April 30, 2010
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Washington, DC – The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today announced that 40 nonprofit, professional theater companies will receive grants of $25,000 each to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation from June 1, 2010-May 31, 2011. Part of the NEA’s Shakespeare in American Communities initiative, Shakespeare for a New Generation introduces middle and high school students to the power of live theater and the masterpieces of William Shakespeare. Managed by Arts Midwest, the program has benefitted more than 1.5 million students and their teachers with live performances and educational activities since the program began in 2003.
“We are proud to support bringing Shakespeare to America’s students” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “I have seen firsthand how the productions supported through Shakespeare for a New Generation have connected youth with Shakespeare – sometimes for the first time – inspiring them and creating the next generation of audiences. At the same time, this funding increases work opportunities for our theatre artists.”
Each of the 40 participating companies will present productions of Shakespeare plays with accompanying educational activities to at least 10 schools. Activities may also include in-school residencies, workshops, or post-performance discussions.
Please see the complete list of the 40 companies that have been selected to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation for 2010-2011.
Including the newly selected companies, more than 80 of the nation’s theater companies have taken part in the NEA’s Shakespeare program since its inception. By June 2010, participating theater companies will have presented performances at 4,000 schools in 2,500 communities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Transcribed from Fairbanks News-Miner
by Suzanna Caldwell
“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” isn’t your typical bit of Shakespeare.
First, it’s set in South America. Second, it’s a rock musical.
Using the score and script from the Tony award-winning musical, director Brandon Michael said it’s the “goofiest piece of musical theater I’d ever encountered.”
The musical, presented by the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre in conjunction with the Fairbanks Light Opera Theater, starts Thursday and runs through Aug. 1 outdoors at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Jack Townshend Point.
While the musical stays close to the original plot of the Shakespearean play of the same name, it’s slightly paired down. Some characters from the original appear, but are nameless. But, in some ways, the added music expresses more than the play could.
Originally adapted by John Guare in 1971, the musical tells the tale of friends Proteus and Valentine, who leave their rural home of Verona for the big city of Milan. Proteus, who professes his love to Julia before leaving Verona, falls in love the moment he sees Silvia in Milan. Silvia, however, is in love with Valentine, but betrothed to another.
It’s complicated, but it’s also what creates the passion that permeates the play.
“It really expresses how fickle and beautiful young love is,” said Michael.
Robert Wighs, who plays Proteus, said the musical has done a good job in making sure the story is portrayed accurately.
“This person loves this person, loves this person — they all have different motives and intentions,” he said. “It’s hard making sure we hit all the right moments. The details of the love web are confusing if you rush.”
He said that the “rock star energy” that was hidden in the original play comes through in the musical numbers.
“That energy can be found in comedic moments. It helps push it farther,” he said of the music.
Wighs said his character can come off as a schmuck, if not portrayed properly. But he admires Proteus for his willingness to make “big, bold decisions.”
“His inconsistency is incredible,” Wighs said. “But it goes to show that love can hit and drop you. It’s a weird thing you can’t explain.”
The musical follows in the long-standing tradition of changing Shakespeare’s setting. For this production, Michael picked South America for its exotic and passionate culture. However, the text cannot be changed, because of copyright issues, so the characters will still say they are traveling from Verona to Milan. In the context of this performance, though, they travel from the Mexican countryside to Rio de Janeiro, Michael said.
Michael said the South American setting is colorful and festive and more like a summer rock concert than a Shakespearean play.
“It has this whacky, playful, youthful energy,” he said. “We’re taking it somewhere younger and hotter.”
The musical will be performed outdoors, rain or shine. While that may dampen the audience, Wighs said it won’t affect how the actors perform.
“Little moves might change a bit, things that aren’t safe (like lifting a dancer on a slippery stage,)” he said. “But not a whole lot will change.”
It’s a traditional way to stage Shakespeare’s work, even if the musical itself doesn’t tell the story in the most traditional way.
