RED = Heartbeat, Passion and Blood at Heartland Theatre

Red, John Logan's award-winning play about painter Mark Rothko, covers a lot of ground. With just two characters on stage -- Rothko himself and an assistant named Ken -- Red manages to work in issues of life, death, artistic integrity, artistic value, creativity, pride, vanity, mortality, legacy, control, class, power and fulfilling a purpose in life. There's a lot there for a mere 90 minutes of theatre.

Heartland Theatre's Red is simply staged and clearly directed and acted, with a strong dramatic punch as we get to know these two men over the course of those 90 minutes. We see the artist and his studio up-close and personal, getting a glimpse into the jagged, difficult mind of someone in the midst of creation. Dean Brown's sharp, uncompromising portrayal of Rothko shows us a smart, verbal, challenging man, someone who understands his own process but has no patience for anyone else's. Why should he? He's Rothko.

As the play unfolds, we understand that Rothko has been paid a hefty sum of money to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York's fancy Seagram Building. But he decries commercialism and the kind of art patron who just wants something to hang over a mantle. True art should be reserved for the worthy, the discerning, the wise few who evidence the right depth of understanding. When his assistant points out that making these murals for the Four Seasons is the height of hypocrisy, that Rothko is really "just decorating another dining room for the super-rich," creating "the world's most expensive over-mantles," Rothko retorts that he hopes that his dark, disturbing paintings will "ruin the appetite of every rich son-of-a-bitch who eats there."

Is he telling the truth? Or deluding himself that his motives are purer than money and fame? It's hard to know, even when the play is over. But it's that conflict, the reds and blacks swirling around in Logan's script, that makes the performance fly by so quickly, and makes it work so well as a piece of drama.

Christopher Connelly directs his actors -- Brown as Rothko and a fresh-faced Rian Wilson as the assistant -- with an eye on clarity and conflict, creating scenes that pull you in and hold you. Brown is terrific as Rothko, turning from overbearing to small and petty, from frustrated to terrifying, and making it all believable under the skin of one complicated man. And Wilson is a proper foil as the untested young man who just tries to keep up with the master until he's taken as much as he can take.

In the end, this Red is about the art of theatre as much as it's about the art of painting, about the need to create, to communicate, to find an audience who will understand and make the struggle to create worthwhile. For me, the efforts of Connelly and Brown and Wilson -- and scenic designer Kenneth P. Johnson, costume designer Gail Dobbins and lighting designer Anita McDaniel -- were definitely worthwhile to bring Red to life.

RED
By John Logan

Heartland Theatre Company

Director: Christopher Connelly
Scenic Designer and Technical Director: Kenneth P. Johnson
Stage Manager and Board Operator: Rachel Krein
Assistant Director: Noga Ashkenazi
Lighting Designer: Anita McDaniel
Costume Designer: Gail Dobbins
Properties: Melissa Mullen
Sound Designer: Christopher Connelly
Sound Engineer: Isaac Mandel

Running time: 90 minutes, performed without intermission

Remaining performances: November 8-10 and 15-17 at 7:30 pm and November 11 and 18 at 2 pm.

For reservation information, click here.

Heartland Announces RED Cast

Director Christopher Connelly has announced his creative team for Heartland Theatre's upcoming production of Red, the play by John Logan about artist Mark Rothko and his struggle to stay true to his artistic vision in the face of a huge commission. Art, commerce, life, death... Rothko's vision of Red is ultimately about staying alive.

For Heartland, Dean Brown, who did such excellent work in Proof and Bus Stop at Heartland, will play Rothko, while Rian Wilson, most recently seen in a riveting performance as Buddy in The Diviners, will play Ken, the artist's assistant who challenges him.

Also working on the play are Rachel Krein (stage manager), Kenneth Johnson (scenic designer), Anita McDaniel (lighting designer) and Noga Ashkenazi (assistant director.)

Logan's play won six Tony Awards for the Broadway production that starred Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne as Rothko and his assistant. The play itself, director Michael Grandage and Redmayne all won in their categories. That version of the play was originally produced at London's Donmar Warehouse, where Grandage was the artistic director.

Red is scheduled to open at Heartland Theatre on November 1, with performances through November 18th. For more information, you can read about the play here and see reservation information here.

Heartland Theatre Announces What's Up for 2012-13

Heartland Theatre Company has announced its 2012-13 season, beginning with the very popular 10-Minute Play Festival, running from June 7 to July 1.

This year, the 10-Minute Play Festival's theme is "Playing Games," with each of the eight winning plays involving a game of some sort. The plays range from John D. Poling's "Destiny's Tug-of-War," about a divorced couple and the wife's new partner, all three worried about the dog caught between them, to Austin Steinmetz's "Word Play," about a world Scrabble champ scrambling to stay on top, and Erin Moughon's "In Memory of Calvinball," about a game whose only rule is that rules constantly change. For more information about all the plays and the "Playing Games" festival, click here. You are advised to make your reservations early, as it is always an audience favorite.

Coming in July is New Plays from the Heartland, which features three one-acts written by Midwestern playwrights just for Heartland. The New Plays' theme is "Summer in the Heartland," with the three winning plays performed July 13 and 14 in conjunction with a master class and forum conducted by Douglas Post ("Bloodshot," "Drowning Sorrows"), this year's guest playwright in residence.

The fall kicks off with "These Shining Lives," Melanie Marnich's sad and beautiful look at the women who made radium-dial watches in Ottawa, Illinois, in the 1920s. "These Shining Lives," directed by Illinois State University Professor Don LaCasse, opens on September 6 and runs till September 23, 2012. (The poster image at right is from a Chicago workshop production of the play in 2011. A previous production at Chicago's Rivendell Theatre received Jeff Award nominations for the play, director and leading actress. ISU alum Kathy Logelin played the lead role when Rivendell revived the play later.)

Next up is the blazing art drama "Red," by John Logan, which began its life at London's Donmar Warehouse in 2009, before moving to Broadway and winning the 2010 Tony Award for Best Play. The play involves artist Mark Rothko and his assistant as they prepare canvases for New York's Four Seasons restaurant, with issues of artistic integrity played against monetary success and accolades. Illinois Wesleyan's Christopher Connelly will direct "Red," with performances from November 1 to 18, 2012.

Opening on Valentine's Day, Donald Margulies' "Time Stands Still" is the first show in 2013 for Heartland. "Time Stands Still" involves a photojournalist who must decide whether she will return to a dangerous, exciting life spent on the front lines or stay where she is, in a more peaceful, comfortable place on the home front. ISU Professor Sandra Zielinski returns to Heartland to direct "Time Stands Still," which runs from February 14 to March 3, 2013.

And the last show on the schedule is Will Eno's "Middletown," which looks at extraordinary lives in Small Town, USA, over the course of a few very ordinary days. It's been compared to "Our Town," but I'd say "Middletown" is quirkier, more poetic, and a whole lot more surprising. "Middletown" received the Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play in 2010. ISU Professor Emeritus John Kirk will direct "Middletown" in performance from April 18 to May 5, 2013.

For more information on Heartland Theatre, you can visit the website here, with new information being added all the time.