Standing O Debuts 'After the Dance'

This week Severna Park has been prominently featured on the style and cultural scene first by Baltimore Sun fashion columnist Sloane Brown who singled-out Severna Park as the place to find stylish furnishings “popping with personality” and over the past weekend our region became an unrivaled cultural center when Standing O presented the national premier of a Terrence Rattigan play.   

Standing O had three performances of Rattigan’s "After the Dance" Friday through Sunday at its Black Box Theatre at Chesapeake Academy on Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard. Severna Park native son Ron Giddings, who is Standing O’s artistic director, has often stated the company’s mission of introducing lesser-known masterpieces to its audiences. 

British playwright Rattigan’s  "After the Dance"  was first performed in 1939 and soon-to-be shelved by the author and not seen again for more than 60 years when it had premiers in Great Britain and Canada.

When Giddings acquired the rights, he was amazed to learn that Standing O would be the first U.S. theater to present this play. Near-capacity Standing O audiences enjoyed performances last weekend and those who missed it can reserve seats for later this week on Feb. 10 or 12 at 8 p.m.  

Standing O’s production of "After the Dance" is not only riveting theater, it also reinforces Severna Park’s reputation for stylish furnishings.

The sofa is a Duncan Phyfe over 100 years -old and passed down through the Giddings family. The phonograph is a Columbia from the mid-30s.  The sideboard was purchased from an antique dealer who verified that it was from the 30s era.  The typewriter is a personal possession of Michael and JoAnn Gidos and the radio is a Crosley reproduction. 

Giddings designed the set and he helped his dad build it.  The hardwood floor was painted by the show’s director Carol Youmans and a long list that includes most of the actors are credited in the program as volunteers who together created this marvelous set.

Theater goers would unlikely see more authentic furnishings on any stage anywhere, nor more exquisitely appropriate costumes, all of which are also genuine pieces of the 30s era. They help to transport the audience to an earlier era where we meet wealthy characters clinging to their youthful illusions.

Every actor in the 12-person cast helps evoke the characters described by Scott Fitzgerald as “beautiful and damned” now brought to life on Standing O’s stage.

Characters include hard-drinking house guest John Reid (Kevin Wallace) who somehow manages to see reality more clearly than his host David Scott-Fowler (David Thompson) who is seduced into searching for his lost youth in 20-year-old Helen Banner (Christina Enoch Kemmerer).  Helen is engaged to David’s nephew Peter (Ron Giddings) David’s hard-working secretary and houseguest.  Fearing revealing her emotions and love for her husband, Joan (Zarah Rautell) continues to party after learning of David’s love for Helen, Rautell’s Joan touching us profoundly.

This is a must-see play for anyone who admires uniformly excellent acting within a well-wrought drama that is eminently worth discovering here in our neighborhood this week.

Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for seniors, students, teachers and members of the military.  Call the box office at 410-647-8412 for reservations.