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War Horse Is an Unbridled Success

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 11:31 AM +0000

Jared Bowen meets Joey at the Boston Opera House. See the puppet in action on Greater Boston.

Since its debut in London’s West End, War Horse has galloped away with a stream of accolades, including the 2011 Tony Award for Best Play. The first national touring production is now playing at the Boston Opera House, where I was treated to a revealing look at the equine star.

Set in the English countryside in 1912, the story belongs to a teenager named Albert who raises a colt he calls Joey. Their bond is immediate and unwavering. But at the outbreak of World War I, Joey is conscripted into the British army.

War Horse traces Joey’s brutal path through war and the majestic animal’s endurance in a landscape of horror. Uxbridge, Mass. native Andrew Veenstra plays Albert, and he’s clear about the play’s main theme.

“It’s definitely an anthem of peace. You look at the atrocities that were committed and why they were committed and you’re left questioning what it was all about and why it’s there,” Veenstra said.

The emotional heft of the show comes from the horses — life-sized puppets created by The Handspring Puppet Company, which received a special Tony Award for the effort. Veenstra introduced me to his partner on stage.

“This is Joey. He’ll get to know you. He’ll smell you. You just reach out. He’s no different from any other horse,” he said as the puppet nuzzled my hand. It was remarkable to meet Joey, and I’m someone who grew up riding horses. This seemed like a horse!

Joey is an elaborate creation — handmade by over a dozen people, he is 120 pounds, roughly 10 feet long and eight feet tall. He is framed in cane and aluminum. Leather drapes his back and a hosiery-like fabric comprises his skin. But he is imbued with life.

“What they found with horses is actually when they breathe, they expand outward,” Veenstra said. “The lungs of the horse are about three times the size of human lungs, so to get the sound produced, it takes three people to create that. And all three of them create the horse sounds. Everything involves sound. There’s no recordings or anything like that for any of the live-action horses.”

The three actors — puppeteers inhabiting Joey serve as the head, heart and hind manipulating the horse through a series of levers controlling 20 joints.

“The most important thing is we all inform each other. The hind that is the engine of the body and the head being the thought of that animal, the breath and the engine and the mind all work together and you know create this really beautiful organism,” said puppeteer Brian Robert Burns.

It’s a process that has become organic for the actors. While they have basic choreography on stage telling them where to be and when, they’re otherwise given free rein.

“As we get further into this tour we start to really flesh out these tiny details of what the horse is thinking. And they surprise us when we’re on stage. That’s the surprising thing,” said puppeteer Danny Yoerges.

The third puppeteer, Jessica Krueger, added that she sees the role of her trio as constantly evolving.

“I have a terrible habit of seeing something, stealing it, putting it in the show right away without telling anybody and then seeing how that worked. I’ll see things on YouTube, in a live horse, anything. I’ll find a place to put it [in the performance]. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t,” she said.

For Veenstra there is little question that the spirit of Joey drives the entire production.

“Joey is never anything but Joey to us in the cast. I forget, quite honestly probably quicker than the audience does, that it’s even operated by people. You just immediately are feeling for this animal.”

That’s what makes War Horse an unbridled success.

Review: Sequence 8

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 01:28 AM +0000

Oct. 4, 2012

Maxim Laurin and the cast (ArtsEmerson)

Hear Jared's reviews of performance, music, film and art around Boston on 89.7 WGBH's Morning Edition, and take notes on what you shouldn't miss this weekend.

SEQUENCE 8
Presented by ArtsEmerson at the Cutler Majestic Theatre through October 7th

Set not in a specific time or place but rather on a vertical canvas of sorts, this acrobatic dance and theatre piece contemplates the role of the "other," and how we define ourselves through and against it. Just when one thinks it isn’t possible to find any more evolution in circus acts, Les 7 doigts de la main will leave you stunned.

Itzhak Perlman and The BSO’s 132nd Season
Symphony Hall, Boston

Renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman recently opened the BSO’s 132nd season as both performer and conductor for an all Beethoven evening.

This weekend, BSO assistant conductor Marcelo Lehninger leads a program pairing the Romantic with the ruminative. American violinist Joshua Bell is soloist in Bernstein's Serenade inspired by Plato's "Symposium", a dialogue on the nature and value of love. Also on the program are two audience favorites: Tchaikovsky's emotionally charged fantasy-overture "Romeo and Juliet", and Dvorák's bucolic Symphony No. 8.

>> Listen now to Itzhak Perlman's all Beethoven evening on Classical New England.

Watch Jared's interview with Itzhak Perlman.

Watch Sept. 27, 2012: Legendary Violinist Itzhak Perlman on PBS. See more from Greater Boston.

Theater Review: On Stage Now in Boston

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:04 PM +0000

Listen to Jared's review.

BOSTON — Today on 89.7 WGBH's Morning Edition, Jared reviews two more performances happening this weekend on Boston stages.

THE MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT
Playing at the Calderwood Pavilion through October 13

A ferociously funny play about love, fidelity, and facing one’s demons; the story centers on ex-con Jackie, who thinks he has finally turned his life around now that he’s sober and has a new job. But when he finds a strange hat in the apartment he shares with his girlfriend, he is back on the brink, and embarks on a 12-Step quest with his AA sponsor Ralph D. to find the hat’s owner.

RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL
Playing at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester September 28 through October 7

Based on E.L. Doctorow’s distinguished novel, the musical intertwines the stories of three extraordinary families confronting timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair, and what it means to live in America in the 20th century.

Watch Jared's recent interview with the creator of Ragtime: The Musical, Terrence McNally on Greater Boston.

Watch Sept. 25, 2012: Jared Bowen Interviews Terrence McNally on PBS. See more from Greater Boston.

New Shows on Stage

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:04 PM +0000

Sept. 13, 2012

BOSTON — Hear Jared and Morning Edition host Bob Seay talk about some of the new theater performances coming out this season.

