central Park as a serene oasis in the bustling city – and further illustrates the differences between the two characters.

This sharp, savvy production is , hard-hitting and though-provoking theater as it was intended. It’s exhilarating to experience.

Joel Moses as Gus and William Roth as Ben in “The Dumb Waiter.” Photo by Patrick Huber

After a welcome intermission, as we’re processing the brilliance of the first act, we’re treated to one of Huber’s stunning set changes. How did he do that between shows? It’s a grimy, dingy basement somewhere in England, where two hitmen are awaiting their orders.

This is a fun change-of-pace. Just as absurd as “The Zoo Story,” and also a comedy with dramatic overtones, the British playwright and Nobel Prize-winning Harold Pinter’s early work from 1957 is indicative of his later much-heralded plays, like the menacing “The Birthday Party” and “The Homecoming.”

Moses, in another tour-de-force, is the impatient and somewhat dim-witted Gus, who seems to have grown weary of his routine, monoytonous life waiting for “the call” and killing time on assignment. Without so much as a needed cup of refreshing tea, he’s antsy, bored and hungry.

His companion, Ben, a man resigned to his lot in life, is keenly played by Roth, who becomes aggravated by Gus’ incessant chatter. He’s the teacher to the pupil.

Both actors adopt working-class English accents, and they give out a little information here and there, shaping their characters and how they operate.

They are taken aback when a dumb waiter opens with a slip of paper indicating a food order. The small kitchen’s stove is inoperable, so they can’t even light the kettle for tea. And here orders are coming in with a variety of restaurant dishes listed, expecting to be prepared. A few biscuits, a warm bottle of milk, a stale tea cake and some crisps are all that Gus has brought. They send that up, not knowing what to expect.

The exchange is comical – and involves a whistle and some sort of horn in which to communicate.

Ah, Pinter. A stuffy, claustrophobic setting? Check. Mundane but witty dialogue? Check. Hidden meanings? Check.

The actors get into an appealing rhythm that sadly must end, because well, the play ends. “The Dumb Waiter” leaves you wanting more – dialogue, funny bits, threatening in a mysterious way, and actors having fun — but that is a good thing, not a drawback.

Both plays are humorous, ironic, and suspenseful in their own ways, and it’s interesting to watch the accomplished actors switch gears. Roth and Moses make a dynamic duo – and best of all, this won’t be the end of them working together, at least I hope not.

The two one-acts continue its final weekend, Oct. 1-3, with Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at The Gaslight Theatre in the Central West End, 358 N. Boyle Ave. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or you can arrive at the box office within an hour of the show. For more information, visit stlas.org or call 314-458-2978.                                                                                                          ,