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Construction begins on Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater! Our groundbreaking ceremony was held on Wednesday, January 30, 2008. Click on this link for the latest construction site photos.
Continue reading "Cellphone Snapshots: Mead Center Groundbreaking" »
posted by Jeremy Holm
Actor Jeremy Holm will be blogging about his rehearsal and performance experience in the role of Biff in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Join him here on his journey every day - and feel free to post your questions and comments at the end of each entry.
posted by Jeremy Holm
January 29, 2008 - First rehearsal
Always an important day in the life of a Character. The tone of the entire process begins with the first meet and greet, the introduction of the Artistic Staff, the Theater staff, Board members and of course cast mates. Molly Smith set the tone with her introduction of the idea for the Miller rep, and explained the genesis of the project from the first words to the present moment. Let me back up just a bit here....This blog is my experience as I go about creating Biff for this production so let me start with my reflections about the first day from my first venture to the meet and greet. The Metro here is so much cleaner and spacious than the MTA (Subway) in New York. The exit from the Metro into Crystal City was so exciting, like performing a play in an underground airport-city. Hearing about all of the sweat and work that went into getting the new space ready for this season was inspiring. So here I am getting ready to play Biff in Death of a Salesman, one of the greatest American plays, by one of the greatest playwrights in American history at our country's first and most important regional theater...what a sense of history shrouds this entire production. The first read took place in a tiny conference room barely big enough for our team to sit in, and hot enough for a sweat lodge. No one complained and in fact, once the read started I didn't even notice. Our dramaturg didn't even catch typo's in the script until page 62 (it was retyped for our production). He said he was too caught up in the play to notice. The story is so inevitable, Timothy Bond, our director, wants us to fight against that urge. He wants us to mine out the hope and light in the play. Day one was thrilling, inspiring and energizing. Having had a drink after the rehearsal, I went home with my wife who is staying with me for the entire run, a rare treat for a regional theater actor.
Click here for a Citizen Review of Ella from caller Caresse Hudson on Triscina Grey's program for Howard University Radio WHUR 96.3.
by Susan Williams
When I was a theater student “back in the day,” we learned about the “suspension of disbelief,” an ancient Greek concept that basically states that in order for a play to work, the audience must suspend their disbelief that “this is not really happening,” and believe it’s true, at least for the duration of the play. Of course, this is much easier to do for some plays than others, depending on the writing of the piece as well as the truthfulness of the acting, skill of the director, etc.
Well, I have to say, my disbelief was totally suspended yesterday as I watched Tina Fabrique perform as the great Ella Fitzgerald. It may be corny and redundant to say, but she really did “channel” Ella. I was transported out of this time and place back to another, easier time when jazz singers were still popular and actually PRONOUNCED THEIR WORDS DISTINCTLY….did anyone else pick up on that? You could easily hear and understand every word Ms. Fabrique sang and spoke. It seems we’ve lost that ability, not only for singers, but as a society today.
I enjoyed Ms. Fabrique in The Women of Brewster Place as well, but her rendition of Ella was extraordinary. I’m sitting here listening to one of the Ella Fitzgerald cd’s I bought after the performance, and I could be hearing either Ms. Fabrique or Ms. Fitzgerald. They will be forever interchangeable in my mind now.
Kudos to the rest of the cast as well…I was impressed with the back up band and Harold Dixon who played Ella’s manager. They did well with the small parts they had (although the band had to do double duty as musicians and actors…good job!!).
The set was impressive, but simple. The use of mood lighting, including the revolving crystal ball, was perfect.
A word about the Crystal City Forum…that is a great space for the time being. I wasn’t sure until I actually went, but I really enjoyed being there. My friend and I ate in the restaurant at the Marriott hotel after the show, and the food was terrific. We plan to eat there again.
by David Dower
Sunday night was the first public presentation of the Resurrection workshop in Hartford. As promised, a big crowd was in attendance, in spite of the fact that the Giants and Packers were squaring off for a trip to the Super Bowl. The air in the room was buzzing with anticipation. The people next to me had driven down from Massachusets. After 20 years in California, I forget how closely packed New England is, and when I registered my surprise they said "Aw, now—it's only 30 minutes from here." I asked them if they'd ever seen Daniel Beaty's work before. "Only on line." Someone had forwarded them the Hartford Stage e-mail and they'd jumped on it. I saw a barely disguised look of surprise and disappointment flash in the young man's eyes when I told him Daniel wasn't performing in this project.
