mossmanfilms
Juno and the Paycock The Artistic Home 2008
"Strong acting alone cannot explain this utterly absorbing, nearly flawless evening. Director John Mossman deserves credit for its multi-layered textures and graceful turns, and for the tightness of his ensemble. His pitch-perfect casting guarantees that even walk-on characters are performed with a commitment and intensity that drives the story forward. --Jack Helbig, Reader
"The most contemporary, intelligent American play in town at the moment was written by an Irish bricklayer in 1924... In Mossman’s intimate, tight, emotionally suffused production, the perils of living on credit—in a financial, emotional and even familial sense—become frighteningly illuminated. Again taking on a script that promotes consciousness of the working class, Artistic Home uses selfless, dynamic ensemble playing to create the feeling of ghetto-as-neighborhood.
— Christopher Piatt/Time Out
"Director John Mossman executes a deceptively intricate script with complete success and remarkable connection... He took an obscure classic and brought it to heartbreaking life with profound warmth and humor. The dramatic movement can turn on a dime from playfulness to tragedy to sweetness and then to rage, but Mossman’s wonderful cast delivers every scene with total truthfulness and never loosens the delicate build in tension... For so many reasons this is a play that should not be missed. In a city filled with exciting world premiere productions, The Artistic Home takes a 94-year-old classic and delivers a charmingly fresh and enthusiastically must-see treasure." (****) Venus Zarus, Gay Chicago
"What sets Artistic Home apart is the way it integrates the paying customers into the artistic environment. You can see it in John Mossman's simple and moving production of Sean O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock," a classic drama of politics and poverty...(a) memorably intense and committed production." Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
"The Artistic Home, which specializes in finely-tooled productions of stealth classics, has been off the radar for a year, caught up in an increasingly desperate search for a new performance space. It's returned, triumphantly, with "Juno and the Paycock". And oh, how Chicago critics have missed the company. Reviews praise the earthy acting, mousetrap-taut direction and spot-on Irish brogues in this production of Sean O'Casey's 1925 drama about no-hopers undone by hope." Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times
"The most contemporary, intelligent American play in town at the moment was written by an Irish bricklayer in 1924... In Mossman’s intimate, tight, emotionally suffused production, the perils of living on credit—in a financial, emotional and even familial sense—become frighteningly illuminated. Again taking on a script that promotes consciousness of the working class, Artistic Home uses selfless, dynamic ensemble playing to create the feeling of ghetto-as-neighborhood.
— Christopher Piatt/Time Out
"Director John Mossman executes a deceptively intricate script with complete success and remarkable connection... He took an obscure classic and brought it to heartbreaking life with profound warmth and humor. The dramatic movement can turn on a dime from playfulness to tragedy to sweetness and then to rage, but Mossman’s wonderful cast delivers every scene with total truthfulness and never loosens the delicate build in tension... For so many reasons this is a play that should not be missed. In a city filled with exciting world premiere productions, The Artistic Home takes a 94-year-old classic and delivers a charmingly fresh and enthusiastically must-see treasure." (****) Venus Zarus, Gay Chicago
"What sets Artistic Home apart is the way it integrates the paying customers into the artistic environment. You can see it in John Mossman's simple and moving production of Sean O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock," a classic drama of politics and poverty...(a) memorably intense and committed production." Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
"The Artistic Home, which specializes in finely-tooled productions of stealth classics, has been off the radar for a year, caught up in an increasingly desperate search for a new performance space. It's returned, triumphantly, with "Juno and the Paycock". And oh, how Chicago critics have missed the company. Reviews praise the earthy acting, mousetrap-taut direction and spot-on Irish brogues in this production of Sean O'Casey's 1925 drama about no-hopers undone by hope." Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times
Look Homeward, Angel The Artistic Home 2008
