It's a Theatre Bonanza Weekend!

You've probably already noticed, but there is a LOT happening in Bloomington-Normal this weekend. Just to recap, so you don't miss anything...

"THESE SHINING LIVES" OPENS TONIGHT AT HEARTLAND THEATRE

Melanie Marnich's play is based on true events that took place in Ottawa, Illinois, in the early part of the 20th century. It's about women who worked in watch factories in daily contact with radium, and how high a price American workers have paid for workplace safety. "These Shining Lives" is directed by Don LaCasse and stars Colleen Longo as the woman at the center of the action. Tonight's performance is a special Pay-What-You-Can preview, and it will be followed by performances September 7-9, 13-16 and 20-23. Click here for reservation information.

"YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU" RESUMES 

TONIGHT AT COMMUNITY PLAYERS

The cast and crew of the classic Kaufman and Hart comedy have one week of performances under their belts, and they will begin Week 2 tonight at the Community Players theater on Robinhood Lane. Director Jeremy Stiller directs this story of screwball family hijinks, with the only normal member of the Sycamore family bringing home her new (somewhat stuffy) boyfriend to meet her crazy Mom and Dad. You can buy tickets right here if you are so inclined.

NEW ROUTE FIRES UP "FABULATION"
AGAIN ON FRIDAY

"Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine," a play by Lynn Nottage, also has a week of performances in the bank. As well as a One Shot Deal last year with a (somewhat) different cast and a (very) different playing space. This time, "Fabulation" tells its riches-to-rags story at the YWCA on Hershey Road in Bloomington, as director Gregory D. Hicks leads a cast that includes Melissa James Shrader as Undine, the one who starts the play as a major player in the world of PR, but quickly loses everything that she thought was important. Tickets are available at the door on the night of performance, or you can reserve a seat by e-mailing new.route.theatre@gmail.com and leaving your name and the number of tickets you’d like to reserve.

"8, THE PLAY" TAKES THE 8th AT THE

ISU CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Dustin Lance Black wrote "8" about California's legal battles over Proposition 8, which sought to ban new and undo existing gay marriages in the state. His play has had star-studded staged readings on both coasts, as well as in Champaign-Urbana. Now it's Bloomington-Normal's turn, as ISU's Kevin Rich directs a reading of "8, the Play" at the CPA Saturday at 7:30 pm. The cast will include ISU alum Tom Chiola, a retired judge from the Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago, who will play Judge Vaughn Walker, the presiding judge in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, at the center of the play. Chiola's role has previously been performed by the likes of Brad Pitt and Bob Balaban, but this may be the first time it's been played by a real judge. You can read more about it here.

THEATRE OF TED DARES TO SUCK

SATURDAY AT MIDNIGHT

No details on what exactly they're doing Saturday, although there are auditions today for "Rocky Horror Picture Show," so that's clearly going to figure into their future equation somewhere. This weekend, however, Theatre of Ted opens the young semester with a performance at CW 301 starting at midnight on Saturday. You can go watch "8," stick around for the post-show discussion, and then hang around Centennials East and West till it's time for Ted.

Also note that Theatre of Ted's first guest performance of the year is happening Monday at 6 pm, when storyteller Brian Rohr takes center stage at the University Galleries inside the Center for Visual Arts. Rohr uses myth and legend to wrap stories and adventures around the audience. Learn! Have fun! Make magic! Bask in the power of storytelling! It's all part of the unique theatrical experience that is the Theatre of Ted.

Talking about Monday means we're past the weekend, so I will close here. But there's certainly plenty of theatre to go around this weekend (and even on Monday) if the mood strikes. And it really ought to strike, with this many awesome choices!

"Opera Créole" Brings New Orleans to Normal

In the second of three big theatrical events this week, ISU's Crossroads Project is bringing Opera Créole, a New Orleans based operatic ensemble, to Normal for a lecture and demonstration, a master class and, of course, a full-scale performance.

Opera Créole was founded to honor and remember the long history and profound contributions of New Orleans musicians who combined opera with influences from Africa, Spain, and Haiti as they helped create the distinctly American sound of jazz. Or, as their press materials put it:

"Opera and classical music in New Orleans and around the world have always included the contributions of persons of color. The Créoles of New Orleans have made contributions to the music and culture of New Orleans. It is their participation in opera, as well as the music of Africa, Spain, and Haiti that contributed to the birth of jazz. Join Guest Artist Opera Créole as we explore theatre and music from New Orleans, ' The First City of Opera!'"

