Julius Caesar: 5th Ashland play, Eighth of Summer Season 2011

Last show of the year!

To enter the New Theater, one must pass through a small brick courtyard.  To enter for Julius Caesar, one needed to pass by half a dozen long white banners imprinted with the faces and details of slain leaders of history, from Abraham Lincoln to Czar Nicholas II to Xerxes I.  Inside there are a dozen more banners.  It is an immediate introduction to the play, bringing the audience into the action before the play has even started.  On our way to our seats, we saw one of the lead actors, Gregory Linnington, enter from the vestibule to join his fellow actors who were milling about the stage, greeting each other and people they knew in the stands.

Wendy with some of the Julius Caesar banners.

The show began with instructions from Vilma Silva, playing Julius Caesar, on how to react when her character raised her arms in a certain way.  We were all to go nuts basically, screaming and carrying on as if it were a political rally or sporting event.  Much has been made of the festival's decision to have a female play Caesar but having seen Ms. Silva in previous shows, Amanda was confident it could be done.

Wendy rated the venue a 10 because she really likes the shows in the New Theater.  The seats are really comfy.  She really liked the banner idea because it set the tone for the show.  She also liked seeing Mr. Linnington before the show started.

Wendy had trouble rating the production because she really wanted to rate it higher than a 10 but had to settle for a 10+.  She thinks Mr. Linnington is an amazing actor and that aspiring actors can learn a lot from him just watching his shows.  She also liked the verging on excessive use of blood; any more would have been too much but any less would have been not enough.  She also really liked the audience reaction, especially when they killed Caesar.  Wendy also liked that after Caesar was dead, she kept walking around but was unseen by the characters that were still alive.  The audience could see her but the actors couldn't.

Woe to the hands that shed this costly blood!

Amanda rated the venue a 10 for its immediacy, being the smallest of the three festival theaters with only 350 or so seats.  At one of the matinee actor talks with Gina Daniels, she said that people have been known to come back to this show time and again to see it from each angle to get the full in-the-round experience.

As for the production, Amanda agrees with Wendy's rating of a 10+.  She is convinced that this show is one of the best she has ever seen in her many years of going to theater.  She especially liked the performances by Ms. Silva and Danforth Comins as Marc Antony.  Ms. Silva is a little bitty thing, 5'4" at best, but she strutted around, ordering everyone about with complete control an
d authority.  Mr. Comins's Antony was heartfelt and intense, giving the famous "Friends, Romans, countrymen" speech new life and depth of meaning.  Amanda doesn't know whose idea it was for him to stalk the small stage counterclockwise during the speech but it was a brilliant idea.  The murder of Caesar was bloody, violent and awe inspiring.  Many in the audience openly wept.  Kudos to the costume department for creating Caesar's coat that literally dripped copious amounts of blood.  This show is not for the faint of heart.  We heard at the matinee actor talk with the fight director for the show, U. Jonathan Toppo, that they go through about $100 in blood every night.  The murders (Caesar, Cassius, Brutus, Cinna, Casca, really everybody but Antony gets killed) serve the plot but are bloody and immediate.  In most productions, once Caesar is killed we see him again one more time in Brutus's hallucination and that's it until the curtain call.  Not so here, where dead Caesar roams the stage, sitting for a time in the audience, spending some time onstage watching the action, and always marking the newly slain with a handful of grey clay to great effect.  This show will linger in Amanda's mind for years to come.

Next year's plays!

Henry IV, Pt 2: Fourth Ashland play, Seventh Summer Season 2011

Let's begin with a few words about the History plays.  Some are better than others, and in general, Wendy hates them all.  Last summer we saw Henry IV, Part 1 but she and her companion Chey slept through the second half, all cuddled up in their snuggles looking as cute as little angels.

Henry IV, Part 2 picks up right where Part 1 left off, but it's pretty obvious from the get go that this play is really just a vehicle for more scenes with Falstaff.  One of the great joys of going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is that when they do sequential plays, they have the same actors play the same roles year after year.  So this year's Falstaff was last year's Falstaff, Prince Hal is the same and so on.  This continuity is wonderful, as the actors have literally years to hone their characterizations.

