Project #2: Unconventional Theatre

Production #1


Title: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof


Producers: Front Row Productions, Stephen C. Byrd, and Alia M. Jones


Performance Dates: Feb. 12, 2008-June 22, 2008

Key Artists: Terrence Howard, James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Debbie Allen

Picture Link: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/03/cat200803

This production is unconventional due to its casting of all black actors. There have been all-black casts of many shows but this production is in my opinion one of the biggest deals because it is a play by Tennessee Williams. Most of the previous productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof have featured an all-white cast with the exception of the two servants that Tennessee Williams writes specifically as black.

Production #2

Title: After the Fall

Producers: The Roundabout Theatre Company

Performance Dates: Jul. 29, 2004-Sept. 12, 2004

Key Artists: Peter Krause, Carla Gugino, Jessica Hecht


Picture link: http://www.broadwayworld.com/columnpic/1045fall.jpg




This production of After the Fall is to me unconventional not due to its script treatment or its direction. The setting of this production was an airport terminal which is not how the setting is described in the original script by Arthur Miller. The original setting of After the Fall was inside the main character Quentin's mind. From reading reviews of this production, it seems that the airport set was quite elaborate that even included a working escalator; I can only imagine how much this would have changed the straight-forwardness of Miller's script.














Production #3

Title: Richard III

Producers: Nicu's Spoon Theater

Performance Dates: July 20, 2007-July 29, 2007

Key Artists: Andrew Hutcheson, Henry Holden, Heidi Lauren Duke




Picture Link: http://spoontheater.org/history/2007-tales-of-the-lost-formicans/

I actually got a chance to see this production in the summer of 2007 in New York City. What is unconventional about this production of Shakespeare's Richard III is that there were two actors who played the titular character. One actor was actually disabled who had to use crutches to navigate around the small stage while the second actor playing Richard stood for the entire production in a corner far upstage left. To add on to the uniqueness of this production, the actor who stood upstage left performed all of the dialogue scenes of the play while reading from the script while the actor on stage just mouthed the words and performed the physical actions. The actor who was actually on stage only spoke when every Richard spoke a soliloquy; it was an interesting effect.

Production #4

Title: A Seagull in the Hamptons

Producers: McCarter Theatre Center

Performance Dates: May 2, 2008- June 8, 2008

Key Artists: Emily Mann, Larry Pine, Stark Sands, Maria Tucci

Picture Link: http://www.mccarter.org/media/photogallery.aspx?page_id=15&album=Seagull%20in%20the%20Hamptons

What is interesting about this production of The Seagull is that the director and adapter Emily Mann decided to set Chekhov's play in the upper class New York State are The Hamptons. I thought it was interesting to find that Mann used most of Chekhov's original words with a little tweaking of her own; she also translated the production. Because the McCarter Theatre Center is a very premiere, upscale American regional theatre, I believe that this production would only be appealing to certain social groups. However, it is very unconventional and original to update a Chekhov piece like The Seagull.

Project #1: Genres

Chicago Professional Theatre: Steppenwolf Theatre

1. Art by Yasmina Reza (Produced 2009)
"...the play itself is so stark: it's a serio-comic examination of a male friendship..."
http://www.aislesay.com/NY-ART-Brits.html

"...Ms. Reza has written a comedy that has proven to be extremely popular, winning a Tony and Drama Critics Cirde Award for Best Play in 1998 and receiving performances in more than 25 countries."
http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/03-00/03-10-00/c02ae084.htm

2. Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts (Produced 2008)
"Letts may be tempted to retool Superior Donuts before its next production, but this rough, rugged little comedy may be best just left as it is."
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/chicago/ch167.html

"There are two good reasons to see Superior Donuts, the new comedy-drama by Tracy Letts that opened last night at the Music Box Theatre..."
http://www.vogue.com/voguedaily/2009/10/theater-adam-green-on-superior-donuts/

3. The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Produced 2010)
"...directed by Mr. O’Hara, comes closest to naturalistic drama."
http://theater.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/theater/reviews/18brother.html?pagewanted=2

"Tarell Alvin McCraney's trio of profanely poetic ritual dramas signals the emergence of a major new voice."
http://www.tcg.org/publications/at/sept09/mccraney.cfm

4. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (produced 2008)
"The Glass Menagerie is a memory play, and its action is drawn from the memories of the narrator, Tom Wingfield."
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/menagerie/summary.html

"Although it is often praised for its lyricism and delicate fragility, Menagerie now looks glued together with self-pity, soft at the core, less a tragedy than an overexquisite lace-doily melodrama."
http://www.bookrags.com/criticism/williams-tennessee-1914-crit6_7/

5. The Tempest by William Shakepeare (produced 2009)
"The Tempest is a comedy with the atmosphere of a fairy tale."
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xTempest.html#Tempest
"...in The Tempest the plot can be viewed as matching perfectly the typical Elizabethan revenge tragedy..."
http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/shakespeare_last_plays.html

6. The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg (produced 2003)
"The Violet Hour, Richard Greenberg's new play at MTC, is a sophisticated comedy with an old-fashioned setup."
http://www.portifex.com/LArts/Violet_Hour.htm
"Like much of Mr. Greenberg's writing, this comic drama might be described as a work of serious whimsy, of glittering style and dark substance, and it requires a delicate hand to capture its elusive essence."
http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?html_title=&tols_title=VIOLET%20HOUR,%20THE%20(PLAY)&pdate=20031107&byline=By%20BEN%20BRANTLEY&id=1077011432866

7. The Pain and the Itch by Bruce Norris (produced 2005)
"Thanksgiving dinner is being served nightly at Playwrights Horizons, where a new comedy by Bruce Norris, 'The Pain and the Itch,' opened yesterday.
http://theater.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/theater/reviews/22itch.html
"The Pain and the Itch is a scathing satire of the politics of class and race, a controversial, painfully human examination of denial and its consequences."
http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsN/norris-bruce.html

