QPORIT

Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) plays Berenger in Eugène Ionesco's THE KILLER in a new translation by Michael Feingold, directed by Darko Tresnjak (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder).

Last produced Off-Broadway in 1960, The Killer is the final production of the inauguraral season for Theatre for a New Audience at their new Polonsky Shakespeare Center.

Previews begin Saturday, May 17, at 7:30pm for an opening Thursday, May 29, at 7:30pm and a scheduled run through Sunday, June 29.

Single tickets are now on sale.

Eugène Ionesco (1909-1994) is one of the 20th century's most acclaimed playwrights. A Romanian who wrote mostly in French, Ionesco'’s family moved to Paris in 1911. His father left for Bucharest in 1916, ostensibly to fight in World War I, and never returned. In 1922, he used forged documents to obtain a divorce and custody. He then insisted that Eugène and his younger sister live with him and his new wife and learn Romanian. His father's cowardice -- particularly the rationales by which he accommodated the rise of Romanian fascism in the 1930s­ -- figure in Ionesco's writings.

Ionesco returned to France in 1939 and settled in Paris after the war. Clownish mockery and sharp seriousness are characteristic of his work. He first burst onto the theatre scene in 1950 with The Bald Soprano and ultimately wrote 28 plays, as well as novels, short stories and essays.

The Killer (in French, Tueur sans gages) was written in 1957 and had its world premiere in Paris in 1959. It is the first of Ionesco's four plays featuring the hapless, inadvertently heroic Everyman-character Berenger (the other three are A Stroll in the Air, Exit the King and his most popular play, Rhinoceros).

In The Killer, Berenger discovers a “radiant city,” a kind of utopia near his dismal urban home. It is a perpetually sunny, impeccable, clean place full of marvelous architecture and beautiful gardens. But there is one hitch: a serial murderer has been killing people for so long that the authorities have given up trying to catch him.


Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director of Theatre for a New Audience, explains, "Theatre for a New Audience produces major modern authors alongside Shakespeare. Michael Shannon, who played Berenger in 1998 at Chicago's A Red Orchid Theatre (co-founded by Mr. Shannon), introduced me to The Killer. Last season, Theatre for a New Audience produced Samuel Beckett's Fragments. Ionesco, like Beckett, writes about the comedy of human communication and characters unable to control their existence. Exploring the language and ideas of Ionesco after Beckett makes sense. And, Michael wanted to play Berenger again and was excited to work with director Darko Tresnjak in a new translation by Michael Feingold both of whom have long, fruitful relationships with Theatre for a New Audience."

"The Killer is a wildly imaginative and eclectic play, a symphony for actors," said director Darko Tresnjak. "It is funny, farcical, and frightening. I look forward to exploring it with our killer design team and an extraordinary acting company, headed by Michael Shannon, Kristine Nielsen, Paul Sparks and Robert Stanton."

About The Killer, Mr. Feingold says, "It's astonishing to me that this remarkable play has so rarely been produced in America -- and virtually never, since its original staging, in New York. Though it grows out of the sensibility of the 1950s, it seems to encapsulate so much of what is happening to the world in our time. As I worked on it, every line seemed to be a new revelation, every piece of Ionesco's highly personal and quirky imagery seemed also to carry political comment, and all of the play's deliciously dark humor had a deep tragic undertone."


Michael Shannon appears on stage, film and television. In 2012, he starred on Broadway in Grace. Additional theatre includes Uncle Vanya, Our Town, Mistakes Were Made, Bug and Killer Joe. He received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in Revolutionary Road and plays Nelson Van Alden in Boardwalk Empire. His noted films included Bug, Take Shelter, The Iceman and Man of Steel. Mr. Shannon is co-founder of Chicago's adventurous 20-year-old ensemble theatre company A Red Orchid Theatre.

Darko Tresnjak directed A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (most 2014 Tony nominations including Best Director), currently playing on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre. He is the Artistic Director of Hartford Stage. Mr. Tresnjak staged Theatre for a New Audience's productions of All's Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra and The Merchant of Venice with F. Murray Abraham, which transferred to the Royal Shakespeare Company. Mr. Tresnjak has directed at The Public Theater, Stratford Festival, The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare, Chicago Shakespeare, Long Wharf, Goodspeed Musicals, Huntington Theater Company and Williamstown Theater Festival. His upcoming productions include Hamlet and Kiss Me Kate at Hartford Stage and The Ghosts of Versailles with Patti LuPone at L.A. Opera.

