Archive for September, 2009
Review: EP Theatre’s “Baal”
EP’s “Baal” Far from Ballsy
EP Theatre presents:
Baal
by Bertolt Brecht
co-directed by AJ Ware and Hunter Kennedy
1820 S. Halsted (map)
thru October 3rd (tickets)
reviewed by Barry Eitel
Because it is the first play written by Bertolt Brecht, arguably the most important theatre theorist of the 20th Century, Baal is a fascinating work. The sprawling drama was written in 1918, before Brecht nailed down the Epic theatre style which would become his trademark. Glimmers of Brecht’s later techniques can still be found, though, such as the use of song and direct address. EP Theatre’s current production, billed as their biggest show to date, features live music 
accompaniment by the band The Loneliest Monk. Although the production values of this Baal can be pretty ingenious, it lacks clarity and comes across as sloppy and confusing.
There is a lot of love for Brecht’s first work right now, with not one but two full productions happening this season (TUTA is also producing the play next May). Now Baal is an interesting little play for studying the writer’s development, but Brecht’s later masterpieces totally overshadow his debut in terms of quality. I wondered why any company would select it over his later works, but I was reminded how devastating and resonant the story can be. Drawing on Romantic period themes, the play follows a young, self-destructive poet with an insatiable appetite for liquor, sex, and verse. Desensitized to the world, Baal leaves shattered hearts and lives in his wake.
Co-directors AJ Ware and Hunter Kennedy’s production is so muddled; however, the full potential impact of the play is lost. Most of the locations or spans of time are never defined. This makes the action of story and relationships of the characters hard to piece together. There’s also a diverse collection of tertiary characters that are double-cast, but these are also ill-defined. The narrative in general in jumbled and the themes, characters, and emotional effect are disordered.
Even though Baal was written before the Brechtian style became the Brechtian style, there are still opportunities to use his powerful methods. Brecht himself retooled the play in 1926 to more closely fit his tastes. I was perplexed by the fact that EP’s production seems to shy away from embracing Brechtian techniques when they can be such a fun challenge for a smaller company. The live musicians are a start, especially when they occasionally interact with the actors. But there isn’t much of an attempt to play around with the audience; it feels like we’re watching a realistic play with some poetry tossed into the dialogue.
The performances might be to blame here, many being way more moody than cynically detached. Craig Cunningham was able to encapsulate the moroseness and aloofness of Baal, along with some of the humor (like when he’s playing with a fresh corpse). Shawn Pfautsch’s Ekart, Baal’s slightly more aware best friend, refreshingly punched up the poetry of the script. However, I’m pretty sure Pfautsch and Cunningham were secretly competing for wobbliest walk and seeing who could get closest to the other. The best performance in the production, hands down, is Gus Menary as Johannes. The part is tiny, but Menary’s portrayal was disturbingly underplayed, in particular when he describes how the body of his dead sister must look after years of floating in a river.
David Beaupre’s drab set design allowed the actors to explore different levels and could be transformed into a myriad of locales. With all of the possibilities the set opened up, it feels as if the set wasn’t fully utilized by the directors. The lighting was possibly the worst lighting design I’ve ever seen, sometimes highlighting pointless sections of wall and other times not providing enough visibility to see the actors. The Loneliest Monk is a saving grace of this production, though, providing complex and haunting ambiance.
The live music along with the actors’ obvious respect for Brecht’s evocative poetry makes the production acceptable. With more attention to story and technique, though, EP’s “biggest production to date” could’ve been destructive.
Rating: ««
Review: Bertolt Brecht’s “Baal”
Going On a Tear With Bertolt Brecht
EP Theater presents:
Baal
by Bertolt Brecht
directed by A.J. Ware and Hunter Kennedy
through October 3rd (ticket info)
reviewed by Paige Listerud
One thing you can say about EP Theater’s production of Baal–they do nothing by halves. They flounder and flop like a fish out of water in the first act, only to snap into riveting concentration and power with the second.
