HOW WE FIRST MET IS BACK ACT's NOVEMBER BAT BOY THE MUSICAL at FOOTHILL MUSIC THEATRE

How We First Met ..A unique Valentine treat about the positive side of life.

Falling in love consists of uncorking the imagination
And bottling the common-sense.
Anonymous

“How We First Met is the perfect way to celebrate Valentine’s Day whether you’re on a blind date, going steady or have been married for longer than you can possibly imagine,” said Jill Bourque, who dreamed up the idea for the show ten years ago. “I created the show as a response to the plethora of improv comedy that was very ‘shticky’ and not based on any true emotions. I really wanted to push the boundaries to see what could happen if we used stories from real people.”

And what happened was an instant success on Valentine’s Day, 2001 at San Francisco’s Bayfront Theatre; a show that has played in dozens of cities worldwide. The production has featured hundreds of couples over the years, all united by a common desire to celebrate the love they have for each other. “The very first show sold out and was a heartfelt and hilarious adventure,” said Bourque. “I remember clearly that the audience was ‘pin drop’ quiet during the couple interviews and when the stories were acted out, the laughter came in great rolling waves. It was a cathartic and exciting moment that I had never before experienced in improv comedy. I knew that we were on to something special.”

The experience that planted the seed to develop the show actually happened at Bourque’s own wedding reception because all the guests asked her how she and her husband met. That was when she realized that people are fascinated by stories of how others fall in love. That idea stayed with her and germinated into reality in 2001.

The current production features improv actors Laura Derry, Paul Erskine, Scott Keck and Deborah Wade, keyboardist Jerome Rossen and technical improviser Damon Paiz. Bourque is the MC of the show. “It’s very much a collaborative effort,” said Bourque. “Most of the cast has been with the show since the very beginning. Paul Erskine and Laura Derry were both in the very first show in 2001.”

In each performance, Bourque interviews three couples live on stage about that special moment when chemistry connected them and they knew they were in love. The improv cast transforms their story into real-life sketches and songs. “There is a sort of alchemy that happens when a real-life couple steps on the stage to tell a story,” said Bourque. “The audience identifies with them and becomes charmed.”

In order to be part of the show, couples need to submit their profiles to www.howwefirstmet.com. The selection is narrowed down to ten couples through online voting and audiences choose their favorite lovebirds on the night of the performance. Bourque feels it is her job to create a safe space for couples to relay their special moments in front of an audience. Her intention is to combine real life experience with improv to create comedy and genuine emotions. “Everyone is capable of being interesting,” she says. “Every life is interesting. Sometimes you just have to dig to find it.”

How We First Met started because of Bourque’s determination to create a uniquely imaginative theatrical experience and is now in its tenth year of making Valentines Day memorable for audiences in cities as diverse as San Francisco, Ney York, Tokyo and Melbourne. “What I didn’t expect was to be so surprised and inspired by the stories I hear,” said Bourque. “I thought by now I would have heard it all, but I continue to be amazed at the way love happens.”

You can hear it all too and even tell your own tale of love and romance Saturday February 12 at 8 pm for one night only. “As a host sometimes, I think I’m like a therapist,” said Bourque. “But I’m not going to lie. The couple on stage is having the best time of all.”

How We First Met: Herbst Theater, 401 Van Ness Feb.12, 2011 @ 8pm.
Tickets $25-$59 415 392 4400; www.howwefirstmet.com

