| One Fat Step at a Time |
| Written by Kayla O'Connell | |||
| Wednesday, 03 August 2011 01:03 | |||
 This past week I had the pleasure of attending two half-hour, one woman shows, "One Fat Step at a Time", written and performed by Berry Basile and "Hopeless Romantic Comedy", written and performed by Becky Flaum. After 8 weeks of hard work this performance was the culmination of the People's Improv Theater's (The PIT) Flying Solo II class taught by Peter Michael Marino. The PIT is Upright Citizen Brigade's number one rival for improvisation and writing classes. Up and coming, The PIT has a gorgeous bar and entertaining bartenders for you to sit and have a drink at while you wait for your show. Red and black contrasts give the room a night club feel which definitely puts people in the mood for drinks and entertainment. Performed in a simple black box theatre with minimal props, Basile and Flaum told stories of the mishaps and lessons of their youth with humor and levity. Basile's piece was a brief memoir punctuated by clips of acceptance speeches given by Jack Lemmon. Basile saw Lemmon as her inspiration for becoming an actress and carried that thread through the whole show. She caught the audience's attention by poking fun at herself and her family, in fact, one of Basile's most hilarious moments involved her impersonating her father when he found out she lost her virginity to a garbage man. Needless to say, he was not happy at the time. Basile wove her coming-of-age story with memories of past boyfriends, dreams of becoming an actress, learning what love truly is and ultimately finding it. The underlying theme showed her struggle between developing as an actress and living a "normal" life. She found in the end, that she could do both, with the right man. Basile was light-hearted and entertaining yet truthful and grounded. The second piece, "Hopeless Romantic Comedy", was written and performed by Becky Flaum. While also having to do with the fumbles of youth and finding love, this piece was framed by Flaum's love for the romantic comedy genre. From "The Notebook" to "Say Anything", Flaum compared each of her failed relationships to these fanciful stories. Throughout her piece you feel bad for her, it's clear she's looking in the wrong direction, finding her worth in the men in her life and not herself. In a satisfying ending, Flaum happily comes to this realization herself and decides that she doesn't want to be the crazy, insecure "damsel in distress" that so often headlines romantic comedies, instead she wants to be the steady, smart, reliable best friend who finds that steady, reliable, "best friend" kind of love. It was a pleasure to watch Basile and Flaum perform their carefully crafted pieces for the first time. They were relatable and retrospective without being preachy. I learned something from each of them, and isn't that what theatre is about? For more information on The People's Improv Theatre, performances and classes go to http://thepit-nyc.com/. For more articles like One Fat Step at a Time, please visit the Stage Reviews Section of TimesSquare.com
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