Dave Read

The Winter’s Tale at Shakespeare and Co.

July 25, 2010 matinee performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall.

This reviewer is still reeling with delight and praise for Shakespeare and Co.’s production of The Winter’s Tale. Joyfully, the play continues through September 5, and I urge people of all ages, including children, to revel in this stream-lined production, running only three hours including one intermission.

The miracle that sets right in this production, the one problem that has for me plagued previously seen productions over the years, is making moving and believable the too-sudden jealousy of Leontes. Shakespeare moves swiftly into his plot, giving time for little motivation. The Queen (Elizabeth Aspenlieder) is so happily innocent in her playfulness and bountiful pregnancy.

Epstein and his insightful director, Kevin G. Coleman have solved this magnificently by inserting the presence of the child, son Maxmillius (played alternately by Parker Bell Devaney of Colin Young) into a strong bonding presence in Leontes’ world. If all else is false, surely, even fleeting doubts concerning this one link of love show his heart, his feeling for family. So he will banish all, but not the son. (Though fate will punish him even here: “A sad tale is best for Winter.”)

Shakespeare’s four final plays, the romances, all bear a strong shattered family, long lost but in the end reunited, a daughter–father relationship is always present, and the grace of the return of the long lost daughter may include a supposedly dead mother. (T. S. Eliot’s beautiful poem Marina celebrates such a moment in Pericles )

Just as Epstein, in both his unreasonable anger and repentance is moving and totally convincing, Elizabeth Aspenlieder, so charmingly radiant and ponderous in her pregnancy and innocence is so moving in the first act, suffering her indignities in dignity until they undo her literally, is in the play’s second half so magnificent in her immobility one cannot see her breathe, but one can and does weep.

If you want a plot outline, go early, the program includes one. Otherwise, if you do not know the play, understand only that the first act is tragedy in Sicily and the second mainly comedy in Bohemia – until it spills back into Sicily for a happy, weepy ending. It is a lovely play when played with the grace and joy of this production.

The star-studded cast is mainly of Shakespeare and Co. actors long with the company, and leads and second leads all played by Equity members, supported by fine actors, usually playing several roles and donning many costumes. Outstanding character interpretations include those of Jason Asprey as Autolycus, whose comic abilities, gestures, and gusto enliven Bohermia; Malcolm Ingram, comic old Shepherd or Gailor, stellar work; Johnny Lee Davenport, especially in king in his own land; Corinna May as the ever-faithful Paulina who never deserts and can work the occasional miracle. And Wolfe Coleman, Ryan Winkles, Justin Aaron McCabe and Kelly Galvin are outstanding in supporting roles

I always approach this play with worry, having never quite found it to work. This production does. So beautifully that all I can really say is, Go, it should delight.

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at Jacob’s Pillow

July 21, 2010 performance reviewed by Jocelyn McGrath.

Serenade/The Proposition (2008) is the second piece in a three-part series of evening-length dances, conceived and directed by Bill T. Jones and commissioned in honor of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Choreographed by Mr. Jones with Janet Wong and members of the Company, Serenade/the Proposition deftly incorporates dance, historical language, video imagery and live music composed and performed by Jerome Begin, Lisa Komara and Christopher Antonio William Lancaster. Additional music by Mozart and Julia Ward Howe, traditional folk tunes, as well as spoken text written by Abraham Lincoln, Clement Sulivane and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., all are layered into a dense, evocative structure – key words and images resonating between motion, sight and sound. 2014 Jacob’s Pillow schedule, Contact info. and links

This performance is a tender and tense exploration of the nature of history as collective human memory. Some ideas are hard to grasp logically, and the feeling that history is something far away, something distant from us, is a common perception.

Using the intuitive intelligence that brilliant art accesses, Mr. Jones radically demonstrates that history doesn’t just rest “back there” in time and space, but exists in complicated relationships between location, culture, and personal narrative.

Clear, iconic images repeat throughout the piece—columns, fire, bare branches tracing patterns against the sky, ruined brick walls of bombed out buildings. Excepting the contemporary introduction of the piece, a starting point in our own place and time, the palette on stage is a strong contrast of black, white and red. The costumes are period, but not straightforwardly authentic—they are oddly detailed or half-constructed—as if to emphasize that they too are only interpretations of another time’s style.

