A Follow Spot

Awards, Awards... DGA Last Night

2012-01-29T17:29:00.005-06:00

As the Awards Season continues on its merry way, we need to thank the Directors Guild for scheduling their ceremony on a Saturday night instead of piling up on Sunday like everyone else. (I'm looking at you, Screen Actors Guild, with your ceremony later tonight.)

But, meanwhile, last night...

The Directors Guild honored directors in ten categories, with additional Special Awards given to Ed Sherin (DGA Honorary Life Member Award), Katy E. Garretson (Frank Capra Achievement Award) and Dennis W. Mazzocco (Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award).

The competitive categories include commercials, children's programs and reality programs, but let's get serious. The one everybody wants to know about is Feature Film. The DGA awards are a better predictor of the ultimate Oscar winner than just about any other award. It doesn't always hold that the winner of the DGA award also wins the Directing Oscar, but it almost always does. And this year... No surprise, Michael Hazanavicius, director of "The Artist," was the big winner, taking home the award for Best Director of a Feature Film. Hazanavicius may want to start clearing a space on his mantel and penning his acceptance speech.

In the other film category -- Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary -- James Marsh won for "Project Nim," which was not nominated by the Academy in their documentary group. "Project Nim" is about a chimpanzee raised by humans to behave and communicate as much like a human child as possible, which means it is so up my alley. I'm going to have to find this one on a screen somewhere.

In the TV Movie or Mini-Series category, Jon Cassar won for "The Kennedys," which appeared on the Reelz Channel, with Patty Jenkins named the winner for a TV Dramatic Series for the pilot episode of "The Killing" on AMC and Robert B. Weide the winner for a TV Comedy Series for the "Palestinian Chicken" episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on HBO. Glenn Weiss won in the TV Musical Variety category for last year's Tony Awards show on CBS.

Among reality TV shows, Neil P. DeGroot was honored for his direction of an episode of "The Biggest Loser" on NBC, while Amy Schatz took honors for her work on "A Child's Garden of Verse" on HBO in the Children's Programs category.

The award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials went to Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, who directed ads for Heineken Premium Light, DirecTV, Volkswagen Tiguan and EA Battlefield 3 that you may've seen on TV. This Handlebar Mustache ad definitely looks familiar.

The only one that I've left out is the Daytime Serial award, which went to director William Ludel for an episode of "General Hospital" wherein daytime icon Luke Spencer was subjected to an intervention by family and friends. It was an okay episode, but I kind of hate "General Hospital" in general, with special distaste for what they've done to Luke and Laura and their kids. Decimated might be a good word. Meanwhile, ABC canceled "One Life to Live," a much better show with much better writing, performances and direction. And better ratings, as well. But the DGA couldn't even see fit to give their award to OLTL in its last season. No, they lauded GH just like they always do. Thanks a bunch, DGA. I'm sure none of that is Mr. Ludel's fault. He's probably a lovely person and no doubt a talented director who richly deserves his award. Yeah, whatever. I'm still bitter about that whole "One Life to Live" thing. I believe at this point, there are a total of four Daytime Serials left. Perhaps now would be a good time for the DGA to excise that category completely.

U of I Opens the Semester With "Judas Iscariot"

2012-01-28T11:57:00.005-06:00

Next week, the University of Illinois Department of Theatre offers its first production of 2012 with "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot," by Stephen Adly Guirgis. You couldn't miss Guirgis's name last year when his "The Motherf*cker with the Hat," starring Chris Rock and Bobby Cannavale, hit Broadway, scooping up six Tony nominations.

Guirgis is co-artistic director of the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York City, and that's where "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" had its first production in 2005. Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Judas" was named one of the ten best plays of the year by both TIME Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. That off-Broadway production starred Sam Rockwell as a catatonic Judas and Eric Bogosian as Satan, the real star of the show, with Mother Teresa, Mary Magdalene, Jesus, several apostles, and Sigmund Freud among the other characters.

U of I's press info labels the play "a metaphysical courtroom drama." Set in a courtroom in a small corner of purgatory, the play probes big issues issues of faith and despair, innocence and guilt, good and evil, as attorneys argue both sides of Judas's case in front of a cranky judge from the Civil War era, bringing in a parade of witnesses from a variety of times past. Can Judas be forgiven, find redemption, and get out of Hell after all these years? Can he even get his case heard?

Guirgis uses his own brand of poetry, including street slang and urban idiom, to give a contemporary, irreverent feel to the speeches of saints and sinners alike. CurtainUp called Guirgis's characters "wildly inventive," while Michael Billington, in his review of the London production for the Guardian in 2008, noted that "What gives the play its life is that Guirgis handles big issues with comic flair."

For U of I, "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" is directed by Associate Professor Lisa Gaye Dixon, with Nick Narcisi as Judas, Julian Parker as Satan, Kelson Michael McAuliffe as the prosecutor, Tyrone Philip as the judge, and Neala Barron as Judas's feisty defense attorney, one Fabiana Aziza Cunningham.

"The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" opens Thursday, February 2, and runs through Sunday, February 12. For more information or to reserve tickets, click here. You can even get a sneak peek at the program here in case you'd like to read up on the cast or director (or read the dramaturg's notes) before you go.

The "Sheep" Musical: February 3

2012-01-27T12:02:00.003-06:00

Yes, that's right -- one week from tonight may be the only opportunity you will have in your lifetime to see a musical about sheep. Well, sheep and lambs. And whatever the Theatre of Ted has concocted to go along with sheep and lambs. A little mint jelly?

"Sheep's on the Lamb," a musical comedy, comes to Capen Auditorium in Edwards Hall on the ISU campus next Friday and Saturday, February 3 and 4, with performances at 7:30 pm.

The Theatre of Ted describes their new musical as "an original musical comedy featuring terrible puns, silly songs, and some very talented people. It both makes fun of musicals and is proudly a part of the genre. With characters like Wool Smith and Baaaaaab Marley, Sheep's on the Lamb is goofy to say the least. The first act resembles a romantic comedy while the second is a post-apocalyptic sheep-dominated war story. It has everything you want and more. Oh and sheep, it has a lot of sheep."

So... Pretty Mutton meets Goattaca? (They didn't really say there would be goats. It's just that "Goattaca" sounds better than "Leg of Lamb's Run" or "Soylent Sheep.")

In any event, tickets for this musical about sheep are only $2 at the door, so you can hardly go wrong. Proceeds will be directed to the Theatre of Ted's Scholarship program.

The cast for "Sheep's on the Lamb" will include Alex Kostner and Robert "Cug" Leahy as Wool Smith Sr. and Jr., Kelsey Bunner as Mary, who I'm guessing has a little lamb or two, and Becky Solomon as Bo Peep. Max Zuckert, Jake Pollock and Ethan Goldman penned the script; Goldman also directs, with Andy Hudson as Musical Director.

You are warned that, this being Theatre of Ted, there may be baaaad words and woolly situations.

Click here for further info and instructions.

Oscar's Best Pics: "The Help"

2012-01-26T13:37:00.003-06:00

I've already talked in this blog about "Hugo" and "Midnight in Paris," two of the nine films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. They're both wonderful.

I've seen most of the others on the list, too, but wasn't moved to write about them at the time. Now that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has deemed them worthy of nominations for Best Picture, however, I thought I would give a couple of them a whirl.

First up: "The Help."

"The Help" is based on the best-selling book of the same name, written by Kathryn Stockett. The story goes that Stockett wanted her childhood best pal, Tate Taylor, to write and direct the film version of her novel, and he held the option on the book even before it was published. Both Stockett and Taylor have said that they really did have "co-mothers," much like the black servants in the novel, who are the ones who really raise the children, wipe the runny noses, cook the meals, clean the houses and keep everything running smoothly on the homefront.

"The Help" is set in Mississippi in the 1960s, when even middle-class women had domestic help, and shows both the awful treatment the black women faced on a day-to-day basis as well as the friendships which evolved between these African-American caretakers and their white charges. As a device to get into the story, we start with a young woman named Skeeter, played in the movie by current It Girl Emma Stone, who isn't interested in the whole husband-house-and-baby thing that consumes every other socially acceptable white girl in town. Instead, Skeeter wants to be a writer. She gets a try-out writing a column on homemaking hints for a local newspaper, but it's not really anything she knows anything about, so she turns to her friend's extremely capable housekeeper, Aibileen, given fierce life by Viola Davis, for help. And then Skeeter is appalled when she hears about a campaign to require the black ladies, the help, to use separate bathrooms rather than spread their alleged germs to their white employers. So Skeeter comes up with the idea of writing an exposé that will accomplish several things -- it will reveal the hypocrisy and craziness of people like Hilly Holbrook, the head of the Junior League, who launched the "Home Health Sanitation Initiative," i.e., the separate bathroom campaign; put a spotlight on how poorly treated the ladies who make up "the help" are; and also get Skeeter a book contract and open the door on her literary career.

Aside from the Best Picture nod, Viola Davis is nominated as Best Actress for her warm and honest performance as Aibileen, with Octavia Spencer, who plays mouthy maid Minny, and Jessica Chastain, in the role of Celia, a trashy outsider who has married one of the town's golden boys, both in the Supporting Actress category.

All three turn in terrific performances with a lot of energy and personality. Davis's Aibileen is deservedly the heart of the movie, with Spencer (another old friend of Tate Taylor) adding humor and irreverence as the maid who always gets in trouble for her temper, but usually gets out of it because she is such a good cook. Chastain, another It Girl of the moment, is also funny and fresh as the loud, awkward Celia, who strikes up a friendship with Minny that helps them both survive. Yes, Minny and Celia are stereotypes, but Spencer and Chastain transcend those stereotypes just by sheer force of personality.

Bryce Dallas Howard and Sissy Spacek also add vivid performances to the mix as the awful, awful Hilly and her poor senile mother, with a cameo from Cicely Tyson late in the movie that broke my heart.

A lot of critics have raised issues with the film and the fact that the black characters are all maids, while the plot provides that they need a white girl, Skeeter, to come to their rescue. Both are film clichés that certainly deserve mention and discussion. And, yes, it is unacceptable that the only roles African-American actors could get for so long were maids and hookers. But Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer looked at the roles in "The Help" and saw something that they wanted to play, something beyond just stereotypical "Beulah, peel me a grape" kinds of roles. If the roles go to the heart of what it is to be a maid, if they are three-dimensional and compelling characters, does it really matter that they are maids?

The white savior thing is more troubling. Why does Hollywood (and I guess the publishing industry, as well, since it was that way in the book, too) feel the need to begin and end with the white character who will fix everything for the black people? Couldn't we get the servants' stories from them, instead of from a white translator? Still, Davis and Spencer are so ferocious and riveting that it's hard not to see this as their movie, not Emma Stone's, no matter who got top billing. And that helps a little.

"The Help" makes Mississippi in 1960 look luminous and bright, diffused with bright colors and dappled sunlight, courtesy of cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt and production designer Mark Ricker. It's a pretty, warm film all-around, with messages of conciliation and friendship to bind up the wounds suffered in the Jim Crow South. As the last images of the movie indicate, Aibileen still has a long row to hoe, a long way to walk, even if there has been a little comeuppance and a little justice earned over the course of this story. That last image of Viola Davis stayed with me for a good, long time.

Small side note: Viola Davis shares my birthday. Growing up, I was always looking for an interesting celebrity co-natalist. My sister had Robert Redford and my mom had Sophia Loren, and all I got was Jerry Falwell and Hulk Hogan. (Alex Haley also shared our birthday, but he had passed away by the time I was looking for co-natalists, and that didn't seem to count.) So, anyway, thank you, Viola Davis, for being awesome and talented as well as being born on the same day as me!

Dear Lord Grantham... How Have You Missed the Gossip About Your Daughter Mary?

2012-01-25T10:57:00.006-06:00

Do you want to chat with Lord Grantham of Downton Abbey? Who doesn't want to chat with Lord Grantham of Downton Abbey?

Masterpiece is inviting interested parties to join "Downton Abbey" star Hugh Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham, for an online chat on Monday, Jan. 30, 2012, at 1 pm Eastern/noon Central time. Bonneville will be available to take questions about his character, Season 2 of "Downton Abbey," and presumably anything else people want to ask him that isn't rude or annoying.

As played by Hugh Bonneville, Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, is rich and powerful and a member of the social elite in early 20th Century Britain. He has a lovely wife he is also in love with, and together they have three beautiful daughters. He seems like a decent sort of fellow, doing what is right more than what is convenient, always defaulting to compassion and integrity and all that good stuff. And he lives at the impossibly gorgeous Downton Abbey, with servants attending to his every need.

But there is one big catch in Lord Grantham's power. He needs a son. He holds his estate in fee tail, with only male heirs able to inherit Downton Abbey. And Lord Grantham has only daughters.

Nice, stable people with absolute power and everything they ever wanted are not very interesting in drama, as it happens. So giving Lord Grantham the inheritance problem is key to making him interesting. Well, that and the fact that the charming life he and his family have been leading is already being changed mightily by World War I and the pressures of the new century, with cars and planes and telephones and movies and penicillin and indoor plumbing and electricity and all the other modern conveniences, some happening already, some coming soon, smashing the old ways to smithereens. (Hint: The British Empire is also going to take a beating in the 20th Century.)

Which is exactly why Lord Grantham is fascinating. Hugh Bonneville does a dandy job with the character, in what is a bit of a departure from the other roles I've seen him do. He's been in tons of things, but I admit I've only noticed him in sort of sweet but awkward roles before this, like Elizabeth Bennet's father in "Lost in Austen," Bernie, the kind friend of the hero in "Notting Hill," and most notably, as the young half of John Bayley opposite Kate Winslet as the young Iris Murdoch in "Iris."

Some critics have commented that Lord Grantham is much too nice, that he represents creator and executive producer Julian Fellowes' romanticized view of the aristocracy, or perhaps an apologia for them, all sweetness and light, treating servants like people and being all, well, noble, in a way real British toffs would never have done. My feeling is that there had to be at least one cool member of the nobility in England in the 1910s and 20s. So he's it. He may not be representative, but he's fun to watch, appealing in all the right ways, and he makes us care about the Crawley family in a way we wouldn't if the Earl was a jerk or a crazy person.

But if you side with the "too good to be true" folks, this is your chance to ask Hugh Bonneville himself. Is Lord Grantham nicer than he should be? Is he realistic? Should he be more strict with his daughters? How has he possibly missed all the gossip about Mary (which provides all kinds of plot points involving his manservant Bates, his middle daughter Edith, Mary herself, and the Turkish Embassy)? Does he have a clue what's going on with youngest daughter Sybil and the chauffeur? How is the war changing him? Would he rather be fighting at the front or at home with the fam? How can someone with a mother and sister like he has be such a nice guy? Has Bonneville created a backstory for the character including what his father was like and who, if anyone, he loved when he was young (since we know he only fell in love with his wife after they were married, and her dowry was the big attraction before that) and anything else that has shaped his psyche?

See, I have lots of questions. I better show up for that online chat and get my typing fingers ready.

Masterpiece promises more chats later with other cast members, including Allen Leach, who plays Branson, the Irish chauffeur with a rebellious spirit and an eye for a lady above his station. For this one, visit the Masterpiece site here. You can also sign up for the Masterpiece e-newsletter to get advance notice of chats and other information.

Thanks, Sarah, for the heads-up!

The Oscar Nominations Are Here!

2012-01-24T12:49:00.006-06:00

I was trying to decide between "Here it is, lads -- 'Smell the Glove'" and "Hot off the press, strictly a mess" for a lead for this piece about the newly announced Academy Award nominations.

Neither is quite right, though. Yes, these nominations are a little odd and a little stinky in some ways (Where is Michael Fassbender? Where is Ryan Gosling? Why doesn't the Academy like Stephen Spielberg and what is this inexplicable love for Brad Pitt and "Moneyball"?) but these nominations aren't fun or irreverent enough for a "Spinal Tap" reference. And they're not really enough of a mess or related to Broadway or musicals for the "Follies" nod.

So I guess I'll just go with, well, here they are... Another year, another set of Oscar nominations that err on the side of the sad, sentimental or portentous ("Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," "War Horse," "The Tree of Life"), love the screen veterans and comeback stories (Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow, Gary Oldman, Nick Nolte) and overlook comedy that isn't Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris" or foreign ("The Artist"). It's not a surprise, really, but why no love for "Crazy, Stupid, Love"? Personally, I would take six "Crazy, Stupid, Loves" over one "Bridesmaids." And while "Moneyball" was okay, it was no great shakes, even in my household, where my husband once spent a great deal of time on Bill James and baseball Sabermetrics and still has a fondness for that general area, which is what "Moneyball" is about. It's a fine movie, a decent movie, and Brad Pitt is fine and decent. And that's it. No great shakes. Not really Oscar bait. Or clearly Oscar bait and I am once again not on the same wavelength as Oscar voters.

In a side note, this year's two big movies based on well-regarded stageplays --"Carnage," from Yasmina Reza's "God of Carnage" and "The Ides of March," from Beau Willimon's "Farragut North," went away pretty much empty-handed. "Ides" earned a nomination for its screenplay, but otherwise zippo. Why so little love for products of the legitimate stage?

So, anyway... Here they are... Or at least the ones that interest me...

BEST PICTURE
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

I loved "Hugo" and "Midnight in Paris," and "Hugo" would probably be my pick if I were voting. But "The Artist" is the odds-on favorite here. Overall, "Hugo" leads the pack with 11 nominations, while "The Artist" is right behind with 10. That can give a film momentum within the voting and create a kind of tsunami effect. If anybody is going to get a tsunami, it's "The Artist."

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Alexander Payne (The Descendants)
Martin Scorsese (Hugo)
Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris)
Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life)

Malick is a bit of a surprise; I expected to see David Fincher's name for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," since he got a Directors Guild nomination, or Stephen Spielberg for "War Horse," since Oscar prognosticators were trumpeting his odds. Still, I'm betting Hazanavicius will win.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs)
Viola Davis (The Help)
Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)

I'm expecting Meryl Streep to take this, although Viola Davis's heartfelt work in "The Help" might just knock Meryl (Oscar's most-nominated actress) off the podium. Glenn Close gets a nomination in the somewhat traditional "pretending to be a gender you are not" category, which earned an Oscar nod for Dustin Hoffman for "Tootsie," a SAG nomination for Nathan Lane for "The Birdcage," and a Golden Globe win for Robin Williams for "Mrs. Doubtfire."

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Demián Bichir (A Better Life)
George Clooney (The Descendants)
Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Brad Pitt (Moneyball)

Which of these things is not like the other? Brad Pitt in "Moneyball." Okay, I will stop ragging on Mr. Pitt. But he really doesn't belong. Not for "Moneyball," anyway, in which he was competent and cute, but hardly revelatory. Maybe this is really a nomination on the order of "We're sorry we didn't like you better in 'The Tree of Life,' so 'Moneyball' it is." Anyway, George Clooney is widely expected to take this, with some folks thinking that Jean Dujardin could ride "The Artist" train to victory if it builds up a big enough head of steam. Leonardo DiCaprio ("J. Edgar") and the aforementioned Michael Fassbender ("Shame") were considered likely to be nominated, but didn't get into that select group.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Bérénice Bejo (The Artist)
Jessica Chastain (The Help)
Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids)
Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs)
Octavia Spencer (The Help)

Just take that award over to Octavia Spencer right now. She was terrific in "The Help," she already won the Golden Globe and a spattering of critics awards for the role, and she is nominated for and expected to win the SAG award in this category, too. I suppose Bérénice Bejo (in what is really a leading role) or Melissa McCarthy (fresh off her Emmy win) could have a shot, but I really think this is Octavia Spencer's year.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn)
Jonah Hill (Moneyball)
Nick Nolte (Warrior)
Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close)

Max von Sydow is always amazing, and longevity certainly seems to be a factor in Academy voting. That will also help Christopher Plummer, though, and he is getting a lot of notice for a showy role. And his character dies in "Beginners," which always helps garner sympathy from voters.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Descendants (Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash)
Hugo (Screenplay by John Logan)
The Ides of March (Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon)
Moneyball (Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. Story by Stan Chervin)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Screenplay by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan)

Playwright Beau Willimon is nominated for his work helping to adapt his play "Farragut North" into "The Ides of March" for the screen, and playwright John Logan ("Red," "Hauptmann") is nominated for his work as a screenwriter on "Hugo." "The Descendants" was adapted from the book by Kaui Hart Hemmings, while "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" comes from the John le Carré spy novel of the same name, and "Hugo" began its life as a children's book called "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick. The oddsmakers think Clooney et al. will win for "The Descendants," but I am pulling for Martin Scorsese.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
Bridesmaids (Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig)
Margin Call (J.C. Chandor)
Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)

Although I applaud the Academy for recognizing comedy, my preference would be more cerebral stuff than the girl-gross-out comedy in "Bridesmaids." Potty humor is not ma thang, not from the guys and not from the girls. So all the acclaim for "Bridesmaids" (Who knew women could be funny???? What a surprise!!!! Except, COME on. Women have always been funny. Sometimes even with poop.) strikes me as decidedly odd. Oh well. I would vote for Woody Allen's charming and creative "Midnight in Paris," and who knows? Maybe the Academy will agree with me and recognize that movie and Mr. Allen in just this one category, since they are figuring so much else will go to "The Artist."

All of my kvetching aside, I know when all is said and done, I will be tuning in on February 26th with a good chunk of the rest of the world to see whether Meryl Streep remembers her glasses, Marty Scorsese and his love of film preservation take him over the top, Viola Davis and her choice of gown knock 'em dead one more time, and Jean Dujardin brings the dog onstage if "The Artist" wins Best Picture. Maybe I should start a drinking game...

Producers Guild Honors "The Artist" (And Oscar Noms in the AM)

2012-01-23T15:44:00.009-06:00

Yes, the 84th Annual Academy Awards nominations will be announced tomorrow morning. This year, Jennifer Lawrence (nominated last year as Best Actress for her performance in "Winter's Bone") and Academy president Tom Sherak will reveal the official Oscar nominations in about half the categories at 7:30 am Central time from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

And, yes, the Oscars are clearly the main event when it comes to movie awards. But the Producers Guild did their own awards thing just two nights before the Oscar nods come out, handing out both TV and movie commendations. In case knowing who the Producers Guild chose to honor helps you with last-minute Oscar-nomination predictions or helps you figure out what to watch on the crowded TV schedule, I thought I'd keep you up to date.

Long story short: "The Artist" won again, making that film a prohibitive favorite to win big with the Academy, too. And "Boardwalk Empire" upended "Mad Men," even as we (okay, I) anticipate the new season the latter.

Here's a more complete list:

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN producers Peter Jackson, Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Competition Television:
THE AMAZING RACE producers Jerry Bruckheimer, Elise Doganieri, Jonathan Littman, Bertram van Munster and Mark Vertullo

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures:
BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST producers Debra Koffler, Frank Mele, Edward Parks and Michael Rapaport

The Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy:
MODERN FAMILY producers Paul Corrigan, Abraham Higginbotham, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Morton, Jeffrey Richman, Dan O’Shannon, Brad Walsh, Bill Wrubel and Danny Zuker

The Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama:
BOARDWALK EMPIRE producers Eugene Kelly, Howard Korder, Stephen Levinson, Martin Scorsese, Rudd Simmons, Tim Van Patten and Terence Winter

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television:
THE COLBERT REPORT producers Meredith Bennett, Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Tanya Michnevich Bracco, Tom Purcell and Jon Stewart

The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television:
DOWNTON ABBEY producers Julian Fellowes, Nigel Marchant and Gareth Neame

The Award for Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television:
AMERICAN MASTERS producers Susan Lacy and Julie Sacks

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:
THE ARTIST producer Thomas Langmann

Get That 10-Minute "Playing Games" Play in Before February 1!

2012-01-23T14:04:00.003-06:00

Heartland Theatre Company's annual 10-Minute Play Contest is still accepting entries... But only through February 1st!

This year's theme, "Playing Games," has proved popular with playwrights, with almost 300 plays from around the world already entered for consideration. But there's room for a few more, as long as:

The play strongly reflects the theme "Playing Games."
There are no more than four characters.
Those four characters can be played by actors who range from 18 to 80.
It would play at ten minutes or less if performed. (On the page, that's no more than ten pages formatted in Heartland's official style.)
The action in your play can work in Heartland's physical space.
Something happens. Something compelling, entertaining and altogether wonderful happens.

And that's all it takes to enter Heartland's 10-Minute Play Contest!

Once all the entries are judged (through two rounds of in-house Heartland judging) and finalists are selected, those 15-20 finalist scripts will be sent to a nationally-known playwright to select the eight winning entries to be produced on Heartland's stage in June.

If you've always wanted to see your work live and breathe on stage in the hands of accomplished actors and directors like the ones who are part of the "company" in Heartland Theatre Company, this is your chance. Just spruce up that entry, pay attention to the rules, please make sure it has something to do with playing games, and send it on in before February 1. Entries should be submitted online, through the Heartland Theatre Company website.

"Secrets" Goes Behind the "Downton Abbey" Manor House

2012-01-22T12:04:00.008-06:00

My friend Sarah, who comments here occasionally, has introduced me to this blog, Jane's Austen's World, which offers intriguing information about, well, Jane Austen's world, as well as British life in other eras.

It is a lovely blog, and today it features a review and recap of a PBS companion show to "Downton Abbey" called "Secrets of the Manor House."

"Secrets of the Manor House" is billed as "a fascinating glimpse of life inside the great homes of Edwardian England."

PBS says, "Secrets of the Manor House looks beyond the fiction to the truth of what life was like in these ancient British houses. They were communities where two separate worlds existed side by side: the poor worked as domestic servants, while the nation’s wealthiest families enjoyed a lifestyle of luxury, and aristocrats ruled over their servants as they had done for a thousand years."

You'll find out a little about how Britain's aristocracy came to be (warrior class) and how they displayed their power and elite status through their homes, as well as how they refilled their coffers by marrying American women, AKA the Buccaneers. All of that dovetails nicely with "Downton Abbey," although we don't know who the soldier was way back when who scored the real estate that Downtown Abbey sits on. We do know, however, that the current Earl married an American heiress to keep the property stable financially, and those finances are at the very heart of the romances and conflicts swirling upstairs at Downton Abbey. The "warrior" business also informs the current generation(s) of servants and masters, as so many of the principal characters have been pulled into World War I, either as soldiers or nurses or support on the homefront. This time, however, war is acting as a great equalizer, not a way to rise to the top of the social heap or gain favor from the king. Fascinating, indeed!

You can see a 9-and-a-half minute teaser video here, along with other information about the program. I especially like the little pictures on the wall to illustrate the hierarchy inside the aristocracy.

Or you can scan Jane Austen's World's more detailed info, including screencaps, here.

"Secrets of the Manor House" airs at 7 (central) on our local PBS stations WTVP from Peoria and WILL from Champaign-Urbana, with the third episode of this season of "Downton Abbey" immediately after at 8 pm.

"Merrily We Roll Along" Gets Its Miranda Right!

2012-01-20T14:30:00.004-06:00

"Merrily We Roll Along" (book by George Furth, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) is one of those famous problem musicals. Although Sondheim's score includes "Not a Day Goes By" and "Good Thing Going," two of his best-known songs, the show only made it to 52 previews and 16 performances on Broadway in 1981, and since then, it's been revived sporadically with a lot of changes here and there and decent, if not spectacular, results.

One of the problems is that, like the Kaufman/Hart play it's based on, "Merrily" moves backwards. That means the same actors have to play 40-something at the beginning and 18 at the end. The other is that its theme is how fame and fortune ruin friendship, which is not exactly a cheery idea to leave audiences with.

When "Merrily" opens, we meet Franklin Shepard, Charlie Kringas and Mary Flynn when they are 40-ish, with songwriter and movie producer Franklin a big success in Hollywood, but his old pals Mary, a writer, and Charlie, Franklin's former songwriting partner, did not come along for the ride. As we go backwards in time, we see how their friendships splintered, how Frank's marriage broke up, and exactly how far from his early ideals Frank has strayed.

