2 Chicago Shows to see NOW

If you live in Chicago, now is as good of a time as EVER to go out and see live theatre. I have seen 2 shows in the last 2 weeks, and BOTH were fantastic. I would reccomend you run out to see HORSES AT THE WINDOW at the fabulous Trap Door Theatre, and A PERFECT WEDDING at circle theatre. Both a little off the wall - both wonderful. Go out and support local theatre!

Coming Soon: Miracle Worker

My new show: The Miracle Worker, is in rehearsals and has previews and opening night coming up. Here is all the info. you'd need:

THE MIRACLE WORKER
BY: WILLIAM GIBSON

APRIL 20 - May 17, 2009

previews April 18 & 19

The story of Helen Keller, her teacher Annie Sullivan and their journey out of darkness. Deaf and blind due to childhood illness, Helen Keller lives a near feral existence at the hands of her indulgent family. When her behavior becomes unmanageable, the Kellers’ hire governess Annie Sullivan to help control their unruly daughter and bring some much-needed peace to the household. Instead, Annie’s relentless determination to teach Helen language creates new conflicts that force the Kellers’ to reconsider their expectations for their daughter and their attitude towards her affliction. Based on Helen Keller’s autobiography, “The Story of My Life.”

Tickets: 15 dollars / 10 students/seniors
Reservations: 773-275-7930
Online ticket buying: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/58828

Starring:
Casey Chapman as James Keller
Rebecca Chicoine as Annie Sullivan
Laura MacGregor as Aunt Ev
Brita Morland as Helen Keller
Mark Shallow as Captain Keller
Joy Thorbjornsen-Coates as Kate Keller

Kristina Schramm/Director
Lisa Tiess/Asst. Director

Anna Nicole: The Opera

The London creators of the hugely successful "Jerry Springer: The Opera" are back with their next project: "Anna Nicole Smith: The Opera". The production is in early stages now and is set to premiere in the UK in 2011, at the Convent Garden Opera House. The director of the opera, Elaine Padmore, said "It is not going to be a horrible, sleazy evening. It is not going to be tawdry; it is going to be witty, clever, thoughtful and sad. In broad outline, it will tell the story of her life, the people who influenced her, her progress. Clearly the story is about a woman who met an ancient gentleman in a wheelchair, but it's not going to be a straight narrative; choices have been made about significant moments, selecting which incidents in her life are to be built up."

The opera will be directed by Richard Jones and the libretto will be provided by Richard Thomas, who was also the co-creator of Jerry Springer the Opera.

Padmore added, "It is not just a documentary about her, but a parable about celebrity and what it does to people. It can be moving, it can be funny and it tells universal truths about human frailty."

Independent Theatre Reviewers Assc. Awards

This is taken from Playbill.com

Winners of the 2009 Independent Theatre Reviewers Association (ITRA) Awards have been announced. Six artists in three categories — film, television and theatre — have been selected for 2009. The honorees, according to press notes, "embody the essence of not only artistic integrity, but also complete dedication to their craft."

This year's ITRA Award winners follow:

BEST ACTOR IN A FEATURE FILM
Mickey Rourke for The Wretler
Honored for his powerful and honest portrayal. This is a great comeback from a great American actor.

BEST ACTRESS IN A FEATURE FILM
Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road and The Reader
Honored for her profound and beautiful work.

BEST FEMALE TELEVISION PERFORMER
Tina Fey for 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live
Honored for her terrific comedic performances and for having the biggest career explosion of the year.

BEST MALE TELEVISION PERFORMER
David Letterman for Late Show With David Letterman
Honored for his continued success and longevity.

BEST FEMALE THEATRICAL PERFORMER
Liza Minnelli for Liza's at the Palace
Honored for a lifetime of art and heartache, and most importantly survival. A legend has returned to Broadway!

BEST MALE THEATRICAL PERFORMER
Lucio Fernandez for The Cuban Kid in Concert
Honored for an electrifying performance in cabaret. This newcomer came out of nowhere to surprise and humble us.

BEST FEMALE MUSICAL PERFORMER
Madonna for Hard Candy and Sticky and Sweet Tour
Honored for longevity in career, and for selling out the most expensive world tour ever conceived.

BEST MALE MUSICAL PERFORMER
Bruce Springstein for Forthcoming album, Wrestler soundtrack, Concert Tour
Honored for his longevity in the music business, and for his broadening appeal to film and touring.

