October was a good month for theatre

A short work update:
I am assisting John Henry Davis on Babes in Toyland with the Little Orchestra Society, performing in Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center on December 19th. I am also an Assistant Director/Stage Manager for the Looking Glass Writer/Director Forum, working on three short plays with lots of talented women.

Winter prospects are assisting May Adrales again on Lauren Yee's play Ching Chong Chinaman at Pan Asian Rep and assisting John Henry again on an opera of The Golden Gate, composed by Conrad Cummings, adapted from the novel by Vikram Seth.

One of these days I will direct something... I'm working on it. :-)

Onto the shows:

Here is a picture to describe my third trip to IN THE HEIGHTS on Broadway. Our sincerest thanks (and compliments!) to Paul Tazewell, the costume designer (and my best friend's cousin) who got us these tickets for free! Seeing it from so close was a completely new experience, and I could not take my eyes off of William B. Wingfield as Graffiti Pete. It almost makes me want to watch So You Think You Can Dance.


The new revival of RAGTIME on Broadway was stunning. The most beautiful piece of theatre I have ever seen. I remember now seeing it for the first time at Theatreworks in 2002 and falling in love, but this was 10x everything that was. Every moment was like it's own play, and the storytelling (directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge) was phenomenal. I think this production's strength lies in the simplicity of the design, but is strongly supported by having a true ensemble cast, rather than a few stars and the ensemble. Even the "star numbers" were not presented as such, and were rather presented as a part of the story. I can't really express my thoughts any further, I was that blown away. Go see this show. There is just so much to love.

MEMPHIS on Broadway was fun, but the book dragged a bit. The show is kind of a cross between Hairspray for the politics and Jersey Boys for the bittersweet musician storyline. The music and dancing were fantastic, however, and the lead woman, Montego Glover, is a phenomenal singer and performer. It was also great to see James Monroe Inglehart, a Bay Area native, originating his first Broadway role (after replacing as Mitch Mahoney in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee). Crazy to think that the show started at Theatreworks 6.5 years ago. The design for this was also beautiful, using projection, two tracking columns (which turned) and a catwalk for 90% of the scenes (the only other major set piece being a flying radio box where we could see into the control room of a dozen radio stations). Plus more fabulous costumes by Paul Tazewell.

So I may have been quite spoiled seeing 3 Broadway shows for a total of $60 last month, and that wasn't the end of my theatrical adventures.

IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER (Part 1 of the Brother/Sister Plays) by Tarell McCraney, directed by Tina Landau at The Public is another simply stunning piece. The ensemble was constantly involved in the storytelling even when they were in the background, and the power of rhythm and movement they led was tangible in the room. The theatricality of this piece makes it so unique, which is a combination of the writing and the direction, as well as beautiful yet simple set, light and sound design. The show is so textually and visually rich that I could allow my eyes to drift to the chorus to take in their intensity without losing the story, which was key in the thrust of the Anspacher, where it is not always possible to watch all parts of the stage at once. I am in awe of Tina Landau and will no longer be able to pass up Superior Donuts. I believe this is a perfect piece for the Public, because it delves into a world unfamiliar to us and brings out the politics and the humanity, characterizing actions we can not imagine within the scope of our emotional understanding. That sounds pretentious, but it's not meant to be.

STAMP on NPR Monday Oct. 19th!

EDIT: Check out the story! Currently the cover story on www.npr.org! For the full story check out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113835383.

Hello friends,

Please check out the Stanford Theatre Activist Mobilization Project (STAMP) on NPR this coming Monday morning at 8:40am PST! For anyone who doesn't know, Amanda Gelender and I started STAMP at the end of 2006, and since then it has become a staple of the campus community and is now being featured nationally!

From their official announcement:
In a program on mental health on college campuses, NPR is covering STAMP's project on mental health from our 2008-2009 season, Out of Sight, Out of Mind! featuring interviews with STAMP company members and performances by STAMP actors.

The program will air on Morning Edition twice between 3:00 and 9:00 am on Monday, October 19th. We are so proud to have reached this national level - please join us in celebrating our success!

IF YOU ARE AT STANFORD: Please join us for a bagel breakfast listening party at 8:40am at the LGBT Center.