Directed by John Mossman with a high exuberance that moves easily from the tragic to the comic... Chaotic and involving, "Look Homeward" is one of those delicious period pieces like "Picnic" and "Our Town" that home in on the true nature of American life. Highly recommended." Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times
I expected old-fashioned from Ketti Frings's 1957 stage adaptation of the famous autobiographical novel by Thomas Wolfe, and got it. But her well-made, mainstream play is also intensely moving and funny in John Mossman's Artistic Home production...Mossman's adept handling of finely etched characters ensures a brisk, clear, stirring story. -- The Reader
"Few could keep this meandering saga alive, but Mossman manages magnificently. He ushers Frings’s enormous ensemble of boarders and townsfolk through the Gants’ story with remarkable dexterity, coordinating among these extras a smorgasbord of relationships—from flirtatious to frosty—that add necessary farce to the mostly solemn action taking place center stage. In an ocean of actors, each lead provides the striking performance necessary to hold his own." - Time Out Chicago
"Ketti Frings’ Pulitzer-winning 1957 stage adaptation captures the novel’s sounds and fury, no less so than John Mossman’s impressive revival for The Artistic Home...'Look Homeward, Angel' endures beyond marble."- Chicago Free Press
"...punctuated by several sublime scenes of luminous emotional truth... It’s revelatory, and as gripping a verbal pas de deux as you’ll find on a stage this season." - Chicago Examiner
"John Mossman's tough yet sensitive staging of Ketti Frings' Pulitzer Prize-winning 1957 adaptation for the Artistic Home builds on this company's reputation for sprawling Americana...The finely drawn gallery of supporting characters fleshes out the marginal lives of the tenants...Artistic Home brings this snapshot of a bygone age to life with emotional verve and elan." Chicago Tribune
"Directed with richness by John Mossman, the production moves with a sumptuous pace reminiscent of its southern roots. Everything feels perfectly placed here. While Nick Horst turns in a truly beguiling portrayal of Gene, Wolfe’s alter-ego, Kathy Scambiaterra astounds, entering like a tornado and exiting like a hurricane. Perfectly juxtaposed to her Eliza is Frank Nall, who turns in a stormy performance of his own, with deep emotion and humor." - Gay Chicago
I expected old-fashioned from Ketti Frings's 1957 stage adaptation of the famous autobiographical novel by Thomas Wolfe, and got it. But her well-made, mainstream play is also intensely moving and funny in John Mossman's Artistic Home production...Mossman's adept handling of finely etched characters ensures a brisk, clear, stirring story. -- The Reader
"Few could keep this meandering saga alive, but Mossman manages magnificently. He ushers Frings’s enormous ensemble of boarders and townsfolk through the Gants’ story with remarkable dexterity, coordinating among these extras a smorgasbord of relationships—from flirtatious to frosty—that add necessary farce to the mostly solemn action taking place center stage. In an ocean of actors, each lead provides the striking performance necessary to hold his own." - Time Out Chicago
"Ketti Frings’ Pulitzer-winning 1957 stage adaptation captures the novel’s sounds and fury, no less so than John Mossman’s impressive revival for The Artistic Home...'Look Homeward, Angel' endures beyond marble."- Chicago Free Press
"...punctuated by several sublime scenes of luminous emotional truth... It’s revelatory, and as gripping a verbal pas de deux as you’ll find on a stage this season." - Chicago Examiner
"John Mossman's tough yet sensitive staging of Ketti Frings' Pulitzer Prize-winning 1957 adaptation for the Artistic Home builds on this company's reputation for sprawling Americana...The finely drawn gallery of supporting characters fleshes out the marginal lives of the tenants...Artistic Home brings this snapshot of a bygone age to life with emotional verve and elan." Chicago Tribune
"Directed with richness by John Mossman, the production moves with a sumptuous pace reminiscent of its southern roots. Everything feels perfectly placed here. While Nick Horst turns in a truly beguiling portrayal of Gene, Wolfe’s alter-ego, Kathy Scambiaterra astounds, entering like a tornado and exiting like a hurricane. Perfectly juxtaposed to her Eliza is Frank Nall, who turns in a stormy performance of his own, with deep emotion and humor." - Gay Chicago
Natural Affection The Artistic Home 2005
Inge's lost urban drama is brought back to stunning life in the tiny but vital Artistic Home space. The 60's never looked so sexy and unappealling at the same time... As our once-antiseptic view of the Leave it to Beaver '50s continues to dissolve into transparencies, the more Inge's aw-shucks plays like Picnic and Bus Stop look like anomalies, while a dark, formerly secret oddball like this one starts to appear to be the playwright's shining gem.
