The Guthrie Theater presents The Bacchae, written by Euripides, translated by Aaron Poochigian and directed by celebrated Siti Company co-founder Anne Bogart. The globally renowned acting company's debut on the Guthrie's mainstage offers a rare opportunity for local theatergoers to experience this influential Greek tragedy through a contemporary lens.
Hear more from artistic director Joseph Haj on welcoming director Anne Bogart and this famed ensemble to the Guthrie below!
Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) will host a celebration of Andrew Weems (1961-2019). The celebration will take place at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn), TFANA's home, on Monday, February 17 at 7pm.
In David Mamet's book On Directing Film, he breaks down the way a linear narrative can be conveyed by placing images in direct contrast to each other. a?oeThe dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.a?? Certainly, with a majority of the action taking place upstage of a scrim and the fusion of filmed and live material, ArtsEmerson's Detroit Red, an original play by Will Power about Malcolm X's early adult life in Roxbury, leaves one feeling more as though one has watched a movie or woken from a dream than sat through a performance. Recently, I also saw Gloria: A Life, which is playing at the American Repertory Theatre. While I admittedly found the show to be trite and pandering, it obtusely fused projection effects with live performance in a way that felt cheap, gimmicky, and more like a new SnapChat filter than anything else. Contrast that with Ari Herzig's film work for Detroit Red, which snaps the audience effectively between viewpoints in black and white and splays broad images across the haziness of Adam Rigg's nondescript set. The success of the production lies in the success of the filmed elements, which establish a framing device, pinpointing the action to an exact moment in time. Additionally, the projections act as effective abstractions, allowing the actors to waver between realism and poetry as photos of their faces appear as oversized watermarks in space. Lighting designer Alan Edwards equally contributes to the cinematic feel of the piece. Sharp shafts of light slice through open space and act, ingeniously, as the camera lens might in film, focusing our attention on specifics and the relevant details. Aside from a few extraneous hat changes for the three actors who take on all the roles in the piece, between the work of Herzig, Rigg, and Edwards, the performance seems to be a study in the logistics of jump-cuts or cross-fades in real time. Adding to the film-instead-of-theatre feeling in the space, the performance actively roused and engaged the audience, which had a huge swathe of Boston school groups present. The crowd felt comfortable verbalizing responses, in part, because of our physical separation from the action presented to us, and to be able to laugh, cheer, gasp, and grimace in solidarity with those around you is a rare treat.
The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, artistic director) today announced SITI Company's cast and creative team for the riveting ancient tale The Bacchae, written by Euripides, translated by Aaron Poochigian and directed by celebrated SITI Company co-founder Anne Bogart. The globally renowned acting company's debut on the Guthrie's mainstage offers a rare opportunity for local theatergoers to experience this influential Greek tragedy through a contemporary lens.
Each spring HERE offers a window into the creative process of their nationally recognized HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). For 21 years, this exploration of new work in development, previously known as the Culturemart Festival, has blurred the boundaries between theatre, music, dance, new media, and visual art. The 2020 edition, which runs February 23-March 1, not only features seven daring workshop presentations but a new name that better captures the essence of the experience: HERE RAW / Resident Artist Works.
As we embark on our voyage through the 2020s, it will be exciting to see if Lopez's lofty ambitions become a reality. After all, Boston theatre has just come through a huge decade of change in which our city's pertinence to the theatre world has grown. Let's look at how our relevance as a city has changed in regards to theatre as an art form in the past decade:
La MaMa's 58th Season continues to celebrate the centennial of La MaMa's celebrated founder, the late Ellen Stewart with the announcement of its Winter/Spring lineup in its 58th season. The season features dozens of artists, playwrights, choreographers, directors, and award-winning theater companies and composers, including Elizabeth Swados, Anne Bogart, Noche Flamencia, Culture Hub, Hideki Noda/Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Nick Payne, En Garde Arts, Split Britches, and more.
