“I’m not an expert, but if it looks like it came from the dump, then it ain’t art.” So says, Dwayne Dean (Ron Richardson), a character in this play about a group of people from a town in Kansas who are deciding what to do with a grant they have to give to someone from their town who is an artist.
It’s a funny thing for him to say, but the man has a point. If you’re gonna call something art, it better not be made out of garbage. This production isn’t made out of garbage. It has a lot of good people in it. Jolene is played by Deniece Bleha and she’s the person who wants to give the government grant to this local teacher (Ron Richardson) who is part native american. But then Liz played by Mona Leach says that the money should go to this dude named Everett (Ron Hill) who makes stuff out of trash, which is where the line that I mentioned earlier comes in.
But then Dwayne Dean gets involved and he’s a blue collard dude from the auto plant, and it doesn’t say why he cares about art but apparently he does. He gets pretty worked up about the art that the other guy makes, but like I said, he has a point. Matthew Middleton is not naked this time. He and Deniece Bleha are married, but things get pretty tough for them in the show because she’s focused on this art stuff which he gets involved in because he’s bored.
The show is obviously saying something important about art and people in small towns who say they like art, but I honestly don’t care about that. Watching this I kept wondering if this was anything like what the people who decided to make the statue of Kurt Cobain in Chehalis went through. I actually think it has two things to say though, and the other is “if it looks like it came from the dump, then it ain’t art.”
Then, at this point, Jolene asks “What galvanizes our community more than anything?” And then Edie (Karen Jo Fairbrook) says, “A liberal president.” That was pretty funny too.
(Editor’s note: Mr. Fishbein is one of our new writers and in his haste to make deadline, he failed to notice a couple of errors… The character of the blue collar worker was stated as “Dwayne Hill” and should be “Dwayne Dean”; the actor playing him was stated as “Ronnnie Hill” and should be “Ron Richardson”. The actor stated as both “Denise Bleehah” and “Deneace Bliehah” should be “Deniece Bleha”. The actor stated as “Ronald Richson” should be “Ron Richardson”. The actor stated as “Moan Lich” should be “Mona Leach”. The actor stated as “Maryjo Farebrook” should be “Karen Jo Fairbrook”. Finally, the playwright stated as “Catherine Thiecchmann” should be “Catherine Trieschmann”. We deeply regret the error. -Ed.)