8. Love Song by John Kolvenbach (produced 2006)
"John Kolvenbach's American play is a Jungian comedy."
http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3927
"I believe there is stillborn drama lying in this romantic comedy, and it frustrates me."
http://marintheatre.org/patronReviews/?p=39

9. The Well-Appointed Room by Richard Greenberg (produced 2006)
"Its a gentle, thoughtful, and philosophical comedy-drama in which Greenberg ponders a new question – how are we to live our lives once we've come to the realization that our futures hold no guarantee of happiness or security?"
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/chicago/ch84.html
"Greenberg's particular brand of warped realism is a splendid match for the darting directing style of Terry Kinney."
http://www.steppenwolf.org/ensemble/history/productions/index.aspx?id=336

10. Master Harold...and the boys by Athol Fugard (produced 2005)
"It should be added that Mr. Glover has a different, larger and much richer role than he did in the original New York production of this wrenching coming-of-age drama."
http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?pagewanted=print&res=9507E6D61530F931A35755C0A9659C8B63
"Moreover, the element of comedy which emerges as a result of Willie’s dancing juxtaposes with the cruel outside in order to create a warm internal environment."
http://www.patana.ac.th/secondary/english/ib/Drama%20Texts/Master%20Harold/Example%20Essays/Opening%20Scene%20Commentary.htm

Chicago Academic Theatre: DePaul University

1. The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh (produced 2009)
"This time, Martin McDonagh's black comedy deserves to head to the West End."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/dominiccavendish/4926715/The-Pillowman-Curve-in-Leicester---review.html
"In The Pillowman, a comic yet horrific drama from one of Ireland's leading contemporary playwrights, a writer living in a totalitarian state is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories--and their similarities to a number of child-murders that are happening in his town."
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780571220328-0

2. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (to be produced 2010)
"A Raisin in the Sun", written by Loraine Hansberry, is an outstanding tragedy, revealing numerous problems existing in the society.
http://www.articlealley.com/article_70742_50.html
"To celebrate the anniversary of this seminal play - which sparked the growth of the black theater movement in the 1960's..."
http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9D04E7DF173BF936A35753C1A965948260

3. The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare (produced 2008)
"This is the bitter pill which firmly establishes The House of Blue Leaves as a true black comedy."
http://www.offoffonline.com/archives.php?id=1673
"I don't for a moment believe that they let Candace Hopkins play the starring role in John Guare's surreal farce The House of Blue Leaves just because she's the president of The Footlight Club in Jamaica Plain..."
http://www.theatermirror.com/hbl.htm

4. Urinetown by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann (produced 2009)
"There really is a musical called Urinetown, it really is about a drought-stricken future where urination is no longer free, and it really stars Broadway veteran John Cullum."
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/5_6_01.html
"It's parody. It's melodrama. Urinetown is all of the above."
http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/other/01/16urinetown.html

5. Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel (produced 2009)
"Brian Friel's 19-year-old memory play, Dancing At Lughnasa, famously looks back in sadness to the disappointed lives of five Catholic sisters in County Donegal in 1936."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/review-23658395-dancing-to-escape-destiny-at-lughnasa.do
"Brian Friel's 1990 drama is set in 1936 in rural Donegal, with Ireland on the brink of dissolution."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/mar/08/dancing-at-lughnasa-shakespeare

6. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (produced 2008)
"The play balances exaggerated melodrama and irony, never allowing us to feel an emotion about a character or an act without seeing how others feel differently, how other ways of looking at it are possible."
http://www.stthomasu.ca/~hunt/reviews/streetcr.htm
"No doubt Ullmann’s Scandinavian background — and he collaborations with Ingmar Bergman — helped tilt the tone of this production of the Tennessee Williams classic away from American melodrama and towards the Russian’s trademark laughter-through-tears tragicomedy."
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/streetcar_you_ll_desire_X0DEfAwetlZUf3jRVotctL#ixzz0eS2sKdrY

7. Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (produced 2008)
"Machinal is a modern age tragedy of isolation turned to murder."
http://www.the-hypocrites.com/machinalhistory.asp
"Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal is one of the most acclaimed dramas of the 20th Century and is regarded as a highpoint of expressionist theater on the American stage."
http://www.chicagostagereview.com/?p=2503

8. Cloud Tectonics by Jose Rivera (produced 2007)
"Cloud Tectonics is a work of magical realism inscribed by poetry and a romantic sensibility."
http://www.puretheatre.org/cloudtectonicspress.html
"...this sparse revival of three-time Obie-winning playwright Jose Rivera’s metaphysical drama Cloud Tectonics, which was originally produced by Playwrights Horizons in 1997."
http://www.showbusinessweekly.com/archive/394/Cloud.shtml

9. The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein (produced 2008)
"Striking all the right chords about Baby Boomer disillusionment, this trendy feminist play made a splash on Broadway."
http://movies.tvguide.com/heidi-chronicles/review/131464
"Wendy Wasserstein’s bittersweet comedy The Heidi Chronicles was awarded virtually every major prize after its off-Broadway opening at Playwrights Horizons in 1988 and its move to Broadway’s Plymouth Theatre a few months later..."
http://www.temple.edu/temple_times/11-17-05/heidi.html

10. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (produced 2007)
"It is a suspenseful tragedy, filled with anguish."
http://www.amazon.com/Hamlet-William-Shakespeare/dp/067172262X
"Hamlet was first printed in 1603. It is Shakespeare's largest drama, based on a lost play known as the Ur-Hamlet."
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/shakespe.htm