What does the voice of Ash Ketchum and one-half of the famous filmmaking duo the Coen Brother have in common? Both Sarah Natochenny (who’s voiced beloved Pokemon protagonist Ash Ketchum since 2006) and Ethan Coen (Drive-Away Dolls, The Big Lebowski) converged at this year’s Festival of Jewish Playwrights. Produced by the LA-based Foster Cat Productions, the festival presented a rotating bill of three evenings of one-acts written by influential Jewish-American playwrights, which concluded this Sunday, April 7th.
Foster Cat Productions Celebrates the Works of Three Jewish-American Playwrights
Audiences had the choice between an evening of short plays written by Tony-award winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein, along with “An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein, however, Temple of Geek attended the all-Coen night of programming. “An Evening of One-Acts by Ethan Coen” presented three of the Oscar-winning writer/director’s plays. While the platform and duration of Coen’s work may be different from the gripping feature films and television shows he’s so known and praised for, Coen’s “Coen-ness” was instantly recognizable in the one-acts.
In the trio of plays, a less-than-stellar peer review drives a fed up corporate worker to his limit, a mental patient and their therapist talk in maddening but wildly entertaining circles, and a play about God fighting God sends ripples through the relationships of both of those who see and star in it. Each play explores an incredibly different topic with a broad variety of characters, yet Coen’s existential subject matter and embracing of meta-storytelling unites the pieces.
“We had a fun time, we were happy to share the writing with people, expose some people to some lesser known plays by great writers that we all know love,” reflected co-director and actor Harry White on closing night. “We’re also happy to be part of the Jewish community out here. We had a great outpouring of love from Jewish community. And it’s so very nice to, just in a town that’s so spread out and everybody sometimes can be obsessed with self image and all that, to really find a community that cares about uplifting one another.”
Strong Cast Brings Coen’s Heady Writing to Life
White co-directed, produced, and acted in the festival with his brother, Elliot. Both found specific moments to shine on stage — Elliot as the harried employee plagued his colleagues critques in “Peer Review,” and Harry as the “God Who Judges” in “Debate.” Harry White all but brought down the house as the angry, fed-up deity in the final one-act. Not only did make the most of Coen’s delightfully profane and colloquial language when portraying the angry God, he deftly demonstrated his range as the slightly-less angry, more grounded actor playing him.
Though the cast was strong across the board, Natochenny was another standout. Her repartee as a mental patient with Elliot White in the “Talking Cure” was electric, and she effortlessly matched if not exceeded, Harry’s fury as his erudite companion in “Debate.”
Pokémon’s Sarah Natochenny Makes LA Stage Debut
Temple of Geek caught up with Natochenny after the show. “It’s really nice to come back to where I started from. It’s really nice to rediscover my roots and to prove to myself that I’ve still got this,” the actor remarked. While she may be best known as the her work across the Pokémon franchise for the past seventeen years, Natochenny began her career in theater. Despite such a rich and varied career, the Festival of Jewish Playwrights marks her LA stage debut.
Natochenny, who performed in both An Evening of One-Acts by Ethan Coen and An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein, shared how she balanced both playwrights different storytelling approaches:
“I just switch off one part of my brain and turn on the other. Ethan Coen it is a lot more natural and modern and cinematic, and Shel Silverstein is poetic and very raunchy and very, very dark. I kind of access a more cartoony part of myself for the Shel Silverstein. And here, [in Coen’s plays] I just get to be natural ‘me’. I got to really very much play myself –two different very, very different versions of myself in the Coen pieces. So that was a real gift.
What’s Next for the Whites & Natochenny after the Festival of Jewish Playwrights
Both creatives raved about packed houses during the festival’s run. “I really wish we could extend it,” Natochenny confessed. Despite an extension not being in the cards, White announced that over the summer, Foster Cat will produce another one-act play festival centering on the works from famous actor/writer Alan Arkin and comedy icon Elaine May.
Natochenny couldn’t reveal too much about what’s next for her, but she can be heard playing a multitude of characters on Netflix’s Pokemon Horizons: The Series, and meet her in person at the upcoming Fan Expo Cleveland April 12-14th. More of Natochenny’s upcoming con appearances can be found HERE.
Overall, An Evening of One-Acts by Ethan Coen made for an enjoyable Sunday evening out. Runtime can be a major barrier to entry for newer and sporadic theater-goers, however all three plays had a cumulative run-time of an hour. The White Brothers excelled at creating a tight and high engaging theatrical experience.
Learn more about Foster Cat Productions on their INSTAGRAM.
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