Old Creamery - One of Edward Albee's most famous plays, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens September 30th and runs through October 17th. It will feature Marquetta Senters as Martha, Tom Milligan as George, Jackie McCall as Honey, and David Tull as Nick.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won the Tony Award for best play in 1963. A young couple at a faculty party is invited to an intimate and somewhat frightening after-party, and, as a round of "Humiliate the Host" gives way to a game of "Get the Guests," is initiated into the sordid history of the elder couple's marital strife. It is a tour de force of wit, humor, irony and cruelty.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? will play at the Old Creamery's Studio Stage. The Studio Stage is located at 3023 220th Trail, in Middle Amana. Show times are Thursdays and Sundays at 3 p.m.; and Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Call 1-800-35-AMANA for tickets or visit
www.oldcreamery.com. Tickets are $22.50 for adults and $15.50 for students.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Opens September 30th
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Check out Dreamwell's Cyber Cipher event
Dreamwell - Dreamwell Theatre presents Cyber Cipher: A Weekend Pledge Drive, an interactive online event featuring videos and a scavenger hunt. Over the past few weeks, Dreamwell Theatre ventured into the community to find out what Iowa Citians think about theatre. People of all ages gave our video crew funny and insightful responses. Some even performed short scenes from a recent Dreamwell show as well as classic Shakespearean plays.
Do Iowa Citians bite their thumbs at each other? And how many theatres can Iowa Citians name? For three days beginning Friday, September 17, Dreamwell will post to their website videos that answer these and many other questions, providing a window into the greater Iowa City community's thoughts about theatre. Dreamwell hopes the community will enjoy the videos and consider pledging to Dreamwell's DreamHome fund to help the theatre find a permanent home. Donations are accepted through a Paypal link on the Dreamwell website as well as through the Facebook Cause page: "Support a new home for Dreamwell."
To add to the fun, at the end of each video will be a clue to an online scavenger hunt. The winner of the scavenger hunt will receive prizes!
Denali performances offer interesting talkbacks
Working Group - We just received word that Working Group Theatre's production of Denali will have two interesting post show events. Go deeper into the terrain and questions behind the premiere production of this unique play.
Sunday September 19: “Life in the Death Zone”
Veteran mountain climber, ultra-marathon runner and Iowa City ER doctor, Chuck Huss talks about his experiences on the world’s toughest mountains.
Sunday September 26: “The Slippery Slope: Fiction in Memoir”
With Robin Hemley, Director of UI’s Nonfiction Workshop and award-winning author of “Turning Life Into Fiction” and “Invented Eden”
For more information, go here.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
ITAC presents Cemetery Club this weekend
ITAC - The Iowa Theatre Artists Company opens its fifth production of the 2010 Season on September 17 with The Cemetery Club, a comedy by Ivan Menchell. The four-week run of performances is scheduled over a five week period, with one week off for Amana’s Oktoberfest the weekend of October 1st through the 3rd. Performance times are Fridays; 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm, Saturdays; 7:30 pm, and Sundays; 1:30 pm, with the production closing on October 17.
The Cemetery Club follows the story of three widows who meet one Sunday each month to visit the graves of their departed husbands. Their routine is interrupted when they run into a local widower at the cemetery on one of their outings, which causes a range of new emotions to emerge among the women following this unexpected meeting. Each has to consider how the introduction of this newcomer into their lives will affect their outlook on dating, friendship and life as they have known it. The Washington Journal described it as “An evening of pure pleasure that will make you glad you went to the theatre.”
Audiences will recognize four of the cast members from previous productions at ITAC and at various theatres throughout Eastern Iowa. Co-Producer and Co-Founder of ITAC, Meg Merckens (South Amana) plays Lucille, the most out-going and energetic of the widowed threesome, fully ready to get back into the dating scene. Rachael Lindhart (Iowa City) is Doris, the most traditional and least willing to change her monthly homage to her husband, Abe. Ida, played by newcomer, Judy Gardner (St. Peter, Minnesota) finds herself confused as to whose advice she should follow until everything changes with the chance meeting of long-time acquaintance, Sam played by her real-life husband, actor Robert Gardner (St. Peter, Minnesota). Paula Grady (Cedar Rapids) rounds out the cast as Mildred. Mary O’ Sullivan of Cedar Rapids makes her directorial debut at ITAC with the fall comedy.
The Cemetery Club marks the Gardners second time performing together in a full-length stage comedy, though both have acting credits at various theatres on their own. Following the first week of rehearsal, Robert Gardner noted that the show “...is a funny, funny play and surprisingly touching. It’s a fine cast and I finally get to be a nice guy.” His wife and co-performer, Judy Gardner added, “It’s wonderful to have the chance to play an optimistic older woman who is not afraid to take chances.”
