This North Coast Weekend

Apart from the ongoing political theatre, there's one new show opening and several one-weekend presentations.

Opening tonight at HSU is Insectia...the ant war, an HSU Theatre, Film & Dance production which runs this weekend and next, Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 in the Van Duzer Theatre, with a 2pm matinee this Sunday. It's a physical theatre show for families and school children, though the live band (led by Gregg Moore), the effects and stage fighting, and especially the cool anime-inspired costumes, might appeal to kids of all ages. It's short, so it's priced to move. More info here.

The much-discussed production of The Vagina Monologues found a home at the Eureka Theatre, and will be performed on Friday and Saturday beginning at 6:30 PM. Proceeds from the door and a silent auction go to local community service organizations. There's an info website.

The Arcata Playhouse hosts another traveling troupe, the Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater Company, which presents You Don't Know Jack on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 8. It's subtitled "An Akashic Fairytale Shipwrecked Between Myth and Reality" and is described as a post-modern fairy tale about a dysfunctional family recovering from war. The company has it's own website, too.

Around We Go Again is an evening of three works by second-year students of the Dell’Arte International MFA program. Up Is To My Left is inspired by Tim O’Brien’s short story "The Things They Carried", about the Vietnam War. Dreams of Iron Beams is inspired by the story "Mrs. Ferris" by Paul LaFarge. It's about George Washington Gale Ferris of Galesburg, Illinois, who designed something special for the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago. (Oh come on, you can guess!) An Ingenious Experiment is a dark comedy inspired by Roald Dahl’s story "Georgie Porgy," exploring the effects of a traumatic childhood incident. You get all three for the price of one at the Carlo Theatre, tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8 PM, with a Sunday matinee at 2. Info at Dell'Arte.

North Coast Prep: Twelfth Night

The juniors and seniors of North Coast Prep elected to do two different plays instead of double-casting one, as they usually do. They played over two recent weekends in the Gist Theatre at HSU.

The second play to be seen was something of a departure from modern dramas of the past several productions--this time, a comedy by Shakespeare: Twelfth Night.

Twelfth Night probably premiered in wintry London exactly 406 years before North Coast Prep presented their shorter version, when on the North Coast, too, “… the rain it raineth everyday.” It's a somewhat controversial comedy. Some see it as witty and rambunctious, others as bitter and troublesome, especially in the treatment of Malvolio. Auden called it an unpleasant comedy, a precursor to Shakespeare's dark dramas which soon followed.

There's a quite good movie version from 1996, with Helena Bonham Carter, Ben Kingsley and Nigel Hawthorne. As that film suggests, the play is known for the number of good roles that allow the actors to shine, and so several talented North Coast Prep students did. Though the words were not always intelligible (at least to me), the direction was so clear and the actors so prepared that the audience was able to follow the action. Special credit therefore goes to director Jeanne Bazemore, who may have set a North Coast record with three shows in three weeks, and to assistant director Gretha Omey.

The program notes emphasize the play as an entertainment for the Twelfth Night celebrations in early 17th century London (it's the play that the Judi Dench version of Queen Elizabeth commissions Shakespeare to do, just after she'd seen Romeo and Juliet, in Shakespeare in Love. Though this is fictional, one of the many subtle touches of this movie--probably due to Tom Stoppard's co-authorship--is that as we see Shakespeare imagining Twelfth Night, the character Viola's shipwreck referred to in the play is cleverly transposed to the actual shipwreck of Jamestown colonists, with the Viola of the movie--Shakespeare's fictional beloved played by Gwyneth Paltrow, who was off to America--as its survivor.)

This view of the play as an entertainment for that celebration is an interesting and valid approach, since the tradition of the festivals in which peasants became the Lords of Misrule for a day, and tradition of the jester or "allowed Fool" which lasted for centuries, are important historically as well as artistically.
And confusions of the brother and sister in the play, as well as one of the more famous Shakespearian uses of the Fool, does reflect those traditions.

But while this version told the story with fluidity across the expansive set, it was more a simplified entertainment than an illuminating exploration of the play. But of course a school play has other purposes, with the resulting limitations, such as casting. Still, a number of these students clearly could be quite successful as performers as they move on from high school.

Once more, Gerald Beck's set was wonderfully evocative, but instead of heaping the usual praise, I will quarrel slightly with his choices as lighting designer. As no less a theatre mind than Laurence Olivier knew, in a play with a lot of words, brighter is better. People hear better when they see better.

North Coast Prep: The Crucible

The previous weekend, North Coast Prep’s Young Actors Guild presented Arthur Miller’s classic play, The Crucible. This play about the Witch Trials in colonial New England is famous as an allegory of 1950s McCarthyism, but as the audience for this production learned in 2008, it has equally relevant resonance.

There were some possibly anachronistic elements, such as John Proctor's willingness to give up his soul but not his good name. This was very important in the Blacklist and McCarthy era, when people were asked to "name names." But it may have less power in this age of Internet anonimity and the media relativism of reputation. But otherwise, Miller's play holds up very well, both in craftsmanship and in perennial relevance. For example, it was hard not to see the entire Bush era in the arc from fear hyped up for political and economic reasons, and abetted by religious extremism, to a society falling apart.

Miller deftly layers the practical reasons why Salem townspeople want to demonize each other, and later why they need to pull back from a community in chaos. But Miller’s emphasis is on that particular hormone-fueled mixture of fear and ecstasy known as hysteria.

Hysteria in this sense knows no gender, but it certainly is expressed with chilling power by a set of screaming adolescent girls, who mesmerize the court with their “ability” to see Satan. Though the play suggests the role of Puritanical repression, it doesn’t depend on it—there are all kinds of repressions in our “permissive” society. We can even see a template for this kind of hysteria in the national response to terrorism, and a similar exploitation of it by authorities.

After laying the groundwork in the first act, this production gathered force for a superior second act. Overall the presentation (directed by Jean Bazemore) was clear and thoughtful, with many fine performances. Chisa Hughes was daunting as Abigail Williams, the leader of the witch-finding girls; Elena Tessler was a convincing Tituba, and Dominick Roney fully conveyed the transformation of investigator Reverend Hale from self-righteous to conscience-stricken. While Elijah Singer capably portrayed the moral anguish of John Proctor, Fiona Ryder played Elizabeth Proctor with such depth and nuance that this relatively static character became the still center of the drama.

But what made this show particularly vital for the opening night audience was the evident emotion of this diverse young cast, and their deep involvement in the play—a power to communicate that leapt across the stage.

This North Coast Weekend

Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy perform
Parallel Lives at the Accident Gallery
in Eureka this Friday and Saturday.

This North Coast Weekend

Tonight (Thursday) at the Van Duzer, CenterArts presents several huge semis worth of Hairspray. Maybe because I made fun of "JS Superstar," they didn't bother sending me a press release on this one. Or an invitation. Very unclassy and mucho gauche.

On Friday, the Four on the Floor folks will celebrate the first anniversary of the Arcata Playhouse with another Club Shampoo, a "hair-raising" revue. Hosted by David Ferney and Jacqueline Dandeneau, it features special guests Lila Nelson, Jeff Demark, Joyce Hough & Fred Neighbor, Glasnost Gypsy Band, The Brendas and "many more." I wonder who the non-special guests will be. It was a fun community event last year, so they recommend reservations. (822-1575.) Doors (and bar) open at 8:30, with the show scheduled to start at 9.

Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy play over 50 parts in the comedy they also wrote, Parallel Lives, which begins tomorrow (Friday the 8th) at the Accidental Gallery in Eureka, presented by Shake the Bard Theatre. It continues Saturday, and next Friday and Saturday as well. Topics considered include Disney movies, country and western bars and teenage dating, not necessarily in that order.

Marat/Sade continues at North Coast Rep and 12 Angry Men at Ferndale Rep.

Dell'Arte's The Golden State in L.A.

“It was a performance in Los Angeles in 1981 that kind of put Dell’Arte on the map,” Michael Field, the Company’s Producing Artistic Director recalled last week. We did Intrigue at Ah-Pah at the Odyssey Theatre.” After the first weekend, when Fields was sleeping on a floor somewhere, somebody handed him a copy of the Los Angeles Times. Dell’Arte was on the cover of the calendar section with a rave.

 After that, “the show sold out six weekends of performances—in three hours.  I looked out in the audience one night and there in the front row was Milton Berle.”

 “So we developed a relationship with Los Angeles,” Fields explained. “We used to go there every year or two, and we had a following down there. But due to a lot of factors, like economics and relations with theatres that changed hands, we stopped going, except for an occasional university one night stand.”

 But starting February 7, the romance may be re-ignited. After warming up with performances at Occidental College, the Dell’Arte Company begins a three week run of The Golden State at the 24th Street Theatre in Los Angeles.

 New to L.A., the show was first seen on the North Coast in 2004, and local audiences got a one-weekend preview of the new production at the Carlo Theatre. Right after a sold-out Saturday performance, the show was packed up and on the road the next day.

 The new production reprised the performances of the southern California family-- Joan Schirle as the miserly lead (Gertrude Hopper), Barbara Geary as her despondently randy daughter, Tyler Rich as her generously confused son (Cubby)—as well as Keight Gleason as Ursula, the Russian émigré executive maid.

 New additions include Adrian Meija as the fabulously fey Federico, Laurabeth Greenwald as the sassy, sexy Latina maid and John Achorn as the matron-ex-machina, Bunny Schimpf.

 The role of Luis, the Latino gardener (the closest this show has to a hero), was originally written for Guillermo Calderon, but this is the first time he has been available to perform it. A 1999 Dell’Arte graduate, he teaches and acts primarily in Chile.

Michael Fields directed, with set, costume and design by Guillo Cesare Perrone. But most notable about The Golden State is the script by Lauren Wilson, a Dell’Arte graduate who was a member of the company when she was commissioned to do a contemporary adaptation of Moliere’s The Miser. Her comic tragedy (in which everyone dies happily ever after) provides original, dimensional characters, an ironic, absorbing narrative and witty dialogue that supports and inspires the physical performances.

 Wilson now lives in New York, where, according to Fields, “she’s doing quite well. She’s been published an anthology of short plays with Steve Martin, among others. She’s kind of an emerging playwright in this country, so we were lucky to get her when she was part of our group.”

 “The Golden State is perfect for Los Angeles,” Fields said, “because it’s funny, it’s something in the physical style you don’t often see there, and it happens to be about a number of hot topics in southern California, like the wildfires and the immigration issue. Part of our impetus for commissioning this was because of what we saw then of the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. And that’s only gotten worse.”

 But why the return to L.A. now? It started this summer with the Occidental College booking. “ That was a pretty good anchor gig, so we thought, why not run again? We talked with the people at the 24th Street Theatre, and we just really hit it off.”

 The theatre is a former carriage house located near USC and the convergence of highway 110 with “the 10.” “It’s a gorgeous space in a beautiful neighborhood,” Fields said. “Not big—about 100 seats—but a big stage area, especially for L.A. These small houses there are often tiny all around. That was a big problem in the old days—we couldn’t fit our sets in half the houses.”

 Dell’Arte was able to return partly because of changes in technology that make it more affordable, and partly because it’s the shared risk of a co-production with a real partner. “Each city has its peculiarities. In L.A. the preponderance of promotion is done by radio, because everybody sits in their cars. It’s a whole different way of looking at how you get audience there. And the fact that in L.A. now many people will not come out on week nights because of the traffic. So a lot of places aren’t even doing Friday shows anymore.”

 “The nature of touring has changed so much,” Fields said. “Now it’s really about establishing ongoing relationships with theatres, especially in big cities. We’ve started doing that in San Francisco and now L.A. We’re already talking with the 24th Street Theatre about another production in 2009.”

 Dell’Arte also needs to return, or at least to get out on the road. “We are touring more,” Fields confirmed. “ It’s also about keeping the profile of the company up. The students we get for our school, the funding bases of the company—they don’t all exist here in Humboldt County. So we have to put our work into the theatrical marketplace.”

 “And it also helps us,” Fields added. “It’s a reality check on our own work—to put it into a critical environment like a big city.”

Twelve Angry Men at Ferndale Rep

Two things occurred to me before I saw 12 Angry Men at the Ferndale Repertory theatre. First, that once you find yourself in the jury pool in Humboldt County, you can pretty much count on getting called to the Court House every damn year. That doesn’t happen everywhere. So some sizeable proportion of those seeing this play--which dramatizes a jury’s deliberation—may be in position to compare it to their own experiences.

Second, I thought about this play’s author, Reginald Rose, one of TV’s first serious writers. Though its most famous incarnation was the 1957 feature film starring Henry Fonda, this story started out as a television play in 1954 for the classic showcase, Studio One. Rose also created and wrote for the television series The Defenders in the early 1960s, with defense attorneys as heroes. There were other dramas on TV then (The Law and Mr. Jones was my other favorite) that championed constitutional protections and the rights of the accused, but that point of view has largely been absent from TV for decades.

The cop shows, the Law and Order-style dramas all demonize defendants and defense attorneys, as do the crime obsessed non-fiction series, the cops and prisons “reality” shows and “documentaries.” Except for Alan Shore’s closing arguments on Boston Legal, we never see defendant’s rights defended, and since many of his clients are pretty odd, today’s TV audiences seldom see themselves in the accused.

So that’s some of what audiences might bring to this stage version of 12 Angry Men, in which a jury deals with what seems like an open and shut murder case, except for a lone juror who doesn’t agree. The movement of jurors back and forth on a question that, when answered, decides the freedom or the execution of another human being is the potent dramatic material. The lives and psychologies of the jurors become as important as the facts of the case.

Director Gene Cole has assembled a worthy cast, all of whom fully inhabit their roles even when they don’t have a lot to do. That’s important because, unlike television and film, a stage play doesn’t have a lot of close-ups. Bill Cose has the unenviable task of the Henry Fonda role (for which the American Film Institute named Fonda as the greatest movie hero of the 20th century). He approaches it with Fondaesque modesty, and though his later assertiveness isn’t quite as convincing, he is perhaps a more believable juror.

Victor Howard as the juror most intent on a guilty verdict is inspired casting—he is younger and more physical than has been usual in the various screen and stage productions. He brings an energy and conviction that maintain the tension, though his motives are less clear than this character expressed in the movie.

Ellsworth Pence as the affluent rationalist stockbroker keeps the play in balance. Albert Martinez and Bob Clark are especially watchable—and recognizable—in their roles, but everyone is credible, keeping you in the story. Those who know the movie version will recall the growing claustrophobic feeling induced by tight camera shots. Perhaps Rose depended on that, and that’s why the second act loses some of the dramatic shape of the first act. But it might be even more realistic this way.

