‘rie Shontel’s autobiographical theater work is a strange amalgam of comedy, pathos and public service announcement. Set in a shabby Oakland, CA, public housing living room where she grew up, which is oddly draped with a small fortune in brand-new bras, Mama Juggs is a series of related skits about the author and her family, focused on breasts, their life-giving force and their death-dealing disease.
This is certainly fertile ground for theatrical exploration, but Shontel does not take it very far-however, if you should somehow have been ignorant of the correct way to check your breasts for lumps, you will be educated.
If you have trouble with the idea of multiple generations of the same family living in public housing, keep in mind that the author-by day public radio producer Anita Woodley-has broken the cycle. Shontel is as adept as a mockingbird at creating the individual voices and forms of her characters, all of whom are piquant and interesting.
Some of the stories are wonderful, and she is an excellent storyteller, with an instinct for comic timing. This is not a play, with arc, crisis and resolution, but a story-telling event with some charming playacting.
After creating a series of “testimonial plays” based on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990s, playwright Yael Farber approached a group of women from the Xhosa people in 2008, and told them the story of The Oresteia. The Greek tragic trilogy still confronts us with dilemmas our civilization hasn’t fully solved. How do we distinguish justice from vengeance? What is the appropriate punishment for murder? And once “eye for an eye” violence is ingrained in a culture, how can it be stopped?
At the time she was looking for umngqokolo—traditional overtone throat singing for her new project. But the women’s responses to the tale shocked the playwright. What became a spontaneous Greek—yet uniquely African—chorus sought and found a solution to this ancient dilemma of justice. It differed from the one depicted in the writings of Aeschylus.
This week, those women, their musicians and three actors sing and enact the conclusions they’ve reached in the Farber Foundry production of MoLoRa (Ash) at Reynolds Industries Theater.
We spoke with Yael Farber by phone for an hour on March 11.
INDEPENDENT: I’m aware that South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has had a profound influence on your work. I’m wondering what lessons you believe the rest of the world hasn’t learned yet from South Africa after the fall of apartheid. Why is a work like MoLoRa (Ash) needed—why is it a work the world should have?
FARBER: The genesis of project was actually images of New York City after Sept. 11. For days after the tragedy, there were those incredibly poignant and moving images of ashes falling down on people in Manhattan.
CAROLINA THEATRE/ DURHAM—Ask any high-school theater geek, and they’ll have heard of Gilbert and Sullivan. Ask me, I was one. But amazingly, I graduated high school and went all through college without once seeing one of their plays or hearing any of the songs.
All of that changed when I attended a rehearsal for The Mikado, performed by the Durham Savoyards. Founded in 1963, the troupe is dedicated to performing solely Gilbert and Sullivan standards. While they rotate through a number of titles, they return to the more popular ones more frequently.
This outing marks director Derrick Ivey’s second time helming the opera. His first time directing for the Savoyards occurred in 2003, when he directed a different version of The Mikado.
“The one we did in 2003 was a really radical re-visioning. It was a modern setting, and we had a huge back story,” Ivey says, noting that the text and music remained unchanged. The modern characters then stepped into the Japanese story after the choreographed overture, creating a layered story-within-a-story effect. That production was the last time the Savoyards performed the opera.
Though the Savoyards only have one large performance each year, they make sure to do it in style. Sarah Nevill, one of the show’s producers, says that the group has sold more tickets than at this point last year. As far as Nevill knows, no other group like the Savoyards exists in North Carolina.
A technical rehearsal was underway during my visit; as I walked through the Carolina Theatre’s backstage corridors, cast and crew bustled about, absorbed in their preparations. A peek into the makeup rooms revealed actors getting their faces brushed with white paste to simulate Japanese Kabuki-style makeup. Actors padded around the halls in dressing gowns, with hair held in caps to aid in wearing wigs later. Orchestra members tuned up in the pit the cast’s first full-dress rehearsal (involving not only costumes, but also make-up and wigs). Continue reading »
THE WINTER’S TALE Peace College
Through Feb. 27; www.peace.edu
The Winter’s Tale is one of William Shakespeare’s last and less-performed plays, and it’s easy to see why. It’s literally half tragedy and half comedy, with a dark, vengeance-filled first opening act that gives way to a second act filled with songs and romantic misunderstandings; the meaning of the title comes courtesy of a charming child who will soon die: “A sad tale’s best for winter: I have one/ of sprites and goblins.”
The new production of The Winter’s Tale at Peace College’s Leggett Theatre, co-directed by Kenny Gannon and Flynt Burton, offers intriguing insights into this relatively obscure work of Shakespeare, although the production’s eccentric design choices occasionally obscure the meaning of particular scenes.
