MURDER BLOOD BEAR STORY

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Katelyn Schiller is a very interesting actress.  Very.  

 Her credits are substantial and her idea of a good time is to bring her Murder Blood Bear Story to the Hollywood Fringe Festival.  She’s in that tiny little Elephant studio at the Theatre Asylum at Lillian Way and Santa Monica Boulevard for only a couple of more performances. 

If she takes my suggestion, she’ll have a more appreciative audience and maybe have even more ‘happiness’ for the effort.  Schiller enters as the forty seat house fills up.  By this time, I’m guessing that not only is she getting a few more friends than the ones who loyally show up for the opening, but folks who have just heard that this story (goosed along nicely by a wonderful graphic by the ‘blonde’ in a submissive pose with the image of great brown bear right behind her) and are as curious as I was.  She enters with a rag tag suitcase and a few props including a tiny little bird on a string on a stick that she flits about the theatre with. She lands the bird on the shoulder of the lady in front of me.  Schiller’s eyes are wonderful pools of questions and possibly elusive answers.  After flirting with the little bird on the string, she comes nose to nose with me!  Undeniably beautiful, I think I may be kissed, but like a bunny in the woods, she turns and scampers to the stage zip zap. 

She speaks in the language of the twenty-somethings of the 21^st Century.  Sometimes incomprehensible (except to the millenials in the audience) and sometimes crystal clear.  She is full of energy and wants to be happy.  She tells stories and creates dialogue with other characters whom she also becomes. I was never too sure who was who but the energy is palpable and her quest, her never ending quest for joy and happiness is ongoing and going and going.  She sings. She dances. She is menaced by the bear.  I am unsure of the blood and the murder, but there is the feeling of the bear, for sure.  The audience loves her.   She is lovely.  I’m unsure of the platinum blonde approach and wonder if that was significant in some way?

The problem.  Sight lines.  Even in this tiny black box, Schiller lays her suitcase and her props on the floor.  If only she had a prop table that would allow us to easily see the props that are significant to her story.   A table would give her not only a place easily seen, but also another set piece that she might use for telling the story.  Perhaps it is her intention to keep part of the audience craning our necks to see the props and even her when she’s doing some  scenes literally on the floor.  I wanted to see everything.  Katelyn Schiller had moments of perfection preceded by and followed by moments of just okay.  She wrote this by herself and it’s all her own story.  Director Payden Ackerman must have made suggestions, but the flow of Murder Blood Bear Story seems to emanate from the heart and soul of this young actor.  Down the road, if she keeps the blonde, she may become Goldie Hawn or… Kate Hudson?  Or, even better, she’ll emerge as Katelyn Schiller and those of us who saw her quest for happiness will be able to say, “Oh.. I saw her when…”

Murder Blood Bear Story

Written and Performed by Katelyn Schiller

Theatre Asylum Elephant Studio

1078 Lillian Way

Hollywood, CA 90038

Only two more performances:

Monday June 22  @ 5:30PM

Thursday June 25 @ 10: 00PM

Tickets and Information:

http:/hff15.org/2122