Posted December 3rd, 2008 by erikschroeder
There's an old saying in show business, that you should never work with children or animals, because you'll be upstaged every time. Well, in The Brothers Karamazov we work with both, and it works just fine, thank you very much. We thought we'd share a little more of the spotlight with Ella the Dog in the profile below. Enjoy!
Ella the Dog as Zhuchka with Craig Spidle as Fyodor Karmazov
From Baleigh Isaacs, Assistant Stage Manager:
I adopted Ella one year ago (as of the first preview), when she was 2 months
old, so that makes her 14 months old now. She came from a small rescue in
Michigan. Â According to them, she is a cavapoo: part Cavalier King Charles
spaniel, part poodle. Â Most likely, she was rescued from a puppy mill and was
rejected by them because of some minor flaw. Â Her mix was probably meant to be
non-shedding and hypoallergenic, but she does shed some and her fur is a little
funny looking. Â That's my best guess as to why anyone could get rid of such a
sweet puppy. Â She's very smart, very sweet, very friendly, and very calm.
This is Ella's first full theatre production. Â However, she has made
cameos twice: once in the New Year's Eve performance of The Philadelphia Story,
produced by Remy Bumppo, and once in the closing performance of Lookingglass Alice (as
a hedgehog). Â Ella is no stranger to theatre. Â She has grown up sitting through
rehearsals and performances. Â She commutes with me on the CTA. Â Ella has also
visited a hospital as an unofficial therapy dog, sharing her love with the
families of patients. Â She recently found her place as Miss January on a
calendar published by the pet organization, Bideawee:Â http://bideawee.org/programs_&_services/2009calendarwin.php. Production Affiliate Patia Bartlett took the picture.
Ella has never been professionally trained. Â Her job as Zhuchka in The Brothers Karamazov
is pretty simple. Â Her stage time was cut down from 20 minutes to about 5
because she's so cute that it was distracting (that's fact, not my opinion). She runs onstage, does a little trick, and then
gets showered with affection. Â As in the hospital in real life, she brings a bit
of happiness to a dying boy. Â The plot (that we don't see performed) is that
this boy, Ilyusha, has fed her a needle in a piece of bread, as prompted by a
servant. Â An older boy, Kolya, finds the dog and trains her. Â Kolya then
pretends she is another dog until the pay-off moment we see onstage.
Here are the basics:
Breed: Cavapoo - Cavalier King Charles spaniel & poodle mix
Age: 1 year 2 months
Color: Light brown and sandy blonde
Weight: 20 lbs
No professional training
Professional stage debut
Posted November 21st, 2008 by erikschroeder
The Arabian Nights opened this week in California at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The reviews are in, and the show is a hit! Our friends at Berkeley Rep sent us clippings from some of the best reviews. We're getting excited about the show!
The Arabian Nights begins on May 20, 2009 in Chicago at Lookingglass in the Water Tower Water Works. Tickets will go on sale to subscribers on February 25, 2009 and on sale to the public March 13, 2009.
A flying carpet to funny, sexy, sad Baghdad
- Stories are flying carpets in Mary Zimmerman's The Arabian Nights. Performed by 15 resourceful actors and staged with a maximum of invention by Zimmerman, the ancient tales magically transport the Berkeley Repertory Theatre audience from a king's bedroom in Baghdad through markets, harems, courts and a crowded privy, and from heights of hilarity to sobering affirmations of shared humanity. It isn't just the stories themselves - comic or poignant anecdotes of infidelity, greed and revenge; Koranic parables of enlightenment; one huge fart joke - that create enchantment in the Nights that opened Wednesday at the Rep's Thrust Stage. It's also the way one tale opens up into another and then another, as Sofia Jean Gomez's Scheherezade keeps spinning yarns to save her life.
- sheer imaginativeness
- Zimmerman has a genius for building stage spectaculars from the most basic, old-fashioned materials.
- the actors transform themselves into an exhilarating panoply of expertly etched characters
- there's nothing dated about it. It's as timeless as the stories it contains and as immediate as an ad lib. One passage, a rib-splitting highlight on opening night, is improvised by actors chosen by lot for each show.
- Scheherezade starts with comic tales of infidelities and love, including semi-explicit sex scenes - which, she warns Shahryar, "might seem licentious or lewd to those with gross and narrow minds." If the sex and suspense aren't sure to hold his interest, the joyfully broad acting and propulsive drums-and-vocals score (by Andre Pluess and the ensemble) seal the deal.