Michael Feingold, who served as chief theatre critic for The Village Voice from 1983 to 2013 and currently writes a monthly two-part essay for Theatermania.com under the title "Thinking About Theater," has also had an extensive career as a translator, adaptor and playwright. Best known for his versions of the Brecht-Weill works Happy End, Threepenny Opera and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Mr. Feingold has translated numerous works from the French, including Ionesco's The Chairs, which was given an acclaimed production by David Gordon and Valda Setterfield at London's Dance Umbrella and BAM's Next Wave Festival in 2004. Mr. Feingold's previous work for Theatre for a New Audience includes translations of Frisch's Andorra and De Filippo's Souls of Naples; he served as the company's dramaturg for three seasons, working on two Shakespeare productions with Darko Tresnjak.

The company includes 

• Brendan Averett (Bartender/First Policeman), 
• Stephanie Bunch (Dennie), 
• Benjamin Cole (Ensemble), 
• Liam Craig (The Bum/First Man/The Drunk), 
• Eric Folks (Ensemble), 
• Jonathan Hooks (Ensemble), 
• Kathleen Longazel (Ensemble), 
• Kristine Nielsen (Concierge/Ma Piper), 
• Anastasia Olowin (Ensemble), 
• Frank Paiva (Ensemble), 
• Gregor Paslawsky (Second Old Man), 
• Ryan Quinn (Second Man/Postman/The Killer), 
• James Rees (Ensemble), 
• Michael Shannon (Berenger), 
• Noble Shropshire (First Old Man/Old Gent), 
• Paul Sparks (Edward),
• Robert Stanton (The Architect), 
• Gordon Tashjian (Second Policeman), 
• Quinn Warren (Ensemble) and 
• Ariel Zuckerman (Ensemble).

Scenery and costumes are by Suttirat Larlarb, lighting by Matthew Richards, and sound by Jane Shaw. Andrew Wade is the vocal director, Jonathan Kalb is the dramaturg, and Cole Bonenberger is the production stage manager.

Theatre for a New Audience's New Deal Ticket Program is supported by The Macy’s Foundation.

Brendan Averett (Bartender/First Policeman) recently appeared at Theatre for a New Audience in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Off-Broadway credits include As You Like It at Shakespeare in the Park, Massacre (Sing to Your Children) with Rattlestick Theater, and Passion Play with Epic Theatre Ensemble. Regional theatre credits include Romeo and Juliet at Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Of Mice and Men at Cincinnati Playhouse, Passion Play at Yale Repertory Theatre, and Hamlet and The Chairs at Court Theatre. Other theatre credits include Measure for Measure and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada. Television credits include Trapped in the Closet, Law & Order: SVU and Blossom.

Stephanie Bunch (Dennie) is making her Theatre for a New Audience debut in this production. Recent New York credits include A Shadow with No Form at the Bowery Poetry Club and Forever 27 at the Downtown Urban Theater Festival. She received an M.F.A. in acting from Brooklyn College and a B.F.A. in acting from Old Dominion University.

Benjamin Cole (Ensemble) is currently appearing at Theatre for a New Audience as an ensemble member in King Lear. He has previously appeared as Caliban in The Tempest (CT Critic’s Circle Award Winner) and as Mr. Topper in The Christmas Carol at The Hartford Stage Company.

Liam Craig (The Bum/First Man/The Drunk) has appeared at Theatre for a New Audience in Don Juan. He appeared on Broadway in Boeing Boeing (u/s: performed as Robert). Off-Broadway credits include The Internationalist (Vineyard Theatre), Aunt Dan and Lemon (The New Group), and Two Noble Kinsmen (Public Theater). Regional credits include Accidental Death of An Anarchist (Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep), Servant of Two Masters (Yale Rep, STC, Guthrie Theater, Seattle Rep), The Government Inspector (STC) and The Scene (Hartford Stage, Alley Theatre). Film and television credits include The Royal Tenenbaums, Unforgettable, Rescue Me, and Law & Order: SVU. He has an M.F.A. from the NYU Tisch Graduate Acting Program.

Eric Folks (Ensemble) has appeared in columbinus (America Theater Company), JOB and The Wundelsteipen (The Flea Theater), Almost Maine, Singin' in the Rain, and Fiddler on the Roof (New London Barn Playhouse), Don't Dress For Dinner (Lake Dillion Theater Co), and Mrs. Mannerly (Dixie Theater). Mr. Folks is a graduate of Otterbein College.

