Acme Theater is taking The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged) to the EMACT Drama Festival next month. On Wednesday night, we had rehearsal and I was surprised at how much of the props and costumes routine that I still remember. (Thank god we kept all our notes.) The festival version has been edited for time— it has to run under an hour— so it's quick and fun. And I no longer have to wrestle with the accursed Ophelia dress. Yay!
So, if you want to be a part of the silliness, get thee to Groton, MA on Sunday, June 15. The festival runs June 12-15, and Shakespeare is the last show of the festival!
Chris and I went to see the first part of the New Works Winter Festival 2008 last night at Acme. I had referred to it as "short attention span theater"— if you don't like a play, another one will be along in 5 minutes. We really enjoyed "Track X" (female playwrights), especially Fairy Tales at the Subway Station and Boo/ Yay. Tonight we're going over to work the concession stand and see "Track Y".
The festival will be performed January 11, 12, 18 & 19, 8PM. Call the Box Office at 978-823-0003 for reservations.For 2008, we are scratching our seven year itch and mixing up the festival format a bit. As always, we will have two festival tracks, but this year, we'll be separating the tracks into a night for female playwrights and a night for male playwrights (X&Y).
Plays and Playwrights are as follows:
TRACK X (January 11 & 19)
A PERFECT MATCH by Gail Phaneuf
CANYON'S EDGE by Barbara Lindsay
FAIRY TALES AT THE SUBWAY STATION by Philana Gnatowski
MAKE IT A GOOD ONE by Lisa Burdick
ALIEN TO ANTIQUITY by Stacey LaneBOO / YAY by Jennifer McCartney
BOOB TUBE by Carol Mullen
FERRAGAMO NEVER MADE A CIRCUS LINE by Kristyn Leigh Robinson
AND SO IT GOES by Debbie Roy
TRACK Y (January 12 & 18)
A PONCE ON THE COMPETITION by Steve Lewis
SIR EDMUND WALTER HAS A THOUGHT by Matt Haldeman
SPEECHLESS by Paul Kahn
THREE KINGS by James VenhausFOUR EXTREMELY ATTRACTIVE WOMEN SITTING AROUND FANTASIZING ABOUT RICH ORLOFF by Rich Orloff
WHO IS RUTH by Matthew Hanson
TALL ORDER by John Shanahan
A LOVELY MOON by Evan-Guilford Blake
Well, we all somehow survived Opening Weekend, Tech/ Dress Rehearsals, and the second Opening Weekend. And I just found out that they canceled the two Thursday shows. I can't say that I'm sad about that— given how small the Friday audiences have been, I'd rather not dilute the crowd with additional shows.
Tonight we're back to Shakespeare again. I hope I remember what the hell I'm supposed to do.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - (Abridged)
by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield
AND
Greater Tuna
by Jason Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard
Featuring:
Gordon Ellis, David Fisher, and Tom Berry
Directed by David Sheppard
Eight more exciting performances left. Don't miss out, reserve your seats today!
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - (Abridged) will be
performed on: September 28, 29, 30, and October 13
Greater Tuna will be performed on: October 5, 6, 7, and 12
Friday and Saturday shows are at 8:00pm. Sunday shows are at 3:00pm.
Call (978) 823-0003 to make ticket reservations
Acme Theater, 61 Summer St., Maynard, MA
Visit www.acmetheater.com for more information.
Whew. Tonight was opening night for the first show of the season, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged). It's been a busy week:
Tomorrow night should be more like a real opening… there are 50 or so reserved so far. Yay!
I'm happy to report that we survived opening weekend. We had a smallish audience on opening night (last Friday), but were about half-full on Saturday evening. Devo and Jen came up for the weekend, and we gamed extensively— lots of Settlers, Puerto Rico, and Chrononauts, but no Scrabble throw-down.
This Friday was a smaller crowd, but they were quite vocal. Apparently they were expecting a comedy, so they made it one. Throughout the rehearsals, I've always thought of Faithful as a suspenseful thriller, a serious play with some lighter moments. Listening to it from backstage, I would have sworn that we had a laugh track. Bizarre.
