DECEMBER 2000

----------------------------In this issue------------------------------------------

CyberTheatre Monthly : Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope embrace's One-Acts, Webman's Theatre-Storie of 2000 (with links), Broadway Theatre Search Engine 

Enter Laughing:  Caprice and Rebecca have taken a month off from The Play's the Thing to bring you a holiday special 

Voices in Contemporary Theatre:  Willis White celebrates the holidays at Trinity Rep, From the Mailbag:  Theatre Startup Wisdom from MusicMaker's Digest, Manhattan Theatre Club's New Musical and Atlantic Theatre Company's Force Continuum  

Letter from London :  RSC's This England, and The Secret Garden 

Techie's Corner:  Michael Powers continues his series on Platforms  

Rubin's Corner:  Robert Rubin looks at Two Opposite Musicals:  Seussical and Jane Eyre, Coming Soon:  Blast! 

Life in the Theatre:  Re(in)jecting A Little Humor - Mary Lathrop wonders what might happen if someone actually sent the Enter Laughing Rejection Letter  

The Play's the Thing:  Ireland's Playwrights

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 CyberTheatre Monthly Zoetrope One-Act Issue

http://www.zoetrope-stories.com/



Francis Ford Coppola's online virtual studio may be structured to develop movie-scripts but readers of the site's companion publications American Zoetrope and the online Zoetrope-All Story Extra were pleasantly surprised this month to discover it is an issue dedicated to the theatre and one-act plays.  The current issue is a delightful exploration of essays by Edward Albee, David Ives, William Dafoe, and others - including Coppola himself.  

Coppola also staged a tie-in reading of one-acts and essay by these towering figures at LA's Falcon Theatre earlier this month.



2000 A rundown



Here's a rundown of some of the major theatre stories of the year 



AIDA. The new American musical opened at the Palace Theatre, where it won 4 Tony Awards, including Best Score for Elton John and Tim Rice, and consolidated Disney's presence on Broadway with three hit musicals. In addition, "The Lion King" opened a production in Los Angeles and "Beauty and the Beast" continues as a mainstay on the road.



AMERICAN AIRLINES THEATRE. The Roundabout Theatre Company opened a jewel of a renovated theatre with two hit productions, Hart and Kaufman's "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and Harold Pinter's "Betrayal." As Broadway's most prolific producer, Roundabout's moving to 42nd Street relocates the heart of Broadway, which will be further reinforced by a new production of the musical"42nd Street,"at the Ford's Center on 42nd Street opening in April, 2001.



COPENHAGEN swept the awards and proved that challenging plays could be enjoyed by critics and audiences alike. Michael Frayn's play was joined by an eclectic group of American plays on Broadway which all enjoyed success, ranging from "The Allergist's Wife," "The Dinner Party," "Dirty Blonde"and "Proof."



MAMMA MIA! is a record-breaking success in Toronto and on National Tour. This popular West End import is unique in that it is not only touring before coming to Broadway, but it is also the only London musical to come over to the US this year. Next season, it is also the only British musical with a scheduled New York opening, when it will take up residence in October at the Winter Garden Theatre, home to "Cats" for the past two decades.



MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB, in the middle of a highly successful season celebrating three Broadway transfers ("The Allergist's Wife," "Proof" and "A Class Act")

announced that the organization will be taking up residence on Broadway full-time at the Biltmore Theatre. MTC joins Roundabout, Lincoln Center Theater and the National Actors Theater as a not-for-profit producer on the Great White Way.



STONES IN HIS POCKETS, the winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, is, so far, the only West End play announced for a transfer to Broadway

this season - and it's actually from Ireland! Written by Marie Jones and starring Sean Campion and Conleth Hill, the play opens at the John Golden on April 1, 2001, following a run in Toronto.



TANTALUS drew critics and audiences from around the world to Denver to see Peter Hall's 13 hour epic. Meeting with critical approval and popular support, the co-production of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and the Royal Shakespeare Company is now going on a British tour leading to a run at the Barbican in London in May, 2001. "Tantalus," a crowning achievement of our finest classical director, also pointed out the wide-ranging presence of the RSC internationally.



TRUE WEST. The notable revival of Sam Shepard's best-known work, not only proved that the Circle-in-the-Square venue could be a commercially viable

theater, but also consolidated Matthew Warchus' reputation as a world-class director, who will be represented on Broadway next season by the Roundabout's production of "Follies."



Website addresses:

AIDA www.DisneyOnBroadway.com

Beauty and the Beast www.DisneyOnBroadway.com

Copenhagen www.CopenhagenBroadway.com

The Lion King www.DisneyOnBroadway.com

Mamma Mia! www.mamma-mia.com

Manhattan Theatre Club www.mtc-nyc.org

Tantalus www.denvercenter.org/tantalus/

Roundabout Theatre Company www.roundabouttheatre.org

Royal Shakespeare Company www.rsc.org.uk



Broadway Theatre Search Engine

http://www.reverse-lookup.com/broadway_theater_search_engines.htm



The unlikely domain reverse-lookup.com has plugged itself into a variety of theatre-related websites and packaged the result in a single webpage of searches.   

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Enter Laughing 

Every year at this time churches are overflowing with the joy, delight, and pain in the ass of what is affectionately known as the Christmas pageant. We have all been there, or at least have heard the horror stories. So, here it is, our tribute to Christmas pageants everywhere... 



Twas the Night Before Christmas

or

A Director's Nightmare 



Loosely based on Clement Clarke Moore's timeless poem, with our apologies to Mr. Moore 



 By Caprice Woosley and Rebecca Johannsen 



  



Twas the night before Christmas, the pageant was on.

All those cute, scrubbed cherub faces ready for song.

Baby Jesus was safely tucked in the manger,

As I, the director, looked for potential danger. 



Did all of the angels have on their wings?

Were the shepherds getting into all kinds of things?

Would Herod finally remember his cue

When his speech about Baby Jesus came due?   



Would Joseph finally get over the pain

Of holding Mary's hand again and again? 

And the wise men in their sheets and I ill with fright,    

Had just settled down for the long winter's night.   



When out in the audience there arose such a clatter.

I sprang from my post to see what was the matter. 

Away to the voms I flew with a hunch, 

And yes, baby Jesus had thrown up his lunch.   



The angels were gagging, all in a row,

They ran all around with no place to go. 

Mary nearly fainted from the awful sight; 

Oh my god, this is going to be a hell of a night! 



But finally we got the angels calmed down;

They got back to their places and straightened their gowns. 

The curtain went up and sighs were heard, 

But then the Angels of God couldn't utter a word. 



But I with the prompt book was there just in time 

Before the poor child had to call out "Line!" 

