Chicago - William Petersen!

Just fixed tickets for William Petersen's summer play at Steppenwolf!

Slowgirl, by Greg Pierce... the play is intriguing by itself, the cast makes it even more a must see!

Another two-hander without intermission, Mr Petersen seems to have found himself a pattern.  So far his choices have worked out nicely,  female character will be played by Rae Gray, director Randall Arney. Randall is new to me, saw Rae last year in the wonderful 'Crooked' at Rivendell Theatre. Slowgirl was probably not on her radar at the time, but it seems her part in Crooked was an excellent precursor for this play.

Looking forward to seeing this one!!

TheaterMania: A Beautifully crafted twohander... audiences will find themselves on the edge of their seats, drawn into an ever-deepening relationship that's pulsing with intensity, confusion and love.

While in Chicago this summer... I'll take in as much good stuff as I can manage, definitely will go see Belleville, also at Steppenwolf (downstairs). written by Amy Herzog, Directed by Ann Kauffman, featuring ensemble members Alana Arenas and Kate Arrington.  

Dubbed a “thrillingly good” drama with elements of a “nail-biting psychological thriller” by The New York Times, Amy Herzog’s play asks unsettling questions about upheaval and the power of a lie.

Looking forward to...

Looking forward to potential treats is a huge part of the fun!
Currently planning my 'spring break', I hope to spend the last week of April in London, so far 3 plays are booked, I have high expectations of all of them.

First up: The Audience

Next: Peter and Alice 

and third: The Tempest 

Still contemplating what else to see... strong contender is Dr Glas, also The Weir and Macbeth if I can find tickets or  Long Road, Othello, People, This House... so many choices!

Rumors

I love this anticipation on Theater schedules Season 13/14 :) here's my first fall plan for 2014 in the making

"Baz from the Daily Mail reports that Stephen Fry is to play Lady Bracknell in a new West End production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest Stephen said he sees his Lady Bracknell ‘as a little bit of Alastair Sim’s Miss Fritton, clutching pearls; with a mixture of Stanley Baxter’s “Duchess of Brenda” '. Baz says, producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers have been in discussions with Stephen for more than a year. The plan is for the production to run at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane during the autumn of 2014. "

London Oct 2012

Oh boy,  fall 2012 London, spoiled for choice on what to see and so little time!

Ended up seeing an oldie, long running show "The Woman in Black", very nice, this is supposed to be a scary thriller kind of play, and it was on it's own, but the bunch of school kids sitting in the rows before me gave an extra special dimension... who would have thought that teenagers these days scare so easily, the shrieking and gasping at every scary scene or sound made the whole evening almost a comedy. Love you kids!

Twelfth Night

Next up my reason for coming to london on this trip: "Twelfth Night" at the Globe.  So glad I decided to make this trip. This all male production was hilarious! such an excellent cast, great use of the unique space that the Globe offers. This production, if a little on the funny side, must be one of the definitive productions of Twelfth Night ever (more in a dedicated post later).

Not quite recovered from  the "Twelfth Night" matinee it was a short walk to the National, press night for 'Scenes from an Execution'. Never had the opportunity before to attend a press night at the National, it comes with a certain atmosphere. I thought this was a good production, first act could have benefited from a little more editing, but the second act was great. Some technical difficulties with the set righ before the end. I felt so bad for the cast for this to happen on press night, but the audience was supportive and the Cast handled the mishaps with style. 

 B56 Middle Gallery,
East Tower Bay M Restricted View 

One more day left, packed with Shakespeare. Matinee performance of 'The Taming of the Shrew" got to say my seat with restricted view, was quite restricted but very much doable. Taming is a play that comes with some trepidation, feminist issues and all that but there are interesting theories about that, will try to elaborate on that in a dedicated post later.

On with the finale of this trip, another Globe visit, "Richard III". OMG so good! same cast (sans Stephen Fry) as "Twelfth Night" I can't get over how good this cast is in these plays that are performed in repertory. Certainly the special atmosphere at the Globe adds to the experience. I am very happy I was able to change my courtyard (standing) ticket for a seat. It rained almost the entire performance, and the Globe being half open air, poor groundlings... (more later)

Richard III

Playbills

I've been working on getting a headstart on the playbills... 

it's kind of a boring task to scan them (without destroying the original), reformat the pages, crop the scans and resize the pages to fit the standard size I set for the website.

Ski Dubai

While not perfect, I think the scans are fairly readable, making higher resolution scans would probably make them better, but then the files would be so big, loading the page might take too long... So, sorry I decided to compromise, the small print had to suffer the consequences.

I've added 5 new playbills today: Blackbird, August Osage County, Ski Dubai, I Sailed with Magellan and Graceland.

I Sailed with Magellan

These plays all hold great memories - which made the task more pleasant but also slow because I couldn't help but stop and read every now and then. Some of these plays are already added as an individual play-page to the accompanying website (at theatermusings.com), the others will follow soon.

All of these will get their own blog entry with my own thoughts and impressions of the play.... later...