ACT presents David Mamet’s
NOVEMBER
Now until November 22

NOVEMBER is David Mamet’s return to the humorous and absurd side of American politics. Despite his harsh and zany treatment of the president’s corruption and the realities of the American political process, Mamet says, “It’s not a cynical play. I might flatter myself by calling it a populist play because there’s one polemic going on between the president, who’s unutterably corrupt, and his speechwriter, who is in his view unutterably naïve. At one point she says to him, ‘People say we’re a country divided but we’re not a country divided; what we are is a democracy.’
“And I think that is the meeting ground of the two positions. The only country that’s not divided is totalitarian.”
Whenever I see a Mamet play I hate all the characters. They are always composites of everything that is the worst and most despicable in human nature. However, this time in this production, I did not. Charles Smith, the president (Andrew Polk)is a disgusting combination of Richard Nixon and George W. Bush and yet he does have a bit of a conscience when he feels guilty about breaking his promise to marry his speechwriter, Clarice Bernstein (René Augesen) to her partner even though he has not a moments remorse for bilking the National Association of Turkey and Turkey by-products out of a couple million dollars for him to pardon their turkeys. “Only Mamet could write such a scathing political satire about the pardoning of a turkey,” said director Ron Lagomarsino. “What I love about NOVEMBER is that no one escapes unscathed. The president is depicted as venal, cunning and corrupt, but don’t be fooled. Only the US Constitution comes out smelling like an American Beauty rose – surviving the onslaught of special interest groups and elected officials from both sides of the aisle that are attempting to bend and flex it to suit their own selfish needs.”
This production captured me from the moment the curtain rose on President Smith in his oval office until it fell along with his every hope of re-election. The pace is amazing and the acting superb. It would be hard to single out any cast member of this political farce as besting any other. However a word must be said for the masterful interpretation René Augesen gave to Clarice Bernstein, the lesbian speechwriter just returned from China where she and her partner adopted a Chinese baby. Augesen could have made her character ridiculous and shallow, but she did not. She chose to portray her as a vulnerable human being with ideals she determined to uphold and a firm belief in the goodness and benevolence of the American government. In short, her character was more Mamet than even Mamet could have imagined. She created a masterpiece. The audience might have laughed at her but they loved her for what she tried to become and her determined journey toward her dream, whatever the cost.
NOVEMBER reflects Mamet’s political perspective. “I do not think people are basically good at heart,;” he said. “Indeed, that view of human nature has both prompted and informed my writing for the last 40 years. I think that people, in circumstances of stress, can behave like swine, and that this, indeed, is not only a fit subject, but the only subject, or drama.”
In spite of his belief that when pushed to the wall, we all are rotten scheming and self-serving, he decided that the Constitution is amazingly effective in preventing our own total corruption from submerging us. “I found not only that I didn’t trust the current government…but that an impartial review revealed that the faults of this president…were little different from those of a president whom I revered. “
This play reflects Mamet’s belief that there is a communal well being that does not depend on the goodness of people or on the laws that attempt to force people to be more altruistic than they are, but rather on a symbiotic system of social checks and balances. “It is astonishingly hard to truly laugh about what is going on in the American political arena today,” says ACT’s Artistic Director, Carey Perloff. “But somehow David Mamet makes us do exactly that in his outrageous new farce.”
Indeed we do laugh at the ridiculously exaggerated dilemmas on the ACT stage but we also realize that no matter how horrible our motives and how vile our intentions, the checks and balances of our constitution prevent us from realizing them. There is nothing to fault in this production and it is the superb direction and very dedicated actors that make it the outstanding achievement that it is. There is not a moment in this play that will not hypnotize you. It is a must see on every level.

IF YOU GO:
NOVEMBER continues through November 22, 2009
American Conservatory Theatre
415 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA
Tickets & Information: 415 749 2228
www.act-sf.org

The award winning Foothill Music Theatre presents this hilarious off-Broadway musical comedy hit February 27-March 22. The show stars Robert Brewer, who played the role with Theatre Three in Dallas Texas and is directed by that master of musical theater interpretation Jay Manley . This is a campy parody inspired by a supermarket tabloid article about a boy with pointy ears and his struggle to find his place in the world.
Anything Jay Manley touches is worth seeing so put this one on your calendar.
IF YOU GO:
Lohman Theatre, Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills
www.foothillmusicals.com
650 949 7360