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american repertory theater | expanding the boundaries of theater
Mandy Patinkin & Taylor Mac
The Last Two People on Earth
Shakespeare And the Music of Love
Susan Stroman
Dancing at the End of the World
INSIDE: A.R.T. Artists’ Playlist for the Apocalypse
americanrepertorytheater.org 2014/2015 SEASON
WELCOME TO THE AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER
MASTHEAD Managing Editor Ryan McKittrick Senior Editors Robert Duffley Grace Geller Brendan Shea Graphic Designer Tak Toyoshima Editors Kati Mitchell Christian Ronald Aida Rocci Ruiz Georgia Young Joel Zayac
Contributors Julia Bumke Jeremy Fassler Drew Gilpin Faust Liz Lerman Tessa Nelson Brenna Nicely Christian Ronald Aida Rocci Ruiz Kai-Chieh Tu
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SUZAN-LORI PARKS COVER IMAGE: PORTRAIT BY TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS; MATTHEW AUCOIN COVER IMAGE: JOHN ANDREWS OF SOCIAL PALATES; AN APOCALYPTIC VAUDEVILLE COVER IMAGE: BRIGETTE LACOMBE
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This spring we are thrilled to bring you The Last Two People on Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville, a world premiere production that pairs performer and playwright Taylor Mac (last seen in A.R.T.’s The Lily’s Revenge) with Broadway and television star Mandy Patinkin. A collaboration with the Tony Award-winning choreographer and director Susan Stroman, this production draws from over a century of music, DIANE PAULUS, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR from vaudeville to R.E.M., Rodgers and Hammerstein to Queen. In the spirit of the show, we’ve asked some familiar faces from the A.R.T. community what songs they would choose for their end-of-the-world playlists. Read on in the Guide for their selections, and listen to the complete playlist online. We also bring you two productions featuring our graduate students in the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard. Director Anya Saffir teams up with composer Cormac Bluestone on a new, music-infused production of Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing, and we continue our longstanding partnership with the Moscow Art Theater School with a powerful new dance theater piece created by Russian choreographer Alla Sigalova (Final Cut, 2014). Her production, Ivan Bunin: Love Stories, will combine the grace and power of dance with the writings of Nobel Prize-winning author Ivan Bunin. Finally, we welcome The Hypocrites (Pirates of Penzance, Romeo Juliet, 12 Nights) back to OBERON with their inventive reimagining of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. I look forward to seeing you at the theater!
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Much Ado About Nothing
An Apocalyptic Vaudeville
MANDY PATINKIN AND TAYLOR MAC IN A WORKSHOP PRODUCTION OF AN APOCALYPTIC VAUDEVILLE
The Mikado
THE LAST TWO PEOPLE ON EARTH: AN APOCALYPTIC VAUDEVILLE May 9—May 31, 2015 | Loeb Drama Center
Starring Mandy Patinkin and Taylor Mac | Direction & Choreography by Susan Stroman Music Direction & Arrangements by Paul Ford It’s the end of the world as we know it. A flood of biblical proportions leaves us with only two people on earth who discover their common language is song and dance. Together they
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gamut from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Sondheim, and R.E.M. to Queen. An Apocalyptic Vaudeville is presented in association with Staci Levine Groundswell Theatricals.
A SONG (AND A DANCE) FOR THE APOCALYPSE By Jeremy Fassler
Throughout his forty-year career, Mandy Patinkin has worked extensively as an actor in theater, film, and television. He is currently playing CIA Chief Saul Berenson on Showtime’s hit drama “Homeland.” Patinkin conceived The Last Two People On Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville with his co-star Taylor Mac, director/choreographer Susan Stroman, and music director Paul Ford.