By the end, they were fully won over to the experience. As was pretty much everyone, it seemed. Lots of wet eyes and long, strong, boisterous applause. Full-on standing ovation. A rather stunned Daniel turned to me and said "Wow. I feel so hopeful—this is going to work!" A classic understatement.
Resurrection weaves together the stories of six African American men, ages 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60. Each faces a separate crisis that leads to a moment of simultaneous resurrection, a moment that acts as a community resurrection. It's a bold statement of hope and possibility in the face of pain and isolation. Daniel imagined it as a male response to For Colored Girls, and it is being directed by Oz Scott, who was at the helm when that show took off for Ntozake Shange.
Continue reading "Resurrection Workshop: The Presentation" »
by David Dower
It's Sunday morning and the first presentation of the work being done on Resurrection at Hartford Stage is tonight.
Yesterday's rehearsal focused on logistics of the presentation. The actors on stools with music stands in front of them to hold their scripts. Off to one side is Daniel Bernard Roumain with his violin, in a chair with a music stand in front of him as well. Director Oz Scott is moving them through the play, stopping to arrange pictures that support the text. Here's the opening monologue, with the character of 50 welcoming the audience, and Oz has Peter Jay Fernandez step in front of the semi-circle of stools. His monologue evolves into a dialogue with his 10-year-old son, and Thuliso Dingwall, playing Eric, steps in to join his father. Peter retreats to his stool to give focus to the boy's story. And so it goes, each character stepping into the space as they step into the story, fading back to their stools when they've handed the momentum to another voice.
Now we hit the first ensemble moment in the text, the section where all the men call to their mamas: "I never saw you dance, Mama...Dance, Mama, dance." It's a beautiful section about all the work they've seen their mothers do, and all the ways their mothers made a safe space in the world for these men, but how they never saw their mothers dance. All six men, ranging in age from 10 to 60, are up and moving with each other. This is a section that will ultimately be fully choreographed when the piece moves to the next stage of development. But for now the voices and the men's bodies and the violin are the tools in play, and Oz works to employ them all, balance them, set them in motion in service of the storytelling. I can see what a thrilling section this is going to be when it is fully staged. I can't wait to hear what happens to the Hartford audience when it drops on them even in this sketched-in state.
Continue reading "Show and Tell Day: Notes on the Resurrection Workshop" »
by David Dower
So today was a banner day in the Hartford workshop of Resurrection. Playwright Daniel Beaty and director Oz Scott were to meet all day with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain to identify those places in the text that were openings for DBR to dream his way into the piece. Oz had told the actors they were welcome to come around but were not called—it was a day off for them.
The conversation began somewhat choppily, with Daniel Beaty, Oz and DBR each having different visions of how to incorporate the possibilities of the music for this weekend's presentations. A period of talking in circles about what it might be and whether it would overwhelm the actors or obscure the text. Nothing decided, nothing really communicated. Words seemed to be inadequate as a place to actually jump in. Maybe this isn't going to work at all.
Continue reading "Here Comes The Music: The Resurrection Report" »
by David Dower
This week I've got a ringside seat in the development process on Daniel Beaty's new play, Resurrection. Some Stage Banter readers will have seen the December reading here at Arena as part of our Downstairs Series. And many of you caught his electrifying solo turn in Emergence-See! when it played here last year.
Well, now Daniel's at work on a multi-actor play that is headed toward its world premiere later this year. We're at Hartford Stage, to further develop the text and start to explore ways that music can contribute to the overall event.
We often hear from audience members that they want to know what happens behind the closed doors of rehearsal. And Stage Banter has a history of bringing you stories from the rehearsal rooms of plays we're producing. But we don't often take you inside the development process. Come on in.
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