The Kite Runner
Playing at New Repertory Theatre through September 30

Based on the 2003 best-selling novel, this epic drama follows boyhood friends Amir and Hassan in 1970s Afghanistan. After witnessing terrible brutality and betraying Hassan, Amir immigrates to the U.S. with his father, his regret, and his shame. This beautiful and complicated story shares an inside view of Afghani culture, while exploring the price of loyalty and friendship, the desire for integrity, and hope for redemption.

Marie Antionette
Playing at the A.R.T.’s Loeb Drama Center through September 29

The barbed and brassy tragicomedy Marie Antoinette provides a peek into the life of everyone’s favorite representative of the 1% — the infamous Queen of France and cake enthusiast. Watch as times change and Marie finds her sparkling and sheltered world turned upside down by the Revolution.

Watch Jared Bowen's interview with the cast and crew for Greater Boston, and see the A.R.T.'s new take on the cake-eating queen's behavior.

Watch Sept. 18, 2012: Marie Antoinette at the A.R.T. on PBS. See more from Greater Boston.

Barrington Stage Company: Musical Theater Incubator

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 11:35 AM +0000

August 7, 2012

Babak Tafti and Remi Sandri in The North Pool (photo by Kevin Sprague.)

Hailed by the Boston Globe as “one of the jewels in the state’s crown,” the Barrington Stage Company [BSC] in Pittsfield, in the Berkshires, has established itself since its founding in 1995 as a destination for locals and vacationers alike and as an incubator for new theater, especially musical theater. In 2004, the BSC developed and premiered The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, an infectious show by William Finn that not only made it to Broadway in 2005, but swept that year’s Tony awards. In 2006 BSC opened its Musical Theatre Lab, in which Finn mentors writers as they develop new work, staging everything from readings to full productions.

“It’s an opportunity to get to know composers’ work early in their careers and really to help them,” Julianne Boyd, BSC’s founder and artistic director, told me. “Bill Finn is a marvelous mentor. He tells these young writers they can do it.”

“We have very high expectations from them,” she added, “and they generally meet them. They just need to have that opportunity to have that first show.”

Coming out of the Musical Theatre Lab this summer is a workshop of The Black Suits, a new rock musical about a high school garage band on Long Island trying to win a battle of the bands. (August 16 – September 2; music and lyrics by Joe Iconis; Book by Joe Iconis and Robert Emmett Maddock)

The Lab is also staging a reading of the unlikely sounding The Suicide: A Musical Comedy. Set in Stalin’s USSR, it’s about an unemployed curmudgeon who decides to kill himself in order to achieve fame. Friends and neighbors join in on the plot, hoping to exploit the death for fun and profit. Based on a farce written in 1928 by Nikolai Erdman, whom Stalin punished with twenty years at a Siberian labor camp in addition to banning his work, it’s been adapted by David Bridel. (August 26-27)

Also getting off the ground this summer is Mr. Finn’s Cabaret, a small space featuring performers from the company or from New York. It’s selling out regularly.

Meanwhile, in the non-musical category is The North Pool, which is having its East Coast premiere. Written by Rajiv Joseph, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony nominee, this thriller about a high school principal and a Middle Eastern transfer student has received kudos for superb acting and a tight atmosphere of suspense. (Through August 11)

The next mainstage production is See How They Run, a British comedy about a vicar’s wife trying to find her way in a small English village. “It’s a hilarious farce,” Boyd says. “Some people think tragedies are hard to do – no, farces are. It’s split-second timing; they’re not funny if there’s not a character behind all of the antics.” (August 9-26)

Summer Arts Weekend: It's All About Balance with Flooky and The Beans

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:01 PM +0000

July 24, 2012

Flooky and the Beans (photo credit: Ryan Welch, 2012.)

Bobo Bean: "You may be wondering: where do we come from? How did we get here? What is a robot doing hanging around with a bunch of beans?"

Flooky, the Robot Boy: "Well, I wanted to teach the Beans about the wonders of technology!"

Emma Bean: “And we want to show Flooky the beauty and natural wonders of nature!"

Then together they sing the praises of keeping a balance between both, a quality that is never too early (or late) to learn, especially in our age of being constantly connected. And that’s what Flooky and the Beans, a Boston-based children’s music group about a robot obsessed with technology that makes friends with a bunch of beans who appreciate the beauty of nature, are all about.

“The nature/technology question is something we all seem to struggle with in this modern world,” says Rob Zammarchi (Bobo Bean). “We are all encouraged to keep up with the latest innovations in tech and incorporate them into our daily lives. While it is exciting to explore the possibilities, it seems many of us are seeking to find the proper balance and get back to the simple pleasures of nature.”

It was back in the ‘90s when Rob and his wife Emily (Emma Bean) first began recording children’s songs. Shortly after, the duo set out to further develop the characters and a concept for an animated cartoon series. But after having children of their own, and attending live performances by The Wiggles and Dan Zanes and Friends, they saw new opportunity and turned their work into a live action children's entertainment program.

Now Flooky the Robot and Bobo, Emma, Pepi, and Jojo Bean take to the stage providing children ages three to eight with an engaging live show that incorporates a combination of learning intelligences including music, vocabulary, and math. It’s an environment where they’re empowered to be active decision makers, explore their curiosity, and most important, have fun!

Flooky and the Beans will be performing on the main stage at the Boston Summer Arts Weekend at 11am on Saturday, July 28th.

Summer Arts Weekend: Bonaparte Dazzles and it's MAGIC!

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:37 AM +0000

July 24, 2012

Bonaparte (photo: bonapartemagic.com)

I was eight when I attended my first magic show. I was at a birthday party for my friend Sean, a self-proclaimed magician since discovering he had a knack for guessing which card I pulled out of the pile. The real magician’s name was Daring Dan, and not only did he bring a rabbit named Jasper that he made disappear numerous times, he also had a way with balloon bending.