PHOTO: PAUL KOLNIK
2014/2015 SEASON 617.547.8300 | americanrepertorytheater.org
chronicle the rise and fall and hopeful rise again of humankind through music that runs the
JEREMY FASSLER: How did you and Taylor Mac first start working on this project? MANDY PATINKIN: Taylor and I were paired up for a benefit performance, and after we finished doing that, I knew we needed to work on something together. I immediately thought, what if we
were the last two people on earth? I knew I wanted it to be just the two of us, and I wanted it to tell a story. We spent three years messing around, grabbing a few hours here and there when we were free. JF: How would you describe the story of this show? MP: When Taylor, Susan Stroman, and I committed to this problem, Hurricane Irene happened, so it became clear to us that the disaster that had left only two people was a great flood, because of climate change. Taylor comes floating in on a raft, and I’m in an old trunk, which you start to see is a vaudeville trunk where I live. We are wary of each other, and then, by accident, we begin to communicate through song and dance, realizing
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An Apocalyptic Vaudeville
we’re both vaudevillians with a common language. The songs tell the story of the two of them, and how they grow together as new friends. It’s a beautiful story of two people coming together and appreciating each other, and never wanting to let go. JF: How did you choose the songs? It’s an incredibly diverse list.
Much Ado About Nothing
MP: I’m a lyrically driven person, so everything was chosen for the words and the story they told. We had endless lists of songs, and occasionally there would be a bump in the story and we’d realize we were hitting a wall. Initially, we were blaming a certain group of people for the state of the world and for climate change. There was a song Bill Finn had written about Republicans that was in there, but we quickly realized that this problem isn’t just Republicans; it’s a universal problem every human being is responsible for. So that led us to replace it with R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” As soon as that happened, I sang on “The Colbert Report” with Michael Stipe, who wrote the song, and I said to him, “We were just considering putting your song in our show!” He came to see a rehearsal after that, which was a wonderful experience. JF: What has Susan Stroman’s contribution to the piece been?
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JF: What is your character’s journey and your relationship to Taylor’s character? MP: I’m threatened and concerned, but also lonely. So when Taylor tries to bring me around, I don’t want to let him go. Then there’s a place within the piece where they grow together. Who’s the student and who’s the teacher? Who’s the older one and who’s the younger one? All those dynamics keep changing. At some points, I need to learn lessons about how to be free and let go, and at other points he needs to be reminded of the lessons he taught me. We become a bonded couple, the yin and yang of each other, and get to a point where we have no desire to live without each other. The fact of the matter is, I think of Taylor as Lear’s Fool, and because I’m older, I’m closer to Lear. But at times, he’s Lear and I’m the Fool. The Fool in Lear is the wisest person in the play, and that’s what’s really fun about the relationship: we both get to play Lear and we both get to play the Fool. JF: Given the state of the world, what’s the importance of doing this show now?
MP: Working on this piece and on “Homeland” has allowed me to define what I’m interested in in every area of life: the lost art of listening. I don’t think people listen in our Congress, our Senate, our courts, or our executive branches. But I’ve got to back up. This is an entertainment. This is a vaudeville show. I get rather philosophical when I wax on; rabbinical at times. One of Stroman and Taylor’s greatest gifts as cocollaborators is that they’ll immediately whip my “It’s a beautiful rabbinical thinking into entertainment. Once we story of two entertain you, we’re entitled to have an emotional people coming moment, but we try to get back quickly into, “Hey, don’t forget to have fun! We’re the last two people together and on earth, so let’s not waste it!”
appreciating each other, and never wanting to let go.” PHOTO: FREDERICK M. BROWN
2014/2015 SEASON 617.547.8300 | americanrepertorytheater.org
The Mikado
MP: First and foremost, she has a great ability to tell a story and is very clear about how we are trying to invent two new
characters, their journey, and their history. I knew I wanted the story to be told through singing and movement, and she’s the best person in the world for that. Whenever a moment came up where a sound or language was used instead of just lyrics or a song, she said, “Get rid of it.” She knows the world of song and dance—and classic vaudeville dancing—like it’s nobody’s business. She had a field day teaching us the language of vaudeville, because neither of us were dancers. We took our first dance classes with Susan Stroman.