Light and darkness is used to define space, and to show time passing. A glowing strip of space cuts the stage in two, and this corridor becomes the intermittent site for shifting tableaux of characters. A couple embraces. A man raises his arm, finger pointing to the sky. A woman cradles the head of another who seems to weep.

In motion, the dancers’ configurations alternate between struggle and support—the relational weight-sharing tells a story that changes so quickly we are left with a sense of emotional overflow. Pulling, lifting, leaning, struggling, reaching—the ferocity, longing, and desire are manifest in the vital importance of these actions. In one scene, a woman fights her way through a slowly advancing line of people to dance on the other side, then fights her way back through the line to be on the first side again, then repeats this desperate mission over and over again. A man runs to catch falling dancers, one by one, laying each gently on the ground.

The one striking modern video image is that of a median line flashing by as if we are driving on the highway—a graphic metaphor of history as a road to be traveled. As such, the same portion of history looks very different living forward in time or traveling back into memory. In the dance, retreat and reversal are played out literally, as bodies jump forward, then immediately jump back winding and unwinding like special effects in a primitive movie. Real events can’t be undone, but there is a sense of backing up into previous moments to seek a true beginning.

The most recent of many awards, Bill T. Jones was honored with the 2010 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award at the start of this summer’s festival (2010 Jacob’s Pillow schedule). Mr. Jones is quite simply an exceptional artist fully realizing his powers of creation. To see this living work is to experience something to remember and cherish.

This piece runs an hour and a half without intermission.

The Guardsman at Berkshire Theatre Festival

July 17, 2010 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall

The Berkshires have been rocking with all sorts of humor this summer, and for a very special kind, done by six versatile actors, one need go no further than to the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, where Ferenc Molnar’s wickedly wicked The Guardsman tops the BTF schedule through July 31, 2010.

All the actors are not only accomplished actors in their own rights, but in this play they get to play actors being actors in a situation that lets them soar into flights of theatrical extrvagance that involve not only stunning costumes (David Murin) but employing nuanced pauses, split-second timing, and extravagant gestures of flamboyance or ennui.

The plot conerns An Actor (Michael Gill) who, doubting his wife’s fidelity, creates a dashing character of a Russion guardsman in which to parade past her window and entice her to an assignation to prove his mistrust of her. The wife (Jayne Atkinson) is also An Actess, and therein lies the dashing hero’s downfall. Two can play at this game, and they do.

The marital pursuit to enwrap involves three scenes, meticulously and lavishly designed by Alexander Dodge – the three acts opening and closing with the opulent living room, over-decorated with painting from floor to ceiling, cut flowers, grand piano, where The Actress can play a bit of Chopin swooningly or nostalgically, and photos and trunks for traveling actor gear when needed.

But the attempted seduction occurs at the opera in a box and opulent anteroom, which is the scene for act II before their return full circle to their own apartment where the plot can unwind. Despite the two intermissions the play os briskly and rewardingly presented in less than three hours and seems shorter.

All six of the actore (lower case) are TALENTED ACTORS, all working in unison in a manner that is a joy to behold. Director John Rando has done them and himself proud.

The Guardsman began its American career in 1924 in Manhattan and is remembered as the play in which for the first time the Lunts played opposite each other and decided to be husband/wife team for the rest of their lives.

Atkinson and Gill are also a married duo who seem to know so much about each other that they act off each in an instinctive way. In some way each seems attempting to overtop the line delivered by the other, with one laugh evoking another.

Atakinson also has brilliantly funny scenes with Mama (Mary Louise Wilson) and Liesel, the maid (Tara Franklin) in which the other two women aid and abet in her chicanery. Mama has been with the Actress for years, coping with her moods. THe young maid has been with her long enough to have learned all the tricks of her mistress and connives gaily with her. Franklin is especially adept in creating a maid character completely different from that in which she shone last season at BTF in Ghosts.

In tribute to their starring co-ators, Richard Euston and Stephen DeRosa each takes on two minor but significant roles. Euston as The Critic shines especially in the first act in a long scene with the Actor in which he inhabits a chair with bodily movements so bizarre and lithe he has to be seen and cheered. DeRosa is at his best as A Creditor, haggling for an unpaid costume bill for the magnificient costume in which THe Actor woos his own wife.

This is a deligtful play in which the Lunts, starring the first time in duo roles, were speeded on a long career as co-stars. One could hope that the futures of these actors, already well on the way, will continue too with such challenges and glory.

