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Aug 26 2012
Love0

YOU HAVE ARRIVED!!!!

By Joe Cillo

SMILE! YOU’RE ON CAMERA

Chapter one:  I am born

David Copperfield

The “in” thing these days is to turn baby’s birth into a photo shoot.  I cannot think of anything more horrifying for the mother, more humiliating for the baby and more American for the revenue it creates.

 

Americans just love money.  If we can charge for it, we are there.  It all began with dog walking…why take out someone’s puppy for fun when you can get them to pay for it?  If Fido (who frankly doesn’t give a tinker’s damn if you are in the room as long as he has his food and a place to poop) might get lonesome while you are out earning his kibble, why not pay five times as much as his daily scoop to have some idiot who cannot earn a living in an office drag the pooch to the park.

 

Then there are the cat hotels.  Why should your cat who obviously has good taste…he hasn’t run away from you, has he?… suffer in an empty house without you?  So to ease your conscience, and keep him from scratching the furniture or chewing the baby, you decide to pay more per diem for Fluuffy to get stroked, fed and pampered than you paid for the flight and hotel package.

 

Ah, but that is not all.  What about the people who charge you for petrol because you are sitting in their automobile going to the same place they are?  Or the ones who make you pay a rental for a sweater you wanted to borrow for the dance?   They have figured out how to make capitalism pay and every one of us buy into it.

 

Now we have the photographers who figured out how a random picture can catapult them into the big bucks.  What with cell phone cameras and Polaroid’s, instant photography is at our fingertips.  Nothing is sacred.  Look at face book…pictures of a doll that was mutilated, a sunset in a place you would never go, a wounded toe…all there to share with your friends who couldn’t care less about your toe, your doll or your sunset.

 

I simply cannot imagine having a photographer I barely know staring at body parts that heretofore I had kept concealed in my underwear, watching me heave moan, writhe and suffer through one of the most painful though gratifying human acts.  I simply cannot fathom wanting a shot of my kid pushing his way out of my vagina covered with slime and afterbirth looking like he should be recycled.  Once that picture is taken it is frozen in time.  Why get a photographer to record a moment that you want to end as fast as possible so you can get on with life?

 

Imagine how your little boy will feel when he introduces you to the love of his life and you whip out a picture of him wrinkled, wet and covered with blood and say, ”That’s how he looked when he was born!” followed by  the inevitable, ”Wasn’t he precious?”

 

For my part, I want the kid cleaned up before I look at him. I want my forehead cooled, my stitches done and a good mop up job before I smile and say “cheese.”  I may be in denial but if I am going to record a birth, I want it to look gorgeous.  I want to remember the life I created, not its cost.  The good news is that I never WILL have to make that choice. That is one of the true joys of aging.

 

Being born is like being kidnapped

Then sold into slavery.

William Shakespeare

Aug 26 2012
Love0

Britain’s Got Talent and Me

By Joe Cillo

BGT AND ME

Let the path be open to talent.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Every now and then, opportunity knocks on your door in strange and mysterious ways.  The trick is to distinguish which is nonsense and which is your personal road to nirvana.  Sadly, I have never had that knack.  If you ask me to do just about anything that won’t put me in traction or murder an innocent bystander, I’ll give it a go.

I was cracking rude one-liners in Edinburgh for my one woman show last August when a young, unbelievably enthusiastic girl named Louise smiled at me and said, “How would you like to try out for Britain’s Got Talent?”

“But I’m not British.  I am from San Francisco,” I said.

Her enthusiasm did not diminish.  She positively bounced with delight when she said, “That doesn’t make any difference to us.”

“When do you want me?” I said.

It was that devil-may-care attitude that took me back to the Edinburgh Conference Center in Edinburgh for the first round of try-outs in October.  I was not a novice at this “I’ve Got Talent” business.  Four years ago, I managed to get to the third day in Las Vegas before America’s Got Talent told me I was hopeless. That was why I had a bit more perspective on the whole procedure for BGT last October.  I realized that the process was a bit of a soap opera and the purpose was to create a balanced TV show with a pre-decided proportion of singers, dancers, novelty acts and several “tear your heart out” stories.   I understood that even though the viewers blamed Peers Morgan in America and Simon Cowell in London for their unsympathetic and arbitrary dismissal of the candidates, both men were actually doing what they were told by faceless producers who had decided well before we tried out the second time who was in and who was rubbish.  I also figured out that being on the program would in no way “make my career.”  In America, a touchingly hopeful man named Paul impersonated Frank Sinatra right down to the skinny tie and blue contact lenses. “This is going to catapult me into the big time, darling,“ he said and I believed him.

I have never heard or seen him since.

That said, the initial weeding out process is not done by the stars we see pushing buzzers on our TV screen. The film crew create two minute clips to give to the producers who are designing the show.  It is these people who spend several months deciding who they want for each sequence of the show.   That first audition  is a heady experience.  Every hopeful believes that he is a cut above the rest and not afraid to prove it.  In Edinburgh, I met a business man who insisted he was destined for Glyndebourne.  He hummed arias to prove it not quite under his breath as we stood in endless lines waiting to be processed for the filming to come.   There was a lad of 13 whose mother swore he was the best country singer this side of the universe.  She never stopped coaching him while we waited our turns.  She stood outside the door when he went into the filming room, certain she had mothered an international star soon to pay her way into early retirement.  Neither the man or the boy made the grade.