GLAAD Nominations

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have listed its nominations in pretty much every category including TV, Film, Music, Theatre, Journalism, and more. Here are the nominations:



FILM - WIDE RELEASE
"Brideshead Revisited"
"Milk"
"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"
"RocknRolla"
"Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

FILM - LIMITED RELEASE
"The Edge of Heaven"
"Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom"
"Save Me"
"Shelter"
"XXY"

DRAMA SERIES
"Brothers & Sisters"
"The L Word"
"South of Nowhere"
"Torchwood"
"True Blood"

COMEDY SERIES
"Desperate Housewives
"Greek
"Reaper
"Skins
"Ugly Betty"

INDIVIDUAL EPISODE
(in a series without a regular LGBT character)

"Ghostfacers" - "Supernatural"
"My Maharishi is Bigger than Your Maharishi" - "Life on Mars"
"Slam" - "Ghost Whisperer"
"Tandem Repeats" ER
"Unidentified Funk" - "The New Adventures of Old Christine"

TELEVISION MOVIE
"Affinity"
"East Side Story"
"Ice Blues: A Donald Strachey Mystery"
"Oh Happy Day"
"On the Other Hand, Death: A Donald Strachey Mystery"

DOCUMENTARY
"Chris & Don: A Love Story"
"Freeheld"
"A Jihad for Love"
"Saving Marriage"
"Sex Change Hospital"

REALITY PROGRAM
"America's Next Top Model"
"I Want to Work for Diddy"
"Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List"
"Shirts & Skins"
"Transamerican Love Story"

DAILY DRAMA
"All My Children"
"As the World Turns"

TALK SHOW EPISODE
"Don't Ruin My Gay Wedding" - "The Tyra Banks Show"
"Ellen & Portia's Wedding Day" - "The Ellen DeGeneres Show"
"Gays in the Ghetto" - "The Tyra Banks Show"
"The Pregnant Man" - "The Oprah Winfrey Show"
"Transgender Triumphs" - "The Tyra Banks Show"

TV JOURNALISM – NEWSMAGAZINE
"Becoming" (multi-part series) Channel 3 News
"Born in the Wrong Body: All in the Family"
"Funding the Marriage War" - "In the Life"
"George Takei and Brad Altman" (multi-part series) The Early Show
"The Whispers" Outside the Lines

TV JOURNALISM SEGMENT
"Bishop in the Eye of the Storm" - "Today"
"Gay in Cuba" - "The Situation Room"
"Special Comment: Prop 8" - "Countdown with Keith Olbermann"
"Rick Warren: Change to Believe In?" - "The Rachel Maddow Show"
"Taking to the Streets" - "Good Morning America Weekend"

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
"Gay Marriage Ruling Ended Long Journey Of Soul" by Alaine Griffin
"Morehouse College Faces its Own Bias – Against Gays" by Richard Fausset
"A New Wave of Gay Seminarians Prepares to Take the Pulpit" by Bradley Campbell
"Owning His Gay Identity – at 15 Years Old" by Theresa Vargas
"Special Report: In Transition" by Karen Lovett and Ashley Smith

NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST
Alfred Doblin (The Record [Bergen, N.J.])
Michael Mayo (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Leonard Pitts, Jr. (The Miami Herald)
Deb Price (The Detroit News)
Rebecca Walsh (Salt Lake Tribune)

NEWSPAPER OVERALL COVERAGE
The Denver Post
The Des Moines Register
Los Angeles Times
The New York Times
The Washington Post

MAGAZINE ARTICLE
"Becoming a Black Man" by Daisy Hernández (ColorLines)
"Death on Terminal Island" by Ben Ehrenreich (Los Angeles)
"Let God Love Gene Robinson" by Andrew Corsello (GQ)
"Our Mutual Joy" by Lisa Miller (Newsweek)
"Second Nature" by Maximillian Potter (5280)

MAGAZINE OVERALL COVERAGE
The Advocate
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Entertainment Weekly
Newsweek
People

DIGITAL JOURNALISM ARTICLE
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Do Kill" by Lennox Samuels (Newsweek.com)
"Gay Athletes are Making Their Mark" by LZ Granderson (ESPN.com)
"Gay in Wasilla" by Julie Bolcer (Advocate.com)
"Gays in Primetime" by James Hillis (AfterElton.com)
"Invisible and Overlooked" by Jessica Bennett (Newsweek.com)

DIGITAL JOURNALISM – MULTIMEDIA
"Excluded Gay Bishop Reacts" by Mary Jordan (WashingtonPost.com)
"Gay Seniors" (multi-part series) by Jessica Bennet, Jennifer Molina and Carl Sullivan (Newsweek.com)
"Is Gay the New Black?" by Jessica Bennet and Jennifer Molina (Newsweek.com)

MUSIC ARTIST
Jay Brannan, "goddamed"
Hercules & Love Affair, "Hercules & Love Affair"
k.d. lang, "Watershed"
The Magnetic Fields, "Distortion"
Sam Sparro, "Sam Sparro"

COMIC BOOK
"The Alcoholic" by Jonathan Ames
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" by Drew Goddard, Jeph Loeb and Joss Whedon
"Final Crisis: Revelations" by Greg Rucka
"Secret Six" by Gail Simone
"Young Avengers" Presents by Ed Brubaker, Brian Reed, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Paul Cornell, Kevin
"Grevioux and Matt Fraction"