This play is a six-star winner!

Berkshire Playwrights Lab schedules free workshop production

Berkshire Playwrights Lab schedules a free staged reading workshop production of Keeping Time, a new play with music by Joe Cacaci, to be directed by the author, on Wednesday, July 28 at 8pm, at Monument Mountain Regional High School. For reservations, call 413-528-0100 or visit the Mahaiwe Box Office.

Keeping Time, which is set in New York City in 1965, tells the story of two close friends, Willie, a black pianist, composer, and singer and Paul, who is a white singer. The two men have a long-running act and are finally on the brink of getting their big break when they get caught up in and caught off guard by the civil rights movement, threatening both their friendship and their dream. Complicating the action are Bennie (their longtime manager), Rose (a journalist), and Anna (a dancer).

About Joe Cacaci

Joe Cacaci is a founding co-artistic director (with Jim Frangione, Bob Jaffe, and Matthew Penn) of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab. He was also the founding director of East Coast Arts, where he produced twenty world-premiere plays over seven seasons, and he has served since 1993 as the producing director (with Dan Lauria) of the Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble in Los Angeles, where over 500 new plays have been given staged readings in the Monday Night Reading Series. His own plays have been produced at the Public Theater, Coconut Grove Theatre (where he also directed), Long Wharf Theater, and Alley Theatre in Houston, as well as commercially in New York and Los Angeles. He co-produced David Mamet’s Obie-winning play Edmond at the Provincetown Playhouse, as well as directing at the Westport Playhouse and commercially in Los Angeles.

Joe Cacaci has written numerous made-for-television movies and co-created the CBS prime time series The Trials of Rosie O’Neill. He was executive producer of two prime time series: Showtime’s The Hoop Life and CBS’ The Education of Max Bickford, and he directed the PBS pilot Copshop. Currently, Mr. Cacaci teaches television writing in the graduate program of the Film School at Columbia University. He recently directed the feature film Snatched, which premiered at the Slamdance Festival in January, 2010, and completed a screenplay about the Negro Leagues for Lightworks Pictures.

The cast for this workshop reading includes Larry Bryggman, Tituss Burgess, Ylfa Edelstein, with two additional actors to be announced. The play includes an original song composed by Bennie Wallace, with lyrics by Mr. Cacaci. Mr. Wallace has composed scores for feature films such as White Men Can’t Jump and Blaze, and worked with Mr. Cacaci on the TV shows Copshop and The Hoop Life. Music will be performed live on stage by the actors.

Larry Bryggman has won two Obie Awards, been nominated for a Drama Desk Award, as well as twice-nominated for a Tony Award. He has appeared in the TV shows As the World Turns and Law and Order, the movies Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and Spy Games (2001), and the Broadway shows Twelve Angry Men, Proof, and Picnic. Tituss Burgess recently finished a revival of Guys and Dolls on Broadway, and other Broadway credits include The Little Mermaid, Jersey Boys, and Good Vibrations. Ylfa Edelstein was a regular cast member in two TV series, The Hoop Life and The Education of Max Bickford, and has appeared in episodes of Law and Order, Law and Order: SVU, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and the pilot Copshop. Most recently, she was a part of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab staged reading production of Eyes Forward by Philip Gerson.

About Berkshire Playwrights Lab

Founded in 2007 by theater professionals Joe Cacaci, Jim Frangione, Bob Jaffe, and Matthew Penn, Berkshire Playwrights Lab is dedicated to encouraging, developing, and presenting new plays. Currently, through readings, and, in the future, through workshops, and fully-staged productions, the Lab provides emerging and established writers with a professional and creative environment, while offering audiences the unique and provocative opportunity to share in the dramatic evolution of premiere works. For more information, see www.berkshireplaywrightslab.org.

Directions to Monument Mountain Regional High School

[mappress]

Richard III at Shakespeare and Co.

July 9. 2010 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall.

He’s done it again! John Douglas Thompson has once again, at his early age, created a role that only enhances his reputation as one of the greatest actors of Shakespeare in modern times (easily vying with Gielgud and Olivier) but outstripping them. His performanc in the role of Richard III at Shakespeare and Co., under the insightful direction of Jonathan Croy, brings to the stage the most original and mercurial character of Richard that will for many in the audience be long remembered as a touch-stone with which to compare any Richards they may see in the future.

