October 2015
I am very excited to announce that my play Fantasia de Colores is being produced and directed by the brave and wonderful Georgette Garbès Putzel, artistic director of Theatre MosaicMond. It opens in October 2015 at the Off Center for the Dramatic Arts. Fantasia de Colores is a wild and strange tale with music about an uptight mother and her suicidal daughter who go on a fantastic journey to the mystical underworld of Mexico. There, with a little help from tequila and dark magic, they face the objects of their own desires. (Maura Campbell).

The cast on stage, by alphabetical order:
Andy Crackow is Lorraine and Patricia. Grady Shea is Esteban. Laura Roald is Beebee. Mathiew Stern is Daniel and Angel. Olivia Vita is Lisa. Georgette Garbès Putzel is the Mother.

The movement performers on stage: Felicia Plumley is a Lady and Santa Muerte. Madeline Bromdel is Popo.

The musicians, audio-visual recorded: Michael Carrese, trumpet. Lynn Robbins, guitar.

The singers on screen: Angelica McLennan: solos and chorus. Chorus: Kara Douglas, Jane Haenel, Tina Escaja, Maria Rinaldi, Alissa Gamberg, Angelica McLennan.

Chorus director: Lynn Robbins.

The tech: Sherman Plumley, stage builder.

At the camera and film editor: Stephen Pite.

What they say about Fantasia de Colores:

I have never seen such commitment by a cast to experimental theater in my life. Gwendolyn Hallsmith, in the audience, Sunday October 18, 2015.

Theatre Review: “One of the successes (at the Off Center for the Dramatic Arts) was sometimes-Vermont playwright Maura Campbell’s Fantasia de Colores, a surreal “trip “by a mother and daughter from their conservative Iowa home to the debaucheries of Mexican Carnival and back. The storytelling is made up of fleeting vignettes, often disjointed and some seemingly irrelevant, but together they created a mosaic. The story is more of an impression. The production was by the Jericho-based Theatre Mosaic Mond, founded and directed by Georgette Garbès Putzel in 2009. Its motto is, appropriately, “Life is a mosaic; diversity is essential.” The new play takes intriguing, colorful journey. Beebee and her mother, Gloria, are stuck at home facing their virtual imprisonment caring for the invalid father and husband, Daniel. But their imaginations aren’t imprisoned; anything but, particularly when inspired accidentally by ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms. Maura Campbell’s new play Fantasia de Colores, a fantasy of colors, thoroughly enjoys Beebee and Gloria’s “trip” from their home in Iowa to the debaucheries of Mexican Carnival and back. At Thursday’s second-night performance at the Off Center for the Dramatic Arts Theatre, Jericho-based Theatre Mosaic Mond delivered a beautifully imaginative performance, beautiful and fascinating — and just a bit weird. Fantasia de Colores is being presented as part of the most welcome season of “Original Content at the Off Center,” Burlington’s 50-seat black box venue for new experimental theater. Theatre Mosaic Mond, a relatively new theater company in the area, founded and directed by Georgette Garbès Putzel, has been producing new and experimental theater in Vermont since 2009. Its motto, appropriately, is “Life is a mosaic, diversity is essential.” Beebee and Gloria’s hallucinogenic adventure inexplicably takes them to a Mexican clinic for unmarried girls. There they meet the oddball doctor in charge, a sweet teen from California, and a couple of native men who attract their carnal attentions. And, there is Carnival. However, the plot doesn’t do the beautiful surreal storytelling justice. Seemingly realistic vignettes are joined by dreamlike theatrical phrases involving colorful ghost-like characters and video in creating a virtually seamless experience. What separates Fantasia de Colores from much “experimental” theater is that the characters, including the illusive ones, are sympathetically drawn and performed, and draw the audience in.

So does the storytelling, which — despite being nearly 100 minutes without intermission — proved fascinating nearly from beginning to end. It was a beautiful but unsettling experience, visually and colorfully.

The immature Beebee was given a sympathetic performance, both touching and entertaining, by theater professional Laura Roald, a Vancouver native in her Vermont acting debut. Her Beebee was contrasted by Putzel’s seemingly down-to-earth Gloria, nearly successful in hiding peculiarities of her own.
Although the pace could have picked up, the remainder of the cast proved an unusually successful mix of different levels of experience. Olivia Vita, a freshman at Mount Mansfield Union High School, gave a tender performance as the pregnant teen. Andy Krackow did great double duty, giving dimension to the clinic doctor and Dad’s new respiratory therapist. Grady Shea and Matt Stern were both convincing as desirable Mexican men. Finally, Madeline Nickerson, a sophomore at MMUHS, and Felicia Starr, newly part of Vermont’s professional theater family, gave life to the all-important spirits.
Georgette Garbès Putzel’s imaginative and colorful set, props, and costumes, more than novelty, gave real form to the dream. Sherman Plumley was the skillful creative builder of the two beautiful main pieces of the set (the Spanish fans). Stephen Pite’s video of a vocal troupe fit in but wasn’t necessary, and a small-screen video of pithy sayings proved superfluous. With lighting by John Lindsay and Grady Shea and Georgette Garbès Putzel’s imaginative costumes, it was a most compelling “trip.” Fantasia de Colores is a compelling and entertaining journey.” Jim Lowe is theater critic and arts editor of the Times Argus and Rutland Herald.