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), the theatrical union that unites, empowers, and protects professional stage directors and choreographers throughout the United States, announced Evan Yionoulis as Executive Board President.
The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation affiliated with Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, presented the third annual SDCF Awards including the Gordon Davidson Award, Zelda Fichandler Award, Joe A. Callaway Awards, and Breakout Award. The event took place on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.
Peak Performances presents the U.S. premiere of Gandini Juggling and choreographer Alexander Whitley's Spring, a mesmerizing collaboration setting the company's avant-garde approach to juggling in juxtaposition with contemporary dance. Following the success of last year's Smashed, Gandini Juggling joins forces with Whitley for a kaleidoscopic dreamscape of a performance. The production features six virtuosic jugglers: Kati Ylä-Hokkala, Tristan Curty, Dominik Harant, Kim Huynh, Liza van Brakel, and Wes Peden and four contemporary dancers: Sakeema Peng Crook, Tia Hockey, Erin O'Toole, and Yu-Hsien Wu, and an immersive score by London-based composer and producer Gabriel Prokofiev. The Guardian called Spring a?oejoyfully hypnotica??filled with intricate skill.a?? Visually arresting, colorfula?"with lighting design by Guy Hoare and costume design by Claire Ashleya?"and bursting with rhythm and pattern, Spring is a refreshing and entertaining production at the vanguard of contemporary circus. Performances take place December 12-15 at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University.
The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation affiliated with Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, presents the third annual SDCF Awards including the Gordon Davidson Award, Zelda Fichandler Award, Joe A. Callaway Awards, and Breakout Award.
On what would have been Ellen Stewart's 100th birthday, La MaMa has announced The Trojan Women Project Festival as part of its 58th season celebrating the centennial of La MaMa's celebrated founder, the late Ellen Stewart. The Festival will take place December 5, 2019 through December 15, 2019 at La MaMa ETC (66 East 4th Street).
Alex Duncker (DoubleDecker Productions, NYC Fringe), has announced the New York premiere of Codependent, a fresh comedy by newcomers Julia Karis and Emily Rekstis. Directed by Elizabeth Callahan (Late Night at The Serpent, a?oeAmericaLand!a??), the play stars Kelly Hubbell (The Tiny Mustache, The Ballad of Cat Ballou) and Julia Karis (Falling & Loving), and will run from November 24-26, 2019 at Destiny Manifests (320 W 23rd Street).
On November 21, the award-winning SITI Company will honor Tony-nominee and vanguard artist Taylor Mac, at their annual fall gala, which celebrates SITI's contribution to both the American theatrical landscape and to theatre-making around the world.
La MaMa announced today their 2019 Gala celebrating Ellen Stewart's Centennial.
This is a 2day workshop on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th October. Some drama training/performance experience required.
Something that every artist needs to learn is how to effectively collaborate. This could be anything from new work, to acting with a scene partner. Theatre is an extremely collaborative craft. Even the biggest one-person shows have a creative team, and many hands pulling many strings. This isn't a bad thing, however, because truly thought provoking work requires many different perspectives. Nothing is done alone, and if it is, then fix it.
After more than six years of artistic vision Griffin Theatre Company's Artistic Director Lee Lewis will depart to take the helm at Queensland Theatre, leaving behind a lasting and powerful legacy.
Roundabout Theatre Company and Columbia University School of the Arts have announced the winners of Columbia@Roundabout's 2019 New Play Reading Series. As part of the collaborative partnership between Roundabout Theatre Company and Columbia University, the reading series awards three playwrights from the current MFA program and recent alumni with a cash prize as well as a reading in Roundabout's Rehearsal Hall, followed by a post-reading reception. Five finalists have also received cash prizes in recognition of their exceptional work. No other collaborative partnership in the New York area brings together an esteemed Ivy League MFA program with a Tony Award-winning, not-for-profit theatre. The reading series is made possible by a grant from The Tow Foundation.
Videos