This Ferndale production makes for an absorbing evening of theatre for any audience, but I suspect ex-jurors will be especially taken by its durable realism. As many times as I’ve endured long mornings of jury selection (and once, long afternoons as well--mostly listening to everyone being questioned about every encounter with a hostile dog in their entire lives), I’ve been on a jury only once. (My record of advocacy against the recall of D.A. Gallegos usually got me excused.) It wasn't much of a case--the judge commended us for spending more time in our deliberations than the prosecutor and defense attorney had in making their cases at trial. Which was partly why we deliberated so long--just as the deficiencies of the defense counsel was a problem for the jury in this play.

But as a result, I can testify that opinions can indeed swing back and forth, and emotions can run high in the jury room, even when the stakes are relatively minor, as in my one trial. Still, I will remember the man next to me pounding his fist on the jury room table and shouting into my face, impressing me with the fact that he was a head taller and 100 pounds heavier. (Channeling my inner Fonda, I was unmoved.) Imagine my surprise when I saw him again on a local stage, as an actor with a small role (though not in this play.) I wonder, should I have recused myself from reviewing that show?

Here's an interesting tidbit/coincidence: 12 Angry Men apparently didn't make it to Broadway as a play until 2004. The production went on tour after that, and for part of it, actor Robert Foxworth played juror #3. Foxworth was married to Ferndale Rep Exec Director Marilyn MCormick and is the father of their actor son, Bo Foxworth.

Note on the photo: It's seven angry men there. Almost half the cast is missing for this publicity shot--I know the problem well-- but it's worth mentioning that among those missing are most of the younger guys.

This North Coast Weekend

Instead of double-casting roles in one play as they usually do, North Coast Prep students elected to do two different plays. So after one cast did The Crucible last weekend this weekend another cast performs Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Thursday (Jan. 31) through Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Gist Hall Theatre.

Elsewhere: Friday through Sunday at various times, African American storyteller Diane Ferlatte appears at the Arcata Playhouse (822-1575). Dell’Arte students present Quattro Formaggio, an evening of commedia Thursday through Saturday (668-5663). Meanwhile, 12 Angry Men continues at Ferndale Rep and Marat/Sade at North Coast Rep.

Catching Up with Souvenir

Today my reviews of 12 Angry Men at Ferndale Rep (ongoing) and North Coast Prep's The Crucible (last weekend) appear in the print edition of the NC Journal, tomorrow on their online site, and expanded versions here Friday (or so.)

I still have a few local shows and some other news to write about here, so I'll begin catching up with the Humboldt Light Opera's brief run of Souvenir, a two-hander about Florence Foster Jenkins, a self-financed singer notable for being terrible--though her concert and recording career lasted 32 years.

As staged by Jean Bazemore, the play hit some fascinating notes, about the relationship of inner and outer beauty, and the vulnerability of artists with something to express but dependent on others to define them as good, and allow them to express it. This is done partly through the counterpoint of her pianist, Cosme McMoon, who starts out with her while he works at writing songs, but eventually stays with her when nobody wants the songs he's written. And then he faces the irony of finally hearing one of his songs sung at Carnegie Hall--by Florence Foster Jenkins, who of course sings it very badly.

With shades of black and tan, and a glow around silhouetted skyscrapers outside the window, Gerald Beck’s set easily evoked 1940s New York. The lighting was also impressive, particularly in key scenes. Kevin Richards was charming and convincing as the accompanist Cosme McMoon, and Carol Ryder was luminously “bad” as Mrs. Foster Jenkins, who did in fact sing at Carnegie Hall, and died a month later. “Toscanini sent flowers,” McMoon tells us, and though the play goes on for another five minutes, that said it all for me.

I spoke with Carol Ryder at halftime of The Crucible opening night, and asked her about the challenge for a trained and experienced singer of singing badly . She said the difficulty was technical at first--she was straining her voice. But then she studied recordings of Mrs. Jenkins more closely, because after all, she said, Mrs. Jenkins sang long concert programs for all those years, without losing her voice. And by figuring out how she did it, Carol Ryder found her own "bad" voice.

She also mentioned something really poignant about Foster Jenkins that I don't remember being in the play. In the play, FFJ claims she has perfect pitch--when it's evident that she can't keep a tune, and her pitch is way off. Carol Ryder said that in fact she may have actually had perfect pitch as a child, but as a result of an illness she received a series of mercury treatments that damaged her hearing, so she may have lost the ability to hear the pitch she was singing accurately. What a fascinating story.

Marat/Sade at NCRT

Darcy Daughtry, Calder Johnson, Heath Houghton
and Melanie Quillen surround James Read as the
mental patient playing Marat in Marat/Sade now
playing at North Coast Rep.

Magnificent Marat

Presenting Marat/Sade this season at North Coast Repertory Theatre was an inspired decision. As directed by Peter Brook in 1964, this play by Peter Weiss was an international sensation. I recall listening spellbound in my college campus coffee shop to a young professor’s description of the 1965 Broadway production. But though it was revolutionary and influential, it became a kind of forgotten 1960s period piece. When it was occasionally revived, it seems sometimes to have become an excuse for excess and sensationalism. But Michael Thomas, NCRT’s Executive Director who chose the play, also directs it with both economy and theatricality, perfect for the venue and the North Coast audience.

This production illuminates the play itself, which speaks to us now with amazing vitality. Though its apparent subject is the French Revolution, the political conundrums resonate today: issues of war, torture, change, class, deception and self-deception, power and principle, fraternity and individual liberty.

What we see on stage has some historical basis: Jean-Paul Marat was a major figure in the French Revolution, in later years confined to his bath because of a skin disorder, and assassinated there by a stranger, Charlotte Corday. The Marquis de Sade did in fact stage plays with his fellow inmates at the Charenton insane asylum. Weiss imagines de Sade dramatizing Marat’s last days and death for an “enlightened” audience expecting to see a safe history play performed by the inmates, each with a particular (or perceived) mental disorder, as part of their rehabilitation.

Peter Brook describes the virtues of this play very well (in his introduction to its 1965 edition, expanded in his book, The Shifting Point) as “constant movement that goes back and forth between the social and personal views,” between “the superficial aspects of life and its most secret ones,” between “everyday and heightened language” leading to “the unbroken conflict between impressions and judgments,” illusion and disillusion.

These effects are partly enhanced by its funhouse mirror aspects: we are watching actors in 2008 playing mad people in 1808 (when Napoleon had “saved” the Revolution by becoming its dictator and European conqueror), trying to be actors in a play about 1793. And we are simultaneously part of that 1808 audience, peering through the bars of the asylum, and the “enlightened” 2008 audience.

The play permits these effects through a mix of styles—of comedy and drama, with songs as musical description, character expression and ironic counterpoint. There’s also the tension of madness in the players—will it control them (and the action) or will they control it? (By accounts, this was a particularly lively element in the original production, and is something that this cast can experiment with during the run.)

But those elements are only potential until orchestrated and expressed by a superior production like this one. A simple but mesmerizing set and fine ensemble acting—a credit to the director and the commitment of the actors—lay the groundwork. Individual performances send it soaring: Kimberly Hodel as the narcoleptic patient playing Charlotte Corday, Lonnie Blankenchip as the Marquis and especially James Read in a masterful performance as Marat.

The patients swirl around, now comic, now dangerous, mimicking a confused populace or a bloodthirsty mob. Heath Houghton as a kind of narrator, and the singers Darcy Daughtry, Melanie A. Quillen and Calder Johnson who function sometimes as chorus, sometimes as clowns, keep the action moving forward. The instrumental trio of Candida Wolff-Vodden, Dianne and Pete Zuleger, provide superior accompaniment for the precise singing.