JF: Some of the images used to promote this show bring to mind Samuel Beckett, with the faded proscenium arch, vaudevillian overtones, and bowler hats. Is Beckett an inspiration for this piece?
MP: There’s no question that when you take two guys who look like us, there is a very strong reflection of Waiting For Godot, but that was not on my mind originally. We’re wearing the classic vaudeville uniform, with the hats, which is why Beckett chose it. And it’s important for us to remember this is a comedy, which is what Beckett wrote, although Godot is a pretty poignant comedy. I find it very flattering
americanrepertorytheater.org 2014/2015 SEASON MANDY PATINKIN IN REHEARSALS FOR AN APOCALYPTIC VAUDEVILLE
Harvard Square 2015
PHOTO: PAUL KOLNIK
January 23 - 25 Taste of Chocolate Festival January 31 Some Like it Hot Chili Cookoff
that people make any comparison towards our piece with that, because they’re both about two souls trying to figure out: what are we doing? Where are we going? Who are we? JF: I’m reminded of something Beckett said about Godot: that the most important thing about the play is that Estragon’s pants fall down at the end of Act Two. That sums up what both he and you do: let’s talk about serious issues, but let’s have fun. MP: I love hearing that. That’s it in a nutshell. We can say or do whatever we want, but make sure we drop our trousers!
MP: When I make a film or TV episode, it’s disconnected; it’s in pieces; I let go of all control. I am in control of nothing except listening and being present for my fellow actors. It’s in the hands of editors, writers, and a committee of people. It’s shot out of order, out of context, with no audience present. It has none of the elements that I’m an addict for in terms of the theater. It does have another element that I’m deeply addicted to, which is being alive in the moment. And if you’re lucky the camera catches it. But you get no response when you’re filming; if there’s laughter or a noise, the take is ruined. A good director can encourage you here and there, but part of the skill of doing film and TV is to need no response, to not need the sounds you hear from an audience: silence when they’re listening, rustling when they’re impatient, laughter when they think something’s funny, and sniffling when they’re moved. All the sounds in the air of a theater are not a part of making a movie or TV episode. When I’m in the theater, the audience and performers on stage are in control of all of it all the time, and you are your own camera as an audience member, choosing whether to do a close-up or a long shot. So it’s a completely different kind of experience, and I think those of us who grew up in the theater think that the single greatest adjustment we have to make when working in front of the camera is that there is no audience. Jeremy Fassler is a first-year dramaturgy student in the A.R.T./ Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.
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JF: You’ve worked extensively in theater, film, and TV. From your point of view, what can acting on stage do that film and TV can’t?
April 18 Bookish Ball & Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebration
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By Aida Rocci Ruiz
“One view. One mission: Director and Choreographer,” reflects Susan Stroman about her recent work. “To me, it’s one vision all the way through.” Over the course of her career, Susan Stroman has found a way to live in the roles of both choreographer and director. After winning two Tony Awards for Best Choreography for Crazy for You and the 1994 revival of Showboat, Stroman had her first directorial experience with the 2000 revival of The Music Man. That same year she co-created, directed, and choreographed her genre-bending dance-musical, Contact. The production, which told three stories through dance alone, won the Tony for Best Musical and earned Stroman her third Tony for Best Choreography. Since then, she has both directed and choreographed shows including Bullets Over Broadway, Big Fish, The Scottsboro Boys, and, most recently, Little Dancer. In 2001, she became the first woman to win Tony Awards for Best Direction and Best Choreography in the same night for The Producers. Stroman considers herself a storyteller, a role she learned as a child. Her father, a salesman, was himself a great storyteller who would also play show tunes on the piano after dinner. In her young mind, that music became movement, characters, and stories. Inspired by the movies of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Stroman found dance as a means of expressing the inner world of her imagination. When she became a professional Broadway choreographer, Stroman helped bring focus back to narrative choreography, presenting the dancers as characters, and depicting their emotional development through their interactions with space and objects. Stroman’s involvement with An Apocalyptic Vaudeville began when Mandy Patinkin called her to describe a project he had in mind: a collaboration with the performer Taylor Mac consisting of a collection of songs they both felt passionate about. Stroman remembers her first meeting with the two artists in a rehearsal room in New York City: “When they started singing the songs, I was taken aback by the sound. There is something extraordinary about the sound of their voices coming together. And soon we
“When they started singing the songs, I was taken aback by the sound. There is something extraordinary about the sound of their voices coming together.”
