Dave Read

Chester Theatre Company teams with Gateway Regional Middle School

Huntington, MA – These are not your typical student plays. Although written by sixth grade students of Gateway Regional Middle School, the plays are produced by The Chester Theatre Company, which teams professional actors, directors and designers with the student playwrights to help bring their creative visions to life. The program is now in its third year, and the latest evening of truly unique ten minute plays – On The Other Hand… The Dilemma Plays – will be presented April 4th and 5th at 7pm, at the Gateway Performing Arts Center at the Gateway Regional School complex in Huntington, MA. Tickets, which are $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for students, will be sold at the door. Proceeds help fund work by future student playwrights.

The six zany, poignant, funny plays in On The Other Hand… are the culmination of an eight week, after-school play writing course followed by a weekend writing retreat led by The Chester Theatre Company Artistic Director Byam Stevens. At the retreat, each playwright is matched with a professional director, who acts as a mentor through the creative process.

According to Stevens, “Each of these plays deals with characters who have to weigh difficult choices — on the one hand something they desire, and on the other something they fear losing. The characters in question, whether they be a proto-feminist elephant, a Martian discovering the joys and sadness of planet Earth, or two architect brothers planning their next mega-project, all face dilemmas, the difficult choices that are at the heart of all good drama. As always, the range of material, the imagination and heart the that surfaces in each new group of young playwrights at Gateway never ceases to amaze.”

The Gateway Playwriting Project, which was developed in partnership with the UMASS Amherst Department of Theater, Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter High School and the Gateway Regional School District, is the recipient of the prestigious Champion of Arts Education Award from the Massachusetts Alliance Of Arts Educators.

The Gateway Playwriting Project is funded through the generous support of the Art Angels; Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts; Credit Data Services Inc. Fund; Lochridge-Watkins Charitable Foundation administered by Bank of America, Trustee; Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency; Shurtleff Children’s Services of Westfield; and the Local Cultural Councils of Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Middlefield, Montgomery, Russell, and Worthington.

In addition to its professional season, CTC coordinates a wide range of theatre education outreach for youth of all ages. For more information, visit chestertheatre.org or call 413-354-7770.

Hospital, by Marianne Boruch – American Life in Poetry

American Life in Poetry: Column 155

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

The American poet Elizabeth Bishop often wrote of how places–both familiar and foreign–looked, how they seemed. Here Marianne Boruch of Indiana begins her poem in this way, too, in a space familiar to us all but made new–made strange–by close observation.

Hospital

It seems so–
I don’t know. It seems
as if the end of the world
has never happened in here.
No smoke, no
dizzy flaring except
those candles you can light
in the chapel for a quarter.
They last maybe an hour
before burning out.
And in this room
where we wait, I see
them pass, the surgical folk–
nurses, doctors, the guy who hangs up
the blood drop–ready for lunch,
their scrubs still starched into wrinkles,
a cheerful green or pale blue,
and the end of a joke, something
about a man who thought he could be–
what? I lose it
in their brief laughter.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2006 by Marianne Boruch, whose most recent book of poetry is “Grace, Fallen from,” Wesleyan University Press, 2008. Poem reprinted from “TriQuarterly,” Issue 126, by permission of Marianne Boruch. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Yellowjackets, poem by Yusef Komunyakaa, American Life in Poetry

American Life in Poetry: Column 154

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Here, poet Yusef Komunyakaa, who teaches at New York University, shows us a fine portrait of the hard life of a worker—in this case, a horse—and, through metaphor, the terrible, clumsy beauty of his final moments.

Yellowjackets

When the plowblade struck
An old stump hiding under
The soil like a beggar’s
Rotten tooth, they swarmed up
& Mister Jackson left the plow
Wedged like a whaler’s harpoon.
The horse was midnight
Against dusk, tethered to somebody’s
Pocketwatch. He shivered, but not
The way women shook their heads
Before mirrors at the five
& dime—a deeper connection
To the low field’s evening star.
He stood there, in tracechains,
Lathered in froth, just
Stopped by a great, goofy
Calmness. He whinnied
Once, & then the whole
Beautiful, blue-black sky
Fell on his back.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright © 2001 by Yusef Komunyakaa, reprinted from Pleasure Dome: New & Collected Poems, 1975-1999, Wesleyan Univ. Press, 2001, by permission. Introduction copyright © 2007 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Review of Trumbo at Barrington Stage Company

Reviewed by Sandy Michel.