ADVERTISING - ELECTRONIC
"I Don't Judge" IKEA
"Logo Unbuttoned" Levi's
"Market" Chemistry.com
"We All Walk In Different Shoes – Nina Poon" Kenneth Cole
"Rugby Drinking Party" Jawbone

ADVERTISING - PRINT
"First Comes Love. Then Comes Marriage." Macy's
"Home for the Holidays" Swanson
"Rings" Paris Las Vegas
"We All Walk In Different Shoes – Nina Poon & Robert Jason" Kenneth Cole
"Will You Marry Me?" Absolut Vodka

LOS ANGELES THEATER
"As Much As You Can" by Paul Oakley Stovall
"Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead" by Bert V. Royal
"He Asked for It" by Erik Patterson
"The Little Dog Laughed" by Douglas Carter Beane
"Secrets of the Trade" by Jonathan Tolins

NEW YORK THEATER: BROADWAY & OFF-BROADWAY
"Billy Elliot: The Musical" book and lyrics by Lee Hall, music by Elton John
"Body Awareness" by Annie Baker
"Prayer for My Enemy" by Craig Lucas
"Road Show" book by John Weidman, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
"Wig Out!" by Tarell Alvin McCraney

NEW YORK THEATER: OFF-OFF BROADWAY
"Arias with a Twist" by Joey Arias and Basil Twist
"The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac" by Taylor Mac
"Dina Martina: Off the Charts!" by Grady West
"Lustre, a Midwinter Trans-Fest" by Justin Bond
"Play it Cool" book by Martin Casella and Larry Dean Harris, music by Phillip Swann, lyrics by Mark Winkler

SPECIAL RECOGNITION
"The Laramie Project, 10 Years Later - The Lasting Legacy of Matthew Shepard" (Sirius XM Radio)

EXCELLENCE IN MEDIA AWARD
Tyra Banks

VITO RUSSO AWARD
Suze Orman

Theatre Review: Desire Under The Elms

DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS
by: Eugene O'Neill
@ Goodman Theatre
directed by: Robert Falls




Goodman theatre, proud employer of yours truly (and I will not slant my views on this production in any way), has truly outdone itself with its production of the Eugene O'Niell classic "Desire Under the Elms". With a rocky start to the season, the new musical "Turn of the Century" (which was either loved or detested), Goodman is back on track with what very well may be the theatre event of the year. "Desire" was chosen as the centerpiece of the Eugene O'Neil festival that is being held currently at the Goodman, and with director Robert Falls at the helm - no stone is left unturned (no pun intended). The big guns have been brought out: An announced Broadway engagement following its Chicago run, the highest caliber designers and crew, and of course Brian Dennehy - which along with Falls has always spelled success. (Shall we go back a few years and remember it was Falls/Dennehy/Goodman who brought the revival of "Death of a Salesman" which opened in Chicago and went on to Broadway to win best revival of a play, best director, and best actor). With such a talented cast, I smell a repeat.




The story is one that many theatre folk are familiar with. I remember reading "Desire" my first year in college as a theatre major in my theatre history and literature class. In every way possible it is a classic tragedy. Those seeking a good time, or a happy ending, should wander elsewhere. The first great achievement of this production of the play, is the wise cutting of the script. As an epic piece, it has an epically long script. Robert Falls' cutting of the piece is quick, to the point, and meticulously planned. He eliminates wisely early on in the story, allowing the focal point (that of the fatal love triangle which destroys the core family) to breathe and grow on its own. Desire is like a 3 act play, which Falls has wisely turned into 2 acts with a prologue. In what could have been a three hour long event, this "Desire" clocks in at barely over an hour and a half. Smart move. This production is quick, to the point, yet never seems rushed or hurried in any way. (I tend to credit Falls with this, his 3 act, 3.5 hour long 'King Lear' is still my favorite piece of theatre I have seen in Chicago. Despite its length it seemed as if nothing could or should have been cut - it was all wonderful and needed).

The story follows the Cabot family. I do not want to go into the plot points. I am sure most theatre-people know the jist of it, and those who are not theatre people or haven't read the show, it would be a true crime to ruin the show's dark secrets. However a basis is needed. The show opens with 3 heirs to a family farm (sons Eben, Peter, and Simeon) doing their daily routine of strenuous chores and slaying of food. It is a boring life that the characters of the play are stuck in. However the soon return of the helm of the family (Ephraim Cabot) jolts the sons into action. Eben convinces his slightly aloof brothers to sign over their share of the farm so that they can make their trek to the Golden Hills of California (Cal .. I .. FORN .. I - A, here) to escape their begrudged lifestyle and become rich and free. As they leave the farm, a new inhabitant enters, determined to make the farm hers. Ephraim has married, a very young and very determined Abbie Putnam. O'Niell uses the rest of the show to plot out a 3 way struggle for ownership of the land. Ephraim plans to live to a hundred and out-live them all, Eben plans to get the farm in revenge of his now-replaced mother, and Abbie is determined to have something to call her own. The rest of the show details how these 3 very troubled, often unlikeable, characters twist and turn things to gain control of the farm, and each other.