I've seen "Merrily" a few times, with mixed results. But personally, I love the music and, yes, the story of lives gone off the rails, early promise not fulfilled, and in general, asking the musical question "How did I get to be here?" It's a familiar Sondheim refrain, and I buy into every time. I am also a sucker for the backwards thing, so I was never bothered by when or where we were, plus the performers I saw were mostly 30-somethings, I think, as opposed to the fresh faces (young Jason Alexander and Liz Callaway, among them) used in the original production.

It's cool that "Merrily" is one of this year's Encores! choices, to play at City Centre in February, with Rob Berman as musical director. And it's even cooler that they have assembled a wonderful cast for the two weeks of performances. Encores! supposedly does staged readings, but they turn into far more than that, using pretty much all-out stagings and fully realized performances from people who seem like they've had more than a few rehearsals.

This time out, the handsome and charming Colin Donnell (you can catch him on youtube singing bits of "Anything Goes" without much effort) will play Frank, with sweet and lovely Celia Keenan-Bolger ("The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" and "The Light in the Piazza") as Mary. The real kicker is who's playing Charlie, the good guy/good partner that Frank abandons in favor of fame. It's Lin-Manuel Miranda! Yes, that Lin-Manuel Miranda, famous for writing and starring in "In the Heights" and then doing a Sondheimy rap as a thank you speech when he won the Tony for it. He's irrepressible, adorable, and sure to steal the show as Charlie Kringas.

If you are lucky enough to be in New York when Encores! offers this "Merrily," you can find performance and ticket information about the production here.

Last Chance Reminders: Hauptmann, Gruesome, Come and Get It and Humana

2012-01-19T15:04:00.004-06:00

It's Last Chance time for a few things around here (and one further afield), and I thought I would remind you...

Right here in B-N, Community Players' production of John Logan's "Hauptmann" takes its last bows tonight through Saturday the 21st. That's three last chances to see this gripping drama about the infamous Lindbergh baby kidnapping and the man who may or may not have committed the crime. For Community Players, Brian Artman plays Bruno Hauptmann, who bears most of the weight of the show, talking directly to the audience to plead his case, with local favorites John Bowen, Vicky Hallstrom, Mindy LaHood, Joel Shoemaker, Gary Strunk and Joe Strupek in supporting roles. Did Hauptmann do it? Guilty or not guilty? Only Bruno Hauptmann knew, and his execution in the electric chair in 1936 ended any chance of finding out from him. Still, I know I have my own opinion after watching the show.

Over in Urbana, the Celebration Company at the Station Theatre prepares to finish up its run of Rajiv Joseph's "Gruesome Playground Injuries," about a boy and a girl and a lot of emotional and physical baggage between them during a series of encounters over the years. I interviewed director Mathew Green and his two actors, Katie Baldwin and Rob Zaleski, about their "Gruesome" experiences earlier this month. You can see Baldwin and Zaleski on stage through the 21st, with all performances at 8 pm.

The McLean County Museum of History has announced that its "Come and Get It" exhibit is down to its last eight days. Museum staffers invite you to visit this examination of the "eating habits, cooking equipment, methods and diverse food traditions" in McLean County from 1830 to 2008 before it closes January 28th. As they suggest, a stop at the indoor winter Farmers' Market from 10 am to 12 noon at the Museum this Saturday would segue nicely into a look at the other food-related items and recipes in the "Come and Get It" exhibit.

And Actors Theatre of Louisville has sent out a reminder that the Early Bird rate for Humana Festival packages ends January 30th. So if you want to get tickets to ten new shows in one weekend and save $50 while you're at it, now is the time to make your reservation. Yes, Louisville is a bit of a drive from Bloomington-Normal. But the Humana Festival is still the best place to see new work -- a lot of new work -- in one place and in one weekend. For me, it's a don't-miss. Here is package pricing information.

Once Upon a Midnight Dreary There Were Edgar Nominations...

2012-01-19T12:19:00.004-06:00

The Edgar Awards, named in honor of Edgar Allen Poe, recognize excellence in mystery writing. These awards are handed out every year by the Mystery Writers of America, honoring novels, biographies, nonfiction, short stories, YA, juvenile books, plays and teleplays. If you enjoy mysteries, reading the Edgar nominee list can be a good way to find new authors or new TV shows or catch up with old favorites.

This year, the nominees for Best Novel pretty much travel the world, with the American South, Nazi Germany, Cuba, England, Japan and Norway all on the Edgar map. The nominees are:

THE RANGER, by Ace Atkins. The first in Atkins' new Quinn Colson series, "The Ranger" involves an Army Ranger on leave to attend the funeral of his uncle, who happened to be the sheriff in a seedy Northeast Mississippi county.

GONE, by Mo Hayder. As Bristol (England) homicide detective Jack Caffrey investigates a carjacking, he begins to suspect that it wasn't the car, but the child in the back seat, the thief was really after. And that this kidnapping is only one of a series of horrifying crimes.

THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X, by Keigo Higashino. An award-winning novel published first in Japan in 2006, "Suspect X" is a battle of wits between Higashino's sleuth Dr. Yukawa (a physics professor nicknamed "Professor Galileo" who steps in to help out an old friend on the police force) and the "whodunit" the reader knows from the beginning, a man who helped out a neighbor who just killed her abusive husband.

1222, by Anne Holt. "1222" is the 8th book in Norwegian author Holt's Hanne Wilhemsen series. Retired police inspector Wilhemsen, more than a bit of a misanthrope, has a bullet in her spine, which means she must (reluctantly) do her sleuthing from a wheelchair. That is especially problematic in "1222," an almost Agatha Christie-like puzzle about a remote mountain hotel, stranded guests from a train derailed by a snowstorm, and a murderer who is knocking them off one by one.

FIELD GRAY, by Philip Kerr. Kerr's book is the lone historical among the nominees, traveling from 1954 Cuba and New York City to France, Germany and Russia during World War II, as he unravels the past of Berlin PI Bernie Gunther, once an SS officer in Hitler's army.

The nominees for Best First Novel are a bit closer to home, with four of the five featuring US settings. The fifth makes up for that, however, with its espionage-around-the-world tour.

RED ON RED, by Edward Conlon. Conlon is the author of "Blue Blood," a memoir about life on the New York City police force, and "Red on Red" returns to that milieu with this character study about two very different detectives, partners who must come together to deal with a suicide, a gangland murder and a troubled Catholic schoolgirl.

LAST TO FOLD, by David L. Duffy. "Finder" Turbo Vlost is Duffy's hero, hiring himself out in New York City when somebody loses something. In "Last to Fold," the lost item is a 19-year-old girl named Eva, and Vlost's search brings him up back up against a whole lot of Russian mafia and other types he once knew as an undercover guy for the KGB.

ALL CRY CHAOS, by Leonard Rosen. Interpol agent Henri Poincare is at the center of a world-wide investigation into a bizarre crime: Mathematician James Fenster is murdered in his Amsterdam hotel room -- his room is burnt to a crisp while the rest of the hotel is untouched -- on the eve of a World Trade Organization speech.

BENT ROAD, by Lori Roy. Set in Kansas farmland during the 1960s, "Bent Road" has been described as "Midwestern noir with Gothic undertones." Roy's story involves a family that moves from Detroit to to Kansas, the place the father escaped 20 years before, dredging up secrets from the past, in-law problems, and issues of claustrophobia and fear in rural America.

PURGATORY CHASM, by Steve Ulfelder. In "Purgatory Chasm," ex-NASCAR driver Conway Sax is part of a 12-step group whose members always help each other out. Always. That vow to help sets Sax on a free-wheeling trip around New Hampshire to find a car, a serial killer, a lost fortune, and a whole lot of eccentric characters.

Best Paperback Original nominees are another diverse group, with elements of science fiction, Africa, dogs, baseball, psychiatry and sex crimes among them:

THE COMPANY MAN, by Robert Jackson Bennett, about a struggle between members of a union and the ultra-powerful company that owns their souls in a fantasy/science fiction version of 1919 Washington State that almost sounds like Fritz Lang's "Metropolis."

THE FACES OF ANGELS, by Lucretia Grindle, is set in Florence, Italy, when an art student who was attacked two years before, now supposedly recovered, returns to the scene of the crime.

THE DOG SOX, by Russell Hill. This one is a comic mystery about a terrible baseball team, its 10-year-old pitching ace and his abusive father, and the ancient manager looking for answers (like how to get rid of the bad dad) in the Torah.

DEATH OF THE MANTIS, by Michael Stanley, wherein Detective David “Kubu” Bengu investigates murders amidst the Bushmen of Botswana.

VIENNA TWILIGHT, by Frank Tallis. Yes, it's set in Vienna, in 1903, with Dr. Max Liebermann, a colleague of Sigmund Freud, using his skills as a psychoanalyst to try to solve the murder of an artist's model stabbed with a hatpin immediately after sex.

This year, the Best "Fact Crime" Book nominees -- for books based on real crimes, although I tend to think of them as the Colon: Subtitle books, since their titles are almost always extended with a colon and a subtitle containing an exciting whiff of Sex! or Scandal! or Madness! or Murder! -- are:

The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars, by Paul Collins. This "Murder of the Century" is in the 19th century, when William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer battled each other in print over who could better exploit the "Scattered Dutchman" murder case. (Note: Collins also wrote "The Book of William," about the history of Shakespeare's First Folios, which I absolutely loved.)

The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge, by T.J. English, about New York City's "Career Girl" murders in the turbulent 1960s, and how three different men -- the scapegoat for the crime, a corrupt cop, and a militant member of the Black Panthers -- define that violent period in American history.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard. The President in question is James Garfield, felled by an assassin's bullet and thereafter the center of a medical drama that involved Alexander Graham Bell, of all people.

Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender, by Steve Miller, about the pre-crime and post-crime life of a woman apparently dubbed "the female Charles Manson" who was convicted of two murders, escaped from jail, and eluded capture for several months.

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter, by Mark Seal. In this case, the astonishingly long title tells it all: German con man Christian Gerhartsreiter came to America, created cool identities and new accents for himself, and eventually passed himself off as Clark Rockefeller, one of the Rockefellers, landing himself a fancy job, a fancy wife, and all the trimmings, until it all fell apart.

You can see all the other nominations here, including the ones for Best Play, just in case you thought nobody was writing mysteries for the stage anymore and your theater is tired of reviving "Sleuth" and "The Mousetrap." (There are only two in the Best Play category, with Ken Ludwig's "The Game's Afoot" taking on Jeffrey Hatcher's "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventures of the Suicide Club." But still... That's two!)

Get a Sneak Peek at NBC's "Smash"

2012-01-18T13:24:00.004-06:00

The new NBC show "Smash," which premieres in February, has been getting a lot of good press and a lot of splashy (smashy?) coverage ever since critics got a look at its pilot episode last June. It's been touted as a perfect choice for just about everybody, mixing familiar Broadway performers (Christian Borle, known for "Spamalot" and "Legally Blonde: The Musical," as well as the recent off-Broadway revival of "Angels in America," Megan Hilty, who's played Glinda in "Wicked" and the Dolly Parton role in "9 to 5: The Musical," and Brian d'Arcy James, who was Shrek in "Shrek the Musical" and has credits in "Titanic," "Carousel," "Blood Brothers," "Next to Normal, "Time Stands Still," and "Pardon My English" at Encores) with TV stars (Debra Messing from "Will & Grace'), film stars (Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston and Brit Jack Davenport, memorable in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies) and one Reality-TV princess (Katharine McPhee from "American Idol.")

That's a lot of star power. Especially since most of them can sing really, really well, which is part of the plot on "Smash."

"Smash" involves a composer/writer team (Borle and Messing) trying to put together a Broadway musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe. Their attempts to get "Marilyn" going are complicated by a tough producer (Huston) whose personal funds are frozen by a rocky divorce, a mercurial, somewhat slutty director (Davenport) who can't stand Borle's composer, two choices for the lead role of Marilyn (Hilty as a Broadway regular who desperately needs a leading role and McPhee as a dewy-eyed newbie), and a scheming intern (Jaime Cepero) who doesn't mind playing dirty if it gets him to the top.

We also see a bit of their personal lives, with James as Messing's character's handsome husband who gave up his own career to keep their home lives afloat (they have a teenage son and have been trying to adopt a baby from China, a familiar trope in exec producer/writer Theresa Rebeck's playbook) and British theater star Raza Jaffrey as McPhee's character's sweetheart of a boyfriend.

Although "Smash" doesn't start until Monday, February 6th, NBC is doing a roll-out of the premiere episode now, letting pretty much everybody who wants to get a sneak peek. I watched it on Comcast On Demand (for free), and they're also offering it on airplanes, via iTunes, Amazon, Xbox and some other options now, with NBC.com and Hulu joining the party and streaming it after January 23rd.

So, yes, I watched the pilot. And I'm sorry, but I didn't like it much at all. On paper, I'm down with all the stars and I was certainly looking forward to a backstage look at Broadway. What could be more perfect for me than show about a musical in development, as its creative team tries to get it on its feet for workshops and out-of-town tryouts (season 1) to hit the Great White Way (season 2)?

Well... I found myself wanting to smack both Messing's Julia and Borle's Tom for making what seemed like indefensible choices (Why did she jump into a show after promising her husband she wouldn't? Why is he so set on Hilty's Ivy to play Marilyn and why doesn't anybody else let him want her? Why are they using Davenport's Derek as the director when Tom hates him and he hates Tom and Derek is a sleazebag to boot?) and not seeing what was so special about McPhee's Karen, who is supposed to be knocking our socks off with her fabulous potential. First, they had her sing a Christina Aguilera song for her Broadway audition, which seems unlikely to impress Broadway types. Plus she didn't seem luminous and unforgettable to me. She seemed... Kind of surly and smug. I would've given the role to Ivy, someone we saw singing and dancing and doing very well as a Marilyn type, while Karen just sang Christina Aguilera, stood around looking awkward, while being a waitress, snarking at her parents and making out with her cute boyfriend. She did thrust her boobs out to try to get into a Marilyn frame of mind, and she donned a man's shirt with no pants to show the director she could be sexy, but if I had to pick a the starlet from yesteryear she was channeling, it would probably be Barbara Parkins or Diane Baker, nowhere near the Marilyn wattage.

And then... Well, her name is Karen. I don't know any 20-somethings named Karen, although I'm sure there are a few out there. The operative word being "few." In my mind, Karen sounds like someone I went to high school with. In the 70s. There were lots of Karens in the 70s. Karen Carpenter. Karen Allen. But now? Not so many. I suppose they were just trying to make her sound like a sweet, simple, plain girl from the sticks. But to me, that girl's mother should be named Karen, while she should be Lauren or Ashley or Jessica.

Yes, I am well aware that is a very fine point. But when I find myself picking at the small things rather than leaping over the threshold of disbelief, it's not a good sign. It means I didn't really buy the premise, I wasn't willing to jump on-board and care about these characters and their problems, and more importantly, that I wasn't really rooting for anybody to achieve his or her aims within the plot.

That's a problem for me.

I should note, however, that friends whose taste I very much respect have reported that they liked "Smash," the pilot, a lot, and that it well exceeded their expectations. And it may be that by trying to set up so much in one episode, Rebeck and her writers pushed too hard for me, and I will like further episodes much better. Let's hope so. I want to like a show about Broadway, if for no other reason than to get people who've never been there to take an interest, take a trip, buy a ticket. Maybe by crossing over an "American Idol" alum, NBC will attract people who would otherwise not try a show about Broadway. (And they are definitely pushing Katharine McPhee as the main draw. See the poster up top, and how she is at the top of the heap. Oscar winner Anjelica Huston is practically falling off the side.)

NBC's site for "Smash" is here, with all kinds of info about the cast and crew, as well as a chance to see that pilot episode starting January 23rd. I can't wait to hear what the rest of you think.

"Mad Men" Returns March 25

2012-01-17T18:21:00.005-06:00

If you look at the poster for season 5 of AMC's "Mad Men," you will notice two things.

1) The figure that represents Don Draper, our protagonist, is in free fall.

2) New episodes begin March 25.

Forgive me while I take a moment to make happy noises. (Sorry, Don, about that free fall thing. I'm paying attention to the second piece of information.) "Mad Men" is back! Finally!

It seems like it's been forever since we last saw dapper Don Draper (Jon Hamm), smarty-pants Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), hard-drinking Roger Sterling (John Slattery), luscious Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks), ambitious Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), and the rest of the crew at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, the 60s ad agency hanging on by its fingernails (or by the manicured fingernails of dapper Don Draper) in a changing world.

If I recall correctly, when we left "Mad Men," Don (or his alter ego Dick. Or possibly both of them.) had just (shockingly) married his secretary, toothy Megan, and dumped smarter, all-around cooler Faye; Joan had discovered she was pregnant while her odious husband was off in Vietnam and she got a promotion that gave her more responsibility but no extra money; Roger was hanging out with Joan even though he was married to a chippy named Jane, his former secretary, plus he'd lost the all-important Lucky Strike account; Cooper (Robert Morse!) was ticked enough to walk out on the agency; Betty (January Jones) had finally moved her nasty, shallow self (and the Draper kids) out of the house she once shared with Don, firing beloved nanny/housekeeper/surrogate mother Carla (Deborah Lacey) on her nasty, shallow way out the door, making it abundantly clear to her new husband just how nasty and shallow she really was; Sally Draper (Kiernan Shipka) was 10-going-on-25; and Peggy had shown the moves and smarts to score a pantyhose account that the ailing agency desperately needed. I remember absolutely nothing about what Pete Campbell was doing. And I like him. Sort of. He's kind of a punk, but he has an adorable wife, Trudy (Alison Brie), and I will always remember the two of them dancing a delightful Charleston at a garden party. That's almost enough to save Pete as a character. Almost.

All of that was back in October of 2010, with the world inside the show up to October 1965. Since I have vivid memories of 1966 and 1967, I am hoping they don't jump too far into the future when the new episodes begin. I want "Star Trek" and "The Monkees" and "Mission: Impossible" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Not to mention "Sweet Charity" on Broadway, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" on the big screen, and "The Sounds of Silence" from Simon and Garfunkel in the background of the characters' lives.

In the past, "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner has hit some of the big cultural events while overlooking others, managing a good mix, so that "Mad Men" doesn't come off as a time travel vehicle, but instead, a story of specific people of the period and how they're affected by the times they live in. So if I'm hoping for some Monkees, I will also understand if they don't make it into Weiner's world.

I am also hoping that Bertram Cooper and Robert Morse come back, that Betty is out of the MM universe for good, that Carla comes back, that Peggy gets a decent boyfriend, that Roger dumps his secretary/wife and marries Joan, and that Don dumps his secretary/wife at the precise moment Rachel Menken's husband dies, so those two can be all reunited after all this time. Rachel Menken was totally his best match.

But mostly I am just happy to have Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and "Mad Men" back. March 25. With a two-hour season premiere. Given that poster, I'm not expecting a whole lot of instant happiness. And that's just fine.

My Night of January 16th

2012-01-16T14:21:00.004-06:00

Given the date, I could not stop myself from commenting on a lesser-known piece of the Ayn Rand oeuvre, a stageplay called "Night of January 16th." It happens to be the first play I was ever involved with, back in junior high. It's about a trial, wherein the long-time mistress of a wealthy man is charged with his murder. He was a Bernie Madoff type, with pots of money, less than legit business dealings, and many enemies. Did his mistress push him out a window? Did he jump? Did the gangster (colorfully named "Guts" Regan) who is also in love with Karen knock him off? Those are the questions the audience is supposed to try to answer.

The gimmick of the play, the reason it made a name for itself, I would imagine, is that the jurors are drawn from the audience and they decide the fate of the defendant right then and there, on stage, at the end of the show.

I desperately wanted to play the character (one of the parade of witnesses in the trial) who refers to herself as a "terpsichorean," which I took to mean "stripper." I was 14, skinny, gawky, odd, and not very attractive (most 14-year-olds are not, so I don't think I'm being too hard on myself by saying that) and absolutely nothing like a slinky or sleazy club dancer/mobster's moll from the 1930s. I still wanted that role with the white-hot passion only an awkward 14-year-old can muster to play a sleazy dame with a thick accent and no morals.

You may be asking yourself what kind of junior high puts on a play with some guy's mistress on trial for basically being a slut (everybody judges her for sleeping with her married boss for years and years and then hooking up with the gangster), along with a floozy of a nightclub dancer in support. I don't have an answer to that. I would probably not choose "Night of January 16th" for a cast of 12-to-15-year-olds.

I was not cast as the "terpsichorean," you will be happy to hear, but instead as the court stenographer. I had no lines. I spent the entire play sitting at a little desk, furiously tapping some sort of keys and inserting many highly animated facial expressions into the proceedings whenever any of the other actors revealed anything salacious as part of their testimony.

There are two bits of back story that make my experiences with "Night of January 16th" stand out in my memory. The first was that, perhaps because I was so disappointed not to get the role of the stripper, who actually had lines, the drama teacher/director who was in charge told me that I would be the designated understudy for all the other female roles. There are not a lot of female roles in "Night of January 16th." The defendant, Karen Andre, is female, and so is the deceased man's wife, who appears as a witness, plus an elderly Swedish housekeeper. Those are the only female roles listed in the current version of the play, according to Wikipedia, but we also had an extra housemaid, who was another witness, and, of course, my stenographer. Unfortunately, one of the actresses cast in this junior high "Night of January 16th" was somewhat unreliable. After she skipped a rehearsal or two, the teacher/director told her that if she missed any more, I, as the designated understudy, would be given her role. Neither she nor her friends took kindly to that threat, and one of her friends spotted me in the hall between classes and right then and there, punched me. This person (the puncher) told me that she would make me very sorry if I "stole" her friend's role in the play. This was more drama than I was really prepared for at the age of 14, and I asked the teacher/director for help. He told me I was on my own. Thank goodness the girl showed up for rehearsals after that, because, seriously, I would probably just have dropped out of school rather than face fistfights in the hallway.

The other piece of drama at this, the absolute beginning of my theatrical career, was that we were, as I recall, actually performing the play in January. If not, perhaps December of February. In any event, I lived outside of the town in which the junior high and its auditorium were located, and of course I didn't drive yet, being only 14 and in junior high, at least a year away from driver's ed. So my parents were on the hook to drive me in for evening rehearsals.

And then the weather got very dicey. The teacher/director had made it very clear to all of us that anybody who did not appear in the dress rehearsal would not be allowed to be in the show. I should tell you at this point that, no matter what my other failings were, like not being a very good actress, I was an A student. An A+ student. I turned in papers on time. I occasionally faked an illness to stay home and watch old movies on TV, if there was something I particularly liked in the TV Guide, but I was still as responsible, steady and reliable as any 14-year-old out there. So when a blizzard hit the day of our dress rehearsal, I was beside myself. How could I miss dress rehearsal? Our teacher had made it very clear that anybody who didn't show up for dress would be banned from the show! And this was my first show! And I had the huge, important role of the court stenographer! How would anyone in the audience know how to respond to the testimony of the various witnesses if I wasn't there to raise my eyebrows, gape, gasp, goggle, double-take, tremble and otherwise represent the first stages of a stroke?

Well, my father said, given the blizzard, that he saw no reason to drive me nine miles to get to what was just a rehearsal for a school play. I pleaded. I cajoled. I feel sure I must've wept. Whatever weapons I had at my disposal, I used them. Eventually, my dad said, "Okay, I will drive you." I made it to dress rehearsal.

And the next night, when the weather was much less dire, our production of Ayn Rand's "Night of January 16th" opened as planned. I do not remember if the students chosen for the jury found Karen Andre guilty or not guilty. I do not remember if the person playing my beloved terpsichorean found her inner stripper. (I think she didn't. I think she shoved her hair over her face and mumbled through the role because she was embarrassed. But I could be making that up.) And when all was said and done, and my parents had witnessed my debut as an actress, my dad was howling with laughter. "You had me drive through a blizzard so you could be in a play where you don't have any lines?" he asked. "That's hilarious!"

Oh well. I was assured that my court stenographer histrionics were very well received. By my parents, anyway.

And that is what I remember of my "Night of January 16th." I have a feeling that is not what Ayn Rand intended.

In Case You Missed the Golden Globes...

2012-01-16T12:00:00.008-06:00

I admit I don't pay much attention to the Golden Globes as awards. It's hard to take them seriously when there are only 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association deciding them. Oh well. They're fun because they happen before the Oscars, because they combine TV and movie people, because the gowns tend to be cool, and because everybody there seems about half-lit, meaning there are always gaffes, stumbles, bleeping-outs and general hilarity. (I doubt anybody expected Meryl Streep to be the one getting bleeped, but there you are. Hilarity.)

This year, I thought the fashion was pretty nice in general, host Ricky Gervais was pretty funny, if much less snarky than last year, and who got what was the least interesting part of the evening. But in case you are keeping track, here are the major award winners from last night's ceremony:

Best Motion Picture (Drama):
THE DESCENDANTS. (Translation: The Hollywood Foreign Press loves them some George Clooney.)

Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical):
THE ARTIST. (Even though most of us have not seen this movie yet, the HFPA loves European movies. This movie is different, artsy and very, very French. It was a lock.)

Best Performance by an Actress (Drama):
Meryl Streep in IRON LADY. (Another lock.)

Best Performance by an Actress (Comedy or Musical):
Michelle Williams in MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (Nobody knows why this was classified as a comedy. Perhaps so Michelle Williams didn't have to compete with Meryl Streep?)

Best Performance by an Actor (Drama):
George Clooney in THE DESCENDANTS. (See: HFPA loves Clooney, above.)

Best Performance by an Actor (Comedy or Musical):
Jean Dujardin in THE ARTIST. (See: HFPA loves "The Artist," above.)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:
Octavia Spencer in THE HELP. (Spencer had a showy role in 'The Help," a movie that was well regarded by critics for the most part, and she was very good in that showy role. She has been cleaning up awards in supporting categories, and this one is no surprise.)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:
Christopher Plummer in BEGINNERS. (Another fine performance in a showy role in a movie not likely to win anything else. Plummer shoots and scores!)

Best Director of a Motion Picture:
Martin Scorsese for HUGO. (Well-deserved in my book. Who knew Martin Scorsese had a 12-year-old?)

Best Screenplay of a Motion Picture:
Woody Allen for MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. (See how they're spreading their awards around so everybody gets something? When you only have 93 voters, you can do that. Really, really liked this movie and not gonna quibble about it winning for its screenplay.)

Best Television Series (Drama):
HOMELAND on Showtime. (Not even one major network choice in the nominations. "Homeland" is an excellent choice.)

Best Television Series (Comedy or Musical):
MODERN FAMILY on ABC. (Look, a network got something! "Modern Family" is a smart, funny show, and again, I'm not going to quibble. I would've chosen "Parks and Recreation," myself -- it didn't even get nominated -- but thank goodness they avoided the twee nightmare that is "New Girl" and the muddled mess that is "Glee.")

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series (Drama):
Claire Danes in HOMELAND on Showtime. (Danes is working her derriere off in "Homeland" as a woman with serious mental issues and a mission to out a terrorist everybody else thinks is a hero. Definitely deserved. And another win for a cable show.)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical):
Laura Dern in ENLIGHTENED on HBO. (I have not seen "Enlightened." Note that it, too, is a cable program. But again, kudos for avoiding the Manic Pixie Dream Girl who is the "New Girl.")

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Drama):
Kelsey Grammer in BOSS on Starz. (I'm sure Kelsey is fab as a Mayor Daley type big city boss. Cable wins again. James Vincent Meredith, a former Champaign-Urbana actor who is now a member of the company at Steppenwolf, is a supporting player in "Boss," so the more notice it gets, the better.)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical):
Matt LeBlanc in EPISODES on Showtime. (Go, Cable!)

Others: My beloved "Downton Abbey" won Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, Kate Winslet won Best Actress in a Mini-Series, etc., for "Mildred Pierce" on HBO, and Idris Elba took the Best Actor in a Mini-Series award for "Luther," which came from the BBC.

Best Supporting Actors and Actresses must compete in a catch-all of "Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television." Jessica Lange, in "American Horror Story," and Peter Dinklage, in "Game of Thrones," were named the winners.

