permanentcoll, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

Today, I saw Permanent Collection at Center Stage. The play was written by Thomas Gibbons and directed by David Schweizer.

The play was about an African American businessman, Sterling North, who becomes the new director of The Morris Foundation. He soon discovers that the world famous art collection includes several historical African sculptures that have been hidden away in storage. To rectify this he proposes that the sculptures be added for display in the gallery. He is then vehemently opposed by the foundations long time education director, Paul Barrow. The reason for the education director’s opposition is that it would be going against the wishes of the eccentric late director of the foundation, Alfred Morris. The late Mr. Morris stipulated in his will that pieces can neither be added to or taken away from the gallery’s, Permanent Collection....

CAST

Terry Alexander......Sterling North

Quincy Tyler Bernstine.....Kanika Weaver

Elain R. Graham......Ella Franklin

Thomas M. Hammond......Paul Barrow

John Ramsey.......Alfred Morris

Christina Rouner......Gillian Crane

One thing I noticed immediately when I went into the theatre was that it was sparsely populated. I’m not sure what the cause of this could have been. The only thing I knew was that seeing the theatre practically bare made me wonder if the play had gotten several bad reviews.

I didn’t care too much about all the empty seats that surrounded me because the subject matter intrigued me. I was curious to see how a play about art and race would come across.

For starters the set was sparsely decorated. The background consisted of various paintings. During the beginning of the play there were blank canvases hanging up. I was practically salivating wondering if I could get a free blank canvas after the show’s run was through. The only thing I can imagine that taxed Scenic Director Andrew Lieberman would have been coming up with all those paintings.

The play also seemed to have taken forever to start. It began with the ghost of Alfred Morris played by veteran actor John Ramsey looking around the set silently appraising all the blank canvases that were up. To me this seemed to have taken up a good half hour of the play. In reality I think it was 10 minutes into the play before any dialogue was uttered. This was an absolutely pointless way to start off a play!! You kept wondering when the play was going to start.

Eventually, the play starts off with veteran actor and longtime Center Stage alumnus, Terry Alexander, explaining how he, a rich black man, got pulled over by the police on his way to his first day at work for the Morris Foundation. Alexander was absolutely riveting in that scene. You couldn’t take your eyes off him. OK, it was a monologue so you had no choice... Nevertheless, that scene and his performance in it were Tony award winning material. It felt so genuine and from the heart. Sadly, after that scene the play deteriorated into nothing but empty speeches.

I felt as though the playwright, Thomas Gibbons, was afraid to be decisive and take a stance. I’m not sure if that was entirely because of race or ineptitude. Gibbons by the way is a white playwright who seems to specialize in writing plays about racial issues.

The characters in the play were not really characters but symbols. When watching a play I don’t care too much about watching symbols. You ended up not really caring because symbols have no emotional center. There just well,......symbols.

As far as acting goes my favourite was John Ramsey as the late Alfred Morris. I liked him because he seemed to provide relief from all all the symbolistic characters and speeches.

I was delighted to see Thomas M. Hammond back as Paul Barrows, the Educational Director who wanted to keep things just as they were. Hammond was previously in Center Stage’s production of The Rainmaker. He was very good in his new role I wasn’t quiet sure if his character was a closet racist or just a guy who wanted to keep the gallery as is.

As far as the Center Stage newbie actors go, Elain R. Graham, as Ella Franklin the former assistant to the late Mr. Morris was great. I wish that she had more to do on stage. Her character had lots of potential but ended up doing nothing until the end of the play. I imagine that between the time her character was first introduced in the first half of the show then disappeared to show up again at the end of the play Ms. Graham might have had time enough to have knitted several scarves with matching mittens for all the cast members. Oh, well it must be great to get paid a lot of money to do nothing....

Quincy Tyler Bernstine who played Kanika Weaver, Sterling North’s assistant, who be-friend’s controversial Educational Director, Paul Barrows was very unique. I liked the fact that she chose to characterize Kanika as a black suburbanite as opposed to a girl from the hood. This I felt in a way made the character feel a little more offbeat and somewhat ditzy. Of all the characters on stage hers was the one with the most interesting wardrobe.

Christine Rouner was very good as the some what manipulative and conniving reporter, Gillian Crane.

Personally, I think the playwright really blew it by not developing the relationship between Kanika and Paul to a romantic one. As the play stands now Kanika and Paul are just platonic friends. I feel that if he had upped their relationship a notch it would have given the play more of a direct emotional center. You’d have something more to invest in than symbols. You would wonder whose side Kanika would be more on, her white possibly racist boyfriend or her black possibly racist boss.

As it is now everything is platonic, boring, and preachy. This play had so much potential to be good but it wasted it in speeches and symbols. To paraphrase the immortal words of Gertrude Stein, “.......there’s no there, there.”