Ticket prices are $25 for adults and $10 for students. Group rates and a FlexCard Savings program are available. For information and reservations, call: 319-622-3222 or visit: www.iowatheatreartists.org
Monday, September 13, 2010
TCR Spells Success with Spelling Bee
by Rachel Brown
TCR - Middle School. That word alone is enough to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who has lived through it. Theatre Cedar Rapids' production of 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee paints a hilarious and intimate portrait of six adolescents, all of whom not only have to spell words I've never even heard of, but are dealing with the pressures and awkwardness of early adulthood. As stated before by director Leslie Charipar, this is not exactly a family show. I don't think anyone who hasn't already gone though these issues would be able to appreciate them as much as those who have. But if the goal of this production was to take us as audience members back to our own gawky pubescence, with an equally balanced mix of crude humor and the blatant truth of adolescent suffering, then they succeeded and how.
It was obvious everyone was up on stage having as much, if not more, fun than the audience. The amount of time and effort put forth by the directors and cast is evident in the commitment each actor had to his or her character. Each was a clearly defined and magnified version of people we all knew during our middle school years. There is someone for each of us to identify with.
Alex Schulte's head first dive into his character of William Barfee and his blocked sinuses had audience members in fits of laughter. Special recognition has to be given to Laura Tatar (as Logainne Schwarzand-Grubeniere) for singing so clearly with a lisp and to Nathan Scheetz: man, it takes a lot of balls to sing so convincingly about erections. This show allows for each character to have their bit in the limelight. Charipar made some great staging decisions with each character. One moment that sticks out in my mind was during Elizabeth Simon's solo “The I Love You Song” in the second act which demonstrates the problems her character Olives is facing at home. Her frustration and uncertainty are well illustrated by the blocking in addition to the song being sung so beautifully.
Actors Justin Braden (Mitch Mahoney), Dyanna Dawn Davidson (Rona Lisa Peretti) and Mike Wilhelm (Duglas Panch) were well cast and well suited to their roles. Each had a specific and well thought out character and the voices to support them, as did the entire cast.
This show is unique in its ability to literally draw the audience into the show by allowing them to offer themselves up as possible spelling bee contestants. Each actor then has to interact with the audience members while maintaining and reacting in character. Bringing audience members up on stage can be a dangerous thing, and this company excelled.
Compliments to Janelle Lauer for putting together such a cohesive sounding cast. This show doesn't really have principals and it doesn't really have an ensemble, but a cast that works together to form a well balanced mix of music and movement.
Having been to several TCR performances I have never been disappointed by the set. This show is set in a middle school gym in present day Putnam County. I don't know who to give credit to for the remarkable gym floor, so I will say kudos to both Derek Easton and Becky Buhlig. I had to ask someone on the production team if the floor was fabricated or if it was actually planking laid down on the stage. The only thing that could have made it feel more gym-like would have been the smell of gym clothes and floor wax. I am always impressed by the ability of a scenic designer to take a stage with the capacity of TCR's and make it feel so intimate. All in all this was a wonderful space for this company to use to convey their story.
No, I won't tell you who wins the Spelling Bee, but I will tell you this was a fantastic way to spend an evening. Please take the time to see 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Theatre Cedar Rapids. You will be laughing your way through your own trip down memory lane.
Rachel Brown has been a part of the Iowa City theatre community for three years. She graduated from Waldorf college with a BA in Theatre Arts, has acted in and directed shows for Iowa City Community Theatre and performed in shows with the now defunct Catalyst Acting Company as well as Red Door Ensemble and Washington Community Theatre.
Riverside's [title of show] is fabulous
by Meghan D'Souza
[title of show]
Yes, that's really the title of the show currently running at Riverside Theatre.
[audience laughs]
[standing ovation]
[reviewer raves]
[readers attend show]
Okay, okay. I wish it was that easy to capture how great this performance was. To help me along, I stole quotes from audience members on their way out from the show.
"What a great way to start the 30th season (of Riverside Theatre)."
"That was fabulous! Just fabulous!"
"I laughed so much my cheeks hurt."
This show follows a group of friends as they write a musical about their lives. What is fun is that what we are watching, their lives unfolding, is also the musical. This musical is for a festival, but the friends have dreams of making it to Broadway. We witness excitement, a downfall and lifelong goals being fulfilled.
I can't imagine a more perfect cast for this show. Eddie Skaggs, Patrick Dulaney, Jessica Flood and Kristen Behrendt came together to build believable relationships in front of our eyes. Skaggs and Dulaney played two close friends who had a long history together. Flood and Behrendt joined the story as ladies who had not previously known each other, but by the end of the play it was clear that everyone had grown together and built a strong bond in their experience of writing and performing their musical.