Their repertoire includes scenes and arias from major operas such as "La Traviata," "Carmen," "Rigoletto," and "Porgy and Bess," as well as arias and art songs by 19th Century New Orleans free composers of color, operatic works by other composers of African descent, and Spanish Zarzuela, which offers scenes that alternate between spoken and sung sequences, with the song portions using both operatic and popular music as well as elements of dance.

Opera Créole's trip to ISU will include an "Opera as therapy" lecture and demonstration on Thursday, March 29th at 11 am in Cook Hall 308, and then later that day, a master class with the artists from Opera Créole at 1 pm in Kemp Recital Hall. Last, on Saturday, March 31, they will offer a performance that includes community choirs in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall from 5 to 6 pm .After the concert, ISU's Black Actors Guild will host a reception in their honor in the CPA lobby.

To make it a complete operatic experience, you may want to attend the Opera Créole concert, stay for the reception, and get a ticket to ISU's performance of "La Bohème" that takes place immediately after.

An Early Look at "Passion Play," Upcoming at ISU's CPA

I like Sarah Ruhl's writing in general. She's a little weird and a little wacky, but she manages to bring together disparate elements like love, romance, belief, fate, and yes, passion in a very creative package. The ideas are practically bouncing off the walls in her plays.

"Passion Play" is one of her best, if also one of the most dense and complicated. There is a lot going on here, both in terms of characters and the magical, sad, funny, strange world around them. And director Brandon Ray is doing his best to mine those depths and bring all the magic to the stage at ISU's Center for the Performing Arts beginning Friday.

The "passion" in this "Passion Play" is about the life (and specifically, the suffering) of Jesus, referring to the Passion Plays that have been happening since the 15th century, when regular old folks (not actors, in other words, but carpenters and fishermen and girls next door) put on dramatic presentations to tell the story of Jesus's trial, crucifixion and resurrection.

“I’ve been obsessed with the Passion play since I was a child,” Ms. Ruhl told the New York Times. “Maybe it was being raised a Catholic, but I was definitely also interested in how whole towns would get involved, or religiosity could be used as a cloak for other things. In that sense my play is much more about theater than it is about religion.”

Ruhl takes her "Passion Play" narrative across about four hundred years, showing us how they put on the play in an English village in 1575, with a visit from Queen Elizabeth; in Oberammergau Germany in 1934 with Hitler on the rise; and finally in a backwater town called Spearfish, South Dakota during Viet Nam and then the Reagan years. The script specifies that the same actors will play different characters in those three eras, but continue to play the same roles in the play-within-the-play. If that sounds complicated, it doesn't come off that way in the script. For example, for ISU, actor Matt Bausone plays a misshapen, smelly fish-gutter named Pontius in Elizabethan England. Pontius is set to play Pontius Pilate (obviously) and Satan in the play, and he is jealous of his handsome, pious cousin John, played by Jeff Kurysz, who will take the role of Jesus, as his father did before him. In the next section, set in Germany in 1934, Bausone plays a foot soldier in Hitler's army, one who is suppressing his feelings for Eric, another handsome man cast as Christ in the pageant, again played by Kurysz. And in the third act, with Kurycz as J, yet again set to play Christ, Bausone's character is P, a tortured Viet Nam vet who is having trouble keeping himself together long enough to make it to the play. Bausone plays three different characters -- fish-gutter, soldier, vet -- in the three different eras, but they're all cast as Pontius Pilate in their respective Passion Plays.

Photo credit: Alex K

Ruhl's soaring imagination and sharp sense of humor are on display throughout "Passion Play," and Ray's scenic designer, John Stark, is clearly matching that quirky mood, as you can see from the "paint day" pictures, with a crew member taking a break on the beautiful painted backdrop (below), and a view of the cross as it was being built (above) that plays such an important role in the Passion Plays within this "Passion Play."

Photo credit: Alex K

You should be aware, however, that you will not see an actual Passion Play in any of the three eras. All three sets of would-be actors and stage crews struggle to find a way to overlook or even improve on their own human frailties in order to tell this story that is so important to them. And they pretty much screw it up every time.

"Passion Play" is not a short play, and you can expect performances at the Center for the Performing Arts to take in excess of three hours, with two short intermissions. Sometimes a story is too big for the current 100-minutes-with-no-intermission model. "Passion Play" is one of those plays. Its theatrical scale and thematic scope require no less.

The play opens on Friday, February 17th, with a 7 pm performance. Subsequent performances are scheduled for February 18 and 19 and 22, 23, 24 and 25. For all the details or to order tickets, click here or here.