| FOUNDATIONS Produced by the Subversive Theatre Collective Performed at the New Phoenix Theatre on the Park Feb 3, 2007, 12:48 |
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FOUNDATIONS Subversive Theatre Collective/New Phoenix Theatre on the Park By Augustine Warner When Kurt Schneiderman was writing “Foundations,” he clearly wasn’t looking for soft, feelgood entertainment. His “Foundations,” is a slash and burn attack on everyone who doesn’t like unions, including the business agent of his Local 214, a construction union suffering in a city where “80%” of construction is non-union. Business agent Benjamin Wolford (Victor Morales) is in it for the money. His last name isn’t unknown in local union circles and the attitude has shown up in some federal court sentencings recently. The play is scatological, vile, macho and really well done. Playwright Schneiderman directed the play himself in the New Phoenix Theatre, using perhaps the best set I have ever seen from David Butler (and, he’s done some really good ones), especially the crane and the city vista back drop, working with sound designer Brian Wantuch. Until I see what the Shaw Festival or the Stratford Festival do this season, this may be my personal award-winning set for the year. The play takes place on a construction site in a starving, struggling city with a struggling Black community. Does that sound familiar? The small band of workers is building a small shopping mall in a section of the city without one, trying to deal with the effect on poor people of having to drive to the suburbs or pay the exorbitant prices of small corner stores, in the “Central City Empowerment District.” This particular morning, things are falling apart. Crane operator John Sheppard (Willie W. Judson Jr.) is in a really bad mood because his only son was killed by police three-days before. General laborer Peter Olsen (Keith Elkins) is struggling with his drinking. Project Foreman Frank Benedetti (Dennis Keefe) is worn by years of keeping his crew together in the face of the usual jobsite problems and by the extra problems of a suck-up young weasel project manager, Leonard Hartman (Andy Moss), who hates unions and wants to turn Rock Solid Construction Company into a non-union employer. The job site is a mix of personal problems and the language so common to the building trades. Hartman is known as “Hard-on,” ironworker Jakub Yablonowitz (Chris Standart) is known as Blow Job,” for his language and his sexual attitudes. Things really fall apart when the word comes from City Hall that the private money for the mall has fallen through and the building will be turned into a police station. Sheppard goes nuts and locks himself into his crane and work stops. From then on, the plot twists on Benedetti trying to keep all of those balls in the air, trying to get the job re-started without making things even worse than they are. That gives Schneiderman a chance to really sound off about society falling apart, of the “foundations” of life around Sheppard collapsing. “Shep” knows his junkie son was everything evil, but he was his only son and he doesn’t think what happened at the hands of police was right. Frank Benedetti agrees but he’s just trying to get himself and his men through the days and weeks and Sheppard’s personal problems are making it impossible. In the end, the center cannot hold and everything falls apart…except friendship. Maybe it’s because Schneiderman had an extra week because illness delayed the show’s opening for a week, giving him strong performances from everyone in the cast, especially my former boss Keefe, Judson and Standart. There’s also Elkins’ work as the crippled, alcoholic Olsen. The playwright could tighten the show a little bit, cutting a few minutes out here and there. You may not agree with Schneiderman’s points of view, especially on unions, but you should get to the New Phoenix to see “Foundations,” a local play with a much larger message. © Copyright 2006 by Speakupwny.com |