Brian Dennehy has had some success in television and film (he was Juliet's father in the overrated Baz Luhrman version of "Romeo and Juliet", he was Chris Farley's father in "Tommy Boy" and was most recently in the new Pacino/DeNiro film Righteous Kill), but his true talent has always been the theatre. He is widely known as one of the best interpreters of the O'Neill language as well. He is used to great effect in this production as the stern, hard-working, and all around crotchety Ephriam Cabot. Dennehy's Ephriam is the type of old man who forgets which son is which after being gone for a year, not because he is senile, but because he honestly has spent no time looking at his children. He is all about hard work. He is dedicated to his farm, more than his family. He is on his third wife - and treats them as child bearers and food makers, his sons are his slaves. He connects better with the cows in the pasture than with his own flesh and blood. Out of the three central characters, it is Dennehy who has the least stage time, and he makes use of every scene to his advantage. He is a force onstage, one of those performances where as soon as he enters the arena - all eyes are on him. The best part of his performance is that he never allows himself to become over-dramatic or even worse melodramatic. In many ways, as Ephriam's world falls apart and he is victim of ultimate betrayal, he reacts in the opposite way that many actor would play the part. He quietens down. He bites the bullet. It would be an odd affair if Denney's wasn't awarded by both the Chicago Jeff's and the Tony's for his work here.




Carla Gugino stars as Abbie, and this is a career defining performance. Watching her in the role is like watching a star being made. Gugino is best know for her film and television work, (she is on Entourage, she was in Sin City, she also starred with Dennehy, Pacino, and DeNiro in this years Righteous Kill) but after this performance I smell many more theatre credits coming her way. Abbie is a tough role, and Gugino steps up to the plate in a big way. It's easy to paint Abbie as the villain of the piece, and Gugino is willing to play that role. Her Abbie is a violent, venom-spitting monster. But at the same time Gugino allows her Abbie to be sexual, playful, and turns the "monster" into a victim as well. At times you don't know what to do with Abbie - take her into your arms for a hug or spit potatoes in her face. As the woman who literally is the nail in the coffin for all of the farms inhabitants, Gigino stands on the fine line of realism and melodrama - and I think that is the way O'Neill intended it to be. She allows herself to go relentlessly over the top, in the best most effective and desirable way. She is the snake in the garden, literally as many of her movements in the play are dance like and slithery. In many ways, hers is the performance people will be talking about, as she damn near steals the show.




As the third member of the triangle, Pablo Schreiber stars as Eben Cabot. Eben is constantly fighting to get out of the shadow of his father - often times to no avail. He is wounded by the death of his mother, and blames his father for working her to death without showing her any love. The show is ultimately about the fateful love between Eben and Abbie (I hope I am not giving away too much here), as they make the couple in "The War of the Roses" look like Al and Peggy Bundy. Pablo is easy on the eyes, and often shirtless or even nude, but his performance is much more than eye candy. He takes the role of Eben to new extremes that couldn't be found on the page. His character makes some of the most surprising and stupid decisions. However his performance is a sight to behold as you see Eben grow from boy to man in under 2 hours.





Boris McGiver and Daniel Stewart Sherman round out the cast as Peter and Simeon Cabot (respectively). They add a greatly needed comedy to the beginning of a show which certainly isn't about laughs. Boris McGiver is certainly the standout as the dim-witted Peter.


Everything about this production is monumental. The set design is among the best I have ever seen. Gone are the elms as we are thrust onto the farm built of stones and dirt. Hanging above the set, is what hangs above each of the characters heads (driving their actions throughout), the farmhouse. Hoisted up by heavy grinding ropes, the farmhouse is literally crashing down upon its inhabitants. Stones are tied from the sky, threatening to fall down onto the greedy threesome as they fight for their home and their love. Its no surprise that the set designer is Walt Spangler, often Fall's collaborator (they last worked together on King Lear - the most sprawling theatre piece I've ever seen). The light design is haunting. Oftentimes there is a feeling of the characters being trapped underwater at times, like fish trying to escape to the ocean - yet instead they are flapping around like fish out of water, desperately hoping to flop themselves a few feet so they can land back into the stream. The music used is perfect. There are some pieces created just for the show, some live violin music, and most exciting a full Bob Dylan song, which plays early on and posts a warning to the audience: "It ain't dark yet, but it's getting there."

"Desire Under the Elms" is not only recommended theater viewing, I think it will be a true crime not to see the show. I give it my highest praise and adoration. I truly suggest that you get to Goodman theatre as soon as you can and see the show that I am sure everyone will be talking about.

