Blood! Love! Madness!

We ventured off to LA on Saturday to see Beth perform in the Actors' Gang production of "Blood! Love! Madness!". It was definitely a trip worth taking. The play was unlike anything I have seen before in the theater. Before we headed in for the show, we had the chance to see a group of elementary school students playing the drums outside of the theater. This was not an ordinary musical production. The kids, ranging in ages from around 8-11, were amazing. Their skill and energy really set the mood for the night. This is definitely something I want my kids involved with.

The play was actually three short plays. The first, called The Razor, portrayed an older man living as a barber and his struggles with his chosen profession and life with his wife. It was very dramatic and intense. The actor playing the man was so focused on his character's raging emotions and could portray all of his feelings through his eyes. It was creepy at times.

The second play, called Madman on the Roof, was a comical portrayal of a family with a mentally disabled son. They persistently attempted to get the son off the roof and called in a Priestess to rid him of the "evil spirits". I laughed so hard it hurt.



The third play, called The Dressing Room (starring the beautiful Beth Tapper), portrayed an aging actress struggling with the cruelest fate, her age. At the beginning of the play, we see three women in a dressing room, putting on makeup. We later learn that two of the women are actually ghosts that are waiting eternally for their chance to get on stage. Beth played the aging acress and was truly phenomenal. The Variety's review of her performance said "as the central character, Beth Tapper projects a maniacal, unrelenting anger restricted only by the limitations of her lung power." I have seen Beth perform in other productions, but I have to say that this role really exhibited her amazing talent.

I am very disappointed that they don't have a press release photo with Beth in it