Jenn Miller as
Li'l Bit and Carl Occhipinti as Uncle Peck.
Photo by Michael Rothman
"How I Learned To
Drive"
by Paula Vogel
Pulitzer Prize winning play
February
27 - March 15, 2009
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Sundays at 2:30 PM
review by Ed
Vincent
Carl
Occhipinti and Jenn Miller lead an all star cast in Paula Vogel's
Pulitzer
Prize winning play concerning a very disturbed socially retarded family
where morals and self esteem seem as
common as hogs with wings.
The play begins with a middle aged man feeling up a 17 year old niece
in a car with tender moments
of a full moon, and that just the beginning of a ride down pervert
street that ends in death and alcoholism.
We are told early in the play that "pedophilia"
is not a love of bicycles. The family of this
moral bankruptcy has some wit about it, and knowledge of the arts, but
seasoned with way
too much with pedestrian filth. I would not recommend this
to the children, though they should have some education and knowledge
of this illegal behavior. The acting is grand, the story tragic,
the
plot painful, and the event continues.
The psychology of child sexual abuse is a torrid
reality of power over another, when no power
over the twisted self is evident. Perhaps
a damaged psyche of a past abuse by a victim
morphs into the role of the perpetrator.
Enough psychology, this is a too common occurance that has caused many
new laws
written to help protect the public. A ride down
the twisted mind of an abuser is illustrated in this work and it is
brought to life with talent and torment.
The love of cars and driving is the guise, the vehicle of abuse that
travels many roads in the
drama of some lives.
"Highly recommended
play...." Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc.
Carl
Occhipinti as Uncle Peck
Jenn Miller
as Li'l Bit
Karen Gerbig as Older Bit
Stevie Cormier as Younger Bit
Keta Roth as Mother
Penny Glazkiewicz as Aunt Mary
Judi Schindler as Grandmother 1
Julie Mitre as Grandmother 2
John Zimmerman as Grandfather
The
Production Staff
Stage Manager, Patty
Sullivan
Lighting Designer, Andrew Glasenhardt
Costume Coordinator, Linda Miles
Sound Designer, John List
How I Learned To Drive
February 27 - March 15, 2009
Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Sundays at 2:30 PM
Added show
Thursday, March 12 at 7:30pm
In
car-obsessed America, the ability to drive is a sign of power. In
Paula Vogel's Pulitzer-winning play, How I Learned to Drive, it becomes
a rite of passage from a child's dependence to the promise of a more
self-assured adulthood. The beauty of Vogel's script is that it
refuses to reduce its heroine to the status of victim or to make her
oppressor a mere villain. Vogel avoids the easy movie-of-the-week
melodrama that this pedophiliac love story could have become.
The
main character of the play is a young woman nicknamed Li'l Bit,
underscoring her undeveloped selfhood despite her well-developed
body.
Her driving teacher is her Uncle Peck, a World War II veteran who shows
far more than a proper interest in her. The story, set mostly in
the
1960s, moves episodically in flashback and flash-forward, showing Li'l
Bit from the age of eleven to forty-eight. Vogel's script
expertly
mixes the heavy with the light, the familiar and sentimental with the
taboo. In a sense, what Li'l Bit is learning how to drive is her
own
body, the outward sign of her selfhood and her power.
Purchase
tickets online for
"How I Learned To Drive"here!
Jenn Miller as
Li'l Bit and Carl Occhipinti as Uncle Peck.
Photo by Michael Rothman
According to Director and Oak
Park resident, Tim Grover,
"my reason for choosing this play was the subject matter.
There are an
astonishing number of people touched by this abuse in one way or
another, and still it remains under a cover of silence. Sexually
charged images of youth permeate our society, from movies and
television to advertising and the internet, creating a tacit acceptance
of children as sexual objects. We need to shine a light on this
unspoken taboo to open the discussion."
Appearing as Peck, Village Players
Artistic Director, Carl Occhipinti, is
returning to the stage in this challenging role. Carl has worked in
Chicago theatre with Steppenwolf (Everyman, The Marriage
of Bette and Boo), Theo Ubique (The Lottery), Great Beast
(Ambrosia), Shining Through (Breeze from the Gulf, The
Shadow Box, Harvey, Never the Sinner),
Centerlight (The Fantastics), Village Players (To Kill A
Mockingbird, Flowers for Algernon, The Odd Couple),
Merlin Productions (Holy Ghosts),
Up And Coming (Damn Yankees), Thirsty Theatre (Ancestral
Voices), and many others.
The rest of the cast includes Jenn
Miller as Li'l Bit, Karen
Gerbig as Older Bit, Stevie Cormier as
Younger Bit, Keta Roth as Mother, Penny
Glazkiewicz as Aunt Mary, Judi Schindler as
Grandmother 1, Julie Mitre as Grandmother 2, John
Zimmerman as Grandfather.
The Production Staff includes Stage Manager, Patty
Sullivan; Lighting Designer, Andrew Glasenhardt;
Costume Coordinator, Linda Miles;
and Sound Designer, John List.
How I Learned to Drive performs February
27 – March 15, 2009. Fridays & Saturdays are
at 7:30 PM and Sundays are at 2:30
PM, with an additional performance Thursday, March
12 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $20 for General
Addmission.
Presented in the Blackbox Theater of the Village
Players Performing Arts Center
located at 1010 Madison St., Oak Park. Plenty of parking is available
on the street. The theater is handicap accessible; please call ahead to
arrange for special seating. More information is available
at www.village-players.org
or 866-764-1010.
Village Players Performing Arts
Center offers an eclectic mix of entertainment that empowers
and inspires while exploring the human condition.
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