**** out of ****








taken from Hedy Weiss Sun Time's Review:

"It takes actors of immense presence to stand up to such an overwhelming environment, and this cast of five unquestionably meets the challenge."

"Veteran Carla Gugino is absolutely sensational!"

"Dennehy easily taps into the unmovable, self-made tyrant whose struggle for survival has robbed him of compassion. He brings a creepy sense of foreboding."

"Schrieber turns in a beatifully calibrated performance."

"You will not soon forget this thunderous production."

"Highly recommended"





Taken from Chris Jones Chicago Tribune review:

"Robert Falls’ colossal, eye-popping, unabashedly sexual and overtly expressionistic revival of Eugene O’Neill’s embryonic American tragedy from 1924 is a success."

"Carla Gugino stars, in what could be a career-making performance."

"This latest, massive production, which also includes a defiantly anachronistic burst of Bob Dylan, feels like an intellectual companion to his similarly expressionistic and controversial take on “King Lear.”

“Desire” is a very difficult play for a modern audience to grasp. It is a relentlessly depressing play that a good portion of that audience won’t particularly want to grasp. I am not in that group, but I see their argument and wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few make it with their feet. But such are the enemies a great artistic leader must make."

"Carla Gigino's performance is an arresting and courageous one that oozes sex but also suggests the kind of steely alienation that can make sense of a mercurial character driven to madness."

"Highly Recommended"

#1 in Performink

Performink, Chicago's #1 theatre source, has named No Darkness Round My Stone (a show which I loved being a part of at the Trap Door Theatre) the number one show of the year!!!! Hooray!

End of the Year Theatre Awards

At the end of 2008 all the local Chicago publications released some top 10 and best of lists for all the theatre in Chicago and some of my shows won accolades and mentions, so here they are:

NEW CITY CHICAGO

BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR: No Darkness Round my Stone
MOST MEMORABLE SHOW BY A SMALLER THEATRE TROUPE: Termen Vox Machina

WINDY CITY TIMES

BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR: Termen Vox Machina
BEST SET DESIGN: No Darkness Round My Stone

ON CHICAGO THEATRE
BEST SET DESIGN: Termen Vox Machina

Deanna slams!

My good friend from high school and college, Deanna Gibson, competed in some sort of Manhattan monologue competition and I found 2 monologues she performed, and they are hysterical! She was always one of my favorite actresses to watch and work with. I wish her the best!

No Love for Holmes

It looks like Katie Holmes has no shot at any Tony accolades for her Broadway debut in "All My Sons". Although the tickets have been selling well (which I think also is heightened by John Lithgow - a broadway veteran) the critics weren't too pleased. The critics viewed the show last night. And they didn't like her:

USA today says: "At best, Holmes exhibits a girlish exuberance that could serve her well in certain stage roles, provided she finds a director who can ease her obvious self-consciousness and get her to focus on the often-intricate process of character development. Sadly, Simon McBurney, who helms this production, is not that director."

Newsday compares Katie Holmes to the winner of a high school talent show.

But its not new news, lots of actresses have tried shots at Broadway - only to see their performances ripped apart. (See Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman)

The Gurney

This is the AMAZING trailer for my friend and co-star Tiffany's new show - which will open after our show "No Darkness Round My Stone" closes.

Wow this looks right up my alley!

Katie is a STAR!

One of my best friends Katie Carlson is currently in DIRTY DANCING THE MUSICAL in Chicago on its pre-Broadway run. And thanks to her, I get to go see the show tonight, and I am so excited. She plays my favorite character from the movie: Lisa, baby's sister. Here is a an official podcast from the show (with Katie in it), enjoy -- and go support local theatre!

Latest Review on No Darkness

Another review has popped up for my show NO DARKNESS ROUND MY STONE still playing (for 2 more weeks) at Trap Door Theatre. Here it is:

No Darkness Round My Stone

One of the big draws of Trap Door for me is their ability to regularly pull work that no one else seems to have even heard of out of thin air. I may not always end up, and somewhat frequently don't, feel the same way about the final product, but their season announcements are often among the more exciting ones in the city. And when they do hit on something, the result is not only the pleasure of a good show, but also the thrill of discovery.

They've unearthed two such thrilling discoveries in No Darkness Round My Stone: playwright Fabrice Melquiot and director Max Truax. Melquiot falls under that biggest heading that Trap Door has the corner on: contemporary European edginess. This young French surrealist is making sense of life and death and sex by refusing to handle them separately. The fractured and obtusely resplinted narrative tracks a family as they relive their carnal tragedy beyond the grave while a living soul looks on with growing and frightening envy. The most unsettling aspect of the play is that Melquiot has hoisted a world in which every character can reach two of those three, but only burns with necessity for the third. In this tomb, the living and the dead can be one in the same but do so with a torturous desire for passion. Or the living can have a love which is of no use as long as death stands in its way. And while the dead may repeat their passions, they cannot carry this desire to the endpoints they never reached before having been torn apart by both life and its conclusion. With Melquiot, however, the longing for cannot overcome the tragedy of the not having, and so the cycle is endless: the dead continuously recycling their sorrows which have no hope of changing while the living can only look on green-eyed to the inevitability that they cannot hope to find in their own existence.

