Shakespeare's Black Comedy

I have been invited to propose up to 3 plays to direct for my Alma Mater's ACT (All College Theatre) company. I chose a modern work (Paul Rudnick's Valhalla), a mid-century thriller (Maxwell Anderson's Bad Seed) and what most scholars agree is probably Shakespeare's first play, Titus Andronicus.

Titus Andronicus details the story of a Roman General (the titular Titus) who is returning from war with the Goths, to find Rome in the midst of political turmoil as two brothers vie for the throne. After losing 15 of his 18 sons in battle, Titus has captured the Goth Queen Tamora; her Moorish adviser Aaron and her three sons, whom he presents to the new Emperor, Saturninus. As punishment for his own sons' deaths at the hands of the Goths, Titus has Tamora's oldest son killed. But Saturninus immediately becomes smitten with Tamora and marries her, pardoning the Queen and her two remaining sons. Tamora and Aaron quickly plot their own revenge against Titus, killing two of his three remaining sons. Meanwhile Tamora has become pregnant by Aaron. Aaron, a truly Machiavellian villain, plots with her to kill two of Titus's sons in what is meant to look like a hunting accident (thy fall into a tiger pit). She then sends her remaining sons to rape Titus' daughter, Lavinia. To make sure Lavinia can't ID the perps. they cut out her tongue and cut off her hands so she cannot say or write who defiled her. But the plucky Lavinia picks up a stick in her stumps and writes Tamora's sons' names in the dirt. Titus then captures Tamora's sons and kills them; cuts them up and bakes them in a pie which he then force-feeds to Tamora and Saturninus. In true Shakespearean tragedy style, everybody dies at the end.

While the events in Titus Andronicus are most like inspired by the works of the Roman poets Ovid and Seneca, the plot is so outrageous and gory, most Shakespearean companies avoid it like the plague. Personally, I think it's perfect fodder for a black comedy and have proposed it as such for TCNJ's ACT.

Happily, I'm not the only director to think so. Julie Taymor's delirious 1999 adaptation, starring Anthony Hopkins; Jessica Lange; Alan Cumming; Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Angus MacFadyen is a hilarious mix of periods, styles and over-the-top gore, resulting in one of the best Shakespearean films ever made. I cannot wait for her upcoming adaptation of The Tempest, starring Dame Helen Mirran as Prospera (Hmmmm... might I have a special interest in this film?). Anyway, here's the trailer for her version of Titus:

Of course, Bad Seed has also been adapted twice. Once as theatrical film starring most of the Broadway cast and again as an updated TV movie. Either way, it remains a creepy thriller about a child who may well be a serial killer.

The last play I proposed was Paul Rudnick's Valhalla, which details the similarities between a young gay man in 1940's Texas and mad King Ludwig of Bavaria. It's both touching and comedic in a way which I cannot imagine would translate to film.

Honestly, I don't care which of the three the ACT board picks, as long as they pick one. The current crop of young actors at TCNJ have proven (through several recent productions I have seen there) that they are not only talented, but fearless, and I would be both honored and privileged to direct them.

More, anon.
Prospero

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Life Less Sordid

Yesterday was a full day of theatre.

During the day, Uncle P presided over auditions for the JTMF production of Sordid Lives. Thank goodness I'm the kind of director who pre-casts as much as he can. Now, I can hear the screams of actors all over, decrying the practice, but every director worth his (or her) salt wants to use people he (or she) knows will give him (or her) the kind of performance he (or she) is looking for. (OK - enough of that. From now on, "he" will be the pronoun of choice, here. That's not meant to be sexist, but merely practical).

Anyway, a JTMF show is a rather unique animal, and we can afford to pick and choose most of our casts in advance. And truth be told, we look for shows which not only will appeal to our core audiences and reflect the values and sensibilities of what we are doing, but those that will also best utilize our core talent pool. And honestly, I don't know a director who reads a script without imagining actors he knows in roles. Thankfully, Sordid Lives is an almost perfect show for us. It has an LGBT theme; it's a comedy and it can be produced rather simply.