   




Theatermusings.com

Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter page is added, so far only basics, there is so much material about him out there it will take some sifting through. I've included a video gallery to this page, if I like it I might add one to more pages.

about Harold Pinter...
he passed away christmas 2008, just a few days before I saw my first Pinter play performed.  A few days after his death I attended a talk by Michael Billington, he has been the theater critic for the UK newspaper The Guardian for many years. He was talking about the hot plays in town, what to see and what would be impossible to get tickets for (a tease and a challenge all rolled in one) but due to events ended up talking quite a lot about Pinter. a few anecdotes that I will not share here, but I will say that Michael spoke so fondly and with such passionate (professional) admiration that I instantly felt I should see his work and read up about him... I did buy a few books on Pinter, and am fortunate to have seen some of his work performed since, but real life distracted me and most of the books sit on the 'to read' pile at home. Now that I am typing this out I can only say that that pile of books has gotten way out of hand, I really should make time to simply read!

So the (Billington)talk I attended was in London, I was on this fabulous(!) theater trip, really one of the best trips of my life, theater related or not. A few days later, the last play of the trip was the Pinter play... No Man's Land, at the Duke of York, I think it was the very last performance of the run. It had a fabulous all star cast: Michael Gambon, David Bradley, David Walliams and Nick Dunning. Going in fairly blind on the makings of Pinter (I had in preparation of the trip read the play but found it impossible to make sense of) I was stunned. it was riveting, mesmerizing, still incomprehensible at times but in a way seeing it on stage instead of on paper it all made sense to me... of course when talking to others in my group after the play it turned out they had made sense of it too, just with a completely different take on meaning... I think for me that will always be the essence of Pinter.

Afterwards two of us waited outside at stage door to catch a glimpse of the great Gambon, he was gracious as ever in shaking off his fans quickly :)

note: Gambon is a seasoned stage actor, he worked with Pinter on and off for 30 years. He performed in Pinters plays and was also directed by him. Pinter came to see this production on opening night, just a few months before he died. On my Michael Gambon page  I have included his farewell to Pinter, from the No Man's Land stage. I feel very lucky to have seen this production, and also that Gambon was part of the cast in my first Pinter experience.

That day January 3rd 2009, this evening holds very special memories to me, those of you that might read this and were there that evening, you may know and remember, those of you that were not present, sorry I'll not elaborate much, suffice it to say that 'No Man's Land', at this time, with this cast, and in the  enlightening company I was in... unforgettable very dear memories!

Gabriel Byrne and August Osage County

Gabriel Byrne and August Osage County pages added to Geeksareus.nl

Gabriel Byrne
Gotta love his d'Artagnan in The Man In the Iron Mask. I'd never really took notice of the man's work before, apart from "The Usual Suspects" but that movie is so mindboggling story wise the actors doing such a great job with it didn't really register with me individually.
I decided to have a look at his work, past and future. The fun part of something like this happening is that actors often have such an eclectic body of work there are bound to be little known gems in there. This was certainly true with Gabriel Byrne... I'd recommend "Into the West" for one... or "Weapons of Mass Distraction" a completely different genre and even artistic merit but very enjoyable, or "Miller's Crossing", "Last of the High Kings", "Smilla's Sense of Snow" and "A Polish Wedding"  the list goes on... and while I am at it "The Poetry of William Butler Yeats" in audiobook, not to be missed if you want to get into the works of Gabriel Byrne.

This Dublin borne, LA based actor is more mainstream these days if not for "The Usual Suspects" a few years ago then certainly for the tv show "In Treatment". I'm happy that I had already added him to my list of 'bodies of work to be collected' years ago...


August: Osage County

Eventually I will retrace all plays on the site in their own dedicated review blog, for now just a few impressions.


So first time in Chicago, first time Steppenwolf, first preview of this brand new play, over 3 hours of excellent entertainment. Maybe not the perfect choice fresh off the plane with a jet lagged mind but excellent none the less. We witnessed a hit in the making! such good memories...

Having just come off a plane from Europe that afternoon, picking up the tickets at box office it was a bit of a shock when the lady said "you do know this is a 3,5 hour play?"… that'll teach me to look at play details before booking tickets for my first night in town!

Thus we came back to the theater after dinner a little apprehensive on the long evening awaiting us with this very new unknown play. A long evening it turned out to be, but an exciting one! We had the good fortune to see the very first preview of this play, actors still getting a feel for it but it already stood firm, the plot was highly entertaining, not a dull moment in those 3,5 hours. and the acting! here's where the worth of an ensemble really comes in, many of the cast were Steppenwolf ensemble members, I think the fact that this complex, exhausting (to the actors) play simply clicked in this first preview ever can be chalked up to the ensemble familiarity. 

Special mention to Deanna Dunagan, not an ensemble member, so above mentioned ensemble benefit reasoning is already disputed somewhat, because did she give a fantastic performance! some images of her Violet have made such an impression on me, I can play them back in my mind second by second, and this is a play I saw 5 years ago!

I'm not exaggerating I think in saying the whole cast gave a fabulous performance, it's really not fair to single some people out.  Having had a chance to talk to a few of them over time about this play made me realize how gracious Chicago actors can be with their time, in my experience most are honestly bemused to baffled  that we the audience even want to talk to them in person or discuss the play. to them it's their job, a job that they love but not something they think we'd be interested in much above and beyond seeing the result on stage.

I for one am interested...