I whispered to Billy, who whispered to Nate 

"Tell him fear not before it's too late" 



So Tommy repeated every single word: 

"Fear not before it's too late" was all that was heard. 

Laughter exploded all through the hall 

As the hand-painted set teetered and began to fall. 



"Now Mary! Now Billy! Now Nathan! Now Sue! 

That is not what you are supposed to do! 

To the top of the platform to the top of the set 

We can make it through this show yet!" 



And then in a twinkling I heard on the stage 

The prancing and pawing of wise men in a rage. 

As a threw up my hands, and was turning around, 

Down from the flies came such a horrifying sound. 



"Get me out of here!" He said with a cry,

As the Angel of the Lord fell from the sky. 

He was chubby and plump, a right unjolly elf, 

And I couldn't help laugh in spite of myself. 



He spoke not a word, but went straight to his mom, 

And I cowered and giggled at the side of the vom.

But a wink of her eye and a twist of her head 

Soon gave me to know I had a lot to dread. 



So this is the last time I'll direct a kid's play.

The parents chase me still to this day. 

You'll hear me say as I run out of sight: 

"Merry Christmas to all! But they'll never get it right!"



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Voices in Contemporary Theatre 







Holiday Hearts Will Be All Aglow

At Trinity Rep's 24th Annual Production Of A Christmas Carol



Adapted by Adrian Hall and Richard Cumming, A Christmas Carol, by Charles 

Dickens, once again spreads its holiday magic throughout Southern New England!



Recreated and reinvented each year, in the spirit of the season, and 

captivating everyone from the young to the young at heart, this annual 

production is estimated to be viewed by more than 55,000 "children of all 

ages!"



Director Kevin Moriarty, who is making his debut as a director at Trinity, 

has assembled two complete casts for this seasonal event. The one this 

reviewer saw featured long time Trinity favorite Timothy Crowe as Scrooge -- 

and an excellent portrayal it was! As always Crowe conveyed just the right 

actions and reactions -- only allowing himself to be upstaged by the 

incorrigible Janice Duclos in multiple roles! Seems like every time I see Ms. 

Duclos (who, by the way, has carved out an excellent career for herself as a 

member of this prestigious Theatre company) she displays more and more of her 

comedic talents. This performance was no exception!



Tiny Tim, the Cratchit family, the Fezziwhigs, Christmas ghosts and "Turkey 

Boy" (I kid you not that's how Collin McCarron a local elementary school 

student, is listed in the program) did their thing in an exuberant setting 

full of high flying bodies, beds, ghosts and assorted other holiday props! 

There was just the appropriate amount of singing and dancing with 

choreography by New York-based Denny Berry, and musical direction by 

associate artistic director Amanda Dehnert; why the special effect used for 

closing the show even got a round of applause! 



The cast which includes Conservatory students, local actors and a terrific 

lineup of kids from RI and MA, makes A Christmas Carol at Trinity Rep an 

affair to remember. Set in the round, and featuring an extraordinary 

collaboration between director Kevin Moriarty and Trinity Rep 

designers: Michael McGarty (set), William Lane(costumes), and Jeff Croiter 

(lights), this year's classic production showcases (what could be considered) 

an environmental set depicting 19th century industrial England. This set is 

complete with a working factory and a remarkably authentic coal ''burning'' 

furnace. 



Moriarty describes A Christmas Carol as a "ghost story," and explains that 

while this year's production is sometimes scarier than past ones, it bursts 

with a tremendous amount of joy and humor, festivity and tradition. Moriarty 

draws parallels between Scrooge's journey and ultimate redemption and the 

tearing down of oppression. "Scrooge's transformation is not guaranteed. It 

is only through the persistence of family, friends and society that it can be 

made possible. In essence, it takes a miracle" says Moriarty. 



Award winning Director, writer and actress, Willis-Whyte has performed Off-Broadway, in films and, on television. Named to Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities and Who's Who in American Advertising, Willis has published two books of poetry and is also the author of three one-act plays based on the lives of Susan B. Anthony, Clara Harlowe Barton and Anne Frances Kelly; a member of an all girl Confederate cavalry unit. Her latest book, Images of Nineteenth Century American Women, which integrates staged readings of historical biographies, original poetry, and art, is scheduled for publication later this year. A past member of AFTRA, Actor's Equity, and SAG, Willis (who is) a native New Yorker, now makes Providence RI her home. 



From the Mailbag:  Theatre Startup Wisdom from MusicMakers Digest

Thought many of you would find this answer to Clint's "what to do with this 

money for a theatre" problem interesting. The author is also an accomplished 

and award-winning playwright, composer, television writer, director, and 

thinker about theatre, and the source of one of my favorite quotes: "The 

only theatre worth doing is community theatre...making theatre as vital and 

as necessary a community service as the fire department."



<<My buddy Patti McKenny forwarded to me your plea for help. She thinks I 

might have some advice for you, as I'm now into my fourth year as Executive 

Director of the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury, Vermont. My advice is 

simple: TAKE THE MONEY! TAKE THE MONEY! TAKE THE MONEY! 



Give me a moment to collect myself...



We have an old theater that basically needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, 

and we're creating just what you seem to have in mind: a community arts 

center/playhouse. The whole package will cost us about $2.5 million, but it 

also requires a huge investment of time. This has been my other full-time 

job for some time now (although I don't get a cent for it.) It's a constant 

round of speeches, teas, writing press releases, meeting with architects, 

courting local politicians, staging publicity stunts, gathering together all 

of the "stakeholders" in the project for consultation, producing plays and 

revues, writing thank you notes. The amount of paperwork is astonishing, the 

amount of patience needed almost off the chart.



I mention all of this because the creation of a real community center 

requires a lot more than just money. It requires, first of all, a community. 

Do you have one? It could be a geographical community (a neighborhood or 

town) or a community of people with similar interests, but it has to be a 

close community and an energetic one to be able to support a theater company 

over the long haul. So who will be your audience? Who will your theater 

speak to? In my case the fund-raising process is also a community-building 

process: if the people in my corner of Vermont come up with the dough, it 

will be proof positive that they care about the theater and will support it 

down the road. For me, it's a long and delicate process of 

community-building and consciousness-raising, and I figure I have about 3 

more years to go before we cut the ribbon and open the doors. 



You're in a position to by-pass some of the messy parts of fund-raising, but 

if there's no community that has "bought into" your project then there 

probably won't be a community that will keep it alive. Don't merely think 

about building a lovely theater space. Work very hard on the program for the 

space. Project its first three years of operation. Who is using it? Who is 

attending? How would you program it? Is there a resident company or 

companies? Could there be other business or social uses for the space? You 

might want to hook up with some existing producing orgs -- an itinerant 

theater that does good work, a dance company, etc. Perhaps your space will 

have a group of "resident companies" who will bring with them their own 

communities (and their own mailing lists.) You really can't design a new 

theater space until you have some idea of what's going to go into it. 

