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I highly recommend this show. It has a great night club vibe, and it's just a lot of fun, with strong dramatic and comedic performances and jazzy musical interludes. I particularly enjoyed Doug Lockwood's renderings of Don John and Dogberry. My only criticism is that I wasn't 100% convinced Beatrice really fell for Benedick.
As usual, I was drawing; here's a link to the sketches: http://www.garethhinds.com/blog/?p=324
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Commonwealth Shakespeare Company & The Federalist Society invite you to the ninth season of
Shakespeare and the Law
SHAKESPEARE AND RACIAL POLITICS IN AMERICA
THE WIMBERLY THEATRE
May 4, 2009 @ 5:30pm
FREE
Hosted by Ralph Boyd; Featuring Wayne Budd
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, The Federalist Society, McCarter & English LLP, and the Massachusetts Bar Assocation invite you to come to see Boston's best and brightest legal minds enact a staged reading of Shakespeare's Othello and then join a discussion and debate on the politics of race in America under President Obama.
The reading, directed by CSC's Artistic Director Steve Maler, features former U.S. Attorney and Goodwin Procter partner Wayne Budd as Othello.
The post-play discussion is moderated by Ralph Boyd, former head of the Department Justice's Civil Rights Division and now Chairman and CEO of the Freddie Mac Foundation.
The Virginia Wimberly Theatre, 527 Tremont St., Boston (Directions) Monday, May 4, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. Free Admission. No tickets required. Questions concerning the event please call Dottie: 617.449.6617
For more information *click*
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Let me start with the most critical. Any production of The Winter's Tale lives or dies on its portrayal of King Leontes. Leontes has to be someone who you can believe is so blindingly jealous that he can imagine his wife and best friend sleeping together, and then believe that everyone who tries to convince him that he's deluded is plotting against him -- someone whose jealousy edges into paranoid schizophrenia, drives him to be willing to murder his friend, execute his wife, kill his daughter. And yet, he simultaneously has to be fundamentally a good person, and a good king -- genuinely sympathetic while being monstrous.
That's a nearly impossible task.
Jason Merrill nails it.
That's partially because Merrill isn't left to carry that task by himself. Leontes is surrounded by honorable, decent people with integrity, who believe that their king is better than he shows himself. And when those characters are played believably -- played as people who are smart, perceptive, and decent -- we as the audience are willing to accept that, perhaps, their opinions might have merit. So long as Leontes is played so that such a thing COULD be possible.
It's a very difficult task, and it requires Camillo (Joshua Nicholson) and Antigonus (Doug Miller) to be spot-on, as well. Leontes' monstrosity in giving both of those men unbearable tasks is met by those characters' integrity and love of their king -- which, when done right, leaves the audience somehow believing in both the king's monstrosity and his worthiness of their love.
The set, lighting, and sound design help, too. Sicily is present as bare and austere, with harsh, cold lighting, Bohemia, in earth tones -- browns and yellows, with warm light.
And the music deserves a mention or two. We didn't buy the CD of the music Michael J Veloso wrote for it, but now I'm thinking that maybe I should have.
We've seen The Winter's Tale three times now, and two of the productions were good. And, of those two -- Actors' Shakespeare Project and Theatre@First -- I think I liked this one somewhat better.
Remaining shows:
Thursday April 30 8:00pm
Friday May 1 8:00pm
Saturday May 2 8:00pm
Unity Church of God
6 William Street, Somerville, MA 02144
$12/ticket |
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Theatre@First, a Somerville Community Theatre, opened the Winter's Tale this weekend in Davis Square, and it runs Wednesday through Saturday this coming week.
www.theatreatfirst.org/shows/winters_tale/winters_tale.shtml
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Hamlet
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Apr. 21st, 2009 @ 05:00 pm
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Harvard's Hyperion Shakespeare Company is putting on a production of Hamlet. Performances are 7:30 pm, April 23, 24, 26, 30, and May 1 and 2, in the Leverett House old library (which is not handicap accessible). Tickets are $12, $8 with student ID. Note that the online ticketing system adds about 50% to the ticket price; they're available at face cost at the Harvard ticket office in Harvard Square (by Au Bon Pain).
Running approximately concurrently is The Tragedy of Hamlet: the Prince of Denmark. Performances are
Thursday, April 30th, 8:00 PM
Friday, May 1st, 8:00 PM
Saturday, May 2nd, 2:00 PM (Matinee)
Saturday, May 2nd, 8:00 PM
Sunday, May 3rd, 2:00 PM (Matinee, Closing)
in Harvard's New College Theatre, and tickets are $10.
