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.