The point I'm so clumsily trying to make is that it ain't about the money and 

it ain't about the bricks. Yes, money is an absolutely essential leg on this 

tripod, and raising money is the one part of this process that everyone hates 

and fears. So if you can get around the money thing, at least initially, 

then jump at it. But you're still a long way from breaking ground. 



You have to create the Idea of a theater, and there's no shortcut. 



If I were you, I'd do the following, and in the following order:

-- Take the money. 

-- Engage a lawyer and an accountant. You will need both, and you will need 

them often. You're going to have to become a 501(c)3 non-profit corp, you're 

going to need by-laws and whatever else your state demands, you'll have to 

handle a real hunk of change. If you make the project sexy enough, you can 

get both the lawyer and the accountant to work for free. These guys expect 

to do pro bono work, and they'd rather work for you and get free tickets to 

performances and hang out with beautiful people than check in twice a month 

at the animal shelter.

-- Do NOT make public the amount of the grant. You want a host of other 

people to literally buy into this project. If somebody gave me $2.5 million 

tomorrow I'd let it be known that I got maybe a million, I'd lie and tell 

everyone it's a matching grant, I'd use it as leverage to get as much out of 

local corporations and individuals as I possibly could. Again, this is not 

only because I want the extra money (I do) but also because I want the 

community to feel as if it owns my theater. I want everybody to be 

shareholders in this business. And I want the entire community to feel a 

sense of triumph when we pull it off. 

-- Start looking for performance groups who need a home. Turn over every 

rock. Look for talent but also look for dedication. Look for groups that 

are professionally run, that have a track record and a following (i.e., that 

have identified and catered to their own communities.) As you conduct this 

search, you will become extremely popular. Companies will search you out. 

Pick the best groups to join you in your crusade and become resident 

companies. Pick as many as you think you can accommodate in your new space. 

MAKE THEM BUY IN, TOO. Again, not because you want their money and/or their 

money-raising potential (you do) but you want them to feel as if they own 

part of your theater, too. Then they'll be responsible, open their shows on 

time, clean the toilets if asked (and they will be asked) etc. They'll have 

the home they've always dreamed of, but in return they'll have to grow up.

-- Interview architects who have built theaters. Visit their spaces. Hire 

the one you fall in love with.

-- Seriously consider finding an old building to retrofit. This 

automatically makes you a Good Guy, a favorite of local politicians. If you 

rehab an historic old building you bring on board people who care about 

historical buildings, New Urbanists who care about preserving the 

infrastructure of our towns, etc. You'll get an amazing boost from a whole 

group of people who could care less about the arts. (My early grants came 

from the Lions Club and the local Rotary Club, basically because they love my 

old building, have great memories about it, and want to see it reborn. Most 

of these guys haven't been to a play or a concert in years, but they 

desperately want to see my project succeed.)

-- Go through a design process that includes regular input from all of the 

resident companies. What do they need the space to do? What support spaces 

do they need? Who needs office space, storage space, shop space? No one 

will get everything they want, and there will be ferocious arguments (An 

orchestra pit? Who the hell needs an orchestra pit?) but eventually you'll 

come up with a space that works.

-- You'll need to put together a Board of Directors and some paid staff. (If 

you don't have the best and most efficient secretary in town, you'll drown, 

very quickly, without a trace.)



I could go on, and if you want me to I will. But I'm just trying to suggest 

that if you take this on you'll be taking on a major, major project -- 

probably the most demanding and time-consuming you'll ever do. I think a lot 

of people have a romantic dream about running a theater, much like people 

come to Vermont to run a bed and breakfast, only to leave the state screaming 

in a matter of months. Theater management is tough, tough work. You may 

have a wad of change now, but when you're up and running there will NEVER be 

enough money, and you'll only be as good as your last show. 



Either you enjoy managing this kind of huge enterprise, or you don't. Either 

you burn with a need to serve your community, or you don't.



If you don't, send your money guy to me. Have a I got a project to sell to 

him...



All the best,



Douglas Anderson, Executive Director

Town Hall Theater 

 



 

 



 



Manhattan Theatre Club's New Musical



Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Director) presents TIME AND AGAIN, a new musical based on the book by Jack Finney, with music and lyrics by Walter Edgar Kennon, an original book by Jack Viertel, and additional story material by James Hart. TIME AND AGAIN begins performances at MTC's Stage II at City Center (131 West 55th Street) on Tuesday, January 9. Opening Night is Tuesday, January 30.



TIME AND AGAIN is directed by Susan H. Schulman and choreographed by Rob Ashford. The design team for TIME AND AGAIN features sets by Derek McLane, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Ken Billington, and sound by Brian Ronan. Kevin Stites is the Musical Director.



The 15-member cast is: Melissa Rain Anderson, Ann Arvia, Laura Benanti, Lewis Cleale, Jeff Edgerton, Eric Michael Gillett, Gregg Goodbrod, Christopher Innvar, Patricia Kilgarriff, Joseph Kolinski, George Masswohl, David McCallum, Julia Murney, Amy Walsh and Lauren Ward.



Based on Jack Finney's popular novel, TIME AND AGAIN is a haunting new musical about a modern-day Manhattan advertising illustrator who is transported back to1880's New York where he finds himself immersed in a world of horse-drawn carriages, gaslights, and an enchanting young woman who will win his heart.



Visit MTC online at www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com



 



Atlantic Theatre Company's Force Continuum



The Atlantic Theater Company will present the world premiere of Kia Corthrons FORCE CONTINUUM as the second production of the Atlantic's 2000-01 season. Directed by Michael John Garces, performances of FORCE CONTINUUM will begin Wednesday, January 17 at 8pm and will open on Thursday, February 8. 



Commissioned by the Atlantic, FORCE CONTINUUM is an explosive and evocative play about three generations of African American police officers. Practically pulled from recent headlines, the story centers around a rookie cop, Dece, and his involvement in various incidents that challenge and shed light on the idea of what it means to be a New York City policeman and the responsibilities therein.



Atlantic Theater Company is an acting ensemble which grew out of a series of workshops taught by David Mamet and William H. Macy. Since its inception, the company has produced over 90 plays in New York, Chicago and Vermont, including American Buffalo, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cider House Rules, Mojo, Edmond, The Hothouse, Dangerous Corner, Distant Fires and Boys Life. They have worked with many new and established writers including; David Mamet, Quincy Long, Tom Donaghy, Hilary Bell, Jez Butterworth, Howard Korder, Craig Lucas, Edwin Sanchez and Martin McDonagh. The company moved to its landmark theater in Chelsea in 1991, and garnered two Lucille Lortel Awards, five Obie Awards, an Outer Critic Circle Award, seven Outer Critic Circle Award nominations, 14 Drama Desk Award nominations, and four Tony Awards. 