I found Britain’s Got Talent far more humane and caring than America’s.  That exciting day in Edinburgh, I was treated like I was already a star by the delightful group of young people who make it all happen.  They check applications, organize the thousands of applicants with undiminished graciousness, escort each performer to a comfortable waiting area until they are filmed and assign the more interesting applicants to the camera crew for extra filming.  That day, I was taken to the station and filmed as if I had arrived on the bus even though I had taken the overnight train from London.  It is all part of the pretence that this is a reality show instead of the staged, pre-arranged event it has become.

The film crew who do the initial screening are endlessly patient and very sensitive to the talent performing their hearts out for the two minutes they are allowed to strut their stuff.  The best part is that no one knows that day if they made the grade.  That way, the decision comes on your computer where you can absorb it in your own way.  In America they loved to film you dissolved in tears, distraught because you lost your chance to be a star.

It is not so for the second phase.  I found out in late January that I had made the first cut and was asked to return to Edinburgh February 11 for an exceptionally long day at he Festival theatre to meet the judges.  In that session, only water is provided for a day that lasts well into the evening.  We were allowed to bring 4 friends to cheer us on and give away as many tickets as we liked for our performance before a live audience. I am from another country and of a certain age.  The few friends I have here are in their dotage and do not have the stamina for a 10-12 hour day.  I do have a smattering of young ones who can endure and one brought me a sandwich to sustain me.  Her reward was Simon Cowell’s autograph  when he entered the building about 3 pm that afternoon.

This phase of the elimination process is filled with electric anticipation.  We meet the people whom the producers think might make the grade.  This group of  performers are whittled down to the top 20 or so in each city where the try-outs took place.  My day at The Festival Theatre was filled with endless conversation and networking.  I hobnobbed with a band of Glaswegians in kilts with brilliant red, green and blue hair and a fantastic attitude, three girls who thought they were the second millennium version of The Andrew Sisters and Stuart Crout who invented a combination ukulele, guitar, piano and banjo all in one and had practiced his craft on the streets of Edinburgh since he was 11 years old.  We were all filmed talking to one another, waiting, drinking, fidgeting and hoping.  The highlight of the afternoon for me was meeting Stephen Mulhern.  We bantered back and forth and I agreed to be his gran. We decided if I actually won I would buy him a house and you know?  I would have done it.  He is charming.  I never felt judged or scrutinized (although all of us were) when I spoke with him.  I didn’t feel that I was performing either even though I knew I was being filmed.

When our big moment arrived, we sat in a long, airless hall behind the stage and waited to meet the judges.  We heard one performer after another buzzed off the stage and I realized how the people in Paris during their revolution felt as they waited in line at the guillotine.  The buzzer is incredibly loud and my big worry was that I would be so started if it sounded that I would faint or scream.  We were told that no matter how many times we were buzzed we should continue as if nothing had happened.  If that doesn’t test your endurance, nothing will.   The three girls I had met earlier went on stage and were buzzed off immediately. I could hear the audience cheering them and adoring them and then a pause.  The judges decided to let them try once more.  All of us in the back room smiled and started breathing again but alas!  Within seconds they were buzzed again by all four judges.

I thought, “I will never get through this.  Why on earth did I set myself up for this kind of public rejection?”

I was ushered into the area just behind the curtain and I met Anthony of Ant and Deck.  He showed me how I was to enter the stage and explained where I must stand.  And then I was on stage and the four judges were smiling at me. I did my two minutes and to my amazement, no one buzzed me. However,  Simon Cowell told me in no uncertain terms that I bored him and I told him I was very sorry I did.  Was he acting?  Did he mean it?  I will never know. The others were uncommonly kind and Alesha Dickson pointed out that it was unusual to have a performer my age on the program. That she said was working in my favour.  The three, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dickson and David Walliams voted for me and I got through!!!

I literally floated through the labyrinth of hallways to the vestibule, and was filmed saying I how amazed I was and then ushered back to see Stephen Mulhern to tell him he was one step closer to having a home of his own.

When I returned for some extra filming I met one of the young ladies in the group who had performed before me and she was awash in tears.  That was when I realized the inhumanity of the procedure.  Here she was convinced she was a failure even though the audience had clapped, stomped and cheered her group without reservation.

Stuart didn’t get into the next phase either, even though the staff had found him on You Tube and invited him to the second phase without enduring that first weeding out at The Conference Center. No one helps these hopeful, optimistic and very sensitive performers to understand that getting on this program neither makes or breaks them and that life offers endless opportunities.  This was just one.

The next phase took place at the end of February in London and the day began at 7:30 in the morning.  This is the phase where Britain’s Got Talent pays all your expenses and everyone you meet is certain they are stars.  There were about 100 acts from all over the country, the top winners from all the previous try-outs.  I absolutely adored everyone I met.  There was a singer who had been rejected in another reality program and mustered the courage to try again.  There was a group of middle aged guys from Manchester totally out of shape and bursting with hope.  There was a tranny named James who took me under his/her wing.  We all chatted and traded stories all day while we waited to see if we would go on to the next phase.  While I was there I saw a group of the oldest human beings I have ever seen still breathing and I asked them where they were from.  One of them managed to gasp, “London.”