Written in 1918, when Bertolt Brecht was twenty years young, snapping a whip against his thigh as he accosted women in the streets, Baal clearly shows Decadent and Aesthetic movement influences—the dark side of 19th century Romanticism. Its action is raw and scandalous; its language is thickly poetic – so thickly poetic that character motives can be obscured. So if the actor hasn’t made clear choices about what the words mean, there’s no way the audience will ever deduce it. It’s a production you can both love and hate, kind of like the eponymous character himself.
But, in the final analysis, what’s not to love about two bad-boy artists tearing through women, booze, money, towns, and finally each other–violating every convention, assaulting morality to the last breath? It’s been quite while since I’ve witnessed dramatic characters with this much absolute thinking and vehement passion. That’s what makes it so groovy. The addition of The Loneliest Monk, a Chicago rock-art duo, playing a live original score, creates the perfect unifying and satisfying bohemian touch.
What’s not so groovy is the monstrously amateurish first act. “We tweaked and tweaked and tweaked the writing to get it to the point it is now,” says Executive Director, Jason Ewers. “There were scene sections we just didn’t know what to do with. But what attracted us to this early Brecht work was just how raw it was.”
Perhaps then, that obnoxious term, work-in-progress, still applies here. The actors still have to gain better mastery of Brecht’s language. Some actors do not have the heft and projection to deliver it, while others attempt to build dramatic tension by shouting lines. The ensemble cast is cohesive and meaningfully responsive to each other, but work on clarifying and personalizing the subtext to all that heavy-duty poetry remains the bulk of unfinished work for the first act.
Thank goodness the difference between first and second acts is like night and day. Thank goodness A. J. Ware and Hunter Kennedy’s direction brings on full-bore pansexuality, as well as the physical and emotional devastations of amoral excess. Baal and Ekart are a fabulously doomed couple, even if Baal is the more fabulously doomed of the two.
Finally, it needs some nudity. Seriously. That’s not a prurient suggestion. Okay, it is. But is it in keeping with the spirit of Decadence.
One can shake ones’ head in astonishment at the way this particular show swings from depths to great heights, but no one can deny EP Theater’s ability to take risks. Its capacity for daring and risk wins it respect, even with this significantly flawed and unfinished production.
Rating: ««
“Jersey Boys” to appear on The Oprah Show
Oddly, in the video, they don’t say what day they will appear (perhaps they don’t know themselves???)
Chicago show openings and closings this week
show openings
Black Comedy - Piccolo Theatre
Bruschetta - Appetite Theatre
Dinner for Six - Metropolis Performing Arts Centre
Fake - Steppenwolf Theatre
Moonlight and Magnolias - Buffalo Theatre Ensemble
Treasure Island - Lifeline Theatre
Year Zero - Victory Gardens Biograph Theater
show closings
Beer - The Neo-Futurists
Ekphrasis: Cave Walls to Soup Cans – Sideshow Theatre
Hardcore Dad - Annoyance Theatre
The Second City’s Girls Night Out Uncensored - Metropolis Performing Arts Centre
Skinprov - Annoyance Theatre
Sunday in the Park with George - Village Players
Timeless Is More - Gorilla Tango Theatre
New team announced for Theatre Building Chicago’s ‘Musical Theatre Writers Workshop’
Theatre Building Chicago announces it new team of Steinhagen, Holland and Chambers
Theatre Building Chicago is pleased to announce that Jon Steinhagen and Patrick Holland will join Artistic Director Allan Chambers to “team teach” TBC’s Musical Theatre Writers Workshop. The workshop’s curriculum will continue to focus on the development of the artist in specific fundamentals related to creation of new musicals. The Fall semester focuses on lyrics, music and book and the Winter/Spring semester Practicum takes workshop members through the planning, writing and rehearsal process of a new musical. The introductory workshop sessions will be team-taught by Jon Steinhagen, Patrick Holland and Artistic Director Allan Chambers. This triumvirate of theatre artists brings a wealth of musical theatre writing, directing, and teaching experiences to the workshop. Their years of experience will guide members as they instruct and lead the critique sessions for the introductory first year members.