The House Un-American Activities Committee reigned supreme in October 1947. The press, radio, and TV gave the investigation of alleged Holywood Commies full coverage. Dalton Trumbo, a talented and witty screenwriter, was one of the so-called subversive Hollywood Ten.

I was 13 years old and a junior high school student in New York City at this shameful and frightening time in our history. I cut classes to watch the hearings. It was a unique experience. Were we to be more frightened by our government’s tactics or by the so-called treasonous Hollywood Ten? Whichever impacted you was a personal experience.

I was frightened more easily by my government when it side-stepped the Constitution than I was by some political activists of varying persuasions. The drama of one of these blacklisted screenwriters, Dalton Trumbo, was the subject of Trumbo, Barrington Stage Company’s first production of 2008.

Knowing many of the facts about this time, I felt the play fell short of what could have been. The performance was static and poorly rehearsed. Thom Christopher, a fine actor, as demonstrated last year in his performance in Barrington Stage’s production of Picasso, was not familiar with the script and made many mistakes.

I was quite disappointed. The play ran for 90 minutes without an intermission. The only diversion was the use of videos and slides of the period. They were of very poor quality. One only has to compare the use of factual material with the Broadway production of Frost and Nixon to see the how such a device can really work to heighten drama.

The only other actor on stage was Brian Hutchinson who played Trumbo’s son and others. He also was the narrator, and did a creditable job. The presentation of Trumbo’s letters could have certainly been more dynamic. Dalton Trumbo was an acerbic, caustic, witty man of principle. His battle for professional survival is certainly a relevant topic to current history.

Chester Theatre Company 2008 season schedule

Chester Theatre Company will present its 19th summer season from July 2nd through August 24th, featuring plays by David Harrower, John Cariani, Morris Panych, and Susan Eve Haar. “I think CTC patrons are going to find this season truly exciting,” states CTC Artistic Director Byam Stevens. “While the plays manifest a broad range of styles, from family drama to comic romance, they share a remarkably high standard of writing – they really are representative of the best in contemporary theatre.”

Blackbird by David Harrower – July 2-13

The season opens on July 2nd with David Harrower’s Blackbird, winner of the 2007 Olivier Award for Best New Play. This scorching new work opens with a young woman, Una, arriving unannounced at Ray’s office. They had a passionate affair 15 years ago; he was 41, she was 12. Ray, after a stretch in prison, has a new identity and a new life. Una is the only one who knows his secret. What ensues is both a high stakes thriller and a tragic love story, a pas-de-deux of shame, regret and passion.

Harrower’s riveting play is theater at its most elemental: a head-to-head confrontation that uncovers the shattering truth of an abandoned and unconventional love. The New York Times hailed Blackbird as “the most powerful drama of the season… mesmerizing… extraordinary…a miracle.” Sheila Siragusa, who directed the 2007 CTC hit Mercy of a Storm, returns to helm this production which runs through July 13th.

Almost, Maine by John Cariani – July 16-27

John Cariani’s magical comic romance Almost, Maine, running July 16-27, provides a complete change of pace. The setting: a cold, clear, moonless winter night; the premise: something strange is happening to the hardworking men and women of the mythical town of Almost, Maine — they’re falling in and out of love in unexpected ways.

Cariani sprinkles his midwinter night’s dream with a flurry of bittersweet magic realism – a woman carries her broken heart in a bag, a misspelled tattoo predicts the future, odd things fall from the heavens – and the result is an ode to the joys and perils of romance. According to The New York Times, in Almost, Maine “Magical happenings bloom beneath the snowdrifts.”

The Dishwashers by Morris Panych – July 30- August 10

The Dishwashers by Canadian playwright Morris Panych, runs July 30 – August 10. CTC Artistic Director Byam Stevens will direct this outrageously funny theatrical fable in which Chief Dishwasher Dressler presides over the basement scullery of an upscale eatery, marshaling his forces with a stream of Marxist rhetoric, Ayn Rand-inspired ravings and old fashioned working class pride.

Unfortunately, his fellow wage slaves, the ancient Moss and the downwardly mobile Emmett, fail to fall into step. Canadian playwright Morris Panych brings his inimitable style – walking the razor’s edge between comedy and tragedy – to the plight of men working in the lower depths of a high end restaurant. The Vancouver Sun described The Dishwashers as, “Funny, sad, strange and uplifting, sometimes in the same breath.” Stevens’ productions for CTC include: Grace, Two Rooms, An Almost Holy Picture, Tea For Three, Valley Song, The Interrogation of Nathan Hale, Shirley Valentine and the world premieres of The Plains of Ilion, The Darlings and John and Teddy.