This is all achieved through the guidance of the other discovery. Max Truax, a recent refugee from the West Coast, is, mark my words, about to be a name on everybody's Windy City lips. As far as I am aware, this is his second major production in Chicago, after Oracle's Termen Vox Machina, which, if not always entirely successful, was deliriously high effect via low budget. It seems to be Truax's m.o. -- take a little and make it feel that much more inclusive. From the overlap in cast & crew between Termen and No Darkness (Casey Chapman, Cassandra Kaluza, David Steiger), I'm guessing he either came to town with posse in tow or is very rapidly going about forming one to call his own. Either way, he's picked good people, the acting is fantastic. Sam Lewis and Jesse McCabe's sound combo of twisted standards and atmospheric murmurs firmly places the world into a flashback without a history and Ewelina Dobiesz's set gives Trap Door and even more pronounced tomb-like claustrophobia -- a feat I didn't think possible. And then there's Truax, who makes people disappear with the simple action of falling down; who brings our sympathies with the tragedy of and after death to a peak and then immediately tops it by underscoring the pathetic existence of those still living; who uses actors to block lights in the name of shadow but also in the name of darkness; who has a whirlwind rising from the empty well that is mortality right now at Trap Door.

Highly Recommended

That Sinking Feeling - Paul Rekk

Equity Jeff Nominations Announced

The Jeff nominations for Equity productions in Chicago have been announced (if youre not in Chicago - basically the Jeff's are Chicago's Tony Awards) and Goodman Theatre - the theatre where I work during the day - was awarded a shockingly good 15 nominations.

Goodman Nominees include:
Best Play - Passion Play
Best Play - The Trip To Bountiful
Best Revue - Ain't Misbehavin'
Best Director / Revue - Chuck Smith: Ain't Misbehavin'
Best Actor / Play - John Hudd: Shining City
Best Actor / Revue - John Steven Crowley: Ain't Misbehavin'
Best Actress / Play - Karen Alderidge: The Cook
Best Actress / Play - Lois Smith: Trip to Bountiful
Best Actress / Revue - E. Faye Butler: Ain't Misbehavin'
Best Supporting Actress / Play: Hallie Foote: Trip to Bountiful
Best Supporting Actress / Play: Polly Noonan: Passion Play
Best Scenic Design: E. David Crosier: Trip to Bountiful
Best Scenic Design: Allen Moyer: Passion Play
Best Sound Design: Cecil Everet: Passion Play
Best Artistic Specialities: Rupert Boehle: Passion Play

the full list of nominees can be found here: http://www.theatreinchicago.com/news.php?articleID=406

Pick of the Week!

My show "No Darkness Round My Stone" was listed as the New City "Number One Pick Of the Week" and was named the #2 event in all of the arts this month in Chicago - finishing second to the San Francisco Ballet, which is in town. Hooray!

Also the official webpage of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy have posted an article about our show. The link is here: http://www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?article1696

Windy City Times on 'No Darkness'

The following is the review from the windy city times:

“What's your job?” a young lady asks the boy she's just met. “I'm a gold-digger,” replies the smitten lad. In a manner of speaking, this is accurate. He and his brother occupy their nighttimes cutting jewelry and prying dental crowns from recently-interred corpses.

This distasteful choice of employment, we learn, was precipitated by the death of their mother—a traumatic event plunging their father into depression that propels him to roam the streets, dressed in his late wife's clothes, in which he poses as a prostitute. His son's dream of a new start for their bereaved family is in idyllic Switzerland, financed by the treasure they steal from those who, after all, no longer have need of it. Robbing the helpless dead, however, is not as safe as the desperate thieves anticipate.

Andrew Marvell may have declared “the grave's a fine and private place/but none, I think, do there embrace,” but the revenants in actor-turned-playwright Fabrice Melquiot's whimsical view of the hereafter are not content to requiescat in pace. Indeed, the sole still-breathing participant—a nervous necrophile poet (played by Casey Chapman) searching, à la Edgar Allen Poe, for his recently deceased beloved—emerges to interrupt the departed.

Scenic designer Ewelina Dobiesz envisions our cemetery setting less as that of a pastoral garden than of a gone-to-seed funeral parlor, ambience heightened on opening night by the rain drumming on the roof of Trap Door's carriage-house auditorium, its decay acclimating us to conventions such as characters collapsing like unstrung marionettes by way of exiting a scene.

