PH OTOS BY DANIEL LI PPITT
eIN Entertainment
TRAPPED
DUBBER
IN THE
, j ric the librarian isn't real-
ly a librarian; he just
thinks he is. Basically, he
spends his day ignoring
people who need to check out books
and makes Xeroxes of his face on
the copy machine. His parole offi-
cer got him the job.
As pathetically true-to-life as that
sounds, it's fiction. Eric is the cre-
ation of Timothy Campos, the ac-
tor/writer whose one-man show
Trapped In the Rubber Room runs
through this weekend at the The-
ater Guild in Redford . The work
is a compilation of monologues by
off-the-wall characters like Eric,
Campos says, whose foibles reflect
the oddities deep (or, in some cas-
es, not so deep) within all of us.
"(They're the kind of people
you'd meet) hanging out at Mei-
jer's at 2 a.m.," Campos says of his
multiple stage personalities. He
introduces 13 of them during the
course of the evening, including
Larry, the companion-starved
neighbor who "catches you in front
of the house and never lets you go,"
Fl
and the "home boy" who raps about
a bad haircut he got.
Then there's the twisted take on
Poe's "Tell Tale Heart" — "I really
can't talk about that," Campos apol-
ogizes. "It's sort of a surprise."
A Wayne State University stu-
dent and Dearborn resident, Cam-
pos began writing the show a couple
years back, presenting bits of the
monologues at Livonia's Trinity
House Theatre on open-mike night.
The venue agreed to rent him the
space for his first evening-length
performance in September 1994;
three of four shows sold out. Since
then, Rubber Room has played
again at Trinity House and at
Genitti's in Northville — a pretty
impressive debut for any writer, let
alone one who's 24 years old.
Campos' acting career includes
numerous appearances with the Vil-
lage Players at Greenfield Village
(he had the lead in last season's The
First Year) and in Genitti's dinner-
theater productions. Upon gradua-
tion in a couple years, he plans to
try his fate in New York City. But
until then, he's plugging away on
another one-man show. This one
will have a stronger narrative line,
as in "one theme all the way
through," he says.
"It's so hard to keep focused on
one thing," says Campos, who con-
tinues to reinvent Rubber Room for
each new production (this run will
feature characters not in the previ-
ous shows). "The nice thing about
this show," he adds, "is the growing
process. It's nice to have the free-
dom to keep it fresh."
—Liz Stevens
13 Timothy Campos' Trapped In
the Rubber Room runs 8 p.m. Fri-
day-Saturday, March 1-2, and 7:30
p.m. Sunday, March 3, at the The-
ater Guild, 15138 Beech Daly (east
side of Beech Daly, just south of
Five Mile Road, across from Red-
ford Township Hall). Tickets are
$8. Call (810) 380-3217.
Timothy Campos is a one-man
comedy show with.multiple
personalities.
ns on the
ary:
Woman's Reader
omen writers perform.
theirWorkS in:honior
of Women'-s History Month
at Border.Books and Music,-
Novi. (810) 347-0780:
Purimshpiel
The American-Russian
Theatre presents a
PuppetArt show at
Temple Shir Shalom
in West Bloomfield.
(810) 737-8700.
Mon., I p.m.
Dreaming With
Your Eyes Open
Re
Chili Peppers
Expldre the psychological
aspects of the Barbra
Streisand film The
Prince of Tides with Dr.
Bernard Green. Film
and discussion. Borders
Books and Music, Novi.
(810) 347-0780.
Having rescheduled; its
original Nov. 25 date,
the band hits the Palace
for a Isetter-lath-than-never
performance. Tickets are
$22.50. (810) 645-6666.
Thurs., 7 p.m.