I have a mental picture
Of me on a street corner, impatiently tapping my foot and looking at my watch, and saying "It's about damn time" as Friday afternoon saunters up. Slow motherfucker.
I forgot to mention - we got a double nod in City Pages this week!
The A-List
A Streetcar Named Desire
Last year's film Broadway: The Golden Age was chock-full of interviews and anecdotes from the heyday of the American theater, but one of the most startling moments came from a static-filled audiotape. It was a snippet of Marlon Brando playing Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's unhinged family drama, and in that recording could be discerned the yearning power and danger that made the role, and the actor, great. This production by Actors Equity Showcase Code stars some names familiar to the local stage as well as some up-and-comers. The director is the ever-busy Zach Curtis, who is fresh off directing Richard III for Starting Gate Productions and playing a psychotic rustic relief pitcher in Mixed Blood Theatre's Take Me Out. This is, in the right hands, theatrical nitroglycerine. $15 suggested donation. 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. --Quinton Skinner EVERY TH-SU MAY 27-JUN 12, 2005
Minneapolis Theater Garage
711 W Franklin Ave, Mpls.; 612.870.0723
and the Spotlight
Richard III
With this show, Starting Gate Productions bids farewell to the Loading Dock Theater as the company prepares to relocate one freeway exit east, to the Mounds Theatre. The cast of Richard III is headed by a fine performance by Garry Geiken as Shakespeare's most black-hearted villain. Geiken's Richard is a man in constant pain from his deformities, whose chief pleasure in life is derived from the dark ironies that arise from his malicious manipulation of all those around him. Because the theater is so intimate, the production affords an opportunity to watch all the subtlety of an outstanding depiction. Director Zach Curtis has put the action in an indeterminate historical setting, Steven M. Kath's set design being primarily composed of sheets of battered metal, so a lack of knowledge of the considerable historical background behind the action isn't an insurmountable impediment. While the supporting cast ranges from unexceptional to quite good, Craig Johnson provides an interesting wrinkle--over the course of several quick costume changes, he portrays two of Richard's brothers and then his elderly mother. Johnson produces unique textures in each performance, working up to the thunderous outbreak of the Duchess of York condemning and cursing her bloodthirsty offspring. It's a long night, at three hours including intermission, but Geiken and the sheer power of the play keep things from bogging down. There's a bit of a letdown toward the end, when the bare-bones sets and costumes prove not quite up to the task of Richard's battlefield showdown with Richmond, but it remains a tight production with a solid pace and sense of intelligence throughout. By the time Richard, in his tent the day before his death, faces the realization that no one on earth would lament his demise, Geiken has shown all the reasons why this should be the case. Still, he makes the awful Richard charming along the way, and this epitome of twisted evil provides ample fascination when brought to life by such skilled work.
Starting Gate Productions at the Loading Dock Theater
through May 28 - 651.645.3503
Rock on.
I still need to get home, run 5 miles, prettify myself, and get to the theater in time to house manage for the opening of Streetcar. Have to figure out what I'm wearing. I don't have much late 40s-esque stuff, and I always like trying to vaguely fit in with the production.
Want to go to a drag king show this weekend. I blame mearagrrl for this.
Am probably going to the midnight showing of the European release of Brazil at the Uptown on Saturday. I've never seen the film. Ever. I feel this should be corrected. So, I will suck down lots of caffeine tomorrow in the hopes of staying up that late.
I forgot to mention - we got a double nod in City Pages this week!
The A-List
A Streetcar Named Desire
Last year's film Broadway: The Golden Age was chock-full of interviews and anecdotes from the heyday of the American theater, but one of the most startling moments came from a static-filled audiotape. It was a snippet of Marlon Brando playing Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's unhinged family drama, and in that recording could be discerned the yearning power and danger that made the role, and the actor, great. This production by Actors Equity Showcase Code stars some names familiar to the local stage as well as some up-and-comers. The director is the ever-busy Zach Curtis, who is fresh off directing Richard III for Starting Gate Productions and playing a psychotic rustic relief pitcher in Mixed Blood Theatre's Take Me Out. This is, in the right hands, theatrical nitroglycerine. $15 suggested donation. 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. --Quinton Skinner EVERY TH-SU MAY 27-JUN 12, 2005
Minneapolis Theater Garage
711 W Franklin Ave, Mpls.; 612.870.0723
and the Spotlight
Richard III
With this show, Starting Gate Productions bids farewell to the Loading Dock Theater as the company prepares to relocate one freeway exit east, to the Mounds Theatre. The cast of Richard III is headed by a fine performance by Garry Geiken as Shakespeare's most black-hearted villain. Geiken's Richard is a man in constant pain from his deformities, whose chief pleasure in life is derived from the dark ironies that arise from his malicious manipulation of all those around him. Because the theater is so intimate, the production affords an opportunity to watch all the subtlety of an outstanding depiction. Director Zach Curtis has put the action in an indeterminate historical setting, Steven M. Kath's set design being primarily composed of sheets of battered metal, so a lack of knowledge of the considerable historical background behind the action isn't an insurmountable impediment. While the supporting cast ranges from unexceptional to quite good, Craig Johnson provides an interesting wrinkle--over the course of several quick costume changes, he portrays two of Richard's brothers and then his elderly mother. Johnson produces unique textures in each performance, working up to the thunderous outbreak of the Duchess of York condemning and cursing her bloodthirsty offspring. It's a long night, at three hours including intermission, but Geiken and the sheer power of the play keep things from bogging down. There's a bit of a letdown toward the end, when the bare-bones sets and costumes prove not quite up to the task of Richard's battlefield showdown with Richmond, but it remains a tight production with a solid pace and sense of intelligence throughout. By the time Richard, in his tent the day before his death, faces the realization that no one on earth would lament his demise, Geiken has shown all the reasons why this should be the case. Still, he makes the awful Richard charming along the way, and this epitome of twisted evil provides ample fascination when brought to life by such skilled work.
Starting Gate Productions at the Loading Dock Theater
through May 28 - 651.645.3503
Rock on.
I still need to get home, run 5 miles, prettify myself, and get to the theater in time to house manage for the opening of Streetcar. Have to figure out what I'm wearing. I don't have much late 40s-esque stuff, and I always like trying to vaguely fit in with the production.
Want to go to a drag king show this weekend. I blame mearagrrl for this.
Am probably going to the midnight showing of the European release of Brazil at the Uptown on Saturday. I've never seen the film. Ever. I feel this should be corrected. So, I will suck down lots of caffeine tomorrow in the hopes of staying up that late.