Thurs., 1/26/12: Going into the Red

*Alicia Anstead guest hosts
 
  Going into the Red
We’re talking about "Red", now playing at the SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston through Feb. 4. "Red" is a play about the abstract expressionist, Mark Rothko. Set in Rothko’s New York studio in the late 1950’s, "Red" places a the troubled, aging Rothko alongside his young, idealistic assistant. The play zooms in on Rothko’s commission to design murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in the new Seagram Building. The end result is a series of murals, painted in a gloomy palate of reds. For Rothko, red is literally the color of lava, lobsters, atomic flashes, and arterial blood. Symbolically, red is about being alive, red hot, and relevant. Rothko dreads the dimming of his red flame as a new generation of artists burst onto the scene. "Red" is about Rothko’s struggle to postpone the blackness of extinction. It’s about artistic integrity, and the dynamic relationship between the artist and his work. 

GUESTS:
  Stephen Coit: primarily a portrait painter, Mr. Coit’s work is on display in many private homes and institutions with the largest collection owned by Harvard University
  Thomas Derrah: a mainstay on the Boston theatre scene for more than 25 years, Derrah's list of credits include more than 100 productions with the American Repertory Theater, including an award-winning turn last season in the one man show "R. Buckminster Fuller: The History and Mystery of the Universe". Derrah portrays legendary abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko in the SpeakEasy Stage Company production of "Red".
  David R. Gammons:  no stranger to the art world- having studied painting, photography, and sculpture while an undergraduate at Harvard- Gammons has since become one of Boston’s most sought-after directors, with credits that include such varied and award-winning productions as "The Hotel Nepenthe", "Titus Andronicus", and "RED".
  Ruth Fine: curator of special projects in modern art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She is the lead author of the Rothko works on paper catalogue raisonné.