Friday, August 2, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Richard III by William Shakespeare, Texas State University, February 12 - 16, 2013
by Michael Meigs
Richard III is a portrait of a monster. He's a killer, more forthright than Iago and without a shred of the scruples of Macbeth. This is the protagonist who tells us he's going to court a grieving royal widow as she stands over her husband's body "though I kill'd her husband and her father," and achieves that impossibility. She agrees to marry him.
The immensity of this deformed soul's shamelessness is astounding. Richard III was the portrait of a sociopath before the diagnosis was invented, the story of a demon in human form. The single-mindedness of Richard's evil is grotesque, and if this story hadn't been presented in Shakespeare's verse, it would have been worth little more than the prancing devil of a provincial church pageant.
A further complication is that this 1592 play opens in medias res -- it's a direct continuation of Shakespeare's galumphing first three plays, Henry VI, parts one through three, in which the Yorks and the Lancasters fight it out. A director may be tempted simply to assume all that background away, throwing his audience directly into the maw of this deformed and demented protagonist with his memorable opening line "Now is the winter of our discontent." American audiences, especially university audiences, certainly can't tell a white rose from a red one. It was all a long time ago and in England, and who cares, anyway?
Director Chuck Ney's ingenious approach to establishing this dense plot line and making us care about it is to situate it an unspecified airport. While waiting for the action to start, we hear the distant crossing whine of landing airliners. When the lights come up, we find ourselves in a shabby security room with banks of old-fashioned television sets. Eugene Lee has a remote control in hand, and after he settles his twisted figure into an office chair, pops a can of Heineken and hits the button, those TVs come alive. We see brief videos in multiple images across all those televisions, recording the confrontation when Richard gunned down the Lancaster Prince of Wales, the ceremonial accession of Richard's brother Edward and the shrill denunciations of widowed Queen Margaret. There's an equatorial third-world look to all of it, and many of the faces are those of people of color.
The texts of these videos are taken from the final scenes of the Henry VI plays. By this point, before Richard first speaks directly to the audience, spectators understand that bloody business has been underway, the reigning king is no saint and the ousted queen is ferocious and bereaved.
Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
RICHARD III by William Shakespeare, Texas State University, February 13 - 1, 2013
(Texas State University Theatre Center, 430 Moon Street, San Marcos)
presents
Richard III
Directed by Chuck Ney
February 12 – 16 @ 7:30pm & February 17 @ 2:00pm
Probably Shakespeare’s greatest history play, Richard III tells the Machiavellian rise of the hunchbacked Duke of Gloucester who becomes King Richard III. Starring Artist-in-Residence Eugene Lee, this production takes a modern look at this classic tale of greed, corruption, and the pursuit of power.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Statesman and Chronicle Arts Writers Announce Their Favorites in the Critics' Table 2012-2012 Awards
2011-2012 Austin Critics’ Table Awards: The winners
Monday, June 4, 2012
Dividing the Estate by Horton Foote, Zach Theatre, May 29 - July 2
To cut to the chase, the family had already fallen apart, and so had the estate of the title, which was really only a metaphor for that family. The former glory of the estate was represented by the gorgeous set by Cliff Simon. If you think this is a spoiler and with that the play was over save for upscale furniture-gnawing, think again,for this was indeed only the beginning. Dividing the Estate is a brilliant exposition of time and place and how the fortunes of families and individuals depend on those elemental things. The Zach Scott production of the play does it proud.
The time of the play is the mid-Eighties oil bust, the one centered in Houston. The place is fictional Harrison, Texas. The real-life place is Wharton, Texas, without a doubt. The characters discuss the features and problems of life in Wharton, Texas in great, accurate detail. These include the vast acreages of grazing land tumbling in value, proximity to Houston (in every sense), sulfur domes, oil wells, ranching mansions, a main street lined with empty store fronts and a plastics plant run by Asian investors (still in operation today).
Click to read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
Sunday, December 11, 2011
God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, Zach Theatre, November 29 - January 8
Zach Theatre's God of Carnage is a beautiful mess.
That's intentional. The set by Michael Raiford is sleekly contemporary with a bold abstract mural inspired by Cy Twombly spread across the back wall. This living room has a stark leather sofa, a Barcelona chair and large pillows in African-style fabrics, all positioned over a striking red floor so highly polished that the characters can probably see themselves in it. Somebody in this family has got money and and a strong sense of design or perhaps has employed a very decided home decorator.
Now the adults are meeting to discuss the matter and to decide in civilized fashion just what should be done about it.
Hah. Good luck with that, especially when Yasmina Reza is creating you.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Upcoming: God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, Zach Theatre, November 29 - January 8
Received directly:
presents
God of Carnage
by Yasmina Reza
Translated by CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON | Directed by MATT LENZ
Starring LAUREN LANE of August: Osage County and Becky's New Car, THOMAS WARD, EUGENE LEE of The Book of Grace and ANGELA RAWNA of Doubt and NBC's Friday Night Lights
Scenic Design by Michael Raiford • Lighting Design by Sarah Maines • Costume Design by Susan Branch Towne • Sound Design by Sam Kokajko • Properties Design by Blake Reeves • Fight Choreography by Tina Gramann
November 29 - January 8, Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m.; GLBT Wilde Party is Thursday, Dec. 15th
ZACH’s intimate Kleberg Stage, 1421 West Riverside Drive (corner of Riverside Dr. and S. Lamar Blvd.)(click for map)
Tickets range from $25-$65. Student tickets: $18, available one hour before showtime (valid student ID required). To order tickets call 512-476-0541 ext. 1 or visit www.zachtheatre.org.