If you see both, there's a panel discussing the two on Saturday, May 2, at 4 PM, in the Leverett Old Library.
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| » Come celebrate the Bard's birthday! |
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OK, it's a few days early, still:
The Bard himself has returned to comment on his life, his works, and how the centuries have treated him. Actor J.T. Turner brings Shakespeare to life, and presents an evening filled with stories about Shakespeare, his works, productions through the ages, and passages from many of the Bard's best works.
Shakespeare's Ghost
April 17, 2009 @ 7:30PM
The Ipswich Performing Arts Center
134 High St. Ipswich, MA
Tickets are $12 for adults/$10 for children/seniors
Proceeds to benefit Tiger Tots Daycare Program
Reserve tickets, email eimiayumi@gmail.com
Apr. 10th, 2009 @ 09:19 pm
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| » Actors' Shakespeare Project forum on Coriolanus, Monday 3/30 at the Armory |
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Tomorrow (Monday) night at 7 pm, Actors' Shakespeare Project will hold this event at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave in Somerville:
Coriolanus Conversations: The Politics of Compromise
Moderated by Director Robert Walsh
Panelists:
Ron Goldman, Cast Member & Psychologist
Diana Henderson, Shakespeare Scholar, MIT
Robert S. Ross, Professor of Political Science, Boston College
With scenes and discussion about the play and its relevance to our times, in our lives, today.
Cost: Pay What You Can at the door, all proceeds benefit the Actors' Shakespeare Project
(Coriolanus runs through April 5. x-posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) davis_square)
Mar. 29th, 2009 @ 04:57 pm
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| » Coriolanus by the Actors' Shakespeare Project |
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The problem with Coriolanus as a play is that it features a main character whose tragic flaw is that he's unlikable.
Okay, technically that's not it. Technically, his tragic flaw is that he's morally inflexible to a Rorscharch-like degree. But that makes him tactless, angry, cold, ruthless, and heartless. And therefore really hard to like.
And nobody else in the play is any better. Most are worse.
( Continued inside, with spoilers for the play )
( Discussion of this particular production )
Mar. 26th, 2009 @ 10:54 am
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| » Coriolanus review & sketches |
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I went to see (the dress rehearsal of) ASP's Coriolanus, and I've just posted a brief review and a whole bunch of sketches on my blog. The ultra-short version: it's excellent, go see it!
Mar. 13th, 2009 @ 11:41 pm
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| » Pericles at MIT; Coriolanus at Actors' Shakespeare Project |
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You know, this is going to be a great weekend for obscure Shakespeare in Boston. MIT Shakespeare Ensemble's production of Pericles opened tonight, and will be playing Friday and Saturday, and next week on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. (12th, 13th, and 14th, and again on the 19th, 20th, and 21st, at 8 pm in la Sala, in the Student Center.) And the Actors' Shakespeare Project's Coriolanus also opened tonight, and will be playing through April 5.
So it's a fantastic weekend for all you Shakespeare completists out there. If you've got a checklist of the Shakespeare plays that you've been working off of (and, let's face it, who doesn't?), you can knock two of them off your scorecard.
But is it worth doing?
Well, I can't speak for Coriolanus yet, since I can only see one play at a time -- ask me after Sunday -- but, for Pericles, I'd have to say that it's worth it. At nine bucks a pop, six bucks with student ID, it's better than most of the movies out there, and definitely better than anything on TV this weekend.
Nobody's saying this was Shakespeare's best work. Not in the least. Its poetry is clever instead of lyrical, it lacks the emotional complexity of most of his works, and, well, the plot isn't so much "deus ex machina" as "deus ex machina plus pirates ex machina, and, at least once, mad scientist ex machina." Each scene in the play has only the most tenuous connection to the ones before it and after it. It has no Great Insights Into The Human Condition, or Deep Emotional Impact, or anything like that.
But, you know what? Who cares? It's fun. Isn't that enough every once in a while?
One of the most important characters in the play isn't a character. Anna Krohn (who was also the dramaturg) plays Gower, basically the narrator. In other words, she's playing Exposition Man. Her job is to stand there and feed us large chunks of information. Which is vitally important, since the play around about a half-dozen spots around the Mediterranian, over a period of sixteen years or so.