Personally, if I had my druthers, I would only do shows in which Dear D, K and Q have pivotal roles. In this case, all three were perfect, but only two were available. Still, as Meatloaf once crooned, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. So, I went to Plan B. What other actors did I know who were right? Thankfully, seven other talented folks were all available and actually excited to take part. So that left three roles left to fill. Sadly, of the several folks who made audition appointments, only three showed up. And of those three, only one was usable (and actually quite good). So, my producer and I and made a few phone calls, sent out a few emails and were able to fully cast the show by 5 PM. You can read the complete cast list by clicking on the link to the JTMF blog on the left hand side of your screen, should you be so interested. The bottom line is, I am thrilled with my cast and can't wait for our first read-thru on the 27th.

Feeling really good, K, Q, Dale and I met for dinner at a local favorite Italian place before heading off to see a most excellent student production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Q's and my alma mater. I knew very little about the show, but was pleasantly surprised by the production. Not only was the show hilarious, poignant and original; it was most excellently cast with a group of exceptionally talented students who pulled out all the stops and gave it their all.

Days like that tend to restore my faith in not only theatre, but the Arts in general.

Today, of course, was spent on more mundane matters like changing curtains, grocery shopping and doing laundry. But when the weather is as good as today's was, and the day before proves to be as fulfilling as yesterday was, it makes me think that perhaps the world isn't such a horrible place, after all.

I honestly hope all of you had as good a weekend as I did. I can only hope the rest of the week (month, year) will prove to be as satisfying.

More, anon.
Prospero

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Horrors!

News today that the Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor true-story gay prisoners flick I Love You Phillip Morris has been shelved indefinitely, got me thinking about other films I was sort of looking forward to seeing this year which may or may not reach theaters.

Every year, plenty of movies are made which never see the inside of a cineplex. Some are released direct to DVD; some are released in limited venues; some are released months or years after they were originally scheduled and some are never seen, ever. Why? Who knows. The reasons are as varied as you can imagine: legal squabbles; artistic disputes; studio politics, etc., etc. Sometimes it's just because the finished product is so bad, the studio would rather take the loss on production costs than spend the money promoting a film they know is going to bomb. Occasionally, these movies get a late January or February release, though that trend seems to be waning (to the relief of movie fans desperate for something decent to see in the late winter).

Here a few movies I was at least sort of interested in seeing, but may never get the chance to:

Season of the Witch

Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman and Christopher Lee star in this horror movie about a group of knights who are assigned to take a suspected witch to a remote abbey where she'll be exorcised or executed, depending on whether or not she is actually responsible for starting the Black Plague. The trailer lists a release date of March 19th, 2010, but I'm still waiting.

Crush

Christopher Egan (late of NBC's alt-history show "Kings") stars in this thriller about a young man being stalked by a girl who may or may not have supernatural powers. Both the trailer and IMDb list Crush as being released in 2009, though the trailer on YouTube is dated 2010. Who knows if we'll ever see it.

The Final

This tale of high school outcasts taking revenge on those who torment them was briefly released as part the 2010 AfterDark HorrorFest. Mark Donato of ABC Family's "Degrassi: The Next Generation" stars.



Primal

This Australian horror movie concerns a group of beautiful young campers (are there any other kind?) who encounter the spirit of a bloodthirsty ancient demon (is there any other kind?) while vacationing in the Outback.

So what movies have you been looking forward to seeing which may or may not reach a screen near you?

Tomorrow I am holding auditions for the remaining roles in the JTMF production of Del Shores' Sordid Lives, and later will be seeing the TCNJ production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a musical with which I am not at all familiar. But, I know several members of the cast (one of whom played Sabina in my production of The Skin of Our Teeth), so I am looking forward to it. Hopefully, I'll be home in time to post on The Zombie Zone.