- Zimmerman’s selections are smartly chosen to play off the famous framing device.
the tales expose vanities of power, the perfidy of men and the worth of women
- If that were all, Nights would be a first-rate entertainment. But there's another intrinsic layer in the way TJ Gerckens' lights turn Daniel Ostling's barren concrete walls and carpet-strewn floor into a harem, a madhouse or the Tigris at night. The transformations culminate in an eloquent final image that evokes the mortality and vulnerability of the "Baghdad, city of peace and poets," in which we've just spent such a pleasant time.
Berkeley Rep's Arabian Nights a magical night of theater
There is a grand-slam, winning-the-World-Series sort of exhilaration to seeing top-notch theater performed by actors working at the peak of their game. You could feel it Wednesday night in the intermission buzz at Berkeley Repertory Theatre company's production of Mary Zimmerman's The Arabian Nights, a spectacular retelling of the old "1,001 nights" tales staged so wonderfully well that you feel somehow better off just to have been in the theater that night. This rare and breathtaking piece of theater made it into my all-time Top 10 list maybe 15 minutes after it started, and it just kept climbing the chart as its 2½-hour production flew along.
- it was wildly funny, touchingly emotional, highly dramatic, visually captivating, madly energetic and unabashedly part of a place, the Middle East, that just a couple of decades ago, was a mystical desert region filled with sheiks, harems, camels and exotic romance.
- the stories are as captivating as the situation in which the young virgin finds herself
- The somewhat less simple reason the show works so well is Zimmerman's incredibly intricate and effective direction, which has every inch of Berkeley Rep's thrust stage alive with action of some sort. It is also because the cast's outstanding ensemble work holds the audience enraptured by the unfolding stories (which are not at all like the ones you heard as a kid — they're much more sexually charged, for one thing).
Berkeley Rep's Arabian Nights casts a spell of myth and whimsy
- One thousand and one nights float by like a dream in The Arabian Nights. Tony-winning theater alchemist Mary Zimmerman has become famous for breathing fresh life into primal fables, from Metamorphoses to Argonautika. Time and again, she reconnects us to the myths and fables dancing at the edges of our collective subconscious.
- Though no less hypnotic than her previous works, this show also glories in a passionate embrace of, shall we say, earthly concerns that lightens the spirits in these anxious times. Balletic movement, frisky performances and the secrets of an ancient text make Arabian Nights a sultry fantasy that refreshes the senses.
- Like Schehezerade, the director seduces us with words. She plays games with the narrative, alternating between the clamor of a chorus of voices and the ache of a long silence.
- the ensemble tiptoes with agility through a sea of stories that remind us how little humanity changes over time.
Zimmerman juxtaposes the beauty of the poetry with the harshness of the play's truths.
- The shock of recognition, the fact that we see ourselves so clearly in these ancient faces, animates this production. The city of Baghdad, now fatefully intertwined with war and strife in our imaginations, shimmers once more as a land of mystery and enchantment.
- despite the darkness of the tales, there remains something fundamentally restorative about Zimmerman's view of the world. She finds universality in stories than range from sublime to bawdy
- This lively sense of humor thrums throughout the play's bawdy bits, a ballet of racing pulses and lewd gestures. Frankly, the merchants, jesters and thieves of this universe make Gossip Girl look chaste.
- Still, the body part most lavished with attention here remains the ear.
- It's a celebration of the craft of the storyteller from which we too emerge recharged, renewed.
- The upshot: A magic carpet ride through an ancient land of myth and whimsy.
Tales as old as time: Arabian Nights shimmer at Berkeley Rep
- Zimmerman’s got a great gimmick: she creates beautifully designed, expertly acted vehicles for sophisticated storytelling. In a very grown-up way, she turns us into kids slathering for a juicy bedtime story. And she always delivers.
- her approach to the classic collection of tales is compellingly human.
- One tale folds into another as the evening flows along, enchanting us all the while.
- Zimmerman’s 15-member ensemble tumbles and spins through the tales with grace and glee. They drum, they play stringed instruments, sing, dance and jump from one character to another with ease and clarity. And they’re gorgeous in the shimmering, flowing robes and gowns and drapes provided by costumer Mara Blumenfeld.