Meanwhile, without moving very much, Blankenchip and Read circle around each other in a dance of ideas, tested by bitter experience. The drama in this play is in the words, and so diction is important, and this cast speaks clearly and expressively, in a dynamic range from shouts to whispers. And there’s plenty of stage business to keep the eye involved.

All of this means that you don’t just think about the ideas in this play after you’ve gone home, but you follow them—you feel them-- moment by moment, back and forth, as the play happens.

Because of the dynamics of this play, this production is likely to be somewhat different from performance to performance, and it could evolve into something even more compelling as it goes along in its run, if cast members are as committed and involved as they seem to be. This is a production to experience, and to remember.

This North Coast Weekend

Bernadette Sabath, Tyler Olsen and Keight Gleason
in Golden State at Dell'Arte.

North Coast Stages and Auditions

A busy weekend ahead… The show not yet mentioned here is the North Coast Prep production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which begins tonight (Thursday) at 8 PM in Gist Hall Theatre, continuing Friday and Saturday. Then next weekend, the Prep players present Twelfth Night at the same location.

Now to reinterate: this Saturday, Redwood Curtain presents Zounds!, a staged radio event a la A Prairie Home Companion (at 8), along with drinks and dinner (at 5:30) at the Wharfinger Building. Clink Rebik and James Floss are co-directors. You can also hear it, oddly enough, on the radio—KHUM to be exact.

Dell’Arte is presenting a one weekend reprise of Golden State, their Californicated version of Moliere's The Miser starring Joan Schirle, before it goes to LA for a month. It's in the Carlo Theatre Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8.

Ferndale Rep begins its run of 12 Angry Men with a preview on Thursday and opening night on Friday at 8. North Coast Rep continues Marat/Sade, which I review very favorably in the Journal (and will review here a little more extensively on Friday.) Barry Blake has a less enthusiastic review at the T-S. (This week's Northern Lights doesn't have anything online at the moment, but using the 5 Cookie system I've devised for him, I'd say Barry gave this one 3 Cookies.) Betti Trauth reviews it positively in the Humboldt Beacon.

Auditions

Auditions will be held at the Ferndale Repertory Theatre on Tuesday Feb. 5th between 6:30 pm and 8pm. Director Gary Franklin will be doing two, half-hour stories performed live on stage and simulcast on KHUM Radio. The first story is an episode of “The Shadow” called “Silent Avenger”, originally broadcast in 1938 and starring Orson Wells. Second will be another famous story, which also starred Wells, called “The Hitchhiker” which first aired in 1946.

Gary is looking for 3-5 women, 20-50 years, and approx. 4-6 men of 20-60 years. We will be reading from script. There will be about 8 rehearsals, with performance on Feb. 21st.at 7:30P.M. For more information, please call Gary at (707) 786-5483 X 207 or email Gary at mailto:%7B7EA9374B-7961-4D9F-techdirector@ferndale-rep.org

And don't forget the auditions for Ferndale's production of Hair, this weekend.

Peter Brook, possibly around the time he directed
Marat/Sade in the mid 1960s.

Quoth

Speaking of famous British director Peter Brook--as I will be in the course of reviewing of the North Coast Rep production of Marat/Sade in the Journal and later here--he makes a number of interesting comments and suggestions about various participants in the theatre process, including critics, in his book, The Empty Space. Here's one:

"The critic is part of the whole and whether he writes his notices fast or slow, short or long, is not really important. Has he an image of how a theatre could be in his community and is he revising this image around each experience he receives? How many critics see their job this way?"

This North Coast Weekend

Silas Knight as Duperret,

Kimberly Hodel as Charlotte Corday

and in the background Mary Severdia

as the Nun in Marat/Sade at NCRT

starting Thursday.

Ed Holmes in Subhuman at Arcata Playhouse
this Friday and Saturday.

North Coast Stages and Auditions

The upcoming weekend is the first busy one of the new year. North Coast Rep opens Marat/Sade on Thursday. This adventuresome musical play from the 60s set in an insane aslyum is directed by Michael Thomas, with musical direction by Dianne Zuleger. Among the performers are Lonnie Blankenchip as the Marquis de Sade, James Read as Jean-Paul Marat, Kimberly Hodel as Charlotte Corday, Silas Knight, Jerry Nusbaum, Heath Houghten, Darcy Daughtry, Melanie Ann Quillen and Calder Johnson. Update: Betti Trauth has a preview at the T-S. And Heidi Walters reviews Jesus Christ Superstar in the Journal.

On Friday and Saturday, the Arcata Playhouse presents Subhuman: True Tales From Beneath the Sea, a one person show performed by "San Francisco funny man" Ed Holmes of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Holmes tells tales of his job as mechanic on a diesel submarine. "Caution: contains salty language and slapstick philosophizing." This show starts at 8 PM, reservations recommended: 822-1575.

Also this weekend, the play Souvenir, a two-hander about Florence Foster Jenkins, a self-financed singer notable for being terrible--the William Hung of her time, though her career lasted 32 years. This play (one of several about her) ran on Broadway in 2005. I've received no information on this production, but a chance encounter with Jean Bazemore in the Wildberries parking lot leads me to believe she's directed it, and it's a North Coast Prep production. [Correction: According to the NCJ listings, it's a Humboldt Light Opera show.] It's at Gist Hall Theatre on the HSU campus, beginning at 7:30 Friday and Saturday, and 2 PM on Sunday. 445-4310.

Coming up the following weekend, besides the aforementioned opening of Ferndale Rep's 12 Angry Men and the Redwood Curtain radio play, Dell' Arte will present a one weekend reprise of their Golden State, their Californicated version of Moliere's The Miser, before it goes to LA for a month. It's in the Carlo Theatre in Blue Lake on Thursday, January 24, Friday and Saturday at 8.

From College of the Redwoods, this audition notice:

Auditions for the College of the Redwoods Spring theater production will be held at 7 p.m., Jan. 28 in the Forum Theater (FM 103) on the main Eureka campus.

The play currently under consideration is the award-winning and outrageously funny “La Bete.” Roles available for five men and four women, ages 18 and over. Technical positions are also available. No preparation is necessary.

Theatre production is offered as part of the CR Drama Program. Those selected to participate will be required to enroll in Drama 26 for two units of credit.
Rehearsals begin Monday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. Performances run from late March to early April. Please call 707-441-1592 for further information.

Auditions for Little Shop of Horrors. 5-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at North Coast Repertory Theater, 300 5th St., Eureka. Dress for comfortable movement and bring a song to sing with sheet music. 442-NCRT.

William Hurt in the movie version of Kiss of the
Spider Woman.

Magic

People talk about the magic of theatre and the theatrical profession. I stumbled on this story on a blog I found while doing a photo search, called The Sheila Variations. As incredible as it is, it has the ring of truth to me. It says so many things about theatre and theatre people that I had to pass it on.

I was involved in a production of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy in Chicago. It was a wonderful production, but it did not generate an audience. We had read somewhere that William Hurt was looking for a theatre company to be involved in. He missed the stage. We weren't just a random group of actors happy to have jobs - we were an ensemble, a company - so we sent a note to his agency, inviting him to come see Golden Boy.

