Comment Archives: Stories: Theater
Re: “The Politics of Performance: Three questions about a free theater experience at Java Cabana”
So we respond nearly two YEARS later?
Re: “The Politics of Performance: Three questions about a free theater experience at Java Cabana”
I was reading back over press that mentioned Republic Coffee and thought I would make a note here. The best thing to happen to Mr Goldsmiths show was our dismissal. He used the "freedom of the press" to push his show. Republic Coffee nor it's ownership were ever asked for further comment.
In truth, as is often now happening in infotainment rather than journalism, our comments where not given any review, nd clarification was not asked for. When you only look for one thing, it's all you can find.
In fact, our customers chose. Unlike other coffee shops, folks will note that there is rarely any type of entertainment at RC. Simply because our large student base walks out when "noise" starts. Open Mic and $5 covers are the realm of Otherlands, Java, and even Eclectic. Not us. We long ago turned off poetry jam, open mic's and theater. We have 1 night of improv a month.
Mr. Goldsmith tried to make this about politics and censorship and sadly journalists allowed him too. RC is the only coffee house in Memphis to consistently host political forums. Ask the 8 candidates who used our Tuesday night town hall meeting space.
The long and the short of it, Republic Coffee is long on making the best of list and Mr Goldsmith is short on having any more attention. IMHO of coarse.
Fitz D
Re: “Two Tickets to Paradise: Altar Boyz hits the high notes at Theatre Memphis”
Your article on Altar Boyz Nov 16 . "Hurry, hurry, hurry." The elderly woman with some sort of disorder (Alzheimer's) is my mom. Thank you for the nice words and bring to light that our family and friends with disabilities need to be in public with their families. They can be a disturbance, however we try to select the programs that will disturb the lest amount of people. It is important to the over-all health of the person being taken care of and very important to the caretaker. It is estimated 120 million adult Americans (57 percent) are either providing unpaid care to an adult family member or friend or have provided this care in the past. (Source: Opinion Research Corporation, 2005).
From Hurry, hurry, hurry's primary caretaker for past 7 years - Thank You!
Re: “Threepenny Review: The University of Memphis gets Brechtian”
@GW Carver: That line isn't in the original "Ballad of Mack the Knife," but was added in the Bobby Darin arrangement, which is an uptempo swinger by comparison. Lotte Lenya was also married to Kurt Weill, the song's composer.
Re: “Threepenny Review: The University of Memphis gets Brechtian”
Lotte Lenya was also in the original "Cabaret"cast on Broadway.
Re: “Threepenny Review: The University of Memphis gets Brechtian”
Trivia:
The "Lotte Lenya" mentioned in the song "Mack The Knife" was a real person. She played Jenny in the first performance of "The Threepenny Opera" in Berlin in 1928, and went on to play Colonel Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie "From Russia With Love". (Klebb tried to kill Bond with a poisoned knife that she flipped out of her shoe, but failed and was shot by a Bond girl.)
Re: “Threepenny Review: The University of Memphis gets Brechtian”
Uncanny, Chris. Earlier today after reading this thread my wife said, "Honey, I'm worried about my favorite Flyer guy Chris Davis. He seems awfully contrary today. I said, "Hey, look. Maybe he was in a big hurry. At least he doesn't mistype." Happy Thanksgiving, Flyer crew! Love you guys and gals. Whatta class outfit.
Re: “Threepenny Review: The University of Memphis gets Brechtian”
Just a quick addition, since, in my haste I sounded awfully contrary.
Huff typed: "Now, if the University of Memphis could see clear to give theatre students academic credit for doing such productions—in tandem with the research and intellectual exploration necessary to understand with more complexity what it is that they are doing besides honing their craft (which they already do very well)—and to foster interdisciplinary conversations within the university through such productions, we’d be in even better stead."
Couldn't agree more. I was thrilled to see the entire U of M season. So much good material has been done over the past several years, and there's no reason why productions shouldn't, at the very least, be treated like labs. These are extraordinary opportunities for the students, and should be encouraged.
Because of its unique position in the modern canon and The New Objectivity work on a show like Treepenny will be as meaningful as any class.
Re: “Threepenny Review: The University of Memphis gets Brechtian”
Speaking of bookends: "full on embrace of a teaching theater hasn't been fully embraced" is maybe my favorite thing I've ever mistyped.
Re: “Threepenny Review: The University of Memphis gets Brechtian”
Stephen, I agree with you RE Brecht/Hauptmann, less so about this not being the Brecht we think of as Brecht. It's pretty clearly the turning point, and a cornerstone of Epic theater. Still, I'm not sure how that relates to the use of the ballad.
Also, I didn't see a translator named and am of the opinion that this may have been a jumble. Please correct if I'm wrong but I heard things that I recognize from multiple translations. It could be that this translation resembles other translations, since the source material is the same.
I'm less concerned with the elimination of the balladeer than the elimination of the play's bookends. The last ballad (not used) goes something like this: "Happy endings, nice and tidy, it's a rule I learned in school...". I think it is clear that there are specific places where these fit within the puzzle -- the intro and the outro (to borrow from the BDDDB)-- and backing the Ballad up against the Solomon song was a bad idea. Like a third intermission without the leg-stretching.
Adding, I'm familiar with several translations, none of which reorder or reassign the ballad. Doesn't mean that translation doesn't exist.
Last quickie: Clearly we're looking at both the influence of Wedekind and Erwin Piscator. And obviously the full on embrace of a teaching theater hasn't been fully embraced, but TPO has been tweaked to function as a teaching model. And I really missed this line which was either cut, garbled, or dropped: Mack to Polly: "I'm thinking of going into banking altogether. It's safer and the takes are bigger."
Typing this on the run. Would happily discuss further.
Re: “Threepenny Review: The University of Memphis gets Brechtian”
After reading this review and hearing the initial misgivings of a few of my Introduction to Theatre students who had seen the show during its first weekend, I must admit that I was not looking forward to attending. Maybe it was the anticipation of drudgery that influenced my reaction, but I found myself in many moments (as several of my other students did)—despite the sometimes tedious length of the production—pleasantly surprised and, at turns, laughing out loud or otherwise fully engaged. Many images and performances stand out and linger with me still. It was, as one of my students commented, an exhausting evening, and as Chris points out, sometimes a tough night of theatre. But I’m not sure that that’s not what Brecht would have wanted. If we choose to care what he wanted.
Chris seems to take umbrage at Mark Davis’s elimination of the balladeer and the reassignment of the ballad of “Mack the Knife.” Putting copyright issues aside in terms of whose English translation of Brecht’s work was being used in this production, there is already controversy over how much of Brecht’s translation and adaptation—which is what it is—of John Gay’s 1728 ballad opera THE BEGGAR'S OPERA (even retaining a couple of the songs intact) was Brecht’s, and how much was the work of his longtime collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann. On that note, Brecht was an avid adapter early on and, come to find out, often relied on Hauptmann to provide him with script. Not to take away from his brilliance as a poet and dramatist, but strategic rearrangement would seem to be in keeping with the spirit of Brecht’s work during this time.
Another major point that I think is being missed here is that the Brecht of THREEPENNY OPERA was not the Brecht of the Berliner Ensemble in the 1950s, not even the Brecht of the 1930s lehrstücke. This was Brecht in transition, not long after he had first read Marx, while he was in the throes of a cascade of theatre work in Berlin and before he had fully formulated his ideas of alienation or many of the concepts with which we have come to associate his work. Macheath maintains more than a little bit of Baal in him. Written in a fervor, THREEPENNY harkens back to Brecht’s admiration of Frank Wedekind while hinting at incipient glances toward a Marxist future.
With regard to the set and choreography in Mark Davis’s production, I did not see shabbiness or leanings toward Broadway and Bob Fosse; rather, I saw classic German expressionism in both. The stairway was vintage Leopold Jessner and the stylized group movement reminded me of photographs of 1920s European stagings that began to make their way across the pond in theatrical productions like John Howard Lawson’s PROCESSIONAL. Both set and movement were redolent of the film METROPOLIS, which many of the original Berlin audience of THREEPENNY may well have seen when it premiered there just one year before.
The skits and “character work” before the show were, for me, particularly effective because they gave living example to my students of early twentieth-century European avant-garde movements that sought to challenge the audience and get them out of their comfort zones.
I agree with a lot of what Chris has said here, especially in terms of the quality of student performances, which were, as he says, top notch. Could the scenes have used tightening? Definitely. Could some transitional bits have been reined in or cut? Absolutely. These are things that could have been fixed, given another few rehearsals. But for these college students to have had the experience to work on this production, and for it to be seen and talked about by the uninitiated (i.e., Intro students) was an invaluable thing for this community.
Now, if the University of Memphis could see clear to give theatre students academic credit for doing such productions—in tandem with the research and intellectual exploration necessary to understand with more complexity what it is that they are doing besides honing their craft (which they already do very well)—and to foster interdisciplinary conversations within the university through such productions, we’d be in even better stead.
Re: “Two Tickets to Paradise: Altar Boyz hits the high notes at Theatre Memphis”
@Mayfield: Bingo! It's that kind of show. Not much sticks, but when you're there and everything is good: Heaven.
Re: “Two Tickets to Paradise: Altar Boyz hits the high notes at Theatre Memphis”
Sounds like this is a local hit. I saw this in NYC and was thoroughly entertained, but remember almost nothing about it.
Re: “Threepenny Review: The University of Memphis gets Brechtian”
Now I know why 3PO is rarely done. I think it was longer than the Nurembourg trials.
Re: “Psycho”
this can be a tough environment for new work. that people are showing up is impressive.
Re: “Psycho”
So glad this is being produced. So nice a new play is attracting an audience!
Re: “Psycho”
Good point about Rasputin - the original Michael Myers.
Re: “The Village”
It could be tighter by a stretch. Still, worth the time investment. Becky Shaw's just a great script. Thought the U did a nice job. Hate that there were empty seats. But not surprised. If it had some numbas, maybe...
Re: “The Village”
Becky Shaw is an excellent play...too bad, it's now closed and there were way too many empty seats. Heard good things about Hurt Village, even though it's nearly three hours long!
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Re: “The Jersey Boys sing songs you can whack somebody to”
i love jersey boys you can whack somebody to is an awesom song i love it nd really enjoyed watched this song.
http://pinkblink.webnode.com/news/jersey-b…