Fortunately, she's good at it. Without a good narrator, Pericles would be entirely incomprehensible, since it basically makes no sense whatsoever. This isn't a failing in the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble -- it's just that this is one of the "Shakespeare got to get paid, son" plays. As far as I can tell, he threw it together for the paycheck. The fact that it's still fun to watch is what shows that Shakespeare was a genius.
The costumes were gorgeous, the lighting design was clever, and included one of the best "water" effects I've seen.
What are the downsides with the performance? The first one, of course, is that the plot makes no sense. Once things get rolling, you kind of catch the swing of things, and you sorta get it, and it makes no sense in a fun way that you're cool with. Once you accept that, [SPOILER] yeah, of COURSE dead bodies are going to wash up RIGHT next to mad scientists who can ressurect them [/SPOILER] and the like, you can roll with it, and it's not ACTUALLY a problem. But it does mean that the first five minutes or so are a bit confusing, until the "looking for plot holes" part of your brain just sort of whimpers and gives up. After which, you're fine.
The second problem is the one that kind of goes with the territory of "first night performance in a college production", which is getting the sound levels right. In some scenes, where the actors were to the back of the house, and the sound effects were to the front of the house, the sound effects were loud enough to make some of the dialogue hard to hear.
It can be tough to manage to deliver the lines correctly and clearly, and, at the same time, maintain the body language and emotional content of the scene. In this performance, in the cases where that fell down a little, the actors generally managed to keep the body language and emotion, but didn't project their words clearly enough -- speaking too fast, or to quietly, or whatever. But, frankly, of those three things, words, body language, and emotion, if you're going to lose one, "words" are it. It occasionally made it a little tricky to figure out exactly what was going on, but I could follow it well enough.
So: perfect? No, but that's because Pericles isn't a perfect play, and because the actors and crew all have day jobs, like, y'know, "going to MIT", which, rumor has it, can take up a certain amount of your time and brainpower. Worth nine bucks? Hell, yeah.
Mar. 13th, 2009 @ 12:13 am
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| » If you live in Somerville, please act TODAY to help Actors' Shakespeare Project |
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If you live in Somerville, please send an e-mail today to Madeline Masters, MMasters@SomervilleMA.gov, saying that you support the petition by Arts at the Armory to allow matinee performances by Actors' Shakespeare Project (and other organizations). Be sure to include your full name and street address in the e-mail, and put "Zoning Board of Appeals" in the subject line.
Or, better yet, come to the Zoning Board of Appeal hearing tonight at 6 pm at Somerville City Hall and testify in person.
If the ZBA doesn't grant this permit, Actors' Shakespeare Project will be unable to present any of the nine scheduled matinees of Coriolanus this month. So send your e-mail now. Thank you for supporting the arts in Somerville.
Mar. 4th, 2009 @ 11:03 am
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| » William Shakespeare: Poet of the Caribbean |
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The MIT Shakespeare Ensemble, in another caffeinated feat of insanity and back by popular demand, is performing a 24-hour show. It's a show that is written, directed, designed, and performed, all in the span of 24 hours! Last year, we presented you with William Shakespeare: Vampire Hunter. Now, we bring you William Shakespeare: Poet of the Caribbean. The one-time-only performance is tonight at 8pm. All information can be found here: http://mit.edu/ensemble/www/current.html
Feb. 1st, 2009 @ 07:21 am
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| » The Duchess of Malfi by ASP |
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For the second play of the Actors' Shakespeare Project this season, they've decided to change things up a little. The Actors' Shakespeare Project is doing a play by someone other than Shakespeare. The Duchess of Malfi is by John Webster, who was another Jacobean era playwright.
The costuming, set design, sound design, and especially the lighting design are creative and effective. The stage is long and narrow, down the middle of the room, with the audience on both sides of it, rather like a runway. There are doors on each end. The result is to give an impression of restriction -- the characters have nowhere to go, nowhere to escape. They can go left, or right, but nowhere else. And when those doors are locked -- which happens a fair bit -- the characters are completely trapped.
Which fits with the play. The Duchess of Malfi, a young widow, is in love. And her two brothers, powerful and greedy men, do not wish her to remarry -- political considerations.