Well - he did come - with his assistant - and on the night he showed up to see it, we had NO audience. Not ONE OTHER PERSON showed up. It was so mortifying. But we did the entire 3-act play solely for William Hurt and his assistant - as though there were a full house. It was one of the weirdest theatrical experiences I have ever had. On any other night, we would have CANCELED if only 2 people showed up ... but this was William Hurt! Flown in from Los Angeles!

We were all very embarrassed. We came out for our curtain call, mortified at making him come all that way to see this obvious failure. And he was sitting there, clapping, (an odd lonely sound - 2 people clapping in a big empty theatre) - and he had tears running down his face.

Afterwards, we all sat around in the lobby of the theatre with William Hurt, and talked about theatre, the state of the theatre, and acting - until 3 or 4 in the morning. He needed a ride back to his hotel. Michael, one of the actors in the show, offered him a ride with the rest of us, in his pick-up truck.

So I sat in the back of a rickety pick-up truck with William Hurt, as we drove through the quiet dark streets of Chicago, my hair blowing like crazy, William Hurt was just beaming - and laughing in exhilaration - He looked so happy.

He hugged all of us good-bye, holding on to each one of us so tight - He said that we had made him believe in the possibility of good theatre again in this country. It is a night I will never forget: laughing and screaming "Whoo-hoo!!" into the wind with William Hurt, crouched in the back of a battered pick-up truck.

Ted Neeley resurrected in the touring Jesus Christ
Superstar next week at the Van Duzer Theatre.

North Coast News and Auditions

It's 2008, and North Coast stages are slowly getting filled again.

CenterArts is bringing in another touring musical--or rock opera, as some call it-- to the Van Duzer: Jesus Christ Superstar, on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 8 and 9, at 8 pm. This A.L. Webber and Tim Rice composition stars Ted Neeley, who starred in the film version in 1973, and costars (as Judas) Corey Glover, lead singer of Living Colour, in his stage debut. Tickets are $65, $55 for HSU students. At this point, I am just biting my tongue. Betti Trauth has a preview at the T-S, as well as her bests in theatre for 2007.

Ferndale Repertory Theatre will hold auditions for the anti-war, Summer of Love rock musical HAIR on Sunday, January 27th at 1PM and Monday, January 28th at 6:30PM at the Carson Block building, 517 Third Street, Eureka. Musical Director Tom Phillips and Director Vikki Young are looking for young men and women of all ethnic groups, ages 18-35. Note that some major roles have been pre-cast.

ACTORS should be prepared to sing with their own accompaniment (a CD player will be provided-- a capella accepted but not preferred). Choreographer Linda Maxwell requests that all actors dress comfortably and be prepared to perform several simple dance routines. Scaffolding will be a major part of the set and most actors will be required to perform without physical limitations.
The theatre is also looking for persons interested in the technical and backstage positions. Please call the theatre (707) 786-5483 with your contact information and we will get back to you.

PRODUCTION DATES are April 3 – May 4 for a total of sixteen shows in a five-week run. Rehearsals will start in February. There will be an Actor’s Benefit Night on May 1, 2008. Scripts are available for perusal at the theatre and at the HSU Library Reserve desk. Note that scripts from the theatre and the library may not be taken home. For more information, please call the Ferndale Rep at (707) 786-5483 and ask for Marilyn.

Speaking of Marilyn, maybe I just didn't notice it before, but according to its web site, Ferndale Rep is looking for a new executive director, because Marilyn McCormick is retiring at the end of this season.

Ferndale's next show is the courtroom drama, 12 Angry Men, directed by Gene Cole. It opens Friday, January 25, with a preview the night before.

The week before that, North Coast Repertory Theatre opens Marat/Sade, on Thursday, January 17.

Staged radio shows have become the rage around here suddenly, the next one by Redwood Curtain. Billed as their first show of the 2008 season, it's called Zounds! It's on January 26 at the Wharfinger Building. There's drinks and dinner as well as the show. For more: Redwood Curtain.

Alice in Christmasland

Was his name Lewis "Christmas" Carroll? Not really. (It wasn't even Lewis Carroll, come to that.) But Lewis Carroll has been associated with Christmas long before Dell'Arte and Ferndale Rep both decided to do their Christmas plays based on his writing, here on the North Coast.

Since the mid 20th century, it was Walt Disney who linked Alice in Wonderland and Christmas in the American mind. Even before his animated movie version was completed, he showed a scene from it as part of his Christmas television special in 1950, co-hosted by the young Kathyrn Beaumont, who provided Alice's voice in the film. When his Disneyland show became a weekly series, he featured an hour version of the movie as his Christmas shows in 1954 and again in 1964.

All this is revealed on the two disk DVD of the Disney movie, still the best known dramatization of Alice. Moreover, the digitized DVD version reveals its breathtaking use of color, and of course the kind of sumptuous and witty animation that just isn't done anymore. (The people who made Yellow Submarine must have watched it many times.)

Alice has been dramatized many times for the stage (including ballets and musicals, and experimental dramas by the likes of Andre Gregory, whose early 1970s version is immortalized in a book of photos by Richard Avedon) and in movies and TV, where the usual practice became to fill the many brief roles with well-known actors and comedians of the time.

Jonathan Miller did a 1966 television version with Peter Sellers, John Gielgud and music by Ravi Shankar. Ralph Richardson and Michael Crawford were in a 1972 film, with Alice played by the future "Bond girl," Fiona Fullerton. There was a 1985 version, scripted by Paul Zindel and with music by Steve Allen, that featured Donald O'Connor, Martha Raye, Telly Savalas, Shelley Winters, Sid Caesar and Ringo Starr. Kate Burton was a charming Alice in her first credited role in 1983, co-starring with her father, Richard Burton, as well as Nathan Lane and Maureen Stapleton. And a 1999 TV movie featured Martin Short, Robbie Coltrane, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lloyd and Miranda Richardson with Jim Henson's puppets. (All of these and more are available on DVD.)

Charlotte Henry as Alice in the 1933
film, with script by Joseph Mankiewicz.

Kate and Richard Burton in a 1983
TV Alice

Stage versions of Alice in Wonderland go back so far that Charles Dodgson (the well-born clergyman who taught mathematics, and wrote for children under the name of Lewis Carroll) saw some, and even reviewed one for a London periodical. He regularly attended the theatre, and though he thought its public nature gave theatre the responsibility to depict moral behavior, he also defended it to his more severe fellow Christians. Lewis Carroll wrote plays himself, although the scripts aren't readily available, and as far as I can tell were performed as amateur theatricals for children, and by children.

From Dell'Arte's production of Lewis Carroll's
The Hunting of the Snark. (You can glimpse the
Tardis in the background, though strangely, the
Doctor is never mentioned.)

This Christmas season, Ferndale Rep did The Party, an adaptation of the Mad Hatter scene in "Alice," written by Vikki Young, as their annual school matinee. It's described as teaching "the importance of manners," and manners certainly were central to "Alice", even when they were being dissected and demolished.

For its Christmas show, Dell'Arte dramatized a famous Lewis Carroll nonsense verse narrative, "The Hunting of the Snark." I didn't see the Ferndale show, but I did see one performance of this one, at the Van Duzer Theatre.

 The costumes (by Lydia Foreman) and set (by Jody Sekas) were terrific, and the ensemble of actors was first rate. In retrospect, I wished I'd seen it in a smaller venue (or that I'd been closer to the stage), because that kind of intimacy with the characters may have compensated for the lack of engagement I felt, which I attribute to the script and its approach.