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Letter from London 

RSC's Henry VI



RSC's Michael Boyd was interviewed by The Independent on the eve of bringing 4 of Shakespeare's History Plays collected under the banner of This England: The Histories to Ann Arbor, Michigan next March. Henry VI Parts One, Two and Three, and Richard III will be seen in the US following a Stratford-Upon-Avon engagement, prior to a London run. 

Boyd says the moral seriousness he brings to Shakespeare's Henry VI and his sense of the paranoia of power come from one extraordinary year in Russia.



"It's pretty crazy" he says of the complete Henry V-Richard III project "carrying 10 hours of theatre around in your head - with another three hours still to come." His task represents "a sane insanity" which has produced a commercial paradox.



About three years ago, The Independent reported, Boyd and RSC artistic director Adrian Noble discussed

the possibility of the former staging the Henry trilogy to fill a season at the Swan, in Stratford. "Ultimately, we felt it would be too much of a financial gamble," explains Boyd at the RSC's Clapham rehearsal rooms, "because these are not exactly the world's most popular plays." (The trilogy was last tackled by the RSC in 1988, and given the company's rate of turnover within the Shakespeare canon, a 12-year gap is extremely long.)



Following that abortive attempt, when Noble set up the current "This England" marathon (new productions of the eight histories from Richard II to Richard III), it was natural enough for Boyd to be handed Henry VI. "Then I persuaded Adrian that Richard III was basically Henry VI, Part 4 and therefore I should do all four. It's a bit insane, but it's a sane insanity, because the world of the trilogy comes through in Richard III. Unless you get an organic sweep you're missing a trick, and that sweep is best achieved with one creative team.

The paradox is that while three Henrys on their own were too risky, there's been so much interest in them as part of 'This England' that the Stratford run has sold out."



Noble's faith in Boyd is amply justified by his track record since joining the RSC in 1996, after 11 years as artistic director of Glasgow's Tron Theatre. His credits have included a melancholic Much Ado About Nothing, a compellingly gruesome revival of Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy and last year's exuberant, sexy

Midsummer Night's Dream. His work is bold without straying into gimmickry, and his new productions prove that he is not afraid of unconventional casting: he has made David Oyelowo, as Henry VI, the first black actor to portray an English monarch for the RSC, and Aidan McArdle, at 30, the company's youngest

Richard III since before the war. This pair are in a company of 29 actors responsible for well over 100 speaking parts, as Boyd attempts to turn four plays into "a very large chamber piece".



With 17 weeks' rehearsal for the trilogy, instead of the 21 weeks he would have been allocated for three unconnected plays, the schedule has been "tight, very tight. But we've reaped massive benefits from rehearsing all three together. There's always some awkward, natural human bullshit at the start of rehearsals, and we've had that just once instead of three times. When we started Part 3, the actors knew the language and their characters inside out, and that, too, has saved us an enormous amount of time. We know each other's foibles, creating the intimacy and courage which allow us to make arses of ourselves trying things out, me included."



The four plays will run in the Swan, which Boyd calls "a gorgeous space" for works which combine epic conflict with intimate conversation, because "the Swan is epic in its height, and yet nobody in the audience is very far from the stage." Boyd and his regular designer, Tom Piper, have nevertheless reconfigured the stage and seating areas to such radical effect, that "we are effectively opening a new theatre". Since in all four plays Shakespeare relies so heavily on brisk cross-cutting between various parts of France and England, Boyd and Piper felt they needed "to create a space with even more possibilities kinetically. The audience doesn't want repeated movement, so we have added nine new exit and entrance points."



Boyd's route to the RSC began with an unconventional apprenticeship. Born in Northern Ireland, his doctor father moved the family first to London, and then, when Michael was 16, to Scotland. While reading English at Edinburgh in the mid-1970s, he ran the university theatre company and was "very lucky" to have a play he had written and directed staged at the National Student Drama Festival at the Royal Court.



After graduating, he was fascinated to discover that 1920s Russian theatrical thinking was finding its way back onto the Moscow stage, and resolved to work there. He applied for and won a British Council fellowship to train at the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre. "I don't think there was any precedent for this kind

of theatre exchange," he recalls, "because while with ballet dancers or violinists there aren't major language problems, it isn't so easy with a verbal art-form like drama."



In 1978, after a crash course at UEA to improve the Russian he had learned at school, Boyd checked into his new digs: the Warsaw Hotel, near Gorky Park. "I was the only Briton there. It was mostly Yemenis, Italian communists, Cubans -people from 'friendly countries'. So by being there I was accorded honorary 'OK' status. It was an astonishing experience. For one thing, a read-through at the Malaya would take up to four weeks. I was amazed by the aesthetic and intellectual rigour, and the way directors were prepared morally

to take responsibility for the work, not simply to shove that on to the writer."



Cultural life under Brezhnev inevitably had its darker side, too. "Theatre operated in a society that wasn't in any way free or liberal. You were not allowed to stage Ibsen's An Enemy of the People under its original title; it had to be Dr Stockmann. I think when I came to work on Shakespeare, that Russian experience gave me a greater understanding of the world in which Shakespeare operated, when Sir Francis Walsingham [and espionage] were a reality."



After spending most of his year in Moscow "sitting at the feet of the great man", the director Anatoly Efros, Boyd's "chest-expanding" training began at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, where from 1979 to 1982 he was responsible for around 10 shows a year. After three years at the Crucible, Sheffield, he moved to the Tron, which he established as an acclaimed producing house, and a focal point for Scottish actors at a time when, says Boyd, "it was still the norm for Scottish theatres to hold auditions in London".



There was widespread disappointment when he left. So why did he decide to head south? The answer is frustration, on two levels: at the way Scottish theatre is marginalised within Britain's London-centred arts scene, and over the Tron's finances. "Our revenue grant was sort of enough to run the theatre, but to put

shows on, we had to treat ourselves as a project-funded company, getting money from Toronto, New York and international festivals."



With no prospect of an increase in funding, the offer to join the better-resourced RSC, and move to the heart of the nation's theatrical life, proved irresistible.



Since then, his Russian training has continued to influence him. His production of The Spanish Tragedy, for example, ended with a silent, morbid epilogue which you will not find in Kyd's text, and in his Romeo and Juliet earlier this year, Mercutio's ghost made some telling, unscripted appearances. He acknowledges

that these are directorial strokes he might not be making had he gone straight from university into conservative English rep. "Moscow certainly helped me realise that the phrase 'But it's not in the text' is not terribly creative. Many people here are a bit scared of anything that isn't in the text, to the point where theatre can be a bit dull.