The 2nd year members and alumni writers will also have the opportunity to work with the three instructors separately or as a team, as they present scenes and songs from full length musicals and one-act children’s musicals. There will usually be two of the three at all session of the 2nd year and alumni workshop. The leader of this group will function as dramaturg/moderator to keep workshop feedback sessions focused and on task.
Jon Steinhagen is an author, actor, composer/musician, and Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. His plays and musicals have been produced or workshopped from Manhattan to Seattle; his plays include The Applewood Pistols (an “original Chekhov comedy” based on Chekhov’s notebooks), The Velvet Gentleman, Something More Comfortable, Second Mouse, Dating Walter Dante, Aces, Ponzi on Sunday, Perfectly Natural, a collection of his shorter plays, was produced at the Midtown International Theatre Festival (NYC) in July 2009. Jon wrote the music and lyrics for the musicals The Arresting Dilemma of Mr. K (based on Kafka’s The Trial), The Circus of Dr. Lao, Emma & Company (all developed at TBC and STAGES) and the Jeff and After Dark Award-winning Inferno Beach and People Like Us. Jon is also an award-winning musical director, arranger, and actor who has received four Jeff Awards, six After Dark Awards, and three Jeff nominations for writing, musical direction, or acting. Jon is a graduate of the New Tuners Workshops led by John Sparks. He is an associate member of
The Dramatist’s Guild, a member of the Chicago Federation of Musicians, and ensemble member of Signal Ensemble Theatre.
Patrick Holland is a professional Music Director, Conductor, Arranger, Orchestrator, Musician, and Educator has had the pleasure of working with Theatre Building Chicago on many projects over the past 10 years on such STAGES projects as Crazy Mary, Bringers, Continental Divide, The Hard Road, Take Me America, Hunger, and Rex. Patrick has also had the pleasure of working with Allan Chambers on Saints & Sinners as part of the workshop mini-musical project in conjunction
with Loyola University of Chicago. Patrick’s Broadway and National Tout credits include The King and I (with Yul Brynner), Hello Dolly (with Carol Channing), Guys and Dolls (with Leslie Uggams), A Chorus Line, Annie, The Pirates of Penzance and La Cage aux Folles to name a handful. He has had the honor of working in New York and Chicago with industry giants Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Herman, Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin, and Tommy Tune. In the Chicagoland area Patrick has worked with The Goodman Theatre, Light Opera Works, Bailiwick, Theatre Building Chicago, and Chicago Cabaret. He has taught music and musical direction at
Northwestern University, Loyola University and Roosevelt University.
Allan Chambers, Artistic Director of TBC, has served in many capacities for Theatre Building Chicago including dramaturg, director, workshop coordinator and actor. Allan oversees theatre company client services and now directs the musical program. He is the past-president of the Illinois Theatre Association,
a founding and former board member of Chicago Alliance for Playwrights, and artistic consultant for Creative Musical Theatre, an honors class dedicated to the development of new music theatre voices at Valparaiso High School. Allan has served as an adjunct instructor at Robert Morris College and at North Park University, and has worked in various capacities with the Goodman Theatre, Music/Theatre Workshop, Our Town Productions, Prologue Theatre, American DreamWorks, Different Drummer Theatre, Bailiwick Repertory, The Western Stage, Cabrillo Stage, Bigfork Playhouse and North Shore Music Theatre. M.F.A., musical theatre, San Diego State University. B.S., theatre acting/directing, University of Idaho.
About the Workshop
The first workshop will be the weekend of September 26-27.
Aspiring composers, lyricists and book writers are encouraged to contact TBC’s Artistic Director, Allan Chambers to schedule a personal interview to assess your skill level and to learn if the Musical Writer’s Workshop can benefit you in your quest to create new musical works.
Allan can be reached at 773-929-7367 ext 229 or at allan@theatrebuildingchicago.org
Theatre Building Chicago has plans to strategically grow the musical program from the ground up. The Musical Theatre Writers Workshop is the first stage in the development of new projects that will then be ready for Monday Night Musicals, STAGES Festivals, Intensive Workshops, and eventually onto full-scale productions.
