Sunday, Steven and I went to one of the all time great things in the Mohawk Valley, Ilion Little Theatre (ILT), at the Stables, 13 Remington Ave, Ilion, NY 13357. Steve and I have been involved in college and community theatre for years, and ILT is one of the best. We’ve been members since fall of 2009 and we love it.
The theatre is housed in the Stables, formerly part of the Remington estate and located just behind Remington Arms. The theatre itself is small enough that the actors don’t need to be miked. It makes for a warm, friendly atmosphere. In fact, until they recently put in an air conditioning system, it was a little too warm for summer productions, but that obviously hasn’t been a problem this May (that’s not a run-on sentence; diagram it).
The show we went to see was Happy Birthday by Marc Camoletti, directed by George Malavasic. George welcomed us to the theatre and pointed out the emergency exits, then explained the extra treat in store for us.
It seems he got an embarrassment of riches at auditions, and he didn’t have enough parts to go around. Rather than let the talent go to waste he added three short one acts to the beginning of the evening and wrote an additional role to tie them together. Sort of like the Short Subjects they used to show at the movie theatre. Um, that would have been well before my time, but I’ve heard.
I won’t lie to you, it made for a long play. George pointed out that in India all movies must be at least three hours long or the audience would not feel they had gotten their money’s worth. I think Sunday’s audience certainly felt they got their money’s worth. The three short plays and Happy Birthday are laugh out loud funny. Never have my butt cheeks fallen asleep in such an entertaining setting. Oh, I’m just kidding about the butt cheeks. There were two intermissions, so we all got to stretch our legs.
Happy Birthday is a farce involving a man who invites his mistress to dinner with his best friend to act as a smoke screen. The best friend, meantime, is having an affair with the wife. And then things get complicated. As I said, laugh out loud funny. I appreciated the theatre’s intimate setting, because I could see the actors’ facial expressions, which were at times priceless.
The cast includes returning favorites as well as some new faces. One of the joys of being part of a good community theatre is you get to seeing actors playing different roles, like in a Christopher Guest film festival. I’ve seen Matt Trombley, George Lyon, Charlene Girmonde and Dawn DeSantis in other productions. Julianne Allen brightened things up backstage at the recent And Then There Were None. I know the fabulous Margaret Nemyier from ILT meetings and wine tastings at Ilion Wine and Spirits. Elisa Welch, Joan Primmar and Raphael D’Lorenzo were new faces for me, but I look forward to seeing them again.
I encourage anyone who likes theatre to check out ILT, and anyone who likes to laugh to go see Happy Birthday. The play continues Friday and Saturday, May 27 and 28. For more information, visit http://www.ilionlittletheatre.org.
Mohawk Valley Girl 