One of TheSpyAnts founding members Eric Bunton (bobrauschenbergamerica, Terminus Americana, Kidnapped by Craigslist, and many other shows) has launched a Youtube page where he has posted videos of his work.
Here is one of them, which also features Brett Hren.
So have a look, and thanks!
Showing posts with label Brett Hren. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brett Hren. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
A Curtain Up review of "bobrauschenbergamerica"
A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
bobrauschenbergamerica
By Evan Henerson
Look, everything overlaps, doesn't it? Is connected some kind of way. Once you put it all together, it's just obvious. I mean, tie a string to something, and see where it takes you.
When you think about it, this was really a match made in mashed-up paradise. Robert Rauschenberg, the American collageist as seen through the eyes of Charles L. Mee, a playwright who borrows everything from everywhere — mythology, current events, soap opera strands — and tosses it all up on stage in a big crazy quilt that somehow fashions itself into a play.
Director Bart DeLorenzo of the Evidence Room and the members of the SpyAnts Theatre Co. all clearly have the bug, and have brought the L.A. premiere of Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica to the Ford Amphitheatre's inside space. The play is Mee's take on how Rauschenberg, who died in 2008, might have seen the world had he been a playwright instead of a sculptor. The results are delightful if seriously quirky, — a series or largely unrelated musings on love, life, art, existence, the cosmos and cornball chicken jokes, not necessarily in that order of importance.
There is a script (it's up on Mee's (re)making project website, www.charlesmee.com), but DeLorenzo's cast makes you feel like the universe could tilt ever so slightly and some things would end up differently. Indeed, here's betting that the group of elderly barbershop singers who came in for a parade sequence might give way to different roadside entertainment at a subsequent performance.
Our players are a derelict (played by Brett Hren),. . .a stargazer (Eric Bunton) and his dancer lover (Mark Slater) . . . a trucker (Danny Parker-Lopes) and his bathing beauty girlfriend (Maria Tomas) . . . a fickle love-seeking woman dressed up in Jackie O regalia (Jennifer Etienne Eckert) and the man she dumped (Adam Dornbusch). . . a disturbing pizza delivery guy (John Charles Meyer) named Bob and Bob's Mom (Mari Marks). Bob's Mom is either supposed to be Rauschenberg's mother or the pizza delivery boy's. I'm not sure which. I'm not sure Mee intends us to know for certain.
Rasuchenberg is honored in the title, and there are various slideshow musings by Bob's Mom that frequently end with "art was not a part of our life." Otherwise, it's not difficult to see where Rauschenberg ends and Mee begins. Many of the playwright's signature oddities — spontaneous dance numbers, non sequiter emoting, extended musing on love — play giddily across DeLorenzo's staging. That said, the spirit of Rauschenberg is duly honored by DeLorenzo and company.
Props and set pieces, curios of all sorts dot Marina Mouhibian's set. The trucker's girl plays checkers from a rusty bathtub bearing a "No Parking" sign. A door frame, with a stuffed heron perched atop, evokes an empty and decidedly surreal landscape. Plaudits to prop master Hal Perry for finding a 12 foot bowling pin that never even gets used.
Mee's plays are not for the shy, and the cast members attack their roles with gleeful abandon. Particularly fetching is Eckert's Susan, defending her romantic choices while devouring the contents of a cake pan, and Tomas pouring out the ingredients for a martini on a plastic floor canvas and then proceeding to slosh through it. Parker-Lopes, sporting a trucker's beard, smoothly handles an assortment of wince-inducing chicken jokes, and everyone moves gracefully or with appropriate abandon to Ken Roht's choreography.
Praise also is due Breeze Braunschweig as the always skating, never speaking Roller Girl, a vision in 70s era beach shorts and tube socks who proves that you don't need lines to have an impact. What Braunschweig's Roller Girl is doing sitting at the same picnic table as Becker, Carl, Susan and the rest is anybody's guess. In the landscape of Mee's Rauschenberg, everything kind of melds even as it clashes. That's kind of the point.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA: A ROMP TheSpyAnts Ensemble at The Ford
BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA: A ROMP
TheSpyAnts Ensemble at The Ford
Clare Elfman
Literary Editor
Los Angeles, California – My bad. I did not do my research. So please, before you see this interesting kaleidoscope of a performance, do yours. I come from old school. A play speaks for itself. Linear. The last act leaves you with something concrete: a message, an emotion, a something. Charles Mee, with this — I guess you’d call this his homage to Rauschenberg — is non-linear, and if you are a careless reviewer who never has studied or appreciated the style of Rauschenberg nor read the text of the inserts in the black folder given at the box office, you will spend the first 30 minutes of this almost two-hour, no-intermission piece rather perplexed, asking what the merde is happening onstage?