Transcribed from Fairbanks News-Miner
by Scott McCrea / scmcrea@gmail.com
FAIRBANKS – The word “bold” comes to mind when looking for the best way to summarize Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Antigone, or I really wish you hadn’t done that.
How bold?
Well, take the classic Sophocles play, turn it completely upside down and inside out, set it in 2020, throw in fervent worshipping of the Kennedys, and, oh yeah, are those young ladies marching and singing along to the song “21 Guns” by modern punk band Green Day?
Bold, baby, bold.
And pretty entertaining to boot.
Purists might disagree, but I have always appreciated FST’s willingness to dink around with the classics and add new and creative twists to them. Director Anne Thibault pulled no punches when she took on the tasks of penning this updated version, while at the same time, leaving in familiar elements of the 422 B.C. play that should appease the more open-minded purists in the crowd.
Falling in the same vein of last year’s Romeo + Juliet Thibault once again took the approach of going with an all-female cast, and, as with the case with R + J, it is highly effective. Sorry guys, but there are few male thespians in the Golden Heart City who can compete with the caliber of talent found in the actresses who are currently gracing the stage of the Empress Theatre. Even more exciting is the mix – a combination of veterans of several productions as well as grade-school students in the beginning stages of whetting their acting chops.
Trying to write a nutshell version of the play is next to impossible. How do you describe a morphing of the story of one tragic family (Oedipus) with the story of another tragic family (the Kennedys) and make it all make sense? You’re just going to have to go with the flow, people. It’s an odd approach on paper, and granted I was scratching my head a couple of times, but somehow it works. This is thanks in part to a number of factors – fast-paced and witty dialogue, a set that transcends the eras, and, of course, the exceptional talent of the performers.
I hate to use the term “leading the way” in a cast such as this, since there wasn’t a weak spot to be found. However, there are certainly some performances that stand out. University of Alaska Fairbanks theater major Hadassah Nelson is superb as Creon, bringing the same type of vibrancy she did when she played Mercutio in R + J. In the role of Antigone, Claire Wool does a good job of portraying her as a troubled heroine, who, despite best intentions, is not always doing what is right for all involved. Samantha Newcombe’s flustered Secretary brings a lot of comic relief to the tragedy, while Jennifer Taylor musters up a pretty good Bahston accent for the role of Joe Kennedy, Sr.
I mentioned the younger performers who make up the show in bit parts, mostly within the Little Miss Chorus. Leading the way there is one young performer, Annabelle Heyne, who is already moving into veteran status while only in fourth grade. A standout in R + J as well as having appeared in As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Heyne has matured immensely as a performer in a very short time frame, and her dynamic stage presence is one backed up by confidence and poise.
The play itself is relatively brief, and because it moves along at such a quick pace you really don’t have much time to overanalyze what is happening on stage – it is more a matter of keeping up.
It’s the type of play that will have you asking questions of your date afterwards, going back over certain details, and trying to make connections that you might have missed. It provokes thought and dialogue. And that is what great art does. Thanks to FST – in particular to the bold vision of Thibault – for once again providing us with that important opportunity.
Antigone runs through April 25 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. For more information and reservations, visit www.fstalaska.org.
Scott McCrea has reviewed local theater for several years. He will happily take your comments at scmcrea@gmail.
Reprinted from Fairbanks News-Miner
‘Antigone’ finds new life in Fairbanks Shakepeare Theatre’s post-apocalyptic future
by Glenn Burnsilver / gburnsilver@newsminer.com
FAIRBANKS – When one of the world’s oldest plays finds a new time zone in a post-apocalyptic future, one where the history of the Kennedy family is the basis for a new society, well, expect a lot of surprises.
But, then again, there is an amazing amount of similarity between “Antigone,” written in approximately 422 B.C. by the Greek playwright Sophocles, and the updated version penned by Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director Anne Thibault.
Thibault’s title is “Antigone, or I really wish you hadn’t done that.”
Both stories overlap in some of the major plot points, but it’s the nuances and unexpected inclusions that set the two apart.