The play is the most popular of Shakespeare’s histories and the playing of the lead character, a villain to outdo all villains, even Shakespeare’s own, brings engaging challenges.

I have over many years pursued Richard wherever I could find him; travelling to Shakespeare theatres at Stratford, Connecticut as well as that on the Avon River in England, and in Stratford, Ontario. No Richard, for me, has ever moved me to such depths of admiration. This is personal and strong praise, and this production and its star-studded cast will draw praise from critics far more astute than I. Be assured that it deserves their approval.

I advise you to go a bit early and read the note on fugal form in the program which will inform you that this take on Richard and the whole play is a unique one. You then will not wonder (and later marvel) as the first act proceeds, to see how Richard cloaks his hostility and ambition in what seems an over-playing of an almost stock character buffoon, that at times is hilarious, cloaking the intentions that lie beneath it.

Much of the first act evokes laughter, high paced activity that even rises to the point of audience participation in shenanigans and much racing up and down aisles. One wonders how can this play, this Richard lll, reach its intended end – one foreseen in the opening lines of the play because of where the character plays them.

After a danced introduction to the play as a whole, the stage empties and the slumped figure of Richard, who has lain there—down stage center—rolls over and lying there faces the audience with those famous opening lines: “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York.” His lines not only dismissing the dancers and gaiety but his own bitterness toward the brother who sits on the throne that he yearns for.

The stage position also affirms the one that we, the audience, know he will occupy, defeated and dying at the play’s end – lying again down stage center. This seemingly small bit of direction, makes possible what at times seems impossible, the arc that Richard will carve through the play to reach that ending. One in which we feel pity and a strange compassion for a bitter, crippled, unloved man who at least had feelings for England if none for anyone else.

The magical side of the staging and acting of this play includes in the first act scenes of serious dramatic intensity involving those who living in an England where finally the last rose of the “war of the roses” has been picked, but an England in which Shakespeare brings to his stage The Women.

Cast of Richard lll at Shakespeare and Co.

Although the play has been streamlined, the strong group of women who bring their bitterness into the present, have been played with dramatic intensity. These roles too are ones women actors vie for. Here they are played with bitter brilliance. They have lost sons and the sons of sons to the wars. They have fought more than women of their day often could fight for the crown for a husband, a son, even in the case of mad Margaret, for the throne itself. They have all lost and will lose again. But their voices are loud in condemning their abuse and grievances.

Most outstanding is Elizabeth Ingram as mad Margaret, aged widow of the dead Henry VI from whom the throne, which even she tried to personally climb, has been filled by the weak Edward. Ingram not only speaks beautifully but she sweeps onto the stage with commanding presence, making all before her quail and retreat. (Shakespeare was cavalier with time and adds Margaret to his cast although she was long dead by the time the events in the play occur. However she adds significant power to the themes of women and children sacrificed to the struggles for the throne of England.)

Annette Miller, mother of the weak ruling son Edward who occupies the throne in the troubled aftermath of the end of the York/Lancaster struggles, is also imposing. She is also mother of the doomed Clarence, and of the physically repulsive, even to her, crippled Richard. As mother and grandmother to a host of others, she brings her concerns for family onto the stage with a defiance of her own.

As Elizabeth, wife of the reigning queen, but with children not only from her current marriage, children who will die in the tower (the little princes who break our hearts) but children from a previous marriage, Tod Randolph has more involved plot agenda. Her best scene, one demanding greatest skills is in Act 2 when Richard forces her into sacrificing her daughter Elizabeth to be his wife. (In act one Richard has wooed and seemingly impossibly won a wife beside the corpse of her dead father-in-law; by act 2 he has not only married her, slept with her (to her disgust) but had her conveniently killed.

But women are not the only ones threading their moving and dramatic scenes through Act one. There is Clarence, Richard’s betrayed brother and the scene of his death manages to intermingle deep tragic intensity with grim humor. Rocco Sisto is compelling in the role. His rendering of the famous “Methought what pains it was to drown” brings tears to the eyes. And is immediately shattered by the botched humor of the two clowns who have been hired to kill him and do so.

This play is studded with theatrical talent: Jason Asprey as Stanley (and several other characters). Johnny Lee Davenport as the ineffective King Edward but slipping boisterously into that of the Mayor and other roles. Nigel Gore, Buckingham, loyal to the end, though betrayed by Richard at last.