The most important part of making this musical work was the comedy. For some, this can be tricky. However, the whole cast, especially Dulaney, had a real talent for comedy. They knew how to use body language, tone of voice, facial expression and, above all else, perfect timing to get the humor across. That is why our cheeks were hurting from laughing so much. It can be so easy to overact or really throw a joke so far in the face of the audience that it simply isn't funny. This cast was so clever with their humor and bounced off of each other so well that the script worked perfectly.
Despite being mainly a comedy, this musical did have its sober parts and I was impressed with the smooth transition the actors made from humor to tension, back to humor, all while staying true to who the characters were. Such a jump to extremes was unexpected, but I liked it. Instead taking a tense scene and making it all about sarcasm to keep the humor going, the anger, anxiety, and stress felt real. The atmosphere was tense. When the characters mended the situation, they made another smooth transition back up to the fun times they were having.
Props should also be given for a clever set design on the open stage. The stage floor was covered with a life-size piece of notebook paper that had doodles pertaining to the musical drawn on it. The piano was on wheels for the characters to move the pianist around when they changed the set around. A dry erase board stood towards the back for the characters to write their notes on, but it was also used as a screen to project images on during one of the songs. The back lighting also used projection, depending on the mood on stage.
This is definitely a musical I am glad I did not miss. It is rare for me to laugh out loud at performances, but this show had what it takes.
Friday, September 10, 2010
We are rich... in theatre opportunities!
What a great weekend of theatre in the corridor!
It's the last weekend to check out the classic Stoppard show Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at the festival stage in Lower City Park. Check out our review (and some opinions from the community) here.
Also playing only this weekend is SPT's newest show to meld music and sketch comedy into an evening that always make you laugh and usually makes you think too.
This weekend also brings a new theatre series to stage as Working Group Theatre presents its first Northside Sundays production with Artists in Action Live. Tickets are only $5 and it's on Riverside's stage Sunday night. They've got a great line up of storytellers - Sean Lewis, Megan Gogerty, John Kaufmann, Janet Schlapkohl, and Kristy Hartsgrove. Should be an excellent evening!
It's also the weekend of the musical in the corridor. TCR brings to stage the smash hit 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Old Creamery offers Church Basement Ladies, a hilarious musical that played forever in Minnesota and then went on a national tour last year. Finally, Riverside presents a quirky show about four friends who decide to create a musical called [title of show]. A 2009 Tony award nominee, this show sounds like a lot of fun.
And just because one can never have a weekend of theatre without Chekhov (that's a rule, right?), Coe College will present three Chekhov comedies at the Iowa Theatre Artists Company stage this weekend too.
There's too much - how can anyone see it all? Honestly, I don't think it's physically possible to see it all. But if anyone can show me proof that they went to 4 of the 7 shows this weekend, I'll give you a... t shirt? Sure, why not? It'll give me an excuse to make some Iowa Theatre Blog t-shirts. Ticket stubs from four shows dated this weekend gets you a t-shirt! Do it. You know you want to.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Riverside's 30th year begins with unique musical
Riverside - Iowa City’s resident professional theatre company, will present [title of show] September 10 through October 3. With music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen and book by Hunter Bell, [title of show] is directed by Ron Clark. The musical director is Maggie Grosvenor Mowery. Tickets are available at the Riverside Theatre Box Office at (319) 338-7672.
Nominated for a Tony Award® for Best Book of a Musical in 2009, [title of show] is a funny and melodic romp that chronicles the three-week journey of two struggling writers, Jeff and Hunter, who decide to write a completely original musical starring themselves and their two best friends for the New York Musical Theatre Festival. In the span of 90 minutes, four performers and a pianist hilariously depict the creative process of collaboration for the audience.
The musical’s unconventional title comes from the blank to be filled in on the festival application form. Musical numbers include songs such as "Two Nobodies in New York," "Die Vampire, Die," "Monkeys and Playbills," and "Change It, Don’t Change It." "They’re catchy and clever,” director Ron Clark said, "but they also honestly and charmingly reflect the moments of elation, frustration, and heartbreak that are part of any creative journey." He says the score "contains references to more than 50 other musicals, which die-hard theatre fans will have fun listening for, and an eclectic range of styles everyone will enjoy—from hip-hop to Lerner and Loewe, and everything in between."
Eddie Skaggs, who appeared in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change at Riverside in 2007 and Patrick DuLaney, who appeared in both Love’s Labour’s Lost and Romeo and Juliet at this summer’s Riverside Theatre Shakespeare Festival, play Jeff and Hunter (respectively.) Friends Heidi and Susan are played by Riverside musical favorite Kristen Behrendt and Jessica Flood, who also appeared in Love’s Labour’s Lost as Jaquenetta the Wench.
Jason Sifford appears on stage as the pianist. The production also features choreography by Patrick DuLaney, scenography by Scott Olinger and costume design by Laura Ambrose.
Tickets range from $12-$28 with a $12 student rush 20 minutes before the performance. Tickets may be ordered through the Riverside Theatre Box Office at 213 N. Gilbert Street, (319) 338-7672.