Here’s the basic premise: Two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, fight on opposing sides in Thebes’ civil war. Both are killed and Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, declares that Eteocles, who fought for him, shall be buried, while Polyneices must be left unburied as carrion for vultures.
Undaunted, the play’s title character and heroine buries her brother despite Creon’s vow to have her killed for doing so. Ironically, she was to marry Creon’s son, Haemon, who is very much the opposite of his father.
For additional background, Antigone is the incestuous daughter of King Oedipus and his mother Jocasta. This action brings the family a curse, which is partly responsible for the brothers’ deaths and Antigone’s problems.
Thibault’s play works within this context, albeit with many liberties.
“So we have taken that basic story of a girl on a mission and set it in 2020,” Thibault explained. “We sort of posited: ‘What would have happened had the Cuban missile crisis gone wrong and the world was destroyed and there were only a few people left?’ Oedipus’ family is the one that sort of rises from the ashes and creates this new world.
“So we’re paralleling the curse of the Oedipus family with the Kennedy family,” she added. “We sort of explore the two families.”
The modern setting is called New Thebes, but it remains forever a place in crisis where the Oedipus family builds upon the remnants found after the apocalypse.
“One of the things they call the Book of the Gods, but it’s a book about the Kennedys. So they’ve modeled their new society after the Kennedys and that idea of Camelot,” Thibault said.
Rosemary Kennedy, who replaces the blind prophet Teiresias as something of an oracle, warns Creon that his persistence to destroy Antigone will be his downfall and that of the new society.
“So, we go through the stories of the Kennedys and the tragedy that has followed them around,” and how it compares with Oedipus, Creon and their families, she said.
“That sounds terrible and tragic and awful, but it’s actually pretty funny,” Thibault added.
Thibault, who added that the play has an all-female cast, began formulating the idea for this production shortly after 9/11 when she performed as Rosemary Kennedy in “Women and Criminals.” It helped that she also grew up Catholic with a picture of John F. Kennedy in the kitchen.
“I started thinking about this curse once he (Joe Kennedy) sacrificed that child,” she said, referring to Rosemary Kennedy’s lobotomy.
“I thought: ‘What if that curse didn’t just affect that family but the world and everything had gone wrong?’ Then, 60 years later, we’d have this brand new world.”
While it seems easy to root for Antigone, Thibault points out the play is not that cut and dry. It isn’t the story of good versus evil because Creon thinks everything he’s doing is for Thebes, even when he says, “The people need us to look out for terrorists and traitors,” which he considers Antigone to be. Antigone, on the other hand, is not exactly Joan of Arc. Though she may believe that everything she’s doing is right, in the end it’s not worth all the sacrifices to family and loved ones. “She’s on the side of right,” Thibault said, “but she doesn’t necessarily do everything correctly and balance that.”
Worth noting is the stage setting for New Thebes: a landscape torn open by missile strikes, with Doric columns streaking upward and modern furnishings scattered about.
“If the world split open … you know how they say half of Rome is still underground?” Thibault ponders. “Well, I had this idea that ‘60s indestructible furniture — we have an avocado green desk — are mixed with this 490 B.C. architecture.”
Thibault paused, and then laughed. “I’m hoping people will be willing to go along for the ride.”
It should be a wild one.
Contact features editor Glenn BurnSilver at 459- 7510.
IF YOU GO
What: Antigone, or I really wish you hadn’t done that
When: 7:30 p.m.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through April 25
Where: Empress Theatre
Tickets: $20, $15 students, military and seniors, free under 18 students on Thursdays only
Information: www.fstalaska.org
Pay-What-You-Can Preview – Thursday April 8
Bring two cans of food and at least $6. Anything more than that is up to you. Seating is general admission.
Opening Night – Friday April 9
Opening night party sponsored by Bobby’s Downtown.
Happy Hour and a Half – Thursday April 15
Complimentary wine and cheese with the cast and director beginning at 6pm.