Likewise, securing our attention for the play's 90-minute running time is an ensemble of actors whose grasp of their respective personae reflects an infectious suspension of disbelief that quickly draws us into their universe. David Steiger and Kevin Lucero Less anchor the action as the two Beckettian siblings, Casey Chapman's poet and Tiffany Joy Ross' phantom bride join Cassandra Kaluza's exuberant ingenue and Bob Wilson's stately Sunset Boulevard-styled transvestite.
RECOMMENDED

The Tribune Agrees!

Our new show: NO DARKNESS ROUND MY STONE - just recieved a great review from the Chicago Tribune! The biggest paper in the city of Chicago. I am so proud of the show - and I hope you can make it out to see it if youre in the area.

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'Darkness' cast is up to grave challenge

By Kerry Reid | SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE
September 12, 2008

The flowers of evil are in bloom again, and such strange flowers they are. Contemporary French playwright Fabrice Melquiot's disquieting and occasionally mesmerizing meditation on death, grief, and grave robbers, "No Darkness Round My Stone," plays in its English-language world premiere with Trap Door Theatre—like a cross between 19th Century symbolist poetry a la Charles Baudelaire and a gritty psychological noir thriller set in the underworld. At least six feet under.

Using disjointed chronology, Melquiot's play, (translated by David Bradby), traces the love affairs of two brothers, swaggering Dan (David Steiger) and sensitive dreamer Ivan (Kevin Lucero Less). When we first see them, they are rifling a recently interred corpse for jewelry and gold teeth. Dan insists on saying a prayer over the woman's body—right before he is apparently shot and killed himself by an outraged bystander.

From this bold and unnerving opening sequence, director Max Truax's louche and lugubrious production takes us into a twilight world of infidelity, necrophilia, voyeurism and cross-dressing. The brothers' father, Louis (Bob Wilson), spends his nights dressed in his dead wife's clothes, prowling for tricks as "Lullaby." Mysterious wannabe poet Juste (Casey Chapman), tries to get over his own broken heart by taking, um, liberties with the dead. Dan's abandoned, pregnant girlfriend Dolores (Tiffany Joy Ross) and Laurie (Cassandra Kaluza), Ivan's feverishly virginal partner, round out the gallery of damaged questing souls.

This is dark stuff, to be sure, and the interwoven story lines occasionally confound comprehension. At times, the connective tissue falls lax as the dialogue turns to poetry devoid of passion. Thankfully, however, the material isn't played for self-conscious shock value. Truax, who most recently brought an intriguing visual sensibility to "Termen Vox Machina," a multimedia piece based on Soviet spy and inventor Leon Theremin at Oracle Productions, makes a good fit with Trap Door's decadent European aesthetic. He also has a fairly good grasp on the more humane aspects of Melquiot's challenging script. Richard Norwood's nightmarish lighting and Ewelina Dobiesz's moldering set mesh beautifully to suggest an end-of-the-world environment where everything the characters want is just out of reach, taunting them in the dreamlike shadows.

Two performances in particular stand out in the mists of Melquiot's tone poem. Ross' betrayed bride-to-be, ripe with bruised pride and unashamed passion, plaintively declares to the faithless Dan "I want each one of my dreams to be a refuge or hospital for you." And as Louis/Lullaby, Bob Wilson is simply marvelous, his sadly comic and understated demeanor imbued with unbearable loss.

Through Oct. 11 at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland Ave. Tickets are $20 at 773-384-0494 or www.trapdoortheatre.com.

The Reader Weighs in!

The Chicago Reader has chosen No Darkness Round My Stone to be on its shortlist, the most highly recommended shows. Here is the review which will appear in Thursdays paper:

No Darkness Round My Stone
When: Through 10/11: Thu-Sat 8 PM
Phone: 773-384-0494
Price: $20, two for one Thu
Set in and around a graveyard, French playwright Fabrice Melquiot's hallucinatory play isn't for the timid--or for those who need a linear storyline. Melquiot gives us six fascinating characters, five of whom are corpses at the start of the evening, and sets them loose in a series of hallucinatory scenes--some quite witty, some terrifying and violent--that offer intriguing echoes of Beckett, Wedekind, Fassbinder, Albee, and Poe, but don't quite add up. Max Truax's inspired, eccentric direction leaves as many unanswered questions as Melquiot's highly fragmented text (translated here by David Bradby). But an intense and energetic ensemble keeps our attention. Highly Recommended. --Jack Helbig

More praise

This review taken from Time Out Chicago:

BRIDE, HEAD REVISITED Trap's cast enjoys the wedding suite.

This drama by young French playwright Melquiot provides what some might consider the stereotypical Parisian theatrical experience: There's lots of bizarre behavior accompanied by ironic musings on the emptiness of human existence, delivered by pitiful lowlifes wearing ghoulish makeup and staring off into the middle distance. Look closer, though, and you'll notice that Melquiot uses these elements to mask what's essentially a very conventional play.