This play, which was first performed around 1611, encompasses the classic Shakespearean themes of tragedy, prophecy, mistaken identity, tragic pride, disguises, young lovers, fools, kings and reconciliation. Also, in this play, someone gets eaten by a bear. The story opens in Sicilia, where the king, Leontes (Katja Hill), has developed a paranoid conviction that his wife Hermione (Johanna Coats) has cuckolded him with his friend, the Bohemian king Polixenes (Elisabeth Brewer). This results in Leontes’ daughter, Perdita (Cassidy Jane Hutchison), being exiled at birth, subsequent tragedy befalling the king, and many further travails before old wrongs can be rectified.
The all-female production isn’t a problem for the most part, but because all the characters are given gender-neutral blue pajamas, the action becomes difficult to follow in the first act. The use of classical music cues throughout the show also occasionally drags down the action, obscuring the points of some important soliloquies. Things pick up in the second half, though, when the costumes become more specific and the action lightens up (literally and figuratively) as the story moves forward 16 years from a claustrophobic tragedy and we find ourselves in a pastoral romantic comedy in far-off Bohemia.
There are some strong performances throughout this show, which mixes professionals with students: notable among the former are Hill’s implosive work as Leontes, Nicole Quenelle as the lady Paulina, and Emilie Stark-Menneg, who in multiple roles shows off a real talent for physical comedy. Among the students, Aneisha Montague and Sidney Edwards make for a compelling comic duo in the second act, respectively playing a shepherd and his son (accurately called “Clown” in the dramatis personae).
While it’s one of Shakespeare’s odder plays, The Winter’s Tale does have a certain magic in its combination of comedy and tragedy; and, unlike the author’s darker works, this tale ends on a note of redemption. For Shakespeare fans, it’s an opportunity to see one of the Bard’s least-produced plays come alive, and see unique local talents on display.
For a film famously reviewed as “Xana-Don’t,” the ill-fated 1980 Olivia Newton-John/ Gene Kelly musical Xanadu lingers in the mind. True, it helped kill the movie musical, along with the careers of most people involved, but the color, spectacle and sheer wrongness of the whole venture gave it a certain cult appeal. And the Electric Light Orchestra songs weren’t bad, either.
As one who has seen multiple big-screen revivals of Xanadu and even butchered the theme song on a few karaoke nights, it’s a pleasure to report that the stage musical, which premiered on Broadway in 2007 and played through the snowy weekend in Raleigh’s Memorial Auditorium, enraptured both those bored silly by the original movie and those who still recall with fondness its laser-riffic effects and nonsensical storyline.
Said storyline involves Sonny (Max Von Essen), a none-too-bright Venice Beach artist with a propensity for headbands and short-shorts, who finds a new inspiration in Kira (Elizabeth Stanley). Kira happens to be an actual muse-disguised as human with roller skates, leg warmers and a horrible Australian accent, and she encourages Sonny to pursue his dream of opening the ultimate center for the arts … a roller disco. Complications ensue that involve Kira’s jealous sisters (Natasha Yvette Williams and Annie Golden) and a wealthy developer (Larry Marshall).
The deliberate goofiness of Douglas Carter Beane’s book includes a Greek chorus of muses, a love duet in a rolling phone booth, leg warmers as a plot point, a love song performed on a hovering Pegasus and a plethora of ELO songs, many of which Stanley delivers in an uncanny mimic of Newton-John mannerisms. The production calls attention to its own artificiality, with audience members seated on stage and a major character disappearing from the climax…because, it’s pointed out, the actor is already on stage in another role.
More than just a genuinely amusing redo of a flop movie, though, Xanadu is a sly critique on the current state of Broadway musicals that’s still accessible to those who’ve never set foot on the Great White Way. In an age where almost every show is either based on a movie or a collection of repurposed rock oldies, Xanadu uses its muse characters and the movie’s infamous history to poke fun at the lack of originality on stage while reminding the audience that this is a stage musical based on a movie that uses old rock tunes for its soundtrack.
Perhaps there’s still a dearth of original songs and stories on stage, but Xanadu gets plenty of laughs and energy out of what one character calls “the box known as juke.” It’s enough to almost make you want to buy some leg warmers at the gift shop afterward (yes, they’re on sale). Perhaps I won’t be the only one mutilating the theme at the karaoke bar. Xanaduuuu….Xaaaaaaaannnnnadduuuuuuuuuuuu….
Kenneth Strong, an actor and teacher with PlayMakers Repertory Company and the Department of Dramatic Art since 1979, died Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 12. Strong had fought glioblastoma brain cancer since 2007, a battle whose early rounds were documented by arts journalist Orla Swift in a Nov. 25, 2007 feature story in the Raleigh News and Observer.
Strong had achieved distinction for his memorable contributions to over 50 PlayMakers productions, including Pericles, The Little Prince, God’s Man in Texas, and Art. He also performed in a 1996 Broadway revival of “Inherit the Wind” with George C. Scott, in addition to roles off-Broadway, in television series including “Law and Order,” “Spin City” and “In the Heat of the Night,” and in films.
