October 2011

Dear Subscriber: 

WE HAD A TRULY THRILLING OPENING to our 45th season with a look at the passion and intensity of art in Red. With great word of mouth and very positive reviews, the play was a wonderful way to start the season and now audiences in Cincinnati are enjoying our production. Next we are going to introduce you to the Tony Award-winning best play of 2009, God Of Carnage by Yasmina Reza. Ms. Reza also wrote the comedy Art, which we staged a few years ago. Her work is extreme and hilarious, and she explores the untamed possibility that lies just below the veneer of civilized behavior. The language can be strong and wonderfully appalling. There are times you may actually gasp out loud as the behavior deteriorates and words are tossed around like guided and unguided missiles.

WHEN MICHAEL AND VERONICA NOVAK invited Alan and Annette Raleigh over to discuss a playground fight between their sons, neither couple probably guessed that a civil meeting would become a knock-down, drag-out battle. In this latest triumph from the French playwright, the passionate, emotional world of parenting shows us just what seemingly well-behaved adults are capable of. When threatened, these proper folks become cornered beasts, leaving us wondering what we might do in the same situation. The Novak home appears to have come out of a magazine celebrating elegance, but as the play progresses, their place becomes more of a battlefield than a beautiful home.

REZA WAS INSPIRED TO WRITE God of Carnage after a discussion with a friend. According to the playwright,
In the street, while returning from school with my son, I was talking to the mother of one of his classmates. Her son had suffered a broken tooth following a fight on the playground, and she said this to me: "Do you realize the parents haven’t even called to apologize?!" I immediately thought that there was an interesting theme here.
Interesting, indeed. So interesting in fact, that audiences have been clamoring to see her picture of parenting since it opened in Zurich in 2006. Striking a chord with people everywhere, the universal story was translated into English by another award-winning playwright, Christopher Hampton, in 2008. After a very successful London run, Hampton and Reza brought the play to Broadway in another new version, this time Americanized. Even through changes of country and culture, the play still resonates with audiences. Now it’s being made into a movie as well, directed by Roman Polanski and starring the likes of Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christopher Waltz. It will go into general release in December after playing at some film festivals.

BUT EVEN A MOVIE with stars of that magnitude will be hard pressed to equal the thrill of seeing this show live. Packed with laughs that will leave you gasping for air, the impact of Reza’s work is seen in all these relatable, human moments. According to translator Hampton, "People recognize the truth of the situations that she puts her characters in. Everybody has experienced those stresses and strains." And those real-life moments are touching and immediate, in an elegant presentation that only Reza can give us.

I AM VERY HAPPY to welcome back Edward Stern to direct this play. Ed’s practiced hand brings this show to the stage perfectly, along with a great creative team including Scenic Designer Narelle Sissons (The Crucible, blue/orange), Costume Designer Gordon DeVinney (Sleuth), and Co-Lighting Designers Kirk Bookman (Dracula) and Steve O’Shea. On stage, our dueling couples are composed of both new and familiar faces including Eva Kaminsky, Anthony Marble (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Susan Louise O’Connor and Triney Sandoval (Crime and Punishment).

THE STUDIO THEATRE SEASON is opening with a play being seen in many theatres around the country—a touching and funny piece by the well-regarded young playwright Annie Baker. In her sharply clever and often funny play, Circle Mirror Transformation, Baker introduces us to five very different people who are awakening and transforming themselves through theatre. As they engage in what seem to be harmless, sometimes silly, acting exercises, the five begin to find out a whole lot more than they bargained for about themselves and each other. Baker described her play and intentions in a recent online interview:
Circle Mirror Transformation is about five people enrolled in a Creative Drama class in Shirley, Vermont. The play takes place over six weeks, the length of the class, and it never leaves the confines of this one windowless community center dance studio. At first I was resistant to writing anything about or involving theatre, because the play-within-a-play thing has been done so many times. But then I just kept compulsively writing these weird scenes that took place inside this claustrophobic little dance studio, and then I realized that I’m really fascinated by the therapeutic role that the arts can take on in small towns. So the play is actually kind of about six weeks of group therapy with five people who would be too embarrassed to actually sign up for group therapy. There is no play-within-a-play in Circle Mirror Transformation. It’s just about blindfolded trust walks and free association and hula-hooping.

OUR STUDIO OPENER is being led by Director Stuart Carden, who also helmed last season’s wonderful production of In the Next Room or the vibrator play. He is joined by Scenic Designer Jack Magaw, Costume Designer Garth Dunbar (Crime and Punishment) and Lighting Designer Mark Wilson (In the Next Room or the vibrator play). Our community theatre class is composed of Charlotte Mae Jusino, Danny McCarthy, Kate Middleton, John Ottavino and Lynne Wintersteller.

BOTH GOD OF CARNAGE and Circle Mirror Transformation look at the intriguing world of human interaction and connections. Circle Mirror Transformation is a gentle and sometimes touching piece while God of Carnage is appallingly funny as well as sharp and caustic in its observations of human relations. Both shows will have you talking, I’m sure.

See you at the theatre,

Steven Woolf 
Artistic Director

P.S. The 33rd annual St. Louis Jewish Book Festival is taking place November 6–16 at the St. Louis Jewish Community Center. It is my particular honor that The Rep will be co-sponsoring Steve and Cokie Roberts on Monday, November 7 at 10:30 a.m. I hope to see you at this event as well as the many other extraordinary author presentations during the festival. For a complete schedule, please visit the festival website, www.stljewishbookfestival.org, or call the hotline at (314) 442-3299.

NEW YORK REPORT: Zarkana is a Cirque Show at Radio City Music Hall. The aerial work in the second act is amazing and there are some other things that make it pretty wonderful. I’d say it’s not for the very young. There are some snake images that might be disturbing to youngsters, but the work is still impressive as is the venue.

Traces at The Union Square Theatre off-Broadway is a little hard to describe. It is a troupe of athletes/acrobats that put themselves through some movement routines that are breathtaking and seemingly impossible. It is a very exciting show…it has none of the production levels of Cirque - it’s kind of raw and kind of street. Almost no dialogue. Amazing physical work.

The Mountaintop - An award winning play looking at the moments before Martin Luther King is assassinated. It stars Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson. A very interesting piece.

Follies is a brilliant revival of this major and important musical. It’s the best showing of the piece since the original. This isn’t a happy-go-lucky musical…it does have solid laughs though, and one of Sondheim’s best scores. A very exciting time.

The Submission is running off-Broadway at the Lortel Theatre. This was written by Jeff Talbot, who played David Frost for us. This is an impassioned piece about bigotry and racism and truth and honesty. It packs quite a punch. It has very strong language.

War Horse is playing at Lincoln Center and if you haven’t seen it in London, you can now see it here. The artistry of the the horse puppets is nothing short of astonishing. Be prepared to shed a tear or two as it is a very emotional piece. Theatrically thrilling.