THE
SPITFIRE
GRILL
A Review

A Review
by RKB

Before Jay County finally chose "The Spitfire Grill" as their
newest production I knew very little about it. I knew the basic
plot (stranger comes to small town and ends up helping
raffle-off the titular restaurant) and the fact that it was
a small cast (four women, three men). Besides that, all I knew was
that Shanna Camacho had been wanting to put the show on for
several years.

As soon as I finally saw it, I understood why.

The show succeeds for several reasons; the most important,
however, is that Shanna Camacho believes in it.
Because she is so good at what she does,
she convinces us to believe in it, too.

Although there were six other actors in the cast, the show totally
belonged to Shanna in the lead role of Percy Talbott. Percy is an
ex-convict who comes to the small town of Gilead, Wisconsin
because she happened across a photo of the place in a magazine
while she was in prison. She was smitten with its Autumn colors,
and because she has nowhere else to go, she decides to go to Gilead.
Unfortunately, it's Winter.

The early drama in the show stems from how Percy interacts
and reacts with the townspeople. Shanna is in the majority of
the scenes and has the majority of the songs. And because
this is Shanna, it works. Shanna as an actress
has the whole "mystery woman with a chip on her shoulder" thing
down pat. Right from the start you believe that Percy has issues,
and secrets, and pain. Shanna the Actress does an excellent job.
And Shanna the Singer definitely has the pipes for the part:
from the a capella opening, "A Ring Around The Moon" to the
show-stopper, "Shine," Shanna never hits a wrong note,
either literally or figuratively.
She was terrific.

Shanna is not on-stage by herself, however; "Spitfire Grill"
is definitely not a one-woman show. Shanna gets wonderful
support from two of Jay County's best actresses: Diane Whitenack
as Hannah Ferguson and Jennifer McGraw as Shelby Thorpe.
Hannah as portrayed by Diane is the cranky curmudgeon with a
heart of gold, the owner of the Grill who is not at all keen
on the idea of having Percy around. When she falls and hurts
herself, however, Hannah has no choice but to rely on Percy to
keep the Grill running. This is where Shelby comes in:
the work is too much for Percy alone
(as evidenced in the hilarious, "Out of The Frying Pan"),
so Shelby is asked to help out, too.

The story really starts to move after we have our three leads
all in one grill. Percy is the outcast, Hannah is the loner,
and Shelby is the damsel in distress who turns out to be
a maid of steel. The best scenes in the show are between these
three extremely talented women: Percy and Shelby deciding on
the wording of the raffle in "Colors of Paradise,"
Shelby singing "Wild Bird" to Percy, and
Hannah and Percy's spitfire confrontation near the end of Act II.
Basically, the rest of the show consists of decorations set
around these three scenes.

Diane, the First Lady of Jay County Theatre, is practically
a force of nature. To really appreciate what Diane brings
to her roles, you must either act with her (talk about
tight-rope walking!) or, for the less brave, see her
in several performances of the same show. Why? Because
she seldom plays the same scene the same way twice!
She parlays that liveliness into a sense of "realness;"
the audience doesn't know what will happen next,
because Diane's character doesn't seem to know!
In this show, Diane's big moment is near the end, when
she has to either confront or comfort The Visitor.
Somehow, she hit emotional home-runs both
nights I saw her.
She was absolutely fabulous!

Jennifer has done these types of roles so many times that it
doesn't even look like she's working any more; her
characterization was spot-on right from the start. The role
of Shelby is another classic, and gave us some of Jennifer's
best acting ever: she ran the gamut from innocent
house-wife to hopeful helper to loyal friend to
independant woman. In her role as Shelby she firmly anchors
Shanna in her role of Percy. The show would have been less
exciting if she had not played this part.
Jennifer, as always, seems to impart more to the character
than what resides just in the words.
(On a side note, I did tell both Shanna and Jennifer
that I tried to imagine how each would have
interpreted the other's character:
Jennifer as Percy and Shanna as Shelby! I definitely would
have paid to see *that* version of the show!)

