GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI for May 30, 2017
By: Jeffrey Ellis May. 30, 2017
GOOD MORNING, THEATERATI! It's Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - and we hope you've sufficiently recovered from Memorial Day Weekend so that you're able to face the rest of the week with the necessary intent to achieve all that's possible in a world where white pants and white shoes are acceptable (it's summer, after all...well, unofficially, from a social standpoint)! All of this prompts us to ask the musical question: What did you do this holiday weekend?
Social media was fairly abuzz with all manner of outings and adventures perpetrated by the theaterati, including both Amy Prough Stumpfl and Nancy Allen attending a performance of Hamilton in Chicago, where Belmont University Musical Theatre alumni Candace Quarrels and Chris Lee are starring! Along with the Nashville Predators' debut in the Stanley Cup Final (despite a 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins), that seemed to be the buzziest outing of the weekend! Whatever you were up to over the holiday weekend, we hope you remembered our admonition to live life dramatically!
In the meantime, closer to home, a lot of people were going to the movies, only to discover that Nashville-based actor/musician and front man to his eponymous band DE LA TORRE - Anthony De La Torre - was playing the young Jack Sparrow in the latest entry in the Pirates of the Caribbean saga! As Walt Disney Pictures prepared to unveil the $300 million-plus blockbuster in cinemas around the world Friday, actor and musician Anthony De La Torre took to Facebook to confirm his role as Young Jack Sparrow. De La Torre is featured in a back story about "Young Jack" in the highly anticipated fifth installment of the hit film franchise. De La Torre, who bears a striking resemblance to a young Johnny Depp, posted a photo of himself from the film's trailer in costume as Young Jack on Facebook with the caption: "The word is out... I am the Young Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Collaborating with Johnny Depp in creating this character was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life. Anthony De La Torre is 2nd generation Cuban-American from Bowling Green, Ohio with deep roots living in Nashville and working with award-winning songwriter and producer Desmond Child. The front man of self-titled rock band DE LA TORRE independently released their 2nd single "Paradise." He also portrays drummer Hellhammer from Norwegian black metal band "Mayhem" in Jonas Åkerlund and Ridley Scott's bio-pic thriller Lords of Chaos (2017) and plays drums in Metallica's music video "ManUNkind" featuring the Lords of Chaos cast. Anthony also stars in the title role of upcoming teen horror parody Johnny Gruesome (2017). He made his television acting debut as Latin heart-throb Anthony Del Rey in the hit Nickelodeon sitcom 100 Things To Do Before High School (2016).
#herecomethenuns Bradley Moore and company continue to pound it out at Chaffins Barn, A Dinner Theatre, in preparation for next week's opening of Sister Act, The Musical, which opens Thursday, June 8. Choreographer Everett Tarlton is putting the cast through its paces as they learn his dance steps for "Spread the Love Around." We'll be sharing photos and gossip from the Barn during the run-up to the show's premiere. #herecomethenuns #hashtagsmakeusnervous
Talkbacks - you know, those after-show discussions among cast/crew and the vast unwashed hordes in the audience - are a hot topic (thank you, David Mamet!) this week, which has got us to wondering what you think about: (A) Talkbacks, in general, do you like them? Are they edifying or mind-numbingly self-absorbed? and (2) What about Mamet's latest dust-up, in regard to threatening to fine a theater company for hosting a talkback about Oleanna within two hours of curtain? Your thoughts, gentle readers? Those are the questions we put to our followers on Facebook and the conversation it started was interesting, to say the least:
Kenny Holcomb He needs to get over himself and be glad people are producing his plays. Check your ego at the door.
Paula Makar As an actor they're not my favorite activity, but as an educator I find them important, particularly at the collegiate level.
Mary Hutchens My only thought about the Mamet debacle is that, yes, if he wants to be a horse's ass and prevent all talkbacks on his shows, that's his prerogative. But what he doesn't get to do is fail to put that clause in the contract he signed with a theater company and then FOUR HOURS BEFORE CURTAIN send a threatening letter and demand they sign a new contract that includes the no-talkback clause. That's crap.