Mmmmm, padded!

Wendy and Amanda both rate the venue a 10 but this time because, taking advantage of the shockingly empty house, they moved to the side box seats at the intermission.  These seats have the advantage of being some of the best of the 1200 offered with unobstructed sight lines, room to stretch out, overhead views of the stage and best of all, padded seats!

Wendy would rate the production a 7 because she had been led to believe that there would be more fight scenes, and was greatly disappointed.  Much of the fault for this lies in Amanda's inadequate knowledge of this play, having only seen it once or twice before.  There are actually no fight scenes at all.  The use of costumes was nice, they really set the tone for the different scenes.  She really liked Falstaff's pageboy, a lad of about nine years.  She felt he was a really good actor.  It wasn't as boring as she expected it to be; all the parts with Prince Henry were interesting and she looked forward to them.


Amanda would rate the production an 8.  The play itself simply isn't as good as Part 1, but mostly a formula rehash of what happened in the first play without the fight scenes.  The scenes with Prince Henry and his father The King were touching and sincere as Hal tries to grow up but is reluctant to do so, knowing that to be king means his father must die.  Falstaff, played by Michael Winters was wonderful, played for great comic relief in the joy of being fat and thinking himself above the law thanks to his friendship with Hal.  The scene where Henry, now King Henry V, resplendent in his white and gold coronation suit, has to turn his old friend and partner in crime and tell him to go away and leave him alone is tragic and sad.  Poor Falstaff.  He was fooling himself all along but still.

Not Amanda's foot.

Ashland Show 3: The African Company Presents Richard III (Seventh Show of the 2011 Season)

This afternoon's show represents a departure from the traditional Shakespearean Canon, but it had enough Shakespeare in it that Amanda and Wendy felt that it should be included in this blog. The African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown (originally produced in 1987) recounts the real life story of an 1820 all black theater company in New York City whose production of Shakespeare's Richard III so threatened that of the white theater company, who was producing the same play, the white company felt compelled to have the African company shut down.  The black actors were arrested simply for having the audacity to want to put on this classic play.

Amanda would rate the venue to be a 10 because today the configuration of the stage in the Bowmer was  considerably different than 24 hours ago. Yesterday, the stage was a standard proscenium arch staging whereas today the stage had been converted into a thrust staging which brought an incredible immediacy of the actors to the audience. Amanda liked that they were "right there". In our seats, house right three rows back, we could literally see actor Michael Elich spray the stage with spit as he talked, and we could see the wig tape on actor Peter Macon's temples.



Amanda would rate the production to be an 8 because although the performances were uniformly strong by all seven actors, the play's structure itself was fairly formulaic. Each actor had his or her moment in the spotlight, to wax poetic about their slave background or their journey toward becoming an actor. The sections showing the actors either performing or rehearsing their production of Richard, were greatly enjoyed by Amanda and made her want to go and see Richard III as it was intended by Shakespeare. It was also funny to see them using the broad, over-the-top gesticulations common for that era.



Matching To Be or Not To Be rings!



Wendy would rate the venue to be a 10 as well, because of the wonderful acoustics and comfy chairs. She also loved the little old lady that was in the lobby selling individually wrapped truffles to benefit the Tutor Guild (the huge gift shop in Ashland where you can get everything from Shakespearean hats to posters to rings with quotes engraved in them).

Wendy would rate the production to be a 6 because even though the show was interesting, she did not enjoy the long monologues. She also did not like the white theater owner, played by Michael Elich, because she felt that he was overly sarcastic and mean to the African company. Wendy understands that he was just trying to play his part, but she felt that he could have toned it down on the insulting manner in which he talked to the African company. Wendy was also disappointed because usually after a show, she feels something and it makes her want to go out and change the world, or do a dance number on the street, or even randomly confess her love for a stranger on the street, but with this show it was not the case. Even after seeing the actor talk with Gina Daniels, Wendy wasn't moved as much by this show as she would have liked.

