Posted by Bruce Miller
I just got home. It's 11:15 pm. I rehearsed from 10 to 5 today, teching Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. And now I'll be up for several hours preparing for the adult Sunday School class that I'll lead tomorrow morning at 9:30 am. I have no time to write this, and three things that I have to write about:
1 -- last night's Opening of the Paul and Phyllis Galanti Education Center at the Virginia War Memorial, where I was privileged to be from 6 pm until 7:50 pm;
2 -- last night's Opening of Shipwrecked! An Entertainment at Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn, where I was delighted to be from 8:05 pm until around 11:30ish (there was a party); and
3 -- tonight's performance of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Firehouse, that I was thrilled to attend.
I'll say this and then write more about each of these three rewarding events later.
In many ways, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is one of the best theatrical productions I've ever seen in Richmond. It's an intense, demanding and disturbing play. If you're timid, prudish or care only for theatre that delights and entertains, it may not be your cup of tea and sympathy.
However, if you care about theatre that digs deep, that provokes, startles, questions and challenges--if you care about professional theatre as an art form and a calling, and support its practice in Central Virginia, ring up or log into the Firehouse box office today and reserve your tickets ASAP.
More later.
--Bruce Miller
Showing posts with label Shipwrecked. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shipwrecked. Show all posts
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
A Smile a Day Keeps the Mortician Away
Posted by Bruce Miller
New research from Wayne State University in Detroit indicates that those who are most likely to be photographed with a big grin on their face can count on living a longer life.
Kathleen Doheny reports in HealthDay News that scientists have completed a study involving the evaluation of photographs of 230 Major League Baseball players, all of whom began their careers prior to 1950. The size and intensity of each ball player's smile was rated on a scale from nonexistent to robust. "People who had the most intense smiles lived the longest," said Ernest L. Abel, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and psychology at Wayne State.
"The more intense smile, we infer, indicates an underlying happiness, if you will, a more positive attitude," he said. "It's hard to fake an intense smile."
As of June 1, 2009, all but 46 of the 230 players had died. On average, the longevity of the non-smilers was 72.9 years, 75 years for the partial smilers, and 79.9 years for the big smilers. The big smilers had what is known as a Duchenne smile, named after the French neurologist who discovered it. Cheeks and the corners of the mouth are raised, and crows-feet wrinkles appear around the eyes.
To get your Duchenne smile (and the extended lifespan that comes with it), we invite you to come see Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, opening this Friday at Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn, starring Joe Inscoe, Scott Wichmann and Carolyn Meade.
Then you can keep smiling with Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the bluegrass gospel musical, starring Drew Perkins, Kelly Kennedy, Aly Wepplo, David Janeski, Emily Cole, Billy Christopher Maupin, and Eric Williams. Smoke ... Homecoming is Part III in the Sanders Family trilogy, and it opens the following Friday at Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern.
I can think of few more enjoyable ways to get crows-feet wrinkles to appear around your eyes. Hope to see you at the theatre!
--Bruce Miller
New research from Wayne State University in Detroit indicates that those who are most likely to be photographed with a big grin on their face can count on living a longer life.Kathleen Doheny reports in HealthDay News that scientists have completed a study involving the evaluation of photographs of 230 Major League Baseball players, all of whom began their careers prior to 1950. The size and intensity of each ball player's smile was rated on a scale from nonexistent to robust. "People who had the most intense smiles lived the longest," said Ernest L. Abel, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and psychology at Wayne State.
"The more intense smile, we infer, indicates an underlying happiness, if you will, a more positive attitude," he said. "It's hard to fake an intense smile."
As of June 1, 2009, all but 46 of the 230 players had died. On average, the longevity of the non-smilers was 72.9 years, 75 years for the partial smilers, and 79.9 years for the big smilers. The big smilers had what is known as a Duchenne smile, named after the French neurologist who discovered it. Cheeks and the corners of the mouth are raised, and crows-feet wrinkles appear around the eyes.
To get your Duchenne smile (and the extended lifespan that comes with it), we invite you to come see Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, opening this Friday at Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn, starring Joe Inscoe, Scott Wichmann and Carolyn Meade.