Every character is constrained by their desires to act as they act. Whether they're driven by love, or lust, or greed, or desire for power, they are all pushed to do what they do, against their wills and better natures. Bill Barclay (who's rapidly becoming one of my favorite actors) gets one of the meatiest roles, as Bosola, an originally-honorable man who's bought by the brothers to be a spy in the Duchess's household.
Usually when I'm writing these reviews, I can assume that people are generally familiar with the plot of the play I'm reviewing. Most of you have usually have heard SOMETHING about most Shakespeare plays. But I suspect that many of you, even if you've heard the title somewhere, will have no idea what the play is about. I certainly didn't. And I really enjoyed having no idea what I was in for.
So I don't want to give too much away. I want you to be able to have the opportunity to watch it without knowing how it turns out. After all, this is a period in which some plays had happy endings, and some did not. We got to have the excitement of not knowing what the ending would be until it came.
I do feel comfortable saying this, though: if you are a fan of sex, violence, betrayal, romance, a sprinkling of comedy, brutality, and murder in your stories, odds are you'll like this show.
Jan. 11th, 2009 @ 11:04 am
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| » Interesting thing learned about Merchant of Venice |
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Crossposted to weirdjews and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) xiphias
An interesting thing I learned at the Actors' Shakespeare Project Conversations about the play:
There are good things and bad things about having a Jew playing Shylock in Merchant of Venice. The bad thing is that religious Jews read texts that they care about with the same care and introspection that they bring to the Torah, which, I believe, is entirely inappropriate for Shakespeare, which was written by a human.
The good thing . . . Jeremiah Kissel is a ba'al koreh for his shul . . . and, a couple weeks ago, found the name "Shylock" in the Torah.
See, we've all assumed that "Shylock" was just a name that Shakespeare made up out of whole cloth. But Kissel was reading Parshat Noach . . . and found, in Genesis 11:12, "When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he begot Shelah".
In Hebrew, that name is שָׁלַח -- a better transliteration would be "Shelakh". Which would go into English as "Shylock".
Jeremiah Kissel solved one of the ongoing niggling mysteries of Shakesperian scholarship -- where the hell the name "Shylock" comes from. Of course, it raises a NEW niggling mystery, of how the heck Shakespeare was AWARE of this name -- in English translations of the time, the closest I can find is the spelling "Shelah" in the Geniva Bible -- the other translations put it "Sale", which is even farther away.
One mystery potentially solved, an even more interesting mystery opened. That's the way it goes, right?
Nov. 18th, 2008 @ 10:52 pm
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| » The MIT Shakespeare Ensemble presents A Midsummer Night's Dream |
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The MIT Shakespeare Ensemble presents
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Edward Eaton What happens when you mix lust with fairies? A raunchy romantic comedy where sex and violence go outside the walls of the mortal world, out into the untamed wilderness, and out of control! The adventure begins when four Athenian lovers and one amateur troupe of actors enter the forest and walk straight into an erotic power struggle between the king and queen of the fairies. Join us for a night of comedy and confusion as we perform one of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies! Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. PERFORMANCES: Thursday through Saturday October 23-25 and October 30-November 1 8:00 PM La Sala de Puerto Rico (MIT Stratton Student Center, 2nd floor) 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA Tickets: $6 students, $9 general admission
Group rates available for 10+
Oct. 22nd, 2008 @ 04:36 pm
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| » You'd think a play called "How Shakespeare Won The West" would be interesting. You would be wrong. |
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Roger Ebert apparently has a couple questions he asks himself when reviewing movies. One is, "Is this movie more or less interesting than a film of the same actors sitting around the studio cafeteria eating lunch?" Another is, "Is this film better or worse than sitting in the same theater staring at a blank screen for the same length of time?"
I now have a question like that: "Is the dialogue in this play better or worse than the dialogue that my fourth-grade Sunday School class writes for their skits?"
( Read more... )
Sep. 14th, 2008 @ 05:37 pm
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| » Review: How Shakespeare Won the West |
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alexx_kay and I went to the Saturday matinee of this new play at the Huntingdon Theatre. Sadly, the concensus was that the play was a disappointment, especially as the ticket prices promised better quality.
The major source of disgruntlement was that, hwile Shakespeare fans might think this play was aimed at them, this is far from the case. One might think, as we did, that any play which references Shakespeare would manifest some knowledge of the Shakespeare worldview, i.e., a sense of wit and playfulness. Both of those ingredients were lacking in this work, and all the square dancing and hoedowning in the world (an abundance of which was channeled into this play) could not serve as an adequate substitute for those ingredients.
