Why "Lend Me a Tenor" Made It onto our Signature Season

Posted by Bruce Miller
All right. I won't start out with a fib.

I wanted the first show in our 2011-12 Signature Season to be Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams. When Carol Piersol told me about her idea for a Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival in Richmond, and invited Barksdale to join in with the Firehouse and Triangle Players, I was VERY excited and I wanted to participate. (The pic of Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter, to the right, appears on the Firehouse website as a sort of Festival logo. You can visit http://www.williamscelebration.org/ for more information.)

I knew Summer and Smoke was the perfect show for us to enter into the Festival, because:
a. it's my favorite Williams play,
b. it's been on my list of plays I'm very eager to direct for a long time, and
c. Barksdale co-founder Stu Falconer left his job as stage manager of the landmark Off Broadway production of Summer and Smoke when he moved to Richmond in 1953 to co-found B'dale.

But life is made up of tough choices. Another project that will be taking place during the coming year, about which I am equally passionate, is our upcoming partnership with Cadence Theatre Company, and our co-pros of Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay Abaire, August: Osage County by Tracy Letts, and In the Next Room or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl.

Once Phil, Tracy and I started adding up every nickel and dime that will make up our $5 million annual operating budget, it became clear that I had to choose between partnering with Firehouse and Triangle on the Tennessee Williams Festival or partnering with Anna Johnson on the Cadence co-pros. Obviously, I chose the latter.

But I can't wait to see the great programs planned for the Tennessee Williams Festival, and I encourage everyone to give this exciting Richmond event your full support, even if Barksdale is unable to be involved.

What those pesky budget figures made obvious was that I needed to open our 2011-12 Signature Season with a comedy instead of a drama. The simple truth is this: at Barksdale (maybe everywhere), comedies sell more tickets that dramas. Besides, for the last 58 years, our mission at Barksdale has been to create in Central Virginia national caliber productions of the GREAT comedies, dramas and musicals--past, present and future. I'm proud that we produce our fair share of each.

And I LOVE comedies. Who doesn't. Especially great American comedies like our opening production - Lend Me a Tenor.

When exploring comedies written for the stage, there are several time-honored traditions to celebrate, one of which is farce.

A farce seeks to entertain its audience by placing likable (if often misbehaving) characters within improbable and exaggerated situations. The stakes are high; discovery and disaster seem imminent. The characters negotiate their treacherous circumstances, often at break-neck speed, using trickery, mistaken identity, disguised persons or voices, and verbal humor of varying degrees of sophistication. Physical comedy, linguistic nonsense, slamming doors and broadly stylized performances are staples of theatrical farce.

Not counting our musicals (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, for one, includes many aspects of farce) Barksdale's previous farces include:
* Boeing-Boeing (a French farce written in 1960; revived at Hanover Tavern earlier this summer),
* Is He Dead? (written by Mark Twain in 1898; produced at Willow Lawn in 2010),
* No Sex Please, We're British (an English farce written in 1971; produced at Hanover Tavern in 2006), and
* Scapino! (an English adaptation of a 1671 Moliere classic, adapted in 1971; revived at Willow Lawn in 2005).

The last time we staged a contemporary American farce was our 1993 Hanover Tavern production of Arthur Kopit's wacky Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad. Wow. Who knew it had been nearly two decades since Barksdale produced a contemporary American farce.

In our current sociopolitical environment, American farces seem particularly apt. That's why I decided it was time to end our 18-year fast. As I reviewed the GREAT contemporary American farces, Lend Me a Tenor was right there waiting for me at the top of the heap.

I'm excited that the show is now about to open. I hope to see you at the theatre.

--Bruce Miller

Four NEW High-Flying Talents Lend Lift to Boeing-Boeing

Posted by Bruce Miller
Boeing-Boeing closes today (Sunday) at Hanover Tavern with a 2 p.m. matinee performance. After seven weeks of relatively full and very happy houses, the popular consensus is that this classic French/British farce from 1960/62 is one of the funniest plays to hit Central Virginia's boards in quite a while.

A good deal of the credit for the general hilarity goes to the two-thirds of the cast who are working in a Barksdale show for the first time. Returning favorites Susan Sanford (pictured above and to the left) and Derek Phipps (to the right) may well be leading the laugh fest with their inspired clowning, but newcomers Maura Burroughs, Donna Marie Miller, Caylyn Temple and Denis Riva each bring unique and highly honed talents to the task at hand.

Maura Burroughs (to the left) plays Gloria, the American air hostess who flies with TWA, and spends her free time during Paris layovers cavorting with playboy architect Bernard. A native Richmonder, Maura trained at NYC's prestigious Circle in the Square Theatre School, and has been living and working in the Big Apple for the last four years. Favorite credits include Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Shelley in Bat Boy the Musical, Soupy Sue in Urinetown the Musical, and Hippolyta / Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. http://www.mauraburroughs.com/.