Jonathan Hooks (Ensemble) can currently be seen as an ensemble member in King Lear at Theatre for a New Audience. Other New York credits include Julius Caesar (The Royal Shakespeare Company at BAM), The House of Von Macramé (The Bushwick Starr), Richard's Rampage (BAM) and Torch-Bearers (Williamstown). Film credits include Haitian Son and I Do? Training includes The Public Theater's Shakespeare Lab and The University of Oklahoma School of Drama.

Kathleen Longazel (Ensemble) is making her Theatre for a New Audience debut in this production. Recent credits include Firework for Real with True False Theatre and The Wild Inside with Primary Stages. She starred in the short film I Speak, You Understand Me and appeared on the Discovery ID series Frenemies. She graduated from Fordham University and the London Dramatic Academy.

Kristine Nielsen (Concierge/Ma Piper) has appeared on Broadway in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Tony nomination), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, To Be or Not to Be, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Spring Awakening, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Green Bird, Jackie and The Iceman Cometh. Lincoln Center Theater credits include Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and Ubu. With Christopher Durang: Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them (Drama League, Outer Critics Circle nominations), Miss Witherspoon; Betty's Summer Vacation (Obie, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations) and Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge. Off-Broadway credits include Crazy Mary, Our Leading Lady and Dog Opera (Obie Award). Regional includes Centre Theatre Group, Old Globe, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Guthrie, Huntington Theatre, Bay Street, McCarter, Alley Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival and La Jolla Playhouse. Film credits include Morning Glory, That's What She Said, The Savages, Adelaide and Small Time Crooks. Television credits include Political Animals, Smash, Law & Order, Law & Order: CI, Third Watch and the NBC live broadcast of The Sound of Music. She received an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama and a B.S. from Northwestern.

Anastasia Olowin (Ensemble) is a company member of Theater Reconstruction Ensemble. New York theater credits include Set in the Living Room… and Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA! (TRE), Plum de Force (The Bushwick Starr), Obedient Steel (Tugboat Collective), Obskene (The Talking Band) and Target Margin’s Lab Series. She holds a B.F.A. from NYU Tisch.

Frank Paiva (Ensemble) is making his Theatre for a New Audience debut in this production. New York theatre credits include The House of Von Macramé (Bushwick Starr), The Lily’s Revenge (HERE Arts Center), The Walk Across America for Mother Earth (La MaMa), Moonbase (Flea Theater) and Giant Killer Slugs (Pipeline Theatre Company). He holds a B.A. from NYU Gallatin.

Gregor Paslawsky (Second Old Man) has appeared in New York productions of The Sadness of Others, Not Knowing, Pegleg! (Mixed Mess@ge) and Outpost (Mabou Mines). Regional credits include Twelfth Night (Hartford Stage), Bell Book and Candle (Long Wharf), Pericles and Two Noble Kinsman (Old Globe), Skin of Our Teeth and Travesties (Williamstown), Kite Runner (San Jose Rep), Waiting for Godot (North Carolina Shakespeare Festival), Christmas Carol, Tempest (Virginia Stage), Blood Knot (New Mexico Rep), The Ruling Class (Wilma) and Superior Donuts and Tribes (Studio Theatre D.C.).

Ryan Quinn (Second Man/Postman/The Killer) has appeared at Theatre for a New Audience in King Lear, Hamlet, and Antony and Cleopatra. Regional credits include eight seasons with The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Yellowman with Milwaukee Rep, Hamlet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona at The Old Globe and The King Stag at Yale Repertory Theatre. New York theatre credits include Binibon at The Kitchen and Frag and The Strangest at HERE Arts. He received an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama.

James Rees (Ensemble) is making his Theatre for a New Audience debut in this production. Off Broadway credits include Measure for Measure at Shakespeare in the Park. Other New York credits include The Whaleship Essex with Hudson Guild and Henry V with Well Theater. Regional credits include Man For All Seasons at Virginia Shakes and Amadeus at Richmond Shakes. Television credits include The Knick and Team Toon. He received a B.F.A. from Shenandoah Conservatory.