Working Group Theatre Premieres New Play
Working Group — Iowa City’s newest professional theatre company, Working Group Theatre, is pleased to present the world premiere of Austin Bunn’s Denali as part of the Northside Sundays series at Riverside Theatre. Running for four performances only: Sunday September 19, Monday September 20, Tuesday September 21 and Sunday September 26. All performances are at 8pm. Tickets are $10 adults/$7 students. To reserve tickets go to tickets@workinggrouptheatre.org or call 319-594-9051.
Who owns the story of survival? One summer, three childhood friends attempt to summit Mt. McKinley in Alaska's Denali National Park -- and only two come back. When a memoir hits the shelves by one of the survivors it rockets to the bestseller lists, but is it the truth? In a turn of events resonating with the real-life scandal of James Frey, Denali explores the line between fact and fiction, and the tests of friendship on the world’s coldest mountain.
Written by Austin Bunn (Pushcart Prize, New York Times Magazine) and directed by Brandon Bruce (Reefer Madness, Akarui), Denali stars Iowa City favorites, Sean Christopher Lewis (Killadelphia), Martin Andrews (Mary’s Wedding, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Jennifer Fawcett (goat show), and is designed by artist Shawn Johnson (Mary’s Wedding). After every performance, Working Group Theatre invites the audience members to stay for a talkback with cast, director and guests.
Born from the University of Iowa’s MFA Theatre Program and sharing a passion for stripped down and immediate theatre, Working Group charged itself with the mission to create plays that marry epic storytelling with a poor theatre aesthetic. Previous productions include Odysseus, Iowa on the grounds of the Country Camp outside Iowa City, and Drinks by the Pool in the backyard of a private Iowa City home. Now in Residence at Riverside Theatre, Working Group is preparing a season of new works – for more information go here.
Church Basement Ladies Opens Tonight
Old Creamery - Tonight on the main stage in Amana, Church Basement Ladies opens. It's a musical comedy based on the novel Growing Up Lutheran by Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson (book by Jim Stowell and Jessica Zuehlke; music and lyrics by Drew Jansen). It follows a year in the life of a basement kitchen of a church in Minnesota.
Starring Jean Liuzzi, Nicole Savitt (pictured), Deborah Kennedy, Kamille Zbanek and Sean McCall and directed by Curt Wollan, it's sure to to be full of laughs and warm moments.
Church Basement Ladies runs through October 17. Show times are Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $26.50 for adults and $17.50 for students. Group rates are available for 15 or more.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Spelling Bee kicks off with Gala on Friday
TCR – Kids are heading back to school this fall – and so is Theatre Cedar Rapids.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will be in session on the TCR stage September 10 through October 2. The Tony Award-winning musical comedy will also be the featured presentation at the theater’s season-kickoff Gala September 10.
“It’s always a good thing to start a season with lots of laughs, and this show couldn’t be more fun,” says director Leslie Charipar.
With music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Rachel Sheinkin, “Putnam County Spelling Bee” focuses on six awkward middle-school students who’ve made the final round of the local spelling bee. Along with spelling their words, the students are struggling with the pitfalls of middle school, from peanut allergies to puberty.
“There’s something really universal about going back in time and exploring your middle school years,” Charipar says. “This show takes middle school archetypes and puts them onstage, knowing what we know now.”
Among the competitors are Chip Tolentino (played by Nathan Scheetz), the returning champion, whose focus is affected by the onset of puberty; William Barfee (Alex Schulte), hoping to use his “magic foot” to avenge last year’s elimination over a peanut allergy; Leaf Coneybear (Ryan Foizey), a hippie child who makes his own clothes and sings that “I’m not that smart”; Marcy Park (Sarah Levy), an overachiever whose family doesn’t allow her to cry; Olive Ostrovsky (Elizabeth Simon), who’s actually made friends with her dictionary; and Logainne SchwartzandGrubierre (Laura Tatar), who speaks with a lisp and is the head of her elementary school’s Gay-Straight Alliance.
Adding to the humor is the choice to have adults play the six middle school competitors.
“In order to enjoy this play, you have to be well beyond your middle school years,” Charipar says. “When you’re in middle school, your problems are the worst problems in the world; if we tried to do that by casting kids who are still going through it, it wouldn’t be funny. It would be tragic. So this is a chance to laugh at how extreme we all were at that age, and you can only laugh at it because you’ve lived through it.”
That’s not to say that the kids in “Putnam County” are the only oddball characters. The event is presided over by Rona Lisa Peretti (Dyanna Dawn Davidson), the longtime bee hostess who keeps flashing back to her own victory; Vice Principal Douglas Panch (Mike Wilhelm), who has anger management issues and grows increasingly impatient with the kids; and Mitch Mahoney (Justin Braden), a convict who is doing his community service as the spelling bee’s “comfort counselor.”