While in line to get my balloon I wanted to ask for something spectacular, so I thought long and hard. And when it was finally my turn, I walked up with a roaring confidence and asked Daring Dan, innocently, for a pepperoni pizza with a few onions. He graciously smiled and sent me away with a pink butterfly. I was still tickled silly that I got to see a real magic show, and now had a balloon animal, that I of course named “Pepperoni Pizza with a Few Onions”.

And that’s what magicians do best no matter what your age–they put a smile on your face! Bonaparte, one of Boston’s favorite magicians, has been doing this in the area for quite some time.

“The local arts are very important to me—as both a performer and as a person who appreciates the impact that being exposed to the arts had on me as a child,” says Bonaparte. “As a full-time professional entertainer, I now have the opportunity to share my magic, humor and sophisticated silliness with audiences ranging in age from small children to our elder community.”

Bonaparte has a knack for captivating audiences with his award-winning magic blended with comedy, audience participation, origami, and balloon sculpture.

“I particularly take pleasure in dazzling the children at Children’s Hospital or at other venues where my participation allows me to take frowns and magically transform them into big smiles! It is times like that—that I really love my job!”

So add a little magic–and some new memories–into your weekend by treating yourself and your family to a magic show full of smiles and surprises with Bonaparte. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll finally get a pepperoni pizza with a few onions balloon.

Bonaparte will be performing at the Boston Summer Arts Weekend at 12:15 pm on Saturday, July 28th.

Review: Jack Ferver's Two Alike at the ICA

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:13 PM +0000

July 13, 2012

Jack Ferver in Two Alike, photo by Liza Voll.

Usually I love Q&As with artists. I generally find hearing about process at least as interesting as the work itself, and often more so.

But last night when performer Jack Ferver came out to discuss his new work Two Alike at the ICA, I could not get out of the room fast enough.

The performance was so powerful and poignant and disturbing, so tender and raw and exposed that I just didn’t want to hear Jack, who is a friend of a friend and whom I know to be smart and thoughtful and entertaining, and whose work I’ve been following for years, regain his usual composure.

A dark exploration of growing up gay, Two Alike is a collaboration between Ferver and the sculptor Mark Swanson, who designed a mirror-backed set reminiscent of the audition stage in A Chorus Line. As in most of Ferver’s work, the piece, which I’d call dance theater but which is most often performed in museum and gallery settings, blends choreography and mostly confessional monologue.

Throughout Two Alike, thanks in part to really fantastic lighting design, Ferver morphs from closeted gay boy hamming it up in his bedroom mirror to sultry, hot guy in dance club to grown-up goofball prone to Pee Wee Herman-like maneuvers. But the stories he tells and interprets are often agonizing.

A masterful performer, he excels at finding that vibrating line between comedy and horror. He often repeats scenes, eliciting hysterical laughter at first – he’s got great comic delivery, and a really funny face – and fear and foreboding the next. In Two Alike, he did this by acting out a scene from the film Return to Oz, which he (or the narrator) said he’d loved as a child and obsessively acted out at home.

I later found myself thinking how much gays in the U.S.– men especially– have in common with African-Americans; both are held up as cultural idols and as pariahs. We’ve welcomed some onto our stages and TV screens and sports fields (So charismatic! So funny!), but that doesn’t mean the majority aren’t still shouldering staggering prejudice, and even real abuse, as Two Alike suggests. “Nowhere will ever be as scary as here,” Ferver says in one scene about being gay in the heartland. “It will be dangerous, but different dangerous.”

By curtain call, Ferver looked wrung out and almost embarrassed, as if he’d just woken up from a trance and realized what he revealed. I don’t remember him ever looking like that before, but it, too, lent power to the performance. I’m still thinking about it.

A Conversation on Black Theater in Boston

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:30 PM +0000

June 23, 2012

The Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a national organization founded in 1961 to facilitate communication among professional, community and university theatres. Model The Movement, TCG’s national conference, took place in Boston last weekend and over 980 people attended this highly anticipated event focusing on transforming theatre into a movement for the digital age. Before the conference, Akiba Abaka, Producing Director of Up You Mighty Race Company and Barbara Lewis, Director of The William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture, spoke to us about their involvement in the conference.

Akiba Abaka                                    Barbara Lewis
Producing Director                         Director
Up You Mighty Race Company      The Trotter Inst., UMass, Boston

Q. What is your involvement in the conference?

Akiba Abaka: I am a member of the Host Committee, which is comprised of theatre leaders. I was also selected for the Young Leaders of Color Program, which is a professional development program that TCG runs during the conference for theatre leaders of color. Young Leaders of Color is for people under 40 who are making strides in theatre. There are four people from Boston who were selected. You had to be nominated and then you had to apply for it. The purpose of the program is to provide professional development and opportunities for leaders of color in the field. It’s TCG's way of encouraging development in the realm of theatre. It's their way of encouraging and developing theatre administrators because the reality is that there aren't a lot of people of color acting as administrators. We're on stage, but we don’t have leadership positions. We aren't necessarily running the stage. So this is TCG's way of balancing that and increasing diversity. They provide different workshops and lectures that are dedicated to the young leaders of color throughout the conference.

Barbara Lewis: The relationship between TCG and black folks is good but reflective of the cultural community between black and white in terms of how we are sometimes marginalized and I think it's important to go. I plan to go. Benny Ambush is having a session on intergenerational leaders of color, which I think is very interesting. He indicated in his write up that it is more of an internal conversation for folks who self identify as people of color. I think there are some specific needs that black people in theatre have and for one thing it is very difficult for us to grow and sustain a relationship with the audience. There might be five or six theatre companies in Boston that are black and they have sporadic seasons. I think it would be really good if we can have a consistent presence. For me, it's kind of a strange conundrum. We have enormous talent here. There are people who are really committed, but in terms of the black theatre companies themselves, they are not as established as they could be.