Noble Shropshire (First Old Man/Old Gent) has performed at Hartford Stage in Macbeth, La Dispute, The Tempest, The 39 Steps, Noises Off and A Christmas Carol. Broadway credits include Underling, The Drowsy Chaperone and Tennessee Williams's Not About Nightingales. Off-Broadway credits include Roundabout, Parris, The Crucible and CSC (9 seasons). Title roles include Hamlet, Peer Gynt, Tartuffe, the Fool in King Lear, Mephisto in Faust, Hummel and Ghost Sonata. Regional credits include work at Actors Theatre Louisville, Alley, ART, Arena, Cincinnati Playhouse, City Theatre, Denver Center, Pioneer Theatre, Pittsburgh Public, Rep Theater St. Louis and Westport Playhouse.

Paul Sparks (Edward) has appeared on Broadway in Hedda Gabler. Off Broadway credits include Dusk Rings a Bell, Lady, Pumpgirl, American Sligo, Essential Self Defense, Finer, Noble Gases, Landscape of the Body, Bug, Blackbird and Coyote on the Fence. He is a five-time Drama Desk nominee. Film credits include Mud (Independent Spirit Award), Parkland, Trust Me, Sparrows Dance and Blackbird. Upcoming films include Midnight Special and Stealing Cars. He has appeared in the television series Boardwalk Empire (SAG Award), the mini-series Mildred Pierce and many episodes of NYC–based shows.

Robert Stanton (The Architect) has recently appeared on stage in Checkers (Vineyard), Strange Interlude (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Love's Labour's Lost (The Public Theater), and Alarm Will Sound's 1969 (Carnegie Hall). Broadway credits include A Free Man of Color, Mary Stuart and The Coast of Utopia. Off-Broadway credits include Love Child (co-written with Daniel Jenkins), All in the Timing (Obie, Clarence Derwent awards) and many more. Recent film and television credits include True Story, The Knick, Elementary, Orange Is the New Black and The Good Wife. He received an M.F.A. from NYU.

Gordon Tashjian (Second Policeman) is an actor, writer, and musician based in Brooklyn. He has appeared onstage in multiple New York venues and is making his Theatre for a New Audience debut in this production.

Quinn Warren (Ensemble) is making her Off-Broadway debut with Theatre for a New Audience in this production. She has previously appeared at The McCarter Theatre, Kennedy Center, The Long Wharf and many productions in New York, including You May Go Now, Samaritans and Metamorphoses. She received a B.F.A. from Stephens College.

Ariel Zuckerman (Ensemble) is currently appearing in King Lear at Theatre for a New Audience. Other recent credits include The Merchant of Venice with the Worcester Shakespeare Company and Cadence: Home with TE’A at the Straz Center in Tampa, Fl. He is a recent graduate of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in NYC.



Single tickets, now on sale, are $60-$85 and can be purchased online at www.tfana.org, by phone at 866-811-4111, or in person at the Theatre for a New Audience Box Office (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn.) Box office hours are Tuesday through Saturday 1:00pm to 6:00pm. A limited number of premium seats are available for $100.

Subscription packages, which include one ticket to each of the next four productions and a host of benefits, are available for $196.

New Deal tickets for ages 30 and under or full-time students of any age are priced at $20, and are supported by The Macy’s Foundation. Proof of age or student ID required for each ticket purchased.

Performances are Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:30pm with matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00pm. There are no matinees on May 17 or May 18 and no evening performance on June 8. There is one Wednesday matinee on June 4 at 2:00pm.


For a story in QPORIT on the inaugural production of this inaugural season for TFANA at the Polonsky Center see:

TAYMOR'S EXUBERANT "A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM" AT TFANA
qporit.blogspot.com/2013/11/julie-taymors-exuberant-midsummer.html

 

Labels: Darko Tresnjak, Eugène Ionesco, Kristine Nielsen, Michael Feingold, Michael Shannon, Paul Sparks, Robert Stanton, TFANA, THE KILLER, Theatre For A New Audience

Julie Taymor’s entertaining, profound, beautiful, and often amazing production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM inaugurates a terrific new home for Theatre For A New Audience.






Shakespeare’s words are wonderful, but what provides exceptional grandeur to his A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (MSND) is the opportunity to create magic on stage. Julie Taymor, in the new production inaugurating Theatre For A New Audience's new home, creates a wondrous, visually spectacular production.

Perhaps the most amazing things in the production are the brilliant troupe of young performers; and the fabrics with exquisite projections that provide most of the stage design.

