B Street Theatre opened its latest mainstage production Sunday night. “Circle Mirror Transformation” is a quirky one-act play by Annie Baker, a fast-rising star in American theater. Once the audience got used to the fractured structure and started to know the characters, they started laughing — a lot.

Baker is young (29), award-winning, talented and funny. “Circle Mirror Transformation” amazingly  tied with another Baker-penned play, “The Aliens,” for a 2010 Obie award.

The plot is straightforward. James, the director of a small New England town community center, is very excited that the center is offering a six-week creative drama class as one of summer programs. James’ wife, Marty, who has a background in theater, is running the class.

The class is made up of James; Theresa, who is newly arrived in town; Schultz, a longtime resident newly separated from his wife and living on his own; and Lauren, a 16-year-old who wants the lead in “West Side Story” when she returns to school in the fall.

Much of the humor is ironic, a difficult humor to succeed at. Often the humor is also in what is not said, the periods of silence. Some of the humor comes from recognition, the “oh, I see — that’s very funny” moments.

The acting exercises Marty takes the class through are easily recognizable to anyone who has experienced an acting class. While the exercises are designed to expose and open up the class members to the creative process, they also enlighten the members about their own emotional inner-selves and expose those emotions to the others.

A lot of the success of the production is due to the excellent cast and the direction from Buck Busfield.

James is played by Phil Cowan, a longtime Sacramento radio personality and Discovery Channel host who took up acting at B Street Theater, where he has proved to be an excellent actor. He was last seen in the most recent B3 production, “Shining City,” as the first patient of a priest-turned-therapist. His James is a little more restrained than his “Shining City” character but fits the character well. James makes some discoveries about himself that greatly impact his and Marty’s lives.

B Street Theatre company member and popular actress Elisabeth Nunziato plays Marty. Nunziato most recently directed “Shining City” and appeared as the lead character in “Well,” also a B3 production. She is great at portraying Marty, who labors at keeping everything in her class and herself together, and working as her students lives as well as her's and James’ begin to fall apart.

Bay Area actress Lyndsy Kail portrays Theresa. Kail appeared in this season’s opener at the Sacramento Theatre Company, “The Importance of Being Earnest.” She followed that playing the scary-crazy Doris in “The Owl and the Pussycat,” also at STC. Kail is well cast as the conflicted but flirty Theresa. Her Theresa goes through a very believable process away from self-delusion to self-discovery. Maybe Theresa's last relationship and career weren’t all she thought they were. 

David Pierini opened this B Street mainstage season in the hysterical two actor-multiple character “Love Child.” He also appeared as the put-up-on teacher in “Junie B. Jones in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells” and as a bumbling troublemaker in the last Family Series show, “The Young Abe Lincoln.” It is great to watch Pierini as his character, Schultz, grows in confidence and opens up.

Debuting on the B Street stage is B Street Theatre acting intern Cynthia Zitter, who was extensively profiled in a recent SacPress article by Barry Wisdom. The 24-year-old Zitter is wonderful in the role of 16-year-old Lauren. Zitter does a great job of keep up with the veteran actors who surround her.  

Cynthia Zitter as Lauren (Image by: Barry Wisdom )

Catherine Frye’s set conveys the feeling of a community center room being used for acting classes well.

Ron Madonia’s lighting is a crucial element with the structure of the play. Much of the play is fragmented with a sketch comedy feel, which is punctuated with blackouts and silence.

As Busfield acknowledges in his director’s notes, this is not the uproariously funny show that B Street’s season hit “39 Steps” is. Nonetheless, the opening night audience for “Circle Mirror Transformation” was greatly amused and laughed throughout the show. They also saw touching lives of characters who were vividly brought to life by a talented cast. 

“Circle Mirror Transformation”
B Street Theatre Mainstaige
Through April 10, 2011
Information & Tickets