I sat for that long in confusion, watching what, to me, looked like a mish-mash of unconnected bits and pieces of action, until finally one character did a monologue that moved me. I recognized that I was not giving the piece its due. I had not done my work as well as the company onstage was madly and non-linearly cavorting to present theirs.
If I had become more familiar with Rauschenberg’s collages, his combination of bits and pieces, thises and thats, unrelated stuff that, once assembled, create a whole, I would simply have known to sit back and let the action sweep over me. This concept of unrelated bits of action Mee has created to mirror the artist’s style of collage, so that, as the “play” progressed, a man professes love for a woman, she offers love to an unlikely character, a girl roller-skates by, a guy pushes a bathtub onstage…do I remember a goat? A guy in a chicken suit walks by, a mother shows old snaps (projections) of her artist son but the commentary does not match the pics… And what else? Suddenly the cast breaks into a Broadway chorus or they start to folk dance, or there is a murder, and I’m hanging there thinking, “What the f…” until a pizza guy enters and delivers an entrancing monologue of the three people he killed and another guy does a remarkable Walt Whitman piece, and it becomes quite something else.
So the piece is a non-linear version of Rauschenberg’s style, and to enjoy it, you simply have to let go and stop looking for logic. If I walk through a gallery, my own tastes have been so long developing that, unlike you and you and you and you, I love Matisse colors and Kirschner’s angular faces and Freud’s explicit nakedness and Bacon’s anguished etcetera etcetera, and you like something different. I love Theater of the Absurd because, when you finish with the absurdity, you have a message as clear as if you’d just picked yourself up from your stone bench in an ancient Greek theater. Once I saw a Kelly exhibit — a dirty old rug with an old teddy bear under it — and I asked, “What? What?” Okay, that’s me. Someone else saw it and was moved to tears. In a San Francisco museum, I saw a yellow canvas. Just yellow. What?? And the lecturer explained that it was the “yellowness” that made it so great.
Art is in the eye of the beholder, and if you (I) just let go of traditional notions and sit back and simply experience this one and then come out and hash over what you just saw…you’ve had a great evening of …an homage to Rauschenberg and a bit of a romp.
TheSpyAnts ensemble who performed this interesting piece are: Rollergirl, Breeze Braunschweig, Eric Bunton, Adam Dornbusch, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Brett Hren, Mari Marks, John Charles Meyer who does a wonderful pizza boy, Danny Parker-Lopes, Mark Slater, Maria Tomas — a great bunch doing their wild thing.
So come prepared, just let go, and afterward decide if this left you with the same “feeling” as does a collage by Rauschenberg.
Interesting and challenging evening.
Ford (inside) until February 28th.
TheSpyAnts Ensemble at The Ford
Clare Elfman
Literary Editor
Los Angeles, California – My bad. I did not do my research. So please, before you see this interesting kaleidoscope of a performance, do yours. I come from old school. A play speaks for itself. Linear. The last act leaves you with something concrete: a message, an emotion, a something. Charles Mee, with this — I guess you’d call this his homage to Rauschenberg — is non-linear, and if you are a careless reviewer who never has studied or appreciated the style of Rauschenberg nor read the text of the inserts in the black folder given at the box office, you will spend the first 30 minutes of this almost two-hour, no-intermission piece rather perplexed, asking what the merde is happening onstage?
I sat for that long in confusion, watching what, to me, looked like a mish-mash of unconnected bits and pieces of action, until finally one character did a monologue that moved me. I recognized that I was not giving the piece its due. I had not done my work as well as the company onstage was madly and non-linearly cavorting to present theirs.
If I had become more familiar with Rauschenberg’s collages, his combination of bits and pieces, thises and thats, unrelated stuff that, once assembled, create a whole, I would simply have known to sit back and let the action sweep over me. This concept of unrelated bits of action Mee has created to mirror the artist’s style of collage, so that, as the “play” progressed, a man professes love for a woman, she offers love to an unlikely character, a girl roller-skates by, a guy pushes a bathtub onstage…do I remember a goat? A guy in a chicken suit walks by, a mother shows old snaps (projections) of her artist son but the commentary does not match the pics… And what else? Suddenly the cast breaks into a Broadway chorus or they start to folk dance, or there is a murder, and I’m hanging there thinking, “What the f…” until a pizza guy enters and delivers an entrancing monologue of the three people he killed and another guy does a remarkable Walt Whitman piece, and it becomes quite something else.