And that was when I knew I had not gotten in.  Alesha Dickson had said BGT didn’t have a good representation of people my age and here was my competition.  They were older and they were really British.  I didn’t have a chance.   At 5:30 that day, I was ushered into a room with the four judges and Amanda Holden told us we were eliminated.  She was very gracious and kind but for the other two in that room with me she could have just as well thrust a knife into their hearts.  The effect was the same.    The young girl with me was devastated and sobbed for the next hour as we waited to be processed and dismissed.  I tried to console her but there was no way to stop those tears.  I looked at this child barely 17 years old who labelled herself as a failure and I knew then that despite the entertainment value of the program, its cost was far too high to those who lose and even higher for those who make it to the top only to realize that the top goes nowhere.

I left London and retuned home, ready to get on with my life and my comedy career.  The experience was wonderful and the people I met unforgettable.  For me, the adventure was over.  But I was wrong.  April 14, while I was dancing my heart out at the Texas Burlesque Festival I received a barrage of e mails.  BGT had shown my segment on television and all the world got to see me!!! It was a heady experience…but since I knew the outcome, I knew the thrill was momentary.

Wrong again.  I am in Brighton now and I cannot count the number of people who have stopped me on the street to ask, “Are you the lady I saw on Britain’s Got Talent.”  The truth is that I am wallowing in even more fame than I expected without getting anywhere near the top.  What can be better than that?

Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.
John Wooden

 

Aug 23 2012
Love0

Baryshnikov: Theatre “In Paris”

By Jo Tomalin

Legendary performer Mikhail Baryshnikov comes to Berkeley Rep for a special presentation of In Paris.
Photographer: Maria Baranova

Mikhail Baryshnikov at Berkeley Rep Theatre – In Paris

“In Paris” is a performance piece incorporating movement, music, projections, video, text in Russian and French with English supertitles, adapted from a short story by Nobel Prize-winner Ivan Bunin, about a lonely Russian man who meets a lonely young Russian woman. Set in the city of light, Paris, in the 1930s this romantic tale is creatively brought to life by the cast of seven led by legendary dancer and award-winning performer Mikhail Baryshnivov, and director Dmitry Krymov, who also adapted the story. Mikhail Baryshnikov at Berkeley Rep for a special presentation of In Paris.
Photographer: Annie Leibovitz

Krymov is a painter, set designer and director who develops innovative pieces (that are often silent) in Moscow at the Dmitry Krymov Laboratory which play internationally.  For sure, Krymov’s Laboratory with young actors, his innovative approach to theatre making together with Baryshnikov’s legendary presence and instinctive acting and movement skills make an interesting collaborative group. The result is fascinating. It’s stripped down production style is a welcome challenge to the imagination and engenders complicity with the audience.

Mikhail Baryshnikov (right) and Anna Sinyakina at Berkeley Rep in presentation of In Paris.
Photographer: Maria Baranova

 The transformative set by Maria Tregubova is simple and effective comprising a turntable stage, rigging on view, large cut out images that transport us to Paris and an absurdist looking bar table and chair. The cast interact around and within the set pieces as the revolving scene becomes a Parisian bar, a taxi ride and a wonderful old cinema scene evoked by dim projections of Charlie Chaplin and cigarette smoke (Audio & Video Design by Tei Blow).

Mikhail Baryshnikov (right) and Anna Sinyakina at Berkeley Rep in presentation of In Paris.
Photographer: Maria Baranova

 Baryshnivov’s Russian man and the Russian woman played by Krymov Laboratory member and film actor Anna Sinyakina meet, converse and flirt – they express themselves at first in the bar with brief, abstract movements and attitudes tilting the bar table and chair beautifully (movement Coach Andrey Schukin and Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky). Krymov’s staging is brilliant given the spare text and dialogue – with surreal imagery such as a “Magritte look” when Baryshnikov stands in shadows with an umbrella.

The story and subtext of sentiment is often told through non-verbal moments such as when she changes clothes for the date and as he shaves himself and prepares.  A moment in the narrative that might have been interesting to bring to life was near the end of the date when they were deciding whether to go to his or her place, however, at this point the couple was in shadows and the supertitles covered the stage.

Visionary director Dmitry Krymov teams up with other
Russian artists like Mikhail Baryshnikov for Berkeley Rep’s
special presentation of In Paris.
Photo courtesy of Berkeley Repertory Theatre

All images © Berkeley Repertory Theatre. All rights reserved.

A supporting cast of five from Krymov’s Laboratory play background characters, quietly move set pieces to create the scenes, and help Baryshnikov change clothes onstage as in Japanese theatre. They also sing arias, motets and more to accompany the action and Tei Blow provides a variety of additional music and sound effects that add humor and pathos.

Krymov and his team have created clever effects which are part of the whole in this production, such as the woman’s beautiful  long gown transforming to a short dress (costumes by Tregubova), dramatic lighting by Damir Ismagilov – with humor when the spot light following Baryshnikov walking across the stage seems to develop a mind of its own.  A chase between Sinyakina and Baryshnikov becomes magical – and transforms as she turns upside down into a pietà-like statue. In response, Baryshnikov  transforms his coat into a cape and performs an intensely moving brief matador dance. A wonderful production that sells out fast – see it if you can!