According to the biographical information on the PlayMakers company website, Strong had also been originally cast to play Newman Noggs in PlayMakers’ 2009 production of “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby.” Weston Blakesley appeared in the role instead.
Strong had been in hospice for just under a month at the time of his death. Heidi Reklis, PlayMakers general manager, posted on his hospice website that at the end, Strong “was very much at peace and had his [wife] Kee, his mother, his brother and Kee’s brother in the room with him. His very last moment was a brilliant Ken Strong smile and a quiet breath. While we are all very sad, you could not ask for a better moment.”
A memorial service will be held Mon. Jan. 18, at 1 p.m., at Paul Green Theater.
In lieu of flowers, Strong’s family has requested that donations be made in his name to the Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center. Click here for a link to their online donation page.
Longtime Indy theater and dance critic Byron Woods has been invited to teach the National Critics Institute’s theater criticism intensive seminar and to serve as critic-in-residence for the 2010 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). KCACTF serves more than 18,000 college and university theater students each year, in programming all across the country. Woods is one of eight theater critics nationwide chosen to serve this festival, and he will be the critic in residence in Region VI, which includes Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The Region VI conference will take place at Amarillo College, located in Amarillo, Texas, from Feb. 22-28.
Word to the slammers — and all of the other spoken word and poetry performance practitioners in the region: Following the Friday, Jan. 15 performance of The Big Bang by Universes, PlayMakers Rep will sponsor aspoken word performance competition in Kenan Theater. Prizes to be awarded include a 3rd-generation Apple Ipod Touch.
The three-round competition is for original works, performed by their creators, on any subject, in any style. Performances in each round will be timed, and must be under three minutes in length (with a 30-second grace period before penalties will be assessed). Each poem may only be used once during the competition. Contestants are advised to leave musical instruments, pre-recorded songs, props and costumes at home.
The competition will be hosted by CJ Suitt, a poet and facilitator with Sacrificial Poets, a youth performance poetry team in Chapel Hill, and judged by the members of Universes.
To register, email Jeffrey Meanza, PlayMaker’s Director of Education/Outreach, at meanza@email.unc.edu. Participants may also show up on the night of the event, but night-of competition spots will be held on a first-come, first-served basis.
You take a turn down one of the bustling avenues at the Renaissance Festival, and a calamity appears before you. Three girls in ragamuffin street dress from another time assume a defensive football position against the oncoming crowd. “Hunchbacks!” one roars, “One! Two! Three!” Simultaneously, they drop their shoulderblades on one side and grunt, before assailing the onlookers, in 3-D: “NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT MADE SUMMER BY THIS GLORIOUS SON OF YORK!”
Mere moments later, when the fit has passed, the group debates the merits of a man in the crowd. “Think not I love him, though I ask for him,” one says just a bit too nonchalantly to her unconvinced companion, whose arms are folded and eyebrows duly cocked. “’Tis but a peevish boy, yet he talks well. But what care I for words?”
Seconds elapse, and then two hit the ground, awkwardly trying to make their caps into a blanket. The third, still standing, grimaces: “What have we here? A man or a fish? Dead or alive? A fish: he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fish-like smell,” waving the air with distaste.
The trio gets laughs from each of these brief scenes, all right. And in the process, they’ve painlessly added a bit more Shakespeare to the lives of passers-by.
Rebecca Blum, Kacey Reynolds and Carmen-Maria Mandley are members of the Nickel Shakespeare Girls, a Raleigh-based group of buskers—a British term used to describe street performers of the very old school. The Girls are celebrating their tenth year of touring their unique blend of acrobatics, humor and theatrics with street shows and more serious featured performances throughout this closing weekend of the North Carolina Renaissance Festival in Huntersville, just north of Charlotte.
On the road some 25 weeks out of the year, the group’s 2010 season already has performances slated at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, and “A Somer’s Eve” festival in Bermuda.
Co-founder Carmen-Maria Mandley recalls their start at the NC Renaissance Faire, a different organization that was operating at the time in Raleigh: “We began making a deal with the people in the lane: If they gave us a nickel, we would give them some Shakespeare—or a rock.”
“To start with, about half of them went with the rocks,” Mandley now recalls, laughing.
But the gag ultimately proved so popular that by their second year, they—and everybody else—were calling them the Nickel Shakespeare Girls. “It kind of became our destiny, to bring Shakespeare to people who wouldn’t see or hear it otherwise, as well as to people who love it.”
The group performed in Duke Gardens this spring, and does workshops and residencies for educational programs in the area including Raleigh Charter High and East Chapel Hill High School.
