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.