Raconteur Theatre Company

It’s amazing to see something emerge from what was previously nothing. I still remember my amazement during our first rehearsal for Roulette. We were in Jill & Andrew’s living room (generously made available to us for the duration of the rehearsal process) but instead of “just talking” about starting a theatre company, we were audaciously being a theatre company. Actors stood with scripts in hand, our stage manager sat ready to take notes and I was giving direction. We were all diving in with complete faith that our efforts in this improvised rehearsal space would evolve into a finished piece of theatre that would be worthy of an audience, legitimate enough to charge for tickets and meaningful enough to truly speak to people.

It’s true that nothing comes from nothing. In this case, Raconteur Theatre and its debut production came from the sustained outpouring of heart, soul and really hard work. I was exhausted by directing, co-producing, marketing, selling ads, writing to donors, telephoning theatre critics and doing a million other things required to start a theatre company. But it was worth it. I was SO PROUD of After the Afterglow. I felt like we lived up to our vision of producing the best show possible. My feelings were confirmed by the countless positive comments I received from friends, family and strangers who came to see the show.

Check out this from The Other Paper and our other review at  Ohio News Network. And come out for the show- this is the FINAL WEEKEND!

~Jill

“Two short plays about love on its last legs”
BY RICHARD ADES
The Other Paper, June 5, 2008

If it weren’t for the buzz of conversation filtering in from the next room, you might think you were back at 2Co’s Cabaret.

The Raconteur Theatre Company is making its debut with a double bill that includes Douglas Hill’s Roulette, the kind of relationship play that often kept viewers entertained at the now-defunct cabaret. Adding to the illusion is the presence of J.T. Walker, a ponytailed actor who was sometimes seen at the Short North venue.

Walker plays Matt, a Tucson resident who has been no more successful at marriage than he has been at finding a career.  When wife Janine (Jill Ceneskie) pushes his buttons once too often, he decides to hit the road for Las Vegas.

Only one problem: Matt doesn’t have enough money to get there. After some arguing, Janine decides to take him, if only to get him out her life once and for all.  

So the two drive off, which is when things start to get weird. Matt begins finding wads of dollar bills in his formerly empty wallet, while their junky car seems to sip gas at a rate that would make a Prius jealous. These and other unexplained occurrences make Janine suspect the universe is trying to tell them something,  but Matt, for reasons he keeps to himself, is in no mood to listen.

Working under Tricia T. Jones’s skilled direction, Walker isn’t bad as a man who has trouble expressing himself, though his craft was sometimes too obvious on opening night. Ceneskie is more natural as Janine, a woman whose attitude toward her difficult husband can change from anger to protectiveness to affection within a span of seconds.
Marital tug of war: Jill Ceneskie and J.T. Walker in the Raconteur Theatre Company’s production of Roulette.  Photo by Sam Blythe
The same can’t be said for the other play on the After the Afterglow double bill, Justin Toomey’s Aster, Holger Gunn. An original work by a Raconteur board member, the one-act begins promisingly enough but eventually falls apart.  

Like Roulette, Aster looks at romance past its prime. It’s a credit to Toomey’s dialogue- writing skill that the play initially captures viewers’ interest despite relying on that most self-conscious of gimmicks author who has a conversation with his own characters.

Andrew Cronacher is good as the writer who tries to come to terms with a failed romance by creating a stand-in for his former lover. Molly St. Cyr is nearly as good as the vaguely mocking stand-in, except that her soft voice is sometimes hard to hear above the scraps of conversation drifting over from the other side of the host coffeehouse.

Though a mixture of psychology and philosophy makes the pair’s early conversation interesting, Toomey then commits the error I of introducing a third character (Sam Blythe) who seems totally superfluous. The play goes downhill from there.

The work’s saving grace is that it doesn’t take long to see it-if you decide to see it at all. One nice thing about Raconteur’s freshman effort is that it doesn’t force viewers to attend both halves of the double bill. Pay $5 (rather than $8) and you can leave early after seeing Roulette - or arrive late and see only the briefly interesting Aster.

Either way, you get the chance to sample Columbus’s newest theater company for a minimal outlay of time and money. If you’re like me, the experience will leave you eager to spend more time with the group in the coming months.
The Raconteur Theatre Company will present the After the Afterglow double bill through June 14 at Kafe Kerouac, 2250 N. High St.  Roulette will be presented at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; Aster, Holger Gunn, at 9:15 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes (both plays, plus intermission). Tickets are $5 for one play, $8 for both.  614-804-1695 or http://raconteurthetre.com

No, not a command. A statement. Raconteur Theatre seems to be having an odd relationship with ducks lately. What do I mean? Well, we have a character named Duck in Aster, Holger Gunn. And he’s an odd little guy. (Well, not that little, really. He’s well over six feet) Central to the plot, and fascinating, but odd.

But then this past weekend, members of the board and affiliated folks all went out to Gallery Hop in the Short North to pass out ducks. Ducks with our website on them. While wearing inflatable ducks.

It was a tremendous amount of fun, and it helped us to spread the word about the theatre. The main things we learned?

1) If you’re a part of a group of people wearing inflatable duck floatation devices, people will talk to you.
2) If you’re passing out ducks to people on High Street, 100 ducks won’t last very long.
3) It gets cold really quickly in the evenings in May.

The duck experiment was enough of a success that we’ll be out passing ducks once again in the near future. Stay tuned!

-Aaron

Auditions are complete and the auditionees will be contacted today with the results.  It was exciting to have the milestone of our first auditions, but for me it was a strange experience. 
Along with the others who came, I auditioned for the show.  It put me in a strange spot of being on the board for the company but desiring equal footing with the others auditioning.  I would have been disappointed not to get a part, but I certainly didn’t want a part just because I’m an integral part of the company.  I wanted a part because I deserved one as an actor. 

And what a difficult place for the directors who are both my friends and fellow board members!  Would I be mad at them if they didn’t cast me? No. But would they feel as though I was? Perhaps.  And I will likely be in their shoes for another show where I am directing and a board member is auditioning. 

We didn’t create this company so that the board members could take whatever parts or direct whatever shows they personally wanted to have.  In fact, we have a board rule to the contrary.  No board member can act in more than 2 of our 4 shows every season- or direct, or write, et cetera.  In theory, this allows for many people to participate in a variety of ways without the theatre company becoming incestuous.  It is in our mission to be inclusive to the Columbus arts community, and this rule helps us stay true to that.

So all that said, I’m excited to be performing in our premiere show and excited to know that it wasn’t just given to me for being Jill (right guys?)… Okay, right.
 
Looking forward to performing for you,

Jill

Piece by piece everything is coming together. Recent tasks completed by the board:

Letters out to area theatres introducing ourselves and reaching out for mutual support of our collective endeavors. (Thank you John Kuhn from Actor’s Theatre and Alan Saunders from Center Stage Players for your supportive responses!)

Press Kits out to major publications.

Audition notices out in various ways (coming up this weekend!).

Lots of chatting and gaining insight from folks at Madlab. Looking forward to an ongoing relationship with you all!

Just today we received approval for fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas.

Looking into having a presence at Comfest in June.

The real website created by Litter Design is almost ready to have a partial release. I’ve been working closely with Chris Browning and am so excited to get this up and running soon!

Letters to friends and families coming out soon.

So things are getting done, but we have so much more to do! We’re still getting artwork for the Flex Series, still finalizing the rest of the season, et cetera. We have had a few production meetings to get Flex Series underway and are getting the creative juices flowing!

Feeling the mounting excitement,

Jill