The New Musicals for Kids development pipeline is filling up with exciting new projects from TBC’s workshop as well as the NYU Tisch School MFA program.
TBC also produces the Monday Night Musicals series of concert readings of works in progress. The first Monday Night Musical of the 2009/2010 season is The Spark, October 26, 2009. TBC’s New Musicals for Kids series will open with Tantrum on Tracks October 14, 2009.
TBC’s Musical Theatre Writers Workshop produces the STAGES festival of new musicals. STAGES will be held August 20-22, 2010. Attendees include producers, directors, writers, composers and musical theatre aficionados from all over the country. STAGES is an opportunity for authors and composers to see and hear their work interpreted by a production team and performed for Chicago audiences. It is also an opportunity for producers and directors to assess new musicals
and musical theatre talent.
Review: “The Night Season
A richly-developed Irish love story
Vitalist Theatre and Premiere Theatre & Performance presents:
The Night Season
by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
directed by Elizabeth Carlin-Metz
Theatre Building Chicago
thru October 17th (buy tickets)
reviewed by Timothy McGuire
The Night Season, written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, is an Irish love story about the lonely Kennedy family. Each member of the family has their own insecurities caused by their mother’s abandonment 5 years earlier, and each of them is on their own path to find love. The outstanding performance by the cast and, exceptional use of the stage with creative touches to enhance the Celtic atmosphere, makes this show heartwarming – even in the midst of the dark struggles each family member endures.
Set in Sligo, Ireland, a town near the shore and once home to the famous poet W.B. Yeats, the stage is brightened by the starry night and hazy lighting that romanticizes the atmosphere. Set designer Craig Choma ’s extremely creative set, and the lighting (by lighting designer Richard Norwood) used to separate scenes, allows multiple plot lines to take place right in front of our eyes without any confusion as to which characters we should be paying attention. The direction of Elizabeth Carlin-Metz makes the transition between scenes fluid and actually heighten the emotional moments by assisting the understanding of the time lapses, or the fact that the two situations take place at the same time.
The play opens up with the audience able to watch the three sisters chatting on the rooftop, while grandmother is slouched down sleeping in her arm chair in the living room. As the closet door opens we get a unique viewpoint (as if we are looking down on him from the sky) of father as he restlessly fights his nightmares while sleeping drunk in his bedroom.
Each member of the family is weighted down with loneliness; longing to be loved by another. They are filled with an insecurity of being unloved, yet there is a bond and a closeness between each, and an unconditional love that exists within their own family (this includes the aging mother of the women that caused this family all of their sorrow.)
The three sisters are single and unlucky in love. Rose (Kelly Lynn Hogan), who the grandmother refers to as a spinster, hastily jumps in bed with the visiting American actor John (Jared Fernley) who is staying with the Kennedys while playing the role of Yeats in a movie. In that moment John is looking for comfort after his mother’s recent death, but Rose wakes up in the morning to find an unwelcomed difference in the intimacy John offers her. The youngest daughter Maud (Eden Newmark) is stuck in a relationship with an unaffectionate communist sympathizer, and the eldest daughter Judith (Vanessa Greenway) is too afraid to open up and – since she has stepped in as the family’s mother – she’s too busy to recognize her feelings for the cerebral neighborhood man, Gary Malone (Paul Dunckel.) Judith is mature beyond her age and has taken on a cold emotionless state that comes with the necessity of constantly having to take care of responsibilities outside of your own. Visiting her absent mother, and then letting loose with her Father on her first drinking binge, Judith goes on a journey to discover her capacity to love, and finds it in places that have always been there.
Every character is richly developed by author Rebecca Lenkiewicz, but the Grandmother Lily O’Hanlon and the girls’ Father Patrick Kennedy stand out with enduring performances by Marry O’Dowd and Don Bender. The Grandmother’s (Patrick’s Mother-in-law) quirky and at times raunchy personality is light and fun and she also draws empathy from us as we watch her age with dementia and sadness. In her eccentric and loony state she continues to search for her last love and in a way she finds it in the gentleman arms of John.
