APRIL 1996 ----------------------------In this issue------------------------------------------ Rubin's Corner: Off-Broadway to Broadway Voices in Contemporary Theatre: A Conversation with Gilbert Amyot, Fringe Festivals CyberTheatre Monthly: A New Take on Theatre Websites (from the Orlando Fringe) TRE Trivia, Forum Insider's Tips, Gossip du jour ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rubin's Corner by Robert Rubin From Broadway to Off-Broadway... The Tony contest for the Best Musical is shaping up as the hottest race of the year. The field is a far cry from last year when Sunset Boulevard ran as a shoo-in. If the current schedules holds, six new musicals will have opened on Broadway by May 1, the Tony deadline. These musicals include: Swinging on a Star, Victor/Victoria, State Fair, Bring in Da Noise, Bring in the Funk, Rent, and Big. What distinguishes these contestants is that they represent a variety shows from old Broadway to new intentionally eye-filling to purposefully modest. The two that started as Off Broadway hits, Noise Funk and Rent jazz up the contest. The first question will be which show gets left out. There are only four best-musical nomination slots. I have made my choice as to which will be the top show. Rent, burst on the scene seemingly out of nowhere. It contains pulsing musical with the beat and cadences of Greenwick Village. It was produced by the New York Theater Workshop. This acclaimed rock musical was inspired by Puccini's "La Boheme" and is going Broadway where it will open in time for a Tony nomination. Its reception has been made poignant by the fact that its creator, Jonathan Larson, died just before the opening, at the age of 35. The creation of Rent is a classic theatrical tale of grit, ambition and, finally applause Mr. Larson begin writing the show seven year ago. He had just had his rock musical Superhurt produced by the Playwrights Horizon. Although his work won praise, no producer was ready to take it to the New York stage. Mr Larson enjoyed spending his limited funds on standing room at the Metropolitan Opera. It was here that he got the idea of a the contemporary American musical version of Boheme. He desired to tell the story of the East Village were there was poverty, homelessness, spunky gay life, drag queens and punk, existing in the same building. It took seven years of work before the 150 seat East Village theater agreed to produce the musical. The Nederlander organization budgeted 2 million dollars for this show which cost $240,000 to produce Off-Broadway. On January 25, 1996, Michael was found by his roommate Brian Carmody. He had died of an aortic aneurysm just as Rent was to begin previews. When the show opened the New York critics hail Rent as the 90's version of the landmark musical, Hair. The young cast was determined to make this show a Broadway success. Anthony Rapp portrays Mark Cohn, the video artist, who is modeled after Marcello in La Boheme. Dapne Rubin-Vega play Mini Marquez, the doomed drug user, who is modeled after Mini. Adam Pascal plays the role of Roder Davis who is modeled after the songwriter Rodalfo in La Boheme. Jesse L. Martin plays Tom Collins, a computer-age philosopher, who was known as Colline in the opera. Fredi Walker will play the role of Joanne Jefferson in the Broadway production of Rent. Her role was based on Maureen lover in the original opera. Idina Menzel will play the role of Maureen Johnson which is modeled after the artist Musetta. Wilson Jermaine Heredia will play Angel Schunard, the transvestite sculptor. Taye Diggs will create the import role of Benjamin Coffin 3rd ,the East Village landlord. Rent is will begin playing previews at the Nederlander Theatre at 208 West 41st Street in New York City. It will open on April 30th. You may order tickets by calling (800) 755-4000. If you are in New York call (212) 307-4100. The show is directed by Michael Greif. If it took you years to catch up with the musical Hair, you want to order tickets for Rent now. When the Tony Award are opened those who knew Jonathan Larson will realize that a living memorial to him has been created on Broadway. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Voices in Contemporary Theatre Emerging New Voices: A Conversation with Gilbert Amyot Thayendanegea, the hero of Gilbert Amyot's remarkable new play The Joseph Brant Triptych, did, as his Mohawk name, implies: walk on both sides of life's path. The play's creator is no less complicated. "Gilbert can be an intimidating character,' remarks Amyot's producer, "he can jump from a casual reference to his days at Catholic University with Phil Bosco and Jon Voigt to quoting Jacques Maritain" (the French philosopher who wrote extensively on the arts) - "at least he doesn't do the quoting in French!" she laughs. Indeed, Mr. Amyot, despite being born in Manchester New Hampshire and schooling in Massachusetts, spoke French before he learned English, spent two years of World War II in Paris translating for American GIs who'd gotten in trouble with the French authorities, and remains fluent in both languages today (although he's added a smattering of Latin and Italian to his repertoire). He includes a scene in the triptych where a Huron Indian brought before an English court during the Revolution gives his evidence in French which is translated by a French officer. Amyot's infatuation with the theatre began almost as early as his French. "I read Shakespeare and Moliere before entering prep school" he relates, "along with the Indian stories of Joseph Altschuller..." Then came "a bit of acting" - in both French and