So the piece is a non-linear version of Rauschenberg’s style, and to enjoy it, you simply have to let go and stop looking for logic. If I walk through a gallery, my own tastes have been so long developing that, unlike you and you and you and you, I love Matisse colors and Kirschner’s angular faces and Freud’s explicit nakedness and Bacon’s anguished etcetera etcetera, and you like something different. I love Theater of the Absurd because, when you finish with the absurdity, you have a message as clear as if you’d just picked yourself up from your stone bench in an ancient Greek theater. Once I saw a Kelly exhibit — a dirty old rug with an old teddy bear under it — and I asked, “What? What?” Okay, that’s me. Someone else saw it and was moved to tears. In a San Francisco museum, I saw a yellow canvas. Just yellow. What?? And the lecturer explained that it was the “yellowness” that made it so great.
Art is in the eye of the beholder, and if you (I) just let go of traditional notions and sit back and simply experience this one and then come out and hash over what you just saw…you’ve had a great evening of …an homage to Rauschenberg and a bit of a romp.
TheSpyAnts ensemble who performed this interesting piece are: Rollergirl, Breeze Braunschweig, Eric Bunton, Adam Dornbusch, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Brett Hren, Mari Marks, John Charles Meyer who does a wonderful pizza boy, Danny Parker-Lopes, Mark Slater, Maria Tomas — a great bunch doing their wild thing.
So come prepared, just let go, and afterward decide if this left you with the same “feeling” as does a collage by Rauschenberg.
Interesting and challenging evening.
Ford (inside) until February 28th.
LA Weekly review of "bobrauschenbergamerica" - GO!
Photo by Debi Landrie
Review by LA Weekly:
When Bob Rauschenberg's mother (Mari Marks) delivers her tender slide-show about the rural Texas childhood of her artist son, and none of the slides matches the descriptions she's offered, you have to know something's up, conceptually. Whether or not you're familiar with the '50s-'60s collagist painter-sculptor, Charles L. Mee's 2001 extrapolation of what Rauschenberg might have written in order to explain how he assembled junk into evocative reflections on our place in the world stands alone. Marina Mouhibian's set decorates the stage and the proscenium walls with vintage kitsch as the 10-member ensemble plays out a series of somewhat interconnecting sketches about romances gone awry, violence, politics and metaphysics - though there are digressions for a series of chicken jokes. Bart DeLorenzo's staging preserves the tone, inherent the text, that's both wry and frivolous, abstract and pop, with one breakout poetical excursion into Walt Whitmanesque grandeur, delivered by a hobo (Brett Hren) and accompanied by Dvorak's Symphony from The New World. [Inside] the Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 & 7 p.m.; thru Feb. 28. (323) 461-3673. SpyAnts Theatre Company. (Steven Leigh Morris) See Theater Feature.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
‘bobrauschenbergamerica’ - Bart DeLorenzo Directs LA Premiere
‘bobrauschenbergamerica’ - Bart DeLorenzo Directs LA Premiere
from: John Anson Ford Theatres
category: Arts and Entertainment
posted: December 15th, 2009
The SpyAnts presents the Los Angeles Premiere Of Charles L. Mee's ‘bobrauschenbergamerica’ At [Inside] The Ford.
Los Angeles - Have you ever wondered what it was like to swim in a giant martini? TheSpyAnts Theatre Company presents the long-awaited Los Angeles premiere of Charles L. Mee's delightful, kaleidoscopic play, bobrauschenbergamerica. Director Bart DeLorenzo teams up with choreographer Ken Roht to dish up Mee's rollicking collage-montage tribute to Robert Rauschenberg that captures the happy, improvisational quality of the artist's singular vision. bobrauschenbergamerica opens at [Inside] the Ford on January 23, with Pay-What-You-Can previews on January 21 and 22.
bobrauschenbergamerica is a wild road trip through our American landscape, a play made as one of America's greatest artists, Robert Rauschenberg, might have conceived it if he had been a playwright instead of a painter. TheSpyAnts Breeze Braunschweig, Eric Bunton, Adam Dornbusch, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Brett Hren, Mari Marks, John Charles Meyer, Danny Parker-Lopes, Mark Slater, and Maria Tomas create a collage of people and places, of music and dancing, of love stories and picnics and business schemes and shootings and chicken jokes and golfing, and of the sheer exhilaration of living in a country where people make up their lives as they go.
Artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) once said, "A painting is more like the real world if it is made out of the real world." This infatuation with art and everyday life led him to pioneer the idea of "Combines," provocative collages created out of nontraditional materials. Taking a single canvas, Rauschenberg would combine pictures, familiar prints, sculptures and everyday objects (like tennis balls and stuffed goats), blurring the line between art and sculpture, between art and life. In bobrauschenbergamerica, the stage is the canvas, and TheSpyAnts create a living, breathing "Combine." The eclectic group of characters and collage of colorful vignettes and fantastical images may seem to unfold like juxtaposing elements, but when seen as a whole they produce a loving tribute to American life. "The play is a celebration," enthuses DeLorenzo. "It's a collage play written by a collagist about another collagist - an appropriate homage to our crazy quilt of a country."
bobrauschenbergamerica originally premiered at the 2001 Humana Festival in Louisville. Conceived and produced by Anne Bogart and New York's SITI Company, where Mee is resident playwright, it enjoyed limited runs in New York, at Boston's ART, Chicago, France and Germany. The New York Times called it, "Brashly, unapologetically entertaining... a work that will resonate even with someone who has never seen one of Mr. Rauschenberg's famous collages."
Charles L. Mee was born in Barrington, Illinois in 1938. He was stricken with polio in 1953, which he details in his 1999 memoir A Nearly Normal Life. His plays include The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem, Full Circle, The Trojan Women: A Love Story, Snow in June, Hotel Cassiopeia, True Love, A Perfect Wedding, Big Love, Viena Lusthaus, Orestes 2.0, The Investigation of the Murder in El Salvador, Fetes de la Nuit, Summertime, Wintertime, Agamemnon 2.0, Iphigenia 2.0, Paradise Park, Queens Boulevard, Chiang Kai Shek and First Love. As of February, 2007, he has made all of his plays available on his Web site ( www.charlesmee.org) with an invitation to other artists to use them as copyright-free texts as a "resource" for their own work. However, the Web site indicates that the play texts as they appear on the site are protected by copyright, and that permission from his agent must be obtained before performing them "essentially or substantially as I have composed them." Mee is also an accomplished historian, having written about the Potsdam Conference and World War II. He currently teaches playwriting at the Columbia University School of the Arts.
Bart DeLorenzo is founding Artistic Director of the Evidence Room in Los Angeles where he has directed many shows over the last 14 years including local and world premieres by Charles L. Mee, David Greenspan, Kelly Stuart, Philip K. Dick, Gordon Dahlquist, Martin Crimp, David Edgar, Naomi Wallace, and Edward Bond, as well as his own adaptation of Dickens' Hard Times, The Cherry Orchard, and Don Carlos, among many others. His freelance work includes the world premiere of Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment at South Coast Repertory, later revived at the Geffen Playhouse; the world premiere of Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress at the Geffen; Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone at South Coast Rep; Racine's Britannicus at Cal Rep; and Around the World in 80 Days at the Cleveland Playhouse. 2009 productions include Adam Bock's The Receptionist and Caryl Churchill's A Number at the Odyssey, and the world premieres of Justin Tanner's Voice Lessons at the Zephyr, and Michael Sargent's The Projectionist at the Kirk Douglas. For his work, he has received five LA Weekly awards and three Back Stage Garlands.
A member of the company since January 2008, Breeze Braunschweig has appeared in TheSpyAnts' The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild and What If? Other L.A. theater roles include Peggy in The Women, The Moon in Bloodwedding, Nina in The Seagull, and "The woman who loved to make vagina's happy" in The Vagina Monologues.
Eric Bunton, a founding member of TheSpyAnts Theatre Company as well as a member of the Elephant Theatre Company, has appeared in TheSpyAnts' hit productions of Kidnapped by Craigslist, Infinite Black Suitcase, Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, The Reunion, The Birds, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Terminus Americana, Hellcab, La Ronde, and Edmond.
Adam Dornbusch previously appeared with TheSpyAnts as Charlie (the coworker) and Jason (the pothead) in Terminus Americana.