The Night Season is a truly great Irish love story, filled with the complications of life and the strength of a loving family who supports each other in spite of their flaws. Lenkiewicz brings up themes of guilt, love and the passing of time and how life will bring us to face these states over-and-over again in our lives. The common occurrence and unavoidable ending to these moments should not devalue their importance nor limit you from experiencing another separate love story. Through all the pain and hardships, life goes on for the Kennedy family. The Night Season is an enchanting story playing and I highly recommend it.
Rating: ««««
Theater Thursday: “The Night Season”
Thursday, September 17
The Night Season
by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Vitalist Theatre and Premiere Theatre & Performance
Theatre Building Chicago
1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago
The Night Season is a heart-wrenching and heartwarming tale of love and loss set in Sligo, Ireland. Come get into the spirit of the Isle by joining Vitalist Theatre at Johnny O’Hagan’s Pub for an authentic meal and enjoy traditional Irish entertainment. Then stroll over to the Theatre Building to enjoy the Chicago premiere of this award-winning play.
On a rooftop in Sligo, three beautiful sisters yearn for love, while below their broken Dad chases his visions and demons and their dotty Granny curses and dances. Into this damaged family comes an American movie star who is playing the poet Yeats in a biopic being filmed in town, and each of their lives is turned upside down beneath the glowing Irish moon.
Event begins at 5:30 p.m. at Johnny O’Hagan’s (3374 N. Clark)
Show begins at 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS ONLY: $30 (includes show, dinner and soft drink at O’Hagan’s)
For reservations call 773.327.5252 and mention "Theater Thursdays."
Chicago shows currently Jeff-Recommended
Equity Wing:
Learn more about the Equity Wing
All My Sons
TimeLine Theatre Company
» our review here
Cabaret
Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre
» our review here
High Fidelity
Route 66 Theatre Company
Million Dollar Quartet
Apollo Theater Chicago
» our review here
Mistakes Were Made
A Red Orchid Theatre
Studs Terkel’s Not Working
The Second City e.t.c.
The Fantasticks
Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago
The History Boys
TimeLine Theatre Company
The Light in the Piazza
Marriott Theatre
Non-Equity Wing:
Learn more about the Non-Equity Wing
Graceland
Profiles Theatre
» our review here
POSEIDON! An Upside Down Musical
Hell in a Handbag Productions
The Night Season
Premiere Theatre and Perf. i/a/w/ Vitalist Theatre
The Taming of the Shrew
Theo Ubique Theatre Company i/a/w Michael James
» our review here
Under Milk Wood
Caffeine Theatre
» our review here
Register today for Chicago Dramatists’ Fall 2009 Playwright’s Studio Classes
Chicago Dramatists boasts a diverse class offering, designed to build a strong foundation for the first time playwright, or challenge the seasoned professional with focused, specialized classes. Learn side by side with our top resident playwrights on all aspects of playwriting, from mastering the fundamentals to developing a script with professional actors voicing your work. Take our Screenwriting Fundamentals class to understand both the art and business behind screenwriting, or 
discover the many elements involved in devising your own solo show. Try our new class, Story into Song, and examine best practices to building your own musical. Gain hands on experience, participating in writing exercises and interacting with your current scripts and scene work. Or challenge your skills with award winning playwright Migdalia Cruz’s Master Class, incorporating movement, yoga and writing into a dynamic, two day workshop. Read full class descriptions and sign up today at www.chicagodramatists.org/classes or call 312-633-0630. Brochure: page one, page two
Chicago Dramatists is now offering special discounts, including 10% off for first time enrollments, 40% for students, 15% off for college and high school teachers, 5% off for senior citizens, and $20 off for Network and Resident Playwrights. Do you qualify? If so, enroll today and learn more for less!
