EBENEZA
Players Workshop’s Children’s Theatre at the Second City
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Her comment could be regarded as motherly, protective of her children–literally as well as figuratively, since her son Eric Forsberg directed Dr. Stagemaster, and her daughter Linnea Forsberg Kirk directed Ebeneza.
Though the title of Dr. Stagemaster contains the word “imagination,” Ebeneza displays more of that commodity. The play is an updated version of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, with a female workaholic (Donna Urbanowicz) in the title role. The Ghost of Christmas Past (Steven Chase) is a hippie dressed in bell-bottoms, a tie-dyed T-shirt, and John Lennon sunglasses. “Welcome to a spirit lovefest,” he says to the audience before taking Ebeneza on a trip back to the 1960s, when she and her friend Marley had plotted the overthrow of their boss, Mr. Fezziwig (Bruce Green), and her brother Charlie (Chip Schubert) left for Vietnam, never to return.
Among these students of improv, some are further along than others. Shely, for example, seems perfectly comfortable onstage. Blanchette not only looks like John Belushi, he’s a master at Belushi’s technique of letting his facial expressions get the laughs. Speaking of faces, Browne has a great one for comedy–her large eyes and broad mouth make each emotion as vibrant as a neon sign.