The children (as fairies / “Rude Elementals”, animals, tree trunks, and even children) are infectiously enthusiastic, and skillful in their execution of brilliant routines with dancing, prancing, and even constructing the most evocative forest I’ve ever seen on stage. They are a physical troupe integral to the theatrical performance, not simply an embellishment.

Fabric is used for many stunning moments throughout the performance from lifting characters into the sky, to being the medium which holds beautiful projections of images that set the stage or enhance the story. Aside from the creative brilliance, the technical achievement of getting these moving fabrics to hold high quality, beautiful images is astonishing.

The production is inventive and also a reprise and re-invention of some of Julie Taymor’s signature theatrical devices, including the use of three dimensional space (height/air), variations on puppetry, visual projections, and the use of fabrics to organize the stage design.


Original music by Elliot Goldenthal nicely complements the action.


The acting is excellent, too!

• The beautiful young actress, Lilly Englert -- just out of Stella Adler -- combines a physically exciting performance with a very well spoken rendition of Hermia’s lines. She is an actress on the threshold of a breakout.

• Jake Horowitz, recently graduated from LaGuardia High School, using a more natural voice than the usual Shakespearean mellifluous tones, provides a refreshing and terrific Lysander.

• The majestic David Harewood as Oberon is well matched with a truly regal Tina Benko, as Titania.

• The youthful, loving energy of Lilly and Jake, complemented by the still younger spirit of the Rude Elementals, contrasts perfectly with the mature, royal power of Oberon and Titania.

• The Rude Mechanicals are very funny, and Max Cassela, as Bottom, is especially good.

• The rest of the cast is fine too.

Still, while this production is superb, I do have some minor quibbles and one serious alert.

• The sub-plot of the changeling is only slightly clearer than usual.

• Note 2013-212-14 Forget this quibble item.  I saw the play again tonight and they completely changed the staging of the donkey's head scene just before the intermission.  It's terrific now. (Original note:"I found the placement of the intermission awkward (even when you know the play): Just before the intermission, Bottom exits, Puck exits, Bottom returns with a Donkey’s head. Then intermission. And only after the intermission (extra long the night I saw it) does Puck describe what happened. A little business between Puck and Bottom – or at least putting the arrival of the Donkey’s head and Puck’s explanation on the same side of the intermission -- might have been less puzzling.")

• Though Puck is excellent in what she did (some people are calling it the performance of the season!), to my taste I would have preferred a more stylish, more lithe, and more playfully mischievious (sic) Puck, with a more natural puckishness (rather than her skillful artifice).

• Hilarious as it is, I suspect there are even more “obscene” puns and jokes that could have been mined in the performance of Pyramus and Thisbē by the Rude Mechanicals.

• The theater is a marvel of design, and can be extensively reconfigured. In the long rectangular setting used for MSND, it is brilliantly adapted for the staging. However, the further away the actors, the faster they speak, and the more they look away (with the audience sitting on three sides of the stage, no actor can ever be facing everyone) the less clear the dialog becomes.

And one serious note:

• On the night I saw the play, seats in the center mezzanine were not bolted down, and the guard rail was about thigh-high, just right to trip over and fall. While audience members falling from a mezzanine or balcony is a rare event, there is no need to make it easier than it needs to be.

Julie Taymor has done a brilliant job combining a stunningly visual production with a vocally clear and commanding presentation. It's a glorious production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM that will be remembered as a classic and should not be missed!




Jeffrey Horowitz is the Founding Artistic Director of the Theatre For A New Audience (TFANA), which began more than thirty years ago, in 1979. Up until now they have performed in a variety of theaters, but not their own. 



The Polonsky Shakespeare Center, the new, permanent home for TFANA, represents many years of development, planning and fundraising. It contains two theaters: the beautiful, highly re-configurable Scripps Mainstage, with 299 seats, and the Rogers Studio with 50 seats. It has attractive, comfortable meeting areas outdoors in an “arts plaza” and on the ground floor. There are plans to have a transmedia-capable electronic message board outside, and to have a café, and a book kiosk.

In addition to its own major, mainstage theatrical performances, TFANA has ambitious plans for training and other programs.

MSND, running through January 12, 2014 is the first play in an exciting inaugural season. It will be followed by KING LEAR, directed by Arin Arbus, starring Michael Pennington, running from March 14 to May 4. Then, Ionesco’s THE KILLER, translated by Michael Feingold, directed by Darko Tesnjak, and featuring Michael Shannon will run from May 17 to June 29, 2014.