As an example, after the acting troupe sets off for the Wild West, it becomes apparent that the two young ingenues are vying not just for the onstage roles but also for the affections of the leading man. The Shakespeare fan feels quite certain that this will end not in tears but at least in a witty catfight and someone getting a lute broken over her or his head. Instead, the play takes a left turn at Albuquerque and one of the ingenues is transformed into Little Miss Sunshine, until even the second ingenue adores her. The dialogue proves to be as flat and lifeless as the one-dimensional characters.
I realize that the playwright was not obligated to hit the beats of an actual Shakespeare play, but anything that might make this play an example of the Bard's appeal across time and cultures is overlooked in preference for heavy-handed soap opera which is occasionally broken up by lengthy segments of narration that often replaces the most action-filled parts of the story. The result is a lot of predictible dialogue with a half cup of preachiness and a gallon of exposition, giving the entire thing a certain McMelodrama flavor.
Perhaps the entire idea of basing a play on a number of non-fiction books which discuss the subject of Shakespeare's place in American culture was doomed. Perhaps Shakespeare needs to be played, not preached. There is something appealing about the idea of Shakespeare's works being set in the West, and we had fun filling the long ride home with sentences that began with "If only the playwright had..."
Ultimately, this play was a disappointment and my advice for any Shakespeare fan hoping to find a work which evokes the wit and romance of Shakespeare is for fans to save their money.
Sep. 13th, 2008 @ 07:52 pm
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| » Romeo and Juliet, Hovey Players, September 19th-October 4th |
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Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
Hovey Players presents
William Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet
Directed by Jessie Olson
Fight Choreography by Ted Eaton
Choreography by Eve Summer
One of Shakespeare’s most enduring and well known tragedies will have a modern twist in this season’s opener. Two wealthy families continue to disrupt the streets of Verona with their passionate feud, bursting into violent acts at a moment’s provocation. In the midst of their bloody rage their children fall in love but do not escape the world around them or their star crossed fate.
This production features the talents of Tom Giordano as Romeo, Rebecca Baumwoll as Juliet, Bill Doscher as Lord Capulet, Sara Jones as Lady Capulet, Gabrielle Hatcher as Mercutio, Michael Haddad as Tybalt, Stephanie Haddad as Escalus, Ronni Marshak as the Nurse, Peter Floyd as Friar Laurence, Bill DeRusha as Paris, Jorge Martinez as Benvolio, Lauren Hall as Balthasar, and Lis Adams as Montague.
Performances are September 19, 20, 26, 27, October 2,3, and 4 at 8pm, and September 28 at 2pm. Hovey Players is located at the Abbott Memorial Theater, Joel’s Way, 9 Spring Street, in Waltham. Free parking.
Join the cast and crew for an opening night party immediately following the performance at Baan Thai Restaurant, which is only a 5-minute walk from Hovey Players. Free food and cash bar.
Tickets are $16, Seniors/Students $14. For reservations, please call (781) 893-9171 or write to reservations@hoveyplayers.com.
For additional information, visit www.hoveyplayers.com or visit our facebook event page http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=23963848061
Sep. 12th, 2008 @ 03:34 pm
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| » Come see the show! |
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Shakespeare's Ghost
The Actors Company Presents:
“Shakespeare’s Ghost”
The Bard himself has returned to comment on his life, his works, and how the centuries have treated him. Actor J.T. Turner brings Shakespeare to life, and presents an evening filled with stories about Shakespeare, his works, productions through the ages, and passages from many of the Bard’s best works.
Playing at the Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA 02657
SEPTEMBER 12 AT 7:30PM, SEPTEMBER 13 AT 2PM AND 7:30PM
Phone: (508) 487-9793
Toll Free: (800) 791-7487
Aug. 24th, 2008 @ 12:16 pm
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| » Romeo and Juliet |
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The Lonesome Coyote Theater Company is putting on a free production of Romeo and Juliet in Waltham, at Gore Place.
Performances are tomorrow at 7 pm, Saturday at 7 pm, and Sunday at 4 pm. It's a bare bones, outside performance: bring chairs or a blanket to sit on (and bug spray).
I went tonight, and thought it was mixed. Those who were good were really good, and those who were eh were pretty eh. Happily, all the major actors were good, and there were some nicely done fight scenes.
Aug. 21st, 2008 @ 11:05 pm
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