Day 120 - Monday - Comedy and Tragedy (onstage)

We drive into the H&R Block office, and I meet Konnie, who has kindly set me up with my own office in which to teach my class.  I spend a couple of hours preparing the computer and getting to know Konnie, then Vicky picks me up.  We lunch at the "Pastry Pub", which has become a Cedar City tradition for us - reasonable prices, inventive salads and sandwiches, and crowds of people!  Vicky enjoys a summer salad bursting with berries and other fruit, nuts and greens, while I savor a club sandwich with meats, cheese and greens in a jalapeño wrap.

We have tickets for one show today but after discovering that Brian Vaughn, one of our favorite actors, is playing Iago in "Othello", we head to the box office to pick up tickets for that performance tonight.  Then it's time for "The Foreigner" by Larry Shue.  A farcical plot about Charlie, a painfully shy Englishman brought by his army friend to a Georgia hunting lodge to recover from problems with his wife.  Charlie is afraid to talk to anyone, so his friend introduces him as a "foreigner" who speaks no English.

The plot gets ever funnier as nobody is afraid to talk in front of Charlie, so he learns all their secrets.  Of course it all ends happily, but what makes it for me is the acting of two characters.  Michael Doherty, as Charlie, is able to contort his body in amazing ways and his efforts to remain out of sight early in the play, as well has his body language throughout, has us in stitches.  But it's his interaction with Rob Riordan as Ellard, the supposedly dim-witted member of the family, that makes the play.  Ellard, with his thick "redneck" southern accent, decides to teach Charlie to speak English and Charlie plays along.  These two actors have an amazing chemistry and every time you think you can't laugh any more, something funnier happens.  This is one of the most hilarious plays I've ever seen, but not just a farce - Charlie, Ellard and many of the other characters experience a profound character arc as they learn about their own unrecognized qualities.

After dinner in town, a fun half hour at "The Greenshow", a nightly outdoor song and dance show featuring up and coming actors, it's time for "Othello".  It's performed in a "studio theater" seating only 200, so it's a very intimate performance.  No need to describe the plot.  Strong acting throughout, even from the minor characters, makes for an intense evening.  We weep for Desdemona,  empathize with Othello and despair as Iago descends from a jealous soldier passed over for promotion to a cunning, deceitful villain who will stop at nothing to get his own way.  A profoundly emotional experience.