Counting down the days till I get out of Nac...
i can't wait.
McKellen to bring 'Lear' to Guthrie
Minneapolis, New York and Los Angeles are the only U.S. stops for the production. The visit is one of the highlights of the 2007-08 season, announced Monday.
By Graydon Royce, Star Tribune
New adaptations of "Jane Eyre" and "Peer Gynt" highlight the Guthrie's new season, although the most newsworthy production is a tour planned for October. Minneapolis is one of three U.S. cities that actor Ian McKellen will visit with his portrayal of "King Lear," directed by Trevor Nunn for the Royal Shakespeare Company. It will run in repertory with Chekhov's "The Seagull."It's a very expensive operation, and we're going to have to sell out and subsidize with fundraising, but it's worth it," director Joe Dowling said Monday. "This is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." The tour's only other stops are New York and Los Angeles.
On the Wurtele Thrust stage, Alan Stanford's new adaptation of "Jane Eyre" opens the season in September. Twin Cities actor Stacia Rice takes her first lead role at the Guthrie in Charlotte Brontë's story. Guthrie associate John Miller-Stephany directs.
Minnesota poet Robert Bly will take a whack at Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt," a fantasy that ranges from fjords to the inner psyche. "Peer Gynt" was five hours long at the Guthrie in 1983. Bly's script will be "muscular and spareOf cour," said Dowling.
Bly "is a highly respected poet and a man of these parts who understands the Scandinavian sensibility," Dowling said. "This will be shorter than five hours, but you know, you can't do 'Peer Gynt' without cracking a few eggs."
Dowling will direct "A Midsummer Night's Dream" starting in April 2008 and will conclude the Thrust stage's season, with Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's "The Government Inspector," opening in July 2008
Gary Gisselman returns to direct "A Christmas Carol" over the holidays.
In the proscenium
In the 700-seat McGuire Proscenium, Peter Rothstein, artistic director of Theatre Latté Da, opens the year in July with Noel Coward's "Private Lives." Dowling follows in September with a staging of Brian Friel's familiar "Dancing at Lughnasa."
Casey Stangl, who directed "Pygmalion" at the main stage, returns to direct Wendy Wasserstein's final play, "Third" next February. Stangl, once head of Eye of the Storm theater in the Twin Cities, lives in Los Angeles.
In May 2008, Marcela Lorca will direct "The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde," by Irish playwright Thomas Kilroy, about the private lives of Oscar Wilde and his wife.
The Guthrie also announced eight shows for the Dowling Studio, of which five will be produced by local companies. Highlights include "The Pillowman" by Martin McDonagh, to be staged by Wendy Knox for Frank Theatre, and Robert Berdahl's look at musician Tom Waits, "Warm Beer, Cold Women."
For more information and tickets, call 612-377-2224 or go to www.guthrietheater.org.