Volunteers don outfits to recreate paintings

The event benefited The Youngstown Playhouse.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
T WAS ONE OF THOSE EVENINGS where, if you weren't there, you're going to wish you had been.
Where else could you see, onstage, Sen. Marc Dann of Liberty, D-32nd, former Sen. Harry Meshel and Atty. Anthony Donofrio unzip their robes to reveal nothing underneath but humorous boxer shorts?
It was all part of a fun-filled fund-raiser Saturday evening for The Youngstown Playhouse, called Arts Alive II, created by Sis Soller with a little help from lots of friends.
Soller first did the project at the Butler Institute of American Art on Wick Avenue in 1988, and the first performance at The Playhouse occurred in 1995.
Now, 10 years later, Playhouse personalities, local celebrities and friends once again got together to present a show of sheer entertainment for a good cause. The concept was to bring the characters in paintings to life, and the result was hysterical.
Each of the 23 paintings was projected onto a curtain within a huge picture frame, out of which the characters emerged when the curtain was raised.
Dr. Lou Zona, executive director of the Butler, gave a brief commentary on each painting, and Soller commented on the performers. But what emerged was somewhat different, perhaps, than what the artist had in mind.
Performances
"Mona Lisa" was transformed into a singing nun, as Paula Strobel belted out a song from "Nunsense." The audience cheered as Strobel and Courtney DiLullo became the two cleaning ladies in Norman Rockwell's "Charwomen," in a song and dance number, "Broadway Baby."
DiLullo's talent shone as choreographer to a painting by Winslow Homer called "Snap the Whip." She and Hannah Adams, Dylan White and Nikita Jones danced a lively hoedown, to the music of Aaron Copland.
The audience was delighted as Jones reappeared later in the program as a singing "Maggie" from a painting by Harvey Dinnerstein, which hangs in the art museum.
Soller herself became "Whistler's Mother" as she sang "My Favorite Things" with a new twist on the lyrics, and lots of giggles from the audience.
The evening was a showcase for talent and creativity. Tony Romeo wowed the crowd as he danced to "Singin' in the Rain," in "Portrait of Edouard Monet" by Latour. Eric and James McClellan brought lots of laughs as "The Stryker Sisters," clothed in white lacy dresses, singing "Sisters."
Eric McClellan also appeared as Adam, with Janeen Williams as Eve, in a painting called "Adam Tempted by Eve," wearing boards that reproduced the painting, with holes cut for their heads and arms, as they depicted the naked couple. Eric, by the way, dropped his fig leaf as they sang, "People Will Say We're in Love."
TV personalities
Some local television personalities got in the act as well. WKBN Channel 27's Jennifer Brindisi and WFMJ Channel 21's Susan DeLeo joined Lynn Kirkwood in a delightful song and dance to Millet's "The Gleaners."
Sowing and reaping was a favorite subject of the artist, and the trio sang "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)" to bring the painting to life.
Then there were the male TV counterparts -- Bob Black, Glenn Stevens, and Mark Koontz, all of WFMJ, with Lee B. Jolly of WKBN -- who gave a humorous rendition of Rockwell's "Batter Up" singing "Take Me Out to The Ball Game."
The show ended as the cast invited the audience on stage, singing, "There's No Business Like Show Business."
The performance was preceded by several auctions, food and a lively social hour, all to benefit The Playhouse, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary.