Gunderson, Visiting Hours and The Next Column #newplay

April 7th, 2012

Saw David Caudle’s Visiting Hours last night and going to see Kiss Kiss Julie tonight.

My review of the former will be out Wednesday. However, I hope it will be more than simply an evaluation of the show over at The Mid City Theatre. Along with having much to recommend, Caudle’s play has the additional benefit of being directly relevant to a recent Huffington Post editorial by Lauren Gunderson about the need for more female roles in the theatre.

Essentially her argument boils down to this: women are the majority of the people sitting in the audience, so it only makes sense that they should be seeing more of their own stories. Read the piece, and you will see it is neither an angry screed nor a lament but more of a logical outlay of facts and a playful jibe concerning the current state of affairs.

My thoughts on New Orleans and new work can be of help in Gunderson’s suggestion/proposal/argument. New Orleans has always been a haven for the reinvention of identity. In the words of John O’Neal, “New Orleans lets you be.” With that in mind, let us endeavor for New Orleans to be not only a petri dish in the creation of new work but also, more specifically, a home for the creation of new works by, for, and about women. After all, the infrastructure already exists not only through Southern Rep but also other smaller companies in town that are run or spearheaded by women.

’33 (a kabaret): A Qualified Recommendation in Miniature

April 6th, 2012

Shows like Bremner Duthie’s ’33 (a kabaret) are a critic’s dilemma. Much like Kyra Miller in Man of La Mancha, Bremner’s performance is in a different category from much of the work that is seen in town. To call it a clinic in how to do a one man show would be understating the performer’s talent. Employing a clean, sharp acting style to delineate at least four separate characters, Bremner is a Weimar style Master of Ceremonies left alone in the aftermath of a Nazi raid on his theatre. He and director Dave Dawson’s show should be seen by would-be-solo-performers in New Orleans if only for its creation of geography and landscape in the service of storytelling.

Whether as a clown in stand-up or a dancer under interrogation, Bremner, like his minimal lights and sound, is technically perfect. There is not a moment in ’33, temporally or physically, that we are not aware of who or where Bremner is. Essentially using only clothes as his props, Bremner moves effortlessly between open space and a grounded microphone to give just over an hour of wrenching loss and potent, defamiliarizing renditions of Kurt Weill songs. A dialogic exchange between three distinct characters with only a pair of dancing shoes to distinguish the players was worth the entire evening. As a theatre geek, it is also wonderful to see someone with an understanding of Brecht’s A-Effect perform Tango Ballad and Mac the Knife.

My dilemma comes in the recommendation. Its first half is just too strident. I understand ’33 is not light material and is resoundingly entropic in its drive, however, I found myself emotionally exhausted in the first twenty minutes. By the time Bremner let up off the emotional throttle of grief and anguish, I almost did not recover enough to enjoy the small pleasures contained within the rage poem he had constructed. I am not suggesting he soften the material itself or add unnecessary humor, but an occasionally gentler hand at the outset might have given the audience more access into the riveting events.

So, with four performances at The Shadowbox Theatre remaining, who should see this show? Well, basically, everyone. But here is my qualification: If you are an actor interested in seeing someone at the top of his form, then race over to the theatre to welcome this extraordinary talent to town. However, for the average theatregoer in search of an easy and diverting evening, you have been forewarned that you are walking into a sledgehammer.

Attention All #NOLA Theatre Companies #newplay

April 5th, 2012

I have a radical idea. We will call it The Grand Experiment.

What if the New Orleans’ theatre scene became a giant petri dish for new work? It is within our grasp. New Orleans, as it has proven, is one giant Fringe Festival. What we lack in traditional spaces we make up for with community centers, coffee shops, converted galleries, open fields and plain ol’ abandoned space. We are a far off enough in the provinces to provide cover from the national media’s crucifixion of unfinished product but have enough of a national cache to make any effort a sexy enterprise.

Our community has proven time and time again that we can work against normal time constraints to produce quality work. In other words, our young theatre companies put product up at the speed of light, and they have learned how to do so while still creating the illusion of the first rate. Imagine telling playwrights all around the country the following:

Our town is essentially the subversive, grunge reality version of a Mickey and Judy barn show. Got a play? Can’t get it done? Too big, too ambitious? We do Americana Armageddons, culturally relevant slapsticks, celebrations of women playwrights of color, and continuous soap operas featuring Saints’ fans in drag and a man in a thong. We do site specific Shakespeare on shoestring budgets and make the audiences feel as if they’re watching two years of work funded by foundation money. And throwing caution to the wind, five separate theatre companies have made a joint commitment to doing Taylor Mac’s Lily’s Revenge in the fall.

Imagine what we can do for your play.

