Many Cheers for Martha Schmoyer LoMonaco and Her Cast & Crew @FairfieldU - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

In 2003, I picked up a little red book with an upside down poodle carved into the cover. It was written by Mark Haddon and it quickly became part of a six-week unit I taught to seniors at the J. Graham Brown School in Louisville, Kentucky (just a few blocks from Actor's Theater). I loved the story, the narrative pace, and the voice of Christopher, a British young man with autism, who was trying to solve the murder of a dog, but also the truth about his parents.

When I saw that Fairfield University was going to stage The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time I was very excited. It was also timely for a friendship with Dr. LoMonaco to begin, as she approached me with a desire to collaborate with urban outreach (which she did on Friday with Harding High School - a friendship already created). Sitting in her office, I had to say, "You have no idea how exited I am to see a theatrical production of this book." It's almost like I have the book memorized, I taught it so many times. It's one of those perfect texts.

Until yesterday afternoon, I had not seen the play adaption by Simon Stephens that was based on the novel by Mark Haddon. The stage-version explores more of the marital/separation problems of Christopher's parents than the YA text. The first act was true to the original narrative, and the 2nd half took more liberty with the story (as a truest, I watched with a skeptical eye).

I loved the Theater Fairfield staged the play. It was theater-in-the-square, which makes sense because that is the logical way Christopher's mind works. I thought the use of gray boxes (with prime #s on them) and the lighting of the stage was brilliant (kudos to Karl Ruling & Lynn Chase). The choice of a grey ensemble, too, allowed for the character colors to 'pop' when they were in other roles (applause for Julia Leavitt). There were also four screens that portrayed images above that shared some of the story that Christopher had going on in his head.

The greatest brilliance, however, was Park Lytle as Christopher Boone and the ensemble (I called it a 'chorus' - that's from studying Greek tragedies) played by Shannon Kelley, Carlin Fournier, Fallon Sullivan, Romina Rabines, Jay Martins, Michael Stack, Mana Seike and Bridgit Murray (a special shout-out to Bridgit who I've had in class - she's a phenomenal student and it was wonderful to see her Meryl Streep-like actions on stage - I never saw the resemblance before).

The ensemble jumped into characters throughout the play, but also helped to become Christopher's subconscious, emotions, and thoughts, as well as props for him to work with. It truly was innovative, if not magical. All the staging was superb, and the use of small stage (and the surrounding theater) made Christopher's story that much more believable (especially as his tantrums scared his father, the audience, officers, and neighbors). Anyone who has worked with young people who have autism can relate to the ups and downs of the every day. The production by Theater Fairfield captured the frustration, humor, angst and love (as difficult as it can sometimes be)

A special shout out needs to go to Brad Roth, too, who offered movement training for the show, a "walking dance," of sorts that provided theatrical warm up, choreography, and a voice 'score' to get the actors (and audience) ready. It was a fusion of Richard Bull's 'walking dance' dancing and improvisational movement and emotions added by Roth. The collegiate actors also used the influence of Japanese improvisational performance artists, Eiko and Koma.  .All this, however, was brought together in a show that demonstrated absolute teamwork, and the credit needs to go to the director, Martha Schmoyer LoMonaco. I was impressed by the entire show and look forward to learning more about the other ways its been staged.

I am waking up this morning feeling like a better man for finally seeing the scripted version of Haddon's book. I missed it on Broadway, but feel that Fairfield University did a stellar job on their own. Thumbs up to Theater Fairfield for all the hard work. To be honest, the choreography reminded me of a show from last year's WGI - UCF Pegasus's Guertica (below) that was based on Picaso's anti-war artwork of the same name. The movement tells a story within a story, and it's cool to see such artistry.

And with that, I'm going forward with a day of grading.