The local all-woman sketch comedy group Broadminded returns to the stage with anew show this week. With their regular rehearsal, writing and performancecycle, Broadminded have the dedication to match their intelligence and talent.
Stacy Babl, Anne Graff LaDisa, Melissa Kingston andMegan McGee's new show Science and Surplus(June 4 -12at the AlchemistTheatre) explores the comical side of contemporary science and technology. Thetheme is almost as wide in scope as that of the group's last show, Confessions. Among other things, thegroup examines how technology affects relationships and how Pluto feels aboutits new sub-planetary status. Working with minimal sets, props and very simplecostuming (the group typically performs in jeans and Broadminded T-shirts), thegroup focuses their creative energy squarely on the writing, where it belongs.The simplicity is not without its cleverness. Inevitably a sketch will come upthat requires one of the women to play a man. The iconic visual shorthandthey've come up with for this is actually quite effective: women playing menwear baseball caps (usually backward). Sometimes it's the simplest things thatwork the best.
Men paying women have it considerably more difficultwhere the stage is concerned, particularly in fully costumed theaterproductions like the Ken Ludwig farce Leading Ladies at the Sunset Playhouse (June 4 - 26).Directed by the Sunset's artistic director Mark Salentine, the show is about acouple of actors who pose as women in order to get an inheritance. This pastMarch, Matthew J. Patten emailed me to apologize in advance for being in another show that put him in drag.Patten, who has appeared onstage in drag in quite a few comic shows in recentyears, is a natural for that sort of thing. A towering man with a reasonablypowerful build dressed as a woman has obvious comic appeal. Beyond that, Pattenhas a natural comic poise that works well in the types of shows that use men indrag for comic effect. “I was seriously hoping to take a hiatus fromcross-dressing comic roles for awhile,” says Patten. Fate has pulled him backinto a dress onstage. “I suppose there are worse things to be typecast as,“ hesays.