And "The Adventures of Tintin" won Best Animated Feature. I would've picked "Puss in Boots." But I am not now and never have been a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, so I don't get a say.

You can see all the nominees and winners here, and check out the fashions at Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide or at the home of Tom and Lorenzo, who blog about fashion all the time, not just during Awards Season. My pick for Best Dressed of the evening? Helen Mirren, seen above.

"Elizabeth Rex" Dazzles at Chicago Shakes

2012-01-13T12:17:00.005-06:00

There's been a lot of interest in what Shakespeare might have done in his downtime, even including a run-in with Queen Elizabeth I herself, in the film "Shakespeare in Love."

In "Elizabeth Rex," currently playing at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, playwright Timothy Findley took a different path, however, sending the Virgin Queen, Gloriana herself, into a barn where Will Shakespeare and some of his cast are resting after a performance. It's an unlikely idea, that such a grand queen should dirty her hem in a barn, but Findley gives her a reason. She needs a distraction.

To keep Shakespeare and his actors (along with a bear, a pet of one of the actors) stuck, Findley supplies a curfew, which means that nobody is allowed to leave this barn adjacent to the great hall where they performed. Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth's one-time favorite, the Earl of Essex, as well as Shakespeare's former patron, the Earl of Southampton, are imprisoned in the Tower, with Essex set to be executed in the morning on the Queen's order. So Elizabeth takes her trip to the barn, too, to pass the hours till morning, when her lover will meet the ax.

As Findley's "Elizabeth Rex" opens, we see a bit of the end of "Much Ado About Nothing" as the Queen, majestically played by Canadian actress Diane D'Aquila, also watches. When the Queen arrives in the lowly barn, she tells the assembled crew how much she liked the play, and she particularly wants to meet handsome Jack Edmund (Andrew Rothenberg), who played Benedick, and Ned Lowenscroft (Steven Sutcliffe), the actor who played Beatrice. Lowenscroft, we are told, is the premiere performer of his time when it comes to Shakespeare's female roles. But Ned is ill. He suffers from a deadly pox (presumably syphilis) and he seems to be failing a bit more every day.

As the hours wear on, the Queen engages in conversations with Shakespeare himself, here nicely played by Chicago Shakespeare favorite Kevin Gudahl, as well as several of his company, but the major battle of wits and exchange of ideas comes with Ned. Elizabeth has repressed many of her female traits in order to be a strong, fearsome regent, and she asks Ned, who so often portrays women, to fill her in on how a women should act.

There are issues of mortality, passion and love here, as well as the obvious feminine/masculine, strength/weakness questions arising from pitching a battle-hardened queen against a man who always plays women. The specter of Essex hangs heavily over Elizabeth, as Southampton's fate hangs over Shakespeare, and the memories of a captain he once loved, probably the one who gave him the pox, hang over Ned Lowenscroft. And while all of that is going on, Shakespeare is working on "Antony and Cleopatra," drawing from the Queen in the room to fashion Cleo.

Barbara Gaines, Chicago Shakes' Artistic Director, takes the directorial reins herself on "Elizabeth Rex," giving it a sense of urgency and movement that helps the arc of the play a great deal. By the time we get to the morning, beautifully lit by Philip S. Rosenberg on Daniel Ostling's charmingly scruffy barn set, "Elizabeth Rex" has definitely cast its spell and hit its target.

Findley's play is smart, witty, and an actors' showcase, with Gloriana herself front and center. You can see how she's dressed for much of the play in the poster image reprinted above, and it's hard not to look at someone dressed like the sun, especially when D'Aquila gives her Queen so much charisma and strength. Wigged or bald, made-up or bare, in her golden gown or a much less grand Beatrice costume, D'Aquila commands the eye.

Sutcliffe's role as Ned is trickier. He has to be sick, saucy, inconsistent, lovestruck, angry, and heartbroken, all in the same room as Queen Elizabeth, the ultimate drama queen. Again, the role is an actor's dream, and Sutcliffe takes it on with energy and abandon.

Roderick Peeples, seen quite a few times at our own Illinois Shakespeare Festival, is funny and fulsome as reprobate Luddy, Bradley Armacost capers sweetly as senior trouper Percy Gower, and Eric Parks, someone I remember seeing on stage during his tenure at the University of Illinois, makes a good impression as Matthew Welles, the one who plays Claudio and the other juvenile leads in the company.

Jude Roche deserves special mention for 1) playing his entire role buried in a huge bear suit, and 2) managing to convey weariness, pain and affection from deep inside that bear. Amazing.

"Elizabeth Rex" continues at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier until January 22. Findley wrote the play in 2000, and it has had a few productions since then, but this one is very special. Sterling acting, terrific production values, and one unbeatable bear... Ticket info here.

(As a side note, I would love to see "Elizabeth Rex" played in repertory with "Much Ado About Nothing," which begins this play, and "Antony and Cleopatra," which is supposedly being written during this play, with some of the same actors who are supposedly playing roles in "Much Ado" taking those roles in "Much Ado," and the actor we see as Benedick and reading a few of Antony's lines taking those roles, too. Maybe we should even throw in "A Winter's Tale," so the bear has something else to do?)

ELIZABETH REX

By Timothy Findley

Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Director: Barbara Gaines
Scenic Designer: Daniel Ostling
Costume Designer: Mariann S. Verheyen
Lighting Designer: Philip S. Rosenberg
Sound Designer: Lindsay Jones
Wig and Make-Up Designer: Melissa Veal
Original Music by Jenny Giering
Dialect Coach: Eva Brenneman
Choreographer: Tammy Mader
Fight Director: John McFarland
Production Stage Manager: Deborah Acker

Cast: Bradley Armacost, Brenda Barrie, Diane D'Aquila, Matt Farrabee, Kevin Gudahl, Torrey Hanson, Anthony Kayer, Eric Parks, Chase Pavlick, Roderick Peeples, Jude Roche, Andrew Rothenberg, Steven Sutcliffe and Mary Ann Thebus. (At the performance I saw, Wendy Robie went on for Mary Ann Thebus in the role of Kate Tardwell.)

"Hugo" Is Magical, Fantastical and the Best Movie of the Year

2012-01-12T12:01:00.006-06:00

If you love movies, you will love "Hugo." It's as simple as that.

I have never been a huge fan of Martin Scorsese as a director, although I've found his period dramas ("The Aviator," "The Age of Innocence") more accessible to me as a viewer than his tough-guy stuff ("Raging Bull," "Goodfellas"). So I wasn't sure what to expect of "Hugo." A Martin Scorsese movie based on a kid's book*? A Martin Scorses 3-D project? Set in Paris in the 30s, with watchmakers and automatons in the background?

Turns out "Hugo" is not really a children's story, and the titular Hugo is not even the most intriguing character. Instead, "Hugo" is about the magic of the movies. Scorsese combines a sweet, nostalgic look at film pioneer Georges Méliès with one of his favorite topics -- film preservation -- inside a narrative that feels wistful, involving and personally affecting all at once. The 3-D effects are used just as wisely, to show us how special Méliès' movies were in their time, replicating the wonder of the very beginning of movie art. It's pretty obvious that we're going to see a train charging straight toward us, just as the first movie audiences did. And the other bits of film homage -- Harold Lloyd and his clock, the golden machine from "Metropolis" -- are also lovely. You can play "Spot the Movie Reference" as you watch.

For me, "Hugo" came alive, both as Scorsese's love letter to the movies, and as a creation of my own book and movie dreams from childhood. Not because I wanted to write books or make movies myself, but because I loved nothing more than curling up with and losing myself in a book or a movie when I was a kid. "Hugo" perfectly creates the world of my childhood dreams. I suspect it will work that way for others, too, with its enchanting railway station (Gare Montparnasse in Paris) that operates as a community of its own, complete with bookstore, cafe, musicians, toy store, quirky inhabitants, and a whole lot of clocks (and endless gears and machinery to run those clocks, all hidden inside the walls and in the attic).

We come to Gare Montparnasse with Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), an orphan boy left behind by his drunken uncle to make sure the clocks are wound. Hugo cadges food (from the cafe) and tiny mechanical parts (from the toymaker) as he tries desperately to fulfill the dream left behind by his father, a watchmaker who died in a museum fire. That dream is to complete a golden automaton, a machine that looks like a man, sits at a desk and writes... If Hugo can make it work. He longs to finish it, to find out what the machine will write, which he imagines will be a last message, some kind of sign, from his late father.

But the railway station is not an altogether friendly place. There is an officious Station Inspector (played with humor and even a little vulnerability by Sacha Baron Cohen) who likes nothing better than catching and busting homeless children who try to invade the place, as well as the no-nonsense toymaker (brought to life beautifully by Ben Kingsley) who knows that Hugo has been stealing from him. The toymaker has a mysterious past and a bad attitude about the movies, as well as a a godchild, Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), who makes friends with Hugo behind Papa Georges' back.

That friendship, along with Hugo's need to stay under the Station Inspector's radar, creates the plot, as we see Hugo and Isabelle research the machine, the movies, and her godfather, racing against the clock to bring all three back to life.

I loved seeing so many wonderful character actors filling out the community of the Gare Montparnasse, from Frances de la Tour and Richard Griffiths as a pair of would-be lovers kept apart by a cranky dog to Emily Mortimer as a pretty flower-seller and Christopher Lee as the owner of the bookshop. Oh, that magical bookshop... Talk about childhood dreams. Jude Law also shows up in a spot-on performance as the memory of Hugo's father, with Ray Winstone properly awful as the horrible uncle, Helen McCrory hitting all the right notes as Papa Georges' wife, who has a secret past of her own, and Michael Stuhlbarg filling the critical role of a professor who can supply answers when the children come looking. Martin Scorsese himself shows up, beaming with pride as as a photographer who took a picture of Georges Méliès way back when.

The recreations of Méliès' movies are worth the price of admission, all by themselves. The color and images are fabulous, made even more amazing with the use of 3-D.

"Hugo" was first released around Thanksgiving, which means you may have to search to find it on a screen near you. It seems to have left Bloomington-Normal, but there are still showings in Champaign-Urbana (Carmike Beverly Cinema 18 and Goodrich Savoy 16) if you can get past today's snowstorm and get over there. I can promise that the 3-D snowstorm in the movie is a lot warmer and more magical than what's going on outside today.

*"Hugo" is based on the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," by Brian Selznick. The screenplay for this film was written by John Logan, the playwright who also wrote "Red," about artist Mark Rothko, and "Hauptmann," currently playing at Community Players Theatre.

Planning Ahead for ISU's Winter/Spring Shows

2012-01-10T10:27:00.015-06:00

Although January seems like a lazy month for ISU theater, there's a lot going on behind the scenes. Casting was completed in December for ISU's slate of Winter/Spring shows, with work either already started or soon underway in terms of rehearsals and production meetings and planning and writing and drawing and painting and sewing and building...

If you'd like to plan your own calendar so you can be there when all that work comes together in performance, here's a cheat sheet of what's coming and who you can expect to see on stage.

First up in 2012 is the play I am most looking forward to, Sarah Ruhl's "Passion Play," directed by Brandon Ray for the CPA, with performances February 17-25. What makes "Passion Play" stand out is Ruhl's quicksilver imagination. What could've been slow or plodding in other hands -- an examination of the big "Passion Play," the one they do every year at Oberammergau, in three different historical periods -- is instead a fascinating and highly theatrical piece of work. (That's the cover of the published script you see at left.)

We first see a small cluster of regular old folks preparing their "Passion Play" in Elizabethan England, then in Oberammergau while Hitler is in power, and then in a town called Spearfish, South Dakota, during the Reagan years. The same actors appear in all three places, although they show different personas. So we see a smelly young man named Pontius who guts fish for a living, rehearsing to play Judas in England. The same actor becomes a footsoldier in Hitler'a army, still playing Judas, in Germany, and then a Viet Nam vet called P, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, once again slated to play Judas, in South Dakota. That structure affords Ruhl the opportunity to reflect on those religious roles, as well as how the different communities react to the vagaries of everyday life, love, power, faith, theater, and yes, passion.

For ISU, Matt Bausone, who memorably played upstart Crow in Sam Shepard's "The Tooth of Crime" last spring, has been cast as Pontius/Foot Soldier/P; with Jeff Kurysz, seen in "Women of Lockerbie," as John/Eric/J (the threesome who play Jesus); Clayton Joyner, winner of the national Irene Ryan award last year, and most recently seen in "A Flea in Her Ear," as Mary 1 and Elsa, the Virgin Mary girls; David Fisch ("How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying") in the pivotal roles of Queen Elizabeth, Hitler and Ronald Reagan, and Ashlyn Hughes ("The Marriage of Bette and Boo") in my favorite role, the combo Village Idiot/Violet.

ISU's Center for the Performing Arts has the space and technical bells and whistles to make "Passion Play" really come alive. Can't wait for this one.

Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9," scheduled for Westhoff Theatre from February 23 to March 3, is equally quirky, although a quite different kind of quirky, sending up gender and sex roles as it takes a look at the repressive nature of those roles under Colonialism. It, too, straddles disparate time periods, with Act I taking place in a British colony in Africa during Queen Victoria's reign, and Act II leaping to London in 1979. Once again, the same actors show up in both acts, but switching off roles, so that the actor who plays Clive, a Colonial Administrator, in Act I, may show up as Cathy, a five-year-old girl, in Act II, or the actress who played Edward, Clive's son, in Act I, may now be playing Betty, Clive's wife, in Act II. (And the script's cover, shown here, hints at the gender and time shifts.)

Director Jeremy Garrett has assigned the roles in his own combinations, with Alex Kostner and Andrew Rogalny, who both appeared in ISU's recent "Merchant of Venice," Danny Rice and Abby Vombrack, both seen in "Electra" last fall; Fiona Stephens, last seen in "The Women of Lockerbie," Hannah Brown and Nicholas Spindler in his ensemble cast.

William Inge's classic "Picnic," which won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is scheduled to play the Studio Theater at Centennial West from March 29 to April 7. "Picnic" tells the story of one small town's Labor Day picnic and two sisters, Millie and Madge, both attracted to handsome newcomer Hal, who has a bit of a shady past. Is Hal just what they need to spark ideas of freedom and passion?

On Broadway in 1953, "Picnic" starred Ralph Meeker, Janice Rule and Kim Stanley, with Paul Newman in his Broadway debut in a smaller role. The poster from a Columbus, Ohio, tryout of that Broadway production is shown above.

Lori Adams is directing this "Picnic" fresh off her successful effort with "Falling" in St. Louis. Adams' cast includes Eliza Morris (last seen in "Women of Lockerbie" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying") and Betsy Diller as Madge and Millie and Russell Krantz ("Electra") as Hal.

This spring's musical takes an operatic turn with Puccini's "La Bohème," perhaps better known to some Broadway musical fans as the 19th century operatic precursor of "Rent." "La Bohème" requires real voices to sell Puccini's score, and director Connie de Veer has assembled a cast including Andy Hudson and John Ramseyer sharing the role of Rodolfo and Hyejin Park and Caroline Pircorn alternating in the role of Mimi. If you'd like to read more about "La Bohème" before you go, NPR has assembled a nice guide to the show here. And that's the cover image from the Metropolitan Opera's DVD at right.

"La Bohème" is slated for performances in ISU's Center for the Performing Arts from March 30 to April 7.

And the last show of the spring season will be... "Julius Caesar." Christopher Dea will direct Shakespeare's tale of political ambition and treachery, with performances in Westhoff Theatre from April 5-14. Political ambition and treachery sounds just right for an election year, doesn't it?

Dea is mixing the genders in this traditionally male-heavy play, with Paula Nowak ("A Flea in Her Ear") as Julius Caesar and Jessie Swiech ("Women of Lockerbie") as Mark Antony. David McGill and Patrick Riley ("The Marriage of Bette and Boo") will play conspirators Brutus and Cassius.

The cover of the many editions of "Julius Caesar" is shown above. This one is from the Folger Shakespeare Library Series.

Tickets for all these shows are now available. Click here for more information.

New Year News & Notes

2012-01-09T13:59:00.005-06:00

Over the weekend, Illinois State University hosted the annual Illinois High School Theatre Festival, while ISU drama students were over in Champaign-Urbana, where the University of Illinois was hosting the Region III portion of the Kennedy Center American Theater Festival at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Congratulations to ISU's Owais Ahmed and Abby Vombrack for winning the regional ACTF Irene Ryan awards and earning themselves a trip to Washington DC for the next stage of the competition.

In other news, Community Players has announced auditions on January 16 and 17 for its upcoming production of "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running," a collection of four one-act plays by Robert Anderson. The plays to be produced are "The Shock of Recognition," involving whether you need a nude scene to make a play work, "The Footsteps of Doves," about a husband and wife thinking of switching to twin beds, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," another play about a long-married couple, this one waiting for the kids to come home for the holidays, and "I'm Herbert," about an elderly couple who can't seem to remember who they've been with in the past. No mention of what time of day the auditions take place, but there is more information about directors and the roles they're casting here. (Note: Joel Shoemaker, who is directing "I'll Be Home for Christmas," has kindly filled us in on the time for these auditions. Joel says they'll be at 7 pm next Monday and Tuesday. Thanks, Joel!)

And the Station Theatre in Urbana has released this nifty little slide show to clue you in on what you need to know about their current production of "Gruesome Playground Injuries."

And if you're trying to fill in the spots on your Oscar prediction card, you may want to catch "The Descendants" at Wehrenberg Bloomington Galaxy 14 Cinema, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" at the Normal Theatre, "My Year with Marilyn" at Starplex Normal Stadium 14, and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" or "War Horse" at Carmike Palace Cinema 10, Starplex Normal Stadium 14 or Wehrenberg Bloomington Galaxy 14 Cinema. If you want to catch "Hugo," you'll have to drive to Peoria or Champaign, however. And for "The Artist," the French silent film that's sure to snag some Oscar nominations, the closet screening I've found is at the AMC Yorktown 17 at the mall in Lombard, Illinois, some 125 miles from Bloomington.

DGA and WGA Nominees Match Up. Sort of.

2012-01-09T13:14:00.006-06:00

The Directors Guild of America has announced its five nominees for direction of feature films, a list that almost always matches up with Oscar's directorial nominations, as well. The big five from the Directors Guild are:

Woody Allen, for "Midnight in Paris"
David Fincher, for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist"
Alexander Payne, for "The Descendants"
Martin Scorsese, for "Hugo"

There is some surprise out there in the Oscar-prognosticating world that Steven Spielberg was overlooked for 'The War Horse," as well as Tate Taylor for "The Help" and maybe Terrence Malick for "Tree of Life." I won't argue on behalf of any of those, necessarily, but I do think David Fincher and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is a puzzler.

I also find it interesting that three of the nominated directors were working on loving (and lovely) tributes to the past, with Woody Allen giving a nostalgic glow to Paris in the 20s in "Midnight in Paris," Michel Hazanavicius looking at the silent film era in "The Artist," and Martin Scorsese taking a trip back to Paris and the history of films in "Hugo."

And since "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is set in Sweden, that means only one of the nominated directors was working with "American" material, and that one is set in Hawaii.

As for the Writers Guild, they've chosen to honor some of the same films, but not all.

In the Original Screenplay category, the nominees are:

"50/50," written by Will Reiser
"Bridesmaids," written by Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig
"Midnight in Paris," written by Woody Allen
"Win Win," with screenplay by Tom McCarthy and story by Tom McCarthy and Joe Tiboni
"Young Adult," written by Diablo Cody

And for Adapted Screenplays, the nominees are:

"The Descendants," with screenplay by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemming.
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," with screenplay by Steven Zaillian. Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson.
"The Help," with screenplay by Tate Taylor. Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett.
"Hugo," with screenplay by John Logan. Based on the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick.
"Moneyball," with screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin and story by Stan Chervin. Based on the book by Michael Lewis.

The writing nominations skew heavily toward comedy, or at least dramedy, with only "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" as an out-and-out drama. (If you find any humor in that serial killer grim-fest, let me know.)

That means "The Descendants," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," "Hugo" and "Midnight in Paris" may be honored for both writing and direction from these guilds, which would be a definite boost for their Academy Award chances. Still, none of those seems like a sure-fire Best Picture that the Academy would go for.

Meanwhile, "The Artist," not eligible for Best Screenplay nominations from the Writers Guild because its author (director Hazanavicius) is not a member of that Guild, is the current top pick for the Best Picture Oscar as predicted by Gold Derby, a site that specializes in that kind of speculation.

IWU DIstinguished Theatre Alum William Duell Dies at 88

2012-01-07T13:26:00.005-06:00

If you're a film buff, you have undoubtedly seen character actor William Duell, who earned a BA from Illinois Wesleyan in 1949, on screen in such roles as epileptic inmate Sefelt in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," or as Congressional Custodian Andrew McNair in "1776," recreating a role he'd also played on Broadway.

The New York Times reports that Duell died December 22 at his home in Manhattan, at the age of 88.

Duell is one of the people Illinois Wesleyan Theatre lists at the top of its "Proud Alums" lists; he certainly enjoyed a distinguished film and theater career, and he had one of those "I know that guy" faces you would recognize even if you didn't quite remember the name.

Duell was best known as a small, mischievous presence, described as "puckish" by the New York Times in their obituary, who created a vivid persona both because of his diminutive size and his large personality, with deft comic timing and quirky charm that kept him well-employed.

His first Broadway appearance was in Bertolt Brecht's "Threepenny Opera" in 1954, in a production directed by Carmen Capalbo that starred Lotte Lenya as Jenny and Bea Arthur as Lucy Brown, with John Astin and Paul Dooley in Macheath's gang during the show's initial run. That "Threepenny Opera" came back as a "return engagement" a few months later and then ran for six years, with Duell there from September, 1955, to September, 1961. He returned to "Threepenny Opera" in a 1976 revival, after appearing in other Broadway shows like "A Cook for Mr. General" (as the Cook in the title), "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" and "1776."

Although he had roles in films like "The Pope of Greenwich Village," "The Hustler" with Paul Newman and Tim Robbins' star-packed "Cradle Will Rock," Duell continued to return to the stage, memorably appearing as Erronius in "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum" in 1996 and as Dr. Bradley in "The Man Who Came to Dinner" in 2000, both with Nathan Lane. That "Man Who Came to Dinner" also showed up on PBS in October, 2000, as a broadcast of a live performance. The latter is available on DVD and I'd recommend it if you want a look at William Duell, a great character actor, in fine form as a sort of hybrid film/stage actor.

Part Three of the "Gruesome Playground Injuries" Puzzle: Katie Baldwin

2012-01-06T11:10:00.009-06:00

Rajiv Joseph's "Gruesome Playground Injuries" opened last night at the Station Theatre in Urbana, bringing alive Joseph's moody, quirky story of two bruised people and how their lives intertwine over the years.

Director Mathew Green talked about his "Injuries" experience a few days ago, followed by some intriguing thoughts from Rob Zaleski, who plays Doug, half of the "Injuries" cast.

To complete the "Injuries" picture, let's hear from Katie Baldwin (shown at left in "Love Song" with Mathew Green at the Station Theatre. Photo credit: Jesse Folks).

In "Gruesome Playground Injuries," Katie plays Kayleen, the girl who continues to meet one boy -- reckless, wounded Doug -- over the course of the play. Here's what Katie had to say...

How did you get started at the Station?

My first production with the Celebration Company was "The Effects of Robitusin," directed by Gabrielle Reisman. It was a collection of comedic scenes, some of them our own original work. We were all in high school and just had a blast with it. Sam Ambler, Gary Ambler's son, was also a contributor/performer.

What do you do in your life outside the theater?

I am in The Abe Froman Project, an improv comedy troupe based out of Champaign. We've been together about 3.5 years; we perform every Monday at Mike 'N' Molly's in Champaign. I'm also a teacher's aide at an elementary school, and I sometimes host Tuesday Night Trivia at Boltini. I go to Krannert to see anything I can, sing karaoke, travel, play with my "nieces," and see live local music as much as possible.

What has been your favorite role so far in general and at the Station in particular?

There are a few that definitely jump out but, among those, it's just a matter of which one was most challenging or fun or new. Besides the role I'm currently playing, Molly in "Love Song," Jackie in "Mauritius," and the women in "The 39 Steps" are among my favorites. Molly was a big challenge; she was my first big role to tackle. Jackie was a part I was dying to play the first time I read the script, and "The 39 Steps" is the most fun I've had in any production so far.

Katie Baldwin (far left) in "The 39 Steps" with (from left)
Mikel L. Matthews, Jr., Mike Prosise and Rob Zaleski.
Photo credit: Jesse Folks.

Do you have a dream role you’d love to play someday?

I know I'll never have the chance to play John Proctor in "The Crucible." I've always wanted to play Bella from "Lost in Yonkers." I'd love to get my hands on the obvious female roles in "Hamlet" and "The Taming of the Shrew."

What do you like most about working at the Station Theatre? What is the biggest challenge?

I love the sense of community we have; some of us are close enough to be family. It's always hard to work on something you care about so much, especially when your space and finances are limited. But that is the creative challenge: put as much of your heart in this tiny box as you can.

You’ve worked with Mathew Green several times as both an actor and a director, I think, although the circumstances and the shows have been quite different from each other. How does “Gruesome Playground Injuries” fit into that picture?

It feels a bit like "Playground Injuries" is a culmination of the other six shows we've done together. I've been on stage with Mathew, been directed by him, and was his assistant director (and eventually understudy) for "Eurydice." We work best on opposite sides of the fourth wall, but I definitely look forward to sharing the stage with him again.

What do you appreciate about Mathew as a director?

Mathew is a master of assembly. He knows who the correct designers, actors, builders, and run crew are for a given production. When it comes to rehearsals, he provides exactly the right environment of trust and creativity. He uses universal emotions, clear imagery, and personal experience to cultivate the emotions he needs in his actors. I always feel trusted, respected, and valued when I work with Mathew. This show is no exception.

How is this show different from your previous Celebration Company shows?

This project is different for me because I've never been in a two-person show. I'm playing the same person in different phases of her life (and out of chronological order), so I need to be able to conjure emotions without a lot of build-up on stage. It's been a challenge, but I'm very happy with the results so far.

And you’ve also worked with Rob Zaleski before. Is there a level of comfort that comes from working with Mathew and Rob again? Or is it different and new every time?

Rob is comfort personified. He always has a great attitude and is willing to try anything to make the scene work. Mathew and his family are very dear to me; there is no way to completely separate that from my work with him. There is a very short list of people I trust more than Rob and Mathew.

What can you tell us about “Gruesome Playground Injuries” and the character of Kayleen? Who is Kayleen and what should we know about her before we see the play? What makes her an appealing character to play?

Kayleen has a lot of feelings of unworthiness. When bad things happen, she feels they're deserved or just not worth mentioning because they happened to her. She takes care of Doug and loves him unconditionally but can't seem to get it together enough to accept his love in return. Kayleen deflects intimacy; it makes her uncomfortable (to put it lightly). I'm fascinated by her protective shield because, while that is a part of my personality, I do everything I can to overcome it. She just builds it.

In general, what do you think this play is really about? What should audiences take away from “Gruesome Playground Injuries”?

This is a play about soul mates. Kayleen and Doug have a morbid fascination and almost pathological urge to heal each other, physically and emotionally.
Thanks so much for all the information, Katie. What are your plans after “Gruesome Playground Injuries”?

This spring I'll be producing for the first time for "Becky Shaw," directed by Kay Holley (at The Station Theatre). I'd like to direct someday, but my main focus is acting right now. There's always something on deck and I try to keep going, keeping challenging myself.

So there you have it -- everything you need to know about "Gruesome Playground Injuries" to maximize your experience when you see the play. Thanks again to Mathew Green, Rob Zaleski and Katie Baldwin for sharing their thoughts!

Performances of "Gruesome Playground Injuries" continue tonight through Sunday, pick up again next week from January 11-12 and finish up January 18-21. All performances are at 8 pm. Visit www.Station Theatre.com for more information or to make reservations.

Anticipating Sunday: What's on Telly?