I hope you have as interesting a weekend planned.

More, anon.
Prospero

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Judging Wired VII

I spent the majority of my college years at what was then Trenton State College, a respectable state school with a reputation for turning out teachers and nurses. Theatre majors were few, but that meant we all got to participate in a large number of shows in a great many capacities, both on and backstage. It's where I learned to design scenery and costumes; stage manage; build props and apply stage makeup, along with acting and directing, while working on as many as six shows a year. Its where a wonderful professor taught me how to use my basso profundo to its fullest effect on stage, and another taught me how to fill the pauses in Chekhov. I have many fond memories of TSC, though now its The College of New Jersey, a consistently top-rated public college with an ever-changing and expanding campus.

And I still do theatre there as a member of Shakespeare '70, the Classical Company in unofficial residence at TCNJ. It's where I directed The Skin of Our Teeth and where for the second year in a row, I have been privileged to be invited as an alumni judge for WIRED, an annual 24-hour student play competition. Participants have 24 hours to write, cast, rehearse and produce a 15 to 20 minute-long play, all of which have certain conditions applied to them as the writing process goes on. Whatever play they wrote, had to reflect the plays' theme, which this year was Aesop's Fables. Each play had to tell a story that represented a moral from each team's pre-selected fable. Each team was also assigned a particular genre. Twists were added at irregular intervals, which also had to be part of the show. It went something like this:

8:00 PM: Adjudicators assign each team their fable and genre, as well as which type of crazy prop they must use in a way that makes sense. The writers start throwing ideas around.

9:00 PM: The writers receive their first twist: Each play must quote Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance."

10:00 PM: The second twist: Each play must have a character who stuffs his/her face with food at some point.

And so on. You get the idea. Each play also had to have a monologue in which the speaker reveals some dark secret from his/her past. Of course, being college kids, they all strive to be as hilarious as they can. And quite honestly, there was no shortage of laughs (both juvenile and insightful, mostly aimed at pop culture references). The plays presented were: Wish Granted; Papa Mia; Invasion of Chaos with Buckaroo Banzai & the Teleportation Device and Granny Mae's Samurai Smackdown. They were all very funny and outre and geeky all at once (Wish Granted started with a 'Dungeons and Dragons' type RPG being played, while Papa Mia pointedly spoofed the Abba musical from which it took its name). Some of thethings they tried worked beautifully; some worked better than others and some... not so much.

The show that almost swept the awards was Granny Mae's Samurai Smackdown, which won Best Actress (my ridiculously dirty dirty-girl Maddie, playing a ridiculously dirty old lady with great glee and amazingly perfect comic timing), Best Writing and Best Play. The award for Best Actor went to a young man in Invasion of Chaos... who gave his completely hilarious revealing soliloquy as a series of nonsensical words and syllables which somehow made perfect Star Wars sense (you had to be there), thanks to the young man's extraordinary delivery. Invasion... was co-written by my Go-Go Elf, Matty, whom I discovered as an actor while judging last Year's WIRED, where he played about 6 different hilarious characters (including Hitler) in one piece.

Although I was only there for the last 2 hours of the event, by the end, I was nearly as exhausted as the students were (though I suspect that has more to do with Uncle P's age, than anything else). After a drink or two with my co-judges, I came home and collapsed, too tired to do much more than check my mail and post an apology on The Zombie Zone.

Still, the evening (despite many obstacles - including 2 snow-related postponements), was a rousing success. Creativity was encouraged and rewarded, students engaged in some friendly competition and more than a few nerves were frazzled, when all was said and done. The entire theatre experience in one exhaustive day! I wish ther ehad been a WIRED when I was a student there. I can only imagine what might have come out of those competitions. Kudos to the all of the students who participated in WIRED. I hope to be asked back as a judge again, because I had myself a wonderful, exhilarating and hilarious evening of Theatre-by-the-Seat-of-Your-Pants last night. Bravo!

More, anon.
Prospero

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