Putnam County Spelling Bee opened on Broadway in 2005 and played for more than 1,000 performances. It was nominated for multiple Tony Awards including Best Musical, and it won two (Best Book and Best Featured Actor). Since then, it’s become popular at regional and community theatres, and all the recommendations got Charipar’s attention.
“It fits that model that we like to do for the first show of the season,” she said. “So I read it, and I laughed out loud as I was reading.”
Joining Charipar on the artistic team is Assistant Director Nick Williams and Music Director Janelle Lauer, as well as Technical Director Derek Easton. The three-piece orchestra consists of Tony Nickle, Ben Schmidt and Ryan Hoagland, while the set features a gymnasium, with the contestants sitting on bleachers and a basketball hoop hanging from the ceiling.
“One of the things Derek and I came up with is making sure that the athletics were this looming presence, because what we remember about being in school is that if you weren’t an athlete, then the focus wasn’t on you,” Charipar says. “So the basketball court is featured prominently, and anything that isn’t athletics is kind of wedged in between.”
“Spelling Bee” features a unique “audience participation” element: At every performance, several audience members are chosen before the show to join the six students as finalists in the spelling bee. Their success or failure in the bee tests the improvisational skills of the cast, leading to hilarious and unpredictable moments.
The artistic team stresses that while “Putnam County” is good-natured and funny, some of the jokes aren’t appropriate for children. Also, as Charipar notes, the subject matter might hit too close to home for kids who are actually going through some of the trials depicted onstage.
“We’re poking fun at stuff that’s really frank and brutal about being in middle school,” Charipar says. “It’s all true, and we’ve all been there – but maybe some parents aren’t ready to have that conversation yet.”
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will be performed at the Season Kickoff Gala Friday, September 10, as a fundraiser for Theatre Cedar Rapids. The special night will feature auctions, prizes and catering. The show runs through Oct 2, with shows at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and at 2:30 p.m. Sundays. For tickets, call (319) 366-8591, visit the box office at 102 Third St. SE or go online at www.theatrecr.org.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Check out Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the park!
by Sharon and Matthew Falduto
Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is the story of two minor characters from Hamlet, examining the spaces in between the scenes of Shakespeare’s play, and what these two might be doing with themselves. As they are characters created solely to die, they find themselves lacking in motivation or even memory of any day before today. At times they even forget which is Rosencrantz and who is Guildenstern.
Brad Quinn’s Guildenstern (well, I guess he's Guildenstern) is the philosopher of the two, giving soliloquies of his own on the nature of the laws of probability, and the best process for his sole motivation, “drawing out” the nature of Hamlet’s madness. He is given to monologues, flowingly delivered by Quinn and always relatable, even when they concern unicorns or dwarves.
David Priebe’s Rosencrantz is more reactionary, filling silences with his animated expressions and striding lengths. Though his character is allegedly the less bright of the two, it is clear that he does contain some intelligence and understanding of the end game of the show. Priebe uses his wonderfully expressive face to great comic effect.
The main characters are in their best form when they are engaged in rapid-fire dialogue, such as their games of questions. These scenes are some of the most enjoyable of the play. At other times, the pacing of the show seemed a bit off; the coin tricks that are supposed to demonstrate that these people exist outside the laws of nature end up dragging the show down at times. Admittedly, it's hard as an actor to say the same word over and over and make it interesting, but unfortunately the play gets a little static at the beginning.
When the players within the play took the stage it also livened up the action, illustrated by one of Stoppard’s great lines spoken by Rosencrantz: “I feel like a spectator - an appalling business. The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.” The mostly silent troupe of actors fills the stage with merriment as they demonstrate their remarkable acting skills, mostly illustrated by the myriad ways in which they can act out death. They are led by Ed Henry, the most vociferous of the group, who delivers his lines with an actor-ly bearing which we found always entertaining but somewhat lacking in vocal variety.
Matthew James’ Hamlet was the true scene stealer of the show; he perfectly exhibited the Dane’s “north by northwest” madness by making perfect sense and reason when necessary and literally falling on the floor screaming and thrashing when not. With akimbo hair and expressions that varied from conniving to convivial, James made the most of every moment he was on stage.
The costumes were beautiful and lively; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s cloaks and hats were a riot of color in stark contrast to the plain black outfit that Hamlet wore for most of the show. Director James Trainor made good use of the stage, choosing the right moments to place a character on the balcony and utilizing the trap system for a hilarious sequence late in the play.