Donna & Bob joined us for dinner at Little Pusan last night, then went to the show with Chris. Happily, last night's audience was sane. Aside from a minor technical glitch with the telephone, all was well. (My best guess at this point was that it wasn't hung up properly on the cradle, so it couldn't ring when it needed to. I'll do some quick testing when I go over to the theater on Wednesday for our brush-up.) Four shows down, six more to go…
For those of you who didn't already know, I'm volunteering with Acme Theater again. Our next production, Faithful, opens in three weeks. I just came back from the third session of set building (two more to go), and things are really starting to look pretty darn good. I should have taken pictures of the progress each weekend— I'll have to do that next time. Here's what everyone has accomplished so far…
I'm sure that there's lots of other stuff that I'm forgetting because I'm in a hurry. But it's starting to look like a real set. Now I hope people actually come to the show.
I am happy (and relieved) to report that tonight's turn-out for Fourth Wall was much better. Much larger audience, more laughs… and no one leaving after the first act… let's hope that they're all like tonight's crowd.
At least opening night wasn't a complete fiasco.
This is it. Tonight was our last rehearsal. In the words of our ever-lovin' director: All we need now is an audience. (We're off tomorrow night, and we open on Friday at 8 p.m.)
The Misfits proudly present A. R. Gurney's The Fourth Wall:
Box Office: 978-823-0003
February 17 - March 11, 2006
Friday and Saturday performances begin at 8 p.m. and
Sunday, March 5th performance begins at 3 p.m.
I found a New York Times theatre review of a 1992 performance at Westport Country Playhouse. (It's less than glowing.) Gurney has updated the play several times since then, and I hope you'll all come to see our version of it. I think it's very funny, but as the stage manager, I'm probably biased.
On Thursday night, we had a quick dinner at the Mambo Grill, then went to see the Merrimack Repertory production of Intimate Apparel. I particularly like going to the first Thursday previews because there's a Q&A session afterward with people involved in the show (in this case, the director, lighting designer, and set designer). Intimate Apparel tells the story of Esther, a skilled African-American seamstress who makes a life for herself in 1905 Manhattan.
The play takes place in five different locations. With something like 25 set changes, the director wanted to convey the change in setting without having to move any furniture, which is time-consuming and slows down the action. All of the changes in setting were accomplished solely through lighting and an "origami quilt." For example, during the scenes in Esther's room in the boarding house, the bed is covered by a crazy quilt. When the action changes to Ms. Van Buren's boudoir, the actors fold the quilt back, revealing a lilac satin cover. For scenes in Mr. Marks' shop, the quilt is folded back in the opposite direction, revealing a plain, almost muslin-like fabric. The lighting changes were incredible— I can't even describe the cool stuff that they did to have light coming from different "windows" for each scene.
(This CenterStage student study guide (PDF) has an interview with Ms. Nottage and some historical notes.)
A few months ago, we went to see the Merrimack Repertory Theatre's production of The Homecoming, by Harold Pinter. It was, without a doubt, the least favorite play that I've ever seen, anywhere, ever.
This morning, I learned that Harold Pinter had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, which means that there are an awful lot of articles gushing over how amazing he is:
Mr. Pinter "uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms," the Swedish Academy said in announcing the award, which carries $1.3 million in prize money.
And this one (also in the New York Times) with the headline A Creator of Theater That Seizes the Senses:
Great theater, the kind that changes the way you see and hear the world, acts like a benign virus. It creeps into the bloodstream, without your really knowing it, while you are watching a performance. Then it grows, it mutates, it seizes the senses. And often it won't leave you for hours, even days, after the curtain has come down.Harold Pinter is the greatest living practitioner of viral theater. If a production of his "Homecoming," "Birthday Party" or "Betrayal" is even passably acted, you leave the theater with an overwhelming suspicion of everything and everyone around you. That includes yourself.