Another actor who gave us more than what was on the page
was Cain M. Bilbrey as Caleb Thorpe. Caleb represents
the dying hopes of the dying town: he longs, painfully,
for the time when all a man had to do to be "good"
was support his family by doing physical labor.
In the show's best song, "Digging Stone,"
Cain gave us a glimpse of a man stuck in a time
he doesn't understand and doesn't much like.
He wants his wife to stay at home, he wants to
be the foreman at the rock quarry again, and he wants
to be happy. Unfortunately for Caleb (and all the
thousands of men he represents), those things
are simply not going to happen.

Unfortunately for us, the show ends up doing
wrong by Caleb: at the end, he is the only character
who does not re-appear.
Shelby his wife says something about him
needing more time before "he comes around,"
but I believe that the show owes us
a better resolution to Caleb's story than that.
Cain does an awesome job with what he was given,
but the writers simply did not give him enough to do.

The slighting of Caleb is representative of how
the writers, because they are primarily interested in
the three leads, leave the supporting characters
in the shadows. Caleb's lack of resolution in particular
is a jarring note in an otherwise well-written show.
We come to care about Caleb (due in no small part to
Cain's sympathetic portrayal) and I for one
wanted more.

The three remaining supporting characters get
even less definition than Caleb. On the other side
of the Hope coin is Sheriff Joe Sutter,
portrayed by Jason McGraw.
When we first meet Joe he is as ready to get out
of Gilead as Percy is ready to move in;
the two seasoned veterans play off this dichotomy well.
The two antagonists eventually come to several realizations,
not the least of which is, "home is where the heart is."
Jason did another excellent job
(his solo, "Forest For The Trees," was particularly well-done)
in a role which is little more than a contrast to Caleb
and a counter-point to Percy.

And the two remaining characters, although pivotal,
are even less-fully developed. This is not due to
the actors, of course. Mark McIntosh
as The Visitor had an especially difficult job to do.
Mark does an outstanding job and leaves quite the
impression: his final scene with Diane, especially,
is, as mentioned earlier, riveting. Still, I was
hoping for a little bit more for/from the character.

Likewise, Brittney Kirtley as Effy Krayneck, the
town mailwoman/gossip, does another outstanding job in
a role that is little more than comic relief.
Brittney is a hoot in every scene she is in, but
at the end of the show we know absolutely nothing
more of Effy than we did when the show started.

Now I want to shine the spotlight behind the scenes.
First, another "hats off!" to Director Don Enyart.
I imagine that directing this show, surrounded by some of the
biggest egos (err, I mean, "stars") in Jay County,
could not have been easy. Somehow, Don managed to
pull off another success. I could "feel" Don's hand in
several key scenes during the show. Everything he
does, it seems, comes off well.
Nicely done, Mr. Enyart.

Next, the Band deserves special mention. Besides
Margaret Hammond as Accompanist Supreme we enjoyed
Keyboard by Linda Braun, Cello by the incomparable
Ken Smith, Violin by Laura Fennig, Guitar by Lee
Haggenjos, and Mandolin/Harmonica by Dan Hammond.
The variety of instruments gave the show a much
deeper musical sense than I had expected.
And the Band and Actors maintained just the right
volume balance between them, never having either side
overpower the other. Wonderful job, everyone!

Lastly, I want to give a huge shout-out to the people
responsible for the wonderful set: you did a fantastic
job!! When the action is set in or around the same location,
the Scenic Designers are allowed to go all-out with their
visions because nobody is going to need to move
set-pieces in-between scenes.
I know Cain M. Bilbrey had a lot to do with this set,
so, nice job, sir. I imagine Scenic Artistes Heather Duff
and Janice Fritz were responsible for some of "the look"
as well, so I compliment them, too. (Whoever painted those
wonderful Autumn Murals deserves an extra cookie!).
And to Mark McIntosh (Crew Chief) and his Building Crew:
they couldn't have done it without you.

Thank you, everyone, for another example of good live theatre.

The Spitfire Grill

Cast Photos

Crew Photos