Then you can keep smiling with Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the bluegrass gospel musical, starring Drew Perkins, Kelly Kennedy, Aly Wepplo, David Janeski, Emily Cole, Billy Christopher Maupin, and Eric Williams. Smoke ... Homecoming is Part III in the Sanders Family trilogy, and it opens the following Friday at Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern.
I can think of few more enjoyable ways to get crows-feet wrinkles to appear around your eyes. Hope to see you at the theatre!
--Bruce Miller
Saturday, May 15, 2010
A Look Back / A Look Ahead
Posted by Bruce Miller
Phil, Donna, Terrie and I celebrated the 35th Anniversary of the founding of Theatre IV last night at the opening of The Sound of Music. It was on May 14, 1975 that the State Corporation Commission officially recognized Theatre IV's birth as a nonprofit business in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The years have flown by. I can think of no more satisfying way to pay tribute to the past than to sit proudly in that audience, enjoying a magnificent production that so significantly heralds Theatre IV's future.
If you don't have your tickets to The Sound of Music yet, you'd better hurry. It's a terrific show--extraordinarily moving and entertaining. If it doesn't become the smash hit of the season, I'll eat my Tyrolean hat.
The Sound of Music is the final show in Barksdale's (and Theatre IV's) 2009-10 Signature Season. Two days ago, subscriptions went on sale for the 2010-11 Barksdale roster. I'm very proud of the titles that are, as the characters in our first play might say, in the offing. Here's a sneak peek at our new season's opener.
Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - by Donald Margulies
Acting treasures Joe Inscoe and Scott Wichmann appear together for the first time (it's hard to believe, but that's what Scotty tells me) in this thrilling, brand new comic adventure, the latest offering from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (and current Tony nominee), Donald Margulies.
Margulies is also the author of Brooklyn Boy and Collected Stories (both produced in the last decade at Barksdale) and Dinner with Friends (a relatively recent offering at the Firehouse).
Margulies created this ingenious frolic in response to the recent spate of discredited memoirs, such as A Million Little Pieces, the allegedly nonfiction bestseller penned by James Frey and selected by Oprah Winfrey for her star-maker book club. Shipwrecked! An Entertainment presents itself as a theatrical defense offered by a discredited memoirist from days gone by (the real-life fantasist Louis De Rougemont), and offers a consideration of the validity of both literal and metaphorical truth.
But I won't make it all sound too serious. This show is a hoot and a half.
The real-life De Rougemont was quite a character. Consider this bio excerpted from Wikipedia (a reliable source for literal truth if ever there was one):
Louis De Rougemont (Nov 12 1847 - June 9 1921) was a would-be explorer who claimed to have had adventures in "Australasia." He was born Henri Louis Grin (love that name) in 1847 in Suchy, Switzerland. He left home at the age of 16, and found employment in a variety of jobs, including a footman for the actress Fanny Kemble, a servant to a Swiss banker, and a butler for the Governor of Western Australia. He worked as a doctor, a "spirit photographer," and an inventor. He married and abandoned an Australian wife.
In 1898, Grin began to write about invented adventures in the British periodical The Wide World Magazine, writing under the name Louis De Rougemont. He described his alleged exploits in search of pearls and gold in New Guinea, and claimed to have spent 30 years with "Indigenous Australians" in the outback. He claimed that the tribe with whom he had lived had worshipped him as a god.
Various readers expressed disbelief in his tales from the start, claiming, for example, that no one can actually ride a sea turtle. De Rougemont had also claimed to have seen flying wombats. The fact that he refused to place his travels on the map aroused suspicion. Readers' arguments in the pages of the London newspaper, The Daily Chronicle, continued for months.
De Rougemont subjected himself to examination by the Royal Geographical Society. He claimed that he could not specify exactly where he had been because he had signed a non-disclosure agreement with a syndicate that wanted to exploit the gold he had found in the area. He also refused to talk about Aboriginal languages he had supposedly learned. Still, his supporters continued to find precedents to his exploits, fervently wanting to believe that his adventures were real.
In 1898, The Daily Chronicle announced that a businessman named F. W. Solomon had recognized De Rougemont and identified him as Louis Grin. Australian journalist Edwin Greenslade Murphy also helped to expose him, claiming that his memoirs consisted mainly of collected tidbits gathered during visits to the Reading Room of the British Library.
