Shel Silverstein was one of the more intriguing artists of the last half-century. He achieved his greatest fame in children’s books, notably The Giving Tree, which he wrote concurrently with his long-time stint as a Playboy cartoonist. He also penned hit songs such as “Cover of Rolling Stone” and “A Boy Called Sue,” and collaborated with outlaw country artist David Allan Coe on numerous “blue” songs inappropriate for all but the most profanity-accepting audiences.
The edgy theater company, Actors Collaborative Toledo, explores Silverstein’s lesser-known career as a dramatist in kicking off their third season with An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein at the Collingwood Arts Center. This staged reading will bring eight of Silverstein’s short, punchy, sometimes dark one-act plays to the stage.
The upstart company was co-founded two years ago by the evening’s director Jeffrey Albright, a local theater vet looking to fill a void by pushing beyond the more mainstream theater toward more challenging off-Broadway fare. (He’s also directing more traditional shows at the Village Players Theatre and Waterville Playshop in the fall.)
“We try to do more contemporary pieces that other theater companies, with a more established subscriber base, probably couldn’t get away with doing,” says Albright. “There are enough of those theater companies around and the actors I know are begging to do more modern work.”
A cartoonist’s social wit
Like much of Silverstein’s work, the plays are powered by a kind of cockeyed surrealism and wit, undoubtedly related to his cartoon sensibility. Among the plays are “One Tennis Shoe” about a snooty country club-type that’s perhaps going “bag lady,” “Buy One, Get One Free,” featuring poetic hookers Merilee and Sherilee, and the ultimate shaggy dog story, “Blind Willie and the Talking Dog.”
“One of my favorite pieces is called ‘This Lifeboat is Sinking,’” says Albright. “It’s a husband and wife on their bed and they’re playing a game where their lifeboat is sinking and it’s the two of them, a child and his mother— and who do you throw over first because the boat can’t handle all of them? It’s sort of a metaphor for relationships and loyalty— it is wicked funny.”
Another of Albright’s favorites is called “The Best Daddy.”
“It’s this really sick piece where this father’s teasing his daughter about what’s under [a] blanket,” he says. “It’s her birthday present and the things that he tells her are under there are horrific and hysterical.”
New season ahead
The show was originally set to be at The Moxie Live, where Albright worked. When it closed abruptly a few weeks ago, there was some scrambling to find a new venue. The Collingwood had an open date, and his company has staged shows there in the past. It was a perfect fit.
The show features eight actors, including a couple who had worked with Albright in the past on some of these pieces and several entirely new to the troupe. An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein kicks off ACT’s seven-show 2015-2016 season.
“In October, there’s Rapture, Blister, Burn— which is a really, really, wonderful piece about feminism and the traps that people fall into,” he says. “In April, we’re doing An Iliad, which is a modern telling of Homer’s odyssey with Paul Causman, who, if there were such a thing as a local theater celebrity in Toledo, he’d be it.”
8pm Saturday, September 19. $10
Collingwood Arts Center, 2413 Collingwood Blvd.
419-244-2787 | act419.org