Ever since then I've been trying to figure out why I wasn't crazy about this show. There wasn't much of a story, so while many parts were funny--characters, costumes, bits--there wasn't enough to either carry it along or give it any substance. This show tried to more or less literally translate the poem into action, though what makes it a funny and engaging nonsense poem isn't the action. It's most often the language (which this show did try to feature) and sometimes the incongruities on the page (like the blank nautical map) that don't quite have the same impact on stage. Of course, other elements have more impact--like seeing the costumes and masks move and interact. But verse can carry itself forward with rhythm and clever surprises. That's harder to sustain on stage.

Also the poem is very English, and very much a product of its time. Some of the referents are so obsolete as to be incomprehensible, like "bathing-machine," and even some of the key images in the refrain, so familiar to children of Carroll's time, are remote from the experience of today's children, or unknown:

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.

One reason the Disney film succeeds (it seems to me) is that it successfully suggests Alice's English late 19th century world. So many of Carroll's nonsense verses are based on real verses that well brought-up children of Alice's era were expected to memorize and recite. The Disney film suggests this very economically, and can be a way into the book itself on that score (as it was, I believe, for me as a child.) But out of context, even some of the characters in "Snark" may be incomprehensible to children and others of today.

But even though unknown words and unfamiliar character types can still be funny, nonsense depends on contrast with sense, and successful caricatures and parodies of character types depends on knowing what the characters are supposed to be like, and how they are supposed to behave. Much depends on knowing these character types, especially when they are taking themselves very seriously, just as the vaudeville antics of the Marx Brothers (for example) often depends on some idea of what doctors, lawyers and professors, or down on their luck con men, are supposed to be like. At least before the Marx Brothers themselves became icons. And if you don't know from experience what they're like, you should get some idea from how they are portrayed. If they are only ridiculous, they lose the contrast.

It may be that the rigidity of categories and stereotypes is important--if not essential--to nonsense. What makes it nonsense is the nonsensical person or action (or combination of words) is playing it absolutely straight. Since the English upper class was notoriously stuffy, and yet also known for harboring eccentrics who embody living nonsense to some degree, the way is prepared for the kind of nonsense that Carroll creates. Clowning (which probably began as parodying the stereotype of the country bumpkin) and physical comedy, plus masks and costumes can do this, but it can also go too far into itself.

What does work, and I imagine especially for children, is that Carroll creates likeable characters that do translate to stage and screen. So the characters the actors create can delight on their own, at least for awhile. I guess what I am missing is the other layer, especially since in this case the literal story is not very interesting.

The literalization of a fanciful tale, while always tempting, can also have hidden dangers. Seeing imagined figures in brilliantly costumed splendor can be great fun. But seeing the imagined action acted out is perhaps something else.

For example, in the play as in the poem we're told that there is a kind of Snark called a Boojum, which causes the person who captures it to vanish. And in the play as in the poem, the Baker finds a Snark and vanishes, "For the Snark was a Boojum, you see." (According to Carroll, this last line of the poem was the first that came to him, out of the blue while he was walking.)

But reading the lines has quite a different effect than seeing the action. In the poem, the Baker vanishes, and that's the end. In the play, the Baker essentially dies, and the other characters react to that. That's a big difference in mood and in the kind of play it is, and whether the death is appropriate or appropriately handled become questions. It's not nonsense anymore.

All of this may itself be nonsense. Many people saw the show and it seems most enjoyed it thoroughly. Carroll was creating nonsense for children, so it was about the authoritative inconsistencies of adults, but also about those strange creatures called words and numbers, as well as about fantasies responding to the natural world and the world of dreams. Perhaps this approach works for its primary audience, the children in the dark.

August Wilson Century Cycle

August Wilson's Legacy

August Wilson's legacy lives. In fact it's probably only getting started. Audiences in Washington will have the opportunity to see all of his 10 plays this spring, in the order of the decades of the 20th century in which each is set, and that approach is likely to be repeated elsewhere in the coming years.

Within the theatre world, it's particularly vital. In the new issue of American Theatre, there's an interview with playwright Lucy Thurber, whose play, Scarcity, dealing with an American working class family, is printed in the issue. Thurber recalls a conversation with Wilson at the O'Neill summer playwrights conference. "I write about poor white trash," she told him. "Are you trash?" he asked her. "No," she said, "I'm just using it as a descriptive term to explain that part of the population." But Wilson said, "Again, I ask you, are you trash? Are the people that you grew up with trash? Are the people that you love trash?"

"That was a huge, emotional moment for me," Thurber said. "Where it cracked, this play was born. The language we use about ourselves is important. There is something about having the courage to talk with dignity and trust and faith about these parts of America that are us."

August Wilson wrote about the African American experience in America. But the way he wrote about it has clear lessons for all writers, as Lucy Thurber learned first hand.

Also in that issue, there is a piece by Teresa Eyring, executive director of the Theatre Communications Group that publishes that magazine as well as the August Wilson Century Cycle collection of his plays, described below. She notes that Wilson was involved in preparing for the publication, and that at the publication ceremony his widow, Constanza Romero, talked about what this publication would have meant to August, had he lived to see it. Eyring went on to extoll the process of developing each of Wilson's plays--a process that he and his collaborators essentially invented--as a model for other new plays.

Here is more about the August Wilson Century Cycle, published by Theatre Communications Group, and available for Christmas giving from your favorite booksellers:


T’is the season of the boxed set, but this one has more significance than the usual holiday gift repackaging. This is the first physical embodiment of a singular achievement—ten plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, which together tell a long story of African American survival. It is the first time the plays of August Wilson have been collected to tell that story chronologically.

Since Wilson completed the cycle shortly before his untimely death in 2005, the nature and extent of this achievement is slowly being recognized. No American playwright of any color has come close to a series of ten major plays like this, or participated in the acclaimed productions of all their plays. Many others helped this process in vital ways, but even so it’s fair to say that August Wilson transformed and enriched American theatre as no individual has ever done.

From Gem of the Ocean (set in 1904) to Radio Golf (1997) and including Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney and The Piano Lesson--each play is carefully true to its time, yet there are few historic events even mentioned, and the characters are ordinary people—predominately in the same Pittsburgh neighborhood. The most obvious virtue of these plays is their language—a version of black speech that is at once authentic and Wilson’s own poetry-- and this alone makes these plays unusually good to read as well as to see performed.

With this set it’s possible to feel the changes and the continuities in African American culture through the century. The reader is aided in this by recurring and even legendary characters, and by ancestors and descendants in the same family—and perhaps most hauntingly, in the fate of a single house.

In this boxed set, each play has a foreword by such luminaries as Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, playwright Tony Kushner, writer Ishmael Reed, actor Laurence Fishburne and former theatre critic Frank Rich. Kushner writes that Wilson grappled with theological questions: “Eugene O’Neill, the playwright August Wilson most resembles, did that.” Reed writes that Wilson’s “ear was so good that his character’s words could be set to music.” Fishburne quotes favorite lines from “Two Trains Running” (he was in its first production, along with Samuel L. Jackson): “Freedom is heavy. You got to put your shoulder to freedom. Put your shoulder to it and hope your back holds up.”

There couldn’t be a better introduction to Wilson’s work than the intro to the series by New Yorker drama critic John Lahr. The cover for the set has a great photo of the author, taken in the last year or so of his life. The set lists at $200 and can be purchased for $126, so it’s definitely a gift item. And if you don’t have someone to give it to, think about gifting your favorite local library.