Cara Richardson As an audience member, I love talk backs. He does have the right to say one can't be done, but why? And if he doesn't want it to happen, then make sure it's in the contracts. I'd be curious to know his reasoning.
Maryanna Clarke I actually think he shouldn't have the right to say folks can't sit in the theater after the show and discuss what they just saw. He is trying to control public discourse in a theater he does not control, which has just paid produce his play. I think his "authority" should end at "Lights Out."
Raymond Edward Dale Ingram Nope. It was a scheduled talkback, and it was not allowed by the contract. Do you feel allowed to request a time out between the viewing of a play that you've directed and formal panelled discussion about the show? Sometimes time and reflection is necessary for the viewer to come to their own understanding of a piece. As proponents of education, as we are, I do get it that free discussion should not be curbed; sometimes freedom of uninterrpted processing is important too!
Maryanna Clarke Actually, it was not contractually barred until a contract rider was sent to the company on the day of the opening.
Casey Gilbert Talkbacks make me uncomfortable on both sides (actor and audience member). I'd prefer the work stand by itself pretty much all of the time.
Robert Stone I like talk backs and they range from nothing much to ideas that cause me to re-think what I believe about certain things. I probably go to more staged readings than anyone else in Nashville and I do talk back most of the time. My general impression is that playwrights fall into two groups, those who make very few if any changes to their script after they say it is 'finished' and those who make noticeable changes.
Kaul Bluestone Why would a playwright not want people to talk about his/her work? If Mamet didn't want people to discuss the story, he should have kept the ideas in his diary. I say, the more people generate buzz for live theatre the better.
Mike Montgomery Do you mean creating art that's meant to be sold, performed and experienced communally via live performance and then forbidding the willing and, in most cases, paying participants the opportunity to examine and question the feelings that your art elicits? If that's what you mean, then it makes you a self-important, semi-fascist asshole.
Maryanna Clarke Talkbacks can be overused. If the play or the topic spurs discussion, then great, let's have one (let's also press into service a moderator who can lead the discussion, so we don't all just sit there waiting for someone to say something). But, if you...See More
Raymond Edward Dale Ingram I applaud Mamet for that action. Oleanna is some rough shit. It takes a day to let a good production of it sink in enough to talk about. First impressions and expressing them in a "talk-back" is the least effective way to gain insight into deep consensus rumination.
Kenny Holcomb Then you and Mamet can perform it in your living room if you don't want your work discussed.
Maryanna Clarke Respectfully disagree. With whom will you discuss that shared experience if you wait a day? The least effective way to gain insight is to walk away with no possibility for discussion. Several years ago, TWTP commissioned a play about Nashville's immigration experience from the perspective of our new Americans. The discussions that followed in the talkbacks, the feeling shared, the insights gained would never have happened had the audiences simply dispersed after the show and gone home and simply gone on with their lives. Even if they had more time to process the play, they would have had no one -- except perhaps the person with whom they'd attended the show -- to offer insights that may not have occurred to them. Theater is a communal experience that should not be required to end at the curtain call by a diva playwright.
Raymond Edward Dale Ingram I refuse to call Mamet a diva. The Immigration experience kind of requires that the discussion be fresh, and on point of a commissioned piece. Mamet falls under the category of a non-commissioned work. So, he's a diva? Demanding that he have no rights to how his work is presented is much worse.
Raymond Edward Dale Ingram And you know that I'm only advocating for the devil, btw.
Robert Stone I find I don't really understand many things, unless someone raises a question with me, or with others within my hearing. I need to hear what others are saying. I write a lot of poems and almost all of them are reflections of what others have said or written or mentioned as a like.
Maryanna Clarke Raymond Edward Dale Ingram No one is saying he shouldn't have rights to how his work is presented.. Although I will argue that once you set your baby free into the world, you do lose some control (if you buy a painting, the painter can't tell you what room you're allowed to hang it in; if you buy a book, the author can't tell you how and where you're allowed to read it). If you don't want to lose control, only and always produce it yourself. But what he should be allowed to tell a company to do or not to do ends when the play ends.