- As expected, the production is gorgeous. Though Daniel Ostling’s set is a simple courtyard in the midst of rough buildings, with pillows, small wooden platforms and carpets scattered about, the space is lit in extraordinary, evocative, incredibly effective ways by TJ Gerckens’ lighting design. There are gorgeous Middle Eastern lanterns hung over the stage and throughout the theater, but Gerckens’ lights are so much more – they become a mad house, an exotic night on the Tigris and, most significantly, the first rays of dawn, which could mean death for Scheherezade and the end of her stories.
- With its ever present threat of death, The Arabian Nights never devolves into frivolity. There’s weight to the stories that comes from sadness and wisdom, and when, at the end, Zimmerman echoes present-day Baghdad, the oft-described “city of peace and poets,” we sense the depth of history and our place in it.
KGO-AM
- Berkeley Repertory has opened a magnificent production of The Arabian Nights, written and directed by Tony Award-winning Mary Zimmerman, her sixth production at the Rep.
- tales of romance, intrigue and betrayal, brilliantly performed by a superbly talented cast of 15. And it's all backed by traditional music and a fabulous open set.
- It's truly a spectacle to behold, and it's just perfect for the holidays.
Posted October 31st, 2008 by erikschroeder
Now that you've read the reviews, what would you say about The Brothers Karamazov. Do you agree with Chris Jones at the Chicago Tribune? Hedy Weiss at the Chicago Sun-Times? Kerry Reid at the Chicago Reader?
Lookingglass believes that creating transformative theatre is an act of collaboration. Most often this means cooperation within a group of artists working to translate a work of literature to the stage. The final key piece of our work is you, the audience. You play a vital role. You complete the process, witness a new piece of theatre never before seen, and experience something spectacular, moving and innovative.
As a key collaborator, we want to know what you think. Post your review below; we are grateful for your feedback.
Posted October 30th, 2008 by erikschroeder
The reviews are in, and The Brothers Karamazov is a hit! The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Reader all loved the show.
Click here to read all of the reviews. Here are some highlights:
Chicago Tribune
"There's something deeply satisfying about encountering Dostoevsky in the heart of Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Any town where you can witness an entirely new, happily uncompromising, fully realized and wholly sincere dramatic adaptation of "The Brothers Karamazov"—in all its throbbing, three-act, 195-minute, 19th Century glory—just across the street from Walgreens, surely ain't a bad spot to pass your waning days or bring up your kids."
"Several veteran ensemble members do the best work I've ever seen them do. As the troubled Ivan, Phil Smith offers an emotionally stripped-down performance of great force and humanity. The incredibly focused Louise Lamson is dazzlingly uncompromising as the proud Katerina, the center of more than one love triangle. And mostly through a provocative and complicated kind of self-calm, Hara holds down the moral center of the tale."
"Many of the individual scenes are richly rendered on a simple but energetic Dan Ostling set that feels deeply rooted in the material. By the second and third acts, Stillman and her actors really start to cook, and a crumpled picture of life's passions and paradoxes comes alive before your eyes."
Chicago Sun-Times
"Stillman has streamlined Dostoyevsky's novel yet deftly highlighted its major religious, moral and philosophical arguments while capturing the near hallucinatory heat of its snowy landscape.
Chicago Reader
"Given the crabbed, self-conscious irony marking so much contemporary fiction, it’s a relief to reengage with writers like Dostoyevsky who were unafraid to tackle huge, hairy issues like the meaning of existence and the possibility of redemption. And 20 years into their creative life, it’s terrific to see the Lookingglass ensemble take a chance on a big story. Unlike some of their past work, in which they imposed mortal yearnings on fantastical or mythological creations, The Brothers Karamazov represents an admirable attempt to find that little spark of the divine inside damaged humans. Maybe that spark is enough to keep us going, even as we realize that controlling one’s will has little to do with controlling one’s destiny."
Posted September 8th, 2008 by Jessica Wright
At Lookingglass, it’s a tradition to open up the first rehearsal of any production to all administrative staff members—the designers give a presentation, the actors have a read-through of the script, and everyone comes away with an intense feeling of community. As the Fall Marketing Intern, I was invited to attend said first rehearsal of "The Brothers Karamazov"—and so settled against the wall of the Lookingglass Studio this morning to watch.