Jennifer Etienne Eckert is a long time member of TheSpyAnts and is also on the board of the Elephant Theatre Company. Recent stage credits include Seven Redneck Cheerleaders, Tooth and Nail, and One Fell Swoop, all of which were original world premiere productions.
Brett Hren has been a member of TheSpyAnts since 2001 and is also a member of the Elephant Theatre Company. For his role in TheSpyAnts 2009 production of Terminus Americana, he was nominated by StageSceneLA.com for Best Performance by a Lead Actor.
Mari Marks has appeared in TheSpyAnts' productions of What If? (original works by company members), Susan Smith Could Talk, and The Reunion. Other L.A. theater roles include Nat in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Rabbit Hole (The Complex), Karla in Wonder of the World (Hollywood Fight Club), the Doctor in Getting Out (Lyric Hyperion), and a year-and-a-half run as the woman who couldn't get no satisfaction in Sex, Relationships and Sometimes Love (Sierra Stages).
A former front man for the rock band Strawman, John Charles Meyer returned to acting three years ago. TV credits include CSI: NY, The Forgotten, iCarly and Zoey 101. Films include upcoming features The Taqwacores and The Millennium Bug; the Emmy-winning USC pilot The Cost of Living; and more than twenty shorts, including In Twilight's Shadow, love/junkie, Lily and Sam, and Frank DanCoolo: Paranormal Drug Dealer.
Danny Parker-Lopes is a founding member of TheSpyAnts and has been on the Board of Directors since its inception a decade ago. He starred in Hellcab, Kidnapped By Craigslist, and The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild among others, and directed Infinite Black Suitcase, Terminus Americana and The Reunion, which he also co-wrote and acted in.
Mark Slater has performed in The Reunion (TheSpyAnts); In The Boom Boom Room (Underground Theater); Welcome To The Moon and The Woolgatherer (2nd Story Theater); Working (Ascending Artists Theater); Twelfth Night (Descanso Gardens Outdoor Theatre). A dancer, he was a member of Le Studio Dancecorps.
Maria Tomas has been a member of TheSpyAnts since 2003, performing in critically-acclaimed productions of Terminus Americana, The Birds (LA Weekly Award nomination for Best Comedy Ensemble), Hellcab, and La Ronde, among others. Maria portrayed Gabriela in the Los Angeles premiere of Jose Rivera's References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (directed by Jon Rivera).
Scenic Design for bobrauschenbergamierca is by Marina Mouhibian; Lighting Design is by Christopher Kuhl; Sound Design is by Cricket S. Myers; Costume Design is by Leah Piehl; and Lori Evans Taylor produces for TheSpyAnts.
TheSpyAnts is a 26-member company that started as play reading group and quickly evolved into a formidable theater company that has developed numerous critically acclaimed hit productions including The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, The Birds, Hellcab (1st production) and the co-production with the Elephant Theater Company, Edmond, Infinite Black Suitcase, Rudolph The Red Hosed Reindeer, The Reunion (2006 production and 2007 production) and Kidnapped By Craigslist. TheSpyAnts strive to provide a quality theater experience while challenging the audience to "think outside the box."
bobrauschebergamerica is the second production in the 2009-10 Season at [Inside] the Ford, a three-play, curated series of new works from three L.A.-based theater companies. The 2009-10 Season at [Inside] the Ford is supported by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Ford Theatre Foundation, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
bobrauschenbergamerica runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm and 7pm, January 23 through February 28. Two previews take place on Thursday, January 21 and Friday, January 22, both at 8 pm. General admission is $20; seniors and full-time students with ID are $12; Pay-What-You-Can tickets are available for previews and all Sunday matinee performances when purchased at the door (subject to availability). [Inside] the Ford is located in the Ford Theatres complex at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068, just off the 101 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios. On-site, non-stacked parking is free. For reservations and information, call the Ford Theatres Box Office at 323.461.3673 (323.GO1.FORD) or go to www.FordTheatres.org.