We were glad to have brought a blanket along to utilize in the somewhat unseasonable September weather, and you might want to bring some bug spray as well. We in Iowa City are very fortunate to have such a wonderful outdoor venue in our community. Enjoy theatre under the stars this weekend at ICCT's production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
SPT opens season with In Over Your Head
SPT - SPT Theatre Company returns with another season of sketch comedy. This year's work is entitled Tales From the Writers' Room: Body of Work. The first show is In Over Your Head and runs September 10 & 11 at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art with guest artist Carrie Fattig Tinkham and musical guests Willie Wells, Greg Kanz and Dave Ollinger. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and are available online through their website.
Chekhov One Acts at ITAC this weekend
ITAC & Coe - The Coe College Department of Theatre Arts will present Chekhovian Chuckles: three one-act comedies by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) celebrating his 150th birthday.. These special productions will be staged at both the Iowa Theatre Artists Company (ITAC) in Amana and on the Coe campus.
The ITAC presentations will be held Friday, September 10 and Saturday, September 11 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, September 12 at 1:30 p.m. General admission is $10, $8 for students and seniors. In addition, patrons can attend a preview performance at no charge on Friday, September 10, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Tickets can be reserved by calling the ITAC Box Office at 319-622-3222.
At Coe, the performances will be held in Mills Experimental Theatre in the Dows Fine Arts Center on Friday, September 17 and Saturday, September 18 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, September 19 at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the door or by calling the Coe Box Office at 399-8600, 11 a.m.- 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. Prices are $10 for general admission, $8 for students and seniors.
The productions are directed by Coe Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Steven Marc Weiss, and feature the acting talents of Weiss and Coe students Britt Anderson, Satchel Jones, Anna Hegland and Brandon Palmer. A synopsis of each of the one-act presentations is as follows:
On the Harmfulness of Tobacco - a dramatic monologue, featuring Weiss as Ivan Ivanich Nyukhin, a henpecked husband whose wife insists that he supplement the family income by delivering popular lectures on subjects about which he knows almost nothing. The topic of today's lecture is tobacco's deleterious effect on humankind. Never actually getting around to that subject, Nyukhin spends the entire 20 minutes of this funny and sad solo piece in one digression after another, as he (often hilariously) recounts the daily miseries of his home life.
The Marriage Proposal - a "joke" in one act, featuring Weiss as a landowner Stepan Stepanovich Chubukov, Anderson as his daughter Natalya Stepanovna, and Satchel Jones as neighbor Ivan Vassilyevich Lomov, who is overanxious about his health. An intended proposal of marriage goes hysterically awry as the young, sensitive hypochondriac Lomov is left alone with Natalia, the daughter of his neighbor Chubukov, who is delighted at the thought of marrying off his only child. Before Lomov can even get around to proposing to Natalia, however, a misunderstanding develops between the two over ownership of a small parcel of land bordering their two properties. Their argument escalates into a full blown verbal battle, and the father's attempt to mediate the crisis only adds fuel to the fire.
The Boor - a “joke” in one act, featuring Hegland as the widow Yelena Ivanovna Popova, Palmer as middle-aged gentleman farmer Grigory Stepanovich Smirnov and Weiss portraying Popova’s servent, Luka. Smirnov, a landowner and creditor, arrives at the home of the widow Popova to collect money her late husband owed him. Popova has steadfastly refused to give up mourning her spouse, even though he's been dead for a full seven months and she knows that he was often unfaithful. Outraged by Smirnov's rude intrusion on her "solitude," Popova tries unsuccessfully to ignore him, but in the end she confronts him head on with her irritation over his crude incivility, challenging him to a duel with her husband's pistols. But first, she needs him to teach her how to hold and shoot a pistol!
For more information, call 399-8600 or visit theatre.coe.edu.
Auditions for Dreamwell and TCR coming soon
TCR & Dreamwell - Two area theaters will hold auditions this month for upcoming shows. Theatre Cedar Rapids will hold auditions for a new adaptation of Six Characters In Search of an Author Sunday and Monday, September 12 & 13, at 7 p.m. each night.
Six Characters In Search of an Author will be produced at TCR October 15-30. Director Jason Alberty has created his own adaptation of the classic Luigi Pirandello play, where six characters force their way into a theatre company’s rehearsal and demand that their own story be put on the stage.
“I felt the language needed to be updated, so that the audience could more easily grasp the situation,” Alberty said. “It’s more accessible now.”
Alberty recommends that actors check out his version of the script beforehand from the TCR Box Office, though he notes that getting familiar with a different translation would also be a good way to prepare.
“This is a great show for newcomers, because there are several roles that get a lot of stage time but don’t involve a lot of lines to deal with,” he said. “It’s an exceptional show from an acting standpoint, because you have two or three roles that are some of the most challenging roles I’ve ever seen, and then you’ve got roles where there are just a few lines, allowing actors who don’t have a lot of experience to get involved and learn.”