English in Prep School and college. The highlight? Amyot smiles: "Playing the role of Iago." Then came Catholic University in 1955- "These were the halcyon years with Phil Bosco, Larry Luckinbilll Jon Voigt, Henry Gibson (nee, James Bateman,), Marty Crowley, - many others whom I have probably omitted." -And touring with the National Players "over 100 productions of Romeo and Juliet and Taming of the Shrew in 36 states and 4 foreign countries - never did finish the MFA - Summers at the Olney Theatre in Maryland" After his military service, discovering that New York was a ghost town, Live TV finished, and everyone moved to Hollywood, Gilbert began teaching (French & Drama) while entering Georgetown Law Center and becoming a lawyer in 1965. The next decades brought a lengthy and distinguished career that spanned The Department of the Treasury, Civil Aeronautics Board, Western Air Lines, a big Cleveland law firm, a small partnership of his own and a battle with prostate cancer. It was then that Amyot caught the writing bug and the result was mined The Year Of The Bloody Sevens, a screenplay that distinguished itself at the 1994 Nichols competition of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and constituted the "mother lode" that yielded the screen and stage versions of Joseph Thayendanegea Brant's story. Both scripts were workshopped extensively in Cyberspace, in an online collective of writers called the Writers Ink Roundtable on a small computer service. "Members upload their plays to a private library," explains our own Marie Mersinger, who had organized and moderated the playwrights workshop on Writers Ink, "with the understanding that in order to be reviewed they have to read and review other people's work. It was a wonderful system for word-smiths like Gilbert because the plays, at this stage, are read, not performed. It allows the criticism to focus on structure and language. And of course it doesn't limit (the writer) to people in his or her neighborhood, you're given feedback from writers of many different backgrounds, sometimes from different genres, and thinking of many different types of theatres." "This workshop is where I learned the technical aspects of writing for the stage and screen," remembers Amyot. Quite by accident, and again through the online workshop, Amyot learned of the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Ten Minute Play contest. Studying his latest draft for a scene that could be extracted - he discovered it in the middle of Act II. Some narration had to be deleted of course, ten-minute plays must be tight and stand-alone. "The exercise forced me to focus on the division and organization of the play - I ended up with two playable one-acts, then everything fell into place." "People often ask me whether it (The Spokesman/Triptych) is fact, fiction or a bit of both." Says Amyot, returning easily from the subject of his own life back to Brant's, "The answer is none of the above. It is pure drama composed of carefully selected facts. Thayendanegea was a legend in his own time; historians find it hard to distinguish between the historical facts and folklore. My approach was unabashedly pragmatic: given the choice between two or more opposing views, I picked the one that made the best theatre. " ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CyberTheatre Monthly: O N T H E F R I N G E S . . . True Fringe Festivals began like various ground-breaking visual-arts movements: the cutting-edge troupes not accepted for a major arts festival got together and decided to perform anyway - in rented store-fronts, improvised open-air venues in nearby parks, etc. Attendees and participants in the festival-proper were intrigued with their creativity and pluck, and impressed by the caliber of material offered. Non-mainstream theatre does, afterall, frequently provide the chief entertainment for those working in mainstream entertainment, and the audiences and performers in town for the large festival were enchanted and a tradition was born. That first generation of Fringe Festivals are generally considered more important events than the "grownup" festivals that spawned them. The Edinburgh Fringe, just as a random example, spawned Tom Stoppard, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, Dudley Moore, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Donald Pleasance, and (brace yourselves) Emma Thomson - not in a single year, of course. The entertainment at a Fringe runs the gambit from the fresh, insightful and daring, to the downright weird; from topical material that will staledate by the weekend to tomorrow's hottest alternative acts. Conventional plays that need a little tightening stand beside bawdy audience participation and "Huh, what was THAT?" But then the selection should be pretty wide considering: The Orlando Fringe features 52 different indoor shows, 10 outdoor stage shows, 5 Kids Fringe offerings and more than 40 groups on the chief sponsor's "Rave Stage" - all in all, over 500 performances in 10 days! Orlando's is one of the most successful of the second generation of Fringe Festivals, the events that did not evolve organically but were carefully engineered in the spirit of the originals. It now embarks on its 5th annual fringe-binge. The events organizers have assembled a full and diverse menu: the brilliant cabaret act of Cameron Silver, singing Berlin to Babylon: The Songs of Kurt Weill and Freidrich Hollaender is perhaps the most unique. Weill & Hollaender were Jews who barely escaped the rise of the Nazis in Berlin, but who's music was controvercial yet popular in Germany