I was at a cultural panel recently and one of the speakers was [National Museum of Afro-American Artist’s Director] Barry Gaither and one of the things that he said that really caught my attention was that Boston is city of high and low in terms of cultural organizations: either you are at the bottom, struggling to get out of the barrel or you at the top and there is very little middle. I think that is true and the middle is sort of where we almost don’t exist. That’s what I'm interested in, finding ways to get us from the bottom to, at least, the middle. How do we do that? I'm not exactly sure yet, but that's what I'm struggling with and I think that a lot of companies here are struggling with that. We have to get taller, we have to get stronger, we have to have more of a presence than we do even though, individually, there are pockets of great creativity and innovation, but how do we connect it all so that there is a really a force?

Q. What do you expect to gain from the TCG conference?

Akiba Abaka: TCG's conferences are always very helpful. This will be the third conference of theirs that I have attended. The conference has been helpful for me in the way of understanding the overall ecology of the field. At the conference there are workshops and discussions on everything from education to marketing to production. You're also networking with a very diverse group of people and theatres that have budgets from $25,000 to 25 million. There are people there who are where you are and where you aspire to be. Everyone is accessible. When I think about TCG in general, I think access. I think that they do make a serious effort to make theatre accessible to all people no matter the background. The conference reflects that, all of these people coming together and sharing what they know. One of the things I like about the conference is that a serious superstar or a theatre vendor in a very small part of America who had something really valuable to share about how they have been successful in their corner of the world may lead workshops. Also, TCG has a lot of programs, grants, and development programs that reflect a willingness to increase diversity in all areas.

Barbara Lewis: It's thrilling that TCG is here because it offers us an opportunity, but I'm choosing to look at it as a smorgasbord board and a place where I go and choose what is important to me and what's useful to me at this particular time. I want to get connections and new information. I want to be inspired. The ultimate goal is to get a glimmer of the direction in which to move to being a participant in this effort that some of us are making to raise our cultural capital.

More Voices from the TCG Conference

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:16 PM +0000

The Theatre Communications Group is a national organization founded in 1961 to facilitate communication among professional, community and university theatres. Model The Movement, TCG’s national conference, took place in Boston this week and over 980 people attended this highly anticipated event focusing on transforming theatre into a movement for the digital age.

Jared Bowen caught up with a few of the attendees of the Theater Communications Group conference this week. It's the first time the conference has ever been held in Boston, signalling the significance of the city as a destination for the performance arts.

Heather Kitchen, Managing Director of the Dallas Theater Center, talks about making theater accessible to more members of the community.

Brendan Shea, Education and Outreach Associate at the American Repertory Theater, on extending the theatrical experience beyond the theater doors to reach new audiences.

Jim O'Quinn, Editor in Chief of AMERICAN THEATRE, Theatre Communications Group, talks about the internationalism of theater.

Haytham Al-Jadah, Georgetown University, National Theater of Bagdad, Fine Arts Professor at the University of Baghdad. Tells of the rich experience he has had at the conference and all the knowledge he will take back to Baghdad.

>> Watch more of Jared's interviews with attendees of the TCG Conference in Boston.

'Olympics' of American Theater Come to Boston

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 09:15 AM +0000

June 23, 2012

(Photo: AndyRobertsPhotos/Flickr)

Hear Jared's report on the TCG Conference on 89.7FM Morning Edition

BOSTON — For fifty years now, Theatre Communications Group has been a driver in drama—a national organization bringing theater professionals together for networking, brainstorming, funding and more. This year it convened its annual conference in Boston with roughly a thousand theater types descending on the city this past weekend. The focus of the conference was on theater’s next act, says Teresa Eyring, TCG’s Executive Director.

“It’s absolutely about looking to the future and finding solutions together for improving the art and the way we run our organization and function in the larger community, locally and nationally but it’s also a reflection that when TCG started 50 years ago, there were only a handful of theaters across the country outside of New York and we brought them together to communicate and learn from each other,” she said.

TCG titled this year’s conference Model The Movement. It was an acknowledgment that the leaders and players in theaters across the country must start sharing ideas for what works. At the conference’s base in the Park Plaza Hotel, there was buzz about a host of successes in all of the country’s corners. Portland Center Stage in Oregon received raves for its revival of Oklahoma! with an all-African American cast—inspired by the fact that 1 in 3 cowboys in the 19^th century was black. In Texas, the Dallas Theater Center’s profits have ballooned since it immersed itself in an arts district there. They’re valuable lessons learned says conference co-chair, Kate Warner.

“There’s really nothing like the conference for theater professionals because we get to rub up against each other, share ideas, how are you pursuing this and doing this so we’ll constantly find new ideas and innovate with each other,” she said.

Before the conference got underway, Jared had a chance to speak with TCG's Executive Director Teresa Eyring and conference co-chair Kate Warner.

There’s no question, theater practitioners feel the crunch of the digital age and an era of elevated visual expectations. There’s also the impact of the economic downturn and audiences spending less. They are themes TCG worked into this year’s conference Eyring says.

“Some of the challenges theaters face today are the challenges they’ve always faced. Fund-raising, audiences, organizational structures, diversity. We live in a country becoming increasingly diverse. How do we welcome people into our theaters? How do we welcome artists?”

And how do they deal with aging audiences? Almost universally, Boston theater patrons skew older. A recent Broadway League report also revealed that the average age of the typical Broadway theater-goer has increased to 44, with patrons in the 18-34 age bracket accounting for less than a quarter of all audiences. What’s more, Broadway theater-goers are overwhelming white. It’s an issue of critical concern.

“There’s no magic pill for this. It’s truly depending on the company and their community. I think again it’s sharing different ideas and strategies. It’s not just programming and ticket prices. Maybe it’s a combination of the two. How are you engaging the community is where I think the question will be answered,” Warner says.

