October 23 Openings, Part Two: THE SHAPE OF THINGS at IWU

Yesterday, we talked about the fact that there are three different entertainment options taking a bow on the 23rd. The first (alphabetically speaking) was ShakesFEAR!, a haunted house/Halloween event from the Illinois Shakespeare Festival at Ewing Manor.

We wander over to Illinois Wesleyan's E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Lab Theatre for the second choice opening tomorrow, a scary little piece called The Shape of Things from the acid pen of Neil LaBute.

On its face, The Shape of Things is LaBute's take on Adam and Eve, with the plot centered on a fairly innocent, insecure man named Adam faced with a manipulative, controlling woman named Evelyn. LaBute wrote The Shape of Things in 2001; its London stage production was followed by a 2003 movie with the same cast, including Paul Rudd and Rachel Weisz as Adam and Evelyn and Frederick Weller and Gretchen Mol as Adam's friend Phillip and his fiancee.

It's an interesting choice for IWU, especially on the heels of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, another look at the complex and messy state of relationships and gender politics in modern America.

Plus The Shape of Things is set on the campus of a Midwestern college, not unlike IWU except for the fact that it has graduate programs. At LaBute's fictional Mercy College, Adam is a fairly schlubby undergrad studying English Lit and slinky Evelyn is a grad student in art. They meet at the campus art museum where he works when she jumps a rope with the intent to pull the fig leaf away (or paint new genitalia on) a statue of God. As Evelyn throws a snare or two, Adam is smitten, enabling her to turn him into a very different version of himself. And after that... Let's just say things get tricky, even without an actual garden, apple or serpent. LaBute uses his trademark take-no-prisoners style and razor-sharp characters to examine art, knowledge, the morality and immorality of seduction, and the superficiality of sexual attraction based on what's on the outside. The title The Shape of Things refers to that last bit, the "obsession with the surface" Evelyn talks about in the play.

Professor of Theatre Arts Nancy Loitz directs The Shape of Things for IWU, with Evan Dolan and Elizabeth Ferris as Adam and Evelyn and Nick Giambrone and Cathy Colburn as Phillip and Jenny.

Performances begin tomorrow at 8 pm at the Kirkpatrick Lab Theatre and continue through Saturday night. Tickets -- $3 for the general public and $2 for students with a valid ID -- are available through the McPherson Theatre box office at 309-556-3232.

IWU's A SHAYNA MAIDEL Opens Tuesday at McPherson Theatre

Illinois Wesleyan's School of Theatre Arts opens its fall season Tuesday night with Barbara Lebow's A Shayna Maidel, a play about two Polish Jewish sisters separated by the Holocaust. Rose, the younger sister, escaped from war-torn Poland with her father, but her mother and sister, Lusia, were left behind when Lusia fell ill. By the time she was well enough to travel, the Nazis had overrun the area, sending Lusia and her mother into a concentration camp. Lusia survived, but her mother did not. When the play begins in 1946, Rose has become a very Americanized, very stylish New Yorker, and the unexpected reunion with her long-lost sister leaves her conflicted and unsure. There's confusion, guilt, a huge cultural gap, and unwanted feelings. Is it going backwards to remember how it used to be? And how can you form a family with someone you don't even know?

Lebow's play bowed off-Broadway in 1987, with Melissa Gilbert as Rose, followed by a 1992 TV movie called "Miss Rose White" where Kyra Sedgwick took the role. Both versions received good notices, as audiences were taken with the emotional depth and universal themes in the script.

Professor Nancy B. Loitz directs A Shayna Maidel for IWU, with Curtis C. Trout as scenic designer, Zachary Wagner as costume designer, Stephen Sakowski as lighting designer, and Toby Algya as sound designer. Wesleyan's cast includes Annie Simpson as Rose Weiss, who changes her name to Rose White to sound more American, Ian Scarlato as Rose's father Mordecai, and Amy Stockhaus as Lusia, the sister newly arrived from Poland. Sarah Menke, Allyce Torres and Ben Mulgrew round out the cast.

Loitz's production of A Shayna Maidel opens in McPherson Theatre on Tuesday, October 2nd, with an 8 o'clock performance. Performances on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are also scheduled for 8 pm, with Sunday's matinee beginning at 2 pm. For ticket information, call 309-556-3232 or click here for the box office webpage.

Translating "Tartuffe" at IWU

Molière's "Tartuffe" is a tough assignment for college theater. It's not just that it's farce. Or that it's French farce. Or that it's French farce from the 17th century. Or that it's French farce from the 17th century written in rhyming couples.

Okay, maybe it is the rhyming couplet thing.

Most translations of "Tartuffe" keep the couplets, including the one by Richard Wilbur, which is considered to be high on the list of top translations of Molière's work. But those couplets... Actors have a tendency to fall into a singsong rhythm, to sink into the rhymes, losing the sense of their lines. But without the rhymes, it doesn't feel like the complete Molière experience. And that's what makes it so tough to pull off.

What's it all about? As you might expect, it's about a man named Tartuffe, a greedy hypocrite pretending to lead others on the path to virtue while feathering his own nest at every opportunity. A wealthy man named Orgon is now buying whatever Tartuffe is selling, hook, line and sinker; he is so thoroughly smitten that he is willing to put Tartuffe before his lovely wife, Elmire, his children, and any semblance of good sense, no matter how much his family and his servants, including saucy maid Dorine, protest. Even though Tartuffe doesn't really hit the stage until almost an hour in, he is still the center of attention, as foolish Orgon refuses to see what a dupe he has become.

Illinois Wesleyan's current production of "Tartuffe," directed by Nancy Loitz, looks very good. Curtis Trout's elegant set is simple and smart, using pillars and a chair or two instead of the overdone Frenchified drawing rooms with ten or twelve doors and a million knickknacks you normally see when Molière is in play. Marcia K. McDonald's costume design is also smart, sticking to the period and identifying characters through color (Elmire sizzles in an orangey pink, while ingenue Mariane gets pale yellow) and level of frippery. I was a little surprised to see Tartuffe himself, the fake pinnacle of piety, not decked out in all black like the Puritan he pretends to be (or the one you see in IWU's poster shown below).

As played by Chase Miller, this Tartuffe looks pale and waifish, with long, lank hair and a pronounced limp. He's been described as red and round and rosy, but he is decidedly not. Miller gives his all to the role, but he looks more like the Aqualung cover than a 17th century religious leader.

Still, the audience on opening night was very appreciative of the comedy stylings of the entire cast, with Miller's Tartuffe, Amy Stockhaus's Dorine, Rosalie Alspach's Mariane, Kate Fitzgerald's Elmire, and Josh Conrad's Orgon earning an especially enthusiastic response.

TARTUFFE
A play by Molière
Translation by Richard Wilbur

McPherson Theatre
Illinois Wesleyan University

Director: Nancy B. Loitz
Scenic Designer: Curtis C. Trout
Costume Designer: Marcia K. McDonald
Lighting Designer: Krystal Martinez
Sound Designer: Kamaya Thompson
Stage Manager: Raven Stubbs
Dramaturg: James Matthews

Cast: Allyce Torres, Josh Conrad, Kate Fitzgerald, Blake Bauer, Rosalie Alspach, Zach Wagner, Ian Coulter-Buford, Chase Miller, Amy Stockhaus, Elliot Plowman, Josh Levinson, Casey Cudmore.

Performances through February 19, 2012. Click here for box office information.