2012-01-06T10:46:00.007-06:00

Just a quick reminder that the holiday lull is over, and my two favorite dramas -- the gorgeous "Downton Abbey," which lovingly creates the post-Edwardian years in England for PBS's Masterpiece, and the equally gorgeous "Once Upon a Time," with its dual fairytale and real-life worlds populated by people like Snow White and Prince Charming -- return this weekend.

The second season of "Downton Abbey" begins Sunday evening at 8 pm on WILL or WTVP for central Illinois TV fans. We haven't seen new episodes of "Downton Abbey" since last year, so Sunday will be a red-letter evening for anybody who got hooked on the adventures of the aristocratic (as well as tempestuous) Crawley family and their (equally stormy) staff. This year, we'll be moving into World War I (see uniforms above) as the Crawleys deal with war and major change on every side in addition to thwarted romances, inheritance drama, secrets and lies.

To get you in the proper mood, PBS has supporting materials and last year's episodes streaming here, even including a quiz so you can figure out which member of the estate is most like you.

"Once Upon a Time" has only been gone since December 11th, but that was a shocker of an episode that killed off the sheriff in Storybrooke (the real town that sits on the ruins of the cursed fairytale kingdom) and showed just how evil the Evil Queen/Mayor Regina really is. Our first episode of the new year is called "Desperate Souls" and purports to involve the campaign to replace the sheriff, as our heroine Emma Swan, the town newcomer who we know is the key to reversing the curse takes on Mr. Glass, Storybrooke's newspaper editor, who is the Magic Mirror in the world of fairytales. Glass/Mirror, get it? One of the most fun things about the show is deciphering who the residents of Storybrooke will be in fairytales based on their names.

The "Desperate Souls" episode airs at 7 central on ABC Sunday evening. Which means you can watch both "Once Upon a Time" and "Downtown Abbey" without missing a beat.

Rob Zaleski Takes on "Injuries" at the Station Theatre

2012-01-04T11:33:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week, I shared some interesting commentary from director Mathew Green about "Gruesome Playground Injuries," which opens this week at Urbana's Station Theatre, which is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary season.

I also posed some questions to Green's two cast members, to find out a little more about them and their efforts with the Celebration Company at the Station, as well as about what makes this show stand out.

Today, we're hearing from the very interesting Rob Zaleski (shown above, in a photo from Douglas Carter Beane's "The Little Dog Laughed," also directed by Mathew Green for the Station Theatre).

Rob plays Doug, the half of "Gruesome Playground Injuries" who keeps showing up with, well, gruesome injuries. I think you'll enjoy what he has to say about how he got his start and what he thinks of "Gruesome Playground Injuries."

Thanks for talking with me, Rob! Tell me a little about yourself.

I first started with The Celebration Company at The Station Theatre in 2010 in Eugene Ionesco's "Rhinoceros," directed by Eric Burton. I also have done many shows at Parkland College Theater, most recently "Dead Man's Cell Phone," directed by Thom Schnarre, in which I played a terribly awkward brother of the dead man in the title. I've been acting in the theatre since 2006, when I was cast as an ensemble role in "Angels in America, Part One" at Parkland.

My first actual "lead" role was in "The 39 Steps" last summer. Before then, I have been in many ensemble casts. "Gruesome Playground Injuries" is the first show I've done with just one other actor, so I'm really excited to tackle that challenge. This will actually be my third show with Katie Baldwin. We have come to trust each other pretty well on the stage. This is also my third time being directed by Mathew Green. I would love an opportunity to be on stage with Mathew too, but we'll see if that is ever in the cards. I am very excited about "Gruesome Playground Injuries", and I hope that people experience a full range of emotions from this very intense and heartbreaking story.

Rob Zaleski (far right) in "The 39 Steps," with (from left)
Mike Prosise, Katie Baldwin and Mikel L. Matthews, Jr.
Photo credit: Jesse Folks

So you came to the Station Theatre by way of Parkland College? Were you taking classes at Parkland?

I originally started school in Illinois as a theatre student, having moved here from Ohio where I was a theatre student at Kent State University. I decided that I didn’t want to be a poor, starving artist though, and changed my major when I transferred to U of I into the Media Studies program. I still took quite a few theatre courses between Kent and Parkland and learned a great deal at both.

You say you began acting in 2006, in “Angels in America” at Parkland, which is a fabulous script to jump into acting with. What did you take away from that experience?

It was a great first experience. One of the things that Thom Schnarre does very well is use ensemble characters to really enhance the story and further his artistic vision. It also gives more students an opportunity to be in productions. The subject matter of the show is pretty intense, and the cast was phenomenal to work with.

So no acting before Parkland?

Before moving to Illinois, I had done a couple student films and a public reading of a friend’s debut play. I had always wanted to be involved with the theatre but life kept getting in the way. After moving to Illinois, I just decided to go for it, and I love it!

What do you do when you’re not at the theater?

I work for a marketing company handling client accounts. I also am on the Publicity Committee for The Station Theatre, focusing on the social media and online efforts for publicizing The Station Theatre’s shows.

Let’s talk a little about the roles you’ve played with the Celebration Company. Considering you only started there in 2010, you’ve already created quite the acting resume! Do you prefer the absurdist tone of “Rhinoceros,” the kind of madcap comedy of “The 39 Steps,” edgier comedy like "The Little Dog Laughed,” or darker, more dramatic work like “Gruesome Playground Injuries”?

I count myself fortunate to have been able to be part of such a wide range of shows. I feel most comfortable in shows that touch on both comedy and drama. “Gruesome Playground Injuries” has been an experience that has taken me deeper into a character than I’ve ever gone, and accessing emotional complexities that are more than I’m used to. It has been an exceptional challenge but also feels like I’m getting the most out of it.

Is there a role or particular script out there you’d love to do in the future?

I really, really, REALLY want to perform Aaron Sorkin’s "Hidden In This Picture." I absolutely love that one act, and I would love to play the lead character, Robert. The writing it so quick-witted and full of biting sarcasm. One day... One day.

What do you find most enjoyable about working at the Station Theatre?

I really enjoy film as well as stage acting, so doing a show in such an intimate setting as the Station Theatre offers the ability to meet those two in the middle. You can be more subtle and still get your message across to the audience.

What is the biggest challenge?

The challenge is space, especially with any ensemble casts. Those dressing rooms can be awfully up close and personal at times. :)

Doug in “Gruesome Playground Injuries” seems on paper to be a tricky role, both because of his emotional damage as well as all the makeup and prop issues involved in playing someone who goes through so much from scene to scene. Plus, of course, with only two characters, you have the burden of carrying half the script. Are any of those issues a problem for you? What do you think is the key to playing this role?

For me, I have a tendency to be kind of animated and expressive. Playing this role has required me to really pull back. I don’t want this character to come off as a caricature. I want him to seem like someone you know. Someone you’ve met. I want him to feel real. I think that is really the only way that this character can be believable and the only way the audience will truly connect with the range of emotions that this play will take them on.

You’ve worked with both Mathew Green and Katie Baldwin before. How is that reflected in your work on “Gruesome Playground Injuries”?

We’ve built up a pretty solid trust between the three of us. That trust is allowing us to really dive into this show and open up emotionally to each other, which will hopefully translate on stage in the characters.

What do you think the playwright, Rajiv Joseph, is trying to say with this work?

From the perspective of Doug, I think Rajiv is showing that emotional damage can actually be more painful than physical damage. It shows how badly we can hurt one another without lifting a finger.

How is this show different from your previous shows at the Station?

I would say that this is the most intense show I’ve ever done.

What should audiences know about “Gruesome Playground Injuries”?

Don’t let yourself get turned away by the title. The visible injuries become secondary to the internal damage of these characters. It is a very honest show. You may laugh, you may cry. It is an amazingly written show and I hope to do it full justice.

And, finally, what comes next for you?

I am probably going to take a small break after this and try to focus on the promotional side of what I do for the Station. I’m hoping to educate myself a bit more and maybe find some time to relax, although that is unlikely.

Thanks, Rob! I hope you get that break and some time to relax after the intense "Injuries."

"Gruesome Playground Injuries" opens tomorrow, January 5, at the Station Theatre in Urbana. Performances continue through January 21. For more information or to make reservations, click on "Gruesome Playground Injuries."

And the Nominees Are... Producers Guild Edition

2012-01-03T14:22:00.001-06:00

The Producers Guild of America has announced its nominations for excellence in movies and television, keeping things interesting for the upcoming awards season. Although odds-on Oscar favorites like "The Artist," "The Help," "Hugo" and "War Horse" are included in the Producers Guild's list, other expected contenders like "The Tree of Life" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" are nowhere to be found. And I have to admit, I'm really surprised to see the likes of "Bridesmaids" make the cut.

In motion pictures, the nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award are: "The Artist," "Bridesmaids," "The Descendants," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "The Help," "Hugo," "The Ides of March," Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball" and "War Horse."

The nominees in the Animated Feature category are "The Adventures of TinTin," "Cars 2," "Kung Fu Panda 2," "Puss in Boots" and "Rango."

"Downton Abbey" (broadcast on PBS) is one of the nominees for the David L. Wolper Producer of the Year Award in Long-Form Television (which means mini-series or TV movies-of-the-week) along with "Cinema Verite," "Mildred Pierce" and "Too Big to Fail" on HBO and "The Kennedys" on ReelzChannel.

For the Danny Thomas Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Television, Comedy, the nominees are "30 Rock” and "Parks and Recreation” on NBC, "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS, "Glee" on Fox and "Modern Family" on ABC.

And for the Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Drama, the nominees are "Boardwalk Empire” and "Game of Thrones" on HBO, "Dexter" on Showtime, "Mad Men" on AMC and the lone network choice -- "The Good Wife" on CBS.

The winners of the 2012 Producers Guild Awards will be announced on January 21st at the ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Lori Adams Named "Best Director" for St. Louis Production of "Falling"

2012-01-03T11:53:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Lori Adams, Head of Undergraduate Acting at Illinois State University. Adams' off-campus work directing the play "Falling" at St. Louis's Mustard Seed Theatre has just earned her 2011 "Best Director" honors from St. Louis Post-Dispatch critic Judith Newmark.

"Falling," a play about a family trying to handle autism, is the work of Mustard Seed Artistic Director Deanna Jent. About the play, Newmark says, "Based on her family (Jent is the mother of three, including an autistic son), 'Falling' comes endowed with a keen mind, a warm though troubled heart — and a future. There's hope to bring it to New York, probably off-Broadway; productions at other theaters around the country are virtually certain. But we got it to see it first."

No word yet on whether the play will make it to New York, but if it does, we won't be surprised to see Adams once again at the helm, and taking home more awards for her direction.

Around Bloomington-Normal, Lori Adams is very well-known as an actress, memorably appearing as the woman at the center of Alan Ayckbourn's "Woman in Mind" at Heartland Theatre, as Fanny Kemble in the touring one-woman show "Shame the Devil! An Audience with Fanny Kemble" and in various roles at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

Adams' directing resume includes such disparate projects as the annual Holiday Extravaganza at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts and terrific productions of The Who's "Tommy" and Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Evita" at ISU.

Mathew Green on the Sweet Side of "Gruesome Playground Injuries"

2012-01-02T13:37:00.005-06:00

I mentioned the Station Theatre's upcoming production of Rajiv Joseph's "Gruesome Playground Injuries," directed by Mathew Green (seen below), yesterday in my January preview.

"Gruesome Playground Injuries" is an intriguing little play, dealing with two characters -- Kayleen and Doug -- who meet up at various times in their lives, often in hospital rooms, when somebody is suffering some sort of injury or malady. The timeline jumps around through their lives, showing us just how Kayleen and Doug came to share a connection, a relationship, based on attempting to heal the damage they've suffered.

When I read the play, I thought it had the potential to really pack a punch, but it definitely asks a lot of its director and actors. So I posed some questions to director Mathew Green (pictured at left) and his cast of two, to ask about them and their backgrounds, as well as how they see this play. First up, here's what Mathew Green had to say...

How long have you been associated with the Celebration Company at the Station Theatre? What brought you to the Station?

This is my eighth season with the Station. I submitted a proposal to direct in the summer of ’05, and since then I’ve been directing and acting pretty regularly. "Gruesome Playground Injuries" will be my 19th production.

Have you worked with other local theaters or schools/colleges/etc.?

I work as an instructor for Inner Voices Social Issues Theatre at the University of Illinois, working with the ensemble and the dialogue-facilitation class. I just completed my first semester, and we’ve just started work on next semester’s show. As for other local theaters, I directed "Arsenic and Old Lace" for Rantoul Theatre Group back in ’07.

How did you get involved in theater? When did you know it was a path you wanted to take?

I grew up in Robinson, Illinois, and the junior college there—Lincoln Trail College—had a pretty vibrant community theater. A drama in the fall, a musical in the spring—that sort of thing. And while I was pretty shy as a kid, I had always been a writer. When I took my first acting class at LTC, I became fascinated with playwriting. It was the best form of storytelling I had ever encountered, and I was hooked. I wrote, acted, and directed there for a couple of years, but then finishing my degree and finding work sort of got in the way. I wasn’t a drama major, so my access to theater was relegated to a seat in the audience, but I kept reading and writing plays, studying on my own.

You mentioned you started as a writer. Do you prefer writing, directing, or acting?

I still love writing when I get the chance, and my job with Inner Voices feeds that need. And while I do enjoy acting quite a lot, I think directing is more my strength. Gary Ambler once told me that he sees himself as an actor who also directs; I feel like I’m the opposite: a director who also acts.

What do you enjoy most about the Celebration Company?

I love the idea that the Celebration Company is open to just about anyone, but it has a core group of people who have been producing great work together for years and years. Honestly, one of my proudest accomplishments is being accepted into that group. And the work ethic at the Station is serious. I’ve seen plays at that theater that rival the best professional work. This is not a hobby to them, or to me. This is a craft.

Katie Baldwin and Mathew Green in "Absurd Person Singular"
Photo Credit: Patrick Keane

I’ve seen you portray very different characters in very different plays. Sidney in “Absurd Person Singular” is practically in a different universe than Beane in John Kolvenbach’s “Love Song.” What attracts you to a role? Is there a particular role that stands out for you?

I’m always looking for something I haven’t done before. Sometimes that has to do with the type of play, and sometimes it has to do with the demands of the role. Sidney was a challenge because I’m uncomfortable with comedy in general, while Beane required a lot of intense concentration and emotional investment. As for standout roles… I have to put Beane up there, as well as Denny from "A Steady Rain," another really challenging, emotional role. I don’t know how much “range” I have, but I’m always interested in finding out.

Katie Baldwin and Mathew Green in "Love Song"
Photo Credit: Jesse Folks

How many shows have you directed at the Station? As a director, what pulls you into a particular show?

Gruesome Playground Injuries will be my seventh directorial effort for the Station. I think my criteria for choosing shows to direct is very similar to my criteria for acting. I always look for a new challenge, and I always look for a story I want to tell. The challenges are always unique to the show at hand. Some shows require a lot of technical proficiency in the form of choreography or timing or actual technology, and the director turns into kind of a traffic cop or ringmaster. Other shows, like "Playground," are so much more intimate, almost fragile, and mostly they require a good listener.

If I’m being honest, I have to admit that, in the last few years, I’ve been most interested in plays that have women as lead characters. I have a two-year-old daughter, and from the time I found out she was on the way, I’ve leaned toward women’s stories. That’s what made "Rachel Corrie" special to me three years ago, when my wife was pregnant. The season after that, with a baby in the house, Eurydice’s relationship to her father haunted me. And now Kayleen in "Playground"…. Not that she’s the “main character.” It’s definitely a two-hander.

From a craft standpoint, I do think I get a little better which each show. Which is not to say that I was lousy to begin with or that I’m great now. Just that I’m still learning and improving. Regardless of whether it’s comedy or drama, I think I learn more about how to get what I need in order to tell the story honestly. That, in turn, makes me better at helping actors get where they need to go.

Rajiv Joseph’s “Gruesome Playground Injuries” is a quirky show, with its story of two childhood friends who keep finding each other at times of terrible physical trauma in their lives. One thing I found interesting in reading the play was its shifts in time and the fact that it isn’t linear in how it tells its story or racks up its injuries. Is that presenting any challenges?

As we rehearse the play, we are always aware of where we are on the play’s timeline. The non-linear structure keeps us on our toes, but it hasn’t tripped us up yet. I actually love the way the play jumps around, because, in life, we never remember things in order. Certain moments stand out, and those memories lead us to jump to other memories, from other times. I don’t think very many of us look back in a straight line.

I believe you said you’ve worked with both Katie Baldwin, who plays Kayleen, and Rob Zaleski, who plays Doug, several times before. How does that inform the process of putting together “Gruesome Playground Injuries”?

I’ve been lucky enough to work with a lot of great people at the Station, but I do keep coming back to certain actors. And with Katie and Rob, there is definitely a shorthand. "Playground" requires us to go to some dark places, so it’s important that we have a certain rapport, a certain amount of trust.

What story do you think the play is trying to tell us? What are Kayleen and Doug and all those injuries really about?

Well, Kayleen and Doug have some damage, for sure. Some of it is physical, like the scars that Doug accumulates from his misadventures; and then there’s the internal, emotional variety. Scars, bruises, and the like are symbolic of the injuries we can’t see.

Anything else you’d like to say about the play? Why should audiences come to see it?

Despite a somewhat ominous title, this can be a very sweet play. And it features some terrific acting. It’s about people who are soul mates, for better or worse. With Katie and Rob, I have a cast that makes their connection seem very real and powerful.

Thanks, Mathew! Very interesting and thoughtful commentary on the play.

"Gruesome Playground Injuries" opens this week at Urbana's Station Theatre, with performances January 5-8, 11-15, and 18-21. All performances begin at 8 pm and tickets range from $10-15 depending on which night you choose. Call 217-384-4000 to make reservations or click here to use their on-line reservation service.

And here's a little more about Mathew Green:

Mathew Green is a director, actor, and board member at the Station Theatre in Urbana, Illinois. He is also a part-time instructor for the Inner Voices Social Issues Theatre group at the University of Illinois. When not in one theater or another, he is a full-time dad to Ozella, who is almost two years old, and a husband (anniversary number 8 this January). Mathew is currently directing "Gruesome Playground Injuries" for the Station, and he will appear in Gina Gionfriddo's "Becky Shaw" this spring.

Melancholy, Kidnapping, Child Abuse... Is January the Cruelest Month in Area Theaters?

2012-01-01T12:09:00.009-06:00

There's one last screening of "The Apartment," the pitch-perfect comedy from Billy Wilder, at the Normal Theater tonight at 7. After that, the Normal Theater starts a series of indie favorites from 2010 and 2011, with the Martin Sheen/Emilio Estevez collaboration "The Way" January 5-8; "Martha Marcy May Marlene," involving a damaged young woman (Elizabeth Olsen, older sister of the famous Olsen twins) trying to escape the emotional power of a cult, playing January 12-15; and "Melancholia," from Lars von Trier, wherein Kirsten Dunst reacts to the end of the world, on screen January 19-22. You should see "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and "Melancholia" continue to be talked about through the awards season, so if you like to keep track of all the award-winning films, you'll want to catch those two while you can.

For Community Players, Opal Virtue directs "Hauptmann," a play surrounding the man accused of kidnapping the Lindbergh baby, with performances January 5-8, 12-15 and 19-21. "Hauptmann" is the work of playwright John Logan, who cleaned up at the 2010 Tony Awards for his play "Red." His other plays include "Never the Sinner," about Leopold and Loeb, and the musical "Riverview," about the Chicago amusement park of that name, while as a screenwriter, he has been nominated for the Oscar twice, for "The Aviator" and "Gladiator." The cast of "Hauptmann" includes Brian Artman as the accused kidnapper, with John Bowen, Vicky Hallstrom, Mindy Lahood, Joel Shoemaker, Gary Strunk and Joe Strupek in the ensemble cast. To read more about "Hauptmann" or to order tickets, click here.

Also opening this week is Rajiv Joseph's "Gruesome Playground Injuries," a sweet, funny, sad look at Kayleen and Doug, two troubled people bound together by the emotional and physical scars inflicted just by trying to grow up, directed by Mathew Green for Urbana's Station Theatre. Rajiv Joseph is perhaps best known for his play Pulitzer-Prize-nominated "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," which played on Broadway in 2011 with Robin Williams as the titular tiger. "Gruesome Playground Injuries" is more intimate, more human play than that one, with its focus on just two people. When Everett Evans described them in his review of the play for the Houston Chronicle, he called them "the two-car emotional pile-up on the highway of life that you just can't look away from."

If you've been singing "I Wanna Be a Producer" since 2001, Champaign-Urbana Theater Company (CUTC) may be able to accommodate you. They will be holding auditions for "The Producers," the first production of their 2012 Season, on Friday, January 13, from 6-9 pm, and Saturday, January 14, from 10-5 pm, at their offices at 608 North Cunningham Avenue in Urbana. Auditions are by appointment only, and you'll need to call 217-344-3884 to set one up. They'll do callbacks, if necessary, on Sunday the 15th from 1-4 pm. Performances are scheduled for March 15-25 at the Parkland College Theater.

Parkland College digs deep with its production of British playwright Bryony Lavery's "Frozen," described by director Randi Jennifer Collins Hard as "a dark theatrical journey." "Frozen" involves the disappearance of a 10-year-old girl, and the subsequent effect on three people: her mother, a serial killer, and a psychiatrist studying people who commit terrible crimes. Hard, who is Parkland's current Artistic Director, continues, "The overall theme for this 4 character play is emotional paralysis and the possibility of forgiveness for the unforgiveable." "Frozen" will play January 18-29 at Parkland College Theatre in Champaign. It will also be Hard's last show as a director at Parkland, since she is retiring in August. To read more about "Frozen" from its director and graphic artist, click here, or to see a rather disturbing youtube ad for this haunting, difficult play, click here.

Late in the month, the Moscow Festival Ballet brings "Swan Lake" and "The Sleeping Beauty" to the Tryon Festival Theatre at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts for a fairytale feast of Tchaikovsky's music and Marius Petipa's choreography. "Swan Lake" will be performed Tuesday and Wednesday, January 24 and 25, with "The Sleeping Beauty" on Thursday, January 26. All shows are at 7 pm.

"The Apartment" Rings in the New Year at the Normal Theater

2011-12-30T15:13:00.008-06:00

I told you a lot about "The Apartment," the second movie in the Normal Theater's mini-Bily Wilder tribute, when I reviewed the Broadway musical "Promises, Promises" back in 2010.

"'The Apartment' is very cynical about life in the 60s and the accompanying sexual and corporate politics," I wrote then, "what with the basic plotline about an everyman office drone named C.C. Baxter ... who aspires to rise through the ranks at Consolidated Insurance. The only way for him to do that is to let a fleet of higher-ups use his apartment for their extra-marital trysts. Yes, C.C. is complicit in their dirty deeds, but he's not exactly happy about it. And he also spends a lot of time on park benches in the snow while other people enjoy his apartment, plus the girl he yearns for, an elevator operator named Fran Kubelik ... keeps ignoring his affections.

I also noted that there is a fun piece of trivia in the movie: "...that the creepy execs in 'The Apartment' include 'My Favorite Martian' Ray Walston, David Lewis, AKA the original Edward Quartermaine on 'General Hospital,' and David White, who played Larry Tate, Darren's advertising agency boss on 'Bewitched.'"

Yes, I was just talking about Ray Walston a day or two ago, with reference to "Kiss Me, Stupid," and how I wished the leading man had been Jack Lemmon instead of Ray Walston. And there they are in "The Apartment," the earlier, better Billy Wilder pic, both turning in better performances than anything in "Kiss Me, Stupid."

There are a lot of things to love about "The Apartment," including the apartment itself. It's sort of an alter ego for C.C. Baxter, the comfy, a little scruffy, well-meaning nice guy who lets himself get pushed around in the name of being a loyal employee. He doesn't live in a palace, he sings opera while draining spaghetti noodles with a tennis racket, and he has a very tender heart. He and Fran are both charming misfits, brought to wonderful life by I.A.L. Diamond's and Billy Wilder's smart script, Wilder's sharp direction, and Jack Lemmon's and Shirley MacLaine's adorable, vivid performances.

Maybe it's because the movie's heart is so often on its sleeve (or on Jack Lemmon's face) or maybe because the characters are written deeply enough that they stay sympathetic, even when making terrible choices. Whatever the reason, it's easy to stick with "The Apartment," to root for C.C. and Fran, and to hiss at the villains.

Speaking of the villains... It's amusing to me that Fred MacMurray could change his stripes so completely and be none the worse for it. "The Apartment" was released on September 16, 1960, with him as the slimy heel of a boss, and then he showed up as the quintessential great dad in "My Three Sons," which premiered on TV September 29, 1960. To me (and to a million other Boomers, I imagine) he was the "My Three Sons"/Flubber/"Happiest Millionaire" guy. It wasn't until I discovered the Late, Late Show that I found out about "The Apartment" and "Double Indemnity." The point is that he did what he needed to do with Jeff Sheldrake in "The Apartment" to make the whole plot work, to make it seem reasonable that a girl like Fran (and Edie Adams' Miss Olsen) would fall for his lines, and that a schnook like C.C. would give up his apartment to get good marks from a boss like that. He's handsome, genial... And an absolute snake. Kudos, Fred MacMurray.

"The Apartment" was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and it took home five of them, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. It deserves every one.

And what a great idea for the Normal Theater to screen it on New Year's Eve. It's the perfect fit.

Catch Up With a "Once Upon a Time" Marathon New Year's Day

2011-12-29T16:08:00.004-06:00

From left, the Hunstman, the Evil Queen, Snow White, Prince Charming,
Rumpelstilskin, young Henry and Emma Swan appear in "Once Upon a Time."

One of the few new TV shows I've liked this year is ABC's "Once Upon a Time," a kind of fizzy-pop/fairy tale/soap opera mix, with stories that show us bona fide fairy tale characters living in a very magical fairy tale realm as well as crossing over to a "real" town called Storybrooke, Maine, with other, more 20th century identities. So we see the Evil Queen acting all evil in the Fairytale world and then being a meanie (and the mayor) under the name Regina Mills. (Regina means queen, get it? I've never heard of Mills having any connection to evil, but there are all sorts of theories floating out there that her last name indicates the Evil Queen's dad was a lowly miller.) And Snow White turns up as a sweet teacher named Mary Margaret Blanchard. (Yes, her name is Blanchard, like blanche, the feminine form of the French word for white.)

As the story unfolds, it seems that almost everybody in Storybrooke has amnesia about their previous lives as Snow White, Prince Charming, Cinderella, Jiminy Cricket (yes, he's in there, too, this being an ABC/Disney show), Gepetto, etc. Our heroine, Emma Swan, is the one person who straddles both worlds, since she was never a fairytale character (the curse that kicked them all out of the magical world happened when she was a tiny baby) and didn't grow up in Storybrooke.

Jennifer Morrison, best known as one of the first-season junior docs on "House," plays Emma, wearing a series of leather jackets and a kick-ass attitude. She isn't buying the "these people are all fairytale characters" story being peddled by a boy named Henry, the biological son she gave up when he was a newborn, who drags her into Storybrooke in the first place. Henry is the one with a big, fat storybook and a steadfast belief in Fairy Tale Land, even if he is the adopted son of big, bad Regina.

Yes, it sounds complicated. It's really not. Once you get past the premise (two worlds/same set of people/different identities) and start rooting for Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) and trying to figure out how Rumpelstiltskin (Scottish actor Robert Carlyle) fits into the picture, you'll be hooked.

I'm hooked. I admit it.

To catch the few stragglers who did not try "Once Upon a Time" when it started, and to make sure they all know a hawk from a handsaw, or maybe a Magic Mirror from a Poison Apple, ABC is re-airing six of the seven episodes they've broadcast so far, starting with the pilot episode on Sunday, January 1, at 4 pm here in B-N, on WHOI. That will be followed by "The Thing You Love Most," an excellent episode, "Snow Falls," an even better one, "The Price of Gold," "The Shepherd," and "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," where we learned a lot about the Evil Queen and her true villainy and lost a character I liked a lot. Which... Is really too bad. I'm hoping he'll get better treatment in flashbacks to the Fairy Tale World.