More Information:

  • Baryshnikov Arts Center: http://www.bacnyc.org/

    Additional Tour Dates/Locations: Spoleto Festival, Italy, June 30-July 1, 2012; Lincoln Center Festival, New York City, August 1-August 5, 2012.

Jo Tomalin Ph.D.
Critics World
www.forallevents.com
https://forallevents.com/reviews/jo-tomalin/

Aug 22 2012
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Juliette Binoche: Miss Julie

By Jo Tomalin

 Photo: Juliette Binoche as Mademoiselle Julie © Christophe Raynaud De Lage

 

Dazzling Mademoiselle Julie

Imagine a wide white cube with floor to ceiling windows and several tall, lithe, barren tree trunks in the background. There you have the brightly lit stage (set and light Design by Laurent P. Berger) for this contemporized version of August Strindberg’s Mademoiselle Julie, now playing (in French, translation by Terje Sinding) at the world renowned Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe, Paris. While this stark vision may not evoke the traditional home of 1888 when Strindberg wrote “Miss Julie”, it is a perfect canvas for the volatile dance of death director Frédéric Fisbach has created.

Photo: Nicolas Bouchard and Juliette Binoche in Mademoiselle Julie © Christophe Raynaud De Lage

Strindberg wanted to write a tragedy about men and women and the story focuses on the angst and entanglements of male female relationships but with a twist – class issues of master and servant. In this case Miss Julie is the daughter of the owner of the house and Jean is the servant, engaged to Christine the cook. Although scandalous when first produced at end of 19th century Strindberg’s writing and the emotional possibilities of the characters in Miss Julie continue to inspire interpretations and productions worldwide

Fisbach interprets Miss Julie as an existential play that embodies love, desire, and explores naturalism and symbolism. He also sees this as a modern day relatable battle of brains, based on the intelligence + psychology of the two main characters, Mademoiselle Julie played by Juliette Binoche and Jean played by Nicolas Bouchaud.

Juliette Binoche creates an astoundingly believable character physically and emotionally embodying a vast arc and range of sincerity, exuberance, curiosity, naïveté, who is also domineering, passionate and needy. She is masterful at owning the dialogue, as a contemporary woman.

Nicolas Bouchaud as Jean is equally engaging and a good match for Binoche in his carefully drawn worldly servant who is usually in charge downstairs in the kitchen where most of the action takes place, but the unexpected intrusion of Miss Julie from the upstairs world as she returns from a party (continuing in view behind the cube among the trees) causes Jean’s relationship to her through the evening and early next morning,  to hover – at first courteous and sensible, later seduced then confused and ultimately quietly manipulative.

Photo: Nicolas Bouchard and Juliette Binoche in Mademoiselle Julie © Christophe Raynaud De Lage

The human interactions of Binoche wearing an elegant shimmering gold gown (costume design by Alber Elbaz for Lanvin) and Bouchard are true, wrestling with man and woman issues as if in real time, pushing and pulling with poetic, emotional and unexpected challenges leading to the dramatic last moments of the play. Bénédicte Cerutti is wonderful as Christine, coming and going as she finishes her work at night or starts again in the morning. Cerutti’s Christine is earthy, less complex than Jean and Julie and is often the voice of reason in this psychological thriller. A chorus of about thirteen actors dances at the party in the background to pop dance music which disperses as the evening progresses.

The contrasting characters of the three main actors are not only due to the text and the actors themselves, but also due to Fisbach’s direction and attention to detail. Fisbach has very successfully guided his actors to develop different movement qualities in their characters which show the hierarchy and suggest point of view. Binoche is often symmetric and confident standing her ground firmly, while Bourchard’s Jean is often less so with nuances in his asymmetric stance and gestures, however he moves and speaks with stealth which ranges from respectful to romantic and at times chilling.

The rhythm of the play is fluid and takes its time, punctuated by volatile moments, plus two or three short, mesmerizing visceral flashes between Jean and Julie, accompanied by pulsating sounds that make them even more breathtaking. One very moving moment of the play is when the balance of their relationship is fleetingly equal and they are just a man and woman sitting on a step outside chatting during a date – she is getting cold, so he gently puts his jacket on her shoulders while they sit on the edge of the set close to the audience. The magic of simplicity!

This evocative Julie is one to be seen. It premiered at the annual Summer Avignon Theatre Festival in 2011 and continues at the Odéon Théâtre in Paris until June 24, 2012. Then it moves to the Barbican in London from September 20 to 29, 2012.

For more information:
Odéon Théâtre Website
Jo Tomalin Ph.D.
Critics World
Aug 20 2012
Love0

“Circle Mirror Transformation” at Marin Theatre Company, Mill Valley CA

By Greg & Suzanne Angeo
“Circle Mirror Transformation” by Annie Baker Presented by Marin Theatre Company
A Bay Area premiere, co-produced with Encore Theatre Company of San Francisco

From Left: Marissa Keltie, Robert Parsons, L Peter Callender, Arwen Anderson, Julia Brothers

Intelligent, Magical “Mirror” Reflects the Familiar in Unique Ways

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo

To launch its 46th season, Marin Theatre Company presents “Circle Mirror Transformation”, an accidental journey to self-discovery. It’s an engagingly honest, tenderhearted story in which we can see ourselves clearly reflected in each of the five characters, much like the “Mirror” of the title. Celebrating our all-too-common moments of frustration, social ineptness, awkward pauses and regrets, it embraces a subtle comedy, the kind that arises from real-life human interaction.

