JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2000 ----------------------------In this issue--------------------------------------- Enter Laughing: The classic struggle "The Show must go on" ­vs­ "This is stupid, I'm going home" and other classic Techie quotes. Rubin's Corner: The Millennium Poll, Putting it Together Voices in Contemporary Theatre This month, an overview of Diverse voices: Joe Orton, Regina Taylor at Goodman, Tom Stoppard, and unsung Kurt Weill ...and Good News from the Mailbag CyberTheatre Monthly: Curtainup.com, Play's at What's that Line, StageSpecs.com, and New York Theatre Wire The Play's the Thing: The Glass Menagerie- Breathing new life into an old favorite. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ENTER LAUGHING Techie Quotes (submitted by "Tater Tot) "Actors are props with dialogue" "Beat to fit, paint to match" "If force doesn't work, you're not using enough" "Done is best" "An actor without techies is a naked person standing in the dark trying to emote. A techie without actors is a person with marketable skills." "And on the first day the lord said. .. . .L1, GO! and there was light." "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." "John Wilkes Boothe should have shot an actor. . ." "Let the actors finish it" "I don't make mistakes, I have unintentional improvisations." "Hmmmm. What would a smart guy do?" "Our techies practice safe sets and Techies do it on cue." "Work sucks. I'm going to the theatre." "Extras are props that eat. . ." "Umm, 'scuze me, your techies are showing. . ." "If we could read minds, we wouldn't need headsets." "Here's a helpful hint: measure before you screw" "'If you're not cussing, you're not doing it right." "Once you go black, you never go back. . ." We are here to offer Creative Solutions to Difficult Problems", which for you new guys its a fancy way to say we are going lie cheat and steal to get this lead batton off the ground. "Do what the director tells you to do, than do it the right way" "Be kind to your techies, or they will turn out the lights and go home!" "O Lord, it's hard to be humble, when you are perfect in every way" "Lord grant me the Serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to hide the bodies of those actors I had to kill because they pissed me off." "Directors aren't very direct are they?" "I'm NEVER going to direct another play with actors in it." "I don't do Mondays." "Those who would alter reality must first escape it." "Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together." "Living in Hollywood is like living in a bowl of granola. What ain't fruits and nuts is flakes." "One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop." "PPPPPP = proper planning prevents piss poor productions" "Screw with me and you dance in the dark." "Show me a script that calls for no actors, dancers, musicians or artists and, I will show you a techie's DREAM!" "The classic struggle in Theatre: "The Show must go on" ­vs­ "This is stupid, I'm going home." A joke from the mailbag: A man lay sprawled across three entire seats in the posh theater. When the usher came by and noticed this, he whispered to the man "Sorry , sir but you are only allowed one seat. The man groaned but didn't budge. The usher became impatient. Sir, if you don't get up from there I'm going to have to call the manager. Again the man just groaned, which infuriated the usher who turned and marched briskly back up the aisle in search of the manager. In a few moments both the usher and the manager returned and stood over the man. Together the two of them tried repeatedly to move him but with no success. Finally they summoned the police. The cop surveyed the situation briefly then ask, "All right buddy, what's your name". "Sam" the man moaned. "Where are you from, Sam?" With pain in his voice, Sam replied, "The balcony". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VOICES IN CONTEMPORARY THEATRE As we begin a new year and prepare to welcome new columnists to the TRE family, let's examine the diverse voices sounding regionally in contemporary American Theatre. Regina Taylor's Millennium Mambo Millennium Mambo, a collection of short plays by Kia Corthron, Adrienne Kennedy, Kuzan-Lori Parks, Ntozake Shang, and Regina Taylor will open the Goodman Studio Series this month. The creation of Millennium Mambo stemmed from Taylor's profound appreciation for the works of these African American female playwrights, many of whose works she has performed. Taylor asked each writer to create or select a 10 to 15 minute text that could be performed by a single actress. Trusting that writers working in a common time would yield a common thread, Taylor set no thematic parameters. And as the plays arrived, shared images began to emerge. The creation and re-creation of an identity, long a topic in Taylor's own writing, came to the surface in one work after another, in each writer's unique voice. Weill & Lenya Centennial Celebration The only student of legendary singer Lotte Lenya, Joy Bogen, will star in Weill & Lenya Centennial Celebration concerts at Carnegie Hall & Abraham Goodman House next month. The concert, which will include some of the composer's unpublished