There was also much to celebrate at TCG—Boston seems to be in the midst of its own theater revolution with a proliferation of adventurous companies—from pointed fringe theater to the American Repertory Theater birthing the Tony-winning Porgy and Bess here. And this weekend it was all a national scene-stealer.

This is the first time the conference has ever been come to Boston, signalling the significance of our city as a destination for the performance arts. View the set of interviews with conference attendees below to catch some of the thinking that comes out of this year's gathering.

Chris Coleman, Artistic Director of Portland Center Stage, on how a theater relates to its community on a daily basis.

Philip Himberg, Producing Artistic Director at the Sundance Institute Theatre, on the growth and new diversity in American theater.

Morgan Jenness, Board Member of the Abrams Artists Agency, on the great theater coming from Chicago and other midwestern cities.

"The Luck of the Irish" playwright, Kirsten Greenidge (Edgerton Foundation), on the need to embrace social media to reach new audiences.

>> Watch more of Jared's interviews with attendees of the TCG Conference in Boston.

The Hotel Nepenthe is Nothing Short of Bewitching

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:08 PM +0000

June 22, 2012

Photo Credit: John Kuntz photographed by J. Stratton McCrady

BOSTON - If Thursday evening’s staging of the Elliot Norton award winning The Hotel Nepenthe is any indication, this year’s Emerging America Festival, according to the group’s website, “will bring together some of the country’s most promising performers, writers, companies, and directors for a weekend filled with energy, imagination, creativity, and drama” and is sure to be a big, bewitching wow. That’s no small statement, especially considering the four day, city-wide festival happens to coincide with the arrival of industry professionals in town for this year’s Theatre Communications Group conference. Welcome to Boston, theatre lovers, where groundbreaking playwriting and performances abound!

Written by John Kuntz, The Hotel Nepenthe is about as trippy, witty, snappy, funny, and creepy a production as you could hope to find. At its core, the play tells the story of several different characters that orbit the Hotel Nepenthe (named by Kuntz for the anti-depressant-like potion popular in ancient Greek literature). Some work or have stayed at the hotel, others just know of its infamous reputation. And yet all of these disparate personalities (a politician, his wife, and a prostitute; a bellhop and his sister; a rental car agency worker, a bus driver, and a cabbie; a mourning mother and a fairy godmother…) are connected to one another in ways both elusive and confounding.

Kuntz’s dialogue is incredibly, pleasurably smart; David R. Gammons’ direction, set, and costume designs make the many micro-scenes feel related but discrete; and Bill Barclay’s original sound effects underscore the hilarious, schizophrenic energy pulsing through this play. Actors Marianna Bassham, Daniel Berger-Jones, Georgia Lyman, and Kuntz, himself, are among the most versatile and gifted I’ve ever seen. Playing over three characters each, they were at all times believable and enthralling, even if there were parts of the overall script that seemed a bit inconclusive and unresolved. The unsewn loose ends weren’t terribly bothersome, though, as they somehow complemented the charming “Twilight Zone” aura present throughout the production.

With frequent references to beloved American sitcoms (like “Bewitched,” “The Odd Couple,” “One Day at A Time,” and “The Jeffersons,” etc.) and Starland Vocal Band’s hit song, “Afternoon Delight” (an inclusion sure to touch a special place in the hearts of all “Arrested Development” fans) The Hotel Nepenthe is a wild and wonderful ride well worth taking this weekend. Treat yourselves to some great local theatre and experience Emerging America, if you can.

Huntington Theatre Company presents the Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production of The Hotel Nepenthe
Written by John Kuntz, Directed by David R. Gammons
Thursday 6/21 at 7:30PM and 10:30PM, Friday 6/22 at 8PM
Saturday 6/23 at 2PM and 8PM, Sunday 6/24 at 2PM

The Amen Corner Comes to Life for One Day

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 13:35 PM +0000

June 22, 2012

BOSTON - 1 Voice, 1 Play, 1 Day, is an awareness campaign of Project 1 Voice, a national performing arts service organization. Their goal is to use one day and one voice to cultivate an audience for black playwrights and to capture the African American experience in theatre. Every year on the third Monday in June one classic African American playwright’s work can be heard across the country in simultaneous readings of one of their plays.

James Baldwin’s was the voice heard this year. All day Monday on June 18, 25 stages in 16 cities across the country read his play, The Amen Corner. One Boston theater organization was among the many participating in this consciousness-raising effort. It’s fitting that this staged reading occurred in the same week as the Theater Communications Group conference, the first time it has ever been held in Boston.

The Boston Black Theater Collective held a symbolic reading of The Amen Corner at The African Meeting House on Beacon Hill. The playwright Lydia Diamond introduced the work and Reverend Gregory Groover of The Charles Street AME Church followed her by leading the audience in prayer. The readers were an eclectic mix of notable Boston citizens whose voices helped to breathe life into the drama.

The Amen Corner is emblematic of Baldwin’s unique voice and his contribution to the aesthetic of theater. Baldwin, who is most known for his work as an essayist and a novelist, weaves African-American idiomatic phrases and expressions together, illustrating the variety of voices to be heard in the “amen corners” of many black churches. Phrases like “sanctified business,” “keeping bad company,” and “being sweet on” someone or something add the stamp of authenticity to this play about a female preacher in the midst of a spiritual crisis.

Since it is set in a church, The African Meeting House, with its recent restoration and period furnishings, was the perfect setting for The Amen Corner. The religious themes presented in this play resounded loudly in this space and that had little to do with the acoustic layout of The Meeting House, but moreso because of the power and historic resonance of the space. Baldwin’s writing genius, especially his ability to use the art of theatre to elevate an account of black American life in the ‘50s, leaps off the pages of this play, regardless of whether it is being read or acted out.

The Boston Black Theater Collective is actually a program of The William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black History and Culture. Trotter, an editor of The Guardian, one of Boston’s first black newspapers, regularly used the African Meeting House to promote his newspaper and advocate for African-American civil rights.