That means you can watch the "'Once Upon a Time" marathon from 4 to 10 pm here in Bloomington-Normal, and then tune in for the first new episode of the new year on Sunday, January 8, at 7 pm Central, when the show returns to its normal slot. Coming up in 2012: Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast, and Rumpelstiltskin's back story. Woo hoo!

Billy Wilder's "Kiss Me, Stupid" Is Kind of... Stupid

2011-12-28T14:00:00.005-06:00

When I think of Billy Wilder, I think of "The Apartment," "Sunset Boulevard," "Some Like It Hot," "Sabrina," that kind of thing. They're all smart and sharp, with varying degrees of cynicism and wit. But then there's "Kiss Me, Stupid," a try at a sex comedy Wilder co-wrote (with I.A.L. Diamond) and directed between "Irma La Douce" and "The Fortune Cookie." Let's just say that "Kiss Me, Stupid" was not well-regarded in its time. It even got a huge smackdown ("C" for "condemned") from the Catholic Legion of Decency because of its immorality. Normally, that wouldn't mean much to me, but in this case, I think I agree with the Legion of Decency. Not that it should've been condemned, but that it isn't a very good movie. (First time for everything...)

"Kiss Me, Stupid" begins with a character very much like Dean Martin, played by Dean Martin, on stage at a Las Vegas nightclub, whiskey glass in hand, surrounded by chorus girls, singing the Gershwin classic "S'Wonderful" and performing an act that sounds very much like what Dean Martin always did. He is called "Dino" and we see from the beginning that he is a bounder, a womanizer and a bit of a lush. You know, just like the real Dean Martin. Or the on-stage Dean Martin, at any rate.

"Dino" heads out of Las Vegas in a long white Italian convertible (IMDB notes say it's a Dual Ghia) and gets detoured through a dusty little town called Climax, Nebraska. Climax is the home of two wannabe songwriters, Orville and Barney. Orville is a schlemiel of a piano teacher, played by Ray Walston, while Barney, played by Cliff Osmond, runs the local gas station. Orville is married to a snazzy woman named Zelda, played by the lovely Felicia Farr, and he is unreasonably jealous when he thinks Zelda is receiving undue attention from various random men, like the milk man, her dentist, and a gawky teen who takes piano lessons. And that's before Dino hits town.

Wilder's script is smart enough to create some conflict for Orville. Yes, he is desperate to keep Zelda out of the clutches of any other men, but he's also desperate to sell a song. He's got a Hollywood star, someone who can create a hit song just by breathing on it, right there in his hometown. But how can Orville sell his song to Dino? Maybe by using his wife as bait?

Yeah, that's as sleazy as it sounds. Because of his overwhelming jealousy, there is no way Orville is really going to set Zelda up with Dino. So he and Barney hatch an idiotic plan to bring in a local hooker name Polly the Pistol, given a definite Marilyn Monroe blowsy-yet-adorable turn by Kim Novak, to pretend to be Zelda long enough to sleep with Dino and convince him to buy a song. Orville also has to pick a fake fight with Zelda to get her out of the house so they can bring in Polly the Pistol as a sub.

It's all very sex-farcey, like Feydeau if Feydeau were in 1960s Nevada, with everybody's virtue compromised and lots of odd touches, like the world's longest chianti bottle and a parrot that likes shoot-'em-up Westerns. One of the best things about "Kiss Me Stupid" is the amusing notion of sticking in previously unpublished George and Ira Gershwin tunes ("Sophia," "I'm a Poached Egg," and "All the Live-Long Day") as the songs written by Orville and Barney.

As a sex farce set in Nevada in the 1960s, however, "Kiss Me, Stupid" comes off scummy and crass. It doesn't help that Ray Walston, someone I normally love, seems very miscast and a little frenetic as the irrational, idiotic husband. The story is that Peter Sellers was originally cast as Orville, but a heart attack took him out of the film, so Ray Walston was given the role at the last minute. I can't see Peter Sellers doing any better, honestly. The film needs somebody like Jack Lemmon, who seemed to have the knack of taking what would've been sleazy in other hands and somehow making it fun and sprightly, who could portray a dope like Orville but somehow make him endearing, too. Plus, he was married to Felicia Farr in real life.

Farr, by the way, is charming. Dean Martin is just playing himself (or his on-stage persona, anyway), while Kim Novak is better than I would've expected as a floozie with a heart of gold, even if I never really believed her for one minute. Meanwhile, the poster shows Martin and Novak front and center as the stars of the picture, which is not remotely true. Walston is the lead, with Farr as his foil and Martin and Novak merely supporting players.

The other oddity is that Walston's singing voice is dubbed most of the time. But Ray Walston could sing, and the dubber (Ian Freebairn-Smith) doesn't sound anything like Ray Walston, if you've seen "South Pacific" or "Damn Yankees" and know what he sounds like. Or even if you just listen to his dialogue. Why in the world did they do that? It's not like Ian Freebairn-Smith sounds like Peter Sellers, either, if that was the original idea.

But the biggest problem here is not the performances, who sings the songs, or who carries the plot. It's the tone. It's the attempt to get funny out of what is really creepy, lightweight out of leaden, and effortless out of strained. I have my suspicions that I would accept this all much more easily if they were wearing fin-de-siècle clothes and dashing in and out of Maxim's in Paris instead of the crudball Nevada dive called the Belly Button. The IMDB tells me that somebody did just that, although it was Italy instead of France, in a 1952 film called "Moglie per una notte" or "Wife for a Night," directed by Italian director Mario Camerini, with Gina Lollabrigida as the wife. Both "Kiss Me, Stupid" and "Wife for a Night" are billed as based on a 1944 play called "L'Ora della Fantasia" by Anna Bonacci.

This way, "Kiss Me, Stupid" is worth a look at a Billy Wilder film that just doesn't work, as well as for its place in history as a film that was passed by the Production Code in effect at that time, but rejected by the Legion of Decency as well as by film-goers in general. You can see it and decide for yourself. Is it funny? Is it immoral? Is Ray Walston sweet and fun or just annoying? How do you like those Gershwin tunes salvaged from the dustbin of history?

"Kiss Me Stupid" opens the Normal Theater's mini-Billy Wilder film fest with screenings December 29th and 30th at 7 pm.

40 Years of Urbana's Celebration Company: How the Station Theatre Came To Be

2011-12-27T13:18:00.009-06:00

The Celebration Company at the Station Theatre in Urbana is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary season. If you are involved in theatre in Central Illinois, you've heard of the Station as pretty much of a fixture on Broadway in Urbana.

I was curious about how it all began, so I posed some questions to Celebration Company Artistic Director Rick Orr (seen at left), who has been there from Day One, and Rick was kind enough to provide answers.

I didn’t get to Champaign-Urbana until 1974, so I missed the very beginnings of the Celebration Company at the Station Theatre. Can you tell me how that all came about? Which came first, the Celebration Company, or the Station Theatre?

I had been a director at what was then called the Depot Theatre, which was a sort of branch of the English Department at the U of I. I directed a very successful revue, "Jacques Brel," which was an unusual show for them. They were primarily doing Shakespeare, Beckett, etc. " Jacques Brel" got a lot of press attention, and the owner of the building, seeing this, contacted me about purchasing the building. So I took that opportunity to purchase the theater with money gathered with some friends, and our company was formed. It was a little controversial at the time, because other members of the Depot Theatre weren’t involved.

"Jacques Brel" at the Depot Theatre.

And how did the Celebration Company get its name?

The name “Celebration Company” came from classroom notes from grad school. A theatre professor of mine, Clara Behringer, said that theatre should always be a celebration.

What was the very first show done by the Celebration Company? I notice (on the Station’s website) that "The Fantasticks," "Old Times" and "Tooth of Crime" are listed as the inaugural season. I can see some similarities there, even though they’re very different shows. Did you have a mission or a kind of show you wanted to do right from the start?

"The Fantasticks" came first. At that time, experimental theater and “happenings” were very popular. I was fortunate enough to witness some of this in New York, and I had read about it as a theatre student. I didn’t feel that this kind of theatre was represented by the theatre department at the U of I, so I was seeking out the newest work by the newest playwrights, theatre that would challenge, educate, and excite both the company and the audience. Early years witnessed some Midwest premieres, because there wasn’t a notable Chicago theatre scene at this time. Robert Falls directed "Moon Children" for us in his senior year, and this went to the Wisdom Bridge Theater, which helped create the theatre movement there. Steppenwolf was still operating out of a church basement then. I wanted to bring playwrights like Sam Shepard and David Mamet to our community, because they weren’t well known.

From that same list of shows, it looks like the Celebration Company went from three shows the first year to four the second and then made a leap to TWELVE shows the third year. How was that possible? And what in the world is “Piggly Wiggly Pop”?

"Piggly Wiggly Pop" was an original children’s show, if I remember correctly. We were an extremely small company, but energetic and motivated. The first two seasons, I directed six or seven shows, all while being a student, a TA, a tutor, and working at a “day job.” Youth and energy….

Are there any productions over the years that stand out for you as exactly what you wanted the Station to achieve in the beginning?

I think each show that a director undertakes becomes his or her favorite at the time, so it’s hard to choose one. "Buried Child" stands out, and "True West." "The Boys in the Band." More recently, "The Lieutenant of Inishmore." Just to name a few.

I know you are willing to repeat shows that speak to the company, like doing “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” 26 years apart with the same actors playing James and Mary Tyrone. What do you think is the show you’ve done the most?

I’ve personally directed "Jacques Brel" the most. It remains rather timeless to me, with music and lyrics by an author whom we lost at a young age. It’s a challenging piece. I’ve also repeated "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf," "Betrayal," "West Side Story," and "Cabaret." In some cases, repeating a show is a matter of matching the show to the talent available. They may come back again.

The Station today.

In general, how has the Celebration Company changed over the years?

The faces have changed over the years, with “new blood” constantly coming in, but we’ve continued to put the focus on the playwrights’ words and the actors’ performances. And the budgets have changed a little over the years, but only a little. We still behave as if we have no money. We’ve lost some great talents over the years, but we’ve added great talent as well.

What is the play selection process like? Do you take proposals from directors, or pick the plays and then assign directors?

It is rare that we would choose a play and attach a director later. It has happened, but it is a last resort. If a play is something we consider important, we might seek out a qualified director for it. We select plays twice a year. The committee is made up of a small group of core company members who read proposed scripts to put together a diverse season that will reflect a mix of new plays, challenging roles, and good quality.

Theater companies obviously come and go, and yet the Celebration Company has lasted for 40 years, over two recessions and a lot of changes in the area’s taste in theater. What has been the company’s biggest challenge over the years?

New plays tend to be very topical, so we always challenge ourselves to find pieces that will be timely. We want the information to be as “present tense” as possible.

What do you see ahead, in the Station’s future?

Hopefully, we will continue to train actors and technicians, as we always have, and to give them a “real world” setting in which to practice their craft. The Station will remain an intimate setting with tight budgets and an emphasis on credible acting and powerful words.

Thanks so much, Rick!

The Celebration Company gears up again with Rajiv Joseph's "Gruesome Playground Injuries," directed by Mathew Green, opening January 5. I will be running interviews with Mathew Green and his cast of two -- Katie Baldwin and Rob Zaleski -- next week, so be sure to look out for those pieces for more salient info about the Station Theatre and how it does what it does.

For more information on the 40th Anniversary Season in general, click here. If you'd like to read about the Celebration Company or the history of the Station building, click here.

Christmas Wishes Come True in "A Christmas Story, the Musical!"

2011-12-26T12:27:00.006-06:00

Although I think I've only seen it twice, Jean Shepherd's "A Christmas Story" movie always lands at the top of the major "Best Holiday Movies" list. And TNT runs marathons of it every year at Christmas time. (My second viewing of the movie was yesterday, during that marathon.)

This sweet, affectionate, slightly irreverent look back at one boy's Christmas in the 1930s, fixating on the "Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time" that little Ralphie wants for Christmas, strikes a chord for a lot of people. It may be the "remember when" aspect of many of its scenes, the familiarity of the schoolroom and bullies and snowpants bits, or just the innocence of the boy who keeps coming up with new schemes to convince his parents he needs that BB gun. Whatever the reason, this is one movie that resonates.

An adaptation of "A Christmas Story" for the stage has been around since 2000, with attempts to put together a musical version since about 2006, with a reading in New York and a "world premiere" in Kansas City in 2009. This year, the producers (including Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in the movie) decided they had the show in the shape they wanted, and they started a five-city tour that hit Chicago in late November. "A Christmas Story, the Musical!" is now playing the historic Chicago Theatre on State Street, a block away from the Macy's that used to be the Marshall Field's that figured in a lot of Chicagoland kids' own Christmas dreams.

According to the website for that musical, the plot of "A Christmas Story" comes from Jean Shepherd's published stories, radio broadcasts and public appearances in the 60s. Shepherd steps in as narrator for the movie, too, lending his charming, folksy voice to the proceedings. On stage, the musical version is lucky to have Chicago veteran Gene Weygandt in the role, and he adds a great deal of credibility and warmth to the proceedings. When he gets a catch in his throat near the end, you can hear a collective sniff throughout the audience, as well.

The show is a bit different for a big musical, in that so much of the burden of the show falls on kids, and especially on Ralphie, played with energy and enthusiasm by Clarke Hallum. The kid is terrific, carrying the show with singing and dancing and acting from curtain to curtain.

Others in the cast who acquit themselves well include John Bolton as Ralphie's dad (always referred to as "The Old Man"); Rachel Bay Jones as his very sweet but kind of dim mother; Matthew Lewis as his little brother, trapped in a snow-suit like the Michelin Man; Adam Pelty as a testy Santa Claus; and J.D. Rodriguez, understudy for the role of Flick, taking on the role without losing a beat (or a tongue).

With a book by Joseph Robinette and music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, "A Christmas Story, the Musical!" comes off energetic and cheery, hitting on all the familiar anecdotes from the movie, and crammed full of bright, pop tunes that bring to mind the Maltby & Shire oeuvre in shows like "Big."

The choice of scenes seems like a no-brainer. Seriously, how could they have avoided including those much-beloved vignettes (like the leg lamp, the tongue frozen to the flagpole, the essay for school, the flat tire, the dogs next door...) without fans of the movie getting up in arms? And director John Rando's staging of most of them is creative and effective, with smoothly moving scenery, fun effects and both an awesome Visit to Santa and a Night Before Christmas that work like a charm.

As for the score, the songs are melodic (I especially liked the tune of "Ralphie to the Rescue") and cute, although having so many extended production numbers gives the show a somewhat labored feel as it wears on. The Leg Lamp kickline is hilarious and Ralphie's fantasy of being a cowboy hero is also amusing, but both went on too long for me. And I could've done without the Wicked Witch number for Ralphie's teacher, Miss Shields, even though you knew it was coming, both because it's in the movie and because Broadway star Karen Mason is playing Miss Shields.

There are rumors that the producers would like to get a berth for the show on Broadway next Christmas, and if so, they'll surely be looking for changes. So that's my suggestion -- trim a chorus or two in the longer numbers and cut Miss Shields' Wizard of Oz number entirely. I'd probably also cut the icky linguistic stereotypes during the family's visit to a Chinese restaurant. Yes, they're in the movie, but no, we don't need them now.

All in all, "A Christmas Story, the Musical!" (it cracks me up every time I type that exclamation point) is what it needs to be -- a faithful recreation of the movie featuring sharp, sunny performances, fizzy songs, an emphasis on heart and home, and a very nice memorial to Jean Shepherd.

Performances of "A Christmas Story, the Musical!" continue through December 30th at the Chicago Theatre. You can see a video preview at the official website here or visit the Chicago Theatre site to order tickets.

IWU Alum Amanda Dehnert Named One of the "Best of 2011"

2011-12-23T11:14:00.006-06:00

I did a "Where Are They Now?" post earlier this year, to bring us all up to date on what's been happening with some of the area actors and performers I'd seen around here during their college years.

Director Amanda Dehnert is someone who graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University just before I came to Bloomington-Normal, meaning I did not see her work when she was here. But she is on the roster of IWU's "proud alums" and yesterday I noticed her name pop up in Terry Teachout's "Best of 2011" piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Teachout is a national critic, meaning he has productions from coast to coast to choose from. And he chose Dehnert's production of "Julius Caesar" as the best Shakespeare production of the year, saying, "The Oregon Shakespeare Festival hit the target with Amanda Dehnert's modern-dress Julius Caesar, whose you-are-there immediacy put me in mind of Orson Welles's legendary 1937 Mercury Theater production."

High praise indeed!

You can see a review of her "Julius Caesar" here and an article about Dehnert when she was at Trinity Rep here. And here is a video interview with Dehnert when she directed "Cabaret" at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 2008.

Congratulations to Amanda Dehnert, another IWU alum made good!

Holiday Gifts Abound

2011-12-22T15:42:00.009-06:00

I realize it's down to Crunch Time for holiday gifts, but if those you are buying for are flexible about deadlines, or if you yourself took in some cash from Santa and are looking for theater, TV, movie or music ideas to spend it on... I've got some really excellent ideas.

Booking it:

I still think that Stephen Sondheim's "Look, I Made a Hat," his second volume examining and analyzing his lyrics, is a must-have. And its shiny bright pink cover looks festive for the holidays, too.

I can also recommend Katharine Weber's "The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family's Legacy of Infidelities," which isn't really as much about George Gershwin and Kay Swift as you might imagine, but tells a heck of a yarn about the author's family history, anyway. Her father, Sidney Kaufman, emerges as the book's most colorful and intriguing character, which is amazing when you consider the other artists, eccentrics and overachievers who dance around her family tree. Weber is an excellent writer who captures a host of personalities quite well.

And my last recommendation in the book category is a new memoir by Edward Petherbridge, who starred in two of the TV choices I've listed below. It tells us how he started on the British stage and came to play roles like those as well as Guildenstern and Chasuble and includes his photographs, sketches and poems along with his prose . It's called "Slim Chances and Unscheduled Appearances," and it looks to be as elegant and charming as any performance he's ever given. Which is to say, quite elegant and charming.

From the Telly:

We already talked about the availability of both seasons of PBS's "Downton Abbey" on DVD, along with an attractive companion book. As if those ideas weren't exciting enough, there's a "Downton Abbey" calendar, too! And a Grantham family tea set! You can peruse the entire collection, from jewelry to cloches, here.

While you're on the PBS site, you can see if they've got any of your other favorites. "Poirot"? "The West"? "Broadway: The American Musical"? All covered.

Or you can revisit the Masterpiece Mystery take on Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, with Edward Petherbridge as the dashing lord with a nose for crime. That set includes "Strong Poison," "Have His Carcase" and "Gaudy Night," for all the best Lord Peter/Harriet Vane interaction.

Although it is no longer available on the PBS site as far as I can tell, the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby," which was broadcast as a Mobile Showcase Theatre offering in 1982, is available on DVD. It's a four-disc set, it will take you nine hours to watch it, and it's worth every single second.

Music:

Everything you need is at PS Classics. Seriously. New cast recordings of "Follies," "Death Takes a Holiday," "Sondheim on Sondheim" and "A Minister's Wife," studio cast recordings of "Sweet Bye and Bye" and "Strike Up the Band 1930," new albums from Kate Baldwin, Anne Steele and Liz Callaway and her sister Ann Hampton Callaway... Who could ask for anything more?

For Old Movie Fans:

Yesterday, I told you about the TCM four-movie collection that will get you "Christmas in Connecticut," "The Shop Around the Corner," the Reginald Owen "A Christmas Carol" and a lesser-known holiday film called "It Happened on 5th Avenue." Four movies for the price of one! What a deal! Thank you, TCM.

The "Astaire & Rogers Ultimate Collectors Edition" is an even more stellar idea, offering all ten movies Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made together*, along with vintage short films, trailers, cartoons, and a bonus DVD called "Astaire and Rogers, Partners in Rhythm," that has interview clips and behind-the-scenes info about how those lovely movies were made. In other words, lots of cool extras! I like is to stage my own Fred-and-Ginger marathon for New Year's Eve, and this set makes that very possible and very easy.

Another favorite of mine is "The Cary Grant Box Set," which includes "Holiday" (my favorite movie of all time, which came late to video and DVD), "Only Angels Have Wings," "The Talk of the Town," "His Girl Friday" and "The Awful Truth." That set, as wonderful as it is, does not include my other top choice among Cary Grant movies, "Notorious," where Cary is a bad boy secret agent type opposite Ingrid Bergman as a bad girl with a soft spot for Cary. Still, it's good news that "Notorious" is available at all, and I'll take it as a stand-alone option.

* Those ten films are "Flying Down to Rio," "The Gay Divorcee," "Roberta," "Top Hat," "Follow the Fleet," "Swing Time," "Shall We Dance," "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle," "Carefree" and "The Barkleys of Broadway," in case you're keeping track.

Holiday Movies: My First Look at "It Happened on 5th Avenue"

2011-12-21T12:07:00.003-06:00

I wanted my own copies of "Christmas in Connecticut" and "The Shop Around the Corner," so it only made sense to buy the Turner Classic Movies collection you see at left, that combines those two classics with one of the many film versions of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" (this one is the Reginald Owen vehicle from 1938) and a film I hadn't heard of, "It Happened on 5th Avenue," a post-WW II Christmas story involving ex-GIs who can't find anything to do or anywhere to live.

It's a very intriguing film, one that I don't believe showed up on Chicagoland Late, Late Shows or Dialing for Dollars. If the IMDB comments are to be believed, it was broadcast every December in Tampa, Florida, however, and for some Floridians, it's their favorite Christmas movie ever. It's definitely sweet, definitely has a message, with its story of haves and have-nots all living and working together to figure out what's truly important (Hint: It's not money), and features one of Hollywood's best character actors in Charles Ruggles, who plays the rich robber baron whose selfishness has made him a prisoner of his own wealth. Ruggles' character, Michael J. O'Connor, owns the palace on 5th Avenue which has been invaded by a gentlemanly hobo named Aloysius T. McKeever, played by veteran comic Victor Moore. Although he had some amazing credits on his resume (including originating the role of Vice President Throttlebottom on Broadway in "Of Thee I Sing"), I find Moore to be an acquired taste, one which I have not acquired. He is more palatable here, acting all charming and scruffy, with nice interaction with an equally charming dog. I don't see a credit for the dog, but he (or she) was excellent in the role and certainly made Moore more appealing.

After McKeever has made his seasonal return to the O'Connor mansion, he runs into out-of-work ex-GI Jim Bullock, played by Don DeFore, someone I know best from the old TV show "Hazel," where he played the boss. DeFore is a bit of a lightweight as the romantic hero in the piece, but he does all right. I was more impressed with Gale Storm, playing rich girl Trudy O'Connor, who pretends to be poor and on the lam so she can stay in her own house and not evict interlopers McKeever and Bullock. I knew her name, but I don't believe I've ever seen her in anything except maybe a guest role on the likes of "The Love Boat." Here, as a leading lady, Storm is pretty and perky and everything she needs to be.

Still, it's Charles Ruggles who keeps stealing scenes. He's just adorable, even if his O'Connor is a nasty old robber baron. His estranged wife, who also shows up in disguise at the (increasingly crowded) mansion on 5th Avenue, is played by the lovely Ann Harding, best known as a heroine in five-hanky dramas in the early 30s. It's nice to see Harding kick up her heels in comedy, especially opposite Ruggles.

"Gilligan's Island" fans may also enjoy seeing the Skipper, Alan Hale, Jr., in a smaller role as one of Bullock's army pals.

For me, it's fun to gawk at the lavish mansion and see what 5th Avenue in New York looked like in 1947, and also to see costumes and hairdos which look so much like what my mother wore in pictures from that era.

"It Happened on 5th Avenue" is definitely worth a look as more unfamiliar holiday fare and Life in America post-World War II. The fact that it is included in the same package as "Christmas in Connecticut" and "The Shop Around the Corner" is just icing on the cake.

Trivia note: Ann Harding played Linda Seton in the first filmed version of Philip Barry's play "Holiday." The second "Holiday," the one with Katharine Hepburn as Linda Seton, is what I usually pick as my favorite movie of all time. And that "Holiday" took place in a mansion that looks very much like the one in "It Happened on 5th Avenue." I can find nothing to suggest that they used the same set. But it sure looks the same to me.

New Play Summit Hits Denver in February

2011-12-20T11:10:00.007-06:00

Also in my in-box this morning... The Colorado New Play Summit, a festival organized by the Denver Center Theatre Company and Artistic Director Kent Thompson, would love for you to attend February 10 through 12, 2012. (Yes, it ends on 02-12-12, in case you're keeping track.)

The Colorado New Play Summit is a three-day festival at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, including two fully-produced world premiere productions, five readings of new American plays and a "playwrights slam," which offers excerpts from works in progress.

The world premieres this year (with descriptions from New Play Summit materials) are:

The Whale
by Samuel D. Hunter

Charlie hasn't seen his ex-wife or daughter in 17 years and has grown dangerously obese since his partner's death. In failing health, Charlie fends of family, friends and church as he doggedly tries to connect with his estranged daughter in this emotional story.

Two Things You Don't Talk About at Dinner
by Lisa Loomer

Myriam's annual Passover Seder, a multicultural mix of family and friends, threatens to explode as politics and religion hijack the conversation, severely testing the ties that bind. Is peace not possible -- even at the dinner table?

And the five readings will include a musical version of "Jane Austen," with book and lyrics by Jeffrey Haddow and music by Neal Hampton; "Ed, Downloaded," by Michael Mitnick, about a man who has chosen to have his brain stored on a disc (or maybe a zip drive?) before he dies; "The Hand of God," a new comedy about reality TV by Richard Dresser; another Lisa Loomer play, this one a slice of street life called "Homefree" that involves kids trying to survive in a hostile world; and "Grace, of the art of Climbing," a rock-climbing play by Lauren Feldman.

For more information, click here or here. To register, click here. Full Summit passes include guaranteed seating at all readings and admission to the two world premieres, as well as meals, receptions, and discounts to nearby downtown Denver hotels.

If you are a member of the American Theater Critics Association, which is holding its winter conference in conjunction with the Summit, you should register through the association for a special rate.

If You Were Wondering What to Do With That God Particle Play...

2011-12-20T10:48:00.005-06:00

Orlando Shakespeare Theater has announced its Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays is looking for submissions. They will choose seven plays from among those submitted for performance in November 2012.

Here's what they're telling us they're looking for:

"PlayFest! The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays (Fall 2012) is seeking new full-length plays or musicals based on or inspired by works of classic literature or historic events, famous persons, or advances in science. These events, persons, or advances can be from any age in history, including the present. We prefer (but are not limited to) plays that require six actors or less, and have an interest in one-person shows. However, even in the case of one-person shows, we are not looking for history lectures, or museum piece adaptations that are faithful to a fault, but rather dynamic new theatrical versions of classic stories that speak to the contemporary mindset.

In musical submissions, we are interested in musicals based on or inspired by the same criteria as mentioned above."

In addition, they specify that they want plays which have not received a Broadway or off-Broadway production, have no more than two professional AEA productions, have not been performed in Orlando in their current form, and have not been published for general distribution with rights held by the publisher.

They would like you to query first and only send full scripts if requested based on the query.

For all the details, they have a handy list of Playwright Guidelines here.

Given their interest in plays with historical content, "The Affray," the Jared Brown/ collaboration about Abraham Lincoln's legal career seen last July at the McLean County Museum of History, sounds like a natural.

Anyone else who has an unproduced play or musical sitting around inspired by "Little House on the Prairie," Marie Curie, Marie Antoinette, the search for the Fountain of Youth, the search for Higgs boson, or, well, anything literary, scientific or historical, take note. The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays is looking for you!

Downton Abbey Is Back!

2011-12-19T14:16:00.009-06:00

Have you been waiting, on the edge of your seat, for the return of "Downton Abbey," the lovely PBS Masterpiece series that shows fabulous Edwardian* costumes, a fabulous Edwardian* country home with a full array of fabulous Edwardian* aristocrats and their servants and hangers-on, and all kinds of fabulous Edwardian* intrigue involving an entailed estate, romance, class, wealth, sex and lots of lots of scheming?

