So I’m definitely going to Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam.
And I’m probably going to Krakow and/or Vienna and/or Brussels.
I want to try to see a show in each place. (Preferably experimental or by a local theatre company; basically, no McTheatre musicals or plays please.)
Has anybody been to these places who can give me ideas? Cause I don’t even know where to start?!
(Answer to this post or send me a message if you can help!)
xo,
Hannah
GLOBE EXPERIENCE NUMBER TWO!
Totally different than the first time there seeing Richard III. Standing in the yard for three hours is always hard, but other than that, amazing! And hysterical!!
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The Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare’s Globe
In Act I Scene II, less than twenty minutes into The Taming of the Shrew at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, we meet Pertruchio and his servant, Grumio. After a brief comical disagreement, they share an even more comical make up hug and then attempted kiss (initiated by Grumio, the show-stealer, played by Pearce Quigley). Though the whole audience chuckled, it was the scream of laughter from behind me, which came from child of about seven, that struck me. This is not a children’s theater event, nor the space for one (recreated Elizabethan is probably something that only learned Shakespearian scholars can fully appreciate), but this production so effectively plays on physical and over-the-top comedy that audience members of all ages were able to relate. There was drinking and peeing, bare bottoms and food fights, and disguises and group songs, so never once did I dare take my eyes off the stage for fear of missing a side-splitting moment. I commend this company of actors for fine-tuning the art of translating spectator energy onto the stage, which not only adds to the fun but also reminds us of our relationship to the action within the play. It also probably helps that most of the cast comes into direct contact with the audience, making their way down into the yard of spectators for one reason or another. Though times have changed, I imagine the relaxed, social, communal atmosphere within the audience to be much the same as it was in 1600. Unfortunately, since it is 2012, five planes flew overhead during my performance, muffling the actors and pulling me out of the piece for a moment. However, there were more than ten collective applause breaks and uncountable number of laughs ready and waiting to pull me right back in. Now, if only I could tell which members of the audience were drunk and which were just members of the cast…
(For my Reading Theatre class here at QM, we have to write a short 200 word review within 24 hours for every show we see. I’ll be posting those here from now on.)
I, Malvolio
Written and performed by Tim Crouch, Directed by Karl james
Unicorn Theatre, London, UK
Whatever you do, don’t laugh. Or do, but be mindful of what exactly you are laughing at. Tim Crouch, writer and sole performer of I, Malvolio at the Unicorn Theatre, will turn hilarity into awkward silences, enjoyment into public ridicule, and a laid back audience into a bunch of upright servants as he tries to prove his sanity and gain back his respect. Somewhere between comedy and agony (but always enjoyable), I, Malvolio recounts the story of smug but much pitied Malvolio of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in just over an hour with about two props, one costume change, and no light cues. Even the lights on the audience never go down as Crouch artfully flip-flops between telling the story of his confinement to madness and punishing his very listeners for simple things like drinking wine, taking notes (oops), and giggling at his mad antics. As the piece progressed, my stress level never went down. But whereas in the beginning I was an ignorant audience member, just one of many defining this man as crazy, by the end I was a participant in his story, questioning my own sanity and morals as a theatre participant. What does one theatre-lover do when faced with such a contradiction? You must decide for yourself: stay in the theatre and endure the madness or leave.
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This show will be at the New Vic in New York in January! I HIGHLY recommend it.
More later…
I can finally check it off my “Things Every Theatre Major Must Do” list!
I saw Richard III today starring, of all people, Mark Rylance!
I am not very good at watching Shakespeare, especially when it’s done classically, so I didn’t follow the story 100%, but I really enjoyed it! And Mark Rylance is just a genius, so…
One article about he show I post about the most and the show I posted about most recently. What could be better? Really interesting:
“Theater can act like a waiter or a bartender,” Mr. Levine said, adding that the difference between the two has little to do with the content onstage. “There’s theater that’s like: ‘How may I help you?’ And then there’s theater’s that’s like: ‘Forget you. I’m here all night. You come to me.’”
Another show I would definitely see if I wasn’t in London.
When I first looked in on them, around 4:30 p.m., they were all asleep. Or unconscious. Or dead. It was hard to tell. An hour and some minutes later, the three of them were knocked out again, but this time in different positions, different places and, come to think of it, different clothes. And that was when things started to get interesting.
Richard Maxwell has assembled twelve people to tell a story…
Neutral Hero is theater. Undertaking the utterly impossible feat of portraying neutrality, Neutral Hero employs the fundamental properties- text, movement, and music, to continue to define what a new contract could mean between performers and audience.
music + interviews
Einstein on the Beach
Robert Wilson and Philip Glass
1976 to 2012
(Source: The New York Times)
But this is likely to be the final revival of “Einstein on the Beach” directly overseen by these two men. It is hard to see how it could be revived again without Mr. Wilson’s fastidious attention to detail. Other directors have staged Mr. Glass’s score, but the results, if Achim Freyer’s 1988 production in Stuttgart, Germany, was any indication, have been abysmal.
A film might be wonderful, but this is a stage work, and the live experience will always be greater still. So for newcomers and nostalgists, and for anyone in search of mythic transcendence, this may be your last chance.
:( :( :( if i weren’t going to london tomorrow i’d be seeing this. ahh well. it will just have to stay a dream.
An article about NYC prop masters. I have so much respect for this trade. Wish I was there! haha. Love love love.
The challenges of the job are mainly questions of how. How do you get a pregnant character’s water to break on cue? (Pneumatics.) How do you get an actor to bleed on his shirt but not his overcoat? (Strategically placed artificial-blood pellets.) How do you prepare an onstage buffet for 50 people eight shows a week? (Plastic food and Costco.) And how do you make weather realistic?
OMG! hpspmc you were my 200th follower!!
I don’t know if theres a way to make sure you see this and if there is I don’t know how so I hope you scroll though your dash enough to see my shoutout!
xo
lol
Bye Bye Birdie. Robert Randolph.
classic