The setting is a small college town in Vermont. In a dingy basement dance studio, five people are participating in a “Creative Drama” workshop, a series of six weekly sessions intended for beginning actors. Together they discover the theatre games and exercises that help them to capture and use their innermost creativity and awareness. The very nature of these exercises forces them to get to know themselves, and each other, in sometimes painful, sometimes funny and sometimes lovely ways.

The story unfolds in a series of short vignettes separated by blackouts, and combined with the extended pauses in dialogue that happen in everyday conversation, it allows us freedom of imagination to wonder about the moments being lived onstage and what might happen next. The style is starkly naturalistic, with a spare set and elemental lighting. The costumes could be the actors’ own very casual clothing.

Acclaimed young playwright Annie Baker won an OBIE Award for Best New American Play for her “Circle Mirror Transformation” after its premier Off-Broadway in 2009, also receiving a Drama Desk nomination for Best Play. Her work, which includes her two other plays “Body Awareness” and “The Aliens”, has been produced with great success here in the Bay Area, around the U.S. and worldwide. In an interview before the premiere of “Circle” in September 2009, she described her original style of writing, where less is so much more: she writes a rough draft of her story, and then records herself speaking each of the characters’ parts. Admitting “I’m a pretty bad actor”, she said “It’s so important to me that I capture the cadences of painful, ordinary speech and it’s hard to tell if it’s believable on the page.”

Stripped of artifice, such natural dialogue requires especially skilled actors able to translate the sometimes inarticulate words and pauses for the audience. It’s almost like musicians playing a jazz musical score, relying on the improvisational instincts and connectedness of the performers. Julia Brothers brings emotional dynamism to her role as Marty, the magnetic but vulnerable workshop instructor who ultimately learns more than she teaches. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, Marissa Keltie as the introverted sixteen-year old Lauren keeps her character petulant and subdued, gradually revealing life-changing secrets. The renaissance-man James, Marty’s charmingly intense husband, is played with subtle power by L Peter Callender. In perhaps the most moving performance of the show, Callendar’s character recognizes the painful truth in his own life during a role-playing exercise that will have unintended consequences later on. The role of Theresa, on the run from an abusive relationship, is gracefully played by Arwen Anderson, displaying a fine sense of timing and nuance when interacting with the other characters. Robert Parsons as the dejected Shultz, freshly wounded by a divorce, delivers a performance that will resonate with men everywhere. The brief, stormy romance between Shultz and Theresa forms the sweet hub of the story. All five characters in turn grow and transform, sharing the experience with the audience right through to the surprising ending.

L Peter Callender, Robert Parsons, Julia Brothers

New York director Kip Fagan has an impressive background developing new plays, teaching and directing at the Julliard School, NYU and countless regional workshops and theatres all over the country. In “Circle”, his first play at MTC, he shows unmistakable skill at drawing out the very best improvisational talents of his cast. His vision brings truth and relevance to the stage, perfectly realized in his deceptively simple, almost invisible staging. The success of “Circle” relies in part on his faith in Baker’s unique storytelling style with regards to her special use of blackouts, dialogue and blocking of characters. Scenic Designer Andrew Boyce and Lighting Designer Gabe Maxson recreate the drab, utilitarian workshop with uncanny accuracy. Musical compositions and Sound Design by Cliff Caruthers provides understated, atmospheric support to the performers.

Almost reflexively, we react to the experiences of the actors onstage with a suddenly increased awareness of ourselves and others. It’s a truly refreshing and liberating effect from such a simple concept, like breathing in pure oxygen. The magic onstage comes not from seeing fancy stagecraft, but from recognizing and sharing our human connection. This is priceless, and it makes “Circle” irresistible.

Photos by Kevin Berne

When: now through September 2, 2012

8 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays

7:30 p.m. Wednesdays

2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays

2 p.m. Saturdays August 11 and August 25

1 p.m. Thursday August 16

Tickets: $36 to $57

Location: Marin Theatre Company

397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley CA 94941

Phone: 415-388-5208

Website: www.marintheatre.org

Aug 20 2012
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Our Country’s Good-A Challenging and Ambitious Production at Porchlight

By Flora Lynn Isaacson

In a scene from Porchlight Theatre Company's outdoor production of "Our Country's Good," 2nd Lt. Ralph Clark (Nick Sholley, far left) rehearses a cast of misfits and illiterate prisoners (pictured L to R - Michael Barr, Shannon Veon Kase, Natalie Palan Walker and LeAnne Rumbel) for a staging of "The Recruiting Officer." Photo by Thais Harris

This outdoor production of Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker takes us to a New South Wales penal colony in the 1980’s where a group of Royal Marines and convicts come together to stage a production of The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar convinced that art and theatre could inspire and restore the human spirit, a British lieutenant, Ralph Clark (Nick Sholley), plans to present a stage play featuring a cast of misfits and illiterate prisoners when he meets opposition from his fellow officers.

