\ud83c\udfad NEW! Orlando Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n
When it comes to theater, seeing an original work is always a gamble.\u00a0 Yes, I know that many popular pieces of theater started as original works, but this does not mean I personally want to invest my time in it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfad NEW! Orlando Theatre Newsletter<\/p>\n
My Dear Debbie is an original concept, written and directed by Casey Tregeagle.\u00a0 When I received their promotional material with the synopsis, as well as some pretty heavy content warnings, I was intrigued.\u00a0 The premise is essentially a taping of a 1950\u2019s \u201cI Love Lucy\u201desque sitcom called \u201cMy Dear Debbie\u201d.\u00a0 It promised a live, interactive studio audience but also came with the following content warning:\u00a0 Please be advised that this piece has themes of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and child sexual abuse, as well as violence and mature language and content.\u00a0 I was very curious as to how a show promising something resembling a 1950\u2019s sitcom with a warning like that could be cohesive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is hard to explain the structure and plot of the show without also including a lot of spoilers.\u00a0 At first, I thought it was a play on time with traveling from the past to the present but after watching the show in its entirety, the past is more of a vessel than a plot point.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The show is beautifully acted. The cast was made up of 8 actors, some of which had multiple functions.\u00a0 The cast is as follows: Debbie (Taylor Byerly), Imogene\/MC (Hannah McGinley Lemasters), Bev (Beth-Ann Stripling), Gene (Eric Sharp), Tommy (Michael Knight), Waiter (Alexander Mrazek). Mrs. Lambert (Carly Clark-Skubick) and Man (River Banks).\u00a0 The content is very heavy but does have many lighthearted and comedic moments.\u00a0 As someone around me put it, \u201cIt\u2019s a comedy\u2026unitl it\u2019s not\u201d. Most of the cast had to be both comedic and solemn and those who did both had a great juxtaposition; a testament to the abilities of those who had to do it. I did find it kind of predictable just by putting pieces together from the little information I initially had, and there were a few things (mostly thematic) that surprised me, but it is ultimately a commentary about childhood trauma and the lengths that mothers go through to protect their children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
New Generation Theatrical has a space in the now mostly defunct Fashion Square Mall.\u00a0 Instead of traditional theater seating, audience members are seated at small cocktail tables, four to a table; (I went by myself so I was seated with three people I didn\u2019t know). The tables are strategically placed in the space.\u00a0 Their stage for this show was made up of two different platforms on either side of the space, and a table in the center of the audience.\u00a0 The audience could see all of the action, no matter where they were seated or where the actors were.\u00a0 Wings (and possibly dressing rooms) were created mostly from what appeared to be pipe and drape.\u00a0 They had several lighting rigs throughout the space too; they did not use the house lights of whatever the converted mall space had.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was it a gamble?\u00a0 Yes, but was it a waste of time?\u00a0 No. \u00a0 I am not sure what I was expecting from this show and I did walk out with a lot to process.\u00a0 In this show, Debbie has one child, a son, and as a boy mom to an only child, I couldn\u2019t help but empathize with her and her actions.\u00a0 My Dear Debbie and New Generation Theatrical are both proof that you don\u2019t need a big name show or a traditional space to tell a good story.\u00a0 I would definitely gamble on this company again. \u00a0 My Dear Debbie is playing through February 22.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reader Reviews<\/p>\n
To post a comment, you must register<\/a> and login<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83c\udfad NEW! Orlando Theatre Newsletter Get all the top news & discounts for Orlando & beyond. When it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-159931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}