Mossman's grunting, carnal production taps the script's incestuous overtones, latent homosexuality and violent machismo backlash against feminism, and mines them for all they're worth. The cast, all exceptional as self-destructive carousers, is clearly having a ball with the painful debauchery and seems to take particular joy in debunking popular myths of the middle class of Camelot-era America. If the violent proceedings weren't so compelling, you'd be trying to get back to Kansas, too." Christopher Piatt, Time Out Chicago
"William Inge's 1963 play about an unwed middle-age mother, her new live-in younger boyfriend and her fresh-from-reform-school teenage son sank without much of a trace after its inaugural performances. But in the hands of director John Mossman and a splendid ensemble at the tiny Artistic Home, it's a revelation... The Christmas Eve party scene is right out of a Cassavetes film, and the entire play, particularly the jarring ending, has the dark sensibility that we associate with David Lynch... It is so far removed from Inge's usual milieu of dusty prairie towns ("Picnic," "Bus Stop") and so startling in its prescience about the darker aspects of the impending sexual revolution that it deserves a revival as skillful and smart as this one..." Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune
"John Mossman's staging for the Artistic Home is as uncompromising as the script. Kathy Scambiatterra gives a devastating performance as the mother: her doomed fight for a decent life is as heroic as Inge allows his characters to get." - Chicago Reader
"There's such an overwhelming sense of futility and hopelessness that lives under the surface of Inge's writing that, when given the chance to rise to the top, shocks in its physical and emotional veracity. Director John Mossman and his well-versed cast fully understand this as they take firm control of the language, developing finely etched performances, delivering Inge's tragic messages with dramatic eloquence. This is truly an ensemble-driven piece, and the actors have formed a cohesive unit, ebbing and flowing between the comedy and pathos integrated within the writing." Gay Chicago
"Part of The Artistic Home's stated mission is 'to give birth to unforgettable moments by working in an intimate space, to touch audiences who are increasingly distanced from human contact.' They accomplish this with great success in Natural Affection although William Inge's characters are people we might want more distance from.Director John Mossman keeps the tone from getting too grim as his cast takes us from laughter to pity, and through empathy and fear with honesty." - Chicago Free Press
"This late, generally unlamented William Inge play, set in Chicago, received a miraculous salvage job in the 28-seat theater that could." One of the 10 best plays of 2005, Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Mossman's grunting, carnal production taps the script's incestuous overtones, latent homosexuality and violent machismo backlash against feminism, and mines them for all they're worth. The cast, all exceptional as self-destructive carousers, is clearly having a ball with the painful debauchery and seems to take particular joy in debunking popular myths of the middle class of Camelot-era America. If the violent proceedings weren't so compelling, you'd be trying to get back to Kansas, too." Christopher Piatt, Time Out Chicago
"William Inge's 1963 play about an unwed middle-age mother, her new live-in younger boyfriend and her fresh-from-reform-school teenage son sank without much of a trace after its inaugural performances. But in the hands of director John Mossman and a splendid ensemble at the tiny Artistic Home, it's a revelation... The Christmas Eve party scene is right out of a Cassavetes film, and the entire play, particularly the jarring ending, has the dark sensibility that we associate with David Lynch... It is so far removed from Inge's usual milieu of dusty prairie towns ("Picnic," "Bus Stop") and so startling in its prescience about the darker aspects of the impending sexual revolution that it deserves a revival as skillful and smart as this one..." Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune
"John Mossman's staging for the Artistic Home is as uncompromising as the script. Kathy Scambiatterra gives a devastating performance as the mother: her doomed fight for a decent life is as heroic as Inge allows his characters to get." - Chicago Reader
"There's such an overwhelming sense of futility and hopelessness that lives under the surface of Inge's writing that, when given the chance to rise to the top, shocks in its physical and emotional veracity. Director John Mossman and his well-versed cast fully understand this as they take firm control of the language, developing finely etched performances, delivering Inge's tragic messages with dramatic eloquence. This is truly an ensemble-driven piece, and the actors have formed a cohesive unit, ebbing and flowing between the comedy and pathos integrated within the writing." Gay Chicago
"Part of The Artistic Home's stated mission is 'to give birth to unforgettable moments by working in an intimate space, to touch audiences who are increasingly distanced from human contact.' They accomplish this with great success in Natural Affection although William Inge's characters are people we might want more distance from.Director John Mossman keeps the tone from getting too grim as his cast takes us from laughter to pity, and through empathy and fear with honesty." - Chicago Free Press
"This late, generally unlamented William Inge play, set in Chicago, received a miraculous salvage job in the 28-seat theater that could." One of the 10 best plays of 2005, Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