Grin defended himself by writing a letter to The Daily Chronicle, using his original name, and expressing consternation that anybody would confuse him with Louis De Rougemont. The Daily Chronicle was very willing to publish the letter. The Wide World Magazine exploited the situation by preparing a Christmas double issue of De Rougemont's adventures. Sales of both papers soared. De Rougemont himself disappeared from the public view.
In 1899, Grin travelled to South Africa as a music-hall attraction: "The Greatest Liar on Earth." On a similar 1901 tour of Australia, he was booed from the stage. In 1906, he appeared at the London Hippodrome and successfully demonstrated his turtle-riding skills. During World War I, he reappeared as an inventor of a useless meat substitute. He died penniless in London in 1921.
Joe Inscoe will play De Rougemont. Scotty Wichmann and an actress yet to be cast will appear as all the other characters in Grin's life and imagination. If you want to catch Inscoe riding a sea turtle (with Wichmann at shotgun?), don't miss Shipwrecked! An Entertainment.
I hope you'll subscribe today, and encourage your friends to join you. All of Richmond's professional theatres need your support.
--Bruce Miller
Phil, Donna, Terrie and I celebrated the 35th Anniversary of the founding of Theatre IV last night at the opening of The Sound of Music. It was on May 14, 1975 that the State Corporation Commission officially recognized Theatre IV's birth as a nonprofit business in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The years have flown by. I can think of no more satisfying way to pay tribute to the past than to sit proudly in that audience, enjoying a magnificent production that so significantly heralds Theatre IV's future.If you don't have your tickets to The Sound of Music yet, you'd better hurry. It's a terrific show--extraordinarily moving and entertaining. If it doesn't become the smash hit of the season, I'll eat my Tyrolean hat.
The Sound of Music is the final show in Barksdale's (and Theatre IV's) 2009-10 Signature Season. Two days ago, subscriptions went on sale for the 2010-11 Barksdale roster. I'm very proud of the titles that are, as the characters in our first play might say, in the offing. Here's a sneak peek at our new season's opener.
Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - by Donald Margulies
Acting treasures Joe Inscoe and Scott Wichmann appear together for the first time (it's hard to believe, but that's what Scotty tells me) in this thrilling, brand new comic adventure, the latest offering from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (and current Tony nominee), Donald Margulies.Margulies is also the author of Brooklyn Boy and Collected Stories (both produced in the last decade at Barksdale) and Dinner with Friends (a relatively recent offering at the Firehouse).
Margulies created this ingenious frolic in response to the recent spate of discredited memoirs, such as A Million Little Pieces, the allegedly nonfiction bestseller penned by James Frey and selected by Oprah Winfrey for her star-maker book club. Shipwrecked! An Entertainment presents itself as a theatrical defense offered by a discredited memoirist from days gone by (the real-life fantasist Louis De Rougemont), and offers a consideration of the validity of both literal and metaphorical truth.
But I won't make it all sound too serious. This show is a hoot and a half.
The real-life De Rougemont was quite a character. Consider this bio excerpted from Wikipedia (a reliable source for literal truth if ever there was one):
Louis De Rougemont (Nov 12 1847 - June 9 1921) was a would-be explorer who claimed to have had adventures in "Australasia." He was born Henri Louis Grin (love that name) in 1847 in Suchy, Switzerland. He left home at the age of 16, and found employment in a variety of jobs, including a footman for the actress Fanny Kemble, a servant to a Swiss banker, and a butler for the Governor of Western Australia. He worked as a doctor, a "spirit photographer," and an inventor. He married and abandoned an Australian wife.
In 1898, Grin began to write about invented adventures in the British periodical The Wide World Magazine, writing under the name Louis De Rougemont. He described his alleged exploits in search of pearls and gold in New Guinea, and claimed to have spent 30 years with "Indigenous Australians" in the outback. He claimed that the tribe with whom he had lived had worshipped him as a god.Various readers expressed disbelief in his tales from the start, claiming, for example, that no one can actually ride a sea turtle. De Rougemont had also claimed to have seen flying wombats. The fact that he refused to place his travels on the map aroused suspicion. Readers' arguments in the pages of the London newspaper, The Daily Chronicle, continued for months.
