More answers from the questions...
C. You can program an entire season -- five shows -- for your local regional theatre. What five plays or musicals (or operas or circuses or whatever) would you choose?
My friend Ruthanna and I used to have a thing for this one. When we were in undergrad we so much loved the central idea of The Misanthrope that we figured we would open a theatre and simply do that play over and over. So I guess I would do The Misanthrope, followed by AnthropeNot - sort of a reduced Shakespeare troupe version, and then Il Misanthrope the opera, and then perhaps Le Misanthrope a French circus with acrobats and no animals. The season would of course end with Misanthrope! the musical.
(I really hope most of those don't actually exist.)
What are my favorites? Do I have to consider box office? I think the first play I really liked was Inherit the Wind. I think I read that in like 7th or 8th grade. I'm an irrational fan of 1776. My dad took me to see the film at his school once, I must have been in grade school. I saw this play Mnemonic, by a group called Theatre de Complicite, that was unbelievable. I would almost certainly use that.
That's three right?
My upbringing demands another musical. I therefore select Jesus Christ Superstar. I worked on a great production of that show at Maine State Music Theatre. I guess I could pick any of about 100 musicals to fill this slot, or the other one, but these will do. Special mention should go to a show I also did at MSMT called Lucky Guy. It was a new work that was still in development. I thought it was pretty good, but seeing as how I can't find any evidence of it on the net besides direct references to the production I worked on I guess it went no place, which is too bad. I will therefore revive it.
Let's stick Live is a Dream by Lorca in the last slot. That's one of the few plays I've ever liked when reading it.
So, announcing the all David all the time season at no theatre that wants to make a dime:
Looks like I didn't inherit any of the artistic director genes.
2 comments:
wow... imagine writing a mission statement around that season... and what? no "into the woods"? ;-) - lindsay
Hmmm.... it's hard to separate the plays from the productions I've seen of them. Some of these might actually not be as wonderful as they seemed when I saw them done. But.
1. The Death of Meyerhold, by Mark Jackson
2. Big Love, by Charles Mee
3. Nicholas Nickleby, as adapted by Charles Edgar
4. for the musical, Little Shop of Horrors--to which I know almost all the words, even though I was never in it
5. Eurydice, by Sarah Ruhl
6. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
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