This show is based on true events and characters right out of Australia’s past.  The playwright, Timberlake Wertenbaker did careful research into historic documents, ship’s log and journals to make the play historically accurate. It is right after the conclusion of the American Revolution. Actors wear clothing appropriate to the time with military officers in red coats and convicts dressed in their cloth shirts and dresses that appear to be sewn together from rags.

Our Country’s Good is absorbing theatre.  Broadly, the play is about the triumph of the human spirit against the force of oppression and the metaphor for that is theatre itself offered as educative, restorative and ultimately cathartic.  It is not only the convicts with no more dignity than caged animals who achieve humanization through the staging of a play, but many of the King’s officers become touched and awakened by the spirits of those they have tried to subordinate.

Wertenbaker draws her characters vividly with humor and compassion, and the cast, most doubling roles, fervently bring them to life. Ann Brebner and Tara Blau direct their ensemble with skill, and all are outstanding, but particularly notable are: Michael Barr in the duel role of Captain David Collins and the convict, Sideway, who went on to establish Australia’s first theatre company; Ron Wood (also in a duel role) as the liberal-thinking governor of the colony, Captain Arthur Phillip and the thoughtful convict writer, Catch; Nick Sholley’s decent, and innocent Lieutenant Clark, the director of the proposed play; LeAnne Rumbel’s wonderfully hostile and supercilious Liz insisting that Mary (Natalie Palan Walker) do her lines first; and Shannon Veon Kase as the spirited Dabby Bryant.

It is a real treat to have Porchlight Theatre back in town. Porchlight Theatre Company, based in Marin County, California is an award-winning theatre company established in 1999 by Tara Blau and Molly Noble.  Porchlight Theatre’s production of Our Country’s Good was itself an enactment of one of the play’s own central observations; theatre transforms.

Our Country’s Good plays at Porchlight Theatre, August 16-September 8, 2012. Performances are held at Redwood Amphitheatre, Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, CA.  Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Sunday. For tickets, call 415-251-1027 or go online at www.porchlight.net.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

 

Aug 15 2012
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A “Spirited” Comedy by Noel Coward at Cal Shakes

By Flora Lynn Isaacson

Domenique Lozano as Madame Arcati and Jessica Kitchens as Elvira Condomine in Cal Shakes’ production of BLITHE SPIRIT, directed by Mark Rucker; photo by Kevin Berne

 

California Shakespeare Theatre continues its 39th season with Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit directed by ACT Associate Artistic Director and Cal Shakes Associate Artist Mark Rucker.

Charles Condomine (Anthony Fusco), a successful novelist, wishes to learn about the occult for a novel he is writing, and he arranges for the eccentric medium, Madame Arcati (Domenique Lozano) to hold a seance at his house.  At the seance, she immediately summons Charles’ first wife, Elvira (Jessica Kitchens), who has been dead seven years.  Madame Arcati leaves after the seance unaware that she has summoned Elvira.  Only Charles can see or hear Elvira, and his second wife, Ruth (Rene Augesen) does not believe that Elvira exists until a floating vase is handed to her out of the air.   The ghostly Elvira makes continued and increasingly desperate efforts to disrupt Charles’ current marriage.  She finally sabotages his car in the hope of killing him so he can join her in the spirit world, but it is Ruth rather than Charles who drives off and is killed.

Ruth’s ghost immediately comes back for revenge on Elvira and though Charles cannot, at first, see Ruth, he can see that Elvira is being chased and tormented and his house is in an uproar.  He calls Madame Arcati back to exorcise both of the spirits, but instead of banishing them, she materializes Ruth.  With both of his dead wives now fully visible, and neither of them in the best of tempers, Charles, together with Madame Arcati, goes through seance after seance and spell after spell to try to exorcise them and at last, Madame Arcati succeeds.  Charles is left seemingly in peace, but Madame Arcati, hinting that the ghosts may still be around unseen, warns him that he should go away as soon as possible. Charles leaves at once, and the unseen ghosts throw things and destroy the room as soon as he goes.

Noel Coward has such a good time making mischief with marriage and mediums, and Director Mark Rucker does nothing to interfere with the fun.  His light touch has given the actors freedom to spirit themselves around Annie Smart’s spacious, upscale living room and creates a delicious souffle of a play.  Six of Rucker’s seven actors are from ACT.  Anthony Fusco, a regular at Cal Shakes plays Charles as a self-absorbed, upper-class, witty novelist.  Rene Augesen portrays Ruth as rather staid and conventional, while Jessica Kitchens is both sexy and kittenish as Elvira.

Domenique Lozano as Madame Arcati practically steals the show making a real person out of her boisterous character being aided by Katherine Roth’s wonderful costumes. Rounding out the cast are Kevin Rolston as Doctor Bradman and Melissa Smith as Mrs. Bradman, Charles’ seance companions.  Rebekah Brockman is absolutely wonderful as Edith, Charles’ dim-witted maid.

A large part of what makes this production so successful is how well spoken all of the actors are.  Their British accents are accurate, their diction precise and their voices commanding.  Even though Coward wrote Blithe Spirit during England’s battle scarred year of 1941, this play still feels fresh today.