I have little doubt that MRT's version was more than passably acted. The cast, sets, props, lighting, and costumes were all fine. The only suspicion that I had upon leaving the theatre was that I'd just been conned into paying $50 to see a play that didn't make a particle of sense. The synopsis from this BBC Four film version makes it sound like a taut, gripping drama. But it's not— the characters' actions and motivations are baffling, the "pregnant pauses" did not seem fraught with meaning, and if I wanted to spend the evening with a dysfunctional family I'd stay home. To the Nobel Committee I say this: Feh.
Nancy and Tonya: The Opera.
The soap opera-like saga that followed the knee-bashing of Olympian ice princess Nancy Kerrigan 11 years ago has been adapted into a musical opera, with Kerrigan's cry of "Why me? Why me?" providing the performance's climactic moment."Nancy and Tonya: The Opera" is scheduled to be performed at Tufts University in the spring.
Hey, Acme Theater gets a mention in the Globe: check out the brief interview with Dave Sheppard and synopsis of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).
In honor of Acme Theater's production of The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), I bring to you the Shakespearean Insult Generator:
Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch! (Henry IV, part I)
Also, don't miss the Reduced Shakespeare Company's appearance on Jeopardy! They'll be providing the clues for one of the categories on Tuesday, April 26. (Check your local listings for times, or ask your TiVo to do it for you.) It'd be even funnier to see them as contestants on the show.
Last night was opening night for Tomfoolery at the Acme Theater (running through March 5)! For those who can't experience the Misfits in person, enjoy a little Tom Lehrer today: The Elements.
Doing our part to keep Paragon City safe from the riff-raff: Mister Snow and I celebrated Winter-een-mas over the weekend. We played City of Heroes on Friday evening, and for most of Sunday, but didn't actually go to the in-game celebration (it was on Victory server, and all my characters are on Freedom).
Alas, Freakazette doesn't have a whole lot to show for it (unless you count the 100k worth of debt). At least she earned her Frozen Fury badge and a decent amount of XP. Between Founder's Falls and Crey's Folly, I don't think that the debt will significantly decrease any time soon… Just trying to talk with a contact in one of those areas often leads to a hospital visit (danged sharpshooters!).
Not much chance of playing this week: went to NH last night for dinner with friends, and most likely going out to dinner tonight with Mark Y. And Wednesday night is the first "dry run" for Tom Foolery over at Acme Theater. The show runs February 11 through March 5, 2005, and I'm helping out behind the scenes with costumes and props. Come see it, especially if you're a Tom Lehrer fan— tix are only $16. So the earliest that I'll be on again is Thursday night. (I'm sure that Doctor Dude and Valnar will pick up the slack. Obsidian Knight has been MIA for weeks.)
Bat Boy: The Musical runs through Nov. 20 at Vokes Theatre, 97 Boston Post Road (Route 20), Wayland. Shows are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. on Nov. 6 and 13. Tickets are $18 to $23. For more information, call 508-358-4034.
Join i Sebastiani (the greatest Commedia dell' Arte troupe in the entire world) for "What's So Funny About Commedia dell'Arte?" at 7 p.m. on February 22nd, at ImprovBoston in Inman Square, Cambridge. This 45-minute show is a fast and furious look at the characters, plot devices, and 500 year history of Commedia dell'Arte. Tickets are only $5 and are available at the box office, by calling (617) 576-1253, or on line. When reserving, please make sure that you tell them you're coming to see i Sebastiani!
Went to see the New Rep production of Threepenny Opera earlier today. I was extremely impressed with the costumes, staging, and performances. The Boston Globe gave quite the favorable review:
Oh, this shark has sharpened teeth, dear, and it sinks them into your neck from the moment you walk into the New Repertory Theatre for its magnificent production of "The Threepenny Opera." […]Rather than try to recreate the 1928 feel of the musical, this production (which originated at Britain's Donmar Warehouse in 1994) moves the proceedings to a London awaiting Prince William's coronation as king. The beggars and whores, thieves and murderers, are beautifully positioned with one foot in Brecht-Weill and the other in "Blade Runner." They're both victims of social Darwinism and practitioners of Dickensian cruelty. […]