On the surface, the main themes are those old chestnuts, loneliness and mortality. Brothers Dan and Ivan are grave robbers who encounter trouble on a job one night that leaves one or both of them (it's not entirely clear) dead. This occasions the introduction of other (apparently also dead) members of the family: Dan's pregnant, jilted bride-to-be, still wearing her tattered wedding gown; Ivan's effusive but unfaithful girlfriend; and the men's desperately unhappy father, who leads a double life as a transvestite prostitute named Lullaby. Melquiot's sensibility is cheerfully macabre, his writing style quasi-absurdist with a dash of the lyrical. And yet, crazy characters and borrowed style aside, the plot mechanics are pure melodrama (the climax, for instance, depends on a love triangle and gunshots), gussied up with the occasional flight of fancy or fatuous pronouncement ("God is dead, but I'm not").

Truax's production endows the play with both verve and gravity. Kevin Lucero Less and Cassandra Kaluza give Ivan and his girlfriend a nice, loopy innocence, but only Bob Wilson, as the tortured tranny, truly taps into his character's mad desperation.

**** - RECOMMENDED!

3rd Review!

The reviews keep coming in for my new show: No Darkness Round My Stone, playing at Trap Door Theatre in Chicago. For all the info - please visit: www.trapdoortheatre.com

This review is taken from Chicago Stage - critic: Venus Zarris

No other theater can consistently suspend reality to create overwhelming and oftentimes-otherworldly atmosphere, usually before the action or dialogue even begins, like Trap Door Theatre. To say that they are the foremost purveyors avant-garde theater in Chicago is to understate this portal to alternate realms. Hidden down a narrow walkway, next to a bar, behind a restaurant, on a side street in Bucktown is a black trap door that opens into the extremes of theatrical imagination. You could drive by it and easily miss this purgatorial paradise of the sublime surreal.

Trap Door Theatre presents the English language premiere of No Darkness Around My Stone, by French Playwright Fabrice Melquiot. This macabre and melancholy dreamlike tale of grave robbers provides a perfectly eerie adult prelude to the Halloween season. But don’t expect vampires or werewolves. Instead, you will find a room full of corpses dealing with unrequited longing, obsessive desires and love.

Director Max Truax takes this complex fusion of hyperrealism and surrealism and creates more emotional connection than can be found in many straightforward scripts. The humanity of the characters is reduced to raw, desperate, intimate, funny and urgent exchanges as the corpses animate, collapse and then reanimate, creating scenes that tell a story more concerned with emotion than with a linier narrative.

The intense interaction between the audience and the production comes by way of a created atmosphere that is so tactile; it stays with you after you leave. There is nothing familiar about the setting but the emotional truth of the characters is completely compelling and evocative.

Communicating this script requires a visionary director helming a brilliant cast. Kevin Lucero Less is particularly outstanding, displaying charming humor and vulnerability as the grave-robbing brother Ivan. In addition to the startling performances, the incredible deign team is completely in tune with creating this abstract and suggestive reality. Set designer Ewelina Dobiesz and lighting designer Richard Norwood create perhaps their most amazing work to date. Sam Lewis and Jesse McCabe’s sound design accents this creation beautifully and the costume design, by Beata Pilch and Sir Iris Bainum-Houle, and ghostly make-up design, by Zsofia Otvos, complete the dark illusionary magnificence.

No Darkness Around My Stone is a spellbinding, poignant, chilling and profound mix of existential destitution and sweet tenderness. Do not miss this unique opportunity to experience a challenging, chilling, peculiar and incomparably haunting production.

4 STARS out of 4 STARS
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

(A SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING AVANT-GARDE THEATRE)

The bold or delicate delivery of surreal theater is as complicated as the execution of a complex piece of classical music.

Music, by the sheer nature of itself, is an abstract proposition for our brain to process. The stringing together of tonal variation, deliberately or randomly, to create an auditory phrase of notes by definition is something that should be very difficult to digest and yet, for most people, music is instantly accessible and, whether favorable or not, very evocative.

Abstract visual art has a similar effect. Oftentimes we may not understand the composition of the work or the intention of the artist and yet something, perhaps the colors or the objects rendered, strikes a chord and we are moved.

But abstract theater, in general, meets greater cerebral opposition. Because we have stricter preconceived notions of human behavior and interaction, when these notions are violated by unpredictable, taboo, or irreverent actions or mind throws up walls and the traffic of incoming messages to our brains comes to a screeching halt.

We want reasons, explanations for behavior. If we don’t immediately understand we feel stupid, unsafe and we disconnect, fixating on the point of confusion instead of allowing the moments to simply sink in like an unfamiliar tune or a lavish explosion of color on canvas.

I challenge you to take this marvelously macabre play in like a melancholy melody from a haunting and foreign location. Not a foreign country, but rather a beautifully bleak suspension of reality, inhabited by longing, love, desperation, desire and moments of irreverent humor.

Don’t try and figure it out, let it wash over you. The pieces will fall together. The moments will engage you and you’ll come away compelled by something deeper than the satisfactory safety of standard theater.