CAN'T MAKE IT? Listen in all day at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3 and check the website for pictures and additional monologues.

Also, starting Monday check out STAMP's new website at theatre.stanford.edu! I am so proud of everything that STAMP has done, so listen in on Monday morning!

~Alex

Theatre in July Part 2: Mom comes to town

As promised, here is Theatre in July Part 2. When my mom came into town, I took advantage of her love of theatre and larger wallet to go see Hair and Ruined, which I'd been dying to see, as well as Niegel Smith's show because he is a director who's work I've been wanting to see for over a year now, and In The Heights, because my mom wanted to see it (it was my second time- and I think I enjoyed it even more!)

We Declare You a Terrorist
by Tim J. Lord, directed by Niegel Smith, presented as part of the SPF Festival at The Public Theater (in the Martinson)
I was certainly not disappointed in my high expectations of Niegel Smith's work. It was apparent before the show started- the audience entered across the stage, witnessing two of the characters in their separate worlds and taking their seats as members of the audience in the show. We then got to watch as the other 300 audience members entered, one by one, two by two. By the time the show started, we'd already seen a show.
The play itself was a fascinating examination of the Moscow theatre hostage crisis, and the fictional playwright who wrote the play for that evening's performance. Beautiful writing and theatricality supported by strong action and direction.
The weirdest thing about seeing that show when I did was seeing this article the following day (it happened three days before I saw the show).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/world/europe/27chechnya.html
It was just such a strange coincidence. 800 people in a theatre. Of course, the circumstances are much different, but it gave a very harsh reality to the conflict.

Ruined
by Lynn Nottage, presented by Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center
This is my recap of Ruined, as stated in an essay I wrote shortly thereafter.

I tend to categorize shows I see into work that I could possibly be a part of as a director and work that I could not. This idea of “work that I could not be a part of” was epitomized when I went to see Ruined at Manhattan Theatre Club, because Kate Whoriskey’s vision was so stunning that even when it is produced on a large scale elsewhere, the new energy of the play lives in her production and cannot be repeated. In order to direct Ruined, I would have to entirely re-envision it for a different space and a different audience, and even so I would be influenced by Kate Whoriskey’s decisions because she was the directorial voice behind the play.

This play was amazing. I wish so badly that I could have been a part of this production somehow. The costumes, designed by my best friend's cousin Paul Tazewell, were amazing and should have won a Tony- if only MTC hadn't stupidly cut off the show's potential to go to Broadway. It seems silly to point out the individual parts of this show that were good, because it was all so good. Just thinking about it brings up a lump in my throat- I want to direct! I want to make amazing theatre happen! Thank you, Lynn Nottage and Kate Whoriskey, for providing me with such inspiration.

Hair
on Broadway at the Al Hirschfield Theatre
It's everything you want it to be. Everything. Added pluses were seeing Will Swenson playing Berger (I saw him two summers ago in 110 in the Shade in which he was phenomenal) and obviously Gavin Creel, who still stuns me because I saw him seven years ago in Thoroughly Modern Millie and he doesn't look a day older. In fact he looks younger. ALSO the guy who plays Woof- Bryce Ryness- looked and acted awesomely similar to Daniel Steinbock, who played Woof in Hair at Stanford and was in my production of Jazzing this Spring. So basically every time I saw Woof it made me really happy. :-)
Got to sit next to the high school theatre kid who'd seen the show three times (and he's from Massachusetts) all dressed up who knew the fastest way down to the stage from our seats- so I was one of the first 20 people onstage at the end- and without thinking about it I was wearing my ridiculously colorful long skirt so I felt quite appropriately dressed. Being on a Broadway stage... is just one of those things you can't pass up. It's amazing. Love. And Hair. And Manchester England.

