Couple of quick hits today, AGL was in the news this weekend, some of it good news (the triumphant return of Stephen Currens to the stage in Lexington) some of it daunting news (yes, we are being hammered by the economy, just like everyone else.) Here are a couple of links to recent articles:
Article one is the front page article in yesterday's Herald Leader about how the economy is hurting arts organizations across the state. Yes, AGL is in a precarious place...it's funny reading the comments section with people saying essentially the arts are on their own. Corporate America is the biggest welfare recipient in the world and Corporate America more consistently abuses that than any other entity pretty much in the history of civilized society...In the arts, we are consistently told we need to run our organizations like a business...hmmm...perhaps in the 21st century, businesses will start having to be run like arts organizations. I guarantee you if the Big 3 automakers had to run as tight a ship as we do with such a slim margin of error, there would be no need for a bailout, same with Wall Street...but I digress. Pardon me while I get down off my soapbox...
The next piece deals with the magnificent Stephen Currens, appearing on AGL's stage in THE FANTASTICKS for the first time and in Lexington for the first time in years. His performance alone is worth the price of admission to THE FANTASTICKS and his performance is only one of many delights the show brings to the stage. We are running it this weekend, Dec. 26-28 and the first weekend of the New Year. If you are having a STAYCATION, instead of travelling this holiday season, and you have a house full of people you are trying to figure out what to do with, bring them down to the DAC and see this delightful gem of a production...
On to Pogue's Daily Words of Theatrical Wisdom, which are heartfelt to me today:
"I don't like grand terms such as 'artistic vision' because I don't believe I have one. For me, the absolute necessity was to work with actors of different cultures and backgrounds and play in front of different audiences."
--Director Peter Brook, who has announced that there will be a gradual transition at his Paris theatre, the Bouffes du Nord, to ease in a new generation of directors to run the space--
Peter Brook is an idol to me. I have met famous athletes and actors, I'm not in awe of anybody but I think if I had the opportunity to meet Peter Brook I would be in awe of him. I think he is the single most influential director of the 20th century. He is 83 years old and still working regularly, though he is passing on the running of his theatre in Paris. In reading autobiographies of guys like Peter Hall and Richard Eyre, GIANTS OF WORLD THEATRE, when they speak of Brook they speak in kind of reverential terms. When he praises their work, they come off like giddy school boys. AGL would not exist had it not been for his book The Empty Space, which redefined the notion of theatrical space and how we approach it. It literally made Black Box theatre's possible:
"I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all I need for an act of theatre to be engaged."
The first sentence in The Empty Space shattered the proscenium arch forever. Brook is a giant and as the world has moved on, I wonder if we will ever see another theatre figure like him.
Finally, a funny story that illustrates how small the world of theatre is and how old I am getting personally...
As you may or may not know, I am currently in rehearsal for a production of HAMLET (starring the great Adam Luckey), which will open at the Temple Theatre in Sanford, NC January 9. The role of Ophelia is being played by Anne Elizabeth Butler, a terrific actor and 2004 Duke grad (don't hold that against her Big Blue Nation) who happens to be from my hometown of Newport News, VA. While we were on a break in rehearsal on Friday, the conversation turned to plays that have plays within plays (like The Mousetrap in Hamlet wherein Hamlet catches the conscience of the King) and the conversation was centered around The King and I. I mentioned Tuptim's Uncle Tom's Cabin adaptation as an example and said, I love that musical...it was the first play I ever saw, I was a junior in college (yes I am a late bloomer) and my future wife Lara played Anna in the show...So I said, "That's the show I saw my wife in for the first time, when I was in college." Anne, my Ophelia, said, "Wait, did you go to Christopher Newport University?" "Yes", said I..."I was in that show", she replied; "I was like 8 and played one of the King's children"...At which point I had to sit down as suddenly I saw my mortality flash before my eyes. Then I called my wife and taunted her about the fact that one of her 8 year old school children from The King and I was standing before me playing Ophelia...Lara felt older than I do!!
That's all for now...happy happy happy holidays!! Come see THE FANTASTICKS! You will not be disappointed...
Peace and Love
Rick St. Peter
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