On the other hand, Amanda was deeply moved by the show and felt extremely uncomfortable with the burden of "white man's guilt" as she sat next to an African American couple. "I just wanted to lean over and tell them that my people never had slaves," she says.  For her part, Amanda thinks that Michael Elich's portrayal of an 1820's theater owner was "spot on" and that his character would have really been that condescending and awful.

Ashland play 2: Love's Labors Lost, Sixth play of Summer 2011 Season

For our first outdoor play, in the Elizabethan Theater, we were perched high up in the back in seats the furthest possible from the stage.  Much to Wendy's consternation, there were large swaths of open seats at curtain.  Since Amanda and Wendy have only ever been to the festival in June or July (okay, one quickie Spring Break trip last year in March too for Amanda), they don't know if attendence really slows down as summer starts to wane and people's thoughts return to school.  But it was shocking in both plays to see that it was not full.

The play, Love's Labors Lost is a lighthearted froth of romance and courtly love.  And jests, battles of wits and friendly one upsmanship.  It is also a wordy nightmare.  Bard didn't leave any out it seems and even coined a few, such as the longest word in use at the time (which we will add here when we get home and consult The Asimov).  Two stories run parallel: the lovers and then long scenes of The Pedant and The Clergyman giving Shakespeare a chance to play with language, Latin, and the pomposity of the loquatious learned.

Wendy would rate the venue as a 9.75 because she really loves the Elizabethan.  She loves the design and that if you get bored you can just look at the stage, 'cuz it looks like a house.  She also loves that it was designed acoustically so that the actors do not need to be micced, and even though they're a hundred feet away, you can hear them as if they were sitting next to you.  The .25 was taken off because she really hates the seats themselves; hard plastic that are very uncomfortable after sitting for three and a half hours, it's like being at a football game.  And she understands that it occasionally rains, so the seats have to be waterproof but couldn't they be comfortable also?

Wendy would rate the production as a 9.5 because it's a cute play but all the scenes with the Latin and the Clergyman and Pedant were unnecessary and confusing.  She did really like the dance numbers, and the use of mood lighting, especially the hot purple lights.  She also really liked that this is a "super rhyme-y play" and that there are so many sonnets.  She thought it was really interesting to see so many old people in the audience, since so many of the younger people have gone back to school.

Amanda rates the venue a 10.  In her first years coming to the festival in the mid-1980's, the Elizabethan stage was the same, a replica of The Globe Theater in London, but seating was much different, a bowl-style amphitheater all open to the sky.  Which was great on nice nights, but a horror if it rained as there was no protection.  The remodel, completed sometime in the 1990's, basically lifted up the last third of the audience and repositioned them in a balcony forward and overhanging the forward two thirds.  This remodel benefitted both the acoustics and the restroom situation which greatly increased in number, though audience seats only went up by less than ten.  There are no blocked seats in the house and though you may be high up, you can really see the action on all parts of the stage.  For this production, Amanda liked the set very much; astroturf covered the stage, dotted with bright purple flowers.  All sets are copywrighted so we cannot include any pictures of them but if you go to the OSF website (http://www.osf.org/) you can see official photos.

Amanda would rate the production a 9.  The first third is sort of slow going as characters are established and the ridiculous plot is laid forth: the king is insisting his three besties give up wine, woman and song for three years?  Amanda is all about education but all things in moderation, my good Sir.  She liked seeing Stephanie Beatriz again in a totally different role from the tightly wound Isabell of "Measure for Measure", the free-spirited witty Rosaline.  The part of Berowne is a wordy cornacopia of sonnets, soliloquies and extrapolations on love.  Here it was ably played by Gregory Linnington who made the convoluted language sound modern and up-to-date.  One thing that made this version stand out for Amanda was the incredible use of song, lighting and dance to liven up some of the more tedious scenes.  There is a long scene (possibly the longest Shakespeare wrote) during which each of the Lovers goes on and on about his lady love.  By the time you get to the final guy you just don't care.  The festival solved this problem by turning Dumaine's sonnet into a hot, Backstreet Boy tribute complete with gyrations and pony kicks!  Wonderful.  Later music and dance added to the play in the bittersweet finale as the Lovers pledge their troth but agree not to see each other for a year.  Amanda admits it, it was so heartfelt and sweet that she teared up a little, and would've devolved into a full blown cry if she hadn't assured Wendy she would not do that this year.

