Rosewater Theatre offers unique theater in the round format

By Jonathan Copsey / STAFF

(from left) Dani Majors, Ben Hepbur­n and Indigo Crandell perform in the Rosewater Theatre’s “Into the Woods Junior.”

Roswell has long been home to a diverse array of businesses. Not only are there the typical small-town stores such as restaurants and barbers, but there are a vast amount of antique stores and similar cultural endeavors.

One such endeavor is the Rosewater Theatre, located at the southeastern corner of the intersection of Crossville Road and Alpharetta Highway.

The Rosewater Theatre is something of a hidden gem, squeezed into a dim corner of its shopping plaza. But it more than shines for the locals who choose to attend the plays there instead of trekking to Atlanta or elsewhere.

Like so many Roswellians, I was vaguely aware of the theatre, having first heard of it at Alive After Five from a flier, but I never really considered attending a production. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to view two plays, vastly different from each other except in one respect: they were both outstanding.

‘Into the Woods Junior’ – Showing November 8, 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
This play is a children’s musical that revolves around the Grimm fairytales that we are all familiar with – Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk and so on. It follows the troubles of a baker and his wife who have been unsuccessful in having children so they enlist the aid of a witch (always a good idea, in fairytales). The witch tells them to find her four items that she can use to grant them their wish. So off they go on an adventure through woods that are populated with fairytale characters.

All the actors are children, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is a school musical; these are professional actors. Their talent in acting and singing is evident from the opening number.

“People really like children’s musicals so we decided to do this one,” said Lisa Sherouse-Riley, director of the production and co-owner of the Rosewater Theatre. “It really has caught on and everyone seems to enjoy it. People are always doing things like ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘High School Musical,’ but no one has done this one in a while.”

‘Into the Woods’ was a Broadway musical with songs by Stephen Sondheim. The Junior version is condensed, boiled down into just about Act 1; Act 2 of the original play is apparently much darker, according to Sherouse-Riley.

Held in the main theater of the Rosewater, the performance is filled with bright, colorful characters and some truly brilliant singing and acting. There are morals taught in the songs, so parents need not worry that it is just a mindless musical.

“This was my tester,” said Sherouse-Riley “There are other places and theaters that do kids shows, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get into it. Fifty kids tried out for it and I was spoiled for choice. [There’s a] good pool of talent [in North Fulton].”

This was also one of the first purely children’s musicals that the theater has put on; the normal fare are traditional adult plays.

“I actually enjoyed doing it,” Sherouse-Riley said. “I’ve directed children within adult shows, but it was the first time I have ever had an all-kid cast – my young actors. I really enjoyed myself, probably more than with an adult show.”

With the success that the theater has had with ‘Into the Woods Junior’, Sherouse-Riley predicts that children’s performances will likely become a staple at the Rosewater.

‘The Woman In Black’ – Showing November 7 and 8 at 8 p.m.
This play is a complete turnabout from ‘Into the Woods.’ Hugely successful in London’s West End (the Broadway of England), the ‘Woman In Black’ is a traditional Victorian ghost story set in a post-modern theatrical style.

What does that mean? That means that the entire plot – beyond the basic ghost story – is told by just two actors who know that they are actors as they perform the play. Crazy, isn’t it?

The idea is this: an old gentleman has come to an actor to get help performing his tale, a story that he desperately needs to tell. The actor and old man agree to perform the story to “rehearse” it before the big performance. This is the entirety of the play.

The twists come in two ways: first, both actors switch in and out of their roles throughout the play. For the performance, the actor takes the role of the old man and the old man performs every secondary character that the young man meets during the story, such as a carriage driver or nobleman. This forces the audience to pay attention for each line of dialogue, as the men switch in an out of characters. And there is a lot of dialogue.

The second twist is somewhat unique to the Rosewater Theatre – a “theater in the round,” that is, a theater that is not composed of a stage at one end and seats facing it; instead the seats are arranged around the stage, providing for a three-dimensional view.

“What you do with a theater in the round is have more intimacy. You’re really right on top of the actors,” said G. Scott Riley, co-owner of the Rosewater. “The actors might have their hand on a rail and you’re sitting right there. You’re looking at it more like a three-dimensional thing instead of 2-D… It’s more like real life than anything. It’s not like a TV screen.”

According to Riley, the Rosewater Theatre is the only theater in Georgia to have such a stage, and they make full use of it in “The Woman in Black.”

How many of us remember back to when we were children – or even our own children – playing not with expensive toys but with a box. Imagination was a more fun tool at our disposal than anything else. It’s precisely this type of thinking that a round theater makes use of. There are limited sets, with actors relying instead on props and actions to portray their surroundings, as Riley explained.

“Things become more representational than actual,” he said. “If it’s done right, I think people are surprised. It’s very simple.”

A large travelling case becomes a desk or a chair, a blanket becomes a bed. An actor holding a single candle in a darkened theater can become menacing and portray the fear and claustrophobia that the character feels. As one woman said after a performance, “It’s like going to bed and having somebody read you a story.”

The combination of forcing the audience to pay close attention to the action and dialogue as well as using their imaginations to make the scenes complete (helped with sound effects), brings the audience member to a unique closeness with the performance, which as I said earlier, is a ghost story. Expect to be chilled by the creepy story.

The Rosewater Theatre is located at 633 Holcomb Bridge Road in Roswell at the corner of Crossville / Holcomb Bridge and Hwy 9/ Alpharetta Hwy, in the corner of the plaza behind the McDonalds. For tickets or information, visit www.rosewatertheatre.com -or call 770-640-5500.