In the Heights
on Broadway at the Richard Rogers Theatre
I saw the show back in April, but since I didn't write about it then I'll write about it now. It was a Sunday performance, so unsurprisingly several of the understudies were onstage. And they were all excellent. Fortunately, Robin De Jesús was still performing, because he steals the show hands down. Both the Nina and the Abuela Claudia, both understudies, were wonderful, better than the actors I saw in April. I absolutely loved Nina LaFarga because is down to earth and thoughtful and therefore actually seems like she could be a Stanford student- instead of an actress playing a Stanford student. Her voice is also beautiful.
For whatever reason, the dancing seemed a lot cleaner in this performance, and therefore I was much more excited about it. And this time I actually got to watch the final quarter of the show because there were no squirming, talking, M&M eating children in front of me! That made my experience 100x better- because I actually got to go with the show where it goes emotionally, instead of being annoyed by the fact that the slow songs meant more squirming children. Also, more wonderful costumes by Paul Tazewell.

And that's it for theatre in July! Phew! I can't believe I saw quite as much good theatre as I did. Can't remember the last time I saw a bad show. Isn't that amazing?

Theatre in July

So I've been consumed by actually working on a show, which takes away significant amounts of the time I've spent as an audience member. So here is where I recount all of the theatre I saw in July, and I only have one show to show for August. Oh well. There will be more! (Edit: I got to the end of describing Mary Stuart and I could not continue- it needed to be given it's own space and not be in the middle of other amazing theatre. Therefore there will be Theatre in July Part 2 on it's way.)

Reborning
by Zayd Dohrn, directed by Kip Fagan, presented as part of the SPF Festival at The Public Theater (in the Anspacher)
This showed featured incredible acting, beautiful use of space (despite Kip's proclaimed hatred of thrust spaces, which I remember very well from working on Dominic Orlando's Danny Casolaro Died for You last summer), crazy props (that is one faaaaaantastic props person! So fantastic that I have to pull out the program and look them up so I can give them appropriate credit- Emily Janis, who works with puppetry and masks as a designer, director and performer. Wow.), fun show of pushing the limits of the audience's comfort zone but not in an offensive way. What I love about Zayd's work (having read stage directions for Sick for a reading at Magic in December) is that there is absolutely no telling where it's going to go. He sets up very specific premises, characters and relationships, and then they explode in all different directions.

Monstrosity
by Lucy Thurber, presented by 13P at the Connelly Theatre
This show featured phenomenal structure and dialogue, a cool set, two acts of amazingness, and then a third act that, while it tied up the ends of the show, didn't quite live up to the set-up of the first two acts. For a three hour show, I didn't look at my watch once until the third act because I was so entirely wrapped up in the action and the characters, which in addition to being well written were also wonderfully directed and acted. And I will definitely be headed to see Lucy's next work in NYC!

Mary Stuart
on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre, directed by Phyllida Lloyd
This show. was. incredible. So Nick and I got there at 8am and were the only people in line for two whole hours... and we were front row center for $26.50, and had a dagger thrown at us. SO WORTH IT. I love plays like this because I can engage intellectually in the material. What I know about the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots comes from a few Shakespearean monologues, Season One of The Tudors, a summer in Ireland and Irene Radford's fantasy series Merlin's Descendants. Needless to say, this show gave me a lot to chew on, in addition to watching phenomenal acting by Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter on the simplest, most wonderfully designed set, RAIN ONSTAGE (oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh- we definitely got splashed) and the added bonus of seeing Richard Stanton in a fantastic role (which came as a complete surprise after an act and a half of silence). Richard was in a show I worked on as a stage management intern at New York Stage and Film in 2004 with Dan Jenkins (the original Huck Finn in Big River who I saw perform as Mark Twain and Huck's voice in the Deaf West production of Big River in 2003- which is to this day one of my favorite productions of all time). The two of them were the kindest, funniest, most wonderful people to work with for a week and that show was my favorite part of the summer. The show whipped us along on an emotional rollercoaster, and at the end I was speechless, wrapped in layers and layers of thought, emotion from the play, and joy at seeing so many incredible theatrical achievements onstage at once, and I looked at the dagger lying at our feet and burst out laughing, but with tears in my eyes. I want to create that feeling in theatre. It was incredible.

Dontcha know that where I am ain't where I was

BIG theatre update.

Groundswell by Ian Bruce at the New Group
This was the best play I've seen in a long time. Groundswell is a beautiful South African play with three men and absolutely incredible acting, particularly by David Lansbury, who played Johan. What I loved the most about this play was that the unique personal stories it told in a fascinating political context revealed harsh accusations about fear, guilt, empathy and charity that resonate in the lives of its audience. The direction and design was also of an incredibly high quality, and I definitely hope to see more of The New Group's work!

