I connected with this group while I attended University of Maryland.  I did a production and learned so much about myself as an artist and person.  T.U.T.A. originators moved to Chicago and I moved to NYC, but we’ve kept in touch.  So, last Saturday I finally got a chance to get to Chicago and see a T.U.T.A production.  It was so worth it.

Chekov is not easy to pull off.  His work calls for actors that listen very loudly.

I’ve worked with the director, Zeljko Djukic before and I know how hard it is working on a production with him.  His process asks so much from you and when you see the finished product you realize that you’ve grown as an artist.  I could tell that the actors had invested so much in their performances.  Silence, which is used to near perfection in this production, finds it’s characters’ silence being interrupted by each others issues.

From the relationships and heartache to the singing, it was like seeing a carefully woven tapestry.  I was proud and moved.

Thanks you T.U.T.A.

I will keep an open heart and mind.  I can’t wait to hear that great music.

I hope you’re ready for this play when the curtain goes up.  It starts off loud very loud.  I didn’t know what was happening at first.  I knew something happened to piss this woman off, but we didn’t hear it until 15 minutes into the first scene.

Story:  Boyfriend calls his girlfriend’s face regular.  She finds out.  Relationship heads south.

Neil LaBute asks his audiences a question/theme and gives you a situation where characters deal with that theme.

• Reflection
• Preception
• Love
• Truth

Webster defines truth as:  sincerity in action, character, and utterance.

Was it loving for Greg, played by the magnetic Thomas Dadoski, to call his girlfriend Steph’s face regular in front of other other men?  NO! It wasn’t.  Was it the truth, YES!

Was it loving for Steph to make Greg suffer and pay for that remark?  NO! It cost them a lot.  I bet she’s heard negative comments about her appearance before and that pain does run deep, but when do you realize that it’s more your issues than the person that said them.

The supporting character’s journey supports the over arch of the play, but the core story is about Greg and Steph.

I can see why it was nominated for best play.  It’s asks questions, that aren’t all answered…

Sometimes that’s our job.

Last Saturday, June 13, 2009 I saw the sold out Exit the King with Geoffrey Rush and was realized that I missed absurdist plays very much.

It began with Andrea Martin coming out with card in hand saying “no cellphone” or “texting”.  It was great.  Ms. Martin’s physical life was so “monkey like” that I wasn’t sure who it was with me in the mezzanine.  This is before the house light went out.

Exit the King on the surface is about a King that is dying and his court preparing him for his inevitable death.  What Ionesco really presents is commentary about society.

There are six characters each representing different parts of society.

• The Guard:  Authority

A puppet just announcing whatever was going on.  No matter how ridiculous or inappropriate.

• King Berenger:  The Leader

A fop.  Old, out of date and completely absorbed in his past accomplishments.  All of which are fading away at a rapid pace.

• Queen Marguerite:  Intelligentsia

A know it all and unyielding.  It’s her way or death.  Never comforting and focused on the end result.

• Queen Marie:  The Youth

Emotional.   Passionate and naive.  Has no sense of reality.

• The Doctor:  Science

Partnered with the intelligentsia.  With nothing to contribute except prognosis.

• Juliette:  The People

Overworked, underpaid and too tired to contribute  or change society and their social status.

Absurdism is like a weird dream.   There is a reason to the  madness;  you just have to pick it apart.  Geoffrey Rush was brilliant to rework this play for a modern audience.  It just proves that true art can be timeless.

I didn’t see the other Tony nominated performances but for Best Actor in a Play, but I doubt any of them had the size and presence of Rush.  He was HUGE.  For those of you that don’t know.  Performing an abstract take a lot trial and error and you have to be a brave enough actor to fail miserably in order to find what you’re looking for.

Susan Sarandon and Lauren Ambrose are great talents, but you can tell they had a problem with the theatricality of the piece.  I didn’t dislike them, but  in the back of my mind I wondered how would the play have been with someone else in the role of  Queen Marguerite or  Queen Marie.  That said I enjoyed seeing Ms. Sarandon onstage and would love to see her again.  She’s got this authority and matter of factness that I would have loved to seen pushed…to the absurd.

Who would have thought that in 1962 Ionesco would have written a play about a society and ruler in complete denial about it’s own destruction.

George Bush & The Republicans anyone??

Ashanti…

Really.

I was mortified Ashanti was cast and will sing one of my favorite musical theatre songs…Home.  What is going on?  She’s a fine R & B artist with a few hits under her belt, but in no way is she known for her voice.  Casting that I was excited to about was Lachanze as Glinda!  Oh what fun!