Blithe Spirit will run at California Shakespeare Theatre August 8-September 7 at Bruns Amphitheatre, 100 California Shakespeare Theatre Way, Orinda, CA.  For tickets, call the box office at 510-548-9666 or go online at www.calshakes.org.

Coming up next at Cal Shakes will be William Shakespeare’s Hamlet directed by Liesl Tommy from September 19-October 14, 2012.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

 

 

Aug 15 2012
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Get out the bubbly for “Blithe Spirit”

By Judy Richter

Like a light, bubbly glass of Champagne, there’s nothing quite like a well written, well executed comedy on a warm summer night. California Shakespeare Theater serves up just the right blend of the latter with its production of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit,” adroitly directed by Mark Rucker.

With the setting sun turning the background hills to gold, Annie Smart’s gracious living room set transports the audience to Kent, England, in the late 1930s. That’s where successful author Charles Condomine (Anthony Fusco) and his wife, Ruth (Rene Augesen, are awaiting three dinner guests. One of those guests is Madame Arcati (Domenique Lozano), an eccentric local medium, who will conduct a seance. She doesn’t know that the evening’s real purpose is for Charles to gather information for his next book. The other two guests are a local physician, Dr. George Bradman (Kevin Rolston), and his wife, Violet (Melissa Smith).

The evening turns out to be far more eventful than Charles had bargained for because it results in the appearance of his first wife, Elvira (Jessica Kitchens), who has been dead for seven years. Complicating matters even more, only Charles can see her. Hence, when Charles makes some snappish replies to something Elvira says, Ruth thinks they’re directed at her and takes offense. As events continue to unfold, Elvira makes all sorts of mischief, resulting in Ruth’s joining her “on the other side” and making life miserable for Charles.

Rucker allows the pace to bubble along with its talented cast. Fusco is nicely understated as the heretofore unflappable Charles becomes more exasperated with Elvira. Augesen’s Ruth serves as the gracious hostess while dealing with difficulties on several fronts. Lozano is nothing short of hilarious as her bicycle-riding Madame Arcati goes through her elaborate preparations for the sance. This is a role that lends itself to overacting, but Lozano wisely knows where to draw the line. Kitchens is a slinky, sexy Elvira who reveals more of her true character along the way.

More comic antics come from Rebekah Brockman as Edith, the Condomines’ wide-eyed, fast-moving, slow-on-the-uptake maid. Rolston and Smith fulfill their auxiliary roles competently.

In addition to Smart’s attractive set, the three-act production is enhanced by Katherine Roth’s fashionable period costumes, York Kennedy’s lighting and Will McCandless’s compositions and sound.

Coward is said to have written “Blithe Spirit” in five days in 1941, when England was in the throes of war against Germany. One of his purposes was to buoy the spirits of his countrymen in those dire times. Apparently he succeeded on that front, for the play initially ran for 1,997 performances. Since then it has enjoyed numerous revivals, among them this lovely production by Cal Shakes.

Performances continue through Sept. 2 at the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, Orinda, CA. For tickets and more information call (510) 548-9666 or go to www.calshakes.org.

Aug 12 2012
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BLITHE SPIRIT a brilliant resurrection at Cal Shakes

By Kedar K. Adour

Annie Smart's Blithe Spirit Set

BLITHE SPIRIT: Comedy by Noel Coward. Directed by Mark Rucker. California Shakespeare Theatre (Cal Shakes), Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way (formerly 100 Gateway Blvd), Orinda, CA 94563. 510.548.9666 or www.calshakes.org. August 8 – September 2, 2012.

BLITHE SPIRIT a brilliant resurrection

California Shakespeare Company (Cal Shakes) has raided the American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) company to stock the cast for their production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. It was a brilliant move as they resurrect this 70 year old drawing room comedy just as the inimitable Madame Arcati brought to protoplasmic life Elvira who had passed over to the “other side.”

The only non A.C.T. associate Domenique Lozano plays the pivotal role of Madame Arcati. She follows a distinguished line of actors who have dominated the role. The first actors to invest Madame Arcati with theatrical life in 1941 were Margaret Rutherford in London (she was also cast in the movie), Mildred Nantwick in the New York and most recently Angela Lansbury in 2009 winning a Tony for Best Featured Actress. Lozano, as directed by Mark Rucker, adds a different spin to the character that makes Arcati less loveable and a bit harsh. That is not a criticism but an observation since her performance was well received with the audience giving her an added burst of applause at the curtain calls.

Who is this Madame Arcati that dominates the opening paragraphs of this review? She is the product of Noel Coward’s fertile satiric mind that fashioned Blithe Spirit over a period of five days while on retreat in Wales after his London quarters were bombed in 1941. It was his successful attempt to create a comedy to cheer a British populous under continual bombing attacks by the Nazis. It was a huge success running for almost 2,000 performances.

 

René Augesen as Ruth Condomine and Anthony Fusco as Charles Condomine in Cal Shakes production of BLITHE SPIRIT, directed by Mark Rucker; photo by Kevin Berne.

