The Arthropologist

Two fresh faces with pitch-perfect voices: Life Could be a Dream for Next toNormal theater duo

Mark Ivy as Henry and Rebekah Stevens as Natalie in Stages Repertory Theatre'sproduction of Next To Normal
Photo by Bruce Bennett
Adam Gibbs as Denny, from left, Rebekah Stevens as Lois, Mark Ivy as Eugene andDylan Godwin as Wally in Life Could be a Dream at Stages Repertory Theatre
Photo by Bruce Bennett
Shelley Calene Black and Mark Ivy in Stages Repertory Theatre's production ofRabbit Hole
Photo by Bruce Bennett
Mark Ivy in Little Shop of Horrors offered by Theatre Under the Stars
Photo by Christian Brown
Rebekah Stevens is as Scheherazade in Elizabeth Egloff's Ether Dome at AlleyTheatre
Photo by Jann Whaley
From left, Cameron Bautsch as Skip, Dylan Godwin as Wally, Adam Gibbs as Denny,Mark Ivy as Eugene and Rebekah Stevens as Lois in Life Could be a Dream atStages Repertory Theatre
Photo by Bruce Bennett

Wandering through the halls where Houston Arts Alliance meets Stages Repertory Theatre, I heard the voices of angels. OK, so maybe they were actors. Angels, actors — does it really matter when they sound that good?

The cast of Life Could be a Dream was rehearsing their pitch-perfect crooning from the musical review factory of Roger Bean, who gave us the long running The Marvelous Wonderettes. When I found out that Mark Ivy and Rebekah Stevens were in the show, the very couple who blew me away in Stages' recent production of Next to Normal, I thought it might be time to sit down with these up and coming actors, who have been wowing me and Houston audiences for over a year now.

Oh to be young, good looking, talented and able to belt out "Rama Lama Ding Dong" with oodles of finesse.

Young actors staying in Houston is always a favorite subject; two uber strong performers, even more reason to get excited. Many leave, and for good reasons. New York does look fun, until you get there.

After graduating with her musical theater degree from the University of Northern Colorado, Stevens did head to New York, where she discovered waitressing and not enough auditions. Since being in Houston, she's been on stage nonstop.

"It's the best move I've ever made," Stevens says. "You can really build your resume in a city like Houston, which has a terrific regional theater scene."

And build she did, making a name for herself in such standout plays as The Little Dog Laughed and Reasons To be Pretty at Theatre Lab Houston, followed by Ether Dome and The Seagull at the Alley Theatre. Then came her knockout performance as Natalie in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal, where she made her Stages debut, and I discovered that she also has a lovely singing voice.

Ivy grew up in Houston, studied at the TUTS' Humphreys School of Musical Theatre and was as a regular audience member at Stages.

"I take pride in the fact that I'm cultivating my career here and building a nice resume in the fourth largest city in America," he says. "I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to have worked with a few reputable theaters before going off to the big city if that's what I choose to do."

Ivy made a stunning professional debut at Stages in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole as Jason, the teen who accidentally kills a tiny boy running out from behind a car. The TUTS alum performed in Stages' Panto holiday productions and other shows before he graduated from Sam Houston State University.

"I take pride in the fact that I'm cultivating my career here and building a nice resume in the fourth largest city in America," Ivy says.

"I was already in working at TUTS in Little Shop of Horrors," says Ivy, about his seamless transition from school to the professional stage.

Ivy and Stevens have survived a whirlwind couple of months, which included rehearsing their current show, while still performing the gut-wrenching emotional roller coaster of a musical Next to Normal. Their lives were day and night sing-a-thons. The two bonded early on in the rehearsal process.

"I'm here for you, you are here for me, let's do it," says Stevens, about her working relationship with Ivy. "We had to give it everything we had every single night."

The transition from super serious Normal to Bean's lighthearted review wasn't as easy as it looked. Life Could be a Dream may have a scant plot, but it's a non-stop song extravaganza, featuring a collection of best loved songs from the 1960s.

"It's vocal Olympics for me," says Ivy, who is a tenor by training. "It's really challenging in terms of the range of vocal styles."

Stevens, an oldies fan, sounds just like Anita Humes of The Essex when she spills her heart out in "Easier Said than Done." Ivy, who is also a dancer, gets to play the klutsy comic role of Eugene, where he really had to work on not being his coordinated self. "It's been fun to leave the audience laughing instead of sobbing," Ivy quips.

The rest of the Dream cast, Cameron Bautsch, Adam Gibbs and Dylan Godwin also deserve a shout out of their terrific performances.

Life Could be a Dream keeps a dreamin' until Sep. 2. After that, Stevens can be seen at the Alley Theatre in Death of a Salesman, and Ivy will be taking his first break in a year in a half. As with all artists, futures are uncertain. Ivy and Stevens may leave for other theater pastures. For now, you still have plenty of time to catch two of Houston's freshest faces doo wopping their hearts out and sounding great in the process. "Sh-Boom" rarely sounds this good. Don't miss out.

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Movie Review

Cookie Queens goes behind the scenes of Girl Scout Cookie season

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens.

Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.

The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.

The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.

That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.

Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.

The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.

There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.

Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.

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Cookie Queens is now playing in theaters,

movies girl scout cookie film