Available roles include:
Characters of the Comedy in the Making:
The Father (50s)
The Mother (50s)
The Step-Daughter (18-25)
The Boy (14, does not speak)
The Child (5-8, does not speak)
The Son (25-30)
Madame Pace (40+)
Actors of the Company:
Director
Leading Lady
Leading Man
L’ingenue
Juvenile Lead
Actor & Actress
Stage Manager
Tech Director
For more information, visit www.theatrecr.org.
Later in the month, Dreamwell Theatre will hold auditions for its Writer's Joust award winning play, Innocence, a docudrama by Tom Deiker. Auditions will take place at the Iowa City Public Library, Friday, September 17, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. and Saturday, September 18, 3:30 p.m - 6:30 p.m. Auditions will consist of readings from the script.
Cast of 9-11: 6 men, ages 25-65, 5 women: ages 18-55. Contains sexual and violent language. Scripts will be available on reserve at the ICPL. Performance dates are November 19 and 20. Directed by Pauline Tyer.
In native villages of Peru, Columbia, and Ecuador a serial killer preys on numerous young girls. The killer, Pedro Lopez, "Monster of the Andes," is captured by villagers and nearly tortured to death. An Americn nun intervenes and turns Pedro over to Peruvian authorities, who release him into Columbia, to murder more children. Beliefs are challenged as they try to understand a world where such crimes exist.
CHARACTERS:
Interviewer: male, age optional.
Pedro Lopez: male, age 28.
Mother: Pedro’s mother, 50’s.
Sister/Principal/Ayachuco wife: 30’s.
Warden: male, age optional.
Teacher: Male, 40’s.
Sheriff: male, age optional.
Nun: age optional.
Ayachuco wife: Middle aged.
For more information, go to www.dreamwell.com.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Backstage with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
ICCT - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the absurdist tragicomedy from Tom Stoppard opens this weekend at the Riverside Festival Stage in Lower City Park. The Iowa City Community Theatre has never produced the show in their 54 year history although it has been produced in the area before. In fact one of the cast members, Brad Quinn, portrayed Rosencrantz in a previous production, but in ICCT's version, he plays Guildenstern. We had a chance to ask Brad, as well as James Trainor, the director of the show, a few questions.
Brad, you were in another production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead many years ago - when was that?
Brad: Yes, West Side Players did a production of this show back when I was in college. This was before the Festival Stage was even built, but ironically it was in the same park, about 150-200 yards from where the stage is now. And we performed it at around the same time too, at the end of August.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is over 40 years old. How will it relate to modern audiences?
James: Stoppard deals with universal themes in this play. It belong to the "postmodern" school of the 60s that examined the uncertainty of the human condition: whether an individual has an control over his or her destiny, the difficulty of coping with the unknown, the mutability of identity. We're all rational beings in an apparently irrational universe, and the growing awareness of this has played a big part in creating our modern culture. The setting is a popular play by William Shakespeare, which is canon and probably will be for a while. Hamlet still is a familiar text in high schools and colleges, and I think the premise for this play (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are attempting to analyze Hamlet when they've only witnessed a fraction of the action) is a great metaphor for how life takes us by surprise. Plus, it's simply drop-dead funny. Everyone loves a good laugh.
Brad, you know these Rosencrantz and Guildenstern very well...can you compare the two characters? Is one more difficult to play than the other?
Brad: Rosencrantz is not the brightest character, but he has a childlike innocence and curiosity. Guildenstern is smarter, but not as smart as he thinks he is. He's pedantic and blustery. He might be a little harder to play, but that's mostly because he has more lines, especially in the form of short and long speeches, than Rosencrantz has.
James, how has having Brad in the cast, with his experience, helped the show?
James: Brad is a big fan of the show; if I'm not mistaken he was the one who proposed it to the selection committee, and he also backed the idea to put it on the festival stage, which I think was a brilliant idea. Like Brad said, Guildenstern has a lot more lines, which was a struggle at first, but his commitment and passion has carried him through. He really understands the rhythm of the piece as a whole.
There a feeling of complete randomness in this show, perhaps best demonstrated in the famous coin flipping scene - what do you think the play is saying about this aspect of life?
James: There are aspects of the universe that, as much energy as we spend analyzing and understanding them, still baffle our primate brains. When he loses an extremely unlikely string of coin flips, Guildenstern appeals to the idea that "each individual coin spun individually is as likely to come down heads as tails and therefore should cause no surprise each individual time it does." Mathematicians will tell you that this is obvious, and most of us understand it on some level, but I challenge anyone to actually witness ninety lost coin flips in a row and not be at least a little bit disturbed. Our minds are designed to create tiny models of the universe out of incomplete information. When we encounter something that we can't explain away that doesn't fit into our model, it disturbs us deeply. This is why so much of psychology, religion and art centers around death. We know we're going to die, but we typically don't know when, just as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern don't know when the string of "heads" is going to end. We don't know what's going to happen; we only know what is likely.
Can you talk a little bit about the character of the Player?