 

The main character is not Madame Arcati, although actors covet playing the role that is designed to steal scenes. It seems that novelist Charles Condomine (Anthony Fusco) now married to his second wife Ruth (Rene Augesen) in doing research for a new mystery book, arranges a séance to be performed by the ditzy local spiritual medium Madame Arcati whom is suspected of being a charlatan. Dr. and Mrs. Bradman (Kevin Ralston and Melissa Smith) share a pre-séance dinner served by an inept Edith (Rebekah Brockman) and stay expecting a bit of fun at Madame Arcati’s expense. Horrors, Arcati is the real thing and she accidentally conjures up the spirit of Elvira (Jessica Kitchens) the selfish and spoiled first wife of Charles.

It seems that Charles is the only one able to see Elvira. This allows Coward to write some witty bits of dialog between Charles and Elvira that are misinterpreted by Ruth who becomes hysterically distraught. Things go from bad to worse when Elvira, with murder in her heart, decides to sabotage Charles’s second marriage to Ruth. Hilarious wildness ensues with surprising plot twists and disastrous results that keep you enthralled.

Cal Shakes elected to perform the play in its original three act format lasting 2 hours and forty minutes with two 10 minute intermissions. Doing so is confirmation of Henri Bergson’s concept of relative time can be encapsulated in “who notices time when you’re having fun?” Seasoned actors Augenson and Fusco perform with authority giving equal depth to their verbal duels although Coward gives Charles the last words. Jessica Kitchens, a recent A.C.T. MFA graduate, is a vision of beauty as the ghostly Elvira and A.C.T. MFA student Rebekah Brockman as Edith is a joy to watch.

Much of that credit given to the actors must be shared by Mark Rucker’s spot on direction that matches his reign over the 2009 Cal Shakes multi award winning staging of Private Lives. Annie Smart’s set uses the full outdoor stage and although expansive has the intimate feeling needed for a drawing room comedy. What happens to that tidy set in the final scenes is shocking. The attachment of white wisteria and a flowering bush outside of the ubiquitous French doors is a nice touch. Not to be outdone by the acting, directing and sets Katherine Roth’s costume designs including the garish “spiritual” outfit worn by Madam Arcati earn equal accolades.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com.

 

Aug 11 2012
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Circle Mirror Transformation: Theater Games Reveal Real Life Situations

By Flora Lynn Isaacson

 

Theresa (Arwen Anderson) and Marty (Julia Brothers) talk during a break from their adult Creative Drama class in the Bay Area Premiere of Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation, now playing at Marin Theatre Company, in co-production with Encore Theatre Company, through August 26.

Marin Theatre Company in a co-production with Encore Theatre Company of San Francisco, has opened its 2012-13 Season with a regional premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, a hot, young, New York-based playwright.  Earlier this year, the Aurora Theatre Company gave Annie Baker’s Body Awareness a strong production, followed by the San Francisco Playhouse’s superb production of her second play, The Aliens, which were both set in the fictional town of Shirley, Vermont.  Circle Mirror Transformation, also set in Shirley, Vermont, has become her most popular play.

Since Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation is an actor’s play, it wouldn’t be surprising if any person who has taken an acting class has played at least one of the games presented in this play. However, Circle Mirror Transformation is not just a play about acting. It is also a play about life.  Acting could be viewed as mirroring the transformation of life.  According to Annie Baker, life is about circles, mirrors, and transformations.  Life is often described as a circle, observing only six weeks of an acting class, Baker grapples with many common issues in life.

In 33 brief scenes, spread over six weeks, Circle Mirror Transformation follows the discovery of four students with the guidance of Marty, their teacher (Julia Brothers).  The class includes recently divorced carpenter Schultz (Robert Parsons), precocious aspiring actress Lauren (Marissa Keltie), teasing former actress Theresa (Arwen Anderson) and Marty’s husband James (L. Peter Callender).

The play opens on the group in the first day of class playing a concentration game where the goal is to count to ten, one by one, without signaling who is going to say what number and when.  The group is unable to do it. The play is essentially a compilation of acting games with two real scenes in between.

Staged by New York Director Kip Fagan in his first Marin production, the show displays the talents of a marvelously strong cast.  Andrew Boyce’s set is a community center rec room. The class taking place in the center is called “Adult Creative Drama–six weeks of once a week classes conveyed in two hours with no intermission, but with lots of short scenes and blackouts. These pauses are one of the defining trademarks of Annie Baker’s work.  Silence allows the characters to think before they act; everything becomes much more deliberate.  It also gives the audience time and space to take in the story and participate in the moment the characters are living through.

The “transformation” in the title refers to the barely perceptible ways people change each other for good and sometimes forever.  What’s most amazing over the course of the play is the occasional “re-enactments” in which one student plays another.  From the depth and detail of the portrayals, you realize just how much quality time they’ve spent together.  Annie Baker has created a theatrical compliment to real life.

Circle Mirror Transformation runs August 2-August 26, 2012 at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA.  Performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesday & Thursday-Saturday; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; and 7 p.m. Sunday.  Matinees are at 2 p.m. every Sunday. There are also performances Saturday, August 11 and 25 at 2 p.m. and a 1 p.m. performance, Thursday, August 16.

For tickets, call 415-388-5208 or go online at www.marintheatre.org.

Coming up next at Marin Theatre Company will be Top Dog/Under Dog by Susan-Lori Parks and directed by Timothy Douglas, September 27-October 21, 2012.