At the end of the reading, one attendee remarked that she felt like she was “in the company of the ancestors.”

Anthony Rapp Speaks of Love, Loss and the Musical Rent

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:52 AM +0000

June 19, 2012

Jared Bowen interviews Anthony Rapp on Greater Boston

BOSTON — Anthony Rapp, best known for his role as Mark Cohen in the Broadway and movie adaptation of Rent, talked with Jared about his 2006 bestselling memoir turned one-man show, Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent.

The story is about Rapp's personal struggle to balance his sudden success, jumping from Starbucks to the stage of Jonathan Larson's Broadway smash hit, just as his mother, who had supported his acting career as she raised three children on her own, began a losing battle with cancer.

"[Death is] ... to me so much what Rent is about. In the time of great crisis there is also the possibility of profound love and connection and life," Rapp said.

Rapp will perform in Boston starting tonight, June 19, and takes his show across the pond to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August.

Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent
At the Modern Theatre, Suffolk University
525 Washington Street, Boston, MA
Through June 24

The Language of Love Person

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:00 PM +0000

June 18, 2012

BOSTON - Excellent communication is an essential component to any great relationship. And today, in an era rife with all sorts of social media platforms, there are so many ways for words and emotions to get lost in translation – even when two people are supposedly speaking the same language.

It is this inefficacy of language with which the characters in Aditi Brennan Kapil’s Love Person, currently being performed in Boston by Company One, attempt to grapple head on. Traversing the realms of spoken English, American Sign Language (ASL), Sanskrit poetry, emails, and voicemails, the four very different protagonists of Love Person find themselves bound by feelings of love, loneliness, and being misunderstood; conditions with which every audience member has no doubt identified at one point or another.

The relationships in this story are rather complicated, if not far fetched: lovers Free (Sabrina Dennison), who is deaf, and Maggie (Jacqueline Emmart), who is not, communicate through ASL and seem to have lost the spark in their relationship. Free is pretty surly all of the time whereas Maggie is affable and earnest (and for me, their on-stage chemistry was questionable throughout). Free’s hearing sister, Vic (Scarlett Redmond), is a hot mess who works at Club Cacophony (too cute, right?) where she somehow picked up Ram (Nael Nacer) while he was in town paying his cousin a visit. Ram is a lovely, nerdy Sanskrit expert who longs for someone who can share the beauty of his beloved poems with him on a similar intellectual and emotional level and yet, despite the best efforts of the author and the cast, at no point in this play is it possible to think that person ever could or should be Vic.

Upon his departure from the bar, Ram gets caught up in an ongoing online conversation about poetry with Free (whom he believes is Vic) that feeds both of their desires for pure communication (him, free from social awkwardness and her, free from a reliance on gesture or an interpreter).

As the plot thickens and each of the characters is forced to confront various acts of deception and the consequences of those actions, it seems as though the play has missed an opportunity to really delve into the provocative nuances of language and translation rather than the surface problems that result from simply not being truthful.

A language, whether signed, spoken, written, or sung, is a critical, complex communicative tool and that certainty is front and center in Love Person. While the play did not push the parameters of communication as deeply as I may have hoped, it did provide a beginning of sorts…a way into a conversation that is absolutely worth continuing.

Photo: Jacqueline Emmart (Maggie) and Scarlett Redmond (Vic)
Photo credit: Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo

Love Person
A Boston Premiere by Aditi Brennan Kapil
Directed by M. Bevin O'Gara
May 25, 2012 – June 23, 2012
Company One
BCA Plaza Theatre
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116

The MBTA Arrives ... on Stage

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:56 PM +0000

June 14, 2012

What, the T doesn't make you want to sing and dance? (Courtesy)

BOSTON — Bostonians may curse the many troubles of the MBTA, but they love to hate it. Now there’s a musical that many of us (well, those who ride the MBTA) can relate to — from the Boston sports fans who crowd the T after games, to the tourists trying to make sense of subway maps, to the college students out for a night of partying. Born out of ImprovBoston, “T: An MBTA Musical” has moved to the Club Oberon stage in Cambridge through July 13.

Melissa Carubia, lyricist and music director of the show, said the inspiration behind the musical was simply because the T is an active part of the Boston lifestyle.

“The T is kind of like one of those things in Boston that you can’t imagine life without. It’s like the Red Sox,” said Carubia. “When it’s bad, everybody loves to complain about it, it’s on everybody’s mind. And when it’s good, it’s just a part of the fabric of our city that we sometimes take for granted.”

The musical started out as a 6-minute sketch for political sketch group Mosaic and ended up becoming a full-blown musical, filled with characters like “Charlie” (as in Charlie Card), “party girls” and “bros.”

Jeffrey Mosser, director, came aboard the project after Carubia and writer Michael Manship approached him. After he read the script and listened to the songs, Mosser was immediately interested.

“I saw this as an event more than a theater piece. It was so exciting and so fun,” said Mosser.

The relatable stories are what make the musical an event. By doing research on the T lines, Carubia found stories and inspiration for the characters in the musical.

“I looked up the opinions of what people thought the characters of each line were. That crowdsourcing through Yelp, through Facebook helped me build a show that resonated with everybody,” Carubia said.

And for the most part, Mosser said since a lot of people have their own T story, the show really does appeal to everyone.

“The most important part of this story that I can tell you is it isn’t malicious toward the MBTA,” Mosser said. “It’s to tell all of our stories, it’s towards all of our audiences who all have a story about the train ... if you have your own T story, that’s the audience we have, that’s the audience we’re looking for.”

Even officials from the MBTA came out to have a look.

“At our first incarnation of the show, Richard Davey did come to see the show. He loved it; he was blown away by it,” Mosser said.

“He posed for pictures with the cast afterwards and got a CD. It was great,” Carubia said.

