January 2008

Dear Subscriber:

WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR! After a glorious romp with Kiss Me, Kate, we bring you the inspiring Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher stage adaptation of Albom’s best-selling book, Tuesdays with Morrie. Over a decade ago, Albom’s claim to fame was as a sports columnist and radio and television personality, but today he is best known for the moving memoir that chronicles his reunion with his college mentor, Brandeis University sociology professor Morrie Schwartz. Though Albom was captivated by Schwartz’s teaching at Brandeis (He took every class that the master teacher offered.) after graduation the two lost touch until Albom saw his former prof on Nightline discussing his battle with ALS. What followed was a life-changing meeting that evolved into a series of weekly conversations between the two about life, death and what matters most. A reporter at heart, Albom recorded these exchanges and after Schwartz’s passing, fashioned them into a memoir in hopes of offsetting his friend’s medical expenses. The draft met with multiple rejections and when it was finally accepted saw only a limited run of 25,000 volumes. Today, the book has sold millions of copies, is read worldwide in multiple languages and is responsible for launching a second career for Albom (He is now the author of three best-selling novels as well.) Though Albom likes to joke: “I never forget that nobody wanted that book.” the greatest turnaround has come in his own day to day living, as he describes in an online interview with Dublin’s Bibliofemme.com:

[E]verything I think about, the time I spend with my family, the time I spend with my wife, the things I say no to now that I didn’t before, I mean probably every element of my life in some way, shape or form, was changed by that [experience]… I used to work in stadiums with 20,000 to 100,000 people and never had any appreciation for the individual. I just looked at them as bodies screaming for a team, just a massive crowd. I don’t look at people like that anymore. That’s what you learn from all these kinds of conversations, how everybody walks around with something like that.

ALBOM’S OPPORTUNITY TO REKINDLE his friendship with Schwartz has also deeply convinced him of the significance of each of our actions and their cumulative effect. He now embraces Morrie’s argument that every aspect of humanity is connected in a cause-effect relationship and staunchly defends the need to appreciate that.  He continues:

I’m walking proof of that. I mean, why am I sitting here with you if that’s not true. Morrie happens to take time to talk to me, which he didn’t have to do, and I write a book to help him pay his bills, which I guess I didn’t have to do, somebody else sees it, gives it to somebody, enough people read it… So how is that not fate? And how is that not one person influencing somebody else? I always say that people who dismiss those notions as corny or sentimental need to be told that they’re wrong, not the other way around. Everybody’s favorite movie is a sentimental movie; everybody’s favorite song is a sentimental song. I think sentimentality is wonderful… once you open your eyes to it, you can’t deny it.

MORRIE’S TEACHINGS CONTINUE in his Zen approach to the end of his life.  He is intrigued by the peacefulness and delicacy of the Buddhist world.  The beautiful Japanese maple tree outside his house provides a perfect metaphor as its changes in color and tone reflect the course of Morrie’s life during the play. This image influenced the creative team to approach the story through its connection to the rituals and ideas of the Orient and truly sets this production apart from others. You’ll even notice music of a slightly Japanese bent throughout the show, which is connected to the power of that ever-present Japanese maple. It is interesting, and I think rewarding, to explore Morrie’s Zen side along with his “entertaining” side, giving us a more three dimensional look at this extraordinary individual.

MARK CUDDY, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR for Geva Theatre Center, directs this production starring Remi Sandri (ART) as Mitch and Bernie Passeltiner—who was in the resident acting company in the Rep’s debut 1966 season—as Morrie. Vicki Smith provides the set with costumes by Christina Selian and lights from Don Darnutzer. Brian Jerome Peterson designs the sound with original music composition by Scott Killian. The poetic nature of this piece and the lives it represents are not to be missed.

THE STUDIO SERIES CONTINUES with David Hare’s The Vertical Hour, and we are proud to be the first theatre outside of New York to produce this most intriguing play. The title refers to the single hour doctors have to save a patient who has been critically injured on the battlefield. This metaphor is embraced in the play in the hour before dawn when a good portion of the dialogue takes place. The story turns on the crisis of conscience and identity that Nadia, an American former war correspondent turned Yale political studies professor, experiences when she meets her English fiance’s father on his home turf and encounters a mindset that challenges her notions of herself and her world.  Nadia’s support of the war in Iraq disturbs the more liberal Phillip, but this piece is so much more than politics. In typical Hare style, it spotlights the collision of major contemporary issues with personal desires and goals and considers the potential to dramatically change one’s life so the outcome is better for everyone involved, walking us through the tenuous moments of their personal vertical hour. Jim O’ Connor directs this riveting exploration of responsibility and relationships with Gloria Biegler (The Weir) as Nadia and Rep veteran Anderson Matthews as Phillip. They are joined by Jeremiah Wiggins, as her fiance and Webster Conservatory students Brian White and Jamie Concepcion. Marie Anne Chiment (Ace, I Am My Own Wife) is designing the set and the costumes while Mark Wilson (Bug, Shakespeare’s R&J) lights the show.

WE START YOUR YEAR WITH TWO VERY DIFFERENT calls to self-examination. Morrie urges us to evaluate our priorities and expand our communities while The Vertical Hour calls into question our concepts of identity and obligation on both a personal and public level. Both will challenge and inspire you and we look forward to sharing the experience with you.

See you at the theatre,

Steven Woolf
Artistic Director

NEW YORK REPORT: There is a lot going on in New York right now, the big surprise being that new plays outnumber new musicals on Broadway.  August, Osage County, a new play by Tracy Letts, is brilliantly acted and written and explores life in a large family over the course of a few days. It is exciting, visceral and has a running time of 3.5 hours—that speed by. The Seafarer by The Weir’s Conor McPherson is a magnificent new play boasting a dazzling ensemble of actors. The Farnsworth Invention by Aaron Sorkin is about the beginnings of television and the business of bringing it to the country. At times it is quite riveting and to me it feels like it will work better as a film—which is intended. Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll has an amazing cast and is a fascinating story of the relationship between rock music and the revolution in Czechoslovakia. I would suggest reading the information on the show’s website before venturing to see it. Young Frankenstein is fun, if not memorable, and you see where all the money was spent to make the show work.