Experiment, broaden and nurture your writing with our wide range of course offerings, and find out first hand why Chicago Dramatists continues to be the playwrights’ home for over 30 years.
Mental Health Break: 7 Most Inappropriate Products For Children – what were they thinking?
Pole-Dancer Doll
Toy Tattoo Gun
The GR8 TaT2 Maker by Spin Master Toys promises an “easy-to-use tattoo maker kit…[that] creates realistic, washable designs with dramatic effects.”
Baby Stilettos
See more inappropriate toys here.
Review: The Alumni Bow
New works suggest a promising future.
The School of the Art Institute presents:
The Alumni Bow
Three one-acts by Rebecca Beegle, Idris Goodwin and Chris Bower
directed by Stefan Brün and Beau O’Reilly
thru September 27th (tickets: 773-539-7838)
reviewed by Paige Listerud
What a pleasure to be able to review The Alumni Bow, the latest offerings from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s MFA Writing Program, particularly since it doesn’t have much in the way of press to promote itself, other than a few hand-distributed flyers and a blogpost by one of its playwrights, Idris Goodwin. Under the direction of Beau O’Reilly of Curious Theatre and Stefan Brün of Prop Thtr, these simple one-acts show surprising maturity and sophistication, even if some could benefit from the editor’s scalpel.
Honey by Rebecca Beegle, is a one-act monologue of a man under the strain of lost love and lost eroticism, finally losing memory of the woman he has loved so intensively. The man, played by Julian Berke, takes the audience on a tour of the home in which their lovemaking took place, room by room. It becomes apparent that the tour, which most likely began as an act of revenge against his lover, has now transformed into a mournful homage over all he has lost, including the ability to love again. “What is not so important as the sex acts is what led to them . . . a trail of bread crumbs I can’t find again.”
The challenge for O’Reilly’s direction will be in how effective that tour will remain should the audience capacity exceed the space for the tour to take place. As it is, it’s just as interesting to view the crowd as the actor—the one that I was in paraded from room to room with an almost funereal solemnity. Berke’s performance is nuanced, a tribute to an actor for whom this is the first full-fledged role; prior performance experience has been mostly as a rock and blues musician.
The Story Farm is the most intellectual of all these works, a savvy bit of meta-theater, commenting on all things corporate, politically correct, and metaphorical. Between an earnest jobseeker (Arin Mulvaney) and a story research trainer (Jonathan Putman), Idris Goodwin gets to pull out all his jibes at corporate world’s ability to devalue everything, including the power of stories, to their most rudimentary and meaningless frameworks. From there, it is just a hop, skip, and jump to having the utterly ratiocinating story researcher swept up beyond reason by a story Mulvaney’s jobseeker brings in, while she remains blithely uninvolved by her own discovery. The transformation is enjoyable to watch in Putman’s hands, given the intensity he delivers through his character and Mulvaney’s good-natured, cat-loving foil is realistically vacuous.
Goodwin seems to have the most experience of all the young playwrights and, concomitant with his break beat poet background, plays with ideas and themes with greater virtuosity than the others. But of all the other playwrights, Goodwin’s work would most benefit from an editor’s eye in taking off a good 10 to 15 minutes from this play.
Notes to Molly by Chris Bower deals the most devastating realism of all these pieces. Based on his short story by the same name, the play etches an indelible portrait of a dead-end alcoholic couple and the psychological forces that barely keep them hanging on, to themselves and to life. It is an intensely realized work, almost perfectly performed by Kate Teichman and Matt Test.
All three one-acts deal with some aspect of story, but Bower’s work shows most knowingly how story is used by this couple to evoke a past or present which gives each of them more power or discredits the other, yet does nothing to really disrupt or improve their passive-aggressive relationship. Bower shows great maturity in delineating the symbiotic nature of their mutual dysfunctions and leaves us hanging where they hang, in a subjective no-man’s land, with Test’s character desperately trying to get his fellow alcoholic lover’s attention.
Don’t leave these works out in no-man’s land. The Alumni Bow has a very short run and Chicago should get to know its next generation of original work.
Rating: «««