Tilted House by Susan Eve Haar – August 13-24

The season closes with the World Premiere of Tilted House by Susan Eve Haar, running August 13 – 24. Annie and Robert and their son Henry have taken a beach house on Fire Island. Robert, an ambitious editor has invited Clay, a famous novelist, to visit in hopes of landing the writer’s next opus.

When Clay accepts and takes up residence, the family is plunged into a world of dangerous games that beget passion and betrayal, and call into question choices made long ago. Haar, whose satire The Darlings highlighted the 2003 CTC season, has switched gears completely to deliver an adult drama that extolls the ultimate power of family.

Tickets are available on Chester Theatre Company’s website.

To receive a brochure, contact the box office at 413-354-7771. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00pm., with matinees Thursday and Sunday at 2:00pm. Tickets are $24.50-$29.50; group rates are available.

Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Elder, performs Sibelius and Shostakovich

Saturday, 16 February 2008 performance reviewed by Karl Henning

Sibelius, Violin Concerto in D Minor, Opus 47
Shostakovich, Symphony No. 4 in C Minor, Opus 43
Vadim Repin, violin
The Boston Symphony Orchestra
Mark Elder, guest conductor

Similarly, when last the Sibelius Violin Concerto sounded in Symphony Hall, the concert was ably led by a guest conductor (on the earlier occasion, Paavo Berglund), and the pairing was the other huge Shostakovich symphony in the key of C Minor (the Eighth, Opus 65). And when last we heard Vadim Repin here, it was in an electrifying account of the Shostakovich A Minor concerto.

The simplest word for Repin’s relation to the violin, is mastery. He does not make a show of wrestling with the instrument, does not dissipate his energies in the trappings of display; but the sparks fly off the strings. His violin thrills even at a whisper, as in the dulcet entrance at the outset of the Sibelius concerto. And if coordinating the schedules of guest soloist, guest conductor and professional orchestra is a notorious squeeze on the clock, such that rehearsal minutes are precious and few, the surety of the transitions in the concerto, and the sympathy binding Repin, conductor Mark Elder and the orchestra, were all the more impressive. The last movement was an especial delight, Repin finding an appropriately Tchaikovskian balance of grace, and weighted propulsion in what is essentially a Polonaise-fantasy.

The Shostakovich Fourth Symphony, in all its magnificence and unwieldy defiance, is historically a compass with a broken needle: once it pointed to a bold path, which its composer was prevented from promptly or directly pursuing. The young composer was still basking in the well-earned international success of his opera, The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District when he began composing a symphony whose scale would exceed that of his first three symphonies combined; and before he completed work, an unsigned editorial in Pravda (implying endorsement by the very highest officials in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) had dragged his name so thoroughly in the mud, that Shostakovich must have despaired of ever cleansing himself from it.

The Lady Macbeth affair made it clear to Soviet composers that neither the acclaim of the public nor the respect and admiration of one’s professional colleagues meant anything, if the Kremlin were not pleased. And notwithstanding his artistic satisfaction with the piece; nor his pride that here he had written a monumental symphony vindicating the hopes which had attached to him since his First, which was his graduation piece from the Conservatory; Shostakovich came to the agonized decision that this massive Fourth Symphony, which ends with a preternatural whisper as an aftershock to the deafening peals of a massive brass section (four trumpets, eight horns, three trombones and two tubas), and whose third movement begins with the plaintive funeral march of a solo bassoon over a trudging tritone in the double-bass and timpani — such a piece was not music with which to curry official favor.

Shostakovich had finished the Fourth Symphony in April of 1936; and though Fritz Stiedry had tried fitfully to rehearse it with the Leningrad Philharmonic, the composer made the decision – a decision costly to himself, for it meant returning the 300 rubles advance paid to him, and his wife had just borne their first child, Galina, earlier that year – to withdraw the piece from its scheduled 11 December 1936 performance.

A year later, the emotionally charged success of the Fifth Symphony tentatively restored the composer to official favor. Remarked Shostakovich to conductor Boris Khaikin: “I finished the Fifth Symphony fortissimo and in the major. Everyone is saying that it’s an optimistic and life-affirming symphony. I wonder, what would they be saying if I had finished it pianissimo and in the minor.” It was not until a quarter of a century later, in 1961, that Kirill Kondrashin conducted the premiere of the Fourth Symphony, and Khaikin realized the import of the composer’s seemingly glib remark, long years before — for the Fourth Symphony does indeed end pianissimo and in the minor.