One of the main goals of the show is to make the audience feel like they are actually riding the T.

“We try to make sure that it feels like you’re on a big red train at 5 in the afternoon,” Mosser said. “We have seating right on the T, where actors are dancing right in front of you, immediately in front of you, so you feel like you’re sitting right on the train.”

And the most ironic aspect of this show is when it’s over, it’s too late to take the T home.

“That’s one of the conflicts of our show, too. One of our characters couldn’t get home,” Mosser said. “We chose this time slot full knowing that this might be the result. That just shows us the world we’re living in … the slice of life!”

Broadway Finally Ready for "Porgy and Bess"

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:22 PM +0000

June 11, 2012

Audra McDonald accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a musical for her role in "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," at the 66th Annual Tony Awards on Sunday June 10, 2012, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes /Invision/AP)

BOSTON — On a very cold night in February of 2011, I had dinner with the American Repertory Theater’s artistic director, Diane Paulus. She wanted to discuss her next project—one for which the Gershwin estate had hand-selected her. For two hours in a restaurant overlooking the Boston waterfront, she explained to me her thoughts, passion and emotion for “Porgy and Bess”. It wasn’t a mere pitch. It was an artist at work on her canvas as her love for the project poured out.

She was already steeped in the history of the opera’s creation, of its cultural resonance and she could see how to make it a defining piece for this generation. I left that dinner knowing the musical would match her ambition, that it would go to Broadway and I was pretty certain it would have a big impact. I didn’t go as far as to predict a Tony award, but I could see success for her, wrought by the purity of her creative spirit.

"Porgy and Bess" Director Diane Paulus on Greater Boston

Stoic and calm, at least whenever I saw her over the next ten months, Paulus adhered to her vision. When the musical opened at the A.R.T. in August, she deftly fended off Stephen Sondheim’s thunderous criticism of her plans to adapt the work with Musical Book Adapter Suzan-Lori Parks and Score Adapter Diedre L. Murray. Together they crafted a “Porgy” for our times. Last night, “The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess” won the Tony for best musical revival, 76 years after the original received its try-out in Boston’s Colonial Theatre.

"When we won the best revival, I could barely contain myself," Paulus told me. "It was so emotional and so overwhelming and we went backstage and Mandy Patinkin [one of Paulus’ musical theater heroes] was so effusive about the production and he was congratulating us!”

The cast Paulus brought together for her production is sublime—Norm Lewis (Porgy) should have won a Tony last night. David Alan Grier (Sporting Life) and Phillip Boykin (Crown) were monumentally inspired in their portrayals and Audra McDonald simply seared. I did predict her Tony nomination and win, but a second win took Paulus by surprise. Hearing that McDonald was up for best performance by an actress in a musical, Paulus had to double-back to her seat. “We were running in our heels down Amsterdam back to the Beacon because I wanted to be back for that award," Paulus said. Sadly, Paulus did not win as best director, but she will undoubtedly have numerous other chances over what promises to be a long and engaging career.

Ironically, Paulus’ adaptation has fared better than Gershwin’s original 1935 production “Porgy and Bess”, which was derided by the majority of New York critics and experienced only a limited run. By extension, we are winners too. Between the A.R.T. and the Huntington Theatre Company, several Boston-born productions made it to Broadway this past theater season, proof that our theater community is a vibrant and fulfilling place to reside.

Read and watch Bowen's coverage of "Porgy and Bess" with the links below:

>> A.R.T. Reimagines "Porgy and Bess"
>> Porgy and Bess Controversy at the A.R.T.
>> David Alan Grier on Reinterpreting the Gershwin Play

Catch even more WGBH coverage of this performance:

>>The Callie Crossley show: "Reimagining 'Porgy and Bess'"
>>Author Kim McLarin's review, "Porgy and Bess" at A.R.T.: Transformed and Illuminating"

Review: Private Lives at the Huntington

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:46 PM +0000

June 4, 2012

Bianca Amato and James Waterston in Noël Coward’s Private Lives.(Photo: Paul Marotta)

BOSTON — When it comes to relationships, there is the veneer and then there’s the truth about how horribly we comport ourselves behind closed doors. It’s what Noël Coward mined brilliantly in his 1930 comedy, Private Lives, now receiving equally brilliant staging by the Huntington Theatre Company through June 24^th. Of course in true Coward fashion, he gives us the awful truth.

The comedy opens with divorced couple Sibyl (Autumn Hurlbert) and Elyot (James Waterston) honeymooning in France with their new spouses—unaware they’re vacationing at the same hotel and in adjacent rooms. The discovery made, they rekindle and their hearts of “jagged sophistication” are reunited as their less-significant others Amanda (Bianca Amato) and Victor (Jeremy Webb) are left adrift at the seaside hotel.

What follows is a tempestuous marital triage in Sibyl’s Parisian flat. Nothing is safe here—not emotions, trust or fragile sculptures as Sibyl redecorates Charlie Sheen style. It’s screwball comedy, but what’s resonant here is Coward’s ability to float us light, frothy fare and still richly plumb the depths of relationships—truly capturing what propels, plagues and lifts us when we’re with the one we love…or love to hate.

The Huntington production is lush and spirited. Gorgeous sets and costumes and a remarkable cast led by the divinely paired Hurlbert and Waterston. (Waterston’s dutiful father, Sam, who’ll be seen this summer in HBO’s The Newsroom, was in attendance on Opening Night). And this is all the work of one supremely talented director, Maria Aitken, who herself holds the record for starring in the most West End Coward productions. She’s used that experience to give us a Private Lives with delicious élan.

There's Nothing Quite Like a Classic

Thu, 31 May 2012 11:57 AM +0000

May 31, 2012

Bianca Amato and James Waterston in Noël Coward’s Private Lives. (Photo: Paul Marotta)

Hear Jared's take on the events below on Morning Edition.