music, will explore the romantic saga of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. A true love affair, they survived divorce, Nazi Germany, and emigration to the United States. Their story is told through their famous music, each song chosen to fit the story line of their lives. In addition to Weill's famous Broadway tunes, Ms. Bogen debuts "Time is Standing Still" from Davy Crockett. The multi-talented Joy Bogen has performed opera to cabaret. The world-renown singer Lotte Lenya was so impressed with Ms. Bogen that she personally coached her interpretations of Weill's music. They established a lasting friendship that gave Ms. Bogen an unprecedented access to muchof the composer's unpublished music. Joe Orton's LOOT at American Repertory Theatre The American Repertory Theatre, under the artistic direction of living legend Robert Brustein, turns its attention next month to Joe Orton's black comedy Loot, to be directed by Andrei Belgrader. In Loot, Hal and his pal Dennis have just robbed a bank and need a place to stash the spoils. With the police hot on their trail, the boys decide to hide the stolen cash in the coffin that contain's Hal's late mother, Mrs. McLeavy. While old Mr. McLeavy is busy cataloguing the flowers sent in memory, Hall and Dennis stuff Mommy in the wardrobe and the money in the casket. Fay, Mrs. McLeavy's nurse, stumbles on her dead patient and demands a piece of the action. Before any of the criminals can sneak away with their booty, the Yard's notorious Inspector Truscott starts snooping around and throws a wrench into everybody's plans. What ensues is a farcical game of cover-ups and crack-ups peppered with Joe Orton's epigrammatic wit. Stoppard's Seagull at the Old Globe San Diego's Tony Award-winning Old Globe will tackle the Tom Stoppard translation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull next month, with a fascinating array of American acting talent headed by 6-time Emmy nominee Hariette Hartley. Set on a rural estate in Chekhov's day, The Seagull is a poignant tale of rebuffed and unrequeited love that delves into the psychological minefields between mothers, sons, lovers, friends and relations. The famous actress Irina Arkadina presides over her callous lover, with whom she is obsessed; her frustrated son, whom she dismisses; her brother and former lovers, whom she discards; as well as admiring young women, whom she despises. Some have described Stoppard's translation as "refreshingly funny and ironic" but, regrettably, the author found nothing refreshing or funny in last year's off-broadway production, and the only irony to be that the man who breathes such life into Shakespeare should drain it from Chekhov. Perhaps I just saw a tired cast on a bad night. Walnut Studio brings Philadelphia stage legend to life Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre continues its 15th anniversary season in Independence Studio on 3 with the world premiere of Edwin Forrest by Will Stutts. Forrest, born in Philadelphia in 1806, is considered by many to be the first star of the American stage. He made his professional debut at Walnut Street Theatre at the age of 14. His distinctive vocal abilities and dynamic but realistic acting style made him one of the most famous and wealthiest actors of his time. Stutts play is set in the spring of 1863 where Forrest meets Boston sculptor Thomas Ball, commissioned by Forrest's friends to immortalize the actor in marble. As Forrest sits for the statue, the conversation reveal the fascinating details of both men's lives and the passion they feel for their respective arts. Forrest, swaggering and bombastic, exudes charm and sees as if he's always on stage. Ball is precise and business-like but with an unexpected wit and a wonderful sense of humor. The personalities clash at times, but no more than one would expect from two passionate and creative souls. From the Mailbag... Broadway theatergoers are growing younger, according to a study commissioned by the League of American Theaters and Producers, the trade association for the Broadway theater industry. The league reported that "Who Goes to Broadway? A Demographic Study of the Broadway Audience, 1999" found that the proportion of people under 18 among the record 11.7 million ticket holders this year was 10%, up from 7% in 1991 and 4% in 1981. The study also found that the average Broadway theatergoer attended five shows in the 1998-99 season, compared with four in the 1996-97 season. Of the total audience, 61% live in New York City or its suburbs. Of all Manhattan residents, the study said, 17% attend at least one Broadway show a year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RUBIN'S CORNER THE MILLENNIUM POLL Stage News had an interesting poll of the top theater people of the past millennium. I thought this month it might be fun if you and I did the same poll. Give us your top ten theatre people for the last 1000 years and few comments about you choices. Number one on the list is William Shakespeare. The Stratford-born playwright hailed by many as the greatest writer ever and as the thinker whose work has shaped our sense of what it is to be human. Number two on the list is