"There's a terrible gap in Britain between people who've totally fallen in love with the physical, and those who are only concerned with the joys of character and narrative. Occasionally you see the gap closing - Simon McBurney closes it with Complicite, Julie Taymor does it in The Lion King, and I try to do it."



His year in Moscow helps not only to determine the character of Boyd's productions, it also fosters a type of self-worth which he feels is all too rare. "I was impressed by the Russian directors' sense of themselves as

artists. I know very few British directors who would call themselves artists. Most say, 'No, no, we're just interpreters of text.' Well I don't believe that. I am an artist."



If you're curious how all this has been received, I've snipped some reviews below:

From The Independent

14 December 2000



Bard's epic tale delivered with dash of panache and buckets of blood



Henry VI parts 1, 2 and 3 | Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon

By Rhoda Koenig



The Royal Shakespeare Company has billed this trilogy The Wars of The Roses or The Plantaganets in past years. Now it's just titled as Shakespeare called it, and the only other thing one needs to call it is terrific.



In these plays England is indeed sundered, healed and split again, but Michael Boyd's forceful production keeps the constantly changing battle lines as clear as the blood lines, in the process spilling buckets of blood.



As the mutilated Bedford roars defiance at Joan of Arc, raising his sword at her with his left arm, she cackles and, mocking, waves his severed right arm. Vengeance gets even gorier than this: nervous theatre-goers are warned to look away when Joan is pinioned to the stake and when Jack Cade's rebels prepare to execute their prisoner.



Boyd's work is given even more coherence by Tom Piper's design and James Jones' simple but deeply ominous music. The bare stage takes its colour from the spurting wounds and the costumes, all black at the funeral of Henry V, lowered into his grave upon a giant cross, silver and gold at his son's coronation.



Great metal doors form an exit for the wildly retreating French; Joan rushes after, but she smashes into them as they slam in her face. Among dozens of such brilliant effects, there are only two weak ones; the roses dangle from the flies looking like decorations for a debs' dance, and Joan dies rather lamely, in smoke without fire. A few minutes after she sinks from sight, however, the big doors open slowly to show her resurrected, as Margaret of Anjou.



This casting stroke not only prepares us for Margaret's restlessness and subversion but sets up a chilling echo when she seizes the deposed Gloucester's staff of office and gleefully calls it "a limb locked off". As warring clans kill father, brother and son, the tension never slackens and the slaughter never seems routine.



Soldiers stationed against the theatre walls, brushing past us, make us feel part of the battle. (Unlike last summer's dreary Henry V which used the same tactic, this production has warriors that act as if they are going off to kill or be killed, rather than doing some fencing practice on holiday.)



All the actors speak the verse with clarity and intelligence. Richard Cordery's loveable bulldog of a Gloucester rolls the term "prelate" on his tongue, and spits it at his rival, Christopher Ettridge's smiling Beaufort. Deirdra Morris's haughty Duchess of Gloucester, denouncing the Queen's favourite, Suffolk, makes an obscene gesture as she sayshe "can do all in all with her." Even more impressive is the way the characters alter throughout a generation.



Fiona Bell's Margaret, at first a spiteful vixen, hardens into a raging wolf. And David Oyelowo's Henry as a young boy clutches his royal robes for reassurance as he forces himself to be bold. With age he gains authority but, fatefully, puts his reverence for justice above his subjects' need for a leader they can hold in awe. In the aftermath of battle, he stumbles through the field of corpses, words dropping from his lips like fragments of his shattered mind.



The silly Dauphin of Part 1, Aidan McArdle, in Part 2 becomes Richard of York. In that and the last play we see him growing in self-hatred and sadistic humour in a way that bodes well for his Richard III in the spring. Meanwhile, to see this Henry VI is not only to see terror and grief but to feel them. See it you

must.



And The Evening Standard 



Marathon session for Henry VI

by Nicholas de Jongh



In less time than a flight from London to Los Angeles, you can now be caught up in the mightiest Shakespearian marathon since the 1970s.



The nine-and-a-half-hour feat in question, achieved by valiant RSC actors, is Michael Boyd's sensational, blood-drenched production of Shakespeare's three-part Henry VI.



We went in yesterday at 10.30am. And apart from essential intermissions, we did not emerge until 10.30pm after the cast had applauded us for enduring this Tudor version of Long Day's Journey Into Night or a Family At War.



The ordeal left me battle-fatigued, but curiously elated. For the neglected Henry VI, with its picture of Britain disintegrating in civil war, raises tantalising and unresolved questions about what Shakespeare was trying to say in his account of a king losing control of himself, his country and his throne.



Boyd clearly rejects the conservative notion that the history plays show England rescued by providence, emerging from civil war into the sunlit securities of the Tudor monarchy. Boyd's Henry VI exposes a brutalised Machiavellian England. It ends with the future Richard III cradling the infant nephew he longs to murder.



His stylised, smoky production inventively compresses Henry VI's epic panorama into the Swan's small space. The audience is gathered around a pentagonal-shaped bare stage, framed by a metal door. Ladders, ropes and trapeze-stands, soldiers upon them, keep dropping down from the rafters. The first sight is of Henry V's corpse resting on a cross and lowered by a pulley into his grave - a trap-door in the floor springing open. The rule of Christian assurance is over.



Boyd does not stint when it comes to conveying the barbarism of England's nobility, with lords behaving badly. Blood is everywhere. It streams from Henry VI when stabbed to death. A liver is extracted and thrown on the ground. Lord Clifford's eyes are gouged out. The Lord Protector's gangrened head and Suffolk's equally moribund cranium, though tastefully wrapped in velvet and cradled by his lover, the King's wife Margaret, are horribly on view. But though the pace is hurtling, the first part seems tiresomely repetitive, the

English forever heroic against the dastardly French.



But once the nobles conspire to eliminate Protector Gloucester, when cowed Henry fails to turn the other cheek of no-resistance, when York attempt to seize the throne and Jack Cade revolts, Henry VI is charged with the excitement of anarchy on a roll. Sadly, too many actors succumb to unsubtle, strident bellowing . Richard Cordery's thunder-pitch Lord Protector could do with a stiff sedative while Tom Beard's Edward IV is personality free. David Oyelowo, the first black Shakespearean king, makes stage history quietly. He looks possessed by anxious meekness, even if he sounds aggressive, and his performance is a triumph of long-distance assurance. But his despair and sadness seem rather glibly put on.



When Fiona Bell's Margaret dabs York with the blood of his assassinated son or sees her own son murdered before her eyes, she should harrow and horrify. Miss Bell manages snivels where howls and exultation are required. But Clive Wood playing York as a cool, quiet calculating machine, Aidan McArdle's mocking, embryonic Richard III, Richard Dillane's homme fatale Suffolk and Jake Nightingale's psychopathic anarchist are all bracingly impressive. They help make this Henry VI a revelation, illuminating the entire Shakespeare history cycle.