Donna Marie Miller (to the right) is Gretchen, the German air hostess who flies with Lufthansa and is as passionate about her men as she is her career. Donna was a theatre major at James Madison University, and spent her immediate post-grad years in Los Angeles doing theatre, television, films and commercials. Favorite roles included Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Anita in West Side Story, and Princess Winifred in Once Upon a Mattress. Currently, Donna is pursuing her second passion, teaching kindergarten in Chesterfield County Public Schools.

Caylyn Temple (to the left with Denis Riva) brings "la dolce vita" to the role of Gabriella, Bernard's voluptuous Italian mistress (and true soul mate). She's an air hostess for Al Italia. Caylyn is a 2010 theatre grad from VCU, and she spent all of last school year touring with Theatre IV. She plans to move to NYC this fall to pursue her career further. Favorite roles include Mrs. Walker in The Who's Tommy and Mrs. Forrest in Psycho Beach Party, both at Theatre VCU.

Last but certainly not least is Denis Riva (to the right with Derek Phipps), who portrays the cock of the roost in this quintessential bedroom farce. He received his BA from Washington and Lee University, his MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his JD from the University of Richmond Law School. New York theatre credits include A Woman of No Importance at BITS Players and In My Dreams ... at the Vortex Theatre Co. Regional credits include Hay Fever, Gross Indecency, and All's Well that Ends Well at PlayMaker's Rep; Our Town and Fiddler on the Roof at CalRep; and Narnia at Playhouse on the Square.

If you'd like to catch Boeing-Boeing before it flies away forever, come today (Sunday) for our final performance at 2 p.m. As of this writing, tickets are still available. The number of our box office, which opens at noon, is 282-2620. Hope to see you there.

--Bruce Miller

World Famous Playwright You May Never Have Heard Of

Posted by Bruce Miller
Our mystery playwright lived from 1923 until 2003. During his 80 years, he wrote 40 plays that have been produced professionally in 55 different countries. His most famous play ran for 19 years in one of the world's greatest theatre capitals, and seven years in another. Ten of his plays have been translated into hit films and television adaptations. It is estimated that 20 million (and growing) people have attended live performances of his work, and a half billion more have enjoyed his plays in their recorded adaptations. For his contributions to international arts and letters, he received one of his nation's highest honors.

Who is this giant of world theatre? Marc Camoletti, the author of Boeing-Boeing.

Boeing-Boeing concludes its seven week run at Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern with performances at 8 pm tonight (Saturday) and 2 pm tomorrow (Sunday). Half-price rush tickets may be available two hours prior to performance by calling the Barksdale box office at 282-2620.

It's a well known fact that creators of comedies seldom receive the respect awarded to creators of dramas and/or musicals. Except in France. Good thing for Camoletti he was French. Sort of. Camoletti was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1923, into a family of Italian origin. His grandfather, also named Marc Camoletti, was an internationally renowned architect who designed and built the landmark Victoria Theatre in Geneva, given to the citizens of Switzerland by the British consulate in the 1890s, in honor of Queen Victoria.

By the time grandson Camoletti's first play was produced in 1958 (in fact, his first three plays were all produced that year), he was living in Paris. The City of Lights loved Camoletti's first play, La Bonne Anna, and they instantly claimed this luminous new playwright as a native son.

All of Camoletti's plays are crowd-pleasing comedies. No one appreciates screwball comedy more than the French. Camoletti's 1960 play, Boeing-Boeing, debuted to rave reviews and instantly became one of the classic farces of the 20th century. It ran in Paris for 19 years, and after opening on London's West End in 1962 in an English adaptation by Beverley Cross (Dame Maggie Smith's late husband), it ran for another seven years in London.

Recently it was revived in a Tony Award-winning production on Broadway.

Camoletti's two plays to achieve fame and name recognition in the U. S. are Boeing-Boeing and its sequel, Don't Dress for Dinner. Boeing-Boeing is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most performed French play worldwide." Take that, Tartuffe.

Camoletti is greatly beloved and respected in France. In the 1980s he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, one of his adopted nation's highest honors.

If you'd like a taste of what makes Camoletti so great, I hope you'll stop by Hanover Tavern for one of our final two performances. Our terrific cast (Maura Burroughs, Donna Marie Miller, Derek Phipps, Denis Riva, Susan Sanford and Caylyn Temple) are having the times of their lives, and they'll be happy to jet you to Paris for a hilarious trip back to the 60s--Camoletti style.

--Bruce Miller