Here's the synopsis from the website (http://www.thenewgroup.org/season3.htm):
On the barren, diamond-diving coast of South Africa, Johan and Thami, an ex-cop and a gardener from starkly contrasting backgrounds, maintain a beachfront guest lodge during the off-season while looking for a way out. When Smith, a retired businessman, shows up one foggy night, the two men think they've found an ideal investor for their scheme to buy into a government-run diamond concession. Soon, these rootless men find themselves in a power struggle fueled by greed, desperation and entitlement. GROUNDSWELL is a psychological thriller about hunger and hope, and the glittering promises of a transforming society.


August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
I have finally seen August: Osage County, and none too soon. On the Saturday eve before its Broadway closing I went to see it with a new theatre friend and I'm really glad I did, because it's a pretty phenomenal piece of work. The writing, acting and directing are all masterful, and the play had the powerful effect of evoking memories of my grandmother and staying in her house, although mine are all good memories. Mr. Letts knows how to set up a joke or a premise without being obvious about it and bring it back at exactly the right moment to evoke a heartfelt response from his audience. However, showing how theatre company can define a show, my company made me extremely aware of the misogynistic viewpoints hammered into the show, so I walked away impressed but not thrilled. I absolutely loved Phylicia Rashad though! And Amy Morton was excellent, as well.

Jamboree with Odyssey Productions
I went to see a fun night of one-acts at The Red Room put on by a group run by a whole lot of Dartmouth kids. They created five plays in five days on the theme "What if 2009 wasn't THIS 2009?" Particularly awesome acting from Teale Sperling and Matt Cohn. The night was long but it was a lot of fun, and I loved Beaver Builds A Dam by Daniel Diamond (directed by Marina McClure) and Year of the Love Curriculum (written by Victoria Moy, directed by Rachel Karpf) was a lot of fun and I thought did the best job with the limited resources of the space and time given. The reason I was there in the first place was because Beth McGregor, who was Stanford Drama '05, was in one of them (The Voice Crying in the Wilderness by Eugene Oh), so that was fun, and I happened to be sitting next to another friend of hers in the audience, Benjamin Scheuer, who turns out to be an incredibly talented composer and musician. Awesome times.

Production attendance has slowed as I have delved into the depths of the Ruffled Feathers workshop. But I got a job! Assistant directing "The Bereaved" by Thomas Bradshaw, directed by May Adrales. I'm excited! So I won't be attending many shows in August, either, unfortunately, but I will be rehearsing! Hurrah!

It's laundry time.
~Alex

Father Comes Home and the EST Marathon (part B)

Last week I had the honor of being on book for Suzan-Lori Park's new play, Father Comes Home, at the Public for the final two days of rehearsal and subsequent shows. Just being in the room with Suzan-Lori Parks was so inspiring- she really epitomizes a love for art and a willingness to just go for things. Director Jo Bonney is also incredible, I really wish I had gotten the chance to actually meet her, but what would I have said? Turns out she directed Universes' SLANGUAGE, a play I read in "Social Protest Drama and the Politics of Hip Hop Performance" and looooooved. Father Comes Home Part 1 is a beautiful, intimate piece of theatre, and if you're in New York you should really go see it in it's final week in the Shiva at the Public. I am excited to be in the audience next Saturday so I can actually see Part 8, which happens on two screens on either side of the stage. My favorite part of the show is that Suzan-Lori Parks herself is onstage underscoring the entire piece with guitar. And she bookends the piece with two songs that she wrote. It gives the piece a really beautiful rhythmic base that is used in the text in addition to the live presence that having the playwright onstage, playing music, gives to the show. I also got to be present for the ONLY performance of Father Comes Home Part 9, which is another beautiful piece that Suzan-Lori saw the heart of that night and decided it needed to be entirely re-written. I am excited to see where that finally goes.

Yesterday I went to see the Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon Part B, which consisted of five new one-act plays with five completely separate casts and was REALLY well done. The range of material was fantastic, as well as the arrangement of the material, which I've always seen as a very important element of a "one-acts" event. This show went Funny, Moderately Serious, Hilarious, Intermission, Very Serious, Light, and I walked away feeling very satisfied. It was a really exciting place to be, because I felt that all of the work was in progress and yet also polished, and the acting talent was pretty amazing.