If you haven't seen an August Wilson play yet, take the next opportunity (which may be the Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of Fences next season) or you could even track down a used DVD or video of The Piano Lesson, which is the only Wilson play to be adapted for the screen so far (it was a TV production for the Hallmark Hall of Fame, directed by long-time Wilson collaborator, Loyd Richards. Or follow Toni Morrison's lead and read the plays, possibly the most readable around, even for people who don't usually read plays.

This North Coast Weekend

The Nutcracker returns this weekend.

This North Coast Weekend

It's Nutcracker time. The annual North Coast Dance production directed by Danny Furlong is at the Arkley Center in Eureka now. It opens Friday at 8, and continues Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday at various times. See North Coast Dance.com. There's a preview by Wendy Butler in the ER and one by Betti Trauth in the T-S.

The Very Playhouse Christmas continues at the Arcata Playhouse but with one change: the Saturday matinee has been cancelled. But the Sunday matinee is still on (2pm) as are the Friday and Saturday evening shows (8 pm). Willi Welton reviews it in the ER. Bob Doran writes about it in The Hum column in the Journal, with a lineup of guest artists for this weekend.

The Hunting of the Snark returns to Dell'Arte's Carlo Theatre tonight and through the weekend (Fri., Sat. and Sunday) at 7:30pm, with admission charge.

At North Coast Rep, Fiddler on the Roof enters its final weekend, as does Charlotte's Web at Ferndale Rep.

Finally, it's not often theatre makes news hereabouts, but the T-S did a story on the Arkley Center at first accepting then refusing the annual production of The Vagina Monologues, which benefits local organizations dealing with victims of sexual violence. That the owners of its rival paper the ER and the Arkley Center are the same (they're named after the Center, not the paper) probably has something to do with the story appearing in the T-S (and not the ER). And we may not have heard the end of it, since sponsors were hoping that the Eureka venue would mean more revenue, and are asking North Coast citizens to contact the Arkley Center and politely show their support for this cause and this show (which the Center reportedly deemed "controversial.") Plans at present are for the show to go on at HSU, as it usually does.

Update on the Vagina Monologues story: a different version of events in the Eureka Reporter and another take in the Town Dandy Journal column.

This North Coast Weekend

Johanna Hembry and Robin DiCello in
Relative Captivity, world premiere of the
"bold new play" by Margaret Thomas
Kelso, in its final weekend at HSU.

This North Coast Weekend

Relative Captivity begins its last weekend at HSU tonight at 7:30. Betti Trauth reviewed it (favorably--that's where the "bold new play" quote above comes from) at the T-S. It finishes its run Friday and Saturday. Info: HSUStage.

Tomorrow night (Friday, Dec. 7) Four on the Floor begins two weekends of a Very Playhouse Christmas: A Family Friendly Holiday Revue at the Arcata Playhouse. Jacqueline Dandeneau, Elizabeth Masters and Tyler Olsen perform, directed by David Ferney, spicing up holiday sentiment with satire and clowning around. The show plays Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this weekend and next, starting at 8 pm, with afternoon shows on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM. Different special guests are expected at various performances, including Lila Nelson, the Arcata Interfaith Gospel Choir, the Blue Lake Children's Choir and the Dell'Arte student clown band. 822-1575.

Continuing: Dell Arte's Hunting of Snark at various locations, Fiddler on the Roof at NCRT and Charlotte's Web at Ferndale Rep.

Early Fiddler

Several years ago I happened upon the galley of Ghost Light, a memoir by Frank Rich, in the discard box at Northtown Books. I picked it up, amused to speculate that I was probably one of the few people in Arcata who knew who Frank Rich was, and very probably the only one who had known him personally. Not only that, but the last time I saw him, I'd been lamenting about the lack of publisher interest in my proposed book on the arts in America, and he said he was having trouble finding a publisher for this book. I didn't know it was being published. And now the book found me.

He was still theatre critic for the New York Times then--he's since become a political and cultural columnist (and has published several more books.) He'd taken me to lunch that day at Orso, a great Italian restaurant in Manhattan that was his favorite. But we'd met years earlier, when he was an editor (and the film critic) at a weekly national magazine called New Times. (Completely unrelated to the publication of that name today.) He was my first editor there. I wrote several articles for him while I was living in Cambridge, Mass. and eventually met him when I Amtraked down to Manhattan. A few years later, after Frank moved on to review film for Time Magazine, New Times devoted most of an issue to my piece, "The Malling of America."

But it was only earlier this year that I actually read Ghost Light, and learned all kinds of things I didn't know about Frank. I knew he grew up in Washington, but I didn't realize how much theatre had been a part of his childhood and adolescence. Both of his parents, and later his stepfather, encouraged this devotion. As a teenager he even got a job at the National Theatre.

We are close to the same age, so I recognized a lot about the cultural context of his experiences. But I couldn't match his experiences with theatre. At that lunch he flattered me by referring to my "obvious love of the theatre." But I had nothing like his background in seeing Broadway shows, especially in the era of Washington as a tryout town.

This memoir is about more than shows or even growing up in the 50s and 60s. He writes about his mother and father as individuals, and about the complexities of his step-father, who helped him in many ways, but who also was physically violent. It's an absorbing, very readable book.

But the point of bringing it up here is Fiddler on the Roof. As an adolescent, Frank spent summers at an arts camp in Stockbridge, Mass. His closest friend there was named Harry Stein. That was another big surprise for me. I also knew Harry Stein--he was an editor at New Times after Frank left, and then at Esquire. I visited him at the Esquire offices once and he introduced me to Nora Ephron. (Harry later wrote a column on ethics for Esquire and became known as the "ethics guy.") But I didn't know that Harry and Frank knew each other, and certainly not that Frank and Harry were boyhood friends.

Nor did I know that Harry Stein's father was Joseph Stein, the man who wrote the play, Fiddler on the Roof, as well as many others. According to
Wikipedia, his show biz career began with a chance encounter with Zero Mostel, leading him to write for various radio stars and then as part of the legendary writing team for the Sid Caesar television show (along with Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart and Carl Reiner.) He is apparently still writing, by the way--this article mentions a 2007 musical based on Thorton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, that had its first production at the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut--a storied theatre where in recent years Westporters Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward have been heavily involved.

It turns out that Frank and Harry were present for a lot of the early history of Fiddler, and Frank writes about it in Ghost Light. Joe Stein was going through a bad patch in his career. His last few musicals hadn't gone well, and his TV series was being regularly ridiculed on That Was the Week That Was, a wonderful early 60s satirical TV show that I completely loved at the time. So Harry--and then Frank--were worried from time to time that his new show was going to be another flop.

Joe had permitted Frank and Harry to witness the very earliest manifestation of the musical he based on stories by Sholom Aleichem: a backer's audition. It happened one night after dinner at the Stein's apartment, while Joe read from the script while the composer played the songs on the piano and the lyricist sang them. This was the first pre-production, mimeographed script Frank had ever read. At that point, the show was entitled The Old Country.

But it was several years before the show got to an actual stage. It had changed producers, its title and its star--now it was Joe Stein's first inspirer, Zero Mostel. The first thing that worried Harry and Frank was the title. They thought Fiddler on the Roof was silly, and might doom the show. "Harry and I admitted to each other that it sounded like a children's show, not a real Broadway musical. What was wrong with The Old Country?"

After a tryout in Detroit (where it got unenthusiastic critical notices), Fiddler came to Washington in the summer of 1964. Neither Frank nor Harry had seen it when they were allowed to attend what they thought was a dress rehearsal. They were shocked by the lackadaisical behavior of Zero Mostel. He sang a song that sounded like gibberish to them, which he interspersed with obscene gestures directed at director Jerome Robbins, who he despised. Harry and Frank pleaded with Joe Stein to cut that terrible song, called "If I Were a Rich Man."