De Rougemont subjected himself to examination by the Royal Geographical Society. He claimed that he could not specify exactly where he had been because he had signed a non-disclosure agreement with a syndicate that wanted to exploit the gold he had found in the area. He also refused to talk about Aboriginal languages he had supposedly learned. Still, his supporters continued to find precedents to his exploits, fervently wanting to believe that his adventures were real.
In 1898, The Daily Chronicle announced that a businessman named F. W. Solomon had recognized De Rougemont and identified him as Louis Grin. Australian journalist Edwin Greenslade Murphy also helped to expose him, claiming that his memoirs consisted mainly of collected tidbits gathered during visits to the Reading Room of the British Library.
Grin defended himself by writing a letter to The Daily Chronicle, using his original name, and expressing consternation that anybody would confuse him with Louis De Rougemont. The Daily Chronicle was very willing to publish the letter. The Wide World Magazine exploited the situation by preparing a Christmas double issue of De Rougemont's adventures. Sales of both papers soared. De Rougemont himself disappeared from the public view.
In 1899, Grin travelled to South Africa as a music-hall attraction: "The Greatest Liar on Earth." On a similar 1901 tour of Australia, he was booed from the stage. In 1906, he appeared at the London Hippodrome and successfully demonstrated his turtle-riding skills. During World War I, he reappeared as an inventor of a useless meat substitute. He died penniless in London in 1921.
Joe Inscoe will play De Rougemont. Scotty Wichmann and an actress yet to be cast will appear as all the other characters in Grin's life and imagination. If you want to catch Inscoe riding a sea turtle (with Wichmann at shotgun?), don't miss Shipwrecked! An Entertainment.
I hope you'll subscribe today, and encourage your friends to join you. All of Richmond's professional theatres need your support.
--Bruce Miller
Friday, May 14, 2010
Announcing Barksdale's 2010-11 Signature Season
Posted by Bruce Miller 
"Brilliant" - defined by TheFreeDictionary.com as "Full of light. Shining." Exactly how I feel about the five plus one shows in Barksdale's 2010-11 Signature Season.
Somewhere near the top of the list of my most important responsibilities is selecting which plays we will produce. Play selection is not something I do alone or in a vacuum. Suggestions come from virtually everywhere (Board members, subscribers, single ticket buyers, teachers, theatre artists of all stripes, contributors). I honestly appreciate and benefit from all the ideas you throw my way.
Direct input into the process comes from Phil Whiteway (of course, he's the one who has to pay the bills), Chase Kniffen (he will assist me in selecting the artistic teams that will bring each title to life), Sara Marsden (she'll sell the tickets), Judi Crenshaw (she has to articulate the strengths of each title to the media outlets and the general public), plus Joy Ross Davis (group sales), Sue Griffin (costumes), Bruce Rennie (tech director), and several others.
At the end of the day, the buck stops with me. If you hate (or love) a play produced by Barksdale, I'm the guy to blame (or congratulate).
From the millions of titles that exist (surely the world must have given birth to at least several million comedies, dramas and musicals by now), there are perhaps a couple hundred titles that make it on to one or another of the lists that always float around the Barksdale offices. From this wealth of great work, five or six titles ultimately emerge. The criteria against which each title is assessed are:
* is it a "great" play (Barksdale's mission is to produce "the great comedies, dramas and musicals--past, present and future")
* do we have the capacity, based on existing resources, to produce a first class production (our mission charges us to create "national caliber productions")
* will our production be fresh, unique and alive
* will it captivate the audience
* does it have the potential to expand our subscription base (lots of lengthy and very personal discussion here; remember, the productions that have passed this test include everything from Guys and Dolls to Intimate Apparel to Boleros for the Disenchanted to The Little Dog Laughed to Cyrano de Bergerac to Melissa Arctic to Is He Dead?)
* does it add to the diversity and breadth of our work and offer new opportunities to our artists and audiences (we try very hard not to produce on our Willow Lawn season the same type of play over and over again)
* is there or will there be a considerable font of energy created around this title among our artistic leadership and family
* is there a unique "hook" that will allow us to extend this energy to single ticket buyers, group sales leaders, and playgoers / playmakers at large
* does the season feel good as a whole--is the total greater than the sum of its parts
* would the season make our founders (Pete, Muriel and Nancy) proud; will it engender pride among our Board of Trustees and staff
This year there was a special emphasis on a final criteria.