James: The Player serves the purpose of easing this anxiety a little bit. With intelligence and humor, he dismisses fatalistic anxiety as self-indulgent moping. "Uncertainty is the normal state. You're nobody special." If Guildenstern has a tragic flaw, it's thinking too much, insisting the universe conform to his model. In the end, he wastes his life by trying to cling to control. I think Stoppard is saying we need to lighten up a little bit and not take ourselves too seriously. The unknown and the unpredictable are going to ruin our plans at some point, but that's part of life; as a matter of fact, that is life.
Brad: The feeling in this show is one of inevitability. The coins which are flipped all come down heads, which suggests a pattern which cannot be broken. Nothing is random, it's just that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern don't understand the factors which are leading them to their ultimate end. This is pretty much exactly like life. Every single thing which happens is determined by that which has occurred previously, it's just that we can't possibly understand the vast amount of information it would take to know why, or what will happen next. And more to the point with this show, you get the idea that all this has happened before, and this shall happen again. And nobody will know any better the next time, either.
Let's switch gears... what has it been like working on the festival stage?
Brad: Hot. Buggy. Damp. I'm not going to lie...it's not ideal for rehearsals. You are at nature's whim. And you really have to up your vocal volume a lot, because there aren't really any walls to bounce the sound back. On the other hand, it has the right feel for this play, especially given it's history as a place to stage Shakespeare. You can almost imagine you came to see a production of Hamlet but ended up on the wrong side of it. And the stage has a nice set of traps which are necessary for this show and hard to find in a space around here.
James: The most exciting part of the production is the fact that we're outside on the festival stage. Not only does it recall the Shakespeare plays that usually take place on the same place, but the atmosphere really feeds into the poetry of some of the language. I like the festival stage because it gives us the opportunity to surround the audience, giving them the feeling that they're part of the world of Elsinore castle. The experience of seeing a villainous king or a clueless ingenue pass you by in the aisle, or hearing a snippet of flute on the wind, does a lot of the work of making the world seem larger. In addition to the aisles, We're using the balcony, the windows, and the trap system. The use of these different areas helps separate the world of Hamlet from the world of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ... who basically aren't allowed to leave the main playing area. I love this space because it has different levels built in, and set dressing can be minimalist or completely absent.
Who else in the cast?
James: Rosencrantz is played by David Priebe. The Player is played by Ed Henry and Hamlet is played by Matthew James. The ensemble cast is rounded out by Elizabeth Breed, Mary Ann Cozine, Paula Grady, Susan Jacobson, Greg Kilberger, Dennis Lambing, Emily Larson, Nick Ostrem, Ariane Parkes-Perret, Noah Parks and Brian Tanner.
How are things going with rehearsals?
James: Everyone is doing a wonderful job, and has brought some really engaging stuff to the table. The two titles characters in this play have a lot of verbal and physical work to do, and David and Brad have done it with nearly tireless energy and creativity. However, this play could simply not be done without a equally versatile and talented ensemble. My conceit is that Hamlet, who is taken out of context here, should be truly crazy, and the Hamlet people have done a wonderful job of creating a bizarre and zany world. Likewise, the band of players encountered on the road have been fleshed out and have a lot of fun physical business and present an intriguing play-within-a-play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern themselves have a lot of stage time, but I think of this as an ensemble show. I've never seen actors who don't have a single line to speak work so hard.
What new discovery did you make about the show through the rehearsal process?
James: I've learned a lot. When I looked at the play on paper, I thought it was a very intelligent and funny examination of some of the philosophical ideas I talked about earlier. I looked it as a parody of Waiting for Godot, except that Vladimir and Estragon happened to be in Hamlet. I learned pretty quickly that "happened to be in Hamlet" means a dozen people, and all the challenges that comes with scheduling, blocking and teching. I'd never really done a lot of physical comedy before, but I've had a blast creating the environment, and now the interruptions and interjections by these absurd characters are some of my favorite bits.
Brad: Tom Stoppard is smart. He's smarter than me, and he's probably smarter than whoever is reading this. And because of this, I literally find something new every single time I go through the play. I found this to be true of the other Stoppard show I was in, Rock and Roll at TCR last fall, as well. He doesn't bother explaining anything to his audience, he expects you to be able to figure it out on your own. Which actually presents an interesting dichotomy within the play, as it uses several scenes from Hamlet within the text. And as you know, Shakespeare loved to have his characters give long speeches explaining everything to the audience. Hamlet even has a version of itself within itself to further explain it to the audience in case they didn't get it, a fact which is played with in this show to hilarious result. But as an audience member for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, you'd better pay attention and think if you don't want to get lost. Or better yet, see it multiple times. I guarantee you will get more out of it every single time you see it.
The show opens Friday, September 3 at 7:30 pm at the Riverside Festival stage in Lower City Park. For more information, go here.