decided that it shouldn’t just be a concert, that it needed to hang on an idea and to live in another world.” Stroman began to imagine, while Patinkin and Mac sang, moved, and improvised. The Last Two People On Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville tells the story of two vaudevillians who have washed ashore after a cataclysmic storm, and who communicate only through song and dance. The vaudeville aspect of the piece resonated with Stroman, who immediately thought of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby’s famous road movies, which also feature two vaudevillians coming together. “Vaudeville is a part of my life,” reflects Stroman, who also used the style in her production of Kander and Ebb’s The Scottsboro Boys. “To know all about vaudeville, to know all of those wonderful vaudeville poses and vaudeville dance steps—it’s pretty much part of me.” Inspired by the artists’ concern over global warming, An Apocalyptic Vaudeville is set after a great flood. During rehearsals, Stroman listened to soundscapes of rain and thunder as if they were music. Together with music director Paul Ford, Stroman, Patinkin, and Mac have been developing the production over years, meeting whenever their busy schedules would allow. During one of their workshops, Hurricane Sandy struck New York City, flooding lower Manhattan and giving new weight to the project. At the end of the world, Susan Stroman offers music and dance as a means of salvation. Throughout her career, she has told stories of hope, joy, and human connection. Despite storms and differences in personality, the characters in An Apocalyptic Vaudeville survive and find comfort in each other. As Stroman explains, “through song and dance, they find a middle ground to communicate. They find a middle ground where they can exist together.” Aida Rocci Ruiz is a first-year dramaturgy student in the A.R.T./ Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.
SUSAN STROMAN AND TAYLOR MAC IN REHEARSAL FOR AN APOCALYPTIC VAUDEVILLE.
PHOTO: PAUL KOLNIK
An Apocalyptic Vaudeville Much Ado About Nothing The Mikado 2014/2015 SEASON 617.547.8300 | americanrepertorytheater.org
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DANCING WITH SUSAN STROMAN
George Oberteuffer
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TM: Usually, they’re songs written for the middle and lowermiddle class. Sometimes it’s their eclecticism, or a chord structure, a lyric structure, or the content. Also, Mandy and I both like telling stories, so we both picked songs like “Making Pies,” which to some degree tell stories.
PHOTO: PAUL KOLNIK
An Apocalyptic Vaudeville Much Ado About Nothing The Mikado 2014/2015 SEASON 617.547.8300 | americanrepertorytheater.org
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TN: What makes those songs feel grounded in the vaudeville tradition?
TN: You’ve talked about the vaudeville part, how about the apocalyptic part?
TAYLOR MAC:
On the Creation of a Partnership By Tessa Nelson
Taylor Mac is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, cabaret performer, performance artist, director, and producer. He has performed at A.R.T., Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, Sydney Opera House, and hundreds of other performance spaces across the world. The author of seventeen full-length plays and performance pieces, Mac is the winner of numerous accolades including the Obie Award for The Lily’s Revenge, which was performed at A.R.T. in the 2012/13 Season. He was named Best Theater Actor in New York by Village Voice in 2013.
TM: One thing you do when you create a story is try to come up with some conflict. I think the apocalypse was Mandy’s idea. I just loved it because what do two people who like to sing songs do if they’re the last two people on earth? They sing songs. For me it’s such a lovely metaphor for the dichotomy of the world. What do you do when things are horrible? You sing songs. TN: People familiar with your work might be expecting a political piece. Is this a political vaudeville? TM: If it’s the end of the world somebody’s to blame. We don’t point a finger at any particular person or institution or government. We’re not finger-wagging. There’s definitely some political stuff, but it’s more about ending polarization than creating more of it.
TESSA NELSON: You’ve written that you like collaborating with hard workers. Is that how you would describe your co-star Mandy Patinkin and director/choreographer Susan Stroman?
TN: You’re from the downtown New York theater scene and Mandy Patinkin and Susan Stroman have worked on big-budget musicals. Do you often find yourselves in different mindsets?
TAYLOR MAC: Yes, I would. It’s a total joy to work with them. People of that caliber of craft are the kind of people I’ve wanted to work with my whole life. Mandy and I knew early on we wanted our piece to be a vaudeville, and we had this idea that there wouldn’t be any language. Susan Stroman was the perfect person for that because she has a history of telling stories without words. Paul Ford, our music director, is an encyclopedia of the vaudeville style of song. He’s a huge part of what we are doing.
TM: When Mandy and I were trying to think of what to do together I said, “Let’s do a production of Genet’s The Maids.” I was sure Mandy would think it’s too downtown for him, but what he actually said was, “I already did a production of The Maids with John Hurt.” So Mandy is downtown as well as uptown, and I started off learning in the musical theater style and later went to the “What do downtown avant-garde. two people
TN: Why did you choose the vaudeville style for this piece?
TN: How do your voice and Mandy’s sound together? Was there instant vocal chemistry?
TM: Everyone loves vaudeville. Most Americans have a nostalgic tinge in their hearts for it. It’s funny and wonderful and it’s where so much of the American performance craft lives. Also, I like to work in different genres. Every act of my play, The Lily’s Revenge, was written and performed in a different genre. I’m always trying to ask, “What part of theater have I not worked in yet?” TN: The music in the show is very diverse. It ranges from “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” to musical theater to your own compositions. How did you choose these songs? TM: We chose songs that, even if they were in their own style, could be framed by vaudeville. Folk songs, like Patty Griffin’s “Making Pies,” Sondheim, the modern day songs, all feel like they could come from that vaudeville tradition.
who like to sing songs do if they’re the last two people on earth? They sing songs.”
TM: It was instant and I’ll tell you why. When I was a teenager I had Mandy’s first album and I listened to it nonstop. I think I unconsciously trained my voice by listening to Mandy. He gave me this gift that he didn’t even know he had given. So, I love him for that. It’s an odd thing when you hear us sing together. It doesn’t feel normal. It feels like we are people meant to sing together. Tessa Nelson is a first-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./ Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.
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END OF THE WORLD Bad news: it’s the Final Countdown. You only have enough time to belt one song at the top of your lungs as [insert favorite end-of-days scenario here]. Of all the tracks in your painstakingly curated iTunes library, which song will you choose for the end of the world? We put the question to some friends from the A.R.T. community. Here’s what they said:
Aaron Posner,
Diane Paulus,
A.R.T. Artistic Director
“BRAVE”
Co-Director of A.R.T.’s 2014 The Tempest
“I’VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN” by Cole Porter
by Sara Bareilles Teller,
Co-Director of A.R.T.’s 2014 The Tempest
Robert Schenkkan,
Author of A.R.T.’s 2013 All the Way
“UNCHAINED MELODY”
Mark Mauriello,
as sung by The Righteous Brothers
actor in A.R.T.’s The Donkey Show
Neil Gaiman,
2014/2015 SEASON 617.547.8300 | americanrepertorytheater.org
author and playwright
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“WAITING FOR THE END OF THE WORLD” by Elvis Costello
Zachary Quinto,
actor in A.R.T.’s 2013 The Glass Menagerie
“FREE MAN IN PARIS” by Joni Mitchell
“GET HAPPY/ HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN”
“IS THAT ALL THERE IS?” as sung by Peggy Lee
as sung by Judy Garland & Barbra Streisand
Amanda Palmer,
actress in A.R.T.’s 2010 Cabaret
“DO YOU REALIZE??” by the Flaming Lips
Cherry Jones,
actress in numerous A.R.T. productions, including the 2013 The Glass Menagerie
“MACK THE KNIFE” as sung by Louis Armstrong
Visit the A.R.T.’s Spotify page bit.ly/endoftheworldART to listen to the playlist!
L-R, FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: 1) (SONY) EPIC RECORDS, 2013; 2) IMAGE IN PUBLIC DOMAIN 3) PHILLES RECORDS, 1965; 4) COLUMBIA, 2002 5) COLUMBIA, 1977 6) CAPITOL, 1969 7) WARNER BROTHERS, 2002 8) ASYLUM, 1974 9) PABLO RECORDS, 1957
An Apocalyptic Vaudeville Much Ado About Nothing The Mikado
A PLAYLIST FOR THE
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An Apocalyptic Vaudeville Much Ado About Nothing The Mikado 2014/2015 SEASON 617.547.8300 | americanrepertorytheater.org
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
May 21—30, 2015 | The Ex
By William Shakespeare | Directed by Anya Saffir When a group of friends and rivals comes together to prepare for a wedding, deceit, flirtation, and wit run amok. One of Shakespeare’s most celebrated comedies, Much Ado About Nothing follows the story of two pairs of lovers—one betrothed, the other reluctant—who face a whole cast of characters dedicated to meddling in their relationships. Featuring live music and the A.R.T. Institute Class of 2015, this production celebrates giving yourself over to the power of love…and accepting the chaos that comes with it.
PLAYING LOVE IN SHAKESPEARE’S MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING An Interview with Director Anya Saffir By Christian Ronald
CHRISTIAN RONALD: What excites you most about working on Shakespeare’s plays? ANYA SAFFIR: Well, if we start with the more or less uncontroversial statement—that Shakespeare was the greatest poet to have lived—perhaps that then leads to the question: why stage a poetic text for an audience? Why is that exciting? Robert Frost once said that poetry is a “momentary stay against confusion.” In my own life poetry provides a way to make connections and provide illuminations where before there was only darkness or confusion. Or, as Joseph Campbell says, there is a plane of the Seen (dishwashers, street signs, etc.) and a plane of the Unseen (honor, God, love, etc.), and though we can never see the Unseen, it makes up the important part of life—the part of life that makes life worthwhile. But since the Unseen plane is invisible, and since life sometimes feels confusing and random, we sometimes lose sight of the Unseen plane. Campbell says that some things have the capacity to make us sense its presence, and to these things we are attracted. They make us feel clearer, or less lonely, or pulled into the mystery of existence in a way that feels larger than ourselves. What are the things that allow for this experience? For me: poems and myths. And Shakespeare is our greatest poet and mythmaker. CR: What drew you to Much Ado About Nothing in particular? AS: It depicts the triumph of love, faith, and sincerity over fear, distrust, and cynicism in a way that is funny and unexpectedly moving. Interestingly, the fear and hate in this particular play is not the kind that occupies most of Shakespeare’s plays—war and murder, usurpation, dismemberment, and so forth. Rather, much
of it is the stuff (the “nothing,” if you will) of our own everyday lives. The play asks us: Why is it so hard for us to give ourselves over to love? Why is it so hard to trust a person we love? Why do we build elaborate, ironclad fortresses around our hearts? Why is it we would sooner choose to be lonely than risk being truly seen by another person? Why do irony, sarcasm, and cynicism sometimes feel so comforting and protecting, and why is it so embarrassing to be sincere? How can we learn to endure the mortifications of love so that we can claim the rewards of it? These somewhat unsung difficulties of being alive are poignant to me. CR: Can you describe how you collaborate with composer Cormac Bluestone in your work? AS: I’m very lucky because about ten years ago I found a composer to work with who is not only capable of composing beautiful music but who is, in his bones, a storyteller and a theater animal. Cormac and I start by talking about the story. We talk about the story a great deal. Slowly out of these talks a vocabulary eventually emerges that describes the essential nature of the journey we want to take the audience on and what role the music plays in this journey. We also love to work with actors, and we often keep the music-making in the cast. I’d say that we like to prepare fairly meticulously so that when we’re in the room with the actors we can incorporate their ideas and make changes improvisationally because we have a structure pinning the big picture together. CR: What inspires you to use live music in your productions? AS: In the case of Much Ado About Nothing music is not only
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An Apocalyptic Vaudeville Much Ado About Nothing The Mikado 2014/2015 SEASON 617.547.8300 | americanrepertorytheater.org
literally played by Balthazar and some hired musicians, it is also frequently talked about by the characters. For example Benedick, the great love-cynic who begins the play lamenting that his friend Claudio has fallen in love, says, “I have known when there was no music with him but the drum and the fife; and now had he rather hear the tabor and the pipe.” He scoffs at what others regard as the romantic transcendence of music when he says, “Is it not strange that sheep’s guts could hail souls out of men’s bodies?” Later, when he himself has fallen in love, Benedick attempts to compose a love song, enduring the embarrassment of that process. In the end, his pride and guardedness now mostly fallen away, Benedick asks the musicians to play as a celebration of love, and indeed “Strike up, pipers!” is the final line of the play. In Renaissance England it was thought that music could be heard purely only in the uncorrupted super-lunary sphere, the land of fixed stars and pure spirit above the moon. This was the realm of music, and of love. In Much Ado About Nothing, wit and prose are soon replaced by love and by music. For me, the thrill and immediacy of live music is intrinsically bound up in the value of the present moment in live theater. It’s a marvelous thing to be in the audience and to experience a moment of collective awe or wonder, or fear—to feel everyone’s unconscious life stirred simultaneously by a sound or a word created in front of you. And as an audience member I love to watch the music created in front of me—by living actors and musicians—in open acknowledgement that this is theater, and you are the audience. We are all here, together, and I am playing for you. Recorded music, on the other hand, reinforces the feeling of a fourth wall: we are hearing music but not really acknowledging it. Its source is hidden. Recorded music was created by a human being at some previous time, in some other room. It distances, as the fourth wall distances. Also, since Shakespeare’s plays were written for live music to be played, it brings you deeper into the world of the play and not further away. You’re moving with the sense of his writing, and not cutting against it. CR: You have a history of using strong ensemble work to create your productions—what in particular about Shakespeare lends itself to this type of collaboration?
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Institute for Advanced Theater Training.
AS: Shakespeare wrote plays in which fourteen actors had to evoke an entire English army, or a ship full of sailors in a storm, or a ball teeming with a hundred guests and musicians and servants.