What if every theatre company in the city made a commitment to do one world premiere by an individual playwright next season? As groovy as I think collective work is, it is not the same as the presentation of a singular voice through the filter of a rigorous, unified company with a working vocabulary. Such a working environment is a gift to a playwright. The only wheel they would have to invent is the play itself. Much of Steppenwolf’s great original work springs out of those playwrights’ ability to interact with a trained and talented collective who have experience in bringing new work to the stage.

This is where a number of local groups’ experiences with collective work play into this pitch. More than a few theatre companies in town have experience in mounting new work. Cripple Creek, The NOLA Project, Skin Horse Theatre, Theatre 13, Rising Shiners, All Kinds of Theatre, Southern Rep, and many others have put a world premiere on its feet in the last few years. Many of those productions have received good audiences and strong acclaim. To put it bluntly, the theatre community knows how to do this, so it would not be a stretch to simply make a resolution to give a new voice a chance to be heard

What if all the theatre companies took out a joint ad in the highest profile theatre publications advertising this fact? You knew I would get to money eventually, right? An ad does cost money, but it is worth it. If all the theatre companies involved in The Grand Experiment pitched in to take out a page in American Theatre, and similar publications, that laid out the project and invited the next great playwrights to join them, it would do two things. First, it would demand national attention and force the theatrical world to look down to The Mouth of The Mississippi for the art form’s next great trends. Second, it would be a put up or shut up moment. All the bellyaching about New Orleans not getting the attention its deserves would have to cease, and more importantly, if that ad goes up and the community does not deliver, the shame would be unending. Ad goes up, and it is no longer a talking point. It is a point of pride.

What if those same theatre companies formed a joint collective to sift through the submitted work and identify the submissions that best fit their mission statements? Of course, this is not a matter of one ad and a cloud of dust. It would take a great deal of administrative work to pull The Grand Experiment off. Each company involved would have to do a breakdown of its talent pool and its driving purpose to allow playwrights to figure out which company best suits their work. Forms would have to be made and a play bank created to prevent the situation from turning into the theatrical equivalent of a Gold Rush. Such an infrastructure would have to be created in order to serve the companies, so they can serve the writers. It would have to be in place before the roll out. If each involved company placed a point person to work on this project, the heavy lifting could be shared and accomplished.

We could tell playwrights throughout the country that if they are looking to have their work read, workshopped or produced by some of the most talented, hard scrambling, seat-of-their-pants artists in these here United States, then they should… take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields.

More Dramaturgical Thoughts on #Streetcar

April 3rd, 2012

Do not let A Streetcar Named Desire’s emotional bull rush fool you. It is also exquisitely plotted.

In the play, Stanley is forever trying to show his smarts, doing so in the most preenish, peacock ways. Most famously, of course, is all of his allusions to acquaintances who work in various professions. He uses potential access to their skills so as to threaten Blanche in order to prevent her from swindling her sister. Jewelry, furs, and legal advice are all hinted towards in conversations with his wife and his principal antagonist. When the actor executes these moments properly, as Michael Santos does in the current production, the bit should secure some laughs and begin to sound increasingly strained and foolish.

However, it is more than just a comic bit or a simply development of character. It is also sound plotting on Williams’ part. First of all, it turns out that Stanley isn’t bullshitting. He knows people from all walks of life because of his position with his own company. It establishes him not as a know-it-all but as a man smart enough to know his own limitations and trust the opinions of others.

Crucially, it sets up Stanley’s actual discoveries later in play. The information he secures about Blanche towards the play’s conclusion does not come out of nowhere but makes logical sense. Williams has laid the groundwork for the potential of investigation on Stanley’s part, so when he shows up with a carefully constructed history of his sister-in-law’s past, we believe two things: its veracity and the fact that Stanley had the wherewithal to make it happen.

Clever fellow, that Tennessee.

Williams’ Sexual Politics/Antagonists of #Desire #twf12

March 24th, 2012

The most fascinating conversation at The Williams’ Fest, for me, so far, has been the panel on sexuality in Williams’ plays. Of particular interest was the panel’s assertion that there are no villains but merely obstacles in the work. In other words (and these are mine), Williams’ plays seem to be populated with a series of Antagonists of Desire. The central characters of Williams’ plays are dreamers who seek to achieve forbidden urges–only to have their desires repulse the sensibilities of others. Or, as in the case of Blanche, those desires pose an outright threat to the world they have entered and need to be irrevocably destroyed.

I was also arrested by the discussion, spurred by Professor David Savran, that revisited the now infamous essay by Stanley Kauffmann: Homosexual Drama and Its Disguises. In that essay, Kauffmann outed Albee, Inge and Williams to suggest their dramas were wrecking Broadway. It is amazing in reading that original text how far we have not come. I did so over my break from the fest, and it occurred to me that Kauffmann transformed Williams into one of his own characters: a lonely outsider punished for desiring that which is out the norm.

Jim Fitzmorris

new orleans' theatrical pugilism

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