Hot L Baltimore

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

The Hotel Baltimore gone. They said it would be, and the structure now returned to the Hotel Barth on 17th Street in downtown Denver.

Judy Phelan Hill, Eric Hansen and Patty Mintz Figel in Hot L Baltimore

As a fundraiser for Senior Housing Options, (www.SeniorHousingOptions,org), the run of Hot L Baltimore gleaned over $70,000. The organization manages several properties in Colorado providing affordable living arenas for low-income seniors. Denver’s Barth Hotel is their significant mainstay.

For a short while, the named changed to Hot L Baltimore, a seedy run down hotel so lacking in funds it couldn’t afford to replace the missing “e” from its sign.

Directed by Terry Dodd, the play, written by Lanford Wilson, unfolded in the Lobby with seating surrounding three sides. Without a buffer of stage or spotlights, the characters interacted with each other within inches of the audience. No buffer for the actors, no buffer for the audience. Consequently, the audience couldn’t help but be drawn into the action rubbing elbows with derelicts, prostitutes, lives once lived, lives existing on wobbly legs, lives filled with lost dreams, lives on hold just waiting.

The play introduces the companion audience to some of the residents of the run down hotel when they are informed the hotel will be torn down. They will have to move.

Guests graced the stage at every performance. The night I was present Fred Longmore played the part of Suzy’s John, and Terri Childress took on the role of the Cab driver. If the other guests fueling the small but vital roles were as attentive as these two, this was a brilliant move. As a matter of circumstance, I was able to watch them before the performance rehearsing with Dodd. It became a wondrous opportunity to watch both move from walking through blocking, listening to Dodd, to experience their actual performance.

The stunning cast brought the characters to life. It didn’t sound or feel like a performance. It sounded and felt like one had the unique opportunity to observe a piece of humanity in a state of flux, a piece of humanity that can be seen every day in downtown Denver if we choose to look, but have, or take, very little opportunity to know very much about.

Robin Wallace takes on the restless role of The Girl. Identified as The Girl because she can’t decide what her name is. Sometimes it’s Martha. Sometime Billie Jean. If someone calls her by the wrong name, she snaps. Wearing her heart on her sleeve, The Girl vacillates between flirting with a desk clerk, Bill Lewis, (Eric Hansen), to showering compassion to older residents, to an intense curiosity for individuals. It never became clear as to why The Girl lived at the Hot L Baltimore, but Wallace engulfed her with sparked energy. Wallace made you want to know more about her.

A young man has fallen asleep in one of the chairs.

Millie prattles to a sofa to read a paper. In the arena during Act I a good part of the time, Millie was brought to life by Patty Mintz Figel, and became a enormously enticing character to watch. Sitting and observing can be an extremely difficult request for an actor, unless one has the qualifications of Figel. Even when Millie wasn’t in the center of attention, Figel kept her alive fully dressed in character. Sometimes lost in her own thoughts, sometimes conversing quietly with the ghosts she believed lived in the hotel, sometimes watching others intently. It was always Millie on that playing area with every breath taken.

A very tired, whining, troubled lady shuffles into the hotel looking for information about her son who once lived there. In a self –pitying, whining voice, she appeals to Mr. Katz, the hotel Manager (Joe Wilson). Her son once lived there. Yes, he has problems. He’s confused. He only spent six months in jail, but he’s better now. Can’t he please return? Katz may be the Manager of a run down hotel, but Wilson played him all business. If he has any compassion for any of the residents, he doesn’t show it. No, her son can’t return. He’s too destructive. Mrs. Bellotti may be a tired old whiner, but determination feeds a small section of her soul. She’s not to be brushed aside very easily. Judy Phelan-Hill provided determination to her shuffle, gave slump to her shoulders, stretched her face long and taunt with weariness crawling into every crack in her face. Mrs. Bellotti is welcome to collect her son’s belongings, but she’d have to do it. No one was available to help. The drawn weary whining body grows heavier. Her husband can’t help her. “He’s diabetic and they took his leg.” The Girl begs that her son be given one more chance. Katz becomes impatiently emphatic. The boy steals. He’s crazy.