Beauty and the Beast
Plays at the Boston Opera House
Through June 3rd

Thanks to the Disney film, you probably know about Belle, the young woman stuck in a provincial French town, who finds she must tame a Beast, a young prince transformed by an enchantress as punishment for his insensitivity. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved in return, the curse will be lifted and he will be transformed to his former self. If not, he and his palace of servants will remain under the spell for eternity. A warm story with lovely sets and costuming, but this production may be more fun for the kids than adults.

Private Lives
Plays at the Huntington Theatre
Through June 24

The Huntington reaches another high bar and great success with this well-known play by Noel Coward. Newlyweds Elyot and Sibyl are honeymooning at a hotel in northern France where they unexpectedly encounter Elyot’s ex-wife Amanda and her new husband Victor.The romance between Elyot and Amanda is quickly revived, and the two desert their new spouses and flee to Amanda’s Paris flat. There, the stormy rivalry that first divided them rekindles in time for Sibyl and Victor to rediscover the pair in the throes of a passionate fight. It's hilarious, beautifully performed and shouldn't be missed.

Dancing with Renoir
On View at the Museum of Fine Arts
(Part of the Visiting Masterpieces series)
Through September 3rd

Visitors can't help but be moved when they stand amongst this glorious trio of full-length dancing couples painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The show, Dancing with Renoir, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will run until September 3 and has already made a sensation in New York. Here, Renoir’s "Dance at Bougival", one of the MFA’s most beloved treasures, will be reunited for the first time in Boston since the MFA’s Renoir exhibition in 1985–86—with two of the artist’s masterpieces, "Dance in the Country" and "Dance in the City", lent by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Fela! brings Afrobeat to life

Tue, 01 May 2012 17:19 PM +0000

“Fela!” is an extraordinary musical experience that requires your participation from the start, otherwise you won’t feel it - or even get it. Like in the opening scene where Fela, played by the brilliant Sahr Nguajah, sings the politically charged song “Everything Scatter,” and commands you to rise up from your seat and feel the rhythm of Afrobeat. At first I didn’t know what to do. Is this a concert? Or is it a musical? Should I rise up? Or should I stay seated? In no time, I rose to my feet and began to clap and shimmy.

"Everything Scatter" is a very energetic song about two passengers on a bus who get into an argument and reach no agreement. It's no wonder why the show begins with this powerful tune about the state of African affairs.

This story, about the life of Nigerian singer and bandleader Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, takes place at a performance at the Shrine, a nightclub that he owned. The stage is graffiti marked with deep red, green, and yellow color combinations. The production is immense, consisting of an 11-piece band that captures the late Fela's music down to the beat. Not including the band, the 25-member cast consists of singers and dancers. The costumes, a blend of traditional Nigerian cloth and polyester, perfectly fit the look and feel of Fela and his entourage. This is Fela in the flesh, but unfortunately on this night he has some bad news for the audience. “Tonight is the last concert we will ever play here at The Shrine,” he says. "I will be leaving Nigeria."

The time is 1978, several months after the death of his mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, who was thrown from a window by Nigerian police during a raid of Fela’s home. His mother figures prominently in this show. There is a life-size image of her projected onto a screen above the stage where she hovers like a ghost. It's a bit uncanny but that's the point.
In this scene, his mother’s voice makes a powerful introduction but we’re not supposed to hear her just yet. It’s the voice in Fela’s head, a voice that haunts him throughout the show.

Fela was inspired by his mother, played by the British vocalist Melanie Marshall. Songs like "Trouble Sleep" and "Rain" are gracefully sang and illustrated in this play and highlight the relationship that they had. Even though Marshall said in an interview that she had never heard of Fela before taking on this role, she sang a Funmilayo into existence that I will never forget. I got a tender feeling seeing Fela and his mother emerge like they did on stage. Funmilayo was a teacher, activist, and the granddaughter of a freed African slave from the Americas.

The charismatic Fela tells the audience how his life got to the point of having to leave Nigeria through a medley of his songs. Beginning with the pulsating song “Breaking It Down," he takes us on a riveting musical journey through his career, from how he was introduced to jazz, rhythm and blues, funk, Cuban, and how he fused it all together and gave birth to Afrobeat. There are several screen projections on the set where moving images of civil unrest, news clippings, digital texts, and images from Fela’s life are thrown to add texture to his story. Because his music inspired social and political havoc in Nigeria, Fela was constantly harassed by the police and was arrested nearly 200 times. In one telling scene, Fela and cast illustrate the time he was arrested on suspicion that he ingested marijuana. Nguajah captures Fela's wit and deadpan sense of humor very well as he explains the time waiting in jail for the evidence to show up in his excrement.

Fela! brings other influential people in the singer's life to life, like the African American singer Sandra Iszador played by Ismael Kouyate. Iszador introduced Fela to Black revolutionary thinking, which fuels the fist-raising song “Upside Down.” Fela’s queens, elegantly clad in colorful tank tops, waist beads, micro-skirts and traditional Nigerian attire invigorate the stage, punctuating the rhythm of his music in their swift and sultry hip moves.

The dance, choreographed by Bill T. Jones, is hypnotic and bound to put you into a trance, especially in The Dance of the Orisas, a high point in the musical where the stage becomes a glowing spiritual plane and the Egungun (spirits of the dead) appear. These fluffy white ghosts bear fluorescent orange tribal markings and lead Fela into a ritualistic dance characterized by the rapid drumbeat and upbeat tempo of the song “Shakara.” This is where Fela makes contact with his mother and, sort of, figures it all out.

Fela never moved to America but the thought of leaving his homeland inspired this highly spirited musical about the remarkable life of the father of Afrobeat.

See Fela!, a production conceived of by Bill T. Jones, James Lewis and Stephen Hendel. Inspired by the biography Fela: This Bitch of a Life by Carlos Moore, Fela! is currently playing at the Cutler Majestic through Sunday, May 6, 2012.