But it’s the challenge of old-fashioned street theater that appeals to the actors. “You have to fight for your audience,” Mandley notes. “They aren’t captive. They’re not sitting comfortably—or uncomfortably—in their seats. You have about 10 seconds to get them. Or they’ll walk on by.”
“What excites me is when people who aren’t already privy to Shakespeare will stop and listen to Henry V, because the way we’re doing it engages them,” Mandley says. “It’s the kids who come back year after year to see us. It’s the energy it takes. It’s a very sacred thing, we care very deeply about.”
DURHAM PERFORMING ARTS CENTER/DURHAM—There’s no musical juggernaut like The Phantom of the Opera: The touring version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s great show has been on the road for 17 years. Its upcoming month-long stand at Durham Performing Arts Center represents the fulfillment of one of the facility’s objectives, and DPAC officials are betting that they’ll be able to fill seats for the 32 performances that begin on Thanksgiving Day.
Although the show doesn’t open for another week, the huge work of loading it in began this morning. The famous decorative elements of ThePhantom of the Opera-the chandelier, the underground tunnels and everything else-will fit easily onto DPAC’s massive stage and will no doubt thrill audiences. But behind the opulence is a lot of grunt work that goes into laying the foundation for the complex, notoriously mobile set.
This morning at DPAC, the load-in began-a full week before the show’s opening (it’s still running in Tempe, Ariz., with the actors using a second set). There are about 75 people working under the direction of David Hansen, advance stage manager.
When we enter the facility, we are greeted-awed, even-by the proscenium arch that jutted at a forward angle toward the audience seats. The structure is decorated with friezes depicting Pan-like creatures bearing maidens who are, in turn, surrounded by angels aloft. These figures successfully evoke the Neo-Baroque style of the Opera Garnier setting of Gaston Leroux’s 1911 novel. We watch as the workers expertly assemble this grand bit of scenic fakery with the aid of hydraulic lift.
Behind the proscenium lay a tangle of lights, cables and black-painted metallic structural supports. During performances, a stagehand will sit atop this structure to man the lights.
We then see the famous chandelier looming menacingly in a corner. It weighs nearly 1,000 lbs. and incorporates 35,000 crystal beads. For all its delicate gold filigree work, Hansen concedes, the chandelier doesn’t look that great up close-perhaps the result of crashing to the floor nearly 7,000 times. By opening night, 141 candles will have been built into the floor, and there will be footlights designed to resemble gaslights of the period.
The cast won’t have to worry about dancing on an unfamiliar stage at DPAC. “The dancers have the same surface in every city to dance on,” Hansen said. Indeed, the DPAC stage is covered with stacks of floor panels labeled “Phantom III Advance,” with the direction “upstage” marked on the side. We watch as eight to 10 stagehands maneuver each panel, weighing between 80 and 120 lbs., by using a pulley system suspended on a chain hung from the ceiling. Another stagehand wields a T-shaped instrument to push two panels together. Other hands help by pushing their sneaker-clad feet against one panel. Hansen tells us a track is built into the panels to ensure quick fastening and subsequent removal.
Hansen says that it took the show’s designers eight months to prepare such an elaborate, yet portable set. Preproduction costs ran close to $11 million (in 1992 dollars), with $3 million of it devoted to costumes.
The tour travels with 20 48-foot trailers, and nine were unloaded this week. Since the production sends out trucks to the next tour stop while the present one is running, the total number of trucks used is around 30.
Hansen said the advance time is necessary for troubleshooting any problems that may arise. Here in Durham, he’ll check dressing rooms and sinks to ensure that they are in compliance with expectations, do paperwork and establish telephone contact with the venue in Ft. Lauderdale, the next stop on the tour.
The Phantom of the Opera will end its Durham run on a Sunday and open in Fort Lauderdale the following Wednesday. By then, Hansen and company will go to work all over again, laying the groundwork for the Phantom’s next stop, Orlando.
Lisa Creech Bledsoe on "Notes from IgniteRaleigh: To be a spark, and not to be rickrolled": "Speed dating for the tech set," funny! Nice write up of an incredible event. I'm voting for Scrubby next year. Scrub-by, Scrub-by, Scrub-by!
Lisa aka @glowbird (the boxing chick)
DK on "Notes from IgniteRaleigh: To be a spark, and not to be rickrolled": Just moved back to the Triangle from Seattle, which is where Ignite started. It kind of caught on and blew up really fast, and organizers had to keep upping the venue.
I think people have been looking for this kind of cabaret for a while. They like going somewhere and being a crowd together, and it's
Christine Fawley on "Notes from IgniteRaleigh: To be a spark, and not to be rickrolled": A fabulous night highlighting the diversity of talent and intellectual pursuits here in the Triangle. An event like this could be held every month and still barely scratch the surface of the passions of our community.
We were honored to be included and appreciated the support and enthusiasm of the crowd as we delivered "20