Noel Coward. This versatile and multi-talented playwright, actor, composer, lyricist, author, screenwriter, director and cabaret performer touched the lives of ordinary people in an extraordinary way with his plays, reviews and operettas. In London and New York you can find several productions that are marking Mr. Coward one-hundredth birthday. After Shakespeare and Coward the number three choice is Andrew Lloyd Webber. I am sure that several of you are now saying unrepeatable things about me. Although opinions vary widely as to the value and quality of his music, this phenomenally successful theatrical composer, who just bought the Stroll Moss Theater Chain, has played a major role in revolutionizing the musical theatre. Our number four selection is Bertolt Brecht. This dramatist and director's work includes Mother Courage and Her Children and The Caucasian Circle. Our fifth selection is Sir Henry Irving. He was a Victorian actor who elevated the status of the performer in a society after he brought out the management of the Lyceum and for 20 years embarked on a fruitful run of Shakespearean production. A list of theater millennium people must include Laurence Oliver. Undoubtedly the finest classical actor throughout the forties, he was the patron of new wave theatre in the fifties. He was the first director of the National Theatre in the sixties. Number seven is Cameron Mackintosh. He continues to demonstrate how to sell high quality products around the world. Number eight is Konstantin Stanislavski. He was a highly influential Russian performer and director whose work and writing created the Method Actor. He is the forerunner of Marlon Brando and Paul Newman. Rounding out the top ten are Henrik Ibsen and Oscar Wilde. Ibsen is on the list because of projects like Hedda Gabler and The Enemy of the People. Wilde was place on the list because of the censorship he had to endure to produce his work. If there were two additional spots in the top ten I would add Stephen Sondheim and George Bernard Shaw. Sondheim who is still writing the long delayed Wise Guys should get the award for A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. Shaw's plays are classic theater. PUTTING IT TOGETHER Ten year ago Julie Andrews, the best friend of Carol Burnett, started in a Manhattan Theater Club production of Side by Side by Sondheim on the New York stage. Cameron MacKintosh and the Mark Taper Forum have brought a new production this time staring Carol Burnett, the best friend of Julie Andrews, which is entitled Putting It Together. There are no spoken words allowed in this production. Lyrics are the lifeline of the show, linking one number to the next with a degree of logic. The plot, which is not really deep, comes from the way the existing Sondheim rhymes have been arranged along the way by direct Eric D. Schaffer. Bob Avian has staged the musical numbers. They are the usual Sondheim dark, gray skies, and galore numbers. Carol Burnett feels that she is doing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?- - The Musical. As advertised Putting It Together is a re-viewing of Sondheim songs outside the context of the shows for which they were invented during two decades. The supporting cast includes George Hearn, John Barrowman, Ruthie Henshall and Bronson Pinchot. The characters, expect for Pinchot the party's fifth wheel that was designed as the observer, have names in the current production. George Hearn and Carol Burnett had to have names since the songs from Merrily We Roll Along had name in the lyrics. The highlight, among the many highlights of the show, is the entire cast doing, "Not Getting Married Today. The other wonderful moments in the show include Pinchot doing "Invocation and Instructions to the Audience", Burnett going "My Husband the Pig", Barrowman doing, "Live Alone and Like It", "Burnett doing, "Ladies Who Lunch," and the company doing, "Being Alive". However, this show is a star turn for Ms. Burnett. UCLA. Burnett's alma, recently let her try her hand at directing and the show she staged was one in which she bounced straight to stardom exactly 40 years ago. The unique link that connects Once Upon A Mattress with Putting It Together is called teamwork. Pretty much Burnett's career has involved ensemble. This includes the Gary Moore Show and the Carol Burnett Show. The show is at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City. On Tuesday evenings Ms. Burnett is replace by Kathy Lee Gifford. