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| L - R Mike Mahaffey, Jennifer C. DeRosa, Monica Greene, Pete Caslavka, Lauren Van Kurin, Eric Giancoli, Carrie Keranen - Photos Blake Gardner |
“…and two, you dropped a 150 grand on a f*nkin’ education you could
have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at a public library.” – Will in
Good Will Hunting
In her mind, her story had the appearance of being preposterous. She couldn’t believe it herself. The questioner’s inquiries to the questioned,
under the bright spotlight, received responses that were hardly acceptable. Still, she had to be interrogated.
She was presumed to be the assassin, this librarian, and now
was the time for answers. But, in order
to get to the now we must go back to the beginning.
The Establishment
presents All the Best Killers are
Librarians by Bob DeRosa, directed by Alicia Conway Rock, and produced by
Jennifer C. DeRosa at The Sacred Fools Theatre in Hollywood, California as part
of The Hollywood Fringe Friday July 1, 2015.
Margo (Lauren Van Kurin), a librarian, didn’t like working
in the library. It was better for her to
stay in the back reading everything she could get her hands on. Moving the books from the shelves required a
lot of heavy lifting, and reading. And
placing the books back onto the shelves was a glute and quadriceps-tical
experience - a little physical and disconcerting all in one fell exertion.
Also, there was the mind over matter thing - reading, exercising the eyes and moving
fingers like an Evelyn Wood speed-reader providing her with the learned fundamentals
of whatever fundamentals she required in her next unknown big job.
But there was this pesky head librarian, Eleanor (Jennifer
C. DeRosa), with a strong north eastern accent, New Yawk, who was always on her about doing her job, collecting
late fees, and working with ugly patrons of the library who, truth be said,
were not the cleanest lot of a civilized society. Bottom line – Eleanor didn’t
like it either.
And because Eleanor was the head librarian she got more
money than Margo, a dollar and some change more, ergo, she was the supervisor,
and bossy too. Eleanor was the manager, and Margo was the complaining worker.
One is not completely sure how Lancaster (Eric Giancoli)
knew Margo had the stuff. I mean, how could he tell that she was a killer, and had the capacity? It was probably a matter of his historical
perspective. One would imagine that Lancaster
knew a killer librarian when he saw one and Margo looked like one, what with her
arms, her legs, the killer stockings with the black stripes, and the way she blew
at her tasseled hair when it fell onto her face - killer!
So, Lancaster approached Margo, casually in the library, and
said, ever so non-discreetly, that there were a couple of hired killers, behind
her, staring blankly at the books. And they were coming to get her.
Lancaster said that Margo needed to kill them before they
killed her. There was no way out.
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| l - R Pete Caslavka, Lauren Van Kurin, Mike Mahaffey |
Margo, in the most discreet way possible, flipped out. Seeing two assassins coming for her she prepared herself for the inevitable death – hers - either way it was going to be a tourbillion of physical activity for the next few moments.
And they came, the knives flew, and Margo was the last one
standing.
Lancaster, the supposed genius of the bunch, and the leader
of The Establishment, now convinces Margo to come to training camp and work out
with people who have the capacity to take her out in a flash – kill her. After a few setbacks Margo realizes there’s a
lot of learning to be done.
“You kill when you are in mortal danger.” – Lancaster
“I want to build libraries.” Margo
Margo wants to quit but instead is lifted onto a C-130
airplane, parachute attached. This is something
she’s not too thrill with, as she jumps into enemy territory and quickly dispatches
three terrorists. There, to clean up the
bodies, is Henry (Pete Caslavka) with a gallon of acid to get rid of the fallen
figures.
Maybe it was the fumes from the acid, the chemical imbalance
that affected their brains, but Henry and Margo suddenly fall madly in love
even before they put on their gas masks.
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| Pete Caslavka, Lauren Van Kurin |
Meanwhile, off in a secure site, Lancaster believes that
Margo is in love with him. Who could
resist someone as wonderful as him, but Margo has other ideas, she wants to
leave her job to become a librarian, which eventually gets her into a lot of
trouble.
There is a lot to like in Bob DeRosa fast moving play, which has a running time of just over
1 hour. Despite all the killings, Killer
Librarians is a comedy. The fight choreography by Mike Mahaffey was very
inventive and kept knives flying into various body parts, and once the knives found their target the bodies flew in innumerable directions all night long.
Alicia Conway Rock’s
direction left no human carcass unturned as all bodies were discarded in very
inventive ways. That said, Rock needs to find a way to turn Lancaster into a
superhuman, in the way he thinks, and in the way he is persuasive. Having Lancaster off stage on the phone could
easily be done on stage under a spotlight without losing anything.
Lauren Van Kurin
plays Margo and is a wonderful actor with exceptional facial expressions that keep
her in the moment. There is also a richness in her character, a flawless backstory, and
uniqueness in her manner. Her craft is exceptional and the work is superb.
An interesting thing about Eric Giancoli as Lancaster is that he appears out of nowhere to
give Margo the job of assassin.
Lancaster has thoughts that Margo is not going to make it as a killer
and also has this weird idea that Margo has fallen in love with him. (This is
possibly what all spies think.) But
Lancaster is no James Bond and one is not even sure if The Establishment is a
legitimate spy organization judging by the ending. There is more for Giancoli to add to the character of Lancaster and his way of the world.
Pete Caslavka
plays the love interest Henry. Henry is
one of identical triplets, two of which no longer reside on this earthly plain,
and that is also part of the conflict in his relationship with Margo. That
aside, Henry has little to do, sweep up and look adoringly at his mate, not
much there, which is why there may be more to add to the character to give him
flavor, to give the relationship a nicer touch, a deeper meaning.
Jennifer C. DeRosa
has a nice role as Eleanor, the head librarian.
There is more to this character that we find out later, something about
the nature of true killer librarians, but I will not give the secret away. The
fight scenes were amazing and DeRosa mixes it up with the best of them.
Carrie Keranen
plays Crane and Mrs. White and provides character for those two roles. Crane’s
relationships work well when the characters are nearer rather than across a
long table. Naytheless, Keranen does a good job and presents solid, powerful,
and amusing characters.
Mike Mahaffey
plays a number of Killers and Belinda, who is a cold war outcast, a ne’er to
well from Moscow, or a miscreant from the Kremlin, and beautifully disguised
with a babushka over his/her head.
Monica Green
rounds out the cast as Sally and another Killer. Greene is petite and does a
lot of physical and magnificent work on stage.
The killers come and they go, well, actually they are killed. They must have been a killer on another
night, but on this night they were all killed. Oh, but they all died so
magnificently.
Other members of the crew are as follows:
Matthew Richter –
Lighting Design
Ben Rock – Sound
Design
Rachel Manheimer
– Stage Manager
Blake Gardner –
Photographer
The next time it is around Run! Run! And take a ninja, or
two.