The second season will feature THE VALLEY OF ASTONISHMENT, a “research” directed by Peter Brook and Marie Helene Estienne, Christopher Marlowe’s TAMBURLAINE directed by Michael Boyd and featuring John Douglas Thompson, and A DOLLS HOUSE, translated by Thornton Wilder, directed by Arin Arbus, and featuring Juliet Rylance.

With a great start to an important addition to New York Theater, TFANA’s new theater is about a block away from the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Synergy between the venues is likely to enhance and enrich the Brooklyn neighborhood.

Reaching TFANA from Manhattan is not difficult by subway. Just off Flatbush Avenue, it can also be reached by car easily using either the Brooklyn Bridge or the Manhattan Bridge. (Note: the best approach to the Manhattan Bridge is from the Bowery. Be careful NOT to follow street signs to the Manhattan Bridge BICYCLE lanes.) There is ample parking less than half a block from the theater.

This is a family-friendly show, a great introduction to Shakespeare for children. (Note that it would be helpful, both for children and adults to prepare before the show by knowing the story and even reading, watching a video, or listening to the play. Shakespeare only gets better, the better you know the play.)

This is likely to be remembered as an historic production. Don’t miss it. In fact, with limited seating, limited runs, and terrific shows, grabbing season tickets for the entire inaugural season might be wise.

This entertaining, profound, beautiful, and often amazing production of A Midsummer Nights Dream inaugurates a terrific new home for Theatre For A New Audience.





THEATER LOCATION:

THE POLONSKY SHAKESPEARE CENTER
262 Ashland Street
Brooklyn NY, 11217
info@tfana.org
212-229-2819

http://www.tfana.org/
(There’s a map here)


BOX OFFICE:

Subscriptions for Theatre for a New Audience’s inaugural season are
$147 for a 3-play inaugural season package and
$294 for a 6-play, two-season package,

call (212) 229-2819, ext. 10.

Flex Passes are also available for $208 and include four tickets
to be used in any combination over the inaugural season.



Single tickets are $75.

Tickets may be purchased
online at www.tfana.org or
by phone at 866-811-4111.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs through January 1, 2014


EVENING PERFORMANCES
Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:30pm and
Monday, December 23 at 7:30pm.

EXCEPT: THERE ARE NO 7:30PM EVENING PERFORMANCES
Sundays December 8, 15 and 22 and January 5.
Thursday, November 28;
Tuesdays, December 17 and 24; and
Wednesdays, December 18 and 25.



MATINEE PERFORMANCES
Saturday and Sunday at 2:00pm. 
Tuesday, December 24 at 2:00pm;
Wednesdays November 27 at 2:00pm; and January 1 at 2:00pm.










To celebrate the opening of Theatre for a New Audience's new home and its inaugural production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Julie Taymor with music by Elliot Goldenthal, cast members David Harewood, Tina Benko and Max Casella will join celebrated Oxford professor Jonathan Bate for a lively evening of commentary, performance and conversation. Professor Bate, the award-winning author of The Soul of the Age and The Genius of Shakespeare, will lead a discussion of the nature of fairies in the Elizabethan world and in the play, and will explore how the "airy nothings" of magic, dreams, and imagination effect "translations" that grow to ultimate "constancy" in love and art.



Contact: Michelle Palmour (mpalmour@shakespearesociety.org) or
Call: (212) 967-6802.

https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/9833146?utm_source=TFANA+Nov.+18+Event&utm_campaign=Nov.+18+TFANA&utm_medium=email




SHAKESPEARE’S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream

SHAKESPEARE’S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – FULL TEXT (MIT)
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/full.html




THEATER FOR A NEW AUDIENCE – HOME PAGE
www.tfana.org

THEATER FOR A NEW AUDIENCE – WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_for_a_New_Audience



JULIE TAYMOR – WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Taymor



ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL – WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Goldenthal

DAVID HAREWOOD – WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Harewood

MAX CASELLA – WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Casella



THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY – HOME PAGE
http://www.shakespearesociety.org/

Labels: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Benko, Englert, Harewood, Horowitz, MSND, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Shakespeare, Taymor, TFANA, Theatre For A New Audience

Arin Arbus has created a delightful, funny (sometimes hilarious!) very clear and enjoyable production of Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, starring Jonathan Cake as Benedick and Maggie Siff as Beatrice. 