It's been awhile since we last saw the Crawley family and their household. And it will be a little while till we get to see Season 2 begin on Sunday, January 8th. In the meantime, however, local PBS stations are rerunning the Season 1 episodes. Yay!!

Last night, WTVP and WILL both showed the first two episodes, where we meet the family and begin to learn about all their trials and tribulations, with the Right Honorable Robert, Earl of Grantham, (played by Hugh Bonneville), who has only daughters, seeing his (male) heirs die on the Titanic. Before this, it's been a given that Robert's eldest daughter, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), would eventually marry that heir, to keep Downton Abbey, (which is entailed, meaning that only males can inherit), in the family. But now there is a new heir, a third-cousin-once-removed named Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), who is a lawyer, not landed gentry. Let's just say that Lady Mary isn't in the least impressed by Mr. Crawley. The Earl's American wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) and his imperious mother, the Right Honorable Violet, Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith), also cause him problems, as does his decision to install his old batsman, Bates (Brendan Coyle), as his valet.

A lot of ground was covered in Season 1, with pretty much everybody hiding some secret or another, and everybody trying to figure out his or her place in a rapidly changing world. War is on the horizon in Season 1, and a major plotline in Season 2, as you can see by the costumes in this promotional picture for Season 2.

Episodes from Season 1 will continue next week on local PBS stations. If you missed those first two broadcast last night, you will find them here, viewable from your computer. Yay!! You can also buy yourself the DVD version of "Downton Abbey" (Seasons 1 and 2!) as a Christmas present. Or the hardcover book called "The World of Downton Abbey." Or a combination of all of them.

I am really trying to hold myself back from buying Season 2 and bingeing on it. The lucky Brits have already seen all of it, so spoilers are out there. If you don't want to know what happens to the Crawleys during the war, you'll need to be careful. And not buy that DVD/DVD/book set.

Holding self back...

*Since "Downtown Abbey" begins with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, it is outside the Edwardian era as marked by the reign of Edward VII, which ended in 1910. Others leave the Edwardian moniker in play till the end of World War I. That's where I'm sticking. So, yes, I know that Edward VII died in 1910. And the first season of "Downton Abbey" began in 1912 and finished in 1914, with the second season covering 1916 to 1918. As long as the clothes keep looking Edwardian, I'm calling it Edwardian.

Early Bird Deadline Approaches for Heartland's 10-Minute Play Contest

2011-12-16T12:56:00.007-06:00

Don't forget -- the January 1st Early Bird deadline is coming up for Heartland Theatre Company's annual 10-minute play contest. This year's theme is Playing Games, and you can read all about it here.

Basic idea: Write a 10-minute play with no more than 4 characters that somehow deals with the notion of Playing Games. If your use of the theme is strong and clear, you have a better shot at making it from Round 1 to Round 2 of judging. Twister, Risk, Angry Birds... Go for it!

And if you get your play in by January 1, you have the chance to get revisions from the judges. That's not a guarantee, by any means. Just a chance. If the judges are enthusiastic about most of your entry but feel that something small and easy to fix could make it a contender, they have the option to ask you for revisions. IF you get the play in by January 1.

Another hint: You have a better chance of advancing if you follow the official stylesheet. It tells you the judges' preferred format, which includes using Courier or Courier New 12 in Word. No more than ten pages, single-spaced, is strongly recommended.

The Goofiness of Golden Globe Nominations

2011-12-15T15:03:00.006-06:00

It's awards season, with all the various critics' groups and guilds nominating hither and yon, and a a whole lot of pundits trying to read them all like tea leaves to figure out who will be in Oscar's inner circle when the time comes.

The Golden Globes are always fun, mostly because they are decided by about twelve people who have foreign press credentials good enough to get onto the voters' list, they mean absolutely nothing in terms of Oscar prognostications (see first point about number of voters), they give awards to comedies, which Oscar often overlooks, the ceremony itself brings movie and TV people together at little tables where everyone seems to be smashed, and... Well, they're just goofy, that's all. They also have a preference for European actors, including Brits, which I, personally, appreciate.

So this year, who have the Golden Globes decided to shine upon?

A quick look at the nominations tells you that they like George Clooney, since both "The Descendants" and "The Ides of March" have been nominated, along with Clooney himself as Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) for "The Descendants" and as Best Director of a Motion Picture for "The Ides of March," they like Ryan Gosling, nominating him for both "The Ides of March" on the Drama side and "Crazy Stupid Love" on the Comedy side, they inexplicably think "My Week with Marilyn" is a comedy, they inexplicably think Kristen Wiig is funnier than Melissa McCarthy (as IF), and they gave some love to "Midnight in Paris" and "Puss in Boots," both of which I loved. They also gave some love to "The Artist," which I keep hoping will show up somewhere close -- seriously, anywhere -- within my lifetime.

On the television side, I'm not invested in anything they nominated, although I do think "Homeland," "Game of Thrones," "Modern Family," "Downton Abbey" and Amy Poehler in "Parks and Recreation" are worth recipients of any awards they're nominated for.

Here's a look at some of the major categories; the complete list is available at the Golden Globes site.

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Flowers of War (China)
In the Land of Blood and Honey (USA)
The Kid with a Bike (Belgium)
A Separation (Iran)
The Skin I Live In (Spain)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs)
Viola Davis (The Help)
Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
George Clooney (The Descendants)
Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar)
Michael Fassbender (Shame)
Ryan Gosling (The Ides of March)
Brad Pitt (Moneyball)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jodie Foster (Carnage)
Charlize Theron (Young Adult)
Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids)
Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)
Kate Winslet (Carnage)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Brendan Gleeson (The Guard)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (50/50)
Ryan Gosling (Crazy, Stupid, Love)
Owen Wilson (Midnight in Paris)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Berenice Bejo (The Artist)
Jessica Chastain (The Help)
Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs)
Octavia Spencer (The Help)
Shailene Woodley (The Descendants)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn)
Albert Brooks (Drive)
Jonah Hill (Moneyball)
Viggo Mortensen (A Dangerous Method)
Christopher Plummer (Beginners)

BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris)
George Clooney (The Ides of March)
Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Alexander Payne (The Descendants)
Martin Scorsese (Hugo)

BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris)
George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon (The Ides of March)
Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (The Descendants)
Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian (Moneyball)

BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
American Horror Story (FX)
Boardwalk Empire (HBO)
Boss (Starz)
Game of Thrones (HBO)
Homeland (Showtime)

BEST TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Enlightened (HBO)
Episodes (Showtime)
Glee (Fox)
Modern Family (ABC)
New Girl (FOX)

BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Cinema Verite (HBO)
Downton Abbey (PBS)
The Hour (BBC America)
Mildred Pierce (HBO)
Too Big to Fail (HBO)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
Claire Danes (Homeland)
Mireille Enos (The Killing)
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)
Madeleine Stowe (Revenge)
Callie Thorne (Necessary Roughness)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Kelsey Grammer (Boss)
Jeremy Irons (The Borgias)
Damian Lewis (Homeland)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Laura Dern (Enlightened)
Zooey Deschanel (New Girl)
Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Laura Linney (The Big C)
Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
David Duchovny (Californication)
Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory)
Thomas Jane (Hung)
Matt LeBlanc (Episodes)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Romolai Garai (The Hour)
Diane Lane (Cinema Verite)
Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey)
Emily Watson (Appropriate Adult)
Kate Winslet (Mildred Pierce)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey)
Idris Elba (Luther)
William Hurt (Too Big to Fail)
Bill Nighy (Page Eight)
Dominic West (The Hour)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Jessica Lange (American Horror Story)
Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire)
Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey)
Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)
Evan Rachel Wood (Mildred Pierce)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)
Paul Giamatti (Too Big to Fail)
Guy Pearce (Mildred Pierce)
Tim Robbins (Cinema Verite)
Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family)

Auditions Announced for Heartland Theatre's "Mauritius"

2011-12-14T12:50:00.008-06:00

Heartland Theatre has announced open auditions for its upcoming production of Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius," a play about two sisters, three shady men, and some very valuable stamps.

Auditions are scheduled for Tuesday, December 20, and Wednesday, December 21, from 6:30 to 9 pm at Heartland Theatre.

In the play, half-sisters Jackie and Mary have found a stamp collection, left by their recently deceased mother. They are at odds almost immediately over what to do with the stamps and who between them has the right to make that decision.

When Jackie takes the stamps to a dusty, run-down stamp shop owned by Philip, he is mostly uninterested and unimpressed. But Dennis, a guy always on the lookout for a scheme, thinks there's more to Jackie and her stamps than Philip is giving her credit for. Enter Sterling, a wealthy, aggressive collector who isn't the type to fool around.

About these characters, Variety said "The emotionally fraught edges of their twisty encounters [are] made all the more intriguing by the fact that items as apparently innocuous as postage stamps fuel the friction."

When I read the play, I called it "American Buffalo" with girls.

Director Sandra Zielinski will be looking for five actors. The roles are:

Jackie: (Age 25-40) Younger sister who wants to sell the stamps left by her deceased mother.

Mary: (35-50) Jackie’s older half-sister who doesn’t want to sell and disputes who the stamp collection belongs to.

Sterling: (Male, Age 50-65) A greedy stamp collector who is used to getting whatever he wants.

Phillip: (Age 45-60) World-weary owner of a dusty shop that sells stamps.

Dennis: (Age 30-45) A smooth, handsome wheeler dealer who is interested in Jackie, but mostly interested in her stamps.

Performance dates for "Mauritius" are February 16-19 and 23-26 and March 1-4, 2012. For more information, visit Heartland's website here.

2012 Humana Festival of New American Plays Open for Reservations

2011-12-13T12:15:00.005-06:00

The official packet arrived yesterday to let me know that the 2012 Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville 1) has set its slate of plays, 2) organized the packages that play-goers can choose from, and 3) is open for business and ready to take your reservations.

The line-up for the two Theatre Industry Weekends on March 23-25 and March 30-April 1 includes (with descriptions from Actors Theatre's brochure):

DEATH TAX by Lucas Hnath. Directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. Maxine is rich. Maxine is dying. Maxine thinks Nurse Tina is trying to kill her. When the patient confronts her caretaker, her accusations have unforeseen--and irrevocable--consequences, in this tightly-wound thriller about money, power and the value of a human life.

EAT YOUR HEART OUT by Courtney Baron. Directed by Adam Greenfield. Alice and Gabe are desperate to adopt a child. Nance, a single mom just starting to date, struggles to connect with her teenage daughter Evie. And Evie wishes her best friend Colin would fall for her rather than just trying to fix things. With both humor and aching insight, these lives are woven together in a tale of parental hopes and fears, and of hearts consumed by longing.

THE HOUR OF FEELING by Mona Mansour. Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. It's 1967 and the map of the Middle East is about to change drastically. Fueled by a love of English Romantic poetry, Adham journeys from Palestine to London with his new wife, Abir, to deliver a career-defining lecture. As the young couple's marriage is tested, Adham struggles to reconcile his ambitions with the pull of family and home. But what if seizing the moment means letting go of everything he knows?

HOW WE GOT ON by Idris Goodwin. Directed by Wendy C. Goldberg. Hank, Julian and Luann are the flip side to the A story of hip hop's rise in the late 1980s--kids who forge a cultural identity in the white suburbs by dueling with poetry in parking lots and dubbing beats on a boom box. In this coming-of-age tale remixed, a DJ loops us through the lives of three Midwestern teen rappers who discover the power of harmony over discord.

MICHAEL VON SIEBENBURG MELTS THROUGH THE FLOORBOARDS by Greg Kotis. Directed by Kip Fagan. Meet Baron Michael von Sirbenburg: a 500-year-old Austrian bachelor living in an American city, whose secret of eternal youth involves endless first dates and a special meat tenderizer. But when his landlady gets suspicious and the ghost of a medieval comrade commands him to take Constantinople back from the Turks, Michael finds himself haunted by past and present. A hilariously dark comedy about the rigors of vampiric immortality.

THE VERI**ON PLAY by Lisa Kron. Directed by Nicholas Martin. When Jenni called customer service, all she wanted was to fix a minor problem with her cell phone bill. Instead she was sucked into a vortex of unimaginable horror. Now she wants revenge--or to get her cell phone service turned back on. Part thriller, part screwball comedy, part inspired by events that have undoubtedly happened to YOU.

OH, GASTRONOMY! by Michael Golamco, Carson Kreitzer, Steve Moulds, Tanya Saracho and Matt Schatz. Directed by Amy Attaway. C0-conceived and developed with Sarah Lunnie. Performed by the 2011-12 Acting Apprentice Company. Food, that delicious human unifier, is rife with contradiction. It can signal both comfort and compulsion, imply both nourishment and deprivation, and make your mouth water--or your stomach turn. Get ready to dig in, as five hungry playwrights join forces with twenty-two ravenous Acting Apprentices to serve up the pleasures--and paradoxes--of food.

A program of three 10-minute plays "culled from the National Ten-Minute Play Contest" will also be on the bill during the second Industry Weekend. Actors Theatre just needs to pick 'em.

Just to show how national the Humana Festival truly is: Greg Kotis (Urinetown), Tanya Saracho (Our Lady of the Underpass) and Idris Goodwin (These Are the Breaks) all have strong Chicago ties, while Lucas Hnath (The Courtship of Anna Nicole Smith), Lisa Kron (Well), Mona Mansour (Broadcast Yourself), Matt Schatz (Roanoke) and Courtney Baron (A Very Common Procedure) are New York-based. Michael Golamco (Cowboy Versus Samurai) comes from the West Coast, while Steve Moulds (Emergency Prom) has ties to Minnesota and Texas and Carson Kreitzer (The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer) has worked in Minneapolis, Austin and New York. Coast to coast playwrights!

To see your choices of weekend packages, click here.

New plays! A whole weekend of them! No question -- Louisville is the place to be in March 2012.

Really, Sean Hayes?

2011-12-12T10:35:00.005-06:00

Jerry Lewis was one thing. But Larry Fine? Really, Sean Hayes?

Back in 2002, the distinguished ISU alum played Jerry in the TV biopic "Martin and Lewis" that aired on CBS, opposite Jeremy Northam as Dean Martin. Hayes was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for that role, along with a pile of other nominations and several wins he'd already amassed from various awards groups for his work on "Will & Grace."

After that, Hayes did the voice of an ubervillain cat called Mr. Tinkles in two "Cats and Dogs" movies, a supporting role in "The Bucket List," and a starring turn on Broadway as Chuck Baxter in "Promises, Promises." He even hosted the 2010 Tony Awards ceremony that itself won an Emmy.

So if you're Sean Hayes, what do you follow all of that up with? "The Three Stooges." Really?

Yes, really. Hayes is playing Larry, the one with the frizzy, bushy hair, opposite MADTv's Will Sasso (pretty sure he did a Curly impression on that show, too) as Curly and Chris Diamantopoulos, known for playing Rodney on "The Starter Wife" and Rob Weiss on "24" taking on the heavy bangs of Moe, the Stooge leader. The Farrelly brothers directed this masterpiece.

A trailer for this "Stooges" has already been released, although the movie itself won't come out till 2012. (No, they are not squeezing it in before the Oscar deadline is up. Too bad, huh? It's sure to be Oscar bait. HA HA HA HA HA!)

You can see a trailer here at the Internet Movie Database. The plot appears to be something to do with an orphanage, right out of "The Blues Brothers" and/or "Puss in Boots." With added mayhem, eye-poking, pratfalls, a few nuns (played by Larry David and Jane Lynch, among others) and general hilarity. Hilarity of "The Three Stooges" variety has never been my idea of a good time, but I did have a friend in college who absolutely adored them. And Jerry Lewis. Apparently Sean Hayes is listening to her for his career choices.

Imdb says "The Three Stooges" will be released on April 13, 2012. I've added images of the original Stooges and the three new ones here for comparison purposes.

Texting During Performances? Just Say NO.

2011-12-11T13:14:00.005-06:00

Where do you stand on the prickly issue of texters, tweeters, callers and Angry Birds players during your movies, concerts and theater outings?

Some theater critics and even one theater have suggested that it's a good thing to allow tweeters and texters to tell their friends -- yes, during a show -- how much they're enjoying themselves, that that will encourage others to come out to see the particular performance they're sharing as it happens. Others (me included) think it's an awful idea, that it is very distracting to the audience AND the performers on stage if there are little blue lights or red-flashing earpieces or tapping fingers or whatever else it takes to read your email, send a text, change your status on Facebook, tweet your latest thought fragment, hear your messages or otherwise communicate with your bro, your boo, your dealer, Ashton Kutcher or your mom while you're supposed to be watching a live performance.

A movie theater in Texas called the Alamo Drafthouse dealt with this whole dilemma quite neatly last June, earning themselves some major fans along the way. Here's the whole story from the Alamo itself called "She texted, we kicked her out." It seems a young woman texted in one of their theaters even after they had repeatedly warned everybody not to. So they kicked her out. That made her mad, so she left a snotty message on their voice mail. And then they found her message so amusing that they used it for a public service announcement before their shows. It's hilarious and most welcome for anyone who has ever been annoyed at all the lights spreading out before them like Christmas decorations in suburbia every time they attend a performance.

You can see the whole lovely PSA on Youtube as well. (Note that this is the uncensored version, with all of the texter's &%$! tirade. So, yeah, you'll hear all the bad words this charming person left on the Alamo Drafthouse's voicemail.)

This isn't an issue that's going away anytime soon. Theaters will continue to make announcements that cell phones and pagers and iPads should be turned off during performances, and selfish, unthinking people will continue to ignore them.

But at least we have the Alamo Drafthouse. And before I go to the next show where I'll be fuming over the people with their faces lit up from the glowing phones under their chins, I will simply rewatch this video a few times and enjoy the Alamo's revenge.

TimeLine's Blog Offers "A Pitman's Guide to the Art Institute"

2011-12-09T16:21:00.005-06:00

"The Pitmen Painters," a play by Lee Hall (the "Billy Elliot" Lee Hall, not the local sportscaster) wowed audiences in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where it started, and then in London at the National Theatre, on Broadway and in a Chicago production at TimeLine Theatre, which has extended its own "Pitmen" run to December 18.

"The Pitmen Painters" is a lovely play, inspired by a book by William Feaver, about bringing art into the lives of a bunch of miners who toiled in Northern England in the 1930s. In the story as told by the play, these men (who work down in the pit, hence the "pitmen" moniker) gather for an art appreciation class with a visiting teacher, but quickly find the class boring and disconnected to their lives. To learn more about what art can mean to them, uneducated, regular old folks, they begin to paint themselves. And they earn a measure of success at it, too. For awhile. It's a funny, sharp, engaging piece of drama, about who has the right to make or own art, what it takes to sell and/or sell out, how to judge talent, and whether making and becoming involved in art can change lives, whether you're any good at it or not.

TimeLine's production, directed by B.J. Jones, just made the Tribune's Chris Jones' "runner up" list for the best productions of the year, and it has been very well reviewed as well as popular. (Note the extended run.) About the show, Jones wrote, "B.J. Jones' earnest, moving and unpretentious production will, I suspect, be a very big hit for this savvy and growing company, where more and more Chicagoans have come, with reason, to trust the power, truth and integrity of the work. Hedy Weiss, at the Sun-Times, was equally complimentary: "[D]irector BJ Jones and his spot-on cast sweep their powerful brushstrokes right across your heart."

I'm writing about the show now for two reasons. 1) You still have the opportunity to catch the show before it closes on the 18th. 2) Dramaturg Maren Robinson has just blogged about an utterly fascinating trip to Chicago's Art Institute to try to find artworks and paintings that might've inspired or affected the Ashlington Group, the real painters in the play.

What a cool idea! Robinson and TimeLine Marketing Director Lara Goetsch found a Gainsborough, a Turner, several Van Goghs and Cezannes, a Henry Moore sculpture, some Picassos and a little Mondrian. As Robinson concludes, "It was a great reminder of the embarrassment of artistic riches the city has to offer." As well as a perfect companion to "The Pitmen Painters."

You can read Robinson's TimeLine blog here, watch a video snippet of the play here, or find ticket information here.

Producers and Writers Nominate Their Favorite TV Shows

2011-12-07T17:09:00.005-06:00

Today, both the Producers Guild and Writers Guild announced nominees for excellence in 2011.

The Producers Guild recognizes achievement in the production of television and film, although only nominees in Documentary Films have been announced thus far. Other film category nominees will be released January 3, according to the PGA schedule. Once those film nominations come in, you'll see a pretty good precursor for the Oscars, as the Producers Guild has a track record of picking the same films the Academy does.

On the TV side, NBC's "30 Rock" and "Parks and Recreation" join CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," Fox's "Glee" and ABC's "Modern Family" as comedy nominees, while dramas like HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and "Game of Thrones" have earned nominations along with "Dexter" from Showtime, "The Good Wife" on CBS and AMC's "Mad Men." You can see the complete list of nominees here.

Note that "The 64th Annual Tony Awards” earned a spot in the Live Entertainment & Talk Television category, which is kind of fun. Voters have a choice of voting for Stephen Colbert, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Maher, SNL or the Tonys. I say, go Tonys!

The Writers Guild, meanwhile, has chosen other television shows to honor. "30 Rock," "Parks and Recreation" and "Modern Family" all made the cut, but the WGA rounded out its field with "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Louie." Tough luck, "Big Bang" and "Glee." I have to be honest -- "Community" and "Happy Endgings" would've made my own personal lists, but getting rid of "Big Bang" and especially "Glee" doesn't bother me a bit.

In drama, the WGA kept "Boardwalk Empire," "Game of Thrones" and "The Good Wife," but ignored "Mad Men" and "Dexter" in favor of AMC's "Breaking Bad" and Showtime's "Homeland."

They also recognize New Series, and in that category, they've chosen "Episodes," "Game of Thrones," "Homeland," "The Killing" and then... They went completely off the rails and picked "New Girl." I don't know what to make of that, frankly. It's hard to argue with "Game of Thrones" or "Homeland," but "New Girl"? In what universe can that compete?

Oh well. The other nominations, in categories like Animation and Comedy/Variety, are listed here.

One sad note: The Writers Guild has nominated "All My Children," "General Hospital" and "The Young and the Restless" for outstanding achievement in writing for Daytime Dramas. "All My Children" was canceled earlier this year, while "One Life to Live" bows out shortly, but poor OLTL didn't get nominated, even in its last year. The last ABC soap left, "General Hospital," is widely rumored to be getting the ax sometime soon, so who will be left to nominate next year? Will the WGA get rid of the category completely or just go with the three survivors, "Y & R," "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "Days of Our Lives," as their three nominees?

News & Notes: IWU Spotlight, Auditions All Over, Dapier, Dickens, Kennedy and Contest

2011-12-06T10:52:00.012-06:00

Illinois Wesleyan's School of Theatre Arts has been named Broadway World's Spotlight School of the Week. The article linked at broadwayworld.com notes success stories William Duell, Richard Jenkins, James Sutorius, Alison Vesely, Larry Neumann Jr., Lisa Marie Gigante D'Amico, Nic Diamond and Mary Heaton Carrick, all of whom emerged from IWU's theater program, but did not mention the alum currently appearing on Broadway -- Lisa Karlin, appearing in "The Addams Family" -- or the two who'll be there soon. The latter group includes Bryonha Marie Parham in "Porgy and Bess," opening at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on December 17, and Evan Kasprzak in "Newsies," which will open next March at the Nederlander Theatre. Congratulations, IWU Theatre! You can peruse pictures of proud IWU alums here.

The Station Theater in Urbana has informed us that its current production of "My Antonia," adapted from the Willa Cather novel by Jarrett Dapier, is not Dapier's first adaptation for the stage. According to a Facebook post from the Celebration Company, Dapier once wrote an adaptation of a Chris Crutcher novel called "The Sledding Hill," with Crutcher himself attending a performance. I can promise that Willa Cather will not be in attendance at "My Antonia," but you can be. Ticket information here.

Heartland Theatre annual 10-Minute Play contest is well underway, with entries coming in fast and furious. Remember that your play (which must be on the theme "Playing Games") is eligible for revisions if it gets in before January 1. The final deadline is February 1, 2012 for all entries.

Heartland has also announced that auditions for its upcoming productions, Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius" and Tracy Letts' "Superior Donuts," are coming up soon. The "Superior Donuts" audition schedule is already posted here. (Note that the auditions page currently erroneously says that performances are in September when "Superior Donuts" is really scheduled for April 12-29.) "Mauritius" details should be forthcoming any day, now that director Sandi Zielinski has completed her work on the ISU MFA showcase production of "Three Sisters."

Speaking of auditions... IWU has finished auditions and announced casting for their winter and spring performances. That includes Chase Miller as Tartuffe in "Tartuffe," Kirsten Anderson, Lizzie Rainville, Annie Simpson, Allison Sutton and Laura Williams playing five of the first women to trod the boards in Restoration England in "Playhouse Creatures," and Will Henke and Isaac Sherman as prisoners 105 and 106 in Maria Irene Fornes' "Promenade."

ISU is in the midst of its own winter/spring auditions, with callbacks happening for Sarah Ruhl's "Passion Play," Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9," William Inge's "Picnic," Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," and "La Boheme," the Puccini opera that spawned "Rent." Good luck and congrats to all those called back. (Tickets to all of those shows, as well as ISU's spring dance, symphony and choral concerts, are available at Ticketmaster if you want a jump on the best seats.)

In other news (or if you like to keep track of these things, which I do), you might be interested to hear that the Kennedy Center Honorees for 2011 are Barbara Cook, Neil Diamond, Sonny Rollins, Meryl Streep and Yo-Yo Ma. The gala at which they are celebrated has already been taped and will be broadcast on CBS on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 9 pm Eastern/8 Central. I'm thrilled I got to see Barbara Cook in person last year in "Sondheim on Sondheim" and am probably the most excited about her being honored.

In book news (or really coin news), Britain's Royal Mint has announced a Charles Dickens commemorative coin to honor the 200th anniversary of his birth. "The £2 coin...boasts a remarkable and inventive reverse design by Matthew Dent. A profile outline, immediately recognisable as Dickens has been painstakingly created from the titles of Dickens’ famous works," the Mint tells us. It really is cool to see Dickens' head created out of his titles, all fitting onto a £2 coin, even if it does look a bit like a map of South America. (See below.) If you look closely, "CAROL" and "COPPERFIELD" will pop out. I'm still looking for my own favorite, "Nicholas Nickleby." There is also a local connection to this story, since ISU's Milner Library's Special Collections Department has some nifty Dickens items.

"Follies" New Cast Recording Is Simply Wonderful

2011-12-05T12:12:00.005-06:00

As I've said before, the musical "Follies" has taken on mythic significance for me. It's a show I would go to see every day if I could, a show whose productions I will forgive a great deal just for the chance to see it, and a show that isn't produced nearly often enough.

Within the past ten years, however, the number of "Follies" productions has picked up. I saw the Broadway revival in 2001, the one with Gregory Harrison and Blythe Danner as Ben and Phyllis and Polly Bergen as Carlotta, and I liked it far better than most critics. That was followed by a well-received Paper Mill Playhouse production with Donna McKechnie, and a 2007 version from City Center Encores! directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw that starred Donna Murphy and Victoria Clark, along with Victor Garber, Michael McGrath, Christine Baranski, Philip Bosco, Mimi Hines and Joanne Worley.

This year, we've seen the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre production with lots of Chicago stars doing great work in their courtyard space, and a big, beautiful Kennedy Center production directed with all the bells and whistles by Eric Shaeffer that was successful enough to transfer from DC to Broadway, opening at the Marquis Theatre on September 12, 2011, forty years and five months after it opened the first time at the Winter Garden.

Luckily for those of us who are besotted with "Follies" in all its incarnations, Tommy Krasker of PS Classics is just as smitten as we are. That means when he got the assignment to do a cast recording of the current Broadway production, he decided to (in his own words, in the album notes), "do an expansive recording that not only conveyed the glories of the score, but captured the experience of the show itself." To that end, Krasker has included pieces of dialogue to segue between songs or set up songs, to showcase the emotional context and character shadings of this exceptionally emotional, character-driven show.