 

The Secret Garden



Dominic Cavendish reviews The Secret Garden at the RSC in Stratford-Upon-Avon



FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT started out in the Victorian slums of Salford, then emigrated at the age of 16 with her family to Tennessee. Curiously, it has taken two Americans, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Marsha Norman and composer Lucy Simon, to recognise that The Secret Garden, one of the novelist's best-loved works, would make a fantastic musical.



Nine years after it stormed Broadway, scooping a Tony Award for best book, their version has undertaken the return transatlantic journey at the behest of RSC supremo Adrian Noble, who gives us a strong contender for Christmas treat of the year.



You would think that this musical would droop towards the sentimental and the saccharine. Ten-year-old Mary Lennox, orphaned in India and sent to a remote North Yorkshire manor, could easily be a limelight-stealing brat (think Annie!) - first too sour, then too sweet. Coming into contact with plain-speaking folk and her counterpart in irascibility, sick cousin Colin, she blossoms amid the high-walled surroundings of her hunchback uncle Archibald's secret garden.



What Norman and Simon have realised is that the book's trajectory from self-centredness to selflessness is not peculiar to the child heroine, but entails a shared experience that cuts across ages. They have widened the focus to include Archibald, unable to stop mourning the death of his wife, Lily, and his doctor brother, Neville, who harboured unrequited love for her.



The repressed English character of the early 20th century - a private hell of secrecy and isolation - is confronted with a sunnier, can-do temperament born of contact with the soil. Simon's music nourishes this healing process: its folky flutings and pounding rhythms evoke primitive rituals, softened by undulating strings. Maudlin solos are woven together into choruses; the voices of the dead mingle with those of the living. Of course, it's wish-fulfilment, but that is what finally gives the rejuvenatory pulse its heartbreaking quality.



You could quarrel that the horticultural metaphor is overused - there's one too many innocent references to planting seeds and biding your time. Fidgeting may occur during the wet-as-April-showers sequences in which the nature-loving estate hand Dickon warbles on about the coming of spring.



But it's hard to fault a show that has charm in spades and delight by the barrow-load. Gillian Lynne's sure choreographic touch is felt throughout, from the swirling, multi-coloured hive of saris at the start to the boot-slapping leaps and shuffles of the undergardeners and their housemaid partners in the curtain-call reprise.



Even the manor doors have a balletic elegance, spinning magically towards us in a stately threesome. Anthony Ward's design makes the most of the main stage's cramped space: the mazy garden sprawl is succinctly suggested by sliding transparent screens daubed with foliage.



Noble keeps the pace up by using the chorus of house staff to shift furniture on and off almost unnoticed. In vocal terms, the production scintillates: Philip Quast's Archibald and Peter Polycarpou's Neville sound as sturdy as oaks, and Craig Purnell's Dickon has a springy timbre to match his capering.



The piece inevitably stands or falls on the strength of the two children's performances. The parts are being divvied up among a number of young hopefuls, but if they're all anywhere near as good as Natalie Morgan's Mary and Luke Newberry's Colin, there will be no disappointments. With hardly a trace of staginess, they show us the highs and the lows of childhood, the liberties taken and freedoms denied. The petticoats and knickerbockers may no longer be in fashion, but the sense of budding possibility hits you like a gust of fresh air scented with moorland.

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Techie's Corner 

Platforms: Part VI

Up to now we have been dealing with single platforms.  This month we will look at ways to use studwall supports for decks, large platform layouts and that thing in the middle, the one-off platform. 

For those readers who are fairly new to platform layouts in theatre, a one-off platform is one that might be neither 4' nor 8' and may be three sided, four sided, five sided or more, have no angles of 90 degrees and is built specificly for that one show, that one time use.  For example, a one-off platform might join two rectangular platform groups to form large, angular formations. 



It may seem that I am making such a strong point for studwalls that they are the best way to leg platforms.   While studwalls are indeed one of my favorite methods, they are far from the only one I use. There are conditions where studwalls are a poor choice.  For example, In the layout shown in the next illustration, bolt on legs or parallel frames would be the most efficient for heights 2' or less.  In general, if your overall platform height is 2' or less, stud walls are less likely to be time, material or cost efficient.  Even at this low height, studwalls are still the best in overall weight bearing and weight transfer capability of all wood, shop built platform support systems.   Each and every situation has it's own solution for "best".   Best is the solution that fits your budget in terms of both materials and labor, fits your crew in terms of skills and time to build and works with your theatre in terms of storage, use and reuse. 

One of the advantages of the stud wall system is the way it works in areas that are larger than single platforms.  The following illustrations show you a 16' x 12' deck made up of 4x8 platforms.  The first illustration shows the number and layout of legs for that deck.  The rest show possible studwall layouts for the same deck.









It is easy to see that a small number of stud walls can replace a large number of legs.  At first glance, it appears that the stud wall method requires more lumber and more individual boards and thus more time to build.  However, studwall legging greatly reduces the amount of diagonal bracing needed.  This translates into more "legs/studs" but less cross bracing and tends to equalize the lumber needed.  The simplicity of the construction requires fewer construction steps and results in a very fast construction method.   If the deck is to be moved stored or toured, it comes apart in very few pieces and packs flat in a truck or storage area.  

Variations on the studwall can be seen in tiered levels and rakes or ramps.  In these platform setups, stud walls can be shaped to fit the stair step shape.  







Ramp or rakes are the other half of odd shaped studwalls.  Earlier I mentioned that it is rarely efficient in labor or materials to build studwalls for platforms less than two feet high.  The exception is when a ramp slopes down to the floor.   The ease of making a smooth, even slope is well justified.  When you lay out the top and bottom plate on the shop floor, the angle and length of the studs can be marked off directly without measuring, math or trig.  If you cut a stud a bit too long or too short, simply move it a fraction of an inch one way or the other until it fits between the top and bottom plate. Elegant? No!  Effective, quick, strong and workable?  You bet!  Two Simple examples of sloped studwall support are shown below.



So far, we have looked a number of ways to use studwalls to support platforms.  Next month we will examine some ways that stud walls can be used for more than just to support a deck, such as to bridge openings, support over hangs and other uses.  We will also look into how to fasten platforms and decks to the stud walls. 

For now, have a happy holiday season, don't sweat the small stuff, and remember, Its ALL small stuff! 

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The Play's the Thing: 

 

Irish Playwrights

Marching to the tunes of Beckett, Synge and Friel Ireland's playwrights are the backbone of British theatre. The Independent's Kate Bassett meets

the new boys of the Celtic renaissance



You might call them the playboys of the West End stage. For centuries, Irish dramatists have been thrilling London audiences and obligingly enhancing British theatre's reputation further afield, the author's origins sometimes forgotten.