Jonathan Cake as Benedick and Maggie Siff as Beatrice
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Photo by Gerry Goodstein

Maggie, and most of the cast (with the notable exception of Jonathan Cake), form almost a repertory company at TFANA, playing roles in many plays. (I recently saw Maggie Siff at TFANA in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, a play with some kinship to MUCH ADO.)

The action takes place on a simple but attractive plain wooden slab -- with a large swing.

While the audience enters, an accordionist plays and women are folding the wash. It gives a nice sense of place (without being specific to any location, tho' as described by Shakespeare it's quite specifically "Messina"). It's kind of placeless. There is no particularly obvious time period for the setting either (certainly the accordion is not an Elizabethan period instrument), nor do the costumes spell out a date -- it's kind of timeless.

While being specific in the moment-to-moment details, perhaps the staging -- as timeless and placeless -- is intended in part as a metaphor of the "Nothing" in the title.


Note: The wikipedia article on MUCH ADO makes much ado of connections between "nothing" and "noting" - meaning gossip, rumor and overhearing - which were homonyms for Shakespeare, and of a pun on "no thing" slang for  a woman's vagina (which is not a penis), and on "notes" as in musical notes or letters or observations. A quick check of the script also reveals lots of different uses of the word "nothing" in the script, and a gazillion uses of "not." (Shakespeare loves using the same word over and over -- in both plays and poems.) One of the famous exchanges in the play is:

BENEDICK

I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is
not that strange?

BEATRICE

As strange as the thing I know not. It were as
possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as
you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not; I
confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin.

BENEDICK

By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.


The production uses original musical settings to Shakespeare's songs. 

I believe, though, that more could be made of the meaning of these songs. The lyrics are sharp in reference to the action of the play. They are more than just throw-away moments of music.:

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never:

Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no moe,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leafy:

Then sigh not so, & c.

ALSO...

Pardon, goddess of the night,
Those that slew thy virgin knight;

For the which, with songs of woe,
Round about her tomb they go

Midnight, assist our moan;
Help us to sigh and groan,

Heavily, heavily:
Graves, yawn and yield your dead,
Till death be uttered,
Heavily, heavily.



In addition to using music and song, the words of the play are broken up with moments of dancing. And the swing on the stage, simple though it may be, works wonderfully.

What makes this Arin Arbus production so terrific, is twofold. First: By slowing down some of the "witty" dialog -- which is incomprehensible in many other productions, by adding facial expressions and body language, and by getting the "comic timing" just right, she has been able to make the "wit" witty and the jokes funny.

Secondly, she has structured the play and directed the actors so that the strange contrast between the merriment of the first part of the play, and the serious deceptions and betrayals of the second part are jolting but still credible.

It's an excellent and very enjoyable production!



By the way, in a bold move, TFANA, which has never had a real home of its own, has just been building a new theater in Brooklyn across the street from BAM. It will be inaugurated next season with a new production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM directed by Julie Taymor.




THEATRE FOR A NEW AUDIENCE (TFANA)
http://www.tfana.org/

WIKIPEDIA - ON MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Ado_About_Nothing

A COPY OF THE TEXT OF THE PLAY
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/much_ado/full.html

QPORIT - ON THE TFANA PRODUCTION OF THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
http://qporit.blogspot.com/2012/04/taming-of-shrew.html

Labels: Arin Arbus, Beatrice, Benedick, Jonathan Cake, Maggie Siff, Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare, TFANA, Theatre For A New Audience

Andy Grotelueschen and Maggie Siff
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
Photo by Henry Grossman


Andy Grotelueschen and Maggie Siff
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
Photo by Gerry Goodstein

There was also considerable discussion at the talk-back of the framing device of the Induction which, in addition to serving to distance the play from its presumptive misogyny, also casts a spotlight on the fact that in the original productions of this and Shakespeare's other plays, the roles of women were played by boys and men; and that the role one plays in society can seem to change so easily, here just by dressing up in better clothes.

http://www.tfana.org/season/taming-shrew/overview
http://www.tfana.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/The-Taming-of-the-Shrew-360-A-Viewfinder-2012.pdf


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Taming_of_the_Shrew





http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1745019/
ANDY GROTELUESCHEN (Petruchio)

Labels: Andy Grotelueschen, Arin Arbus, Kathryn Saffell, Maggie Siff, Shakespeare, TFANA, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, Theatre For A New Audience