It is amazing to read certain scenes and think: “HOW are we going to do this with so few actors?” and then you begin to see the matrix of it and you realize, my goodness…it can be done. It will work. It was written to be this way. Part of the pleasure of a good Shakespeare production for the audience can be seeing the mechanics of this accomplished very plainly (for example, double casting, or actors playing music when they’re not in a scene) while at the same time believing in the fiction of the story because of the commitment of the actors and their ability to work together in harmony. This is ensemble work defined. And for me, theater is always ideally about community. The process of rehearsing is about locating a source of interest, or love, or even worship in the play that the actors can engage in with me as we rehearse and dig into the text. If the process is a deep and increasingly personal search for each member of the ensemble, this can create very strong bonds to one another and to the play. These bonds create a strong sense of mutual purpose in performing the play and can provide the bass notes of a production. CR: If you had the opportunity to clear up any general misconception about Shakespeare for audiences today, what would it be? AS: That the plays are elite. That you have to be educated and versed in Shakespeare to enjoy them or derive meaning from them or find them fun. Also, one commonly hears that the bawdy humor was written for the groundlings—the low-income audience members. I think that’s silly and slightly offensive. Are we to believe that Shakespeare was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite playwright despite the bawdy humor? That the groundlings went to get a snack every time the writing took a turn to the philosophical? Shakespeare is a populist writer. He appeals to every part of us—all the multitudes that we each contain: the part of us that reaches for something higher, the part of us that is naughty, subversive, wicked, delicate, rough, mystical, earthy, holy, nihilist. We contain these multitudes, and the diverse poetry in the plays is a reflection of this. Christian Ronald is a second-year dramaturgy student in the A.R.T./Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.
IVAN BUNIN: LOVE STORIES May 27—30, 2015 | OBERON
Choreographed and directed by Alla Sigalova Celebrated Russian choreographer Alla Sigalova (Final Cut, 2014) returns to the A.R.T. to devise a dance-theater adaptation of the short stories of Ivan Bunin. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933, Bunin gives vibrant life to a vanishing world. His stories are renowned for their vivid flashes of fleeting beauty. In Sigalova’s signature genre-bending style, these poignant stories spring to life. Combining dance, gymnastics, and drama, Sigalova’s works emphasize the brilliance, and the impermanence, of the moving body. Featuring second-year students at the A.R.T./MXAT
americanrepertorytheater.org 2014/2015 SEASON
LOEB DRAMA CENTER 64 Brattle St., Cambridge | OBERON 2 Arrow St., Cambridge
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March 31 - April 5, 2015 | OBERON
Presented by The Hypocrites| Directed by Sean Graney The Chicago-based company The Hypocrites (Pirates of Penzance, Romeo Juliet, 12 Nights) reimagines this 1885 operetta, infusing the absurdist comedy of W.S. Gilbert’s libretto with Monty Python-inspired clownishness, and bringing a folk/pop interpretation to Arthur Sullivan’s lovely, lilting melodies. Expect zany fun and hip tunes in this vibrant adaptation of one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most beloved works.
THE HYPOCRITES RETURN TO A.R.T.
THE CAST AND AUDIENCE OF A.R.T.’S 2013 PIRATES OF PENZANCE
2014/2015 SEASON 617.547.8300 | americanrepertorytheater.org
THE MIKADO
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THE CAST OF A.R.T.’S 2013 PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Most recently seen at OBERON in 2014 with Romeo Juliet and 12 Nights, The Hypocrites is a groundbreaking Chicagobased theater company. Founded by writer and director Sean Graney (Radcliffe Institute Fellow 2013/14), the company applies their whimsical, exuberant theatricality to classical works ranging from Greek tragedy to Shakespearean comedy to Gilbert and Sullivan.
PHOTOS: EVGENIA ELISEEVA; MATTHEW GREGORY HOLLIS
An Apocalyptic Vaudeville Much Ado About Nothing The Mikado
THE MIKADO
americanrepertorytheater.org 2014/2015 SEASON
Measurable impact. Boundless possibilities.
June 2014
Boston is a great city and a great region — and we have the potential to shine even brighter. The Arts Factor is an initiative established by ArtsBoston that uses data to demonstrate the positive impact that arts and culture have on Greater Boston. Supporting the arts and cultural sector is one of the most important ways you can enrich the life of the region. Download a copy of The Arts Factor 2014 Report to learn more and share your story.
Made possible through the generous support of:
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
What’s your Arts Factor? ArtsBoston.org/ArtsFactor
#ArtsData
Made possible through the generous support of:
LOEB DRAMA CENTER 64 Brattle St., Cambridge | OBERON 2 Arrow St., Cambridge
Measurable impact. Boundless possibilities.
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