Periodically, Mrs. Bellotti trundles into the hotel and after a short while trundles out with a box in hand. The weight of the world walks side-by-side. During these trips she says nothing, but Phelan-Hill’s personification grabs attention. A part of you wants to jump from the theatre seat to offer assistance, until you remember this isn’t real.

Joey Wishnia gave one of the finest performances I’ve ever seen him give as Mr. Morse. Lost in his own world, he plays checkers with a boy, Jamie (Brian Kusic). All is fine as long as Morse has his way. Jamie discovers any disagreement sends Morse into a rage. When Morse discovers a man sleeping in his chair, his sense of ownership leaks. Jamie offers to help Mrs. Bellotti, and Morse complainingly bellows, “You can’t leave the game.”

Robin Wallace and Eric Hansen in Hot L Baltimore

Kusic played Jamie with a sense of false hope and lost horizon. Slow on the draw, Jamie carefully observes what goes on around him. Dependent on his sister, Jackie, a rough tough hard-nosed outside exterior hides, though not very well, a frightened human lost to society clutching a dream tied to a cloud, at the same time protective of Jamie. Laura Lounge wears Jackie’s leathers. She makes you want to grab her, shake her, hug her, quiet her, and offer suggestions for a viable plan for her and Jamie. It’s her and Jamie against the world. She trusts no one She’s been given good reason not to trust.

Emotions lying just under the skin explode from everyone. The sleeping man awakens announcing, “This isn’t a hotel. It’s a flop house”

The sleeping man is Paul Granger III and he’s been looking for his grandfather. Granger has been here for 12 hours. The Hot L Baltimore was his last known address. Doesn’t anyone remember him? They must have some records. Mrs. Oxenham now running the desk has no time for such nonsense. All business wearing the demeanor as though she doesn’t dare touch any of the residents, much less take time out of her busy schedule to help anyone. She lives far apart, and she wants everyone to know she is not one of these people. Kathryn Gray is a marvel wearing a carefully guarded shield between her and the residents. There has to be records of Granger’s grandfather. Reluctantly, with eyes burning resentment, Mrs. Oxenham begins digging.

Act II becomes a playground for the prostitutes. Dressed to the nine’s in full call girl prostitute glamour, April Green comes to marvelous life with the artistic assistance of Catherine di Bella. Hard as nails, she wears her impudent ego as snugly as her revealing dress. Sparks fly between her and Suzy grandly played by Kimberly Nicole. Suzy’s moving on and moving up, and is she ever glad to be rid of the Hot L Baltimore atmosphere. She’s better than they are, and makes no bones about letting them all know. Until she leaves only to return with tears streaming down her face. She didn’t mean it. These people are her family. The false puffed up pride melts at her feet.

Jamie anxiously waits for Jackie to pick him up. He’s been waiting since early morning. Anxiety turns to fear with the realization Jackie isn’t coming. The tough as nails exterior disappears when April coaxes him to dance, and he dissolves in her arms. She’s not hard as nails. She’s a warm tender caring human being who through circumstances felt forced to hunt down a coat of nails to survive.

The final moments took the breath away.

The residents of Hot L Baltimore will never be viewed the same way. The residents of Hot L Baltimore continue to live amongst us. You’ll see them, and if you listen, you can hear them.

They are the reason the Senior Housing Options continue to expand their horizons, continue to do what they do, continue to bring awareness of the needs of low income senior citizens to the forefront.

Dodd’s direction, the Stellar cast of mind blowing artists, Tina Anderson’s realistic set design, Mallory Kay Nelson’s sensitive and appropriate costume design, El Armstrong’s haunting sound design, and Paul Behrhorst’s pragmatic lighting design picked up Hot L Baltimore and laid it in the laps of the audience. It’s unfortunate the run came to an end so quickly, The response of raising $70,000 says the audience took it to heart, cradled the characters in their hearts, and willingly met people they’d never otherwise meet.