Sir Richard Eyre has underlined this, dedicating the second programme in his BBC series, Changing Stages, to the Emerald Isle. However, the Irish names enshrined in the "English literature" canon proved too numerous to cram into that slot. After Wilde, Synge, O'Casey and Shaw, there was no time for Beckett, Frank McGuinness or Brian Friel. Moreover, what about today's young blood?



Right now, there's an Irish renaissance with talented new playwrights from North and South rolling into mainland theatres. This resurgence can be traced back to Billy Roche's The Wexford Trilogy, now enjoying its first revival at Kilburn's Tricycle Theatre. When it premiered at the Bush in West London in 1992, Roche's triptych of small-town life won multiple awards, transferring to a BBC TV drama slot in 1993.



Encouraged, fresh Irish voices made themselves heard in London in the late 1990s, and a startling number have gone on to become international success stories. In 1996, The Beauty Queen of Leenane by the London-Irish lad Martin McDonagh took theatreland by storm; it transferred to Broadway and has been translated into 22 languages.



Conor McPherson from Dublin, another twentysomething, shot to even greater transatlantic acclaim with The Weir, a haunting and tender piece centring around ghost stories told in an isolated pub. Gary Mitchell's gritty depictions of Belfast's Prod community have also made it across the pond and drawn crowds. The Force of Change, his latest about the RUC, advanced last month from the Royal Court's studio to its main house. Meanwhile, Howie the Rookie, Mark O'Rowe's electrifying picture of gangland Dublin, is proceeding from the Bush to the US. Stones in his Pockets, Marie Jones's witty two-hander about a Hollywood film crew colonising County Kerry is embarking on a world tour. For spring 2001, the National is hoping it's got a new winner on its hands. The Walls is a dark comedy unusually set in middle-class suburban Dublin and

written by Colin Teevan, an academic at Queen's, Belfast who recently helped Peter Hall redraft John Barton's epic Tantalus

.

When you survey all this, three main questions spring to mind. What makes Irish plays so excellent and exportable? Do the Irish back home have differing views of the theatrical scene? And is Irish drama changing with the times?



On the first issue, Yeats and Lady Gregory's early 20th-century Abbey Theatre project created a body of work off which today's playwrights can bounce. Beyond that, the age-old Irish tradition of story-telling stands them in fantastic stead, as evidenced in the monologues of McPherson and O'Rowe. And, of course, there's their virtuosic language, a sparky and lyrical Gallic-inspired English.



Nevertheless, it is the attainment of universality that the dramatists I spoke to emphasise. Roche, besides pointing out that he draws on both Celtic and American cowboy legends, talks of Irish playwrights, writing in a "timeless tense which maybe marries past, present and future". McPherson says he admires The Wexford Trilogy, "because it could translate to, say, Poland, or the countryside in Chile." It's certainly notable that McDonagh, McPherson and Jones (all city- based) opt for the relatively atemporal limbo of backwaters.



McPherson further argues that Irish playwrights are, "existentially concerned with characters' inner-demons", while their British peers (among whom he counts Mitchell) place their characters within socio-political structures and institutions. Conversely, others are wary of the mass export of "olde-worlde" rural plays. Teevan suggests that English audiences have had a selective view of Irish drama. "While the Troubles were raging," he says, "there were very good, related plays. But I don't think English audiences wanted to know. It took 30 years for Friel's Volunteers to get to London."



While mainland theatregoers are now catching up, there are hints that over in Ulster young playwrights are already moving on. Director Paula McFetridge of Belfast's pioneering Tinderbox theatre company feels: "While our writers still have some way to go telling their stories of the Troubles, some are already more forward-looking."



Simultaneously, more urban plays are being penned with language to suit. O'Rowe's lyricism is a kind of inner city Dublin rap. Owen McCafferty (a name to watch) is hitting his stride with a disjointed, terse, guttural style. McPherson is particularly excited by Cork-based Enda Walsh's experimental work, and predicts non-narrative theatre is, "going to blow old-style story telling and traditional plays out of the water". Whatever the house style, Irish theatre is thriving with more liberal attitudes, the appointment of a new Arts Minister, Michael McGimpsey, in the North and with the booming Celtic economy in the South. As Roche puts it: "There's a new confidence in Irish people and Irish talent."



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Life in the Theatre 

Re(in)jecting A Little Humor  of

She Who Rejects Last Rejects Best



Recently Aerily, a colleague on the International Centre for Women Playwrights listserv, posted the following. It's an adaptation-for-playwrights of an employment application rejection letter spoof that's been floating around on the net, and which appeared in TRE's ENTER LAUGHING column 2 months. 

Dear Mr. Buster: 

Thank you for your letter of April 17. After careful consideration I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to produce my play at your theatre. This year I have been  particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of wonderful rejection letters, all sent by talented theatres. As I'm sure you're well aware, the resources of playwrights in America today are scarcer than ever before, so it is simply impossible for me to accept all rejections.  Despite your theatre's outstanding qualifications and previous experience with rejecting play submissions, I find that your rejection does not meet with my needs at this time. Therefore, I am returning my play manuscript to you with this letter.  

Best of luck with rejecting future submissions.  

Sincerely, 

[your name here] 

So I forwarded it to a literary manager friend, who called me up for a yak, laughing her head off. She said it was the funniest thing she'd seen in a long time. Said she was going to send it off to all her literary manager pals all over the country. What with the way things are in literary offices in theatres these days, gawd knows, everybody could use a good laugh.  

"So tell me, " I said to her, "what did you really think of it?" 

"I told you," she replied, "it's funny." 

"Yes, but what I want to know is--what if a playwright actually sent it to you in response to a rejection letter that you had sent to her? Would it still be funny then?" 

She thought about it and then replied that yes, even if a real playwright really sent it, that yes, it would still be a funny letter even then. 

"But!," I persisted, "If you received this letter in the mail, what would be your reaction? Would you think that the writer was perpetrating a particularly brilliant piece of performance art, as it were, and therefore you would want to see more of her work, perhaps even invite her to come on down and go out for a drink, maybe even meet the gang? Or! Or, would you believe that it was the work, albeit the very funny work, of a total wacktoid with absolutely no sense of restraint or proportion?" 

"Aha! It isn't my reaction you're after, is it? My reaction is that I would laugh, and I already told you that. What you want to know is what my response would be, isn't it?" 

I admitted that I wanted to know her response. 

"I've gotta tell you," she said. " I don't care how brilliant or funny she is. On the off chance that this letter really is for real and the playwright is crazy, I'd run like hell." 

On the off chance that the playwright is crazy? Isn't that part of the job description? 

  

Dear Mr. Buster... 