A play date between two boys goes hysterically awry in this Tony-Award-winning Best Play comedy. When their parents meet for coffee to discuss the squabble, the rum begins to flow and the gloves come off in a side-splitting, free-for-all where parents behave badly in this quick-witted, piercingly uproarious play.
“God of Carnage has exceptionally written roles for actors and requires that you assemble four heavyweight champs and put them all in the boxing ring together to duke it out,” says ZACH’s Producing Artistic Director Dave Steakley. “The chemistry between Lauren Lane who was brilliant in August: Osage County, Eugene Lee who was amazing in The Book of Grace, Angela Rawna who took our breath away in Doubt, and outstanding NYC actor Thomas Ward will make this an unforgettable evening in the theatre. We’ll be talking about these performances for years to come!”
For real-time updates on ZACH Theatre news, events and happenings, visit http://www.zachtheatre.org/blog, be a fan of ZACH Theatre on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/zachtheatre, and follow ZACH on Twitter @zachtheatre http://www.twitter.com/zachtheatre.
About ZACH Theatre ZACH Theatre is Austin’s leading professional producing theatre. Founded in 1933, ZACH is the longest running theatre company in Texas, serving more than 170,000 adults and youth annually. ZACH creates its own nationally recognized dramatic, musical and comedic productions that elevate, motivate and stimulate the human spirit under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Dave Steakley and Managing Director Elisbeth Challener. Now in its 78th season, ZACH continues to expand and engage with Austin, adding a third theatre to its Central Austin performance campus. The 420-seat, 26,000-square-foot Topfer Theatre will nearly double ZACH’s capacity while retaining its hallmark intimate theatre-going experience upon its completion in the fall of 2012 following a $22 million campaign. Visit www.zachtheatre.org for more information.
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Book of Grace by Suzan-Lori Parks, Zach Theatre, June 2 - July 20
The marketing strategy of putting the playwright on the poster bothers me. It's a feeling made all the sharper by the Zach Theatre's importing of MacArthur 'Genius Grantee' Suzan-Lori Parks twice over the past six months for sessions entitled "Watch Me Work." The public was invited to watch Parks write -- at a desk? on a computer? on a yellow legal pad? -- for most of an hour, following which she had an exchange with the spectators. Now, that does not at all fit my concept or my requirements for writing; I find that I have to assume something of a hypnotic trance before the computer screen, capturing thoughts and words as if I were hunting elusive butterflies with a keyboard. I may well be wrong, for I didn't attend, but "Watch Me Work" seemed a bit too glam or too cult, the equivalent of displaying the playwright in the shop window.
The Zach has continued that "See The Playwright" marketing, even including in the program an insert with Dave Steakley's interview of Parks.
I didn't read it. Parks seems in Kirk Tuck's rehearsal pictures and in the Zach's videos to be a pleasant and intelligent person, but the identity of the playwright is not what lures me into the theatre. In similar fashion, David Mamet's newly celebrated political conversion from leftish to glowering rightish is frankly irrelevant in my mind to the performance of his work.
Parks' play The Book of Grace first went on stage at the Public Theatre in New York in April, 2010. The Zach Theatre recruited Parks herself to direct the play in this "definitive" version, playing now until July 20. The published play script will be the text used in this production. Parks was evidently still adjusting it during rehearsal . The program advised that there would be no intermission but the Steakley insert informed us correctly that there were two acts with a fifteen-minute intermission.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
As You Like It, Texas State University, San Marcos, April 6 - 16
Marketa Fantova's designs for As You Like It at Texas State University established at a glance the intentions of director Chuck Ney. The action opens at Duke Frederick's court, a bare space at the front of the wide thrust stage, bounded to the rear by a high, chill wall with a blue metallic sheen. That wall initially appears featureless, except for the edifice of steel tubing and dark metal treads parked against it -- the sort of movable ladder one might expect to find in a warehouse. Concealed doors open from that blank wall, including one at the top of the edifice. Characters descend or climb those precarious stairs that sway, suggesting a subtle danger.
The court is equally bare and cold. Young Orlando is angered by the neglect shown to him by his elder, inheriting brother Oliver. Duke Frederick, the ominous usurping head of this city state, stalks onstage accompanying by bodyguards whose chief function is to walk and stalk in step with him.
When the duke's daughter Celia and her banishéd best girl friend Rosalind flee to the forest, the metal barrier vanishes, to reveal a striking, deep stage picture very similar to that depicted on the poster for this production. Fantova has established progressive inclines running from side to side of the stage, usable as steps or as ramps, and she uses cylinders of white semi-lucent fabric to suggest the trees of a grove, perhaps of birches. Although exiled Duke Senior speaks to his band of the "icy fang and the churlish chiding of the winter's wind," their white and blue world, though suggested merely, feels far warmer than that of the court.
