This week in Dayton arts: ‘A Steady Rain’ at the convention center and Edward A. Dixon Gallery’s ‘We’re Doing it ALL Wrong’

Two Chicago police officers have their lifelong friendship tested with harrowing results in Keith Huff’s gripping 2007 two-hander “A Steady Rain,” presented with terrific intimacy by Gem City Groundlings at the Dayton Convention Center.

Fluidly directed by Adrian Hawk-Smith in a breezy 90 minutes, Huff’s play concerns volatile family man Denny (Andrew Mitakides) and thoughtful bachelor Joey (Ryan Hester), flawed authoritarians bonded by their loyalty, moral dilemmas and casual racism. Situations swell when a domestic disturbance results in the death of a Vietnamese boy, leading to consequences exposing the complexity of both men.

Credit: Tris Greys Photos

Credit: Tris Greys Photos

Huff, who co-produced ABC’s Emmy-nominated drama “American Crime” and AMC’s Emmy-winning drama “Mad Men,” creates an episodic script leaning heavily on describing events, which becomes dramatically stagnant. However, Mitakides and Hester’s wonderfully compatible brotherhood and vigorous interplay keeps the monologue-heavy dialogue from losing steam, especially in transitional moments effectively accented by lighting design courtesy of BLC Entertainment.

As hotheaded, “tolerate my intolerance” Denny, Mitakides finds excellent color and nuance within the script while communicating with great physicality. Hester brings mild-mannered sensitivity and shades of sibling affection to his portrayal of Joey, a recovering alcoholic who falls in love with Denny’s wife.

“A Steady Rain” is an intense experience with the power to stir conversation long after the final bows.

‘We’re Doing it ALL Wrong’ tackles variety of social topics

The Edward A. Dixon Gallery’s fifth annual “We’re Doing it ALL Wrong” exhibition concludes Sept. 30.

Ed Dixon, owner and curator of the downtown Dayton gallery, said in a press release that the juried exhibit’s initiative is to highlight topics large and small that “have persisted in cultures, institutions, organizations, religion and governments for far too long.”

He also hopes the exhibit, featuring artists from across the United States, will “create conversations that lead to new or better ways to tackle old problems.”

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Among the topics spotlighted are women’s rights, environmental issues, homelessness, the high cost of prescription drugs, Native American women disappearances and more.

“This is the fifth year for the exhibition and the artwork continues to cover a range of topics which don’t receive the needed national or local attention,” Dixon said.

Yellow Springs Film Fest announces Julia Reichert Award recipient

Credit: Nana Kwadwo Agyei Addo

Credit: Nana Kwadwo Agyei Addo

Reichert died Dec. 1, 2022 at age 76 having battled a rare form of terminal cancer for four and a half years. For 50 years, along with longtime collaborators Steven Bognar and Jim Klein, she illuminated humanity, particularly America’s working-class, across compelling themes of feminism, family, politics and economics. She was also a Wright State University professor of film production for 28 years.

A longtime resident of Yellow Springs, Reichert received her first Academy Award nomination in 1977 with Klein and Miles Mogulescu for “Union Maids.” She was nominated again with Klein in 1984 for “Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists.” Partnering with Bognar, Reichert’s husband, she received an Academy Award nomination in 2010 for “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.”

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

She ultimately won the Oscar in 2020 with Bognar for “American Factory.” She also shared two Emmys with Bognar for “A Lion in the House” (2006) and “American Factory,” which focused on the Chinese-owned Fuyao Glass America windshield plant that opened in the former General Motors factory in Moraine.

Wright State opens season with Ken Ludwig’s whodunit ‘The Game’s Afoot’

Ken Ludwig’s 2012 drawing room mystery, “The Game’s Afoot,” opens Wright State University’s 2025-26 season Sept. 26.

“When one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turns dangerous,” according to press notes. “This play contains breathtaking mystery and high hilarity in equal parts. This one is sure to appeal to your inner Sherlock Holmes.”

The production is directed by Josh Aaron McCabe, who staged last season’s outstanding production of “Much Ado About Nothing.”

“This play is an excellent training playground for clever comedic storytelling,” said McCabe, assistant professor and head of the BFA Acting Program, in a press statement. “The majority of the characters in our story are stage actors themselves — at a time when such people seemed larger than life. The students are exploring what it is to embody these actors of a different generation. There is physical comedy along with fight and weapons training, and also the need to create honest characters who believably live in these extraordinary, and often silly, circumstances. We want to serve a full course meal for the audience: along with the comedy, there is a mystery to be solved!”