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Rubin's Corner

Two Opposite Musicals       

Oh, the thinks you can think when you think about Seuss! So begins two hours of a new musical based on Dr. Seuss, the children's writer from Springfield, Mass.  With book and score by the Tony Award-winning team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty the musical SEUSSICAL not only makes Horton, the Elephant, sit on an egg, but lay one. 

The musical includes pop and gospel, as well as blue and R&B.  Based on the concept of the authors and Eric Idle, the musical's characters range from Gertrude McFuzz and The Lorax to Sally Jesse Raphael and the Cat in the Hat.  The author tries to weave through the action with a sport of anarchy and the soul of Seussan nonsense.  This production is not a literal re-enactment of Dr. Seuss' stories, nor is it a review.  Instead it is a new book musical, a contemporary re-imagining of Dr. Seuss that weaves together many of his most famous stories and characters in unexpected ways. 

David Shiner, from FOOL MOON, plays the CAT.  He falls flat on his nine lives since he is given very little material to use and some poor songs.  His one good song, "How lucky you are" is repeated at least five times.  The Act I finale, which stars the Cat can only be described as a mess.  Kevin Chamberlin, Janine LaMamma, and Michele Pawk try to get mileage out of the material, but are not up to the task.  The scenery by Eugene Lee and the costumes by William Ivey Long are colored brightly, but fail to impress.  Kathleen Marshall who has been on a hot streak fails to delivery much in the way of chorography, whole director Frank Galati has let the whole show get away from him.  

I took by 10 and 12-year-old cousin with us and they seemed bored by the whole thing.  So did most of the children present at the performance we attended.  SEUSSICAL is at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. 

The second musical we saw was the timeless story of JANE EYRE.  This production is a spectacular musical from the co-creators of LES MISERABLES.  The book and the direction are by John Caird, the music by Paul Gordon, and the set design was by John Napier.  Jane Eyre will provide romance, mystery, and spectacle appealing to all ages.

The musical began its live at the LaJolla Playhouse in California. 

The production stars Marla Schaffel and James Barbour.  Ms. Schaffel has a good voice and plays the role of Jane in a manner lacking passion.  James Barbour, the second Breast in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, does an excellent job as Edward Fairfax Rochester.  Mary Stout in the role of Mrs. Fairfax brings the comic relief to this very tense story.  The other 15 cast members are excellent in their various roles.  You might have through that there were 70 people in the cast until you look at the program. 

The new star of the evening is John Napier's set.  Yes, I know it looks somewhat like the Les Miz set with its dark projection and large turntable.  However, Napier has found a way to deliver the large number of set required by adding a turntable on top of the set and moving furniture and windows into the playing area with seconds by flying them.  Caird's direction moves the show along a swift path.  The music by Gordon has a couple of nice songs, but it is not easy to write thirty hit song for one show.  I did like "Brave Enough for Love", "The Gypsy" and "The Pledge".  It is not easy to bring a classic book to the stage in the form of a musical, but John Caird has done it in an effective and pleasant job.    



And Speaking of Seussical

Tabletop's ROB BARTLETT and a review of SEUSSICAL, The Musical on THEATER TALK this Thursday, December 14.

THEATER TALK returns this Thursday at Midnight to Thirteen/WNET. Robin Pogrebin, entertainment reporter for The New York Times and drama critic Charles Isherwood of Variety join THEATER TALK co-hosts Michael Riedel, Broadway columnist of the New York Post and Susan Haskins to dissect the new $10.5 million Broadway show SEUSSICAL, THE MUSICAL which opened recently to mostly negative reviews.

Also on Thursday's show, THEATER TALK welcomes actor Rob Bartlett the star of the Off-Broadway hit TABLETOP, now at the American Place Theatre. Writer/comedian Bartlett discusses his role in the play as an autocratic director of commercials, and whether or not his interpretation of the role is inspired by his "day job" boss, the irascible Don Imus. Bartlett is one of the writers on Imus' popular morning radio show and responsible for the program's infamous song parodies.

This episode of Theater Talk will also air Friday, December 22 on Boston's WGBH and on Cablevision's Metro Arts Thirteen (check local listings for schedule).

And now for something completely different - and loud.

Direct from triumphant debuts in London, Boston, Milwaukee, Detroit and Chicago, the explosive musical BLAST! is set to ignite Broadway this April.  The exuberant musical spectacle will interrupt its on going North American tour to play a limited 10 week run at the Broadway Theatre (Broadway at 53rd Street).

 

On the announcement of BLAST!'s arrival on Broadway, Artistic Director James Mason (of Star of Indiana) said: It's always been a dream to come to New York and we are thrilled to be landing here this Spring.



Well and good, you might ask, but what is it. 

 

Born on the athletic fields across the nation, BLAST is the latest in spectacle-revues like Riverdance, SpiritDance, TapDogs and Stomp with a supremely unique gimmick: "evolved from the showmanship of outdoor spectacle"



Yes, BLAST! grew from the drum corps Star of Indiana, which was founded in 1984 in Bloomington, Indiana, by businessman Bill Cook to benefit young people in music education.  The Artistic Director, James Mason, is a lifelong veteran of drumand bugle corps and other musical activities.  In its initial year, Star of Indiana became the first corps ever to place among the top ten corps at the prestigious Drum Corps International World Championships.  Star of Indiana improved each year until it became the World Champion in 1991.  Competing against other organizations from the United States, Japan, Canada and Europe, Stars performances revolutionized the world of drum corps, bringing an ever more sophisticated sense of musicianship, exciting showmanship, and dynamic choreography to this wonderful genre.  Since 1993, Mr. Mason has been shapingthe evolution of Star of Indiana from a competitive, 128 member drum corps, to a theatrical show which brings the power, passion and precision of outdoor pageantry to the stage in a musical performance now known as BLAST!

 

BLAST! consists of 60 members, largely in their early 20s, drawn from the world of outdoor pageantry all across North America.  There are 41 world titles held by the BLAST! company members who comprise three performing sections the brass, percussion and visual ensembles.  A variety of instruments are used, from the traditional:  trumpet, trombone and snare drums, to the more exotic:didgerydoo, mellophones, euphoniums, a large surdo, mark trees and the vibraphone.  The percussion section includes drums, mallet instruments and electronic keyboards.  The visual element enhances the show by spinning and tossing unusual implements along with the traditional sabers and colorful flags in perfectly synchronized, ballet like drill.



Now an Indiana drum corps might not be your idea of theatre or theatrical pageantry, but Before exploding on Broadway, BLAST! will play the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC (December 19 through January 14).  will be featured on the Kennedy Center Honors to be televised on December 27 on CBS TV.

and will be the subject of a one-hour PBS special  

 

You can visit the BLAST! website at www.BlastTheShow.com



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