of the 1930s. Karen Stephen's one-woman Out of the Box, explores the life of a black woman raised in the south through music, dialogue, and dance. Ian MacDonald's one-man act brings engrossing storytelling from the Australian Outback; and of course there's Love, Art and Catfish - a Boston playwright/performers eccentric chatauqua on love, marriage, and the tragedy of catching a trout when you're fishing for catfish. From Canada (birthplace of Fringe festivals) comes The Crimson Yak -American Cola Company starts war between two smaller countries- and Ontario's dance/theatre/social satirist troupe Human Knots. The more imaginative local companies present an original musical score for Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, a search for eco-friendly undergarments in Shirley Confidential (think: Victoria's Secret in the PC Twilight Zone), and such commercial delights as the TheatreSports Improv Superbowl, an Improv Murder Mystery, and Ginger Grant standing trial for the death of the other castaways in Gilligan's Island Unplugged. With such a plethora of entertainment options, the Fringe might consider limiting the local participation next time round: JJ's (that's Jackie and Ellen Jones) "Cabaret de Fringe", a local jazz-singer who chases camp without ever quite catching it, is at least confined to a 1 a.m. timeslot where she may service the other performance-punchy Fringe artists after their shows. And the Jewish Community Center Players are hopelessly out of their depth with I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a compilation of poetry and other writing by children bound for Auschwitz. If this group wanted to observe Yom Hashoash (the Holocaust Memorial Day which coincides with the festival) some non-histrionic display would have been wiser. A New Take on Theatre Websites (from the Orlando Fringe) The Orlando Fringe Festival has put an interesting spin on the idea of an event or theatre-related website: the sprawling 6 venue 9 day event has is not really promoting itself with its webpage - no one outside Orlando ever finds its host server MagicNet, and the Artist schedules became public far too late for anyone to be of use to folks not already attending - Rather, the site is an attraction at the festival - 3 terminals sit displaying the history, schedule and maps across from the hospitality tent. It's a marvelous idea, and one can only wonder how much better it could be if more inter-active cyber-features were offered (say an MSN V-chatroom or a bulletinboard-like Guest Book!) So, the astute cyber-marketer begins to ponder - if Orlando Fringe can manage something like this in an outdoor venue (heck, in the middle of a streetparty outside a greek deli,) what might a grown-up theatre be able to offer in their lobby or patron-lounge? It's a fascinating concept, rich with possibilities. Web sites mentioned in this edition of CyberTheatre Monthly: Links http:www.fringe-festival.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRE Trivia * Who played the Eliza Dolittle in the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady? * The Boys from Syracuse is a musical adaptation of what Shakespearean play? * What historically based play has the longest title in Broadway history? (hint: it's 26 words) * What is the relationship, if any, between Peter Shaffer (author of Amadeus, Equus, Lettice & Lovage) and Anthony Shaffer (author of Sleuth) ? * What are the names of the two gangs in West Side Story? Answers to last month's trivia: The Tony Award was named for Antoinette Perry EDITOR'S NOTE: This year's Tony nominations will be announced May 6 and the awards are June 2. Both events will be celebrated online with special forum activities. STAY TUNED. In Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, Act I George is George Seurat, a painter who's style is called Pointilism. Act II George makes Chromalooms, which George describes as sculpture. Asparagus, nicknamed Gus, is the theatrecat in Cats. Neil Simon's first Broadway play was Come Blow Your Horn. In Peter Pan, fairy dust and happy thoughts were necessary for a person to fly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forum Insider Tips: * Orlando's International Fringe Festival is one of the largest in North America. It will be the feature of a number of online chats the week of April 15. Be sure to drop into the Chat Center and see what's happening. * With the advent of the New THEATRE CHAT CENTER old shortcuts to Forum chatrooms on your desktop or favorite places may not be working. Delete them and create ones. Or use the goword: TheatreChat * Remember: most bulletin boards are best viewed by SUBJECT * Remember: on most bulletin boards, you must choose Show All Messages from the View menu or you'll only be shown threads with new messages. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gossip du jour... Toronto is busy churning out a fascinating variety of productions that could be Broadway-bound: some seem likely to make a great sensation: such as acclaimed stage & screen veteran Christopher Plummer playing John Barrymore in a new play at the Stratford Festival (expected on Broadway next winter), others make one wonder: Jane Eyre, the musical? Well, it sounds more plausible directed by John Caird (Les Miserables, Nicholas Nichleby) than otherwise. Len Cariou, of Sweeney Todd fame, will be starring as Hemmingway Off-Broadway this Spring. Andre Braugher (of NBC's Homicide) will be Henry V in this summer's Shakespeare in the Park, June 18 to July 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1996, Mersinger Theatrical Services