In short:
"Carol and Jill" was a piece about two middle-aged women who each imagine themselves with the other in their futures- a cute story with a lot of dry wit.
"Little Duck" was a hilarious slapstick sit-com about a children's TV show studio
"Blood from a Stoner" was a touching piece about a father from Brooklyn and his high-achieving daughter
"Daughter" was a beautiful, sad piece about a mother whose daughter is disfigured in Iraq
"Sundance" was a light Western about the psychology of killing as told by Jesse James, Bill Hickock, The Kid, a barkeep and Sundance.

One thing that really impressed me was the skill with which they pulled off the comedy. It seemed like the creative process was really fun- and I would love to seek out a way to become involved. Of course, the one artistic person I knew of (who had done the curtain speech) wasn't around after the show, but I think I'll e-mail him. The only issue with it is that it's on the very-west side of Manhattan, so I had to take a subway to a bus and still walk 6 street blocks and most of an avenue block to get there. :-P

Time to finish my reader reports then off to The Public for the next EWG reading and then The New Group for Groundswell.

The ones who stay can find each other in the crowded streets and the guarded parks...

New York may be a city of strangers, but you run into people you know everywhere you look. The day after I moved here I ran into a guy I lived in Columbae and Hammarskjold with in the Times Square subway station. Last weekend I ran into a girl from high school theatre outside of Columbia Teacher's College. Such a very small world.

I'm reinvigorating this blog for the purpose of documenting the theatre I encounter all the time. Because otherwise my thoughts disappear into notebooks in illegible handwriting along with dozens to-do lists, and I'm seeing too much theatre now that I want to talk about.

Here are brief comments about a few of the shows... I will write entries about the Lark and EWG reading series after they end.

Billy Elliot, The Musical (on Broadway)
I really believe that this musical divides the musical theatre snobs from the musical theatre lovers. It is a heart-warming, beautiful show that is satisfying for two and a half hours. There's tap dancing, ballet, modern, economic strife and KIDS! There is something about kids on Broadway that is so inspiring.

Exit the King (on Broadway)
The talent in this piece, with the exception of Susan Sarandon, was phenomenal. I have never really enjoyed Ionesco but seeing it done well is really great. Translated by Goeffrey Rush and director Neil Armfield, the text was accessible and funny. The deterioration of the set was absolutely beautiful, and it was pretty thrilling to be in the front row as Geoffrey Rush sidles by us to get out into the aisle. But when Sarandon says "12 minutes" and she is the only speaking part left on stage, I cringed.

Superhero Celebrity Rehab: The Musical
William Segal, who wrote the rap musical Outflow which I directed a reading of the first scene of at Stanford, goes commercial, and he does it well. A very tuneful piece filled with stunning talent, although the book leaves something to be desired. But I had fun, which was obviously the point. The space, at the Access Theatre in TriBeCa/Chinatown, was a fun little blackbox theatre that would be great to work in. I am excited about the possibility of Will working on a shorter rap piece.

This Side of Paradise at Epic Theatre Ensemble's Sunshine Series
by Nancy Harrow and Will Pomerantz (reading)
A musical about F Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. This piece was basically Behind the Limelight (produced at New York Stage and Film in the summer of 2005), only about the Fitzgeralds instead of Charlie Chaplin. The music was beautiful and Jenny Powers is ridiculously phenomenal, but it was hard to connect into the piece because you already knew how sad the end was at the very beginning. At the same time, the side by side developments of the past and present were some of the best that I've seen. This reading had a talkback, at which I discovered that New York audiences are much less helpful than San Francisco audiences. "I wanted to see him sing more". "The music wasn't really Jazz... I studied Jazz". Ugh. That audience needed some strict rules. They did not respond well to "We'd like to start off by taking some questions from you". Also, a very awesome space at 13th Street Rep.

So many other shows I need to see, but at the moment I'm trying to pick and choose carefully. Broadway's taking a backseat for the time being, as much as I want to see Hair and Next to Normal. Yay theatre!