After the rehearsal, Harry was especially upset. "I can't believe it," he said. "I can't believe my father has another bomb."

But despite their trepidations, when they saw the first performance they were entranced from the opening number, "Tradition." "...as soon as the orchestra played its last note, I looked at Harry," Frank writes. "His face was plastered with a smile, and I saw him share it with his father..." The audience loved the show.

It turned out that they had seen not a dress rehearsal but a technical rehearsal, which is all about getting light cues correct and so on. The actors were just walking through parts of scenes. And of course, "If I Were A Rich Man" is probably the best remembered song from the show.

During its Washington run, Fiddler was Frank Rich's first theatrical adventure as a kind of insider. He and Harry went to every show, made some friends, had a crush on one of the actresses. This is one of the fun parts of the book, which is definitely worth finding and reading, even if it doesn't present itself to you in a free box.

Fiddler Delights

Ariel Graham as Golde and Brad Curtis
as Tevye in the current North Coast Rep
production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Fiddler Delights at NCRT

Now to Fiddler on the Roof. First a review of the current production at North Coast Rep, and then some additional dialogue.
It seems like a long time ago now. Not only the late 19th century when the tales about Jews in Czarist Russia written by Sholem Aleichem took place, or even 1905, when Fiddler on the Roof (based on those stories) is set. But also the early 1960s when this musical was created: when several generations of European immigrant families were leaving their ethnic enclaves in cities and towns, and moving into mainstream suburbia. In a way, this voluntary exodus echoed the forced relocations—such as the one haunting this play--that brought many immigrants to America. All kinds of traditions and mores were changing and under attack from prosperity and the beginnings of 60s rebellion, and the infamous Generation Gap. This play’s story was as much about the time and place of its first audiences as it was about 1905.

It wasn’t too late either for ethnic-based entertainment, so pervasive in the 1950s, to have a last big moment. So Fiddler on the Roof premiered at just the right time—and of course it didn’t hurt that it was produced by Hal Prince, directed by Jerome Robbins, with songs by veterans Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, and script by Joseph Stein.

So can it play in 21st century Humboldt County? By now it’s a classic, with well-known and singable songs, and many of the other virtues of the golden age of musicals (some say it was the last of that era.) Generational issues at the heart of the story have become perennial, and a local audience can respond to the decidedly non-glitzy, rural town characters. As evidenced by the current production at North Coast Rep, the opening number, with the large cast shouting out “Tradition!” gets the audience to immediately identify with the events on stage. It’s a match.

The central character of Tevye, the milkman, was written for the supreme comic skills of Zero Mostel. Perhaps because we usually see Brad Curtis in leading man roles, funny lines at the beginning of the show didn’t connect the night I saw it. But his initial stiffness made his singing and movement in the classic “If I Were A Rich Man” song all the more appealing—it’s one of the most memorable moments in the show. Curtis’ rich, warm voice is superior, both singing and speaking, so as he relaxes into the role, he takes the audience with him.

As his wife Golde, Ariel Graham hits all the right notes, both comic and domestic (Joe Stein, who authored the play, started out writing for the Sid Caesar TV show, and its easy to see Caesar’s favorite partner, Imogene Coca, in this performance.) The Curtis-Graham second act duet, “Do You Love Me?” is another highlight.

Adina Lawson also excels at comedic acting as Yente, the Matchmaker. Denise Blase (with an especially fetching voice), Shaelan Salas, Nanette Vos (also the admirable Music Director) and Mara Fuller all shine as the daughters of Tevye and Golde, whose marriages form the central action of the story. In fact the whole cast of 38 performs well, under the delightful direction of Dianne Zuleger. Together with Rebecca Rubenstein’s choreography, the staging invisibly supports the action—and the “dream” sequence is a special treat.

The backing band (Laura Welch, Bethany Wells, Heather Benson, Jill Petricca, Julie Froblom, Elizabeth Halvorsen and Adam Bruce) also did well, even being as far back (and invisible) as it was.

The fast-moving first act was so involving that when guests at a wedding onstage applauded, so did some of the audience. The second act is more somber and seems less finished, but overall this Fiddler is a resonating success.

North Coast Auditions

As yet another possible service to North Coast stages, I'll see if I can keep up with audition information. So yon theatres, send it to me and I'll post it.

For instance, Ferndale Rep: a call for actors and actresses of color, ages 18-30, for a production of the rock musical "Hair" opening April 3 for a five-week run. All ethnic groups are encouraged to audition. Directed by Vikki Young, musical direction by Tom Phillips, choreography by Linda Maxwell. Please call the Rep at 786-5483 or email therep@humboldt1.com to schedule an appointment.

Also from the Rep: auditions for its 15th Annual All Teen Production, Bang, Bang, You’re Dead, by William Mastrosimone, on MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, and TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18th from 5:30PM to 7:30PM at the Carson Block Building, the third floor, 517 Third Street, Old Town, Eureka. Director Nanette Voss is seeking interested teens, ages 13-21 years, for as many as 20 roles for this drama on school violence. This production will be taken on the road to county high schools.

PRODUCTION DATES are March 6 – 28, 2008. During the four weeks in March, performances will take place not only at the Rep but also at three area high schools. These school performances will be held in assemblies in the mornings and afternoons on specific week day dates. There will be a Q&A with actors after each show.

Actors - Be prepared to read cold from the script and to discuss school violence. Scripts are available on line. Type in and search “Bang, Bang, You’re Dead” and the script can be downloaded onto your computer. For more information, please call the Ferndale Rep at (707) 786-5483 and ask for Marilyn or call Nan Voss at (707) 407-6234.

Paul Robeson as Othello, with
Peggy Ashcroft as Desdemona

Othello: The Pharma Interpretation

I'm way behind here. Let's see if I can catch up in the next couple of days.

First, the last bit about Othello. I ran across an intriguing theory about something that Shakespeare may have intended, and may have made sense to his first audience. We know that in addition to using old texts, Shakespeare was inspired by the latest news--the first forays of ships to America, for instance, and the science of his day. Which leads to something like a pharmacological component to Othello.

It depends in part on what kind of a Moor Othello is supposed to be. I tend to believe he's a northern African--I put more weight on the various mentions of Berbers and Barbary (real peoples and place) rather than the references to Othello being black--a relative term, since anybody not as white as a bleached Briton would be comparatively black, and the term is used metaphorically at times as well. (I even count as evidence Desdemona referring to her mother's maid "called Barbary" who sang the 'Willow' lament even as she died, which Desdemona then sings, and as Emilia does as she dies.)

The intriguing thesis is unfortunately buried in a dense feminist deconstructionist argument, but here's the gist: Othello's epilepsy may have been hereditary, and related to the fits of seers and prophets. A treatment for epilepsy was an Egyptian medicine, the kind derived from the gums of certain trees that Othello refers to in the play. And the special handkerchief that Othello reveres, as passed down to him by his father, was saturated with that medicine. Which is partly why it was so important to him.

This sense of Othello also relates to the "spells" which which Desdemona's father believed Othello charmed her. In any case, the themes of illness have fascinated a lot of scholars, who write about not only Othello but Iago, Casio and Desdemona. What interests me is what Shakespeare knew or believed, and what he knew his audience believed.

By the way, there's another production of Othello coming up this summer--starting June 3 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.