The result is one extraordinary cast recording.

"I hope this new recording will speak both to audiences who've had the chance to see this glorious new production and to folks who might never get to see a Follies at all," Krasker writes. I fall into a middle category, with a few "Follies" under my belt, but not this one. Still, this cd captures the production very well, well enough that is almost a recreation, filling in the gaps for those of us who haven't made it to the Marquis for this "Follies."

It feels like a complete experience because of the added lines of dialogue, lots of pictures in the booklet that accompanies this two-disc set, and liner notes from Krasker and arts journalist Patrick Pacheco on the significance of the show. Pacheco's theory that "Follies" and its crumbling theater are metaphors for America and its crumbling financial structures and institutions (or, as he puts it, "the deflated dreams and tarnished hopes now loosed throughout the land") goes a bit farther than I would, but the idea is definitely intriguing.

Aside from all the lovely supporting materials, the score of "Follies," with Stephen Sondheim's searing lyrics and sweet, sad music, sells the cd all by itself. "Losing My Mind," "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs," "Too Many Mornings," "One More Kiss," "Beautiful Girls," "Broadway Baby," "Who's That Woman?" and "The Road You Didn't Take" all sound sensational here, with beautiful, emotional vocals that I can't listen to enough.

And once again, from the first notes of the plaintive soprano saxophone (thank you, Jon Alan Conrad, for the information that it is a soprano sax and not an oboe so I sound like I know what I'm talking about) at the very beginning, I am hooked, transfixed and under the "Follies" spell. Its messages of bittersweet memory, early promise turned to disappointment, youthful passion marked by betrayal and delusion, are simply devastating. Beautiful, but devastating.

Jan Maxwell and Danny Burstein both jump out in the best possible way, with Maxwell a silky, snarky Phyllis, the one who studied and read and walked her feet off at museums in order to be good enough for Ben, and Burstein giving vulnerability and a special spark to Buddy, the traveling salesmen who only wants the things he can't have.

Bernadette Peters starts out sounding like the saucer-eyed, cutie pie Bernadette of days long past, like her "Dames at Sea" persona, convincing me she's right for Sally Durant, once a fun girl who ate Baby Ruths for breakfast, now "still playing games, acting crazy." I still don't like the way she goes up for the final note of "Losing My Mind," but otherwise, she honestly sounds awesome.

At first listen, Ron Raines left me a little cold as Ben, the man who despises his own success, but then I listened again, and I can't imagine what I was missing. His voice sounds rich and resonant, as well as world-weary, on "The Road You Didn't Take" and his half of "Too Many Mornings" and right where he needs to be on "Live, Laugh, Love." Once again, I'm smitten.

"Rain on the Roof" and "Ah, Paris!" are delightful from Susan Watson, Don Correia and Mary Peth Peil (quite the most elegant Solange ever), while I absolutely adore Jayne Houdyshell's cheery, no-nonsense trouper take on "Broadway Baby."

Rosalind Elias and Leah Horowitz and are a perfect pair as the older and younger Heidi on "One More Kiss," really selling the "ravages of time" notion that Heidi's young voice can sing circles around her older one. I catch my breath every time when Young Heidi does exactly that.

"Who's That Woman?" (complete with taps) also sounds great, but it's one of two places where no two-dimensional booklet is enough to fully communicate the experience of in-person performance. The dance is so important here, with the aged Follies ladies mirrored by the ghosts of their young selves, and I'm not sure that "wow" moment can come across in any cast recording. Pictures of the Mirror Dance (complete with ghosts) in the liner notes might've helped, but I'm still not sure it'd be enough.

The other place I wanted more visual help is the young Ben/Buddy/Phyllis/Sally quartet. "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" and "Love Will See Us Through" sound as spiffy as ever, but there is only a hazy image of the four behind the lyrics for those songs, and it's tough to tell what they look like or what era of costumes they're dressed in. I want more.

Those are very minor quibbles, however, with what is, overall, an amazing package. I don't see how any other cast recording can do as much to recreate the experience of seeing "Follies" live. For musical theater aficionados, this "Follies" is a must-have. For anybody who ever loved "Follies," this is a godsend.

"Follies," the new Broadway cast recording, is now available for order at PS Classics as well as other stores and vendors. (I prefer to get it direct from PS Classics myself so they don't have to share any of the profits, however modest they are.)

Charm for the Holidays in "The Shop Around the Corner"

2011-12-02T13:33:00.006-06:00

When you think Jimmy Stewart and holiday movies, you probably come up with "It's a Wonderful Life" first and foremost. But there is another choice. There's Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 charmer "The Shop Around the Corner."

This one is less sentimental, but still warm and sweet, more romantic, more Continental. I mean, when was the last time you watched a movie set in Budapest, where the holiday cash registers are ringing up pengő and the shop's cigarette boxes play "Ochi Chyornye"?

"The Shop Around the Corner" is based on a 1937 play called "Parfumerie" written by Miklós László (also known as Nikolaus Laszlo or Laszlo Miklos in some credits.) The play was, obviously, set in a perfume store, while screenwriter Samson Raphaelson turned it into more of a gift shop, selling leather goods, cigarette lighters and music boxes, for "The Shop Around the Corner."

László's play has been adapted and reimagined more than once, with "In the Good Old Summertime" (1949) moving its pen-pal lovers to turn-of-the-century Chicago and a music shop (offering star Judy Garland a chance to sing), "You've Got Mail" (1998) with Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, computers and rival bookstores, and the Broadway musical "She Loves Me," which keeps the same basic characters and plot while adding a lovely Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick score.

Of those adaptations, "The Shop Around the Corner" and "She Loves Me" are at the top of the class for me. Which is why it's such good news to hear that the Normal Theater is offering "The Shop Around the Corner," in glorious black and white, on screen tomorrow and Sunday nights at 7 pm. (Now we just need one of our local musical theater companies to take on "She Loves Me," which they haven't, in my memory. Why not?)

For now, "The Shop Around the Corner" will have to be enough. It's plenty, really. Director Lubitsch is known for the light, mischievous tone of his films, for all those clever "Lubitsch touches," and he delivers beautifully with this film. James Stewart is at his best as hard-working, no-nonsense Alfred Kralik, who has a romantic side he hides very well at work. Looking tall and lanky in a spiffy 40s wardrobe, Stewart has never been more natural or more appealing. Margaret Sullavan (famous for being married to Henry Fonda for a couple of months as well as being one of the subjects of "Haywire," a biographical tell-all by Sullavan's daughter Brooke Hayward) is less attractive, to me, but she and her throaty voice and impish ways do manage to create an interesting heroine. And, again, she brings out the best in Stewart.

The supporting cast is quite marvelous, chock full of character actors you can never see enough of, with the wonderful Felix Bressart bringing life to every scene he's in, Joseph Schildkraut doing excellent work as oily villain and ladies man Vadas, and Frank Morgan quite touching as Mr. Matuschek, the mercurial owner of the shop. Morgan shows he more dramatic chops than you might expect if all you know him from is "The Wizard of Oz," giving "The Shop Around the Corner" a good part of its heart and soul.

"The Shop Around the Corner" is, yes, a romance, with a light, charming tone carried along by snow falling on the street in Budapest, pen pals who share their innermost thoughts and fall in love through words, and the plot device that keeps them prickly in person but still clearly meant for each other. But there is a message here about friendship and connection, too, about how life outside the walls of Matuschek and Co. may disappoint, but the family of co-workers inside can still be there when Mr. Matuschek needs them. It makes for a lovely holiday message.

You may be able to catch "The Shop Around the Corner" somewhere on your television dial this Christmas season, but that is no substitute for seeing it at the Normal Theater this weekend. So.. 7 pm. Saturday and Sunday. It can be your gift to yourself.

There's also a fun trailer for the movie, with a little cameo at the end by Mr. Lubitsch himself, available on youtube.

Magnificent Melancholy: "The Three Sisters" Showcases ISU's MFA Actors

2011-12-01T11:57:00.009-06:00

I have been thinking about all things Russian recently – a friend I met in Russian 101 passed away unexpectedly last week, so I’ve been musing over the years I spent and the friends I made while immersed in Russian language and literature in college – which makes “The Three Sisters” especially poignant for me right now.

The sisters in Chekhov’s play, as well as the characters who interact with them, spend a good deal of their time and conversation on what life means, what we can aspire to as human beings, and how we all fit into the larger tableau of history and progress. The question “What difference does it make?” comes up frequently, and Olga’s plaintive “If only we knew” ends the play.

As the three Prozorov sisters yearn to move back to Moscow and the life of music and books and art they remember from their youth, they also hope for a better future with more choices and more life for the generations who follow them. It seems so very Russian (or maybe just so very Chekhov) to have characters who jump headlong into hopeless love affairs, who mourn the passing of the aristocracy even as they look forward to a more egalitarian future, who, when all else fails, try desperately to find meaning in work. They go on. There may not be a reason, they may not make a difference, but they go on. That’s what they do.

The ISU/Heartland Theatre production of “The Three Sisters” is intended as a showcase for the acting talents of Illinois State’s graduate acting class. The play offers strong roles for those eight actors, succeeding nicely on the “showcase” front, but it also succeeds as a play, as a story, as a moving, emotional examination of how human beings, even smart, funny, talented ones (or maybe especially smart, funny, talented ones) can aspire to so much, achieve none of their goals, but still try to maintain a glimmer of hope. Director Sandra Zielinski and her actors establish a warm, engaging mood from the start, pulling us in to the Prozorov family and their world and bringing us along on their so-very-human journey.

Allison Schencker’s scenic design, with its autumnal colors and bare-birches backdrop, adds nicely to the general tableau, making “The Three Sisters” seem like a natural for an intimate setting like Heartland Theatre.

The three actors who portray the sisters – Kate McDermott-Swanson as dutiful Olga, Jessie Dean as tempestuous Masha and Melisa Pereyra as youthful, sweet Irina – are the heart of the play, and all three deliver nicely. (Pictured above, top to bottom, are McDermott-Swanson, Dean and Pereyra, in character as Olga, Masha and Irina. Photo credit: Pete Guither.)

Molly Rose Lewis plays against type as their vulgar, pushy sister-in-law, awful Natasha, and Michael Gamache adds the proper note of regret and overwhelming disappointment as Andrei, the one who brings her into the family.

Josh Innerst does fine work with the pivotal role of Vershinin, the dashing (and married) army commander who blows into their lives like a Buran wind, while Zack Powell is simply perfect as Tuzenbach, cynical and idealistic at the same time, who adores Irina whether she loves him back or not. Well, not perfect. He’s much better looking than the script says, but very appealing and sympathetic in his doomed pursuit of Irina, anyway. Jeb Burris is another one who is cast against type, playing Masha’s somewhat ridiculous husband, a schoolmaster who isn’t really that bright and bores her silly. Burris makes Kulygin a whole person, too, not just a foil, so that you feel for him and wish he’d had better sense than to marry Masha in the first place.

Among the rest of the cast, Henry Woronicz shines as Chebutykin, the doctor (there’s always a doctor in Chekhov) who once loved the sisters’ mother, but now drinks too much and bothers to save lives too little, and Len Childers is quite excellent as moody, insufferable Solyony, the one who looks like Lermontov (the author of “A Hero of Our Time,” one of my favorite books) and keeps poisoning the atmosphere with his dark humors.

In smaller roles, Sarah Stone Innerst, Ann White, Dean Brown, Tommy Malouf and David Krostal all make a good impression.

After this “Three Sisters,” it’s hard to shake the sad, yearning mood the play and its performances create. Why do they go on? If only we knew.

THE THREE SISTERS
By Anton Chekhov.
From a translation by Paul Schmidt.

A presentation of Heartland Theatre Company and
the Illinois State University School of Theatre.

Director: Sandra Zielinski
Scenic Designer/Prop Master/Charge Artist: Allison Schenker
Costume Designer: Lauren Lowell
Lighting Designer: Jeremy Lane
Sound Designer: Robert Hornbostel
Stage Manager: Jesse Cannady
Technical Director: Michael Pullin
Assistant Directors: Sarah Salazar, Brandon Ray
Assistant to the Director: Kathleen Weir
Assistant Stage Manager, Scenic Assistant: Michelle Stahl

Cast: Jeb Burris, Jessie Dean, Michael Gamache, Josh Innerst, Molly Rose Lewis, Kate McDermott-Swanson, Melisa Pereyra, Zach Powell, Dean Brown, Len Childers, Sarah Stone Innerst, David Krostal, Tommy Malouf, Ann White and Henry Woronicz.

Running time: 2:45, including one 15-minute intermission

Remaining performances: December 1-3 at 7:30 pm; December 3-4 at 2 pm.

All tickets are $10 and all performances are at Heartland Theatre

Much Ado About December

2011-12-01T09:23:00.006-06:00

No, as far as I know, no one is putting on "Much Ado About Nothing." It's just that there's always so much to see and do in December, as so many organizations put on holiday shows.

Chris Jones, theater critic at the Chicago Tribune, has put together a list of the top 10 Christmas show options in Chicago. I thought I'd include that here, since so many people make trips to the city to do their Christmas shopping or look at the department store windows. Jones has included the Goodman Theatre's annual "Christmas Carol," which he found extra-specially good this year, as well as "A Christmas Story: The Musical" at the Chicago Theatre, a new show based on the film favorite that is headed for New York next Christmas, Alan Ayckbourn's dysfunctional family comedy "Seasons Greetings" at Northlight, and "The Christmas Schooner" at the Mercury Theatre, in which Jones loved the cast and said that the performers "take charge and make a show pulse with life and heart."

Back here at home, you can start your December by heading over to Heartland Theatre to catch Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters," with a marvelous cast of ISU graduate students in acting augmented by Henry Woronicz (a world-class actor and head of that graduate acting program at ISU), Ann White, Dave Krostal and Dean White from Heartland productions past, and an actor named Lee Childers I personally haven't seen on local stages who is a most welcome addition. It's a wonderfully warm, sad production directed by ISU professor Sandi Zielinski. No, there's no Christmas celebration in "The Three Sisters," but we're talking Russia here, so there's a definite chill in the air. "The Three Sisters" officially opens tonight, with performances through the Sunday Matinee at 2 pm.

One of my favorite movies, holiday or otherwise, comes to the Normal Theater on Saturday and Sunday. That would be "The Shop Around the Corner," director Ernst Lubitsch's lighter-than-air confection about two clerks at a small store who can't stand each other in person, but fall in love by letter as anonymous pen pals. Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are lovely as the boy and girl, and Samson Raphaelson's screenplay is a charmer. You may recognize the secret-pen-pals/love-by-letter plot in "The Shop Around the Corner" from its other iterations. It all started with a play called "Parfumerie," by Miklós László, which has been turned into "The Shop Around the Corner," "In the Good Old Summertime" and "You've Got Mail," as well as the musical "She Loves Me." I guess when you have a good thing going...

After "Shop," the Normal Theater keeps the holiday spirit going with wall-to-wall Christmas movies, showing perennial favorite "White Christmas" on the 8th and 9th, the more irreverent "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" on the 15th and 16th, "A Christmas Story," complete with Red Ryder BB gun and leg lamp, on the 17th and 18th, and finishing up with Frank Capra's sentimental "What if you were never born?" tale, "It's a Wonderful Life," from December 23 to 25.

Less Christmasy (and with a completely different mood than Chekhov, Lubitsch, Bing Crosby or Frank Capra): "Murder at the Howard Johnson's" at Community Players, playing as part of their Lab Theatre program. "Murder at the Howard Johnson's" is exactly what its title promises, although I don't think the murder ever comes off. It's more like "Plaza Suite" by way of "Clue," with a farcical tone underlining a love triangle with murderous intent. In the three scenes of the play, two sides of the triangle keep conspiring to knock the other one off. The key is that the alliances and targets keep shifting. I saw the plays years ago, and I don't think I will ever get that trademark orange-and-turquoise color scheme out of my head.

In Urbana, the Station Theatre opens its new adaptation of Willa Cather's "My Antonia" tonight, as well. Celebration Company member Jarrett Dapier has adapted the novel for the stage, with Gary Ambler and Joi Hoffsommer directing. Performances of "My Antonia" run from December 1-4, 7-11 and 14-17, with all shows at 8 pm and ticket prices ranging from $10-15.

The annual Holiday Spectacular comes to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts December 9-11, with its usual large cast (over 300?) and tuneful tidings of good cheer. Once again, it features a script written by Nancy Steele Brokaw and is directed by Lori Adams. New this year is a Facebook page devoted to the Holiday Spectacular, where you can get up-to-the-minute updates. Tickets are $23 for adults or $11 for those 13 and under. Group discounts are also available.

A movie that Oscar-watchers have been waiting for, "The Descendants," starring George Clooney as a wealthy man in Hawaii trying to reconnect with his daughters and figure out what happened to his marriage, comes to Champaign's Art Theatre starting December 9, followed by that rare commodity, a Christmas horror movie. This one is "Rare Exports," about which Roger Ebert said: "This is a superior horror film, a spot-on parody of movies about dead beings brought back to life."

For more traditional holiday offerings, try C-U's Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, where there is a "Nutcracker," performed by the Champaign-Urbana Ballet Company and Sinfonia da Camera, from December 2-4, a Carol Concert on the 4th, and "Sleigh Bells Ring," a concert from the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra with special guests The Chorale, led by Julie Beyler, and the Parkland Singers, led by Barbara Zachow, on December 8th.

Happy holidays!

"The Three Sisters" Collaboration (ISU/Heartland) Opens Tomorrow

2011-11-30T10:10:00.004-06:00

As I understand it, Illinois State University's School of Theatre needed a venue to showcase its grad students in acting, and they chose Heartland Theatre in Normal. So, for the first time, Heartland will host a play starring ISU's entire group of MFA actors. A few of them have done shows together at ISU and almost all of them played roles in last summer's Illinois Shakespeare Festival. But all together? Nope. This showcase means that interested theater-goers will get the chance to see these actors before they break big. This is a very good group, and they've each turned in powerhouse performances, meaning they could very well end up in major companies or on the big screen. Will one among them be the next John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf or Rondi Reed? Only time will tell, but you can see what you think this week.

The play is Chekhov's "The Three Sisters," directed by ISU professor Sandi Zielinski, with Jessie Dean, Kate McDermott and Melisa Pereyra as the titular sisters, and their fellow grad students Jeb Burris, Michael Gamache, Josh Innerst, Molly Rose Lewis and Zach Powell taking on other major roles in the Chekhov classic. Frequent Heartland actors Dean Brown ("Proof"), David Krostal ("A Tuna Christmas") and Ann B. White ("Too Many Air Conditioners") will join them, as will Henry Woronicz, Head of Graduate Acting at ISU.

"The Three Sisters" has been done many times with celebrity casts, like Judith Anderson, Katherine Cornell and Ruth Gordon on Broadway back in 1942, or Amy Irving, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Lili Taylor back on Broadway in 1997. (For trivia lovers, that last production also featured Justin Theroux, Jennifer Aniston's current beau, in a small role.) There have been other productions memorable for their casting, as well, with Vanessa, Lynn and Jemma Redgrave playing the sisters in London in 1991 and Sorcha, Sinead and Niamh Cusack taking the roles in Dublin in 1990.

This ISU MFA "Three Sisters" promises to focus on the acting and the characters, as our three girls marooned in the provinces yearn for Moscow and the more cultured life they remember when they lived there. Oldest sister Olga is a teacher who has reluctantly given up on the idea of marriage or romance, while moody Masha remains artistic and passionate, even though she lives in an unhappy marriage. Youngest sister Irina is more naive and the object of several crushes in the men around her. Their lives are complicated when an army artillery battery comes to town and stays awhile, with the dashing Vershinin, someone Masha finds fascinating, as commanding officer.

Although there is a special "students only" preview performance tonight, official performances begin tomorrow night at Heartland Theatre. This production is not part of Heartland's regular season, so season passes may not be used. All tickets are $10. For reservations, email boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org or call 309-452-8709.

Performances are: Thursday, December 1, Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3 at 7:30 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, December 3 and 4, at 2 pm. That's five performances only of this classic play with a fabulous cast.

New Artistic Director Announced at Actors Theatre of Louisville

2011-11-29T10:06:00.006-06:00

When Actors Theatre of Louisville announced last February that artistic director Marc Masterson was leaving to take a post at South Coast Rep in California after 11 years at the helm, the general reaction was surprise. After all, heading up Actors Theatre and its attendant Humana Festival of New American Plays is a pretty plum job in the world of American theater.

Masterson actually left Louisville in September, as the search for a new artistic director continued. A week or so ago, Actors Theatre announced their search was over and they would announce a new artistic director... Today! And that new artistic director is (drum roll, please) Les Waters!

Waters (pictured above) has served as associate artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre since 2003. He directed Sarah Ruhl's "In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)" on Broadway in 2009, and won an Obie in 2002 for the off-Broadway production of Charles Mee's "Big Love," which Waters had also directed at the Humana Festival. Time Magazine named his 2007 production of Ruhl's "Eurydice" as one of the 10 best productions of 2007. Other notable productions include Will Eno's "TRAGEDY: a tragedy" and Martin McDonagh's "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," both at Berkeley Rep.

Although it may seem strange for someone taking over such a prominent festival of new American plays, Waters actually hails from England, where he earned a BA at Manchester University and worked with theaters like the Bristol Old Vic, Hampstead Theatre Club, Joint Stock Theatre Group, the National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre and Traverse Theatre Club. He also won an Edinburgh Fringe First award.

Actors Theatre tells us that Waters is officially taking over the position of artistic director on January 9th and he will be in Louisville full-time starting at the end of March. Or, just in time for the 2012 Humana Festival!

Seedling Theatre On Stage with "Laura's Christmas Surprises"

2011-11-28T11:20:00.008-06:00

Seedling Theatre, which specializes in pairing "special needs children and young adults with their age appropriate peers...to experience the exciting challenge of performing live theatre," will offer "Laura's Christmas Surprises" on Thursday (December 1) and Saturday (December 3) at 7 pm as well as Sunday (December 4) at 3pm.

"Laura's Christmas Surprises" is based on the work of beloved children's author Laura Ingalls Wilder, best known for her "Little House" series, as adapted for the stage by Claire Coleman Lamonica, Associate Director of ISU's Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology. Wilder's Christmas stories from several of the Little House books have been collected and published separately in two volumes, the first of which you see below.

All performances of "Laura's Christmas Surprises" will take place at First Christian Church, 401 West Jefferson Street in Bloomington. You may purchase tickets at the door, with prices ranging from $5 for anybody under college age to $10 for adults. If you need more information, you are invited to contact Seedling Theatre Artistic Director Donna Anhalt at 309-838-2923 or donnaanhalt@hotmail.com.

Today's Pantagraph also ran an article on "Laura's Christmas Surprises" that you can read online here.

Tonight is TVTVTV

2011-11-27T14:33:00.005-06:00

Lots of cool things on the telly tonight!

As a big "Mad Men" fan, I have appreciated the talents of John Slattery, who plays hard-drinking, womanizing ad exec Roger Sterling. Slattery contributes a guest voice to tonight's episode of "The Simpsons" in an episode called "The Man in the Blue Flannel Pants" where he plays, yes, an ad man.

That's tonight on Fox at 8 Eastern/7 Central. As it happens, Slattery also appears in the Matt Damon/Emily Blunt movie "The Adjustment Bureau," which is available on Comcast's On Demand feature for $2.49 until November 30th. Slattery is a black-hatted bad guy who works for the mysterious all-powerful agency (or whatever they are) who run everybody's lives and keep coming after Damon's character for exerting free will instead of going by "The Plan." So if you totally need a John Slattery fix before "Mad Men" comes back in 2012, you can double up with "The Simpsons" tonight and "The Adjustment Bureau" before the 30th. Plus AMC is rerunning "Mad Men" episodes from last season early on Sunday mornings until the new season begins (finally!) in March. I'm too late to warn you about this morning's episodes, but next Sunday, December 4, AMC offers "New Amsterdam" and "5G" (which are episodes 4 and 5 from the first season) at 5 and 6 am in my Central time zone.

I am loving the new show "Once Upon a Time," a fairytale/real life collision kind of show, where Snow White (played by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), as well as an Evil Witch (Lana Parrilla) and Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle), have lives we see in flashbacks in the Fairy Tale world, as well as alternate identities in a weird little town called Storybrooke located in Maine. Tonight's episode involves Jiminy Cricket (played by Raphael Sbarge) and how he came to be, plus a mysterious sinkhole that opens up in Storybrooke after Our Heroine (Jennifer Morrison) accepts a deputy of police badge. It airs on ABC at 8 pm Eastern/7 Central.

I also like "Leverage," a smart and snappy show about con people working for good that airs on TNT. (I'm a sucker for this sort of thing, going back to "It Takes a Thief" in the 60s.) "Leverage" starts its new season tonight at 9 Eastern/8 Central. Tonight's episode of "Leverage" is "The Experimental Job," with this plot summary from TNT's site: "When homeless veterans in the Boston area begin disappearing, the team must go back to college and infiltrate the world of Skull & Bones secret societies."

There's also a "Walking Dead" marathon and its mid-season finale tonight, but I'm not so big on gore and splattered brain matter, so... Yeah, I'll stick with "The Simpsons" on DVR, with "Once Upon a Time" and "Leverage" live.

Cary Grant Acts the Perfect Angel in "The Bishop's Wife"

2011-11-26T15:19:00.003-06:00

There are certain classic holiday movies that get wide exposure every year about this time -- "A Christmas Story," "White Christmas," "Miracle on 34th Street," "It's a Wonderful Life," various versions of "A Christmas Carol," "Holiday Inn," and maybe "Christmas in Connecticut" if we're lucky -- but two lovely choices -- "The Bishop's Wife" and "The Shop Around the Corner" -- don't show up as often. This year, the Normal Theater is doing its best to correct the oversight, screening both films in post-Thanksgiving slots.

That means you have the chance to see "The Bishop's Wife" tonight and Sunday night at 7 pm, as well as "The Shop Around the Corner" December 3rd and 4th.

But first... "The Bishop's Wife." I love Cary Grant in his 1940s movies. I love Cary Grant anytime, actually, and I am quite smitten by his performance in "Holiday" from 1938, but even so... He is truly irresistible in films like "My Favorite Wife" and "The Philadelphia Story," both released in 1940, through "The Talk of the Town" in 1942, "Notorious" in 1946, and yes, "The Bishop's Wife" in 1947. Beyond suave, impossibly charming, he is the perfect fantasy man in this period.

Still, as attractive as Grant certainly is in the "The Bishop's Wife," I wasn't a big fan of the movie when I was young and it was airing on "Dialing for Dollars" or other old movie outlets. For one thing, Grant plays an angel, not a real human being, so he doesn't get to bring out the big guns in terms of his dark, sexy appeal, which is disappointing when you're a pre-teen swooning over him. For another, the woman at the center of the bishop/wife/angel triangle is Loretta Young, who never impressed me much. She's the goodie-goodie type my mother (who introduced me to old movies) disliked intensely, right up there with June Allyson, Greer Garson and Doris Day, so I was probably biased right from the start. And I have to say, giving the movie another look, all the dewy close-ups and everybody saying what a wonder she is don't do her any favors. It's a saccharine overload, especially when Our Angel Cary (called Dudley by screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood) decides she is just so marvelous that he might be interested in giving up Angeldom for her. As if. I suppose director Henry Koster is responsible for all the Loretta love. Or maybe that was just the way producer Samuel Goldwyn wanted it.

Oh well. Those are quibbles. It really is a very sweet and pretty adorable movie, light enough to counteract the gooeyness quotient, with lots of nice supporting players who get the chance to shine as Dudley goes around town being fabulous and sparkly and inspiring. The main plotline involves the Bishop, a man named Henry Brougham, played by David Niven, and how he has become so absorbed with his campaign to raise funds for a humungous new cathedral that he is ignoring both his wife, the lovely Julia (yes, Loretta Young) and his faith. He prays for guidance, but what he gets is Dudley, who isn't really all that interested in Brougham's cathedral plans. Dudley is more of an old school angel, concerned about poverty and need more than big, fancy buildings. As he tries to show Brougham the light, he finds himself spending more time with Julia than her husband, helping her regain her joie de vivre with a new hat, a visit to a French restaurant, and some fancy ice skating.