Ashland Trip! First Show: Measure For Measure (Fifth Show of the 2011 Season)

Trust the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to set the bar high. Our first play of this tour in Ashland, Oregon; Measure For Measure. This play is commonly referred to as a "Problem Play", meaning that it is not really a comedy, tragedy, or a history. This show can sometimes be very dark, although it was first preformed for a light-hearted occasion, the very first Christmas pageant of King James I. However, Amanda and Wendy found no problems with this play, at all. The festival decided to set the show in 1970's America, instead of in medieval Vienna with happenin' swingers, and flamboyant transvestites in leopard-skin jumpsuits.

Keeping young with Lithia Water.

After spending five hours in the car, Measure For Measure was just the thing to keep Amanda and Wendy from getting even more punchy than they had already become. We made our annual trip to the Lithia water fountains and rediscovered the horrible taste that the water has. Honestly, the water tastes like liquid fart. But it keeps you young and healthy.  With a taste like that, it better!

One of the most amazing parts of Measure For Measure, was the minimalist set. It converted from chapel, to night club, to jail, to office with ease. (It's conference room table! It's a desk! It's a different desk!). The rear set projections were a wonder of technology. Honestly amazing. Shifting from portraits of staid old white men to the interior of a prison to a beautiful field where it actually rained real water down the windows. It was truly extraordinary.

Before our ratings, we would like to say a word about the venue. The Bowmer Theater has been home to many productions over the years, but all the shows that it housed for the 2011 season to be halted when the main support beam that holds the theater up had a huge crack in it in June. The theater was closed for six weeks so that the beam could be fixed (so it would not fall and kill people) and during these renovations all the productions had to be housed in different locations. Shows took place at the Southern Oregon University campus, the Ashland Armory, and even a huge tent that was put up in Lithia Park (later to be nicknamed "Bowmer in the Park" or BIP). The Bowmer Theater was re-opened on August 2, and 2.4 million dollars later you can't even tell that that there was anything wrong.

Until Amanda gets her own, she'll visit this Tony Award.

Amanda would rate the venue to be a 10. She love love loves it! She says, "Sure the color scheme is outdated and faded, but the sight lines can't be beat, no matter where you sit. And the technical wizardry that they do there is state of the art and makes me wish that I had stayed a technician." She loves that there is a Tony Award in the lobby and takes a picture with it every trip. Wendy also loves the Bowmer because of the acoustics. She loves that no matter where you sit you can hear the actors, even without microphones.

Amanda would rate the production to be a 10 as well. This is because it was "just a pure delight to watch". She likes that the characters were fully realized and was impressed that it took looking in the program to realize that Stephanie Beatriz, who played the lead of Isabella, also played Maggie The Cat in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof last season. Also impressive was Anthony Heald,  veteran screen and stage actor, as the Duke. Amanda thinks his portrayal really "captured the complexities of this conniving manipulator." Finally, Amanda liked that the actor playing Lucio, Kenajuan Bentley, really embodied the spirit of an R. Crumb character "hangin' loose" as comic relief.  She also loved the attention to detail of the costumes, having been alive in the 70's.  Particularly funny was the bad guy judge wearing Supreme Court Justice robes with the gold fringed sleeves like the old Chief Justice William Reinquist used to wear.  Pretentious much?

Wendy would rate the production to be a 10 also. She really loved the sets and how universal the stage becomes in Ashland. Year after year she had been impressed with the stage design at these shows (her favorite would be for Hamlet last season). She loves that a desk can  be used in almost every scene, but also converted to a table and used for other purposes. Wendy liked the Spanish influences that were peppered throughout this production. Spanish songs and language were very apparent and nice to listen to. She really liked the music in this production as well, played by a Mariachi trio consisting of a violin, a twelve string guitar and a Mariachi acoustic bass, a guitarron. The actors really knew how to blend with each other and create music that was very soothing to the ear. A very nice change of pace from Much Ado a couple days ago. Wendy also loves the fact that even though it is toward the end of the season for these actors, they still seem as excited for every show as if it were opening night. They clearly love their jobs.