* Will it make money?
With the continuing sluggishness in the economy, the significant declines in governmental and corporate support, and the increasing competition coming from CenterStage and the "Broadway" season, there is no margin for financial error. I know that admission is not very high-minded. I'm just being honest.
Five titles (with a sixth subscriber option) have run this gauntlet and emerged with colors flying. I'm very excited to announce Barksdale Theatre's 57th Signature Season!
Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - by Donald Margulies
White Christmas - Music & Lyrics by Irving Berlin, Book by David Ives & Paul Blake
Legacy of Light - by Karen Zacarias
Contemporary Broadway comedy - title TBA
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek, Book by Jeffrey Lane
The Bluest Eye - by Lydia Diamond, based on the novel by Toni Morrison
More to come tomorrow about each of these wonderful shows. I hope you'll subscribe!
--Bruce
"Brilliant" - defined by TheFreeDictionary.com as "Full of light. Shining." Exactly how I feel about the five plus one shows in Barksdale's 2010-11 Signature Season.
Somewhere near the top of the list of my most important responsibilities is selecting which plays we will produce. Play selection is not something I do alone or in a vacuum. Suggestions come from virtually everywhere (Board members, subscribers, single ticket buyers, teachers, theatre artists of all stripes, contributors). I honestly appreciate and benefit from all the ideas you throw my way.
Direct input into the process comes from Phil Whiteway (of course, he's the one who has to pay the bills), Chase Kniffen (he will assist me in selecting the artistic teams that will bring each title to life), Sara Marsden (she'll sell the tickets), Judi Crenshaw (she has to articulate the strengths of each title to the media outlets and the general public), plus Joy Ross Davis (group sales), Sue Griffin (costumes), Bruce Rennie (tech director), and several others.
At the end of the day, the buck stops with me. If you hate (or love) a play produced by Barksdale, I'm the guy to blame (or congratulate).
From the millions of titles that exist (surely the world must have given birth to at least several million comedies, dramas and musicals by now), there are perhaps a couple hundred titles that make it on to one or another of the lists that always float around the Barksdale offices. From this wealth of great work, five or six titles ultimately emerge. The criteria against which each title is assessed are:
* is it a "great" play (Barksdale's mission is to produce "the great comedies, dramas and musicals--past, present and future")
* do we have the capacity, based on existing resources, to produce a first class production (our mission charges us to create "national caliber productions")
* will our production be fresh, unique and alive
* will it captivate the audience
* does it have the potential to expand our subscription base (lots of lengthy and very personal discussion here; remember, the productions that have passed this test include everything from Guys and Dolls to Intimate Apparel to Boleros for the Disenchanted to The Little Dog Laughed to Cyrano de Bergerac to Melissa Arctic to Is He Dead?)
* does it add to the diversity and breadth of our work and offer new opportunities to our artists and audiences (we try very hard not to produce on our Willow Lawn season the same type of play over and over again)
* is there or will there be a considerable font of energy created around this title among our artistic leadership and family
* is there a unique "hook" that will allow us to extend this energy to single ticket buyers, group sales leaders, and playgoers / playmakers at large
* does the season feel good as a whole--is the total greater than the sum of its parts
* would the season make our founders (Pete, Muriel and Nancy) proud; will it engender pride among our Board of Trustees and staff
This year there was a special emphasis on a final criteria.
* Will it make money?
With the continuing sluggishness in the economy, the significant declines in governmental and corporate support, and the increasing competition coming from CenterStage and the "Broadway" season, there is no margin for financial error. I know that admission is not very high-minded. I'm just being honest.
Five titles (with a sixth subscriber option) have run this gauntlet and emerged with colors flying. I'm very excited to announce Barksdale Theatre's 57th Signature Season!
Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - by Donald Margulies
White Christmas - Music & Lyrics by Irving Berlin, Book by David Ives & Paul Blake
Legacy of Light - by Karen Zacarias
Contemporary Broadway comedy - title TBA
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek, Book by Jeffrey Lane
The Bluest Eye - by Lydia Diamond, based on the novel by Toni Morrison
More to come tomorrow about each of these wonderful shows. I hope you'll subscribe!
--Bruce
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