Heidi Stillman, the director, first outlined the world she wanted to create onstage: urgent, quiet, and rooted in reality. Therefore, through conversations with the design staff, she decided not to set the play explicitly in nineteenth century Russia, but to feel free to use more modern images in order to draw the audience into the piece.
Dan Ostling, the set designer, spoke next, leading us to his elaborate model of the stage. Genuine, un-abstracted images anchored his design—an actual church bell suspended from a grid, a whole chandelier lying on the floor, a gaping, empty grave. In order to give his set a true sense of authenticity, Dan explained, much time was spent in vast scavengers’ warehouses, scanning wooden doors full of nicks—in short, doors with a past. The hardwood floor would not be painted, but laid.
Mara Blumenfeld, the costume designer, agreed. Very few costume pieces would be built, she explained; Mara wanted none of the pieces to look like costumes, but simply faded articles of clothing—with a history. She spoke of a resale shop named George’s, long since shuttered but fabled in Lookingglass lore for its basement full of piles of clothing. The show should feel as though the costume designer had been locked in the basement of George’s—and to clothe all the actors only in items found there.
Mara silently surveyed her images, tacked to the wall, that she had used for inspiration—most in shades of black, white and cream. Interspersed in these were a few flashes of red. “Yes, that is Hugh Hefner.” Everyone laughed.
Rick Sims, the sound designer, sketched in the air as he described the melodies he had constructed—his goal being to slowly fade back and forth from monastic, Gregorian-esque chants to distorted electric guitars. Rick noticed us shifting in our seats, and his voice quickened to dissuade our doubts as he pressed “play.”
A chant, high, delicate, and mournful, started the piece (to be sung live by the “little ones,” according to Heidi), with harsh violins, sounding unnaturally steely and cold, underscoring. I realized only afterwards that those were said electric guitars, woven so convincingly into the piece as to be unrecognizable. Great applause followed the silence.
Speaking next, Chris Binder (lighting designer) described the special TV and film lighting she would use—super-hot instruments built to simulate the bright whiteness of sunlight. Chris’s gestures grew more excited as she spoke of using single instruments to light scenes—a technique she’s been unable to use in the past, due to shadow concerns.
“But I think it’ll work well in this piece, as it’s what standing in the moonlight really looks like.”
Matt Hawkins, fight choreographer, leapt up last. This was not a show of polished sword battles, he explained, but one of people “crushing one another’s skulls with rocks.” An actor joked about the use of actual slaps—Matt seized upon this point so eagerly, I feared he’d leap onto the table.
“Good example! If someone’s comfortable with getting slapped in the face, we’ll slap them ten times in the face!”
The actor blanched. We applauded.
Posted June 16th, 2008 by erikschroeder
Sunday, June 15, 2008 was a big night for Chicago theatre.
Not only did Chicago Shakespeare take home the Tony Award for Regional Theatre, but the Broadway production of Steppenwolf Theatre Company's August: Osage County won Best Play, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, Best Featured Actress in a Play and Best Scenic Design.
The award we are most excited about, of course, is Anna D. Shapiro winning Best Director of a Play. We are honored to have Anna come to Lookingglass in the spring of 2009. She will co-direct our production of Our Town along with Jessica Thebus. The production will feature Ensemble Members Thomas J. Cox,
Christine Mary Dunford, Laura Eason, Raymond
Fox, David Catlin, David Kersnar, David Schwimmer, Joey Slotnick, Heidi Stillman, Tracy Walsh, and Andrew White with
Artistic
Associate Louise Lamson.
Designers
include Ensemble Member John Musial (scenic
design) and Artistic Associate Andre Pluess (sound design), with Janice
Pytel (costume design), J.R. Lederle (lighting design) and Kevin
O’Donnell (music composition). The
production stage manager will be Artistic Associate Sara Gmitter and
the assistant stage manager will be Production
Affiliate Patia Bartlett.
The only way to guarantee your seats to this remarkable reunion of Lookingglass Ensemble Members is by subscribing to our 2008-2009 Season, which includes The Brothers Karamazov, Our Town, and The Arabian Nights. Ensemble and company participation is at an all-time high for this season, with more than 25 company members participating as actors, directors, writers, designers and stage managers.
We hope you will join us - subscriptions start at just $81 for all three plays!
Click here for more information about subscribing.
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