He also gets a cynical cab driver (played by veteran character actor James Gleason) onto the ice, turns Henry's and Julia's daughter Debby (Karolyn Grimes) into a wiz in a snowball fight, gives a boost to a boys' choir, plays the harp so beautifully that Scrooge of a widow (the luminous Gladys Cooper) will change her ways, and offers a helping hand to a historian, nicely brought to life by Monty Woolley, who ends up with a priceless coin and a perpetually full wine bottle after Dudley visits. Somehow, it is entirely believable that Cary Grant could skate like a champ, coach snowball throwing, woo choirboys to practice, play the harp like an angel and fill bottles with one wag of his finger.

I know I heard somewhere that Grant could neither skate, speak French or play the harp before "The Bishop's Wife," but learned all three for the movie. That seems unlikely, but I guess the whole point of the film is to believe, so... I believe.

"The Bishop's Wife" was remade as "The Preacher's Wife" in 1996, with Denzel Washington as the angel and Whitney Houston as the unhappy wife. I think "Whitney Houston" is all you need to know about that one. Or maybe we were all just too cynical by 1996 to buy into an all-knowing, all-powerful angel trying to get a clergyman to give up the idea of wealth and status and instead help out the poor. I think today we're calling that socialist and class warfare.

But it works like a charm in 1947's version of "The Bishop's Wife." You can catch this sweet Christmas treat on the big screen at the Normal Theater tonight and tomorrow night at 7 pm.

Sondheim Note #2: PS Classics Has Broadway "Follies" Ready and Waiting

2011-11-23T13:34:00.003-06:00

I am mad for "Follies." I was very excited to see the recent Chicago Shakes production, but still sad I couldn't get to Washington DC for the Kennedy Center production directed by Eric Schaeffer and starring Danny Burstein, Jan Maxwell, Bernadette Peters and Ron Raines.

That DC version then transferred to Broadway, where it has been very well-received, with raves for Danny Burstein and Jan Maxwell, especially. Performances have now been extended through January 22, with tickets for sale here. Maybe I'll get there. But even if I don't...

PS Classics and Executive Producer Tommy Krasker have provided a lasting record of that production with their new cast recording of "Follies" in all its musical glory. Krasker always sweats the details for PS Classics, ensuring a wonderful product. Or, as Mr. Sondheim himself said in an interview, "PS Classics does great work. It is always beautifully produced with them. Tommy Krasker is as good as they come and he loves musicals. All PS Classics albums are well-done."

This one is a labor of love for Krasker, as noted on the PS Classics site. When it came to the opportunity to do a "Follies" on Broadway cast recording, Krasker "knew the kind of recording he wanted to make -- one that would speak to him, as a fan of the show, one that might convey the musical and dramatic qualities that, to his mind, make Follies a singular, irresistible theatrical experience."

You know you're in good hands when someone says exactly what you think. "Singular and irresistible." Yep, that's "Follies."

PS Classics describes the package they've put together for this cast recording as "an expansive two-disc set, complete with 52-page full-color booklet with essay, synopsis, lyrics, production photos and a brief note...from the album producer." That means lots of beautiful pictures of the performers and production numbers as well as every single thing you might think of including if you yourself were going to preserve the "Follies" experience.

Like "Look, I Made a Hat," this cast recording of "Follies" is a must-have for Sondheim-o-philes. Or anyone who loves musicals, really.

So, you know, ORDER TODAY.

Sondheim Note #1: "Look, I Made a Hat" Now Available

2011-11-22T14:28:00.006-06:00

At about this time last year, I was having fun exploring "Finishing the Hat," the first volume of Stephen Sondheim's musings on his own work. And now, here we are, in November 2011, with the second volume, "Look, I Made a Hat" available for order.

Excitement!

This one picks up where "Finishing the Hat" left off, covering 1981-2011, and it is subtitled "Collected lyrics...with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany."

Sondheim's work -- his lyrics, his music and his writing in general -- is smart, moving, sharply honed and always impressive. He also comes off that way in all the interviews and comments he's been giving for "Look, I Made a Hat," some of which I have collected here for your perusal.

There's Newsweek/The Daily Beast, Playbill.com, and BroadwayWorld.com, where Sondheim even talks a little about Shakespeare.

Sondheim is endlessly fascinating, his lyrics are absolutely the best, and these two books are absolute necessities for anyone who is interested in musical theater.

I will write more about my thoughts on the contents of "Look, I Made a Hat" once my copy gets here. In the meantime, you go order yours, or read the one you already got, or share quotes with your friends, whatever it takes. Get the word out!

"Look, I Made a Hat" is now available!!!

Entertainment Options to Give Thanks For

2011-11-21T11:06:00.009-06:00

So, what are you doing Thursday?

There are no theatrical performances that I know of locally, although grad students from ISU's School of Theatre are busy rehearsing and building for their production of Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" that opens the following week at Heartland Theatre. When your show opens December 1, you can't really take off Thanksgiving week.

But the rest of us... Well, let's just say that all those shows that opened in the past three weeks* closed this past weekend, leaving a lot of us with nothing much on the agenda for Thanksgiving week. Except eating, of course. And it's true that a lot of people seem to eat all their Thanksgiving turkey and mashed potatoes and then take a nap. (Tryptophan, yay!) But others go to the movies.

That's why the Normal Theater has one of my favorite holiday movies, the Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire vehicle "Holiday Inn" playing on Thursday, right after dinner at 7 pm. "Holiday Inn" features all the holidays, from New Year's Eve through Washington's Birthday and July 4th and, yes, Thanksgiving. The movie is more famous for introducing "White Christmas" to the world, but I distinctly remember Bing noodling through a Thanksgiving song called "I've Got Plenty to Be Thankful For" and picking at a whole turkey served just for him at the remote Vermont inn where he is putting on shows. There is a lot of singing and dancing in "Holiday Inn," which features a socko Irving Berlin score and some excellent Astaire footwork. But there is a caveat on the Lincoln's Birthday blackface scene. It's there for a plot reason, but it's still cringe-worthy in my mind.

So if you are not a Bing or Fred fan and you are interested in Thanksgiving night entertainment, what should you see? "Anonymous," the ridiculous Roland Emmerich movie about how Shakespeare didn't write his own plays and Queen Elizabeth I had a baby with her own son (No, really! That's what it says!) has bombed at the box office and not played at all in Bloomington-Normal as far as I know, so don't think you can entertain yourself by going and mocking it while it airs. Unless you want to drive to the Chicago suburbs.

Closer to home, you can see "Puss in Boots," the animated movie that spins off Antonio Banderas' popular feline character from the Shrek movies. It's playing all over and I've heard from several adults who didn't both to take kids as camouflage that it's actually a pretty fun movie.

The Art Theater over in Champaign is offering "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" for Thanksgiving night. That's the one that features the immortal line, "Khaaaaaaaaan!" from James Kirk.

If you prefer to stay at home and kick back in the recliner, you have a choice of parades early in the day. Starting at 8 am, there's the "Thanksgiving Day Parade" broadcast live from New York on CBS, "America's Thanksgiving Parade" from Detroit on WAOE/Channel 11, and the "McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade"on WGN from Chicago, with the more famous "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" beginning at 9 am on NBC.

If you see your Thanksgiving as more of a spy thing, you can tune into a James Bond marathon on Syfy, running from 7 am Thursday to 4:30 am Friday.

Thursday evening, there are two Charlie Browns to pick from ("Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown" on Fox at 7:30 pm or "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" on ABC at 7 pm), as well as "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who," the 2008 animated movie with Steve Carell's and Jim Carrey's voices, on NBC at 7 pm, "The Godfather," parts 1 and 2, showing at various times during the day and night on AMC , "Kung Fu Panda" at 7 on FX, the Christmas movie "Elf" at 7 on USA, and "Wall-E" at 8 pm on ABC Family.

My pick? "Holiday Inn," hands down. It even has an animated turkey and will teach you something about the holiday, about how its date was changed and changed back again by FDR.

*In case you're curious, here's what opened and closed in area theaters between November 1 and November 20: "A Flea in Her Ear," "Angels in America: Perestroika," "Annie," "Assassins," "Circle Mirror Transformation," "Dead Man's Cell Phone," "Hello Again," "Iolanthe," "The Magic Flute," "The Marriage of Bette and Boo," "Sirens," "Way Off Broadway," "Young Frankenstein," and "Do Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" That means you could've gone to the theater every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the first three weeks of November and still missed two shows within 50 miles of Bloomington-Normal. And probably more that that are just not on my radar. Tip to theater companies and universities: Stop scheduling everything at the same time. Please?

Can Netflix Save "Arrested Development"?

2011-11-19T14:01:00.002-06:00

Mitchell Hurwitz and other associated with the TV show "Arrested Development" have been teasing a movie version of the cult classic comedy series for ages. But now, out of the blue, executive producer Ron Howard and the folks at Netflix have announced that new episodes of "Arrested Development," presumably involving most of the cast from its original Fox incarnation, will be streaming at Netflix come 2013.

You can read more about it at TVLine or Entertainment Weekly.

Netflix is the service that used to send out DVDs as well as stream movies and TV shows online for one (fairly low) monthly subscription charge, making them quite popular and seriously damaging brick-and-mortar video stores like Blockbuster. But then Netflix decided they couldn't make a go of it doing both videos-by-mail and videos-on-line, so they split those services, announcing that they were now charging for them individually, effectively raising their prices by 60%. Netflix subscribers deserted them in droves, and they've been trying different things to get them back. Now, apparently, they're going to attempt original programming. In the EW article by James Hibberd, it was noted that Netflix will be offering new episodes of a British series called "House of Cards" as well as "Arrested Development."

I have to be honest, when it comes to "Arrested Development," the promise of new episodes just might be enough to get me back to Netflix. Now if only they could do something about "One Life to Live."

All Singing, All Dancing, All Acting: Inside Illinois Wesleyan's Music Theatre Program

2011-11-18T13:37:00.015-06:00

When I was preparing a preview for IWU's current production of "Hello Again," I also talked to director Scott Susong about Illinois Wesleyan's Music Theatre program in general. I have long been curious as to how they do it there, at a small school, with a long list of sterling productions and grads who go on to stellar careers in such a competitive field. Scott's answers were so interesting that I decided to split out the "program" stuff and give it its own post. So, for prospective students, parents, alumni, whoever might want it, here's the inside scoop on Music Theatre at IWU, direct from Scott Susong, the Degree Liaison and Head of IWU's Music Theatre progam:

How long have you been head of the program? What attracted you to IWU?

I came to IWU in the fall of 2007 as the Degree Liaison (Head) of Music Theatre. I had gone from being a working actor, working in and out of NYC and across the globe, to going back to get an MFA in Directing, to freelancing as a professional director and then teaching more and more.

In Baltimore, at my former institution, I was moving toward administration and had become a dean and decided I needed a change and wanted to get back to more theatre and away from administration. In IWU I found the best of both worlds.

I had cast a large net and was interviewing all over the country, but after two decades in large East coast cities, I was attracted to the Midwest as a place to rear our two children. When I came for my on campus interview at IWU in January/February of 2007 I got snowed in on campus and spent the weekend with the students and fell in love. Our students at IWU are amazing!

Part of Michael John LaChiusa's "First Lady Suite,"
as performed at Illinois Wesleyan University.

How many students apply every year to be part of Music Theatre at Illinois Wesleyan and how many do you accept?

We are one of the older programs in the country. CCM (Cincinnati Conservatory of Music) is the oldest MT program in the country, conferring their first BFA in Musical Theatre in 1968 and we conferred our first MT class in 1978. At IWU we see between 200 and 250 prospective students from across the country and some foreign countries annually for the BFA in Music Theatre. In the end we audition approximately half of that number on campus and shoot for a class between 6 and 12 with the average being around 8. So we average between a 5% and 10% acceptance rate depending on the number of prospective students in a particular year. BFA numbers vary year to year across the country. About every three years we have a larger class (12) followed by a small class (6). We try to keep the bar high and are selecting for quality over quantity.

Do you balance genders?

Yes, within the MT major, but not necessarily year to year. Currently we have 16 boys and 16 girls across the four years, but my freshmen class breakdown is 3 males to 5 females while my sophomore class is 6 males and only 2 females. I have only had one class that actually had 5 females and 5 males.

What are you looking for in prospective students?

It is IWU, so we want someone who has a strong academic record accompanying their performance resume. We are actor driven but we are looking for them to have strong skills in two of the three major areas in music theatre (Acting, Singing & Dancing). We would like them to show promise of being exceptional in at least one area and of course when we run across someone who is a true triple threat that is always wonderful. We are gaming potential and looking at what the industry needs and is using. We want students who have a nice grasp on who they are and what they want to get out of our training program. If after their audition and interview we feel that we can help them achieve their goals, we will accept them. We are highly selective so that we can personalize our attention so that each student gets what we feel they need to succeed in the competitive field they have chosen to pursue.

Would you say the MT program is intended to prepare students for careers as performers? Do students tend to leap right into auditions or go on to Masters programs or take some other path?

Music Theatre, much like Film/Television, is pretty youth obsessed. “Overnight Sensations” generally take between five and seven years of working regionally, touring and doing Off-Broadway to make it to the Broadway stage. This is a business still very much about relationships. One has to work with people and build a professional resume filled with good recommendations prior to most producers taking the chance on your talent when the stakes are as high as they are on Broadway; therefore, most of our students start working professionally while they are still at IWU. We prescreen every year for professional auditions and then send those selected out to pursue professional stock work in the summer. As I type this we are on a hiatus from rehearsals for “Hello Again,” even though we open Tuesday, because the majority of my cast is in Kentucky at the KTA auditions (a prescreening audition for the Southeastern Theatre Conference auditions in March -- the largest professionals auditions in the country).

Our students hit around five major regional auditions as well as several of the state auditions in the Midwest and our seniors go to UPTAs (United Professional Theatre Auditions) which are national. If you graduate at 22 from IWU and it takes six years to get to Broadway you are 28 and that is still considered young for a Broadway debut.

Of course, we always have those that get there faster like Bry and Evan but generally it looks a little more like the picture I just painted. There is only 1 MFA in Music Theatre in the country and that is San Diego State and there are a handful of MM in Music Theatre (like CCM and Boston Conservatory) but nowadays they want you to have gone out and tried before you come back for more training. This is not necessarily the case for the BA, BFA in Acting or BFA in Tech/Design students at IWU who make up the rest of The School of Theatre Arts at Illinois Wesleyan University. BAs often pursue higher degrees since many of them are seeking scholarship over practice and some BFA actors pursue competitive MFA in Acting programs like Yale after completing their time at IWU. Most BFA Tech/Design students, like the BFA Music Theatre students, jump right into the profession. We teach our IWU students that like all artists, a life in the arts means a fundamental understanding that you will be a lifelong learner and will always be in voice lessons, dance classes and working with acting coaches, so the learning never ends.

Evan Kasprzak (center) flies high in IWU's "Of Thee I Sing."

Aside from Bryonha Parham and Evan Kasprzak, whom you just mentioned, I know of a few alumni who have done very well (the ones I put in that previous “Where Are They Now?” piece). Do any other particular MT success stories stand out in your mind?

Well, the Department of Theatre at IWU was formed after WWII and graduated their first BA in Theatre students in 1949. William Duell (’49) was in the first musical they did at IWU in 1948, which was “Of Thee I Sing.” He played Throttlebottom. We celebrated 60 years of Musical Theatre at IWU with my production in 2008. Bill just did a one-night event of Sondheim’s “Evening Primrose” in NYC last year. He is a great example of the kind of graduate we have been fortunate to have over the past 60-plus years of educating theatre artists at IWU. Really, we have had a group of successful grads happening at the middle to end of each decade. We have just been more fortunate in Music Theatre that so many of our MT grads have infiltrated all aspects of the Entertainment Industry. Bill Damaschke (BFA MT ’86) is another great example

Since 2004 we have had at least one to three graduates that have grabbed the attention of top casting directors in the theatre world and have kept a nice buzz around the MT program. We have had Tony, Emmy and Oscar nominees spread evenly across the decades, but here is a (all too incomplete) list of some of the grads on our Facebook page.

Tell me a little about the program and how it’s structured. Does everyone study voice, dance and acting? What do you think is special about the program and why it’s been so successful?

It is a rigorous hybrid of conservatory style training in a liberal arts setting. Students are not allowed to audition for the McPherson and Laboratory season until they have established a good academic record and are declared sophomores (generally by May term of their first year). All BFA performers (Acting and Music Theatre) are put through their fundamentals of acting classes and movement for the stage together. The MT students are expected to also be in a minimum of two to four dances classes every semester (Ballet, Jazz, Tap and Modern), private voice lessons, along with Music Theory, keyboard, weekly repertory class (taught jointly by myself, along with my music and dance coordinators Sandy DeAthos-Meers and Jean Kerr), weekly coaching with accompanists, typical theatre literature courses, Shakespeare, combat, voice & speech, basic technical areas of theatre and their general education courses.

Upperclassmen are expected to take Audition class, Music Theatre History & Literature, Music Theatre Scene Study and Music Theatre Workshop which are all taught by me and geared toward higher integration of the three principal music theatre areas (Music, Text and Dance). It is a killer schedule and I am humbled daily that I get to work with such gifted, hardworking students and colleagues. I think what sets us apart is how selective we are and that since the only cut is the cut to get into the program you don’t have to worry about being turned out if you hit a bump along your journey.

We become a family and we all work as a team to make sure that each student is the best they can be and as prepared as possible upon graduation. We are also so fortunate to have an alumni network in NYC, Chicago and LA and across the country. They are a powerful multigenerational group of working professionals that are always willing to come back and share their journey and keep an eye out to give new graduates a leg up.

What do you want IWU Music Theatre students to learn?

I want them to learn techniques that will extend and maintain their talents. I also want them to gain a fair amount of tenacity of purpose to carry them through the challenging parts of a life in the arts. Most importantly I want them to learn who they are and what they value. You can’t build amazing characters for the stage and screen if you don’t know the foundation you are building them on.

Stephen Sondheim's "Passion" on-stage at McPherson Theatre at IWU.

I get the idea that you like challenging, provocative works, but IWU obviously balances darker, edgier pieces like “Passion” and “Urinetown” and now “Hello Again” with more traditional shows like “Once Upon a Mattress” and “Of Thee I Sing.” What gets a show on IWU’s schedule?

We have a pretty tight matrix that we follow so that a student, over the course of a generation (four years) or their time in the casting pool (three years), will get exposure to a variety of theatrical text, genres and dramaturgy. We have two Music Theatre events every season on the mainstage. Two small/medium musicals one year followed by a large musical and a dance concert the next and then over again. This is accompanied by the occasional laboratory season musical, musicals in the student theatre and concerts, cabarets and workshops.

We are not unaware of our community (both IWU and Bloomington/Normal), but our primary function is to train the students in a wide range of selections. Our casting pool is closed and only sophomore through senior IWU students may audition. Because of the rigorous nature of our rehearsal processes, we rarely get students outside of the School of Theatre Arts. Since we know our casting pool all too well we can select material that we think will challenge the current students in the way we feel they need to be challenged for maximum growth.

We never select work to be provocative, current or commercial, but always so that the students enrolled at IWU will be pushed to meet their potential as performers and exposed to a variety of situations while still in the protective environment of academia.

While “Of Thee I Sing” was certainly topical during the 2008 election and a nice way to commemorate 60 years of musicals at IWU, it was still selected to showcase the students at that time. Exposure to the first Pulitzer Prize winning musical, a Gershwin score and text and humor that was very much “of its time” were all reasons discussed when selecting the piece.

Last year’s family-friendly “Mattress” was selected to showcase students once again. We had an abundance of belting comic women and the show calls for more than one and that is rare. I have waited over 15 years to have strong enough actor/singers to handle the difficult score and subject matter that is “Hello Again” and those students presented themselves in our current population. We actually selected it prior to the recent Off-Broadway revival being announced.

IWU's Erika Lecaj did the heavy lifting in "Once Upon a Mattress" in 2010.

What do you hope each show will do?

Each show has its own lessons for the company to learn. They present themselves in the strangest ways and no matter how prepared you think you are when doing educational theatre there are always surprises. I feel I learn so many new things when I inhabit these different worlds for different productions and the same is true for the student actors and the production team. There isn’t a theatre text out there that won’t teach in the doing of it.

Thanks so much, Scott! For more information about Illinois Wesleyan's theatre programs, click here.

[Photo credits: Pete Guither, Marc Featherly and Josh Levinson. Josh Conrad and Laura Williams appear in the photo (above, right) of "Kesa and Morito," a piece that appeared in the "Lucky Nurse and other short musical plays" collection at IWU in April, 2011.]

"Hello Again" A Chilling Look at Lust and Lost Souls

2011-11-16T17:24:00.005-06:00

When I asked director Scott Susong about Michael John LaChiusa's "Hello Again," the dark, provocative musical about lust and sex now playing at Illinois Wesleyan's McPherson Theatre, he gave me a quote that neatly sums up this show. Susong wrote that he thought LaChiusa was drawn to the material because of "the lack of intimacy he found in a piece that is about ten sexually intimate encounters -- the lack of intimacy in intimacy."

"The lack of intimacy in intimacy" is at the heart of IWU's production, where ten characters meet up in couples and satisfy momentary lust, reflecting musically on what they think they want or need, even as they fail again and again to connect with each other emotionally. They are using each other sexually to try to feel something, but most of what they feel is emptiness or degradation. And when I said "use," I meant exactly that. The first woman we see is the archetypical Whore, played and sung beautifully by Laura Williams, and she wanders through scenes again and again, reminding us that these sexual encounters are about who is prostituting him or herself to try to get something or somewhere.

There's the 1890s Whore and a brutish Soldier, brought to chilling life by Chase Miller, who only gets more brutal when he moves to the 1940s and meets a naive Nurse, played by Patsita Jiratipayabood. The Soldier/Nurse scene is the harshest in the show, I think, although it's almost worse when the Nurse moves to 1962 and ties a doofus College Boy (Marek Zukowski) to a bed to have her way with him. It's as if the sweet, abused girl became an abuser herself after being raped by the Soldier back in 1942.

After that, it's more low-down, nasty sex between unhappy people, with the most meaningful moments coming when the characters remember, temporarily, that they have hearts. There's a striking stage picture when the Young Wife (benefiting from Amy Stockhaus's gorgeous voice), who considers herself "morally bankrupt," is haunted by the Whore, and sorrowfully sings about "Tom."

And when the Writer (given a cheery spark by Blake Brauer) brings a scruffy boy home from a Studio 54-ish disco in 1976, and the two immediately fall into meaningless sex, the Writer still imagines how it might be if the Young Thing were to wake up and feel something more. The Writer and the Young Thing (winningly played by Zach Wagner) share a very nice duet on "The One I Love" where they actually touch each other emotionally. But it's just a fantasy. And that's the tragedy.

There are other tragedies, like a wealthy, chilly Husband (nicely brought to life by Josh Conrad, who also shines in other ensemble moments) inviting the less privileged Young Thing to his stateroom. On the Titanic. Even when the boat is sinking, the Husband can't break out of his emotional black hole long enough to save himself.

"The Bed Was Not My Own," with a confused Senator (played by Ian Coulter-Buford, also in fine voice, seen below with Annie Simpson) wishing there were more to life than brief encounters, is another highlight.

LaChiusa's music comes off more melodic and approachable than I'd expected, with the song "Hello Again" at the beginning and end to tie it all together.

If there is a weakness in the structure of the show, it's the very thing that makes it different. The "La Ronde" idea (based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1897 play), where one person from each couple moves forward into the next scene to pair up with someone else, who then moves forward to make the next couple, makes the libretto (and all the raw sex feigned for the audience) seem a bit repetitive and episodic. The sexual encounters are choreographed and staged precisely and sharply, so that the musical phrases are echoed perfectly in movement, but even so... The point that there is no intimacy in these more-than-intimate couplings doesn't need ten scenes to come across. Which is, again, why the songs that hint at something more stand out.

Susong has made each stage picture vivid, cast against a surreal pile-of-body-parts backdrop and a round playing space that works well with this waltz where everybody keeps changing partners. Curtis Trout's set design and its hidden doors and panels work very smoothly throughout. Marcia K. McDonald's costume design is equally evocative, cluing us in on the different decades these pairings inhabit.

All of the college-age performers do excellent work, committing themselves to difficult, complex material and tricky songs that require quite a range. In the end, "Hello Again" at IWU sounds fantastic, looks sharp, and definitely makes its case about the destructive power of focusing on genitalia to the exclusion of brains or hearts.

HELLO AGAIN
Music, lyrics and book by Michael John LaChiusa

McPherson Theatre
Illinois Wesleyan University

Director: Scott Susong
Set Designer: Curtis C. Trout
Costume Designer: Marcia K. McDonald
Lighting Designer: Stephen Sakowski
Sound Designer: Antonio Gracias
Assistant Director/Dramaturg: Peter J. Studlo
Orchestrations: Michael Starobin
Music Direction/Conductor: Saundra DeAthos-Meers
Choreographer: Abigail Root

Cast: Laura Williams, Chase Miller, Patsita Jiratipayabood, Marek Zurowski, Amy Stockhaus, Josh Conrad, Zach Wagner, Blake Brauer, Annie Simpson, Ian Coulter-Buford.

Running time: 1:40, played without intermission

Remaining performances: November 16-19 at 8 pm and November 20 at 2 pm.

For more information or to make reservations, click here.

(Photos of "Hello Again" by Josh Levinson.)

Chicago's Court Theatre Launches "Angels in America" Next Spring

2011-11-15T16:32:00.005-06:00

Tony Kushner's "Angels in America," a two-part "gay fantasia on national themes" is one of those theatrical pieces I always look out for. Like "Follies," which I have written about frequently, or Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia," "Angels in America" flips my switches. I have seen excellent productions of both "Millennium Approaches" and "Perestroika," including the Broadway original, the first Chicago production, which I believe was considered a touring production, and one in Champaign-Urbana at the Station Theatre. The HBO movie version, starring luminaries like Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson and Al Pacino, was also lovely and lyrical. And a recent off-Broadway revival at the Signature Theatre starring the second Mr. Spock, Zachary Quinto, received a lot of critical acclaim, as well.

When done right, "Angels in America" is, as one of my friends said when we first saw Part One, a transcendent theatrical experience. I don't say "transcendent" lightly, either. This is a fantastic show, with achingly real characters who swirl through each other's lives, intersecting, rearranging, connecting, coming to some conclusions but not all good ones, growing but not completely maturing, and maybe learning to love or to be honest at least a little. The vivid, unforgettable characters in "Angels in America" -- slimy Roy Cohn, Ethel Rosenberg, a blunt Mormon mother, her son who is married and a conservative lawyer working for Roy Cohn even though he is gay and unhappy, his even more unhappy wife, a nurse who used to be a drag queen, a beautiful man who has AIDS, his lover who can't handle illness and hates himself for it, an Eskimo, a mysterious travel agent, a battle-ready Angel, and even the world's oldest living Bolshevik -- are what makes it sing.

And now Chris Jones at the Chicago Tribune is reporting that Court Theatre and director Charles Newell have announced the cast for their upcoming "marquee production" of this amazing play, scheduled for March 30 to June 3, 2012. Everyone in the cast is from Chicago -- no imports here -- including Eddie Bennett as Louis Ironson and Rob Lindley as Prior Walter, the couple split apart by illness; Geoff Packard as Joe Pitt and Heidi Kettering (fresh off "Wicked" in Chicago) as his wife, Harper; Hollis Resnik as Hannah, Joe's mother; Michael Pogue as Belize; Mary Beth Fisher as the Angel, and Larry Yando (well-known as Scrooge in the Goodman Theatre's perennial "A Christmas Carol") in the role of Roy Cohn.

For more information, click here or here. Tickets will go on sale December 1 for individual orders, although groups may order now by calling 773-834-3243.

Transcendent theatrical experiences don't come along every day.