Piccolo live theater welcome escape

Why would I sit on a stage and allow six people to rummage through the mishmash in my enormous, ancient shoulder bag?

The answer is the Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company, part of Piccolo Fringe at Theatre 99. Somehow the sheer zany joy of the professional troupe, which hails from the Big Apple, inspires one to indulge in unpredictable behavior.

At the beginning of Monday night's show, the actors requested that someone volunteer to allow them to use their purse or billfold as the basis for an improvisational routine.

Magically, my hand flew up, and I allowed strangers to read every personal note and business card and observe the shameful secrets I hoarded, like half a candy bar, five different lipsticks and an entire makeup kit.

When a curious actor asked why I had a Mobile Marriage business card, I replied that my friend, Lin Lewis, would perform a wedding at any place (that is legal) in the Lowcountry. "Even underwater?" she asked.

As for a colorful card with a title "Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs and Classical Music," I answered that author and oboist Blair Tindall (who was The Post and Courier's visiting Spoleto critic in 2005) had written a book about sex and drugs in the classical music world.

Numerous quips spewed forth, and my quirky habit of stashing stuff in my purse was turned into a full-blown skit.

Although I had never before seen The Upright Citizens Brigade, the company has appeared on "Saturday Night Live!" and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." The quick-witted actors in the troupe (Shannon O'Neill, Neil Casey, Eli Newell, Lennon Parham, Anthony King and Bobby Moynihan) have performed in Charleston at Theatre 99 for several years.

The point is that Piccolo theater can make people do weird things, and the unabashed joy I witnessed made me realize that in my more than 20 years of reviewing the festival that this season the theater crowds seemed larger and more euphoric than ever.

At the Footlight Players, where I reviewed Company Company's "The Good Time Variety Hour," the audience happily joined in singing a gospel tune. During the boisterous musical "Sophie Tucker: Last of the Red Hot Mamas" volunteers from the audience contributed hilarious ad-libs to the delight of ebullient actress Kathy Halenda.

Leaving "Sophie Tucker," as I strolled down Queen Street, I heard Ellen Walkley of Kiawah Island and her friend laughing. "I've never had so much fun!" Walkley said with a huge grin.

On the serious side, I was amazed at the empathy shown by the large crowd who attended Pure Theatre's "The Island" at the Circular Congregational Church's Lance Hall.

The play, set in 1973, stars two superb actors, Johnny Heyward and Joseph Anthony Byrd, and graphically illuminates the horrors inflicted by apartheid on the inmates of South Africa's Robben Island. Even younger people present seemed to appreciate how a play staged in a prison could make life at least bearable for some.

At the Village Playhouse in Mount Pleasant, people crowded in to relish the sounds of the best onstage band I've heard locally. It accompanied "Splish Splash: The Short & Spectacular Life of Bobby Darin," conceptualized and directed by Keely Enright.

The musical starred Joe Clarke, who was fabulous as Darin. The theater came alive with patrons barely able to keep themselves from leaping up and dancing to "Mack the Knife."

The elegant one-person play "A Time to Dance," written and acted by Libby Skala of Berkeley, Calif., depicted the rich life of Austrian dancer Elizabeth Polk, who introduced dance therapy to the United States. A lovely dancer, Skala skillfully wove modern dance into glimpses of how her great-aunt, who lived to be 99, survived by never allowing severe disappointments to cloud the vibrancy and beauty of life.

As smiling crowds spilled out onto the sidewalks, I thought of how during one of the worst years economically since the Great Depression, with many fearing the loss of jobs or homes, that Piccolo provided solace at affordable prices.

The festival paved a way for people to escape their worries for a time and to allow their imaginations to transport them to another sphere, all through live theater.

Dottie Ashley is a freelance writer living in Mount Pleasant. Reach her at dottieashley@gmail.com.