Wendy with Jonathan Dyrud

 
We both agree that it is a sign of a good show when, after a five hour car drive, sitting in a theater for another three hours is not a chore.   As evidenced by the fact that they stayed for the post-show discussion with actor Jonathan Dyrud.

Much Ado About Nothing (Fourth Show of the 2011 Season)

Oh my gosh, it was so hot today. In the 90s is a rare occasion for Portland, Oregon. So we arrived to the venue, weighted down with picnic foods, water bottles, chairs, and sunglasses. Oh, and a whole bottle of sunscreen. We arrived early enough (about an hour and fifteen minutes) to scored prime seats right in the front of the "tall chair section". As we waited for the show to start we ate, drank, and were all around being merry.

Much Ado About Nothing is a show that Amanda and Wendy are very familiar with, having helped directed a seventh-grade version of it two years ago. Over all, we were both pleased with this production, though it was a lot different seeing seventh graders kiss on the cheek (once) as opposed to seeing grownups make out on stage. All the characters in this production were developed well and the actors had clearly settled into their roles much better than when Amanda went to the same production on opening weekend. She says that between then and now, the show has changed a lot and has gotten much better. She says that at opening weekend the actors were very "flat" but today they seemed to be more comfortable with their roles and with each other.  In particular, the woman playing the role of Dogberry, who on opening weekend was a caricature, but today was "very funny". Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the actor who was playing the uncle. He had decided to play his character somewhere between an enraged Scot and a pirate. He played his scenes for laughs, when his lines indicated a more serious intent.

Amanda would rate the venue to be an 8, because when it was apparent that during the entire second act, the audience would be in full sun, the company decided that at intermission they would trade places with the audience, so the crowd could be in the shade. Amanda thought that this was a very considerate gesture, that the company saved a lot of people in the audience from dying of heat stroke. Amanda also thought that it was lovely that people up and moved when the company told them to, "without a lot of bitching and moaning about it."

Amanda would rate the production a 6.5 because she was slightly disappointed with the lack of chemistry between Hero and Claudio. She feels that Claudio was "too ramped up all the time, there was no subtlety." She also thought that Beatrice spent too much time "gnashing her teeth", and did not seem to appreciate everyone falling in love. Instead of looking feisty, she just looked angry.

Wendy would rate the production to be a 6, because there was too much bad singing. Amanda agrees, the singing was just awful. Both Wendy and Amanda enjoy music, but when it is good and tasteful. The actors clearly didn't know anything about choral music or how to sing with a group. There was no blending what so ever and it was very off key. Wendy would like to point out that just because you're standing in the middle of the group, does not mean that you have to sing the loudest. Wendy also felt that the actors had problems with projecting (Claudio in particular). She felt like the actors were shouting instead of projecting; we get it there are a lot of people here but actors, you don't need to shout, that is how you lose your voice. Wendy felt that they could have done more with costumes, they were a bit bland. But she supposes that that could be mended with the fact that she won a t-shirt from The Portland Actors Ensemble.

Wendy would rate the venue to be an 8.5, just because it was so hot. She also felt bad for all the little (so cute!!) babies and puppies that were in the audience. She was very uncomfortable in the heat and could only imagine how they were feeling. Wendy liked that Gabriel Park was practically in her back yard, and was very thankful when the company and the audience switched places. The bathrooms were pretty close and there weren't any drunk angry people around, what more could you ask for?

Finally, a word about The Watch. Amanda and Wendy were both very disappointed by The Watch. Traditionally The Watch has been the comic relief for what can be a very heavy show. In this production, this was not the case. This Watch had one piece of shtick; crossing themselves holding plastic police batons, every time the word "God" was mentioned. That was it. It's sad when a group of seventh-grade boys can out slapstick a group of professional actors.

Extra credit to Rachel for providing the awesome photos.  You're the best stalker ever!