When
April 8-25, 2010, Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets
Pay What You Can: $6 minimum with a donation of two cans of food
Thursday and Sunday performances: $20 Adults, $15 Students/Senior(65+)/Military, FREE for students under 18
Friday and Saturday performances: $20 Adults, $15 Students/Senior(65+)/Military
FST Associate Artistic Director Anne Thibault wrote and directed the modern tragicomic adaptation Antigone, or I really wish you hadn’t done that. It is the story of a young woman punished for giving her brother an honorable burial after he has betrayed his country.
“This play is look at one girl’s struggle with grief – she has been recently orphaned and has lost two brothers in one war. It’s also about the personal vs. the public. Our play takes place in a post-apocalyptic world called New Thebes. As a growing society, it’s a community in crisis. Antigone’s nemesis, the new leader Creon, is doing what he thinks is right to protect his people and their values.”
Thibault is in her second season as an Associate Artistic Director at FST. Prior to this, she directed and performed across the country. She last directed Romeo + Juliet for FST. As an actress, she toured for three years with the National Shakespeare Company. She has worked at the North Carolina Stage Company, the Wilbur Theater, the White River Theatre Festival, the Westport Playhouse, the Theater at Monmouth, the Clarence Brown Theatre Company, the Fulton Opera House and many others. Off-Broadway she has been seen in The Seagull. As a writer, her plays have been produced around the country. Her most recent play, I Wrote This Play to Make You Love Me, was most recently produced in Tuscon, Asheville, NC, and Orlando, Florida.
The cast includes many talented local artists, students, and community actors, many of whom have been seen before on the FST stages. The cast features Claire Wool as Antigone, who has been seen in many Theater UAF productions, including How I Learned to Drive and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Wool is making her FST debut. The production also stars Hadassah R. Nelson as Creon. Nelson is very familiar to FST audiences, having been featured in The Tempest,Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, and as Mercutio in last season’s Romeo + Juliet.
The post-apocalyptic set was designed by FST Artistic Director B.D. Rogers and Associate Artistic Director Rebecca Eddy, who also functions as the show’s movement director. “The show asks what would happen if something like the Cuban Missile Crisis failed and the world cracked open?” Thibault said. “Eddy and Rogers came up with a gorgeous set that mixes architectural elements that could be found in ancient Greece and other elements that can be found today. The design element of show mirror the ways in which the play takes on the classic properties of the original script and also adds very modern twists. It’s got a gorgeous, surreal look to it.”
Jerea Casselmen and Jerene Mosier took on the costumes. “The society of New Thebes has mirrored itself on the world of the Kennedys, so they’ve had a lot of fun putting together some great looks from the 1960s but adding post-modern flair.” Thibault said. “The show looks great.”
Thibault and FST sound designer Chris John George collaborated on the sound design. Thibault said, “Using modern music is incredibly important to me in bringing the show to life. The soundtrack uses everyone from Lesley Gore to Green Day to Radiohead to Fairbanks musician Craig Brookes. Chris John George adds immeasurably to the production as he has for dozens of FST shows with his very talented, very realistic sound work.”
Like all Greek tragedies, this production contains some adult content. The show is at the Empress Theater on Third Avenue between Cushman and Lacey.
No Shame Theatre returns March 12!Back by popular demand, watch out for the return of No Shame Theatre, created and performed by you!
There are only 3 rules of No Shame theatre:
We need writers with scripts, actors/dancers/clowns/musicians/poets who want to perform, directors who want to tell people what to do… Just show up at 7 and we’ll put you together with other artists. We’ll provide a light board operator and the theater. The rest is up to you!
Admission is $5 at the door — come at 9pm to do it and at 10pm to watch other people do it!
Come see The Groundlings attempt the impossible — perform 30 Plays in 60 Minutes!
We are holding our first ever Spring Break Drama Camp March 8-14. Throughout the week our youth troupe, ages 10-17, will rehearse 30 pieces from both contemporary and classical plays under the direction of our professional staff. Saturday, March 13, at 7:30 and Sunday, March 14 at 2 PM, we’ll open the doors of the Empress to see if they can do it!
All tickets are $7 and proceeds go to benefit FST’s education program.
