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March 19th, 2024

first time female director spotlightA scene from Chelsea Peretti’s directorial debut “First Time Female Director.” Courtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

The arts can be a tricky business to break into, especially with theatre, and especially if you happen to be a woman. Recently, Chelsea Peretti (best known for her role on the show “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) attempted to bring that to life with her directorial debut, “First Time Female Director.”

In the film, aspiring writer Sam Clifford (Peretti) is thrust into the role of director when her theater's director is fired. Chosen by the theater's artistic director, Sheldon (Andy Richter), Sam is asked to direct the theater's upcoming play, with some ... interesting results, to put it politely. 

To put things rather bluntly, the movie wastes so many opportunities to actually be good. The story is rather slapdash and throughout the movie, it feels like there’s too much trying to be done, and the end result is rather a mess. To me, it felt like the movie couldn’t decide to be a full-on comedy about what goes into putting a stage production together or more along the lines of a mockumentary about Sam’s new role and how she handled everything. Had the movie gone more along the lines of something like the comedy “Noises Off” or any of the segments from the “Documentary NOW!” series and had a more clear storyline, I feel like the film would have been way, way more successful. Another theme that could have easily been explored is a lack of support provided to women for success – every woman has dealt with that at some point in their career and while things are starting to get better in that regard, there are many improvements to be made. I’m guessing Peretti herself has dealt with that throughout her own career, and this movie could have been a good time for Peretti to make a bit of a statement. Any of those ideas, written well and given a clear focus, could have made this movie really good, but the movie seems to want to push for silliness, and outlandishness instead of telling a good story. Overall, it almost felt like there wasn’t a fully clear vision of what the movie’s overall tone was supposed to be, and it made the movie a rather frustrating watch to me. 

rex havens spotlightCourtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Rex Havens has been entertaining audiences with his comedic stylings for the past three decades and next month, he will be bringing his show to Liberal as part of this year’s Chamber Bash festivities the evening of March 16. 

As Havens tells it, comedy has been part of his life for a long time. 

“I've been doing this for 30 years, and as a young person, I always had more comedy records than music records because I just loved whatever formula it was that made people laugh and make that wonderful sound. That wonderful, warm sound of a room full of laughter made me really, really happy, and it's kept me going,” Havens said. “I started going to open mic nights, I was in Chicago at that time, and you do that for the while just for the love of it, and eventually I met a bunch of people and made my way up the comedy ladder. I started in clubs, like many other comedians, and then after that, I started working for some agencies, and they started sending me out on gigs, and I also worked cruise ships for a number of years, and I would spend about 10 weeks a year doing those jobs. The cruise ships were really nice because I ultimately ended up visiting several places I might not otherwise have gone to, and there were even some times when my family got to come along.”

come from away spotlight pageResidents of Gander and their ‘come from away’ guests share a rowdy moment in a past national tour performance of “Come From Away.” The American Theatre Guild started a Staging The Future program to help provide students and under-served community members the ability to experience live theatre such as “Come From Away” as well as access to education opportunities. Courtesy photo/Matthew MurphyELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

There are many young people interested in the performing arts in some capacity, and the American Theatre Guild has a program to help further that interest. 

“The American Theater Guild is in 13 markets, including in Wichita, and our Broadway touring shows all take place at the Century II Concert Hall. We're a non-profit organization presenter for the Broadway in Wichita series. We started an education/outreach program called Staging The Future, and it's really about working to put our mission into practice and implemented across our different communities,” Elaine Stolze, senior director of development and community relations for the American Theatre Guild said. “This program, at least in the Wichita area, has been in place for about six years, and across all of our markets, we started out with providing opportunities for underserved students and organizations that support underserved community members so they can have access to our Broadway shows, these high-caliber productions, and learn about the performing arts. We also provide educational opportunities that include master classes and talks so these people can engage with the cast members and others associated with the shows. We are absolutely thrilled to have been able to grow that program to almost 13,000 students, and those students are from communities from all across our markets.”