Jan Vereb Rodems I have enjoyed the few I have attended and feel like Chris Matthews: "tell me something I don't know!" I like hearing twists in the story line that were removed. But to tell me it was a lot of hard work...well, of course...we know that.
Linda Speir I like talkbacks for new works.
Rachel Woods If an audience is willing to sit thru Oleanna and still wants to talk about it by the end of it, Mamet should be grateful. Not that I have an opinion.
John Pyka Talk backs are a great way to generate additional revenue by getting an advertiser to sponsor an opening night talk back reception. I'm a fan.
Beth Anne Musiker Thanks for raising this topic and for the discussion I'm reading here. Mamet aside, not all talkbacks are created equal nor do they provide equal value. I highly recommend reading this report from the Wallace Foundation on a very specific kind of talkback to build deeper relationships with the audience. Nutshell: they designed a program of talkbacks that did NOT involve the actors but used staff and a style of reflective questioning that encouraged the audience to share their observations, thoughts, reactions, opinions, etc. with each other. Very impactful and focuses on the play and its impact. If anyone would like to do this type of audience engagement and beyond, I am more than happy to help you with it! Check it out!
Samuel Whited I'm all for talkbacks. In my experience, they're not so much for text discussion as staging. Either way, I enjoy the interface. There are so many new works and new voices, why would any company continue to program unyielding authors? It's difficult enough to make the rent.
Matthew Carlton I like talking about plays but not always after some productions. I can see where some shows may need to sit with an audience awhile. I say protect an author's words but after the curtain, whether to have an open forum should be the artistic director's call.
From 2013 (look to your right, gentle readers): Introducing "His & Hers," Viener Fest's latest signature cocktail (crafted by mixologist Benjamin Reed), inspired by Blackbird Theatre's upcoming production of David Mamet's Oleanna starring Jennifer Richmond and David Compton, opening next week at the Shamblin Theatre.
A chorus of "Happy Birthday to you" is being warbled, even as we type, to the illustrious and wonderfully off-kilter lighting designer Katie Gant, actor/photographer/videographer David Perlman, Lipscomb Univesity alumna, actress and director Emily Eytchison, founding dean of the Lipscomb University College of Entertainment and the Arts (and director about town) Mike Fernandez, Nashville's peripatetic actress and former hostess of The First Night Honors Tamiko Robinson Steele and UTK student Abby Newman. They share their special date with actress Cornelia Otis Skinner, music man/band leader and clarinetist extraordinaire Benny Goodman, singer/actress/chanteuse Ann Hampton Callaway and the amazing Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change).
From this date in the not-so-distant past comes these nuggets of history from the Broadway World Nashville archives:
/nashville/article/Nashvilles-Sideshow-Fringe-Seeking-Artists-for-2012-Festival-20120530
/nashville/article/BWW-Reviews-Geoff-Davins-REPENTENT-PROSTITUTE-Debuts-20150530
From our Theater Journal, comes this listing of events that transpired on this day in theater history: The New York City Center Light Opera Company staged a revival of Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon in 1962. The John Malkovich-directed revival of George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man opened on Broadway in 1985. Freyda Thomas' updated take on Moliere's classic - known as Tartuffe: Born Again - opened in 1996. In 1999, the second version of Frank Wildhorn's The Scarlet Pimpernel closed at the Minskoff Theatre, followed in September by the third version that played the Neil Simon Theatre. An off-Broadway revival of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, featuring music by Duncan Sheik, opened at Classic Stage Company in 2013, directed by Brian Kulick and starring Christopher Lloyd, Mary Testa and Elizabeth A. Davis.
And that concludes our broadcast for this morning, but we will be back on the scene early tomorrow morning with more of the same! Until then, we hope you'll remember - no matter where on earth you find yourself - that there's no better time than now to CELEBRATE THE MAGIC OF LIVE THEATER!
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