{"id":25217,"date":"2024-03-14T10:18:44","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T17:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25217"},"modified":"2024-03-14T14:35:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T21:35:08","slug":"the-hot-l-baltimore-showcases-community-on-and-off-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/03\/14\/the-hot-l-baltimore-showcases-community-on-and-off-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hot L Baltimore<\/em> showcases community on and off stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happens to the core of a community when the structure keeping it in place crumbles and the mosaic of outcasts in that circle shatters? This is what The Hot L Baltimore<\/i>, an award-winning comedy written by playwright Lanford Wilson, will ask when it hits the stage at UVic\u2019s Phoenix Theatre this month. The production offers audiences a glimpse into the eccentric network of people formed in a decrepit hotel with a burnt out \u201cE\u201d on its marquee.<\/p>\n

Bill Allen, a fourth-year theatre major at UVic, wears a couple different hats in the production: he\u2019s an associate director and an actor, playing the role of the coincidentally named Bill Lewis, the night clerk at the hotel. At first, Allen\u2019s initial motivation for auditioning for Bill was their shared name, but he quickly became very attached to the character.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Hot L Baltimore<\/em> runs at the University of Victoria\u2019s Phoenix Theatre until Saturday, March 23 (photo by Dean Kalyan).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy love for this character is primarily drawn to the very transparent sense of love that he has for the world and all the characters in the hotel,\u201d says Allen.<\/p>\n

Allen is working alongside 14 other actors in the production\u2014a larger-sized cast for the Phoenix Theatre. This allows for a diverse, character-rich story that may leave audiences feeling slightly voyeuristic as they witness the unfolding drama.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe play follows the residents of this run-down, seedy hotel in 1973 in Baltimore, where there\u2019s an eviction notice looming, they\u2019re about to tear down the building, and we see the course of a single day, starting at the top of the play at 7 am, and then moving through to midnight the following night,\u201d says Allen. \u201cWe see the characters have their daily interactions under the context of being kicked out. And it\u2019s really neat in just kind of showing their lives; it\u2019s almost sort of a people-watching experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Allen, as well as the characters and vibrant story, audiences can also look forward to an incredible set design that will assist in transporting them back in time, further bringing the story to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show\u2019s set\u2014the little construction of the hotel lobby that\u2019s been built in the Chief Dan George Theatre\u2014is so impressive, and grand, and simultaneously beautiful while also looking like it\u2019s run down and about to be destroyed,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s really lovely to look at. I remember when all of us in the cast finally moved out of the rehearsal room into the theatre once they started installing the entire set\u2014it was magical in a way. It was quite literally like being transported to this other world.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hot L Baltimore<\/i> was in the rehearsal stage of production while this article was being written, but Allen\u2019s already witnessing the benefits from the cast being fully immersed in their characters. It\u2019s a process he credits to the direction style of Peter McGuire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely starting to see these characters come to life,\u201d says Allen. \u201cThe entire process, and the way Peter McGuire, our director, is directing, we\u2019re kind of viewing the production as a whole as sort of forming an acting company in and of itself, where everybody is kind of part of this community and we all contribute and give our ideas back and collaborate with each other to bring everything to life. And it\u2019s definitely showing… We are starting to live and breathe these characters and this world, and it\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen says that the core of the production lies in the beauty of the characters existing and interacting with one another in this little world and the complexity that ensues from the threat of that world being stripped away or forever altered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I\u2019m hoping that audiences pull out of this production, and see in this production,\u201d he says, \u201cis how sometimes beautiful, and sometimes ugly, sometimes chaotic, and sometimes in-order everything is, and how that fluctuates and can change so quickly, and can affect everyone involved so sporadically and unexpectedly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hot L Baltimore
\n<\/i>Various times, Thursday, March 14 to Saturday, March 23
\nVarious prices, Phoenix Theatre, UVic
\nfinearts.uvic.ca\/theatre\/mainstage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happens to the core of a community when the structure keeping it in place crumbles and the mosaic of outcasts in that circle shatters? This is what The Hot L Baltimore, an award-winning comedy written by playwright Lanford Wilson, will ask when it hits the stage at UVic\u2019s Phoenix Theatre this month. The production […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25217"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25226,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25217\/revisions\/25226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}