Orlando Jones as The Wiz?  Really?  I just find it hard to believe it was that hard to find some good unknown talent in that role.  I guess I’m being hard, but I know so many African American actors that fight for roles and it’s sucks that these “stars” besides Lachanze get cast.  I probably going to see it, but I hope “Home” isn’t painful.

This looks like that musical that I can sink my teeth into.   It’s not a “happy” musical.  It’s about mental illness.  That’s not to say you’d want to slit your wrists afterwards, but it will get you to think about your life.

I haven’t seen it.  I actually got the music yesterday from Virgin (probably  my last purchase since it’s closing).  I did the same with Spring Awakening and had an amazing experience seeing the musical live.  I’m seeing this at the end of May in time for the Tony Awards on June 7th.

I have to give a shout to wordpress for having an application that runs on my iPod that let’s me blog on the subway and post when I get some wifi.

13, I saw this for free and I pretty glad I did. Jason Robert brown is okay. I’m not one of those fanboys. My favorite musical of his is the last five years. It’s haunting and has a great idea (gimmick) and the music is beautiful.

I went into 13 thinking. Is this gimmick going to work? Will I feel like I’m watching a middle school production. The answer was no and no.

The story was my major complaint with this show. A New York City kid moves to Indiana and needs some kids to come to his bar mitzvah. Simple, but the cast of characters (an antagonist on crutches) just doesn’t fit. I was actually offended by some of the book that was to simple while trying to be “hip”.

The band rocked it! Who would have thought that 13 year olds could rock it out like that.

*funny, as I write this post, the 6 train is filled with screaming pre-teens.

This could be harder than I thought.  I saw this show back May 10, 2006.  I can remember that I was okay and Zeljko Ivanek was one of the best things about a production.

David Schwimmer was the big star draw of this production and he wasn’t horrible, but why should we constantly have “stars”  in production just because of their great draw.   Unless it’s a musical, there’s no reason to have big stars in plays.  I’m against it altogether, but in a 12 million dollar musical I can understand. 

Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is dated, but for it’s time it was groundbreaking.  

It’s still a wonder how these plays are expected to succeed, even in the short run.

I realize now that I need to write my thoughts on a piece of paper in case I need to recall some of the production.

I have to say the main reason I went to see it was for Pablo Schreiber.  I saw him in Dying City and knew he’d be someone I wanted to see again on stage.  Of course I got seat in the mezzanine (I’m cheap).  It was a great decision too because we were upgraded to better seats before the show began.

Bacon.  Bacon. Bacon. Eben (Pablo Schreiber ) comes on stage and moves “stage right” to a stove.  He takes a block of something out and places it on a frying pan.  I assumed it was something fake.  As that’s going on, Simeon and Peter Cabot (Eben’s half brothers) are disemboweling a pig.  As they cut in the pig (fake pig) and remove its entrails, I smell bacon.   Sweet, crunch bacon.  The smell reminded me of mornings when my mom would fix breakfast.  Although this time the bacon didn’t smell that good while watching blood and entrails on the stage.  Death, food and hunger.    Great moment.  I knew it was going to be an interesting evening.  The set was masculine, large and menacing.   There are huge rocks and boulders on “stage left” with the house confined to “stage right”.   There wasn’t much space for the actors to move in such a confined and limited space.  It’s like they’re caged and hungry to escape.

How do you play “desire”?  Sexy actors alone can’t pull it off for an hour.  You have to have objectives and clear tactics to achieve them. You have to connect with your fellow actors and communicate with your voice and body.  At times I felt I was watching a Shakespearean tragedy because everything was big, from the set pieces to the acting.

Brian Dennehy (Ephraim Cabot) was fantastic.  His stage presence was HUGE.  Whenever he walked out on stage you were drawn to him instantly.   I could see how he had three wives.  I don’t know if the actors planned this but you could see so much of Eben in his father.   Their dysfunctional relationship was played very well.

I have to mention Eben Cabot and Abbie Putnam.  Since the actors (Pablo and Carla) are featured in the ads “desiring each other”, I have to comment.  They were hot.  Pablo fans will be satisfied to see him in certain stages of undress, but when you get over that their reactions to each other were moist and hot.  I thought I was watching a mirroring exercise when I saw them on stage together.  She would move and he would respond and vice versa.  It was like a dance.  At one point he’s on a table, by himself, and I thought I would lose it.  Hopefully those ads to reel people into a night of theatre with some actors who can act.  Below is an ad for the show.

I couldn’t get the sheriff (Michael Laurence) out of my head.  He had no lines and comes in at the end.  What a gig!

There is nothing like the smell of a thick piece of bacon cooking, frying and burning right to the point where it’s still good to eat.  Just like Desire on the Elms.