And bestriding all, John Douglas Thompson, an actor who cares so deeply for the characters he plays that he invests them with a kind of gold that I find it hard to describe. The theatrical journey he makes from his first supine bent body to his lying dying at the end of Richard’s journey, is an amazing one to have made. And he makes us believe in it all the way. The physical and vocal and emotional skills demanded of the actor, literally handicapped by lame leg and hunched back, are beyond those usually demanded of an actor.

Everyone connected with this production deserves praise. Everyone who admires great theatre should see it. Whatever conception you have of Richard, you will carry the memory of this production with you for a long time.

Shakespeare and Company schedule for 2010 season.

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Williamstown Theatre Festival schedules free plays

On the Williamstown Theatre Festival schedule July 5 through July 10 is the world-premiere of Camp Monster, book and lyrics by Sharyn Rothstein and music by Kris Kukul, directed by Kate Pines, and featuring actors from the Festival’s non-equity and apprentice companies.

For years, the sons and daughters of the world’s most famous monsters (Dracula, The Wicked Witch, Wolfman, and more), have spent their summer at Camp Flonster, the only camp in the world where young monsters can be themselves. But this year, Camp Flonster has a new director, the oppressive and diabolical Roseanne Finicula, who harbors a secret desire to rid the world of all monsters! When the young monsters learn of Roseanne’s plot, they must put aside their daily squabbles to work together and beat Roseanne at her own game –and keep the world safe for even the strangest among us.

Camp Monster also features musical direction by Sarah Hirsch and Kris Kukul and choreography by James Cusati-Moyer. The design team includes scenic design by Phil Tokarsky, costume design by Jeanette Lee Porter, lighting design by Jake Bray, and sound design by Sean Luckey. The production stage manager is Lisa Jaeger.

Camp Monster runs on the Main Stage from July 5 through July 10. The schedule is as follows: Monday, July 5 at 7:00pm and Tuesday, July 6 through Saturday, July 10 at 11:00am.

Kid’s Day at WTF

In conjunction with the Free Theatre performances, WTF also announces Kids’ Day. Taking place on the front lawn of the theatre prior to the Saturday morning performance of Camp Monster, Kids’ Day allows children of all ages to partake in theatre games, dancing, crafts, ice cream, autographs from performers and more. Kids’ Day is free of charge and takes place on Saturday, July 10 at 9:30am.

The Greylock Theatre Project

Kids and families alike will enjoy The Greylock Theatre Project, a replication of the 52nd Street Project in New York City, which has been working with children from the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood for over 20 years. Started in 1996, the Greylock Theatre Project is an educational outreach program that works with children from North Adams who live in the Greylock and Brayton Hill neighborhoods to create theatre. In the three programs running this summer, One on Ones, Replay, and Playmaking, children ages 8-16 will work with professional theatre artists to create original works as well as perform short plays and musicals.

Greylock’s One on Ones pair one child with one professional theatre artist to spend a week rehearsing a 10 minute play which they will then perform together for the community. The performances are on Monday, July 12th at 5pm and 8pm in Goodrich Hall.

For Greylock’s Replay, actors from the Festival will read new scripts written by Greylock Theatre Project Teens. There will be one performance of Replay at 5pm on Monday, July 19th in The Log, 79 Spring St., Williamstown.

In Greylock’s Playmaking, children attend a series of 8 classes to learn how to write a play. When they have completed the classes, they are paired with a professional dramaturg/director to help them write a play performed by actors from the Festival. Performances are on Monday, August 2nd at 5 and 8pm in Goodrich Hall.

The Greylock Theatre Project aims to serve kids in the North Adams community by introducing them to the empowering act of creating theatre. Through a variety of tasks in playwriting and performing, the children strengthen skills in team building and conflict management and exercise their imaginations through repeated work in creative expression. The Project is co-directed by Christopher Kauffman and Emily Windover. Phillip Ballantine is the Project Manager. Interns are Hayley Piekut and Khristian Walker.

Williamstown Theatre Festival Free Theatre tickets

All performances are free, but seating is limited, so reservations are a must. Tickets can be reserved by phone at (413) 597-3400 or in person at the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, 1000 Main St (Route 2), Williamstown, MA 02167. Box Office hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10am- 5pm, Sunday 11am- 4pm.