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CYBER THEATRE MONTHLY Curtainup.Com http://www.geocities.com/~curtainup/ Highly recommended by TRE readers who write that they "understand if we wanted (the New York Times review) we'd READ the Times review." Do you find some Aisle Say critics to be a little, ahem, intolerably pompous ? Try curtain up, a review site that is fresh and informed, but not pretentiously impossible to please StageSpecs.com http://www.stagespecs.com/ This happens too often on the modern internet - someone has a really unique and fantastic service, and as soon as it's noticed they add a dozen other features available on every freebie & portal site, spend so much time promoting the new stuff that the original idea is neglected. Stage Specs has a fantastic search engine of technical specifications for theatres - when it works. There is currently a sign up that they're upgrading their server. Let's hope that fixes the problem. Let's hope too that they drop the free e-mail and theatre-search nonsense and focus on what their domain name. What's that Line http://www.whatsthatline.com/Plays/ A collection of quotable quotes from plays. One shortcoming - too much Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde which can be found in a thousand other better indexed locations (including Bartlett's) and not enough Neil Simon & Wendy Wasserstein. New York Theatre Wire http://nytheatre-wire.com/ "advance news of what's playing on New York Stages" - with an emphasis on the eclectic. Loads of articles and listings, more free e-mail, classifieds for playbill collectors. To suggest a theatre, dance, or music-related website for CyberTheatre Monthly, write to Theatre@1501broadway.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE PLAY'S THE THING Breathing New Life into an Old Favorite It's always challenging to revisit old classics for a new production. Most of us first encountered The Glass Menagerie in high school, where it gave english teachers a wonderful Tennessee Williams script complete with fragile melancholy heroine and textbook examples of theatricality, but without the prickly subtext apt to surface in detailed classroom discussion of his other titles. I don't remember much of what came from these earliest discussions other than the revelation that Laura is a lot stronger than she seems, and perhaps, as Williams own sister was plagued by mental illness and was ultimately lobotomized, the character Laura was his way of giving his real sister the inner strength he'd wish for her. For some of us, the play next surfaced in acting classes, where it's a lasting favorite for scene studies. One colleague vividly recalls a time when, as a student, he was tested on a scene for Tom and his mother Amanda. Tom is bringing home a friend who Amanda pegs as a gentleman caller for Laura, and desperately wants his mother not to turn it into a dramatic episode. As young actors are inclined to do, they had gotten carried away with the anger and animosity and, very shortly before their test performance, the instructor had stepped in to say no, no, no these two really love each other, what's all the shouting about? The result of this questionable tactic was magical, as the performance that resulted, built on weeks of screaming vituperatives at each other, was now glossed over with a thin, artificial veneer of "no, no, no, we really LOVE each other." Perhaps the best first-step in revisiting an old classic is to sit down the director, designers and cast and tell these stories, not in the atmosphere of a production meeting pitch but in the atmosphere of colleagues at a party telling stories. Any company benefits from a common vocabulary and nothing builds that vocabulary so much as hearing the "inside" story about another's production experiences in their own words. Stories of other productions should also spur on the re-read. It's always a hurdle, whenever one approaches a play one is already familiar with, rereading a script we think we know well. An interesting trick, passed on by a designer friend many years ago, is to temporarily set aside the clean script provided by the director, go to a used bookstore, and buy a copy that's been marked up by someone else. We found a wonderful dog-earred, coffee-stained copy of Menagerie with every music cue and its related dialogue underlined. In the margins when the music is triggered by Laura's comments about being an old maid, the handwritten note reads "facing reality". When its triggered by her saying "I couldn't face it" marginalia reads "reality again." And, amazingly, when music is triggered by Laura's cry as the menagerie is broken, a single notation "ouch." I don't know who made these notations or why, they may have been planning a sound design or they may have been writing a paper, but the trail they left, the glimpse into another mind exploring this story has given me an added appreciation for the material and respect for its author. Finally there is the inevitable question of watching the video. I have little regard for directors who act as theatrical photocopiers. I don't want to see the movie or the Broadway set and blocking reproduced at the community barn, particularly as the similarity of window-dressing truly emphasizes the contrast in acting talent. Not to mention the gutting writers like Williams received at the hands of the Hollywood censors. Movies might best be approached in the manner of the recent Anna and the King, which made a point of analyzing the Rex Harrison and Yul Brenner flicks of the play and musical, for the sole purpose of avoiding anything that was in them. The author invites reader contributions on this subject in the forum bulletin boards. Next month TRE will welcome several new columnists, so e-mail reactions to this and earlier articles will not be printed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2000, Mersinger Theatrical Services