When:
Previews: January 21 and 22 Performances: January 23 through February 28: - Thursdays at 8 pm: January 21 (preview), 28; February 4, 11, 18, 25 - Fridays at 8 pm: January 22 (preview), 29; February 5, 12, 19, 26 - Saturdays at 8 pm: January 23 (opening night), 30; February 6, 13, 20, 27 - Sundays at 3 pm: January 24, 31; February 7, 14, 21, 28 - Sundays at 7 pm: January 24, 31; February 7, 14, 21, 28
Where: [Inside] the Ford (the 87-seat indoor theater in the Ford Theatres complex) 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East Hollywood, CA 90068 (just off the 101, across the freeway from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios) How: (323) 461-3673 (GO 1-FORD) or www.FordTheatres.org
Tickets:
General admission: $20 Students with ID and Seniors: $12 Pay-What-You-Can . Tickets are available for previews and all Sunday matinee performances when purchased at the door (subject to availability). Parking: Free on-site (non-stacked)
from: John Anson Ford Theatres
category: Arts and Entertainment
posted: December 15th, 2009
The SpyAnts presents the Los Angeles Premiere Of Charles L. Mee's ‘bobrauschenbergamerica’ At [Inside] The Ford.
Los Angeles - Have you ever wondered what it was like to swim in a giant martini? TheSpyAnts Theatre Company presents the long-awaited Los Angeles premiere of Charles L. Mee's delightful, kaleidoscopic play, bobrauschenbergamerica. Director Bart DeLorenzo teams up with choreographer Ken Roht to dish up Mee's rollicking collage-montage tribute to Robert Rauschenberg that captures the happy, improvisational quality of the artist's singular vision. bobrauschenbergamerica opens at [Inside] the Ford on January 23, with Pay-What-You-Can previews on January 21 and 22.
bobrauschenbergamerica is a wild road trip through our American landscape, a play made as one of America's greatest artists, Robert Rauschenberg, might have conceived it if he had been a playwright instead of a painter. TheSpyAnts Breeze Braunschweig, Eric Bunton, Adam Dornbusch, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Brett Hren, Mari Marks, John Charles Meyer, Danny Parker-Lopes, Mark Slater, and Maria Tomas create a collage of people and places, of music and dancing, of love stories and picnics and business schemes and shootings and chicken jokes and golfing, and of the sheer exhilaration of living in a country where people make up their lives as they go.
Artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) once said, "A painting is more like the real world if it is made out of the real world." This infatuation with art and everyday life led him to pioneer the idea of "Combines," provocative collages created out of nontraditional materials. Taking a single canvas, Rauschenberg would combine pictures, familiar prints, sculptures and everyday objects (like tennis balls and stuffed goats), blurring the line between art and sculpture, between art and life. In bobrauschenbergamerica, the stage is the canvas, and TheSpyAnts create a living, breathing "Combine." The eclectic group of characters and collage of colorful vignettes and fantastical images may seem to unfold like juxtaposing elements, but when seen as a whole they produce a loving tribute to American life. "The play is a celebration," enthuses DeLorenzo. "It's a collage play written by a collagist about another collagist - an appropriate homage to our crazy quilt of a country."
bobrauschenbergamerica originally premiered at the 2001 Humana Festival in Louisville. Conceived and produced by Anne Bogart and New York's SITI Company, where Mee is resident playwright, it enjoyed limited runs in New York, at Boston's ART, Chicago, France and Germany. The New York Times called it, "Brashly, unapologetically entertaining... a work that will resonate even with someone who has never seen one of Mr. Rauschenberg's famous collages."
Charles L. Mee was born in Barrington, Illinois in 1938. He was stricken with polio in 1953, which he details in his 1999 memoir A Nearly Normal Life. His plays include The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem, Full Circle, The Trojan Women: A Love Story, Snow in June, Hotel Cassiopeia, True Love, A Perfect Wedding, Big Love, Viena Lusthaus, Orestes 2.0, The Investigation of the Murder in El Salvador, Fetes de la Nuit, Summertime, Wintertime, Agamemnon 2.0, Iphigenia 2.0, Paradise Park, Queens Boulevard, Chiang Kai Shek and First Love. As of February, 2007, he has made all of his plays available on his Web site ( www.charlesmee.org) with an invitation to other artists to use them as copyright-free texts as a "resource" for their own work. However, the Web site indicates that the play texts as they appear on the site are protected by copyright, and that permission from his agent must be obtained before performing them "essentially or substantially as I have composed them." Mee is also an accomplished historian, having written about the Potsdam Conference and World War II. He currently teaches playwriting at the Columbia University School of the Arts.
Bart DeLorenzo is founding Artistic Director of the Evidence Room in Los Angeles where he has directed many shows over the last 14 years including local and world premieres by Charles L. Mee, David Greenspan, Kelly Stuart, Philip K. Dick, Gordon Dahlquist, Martin Crimp, David Edgar, Naomi Wallace, and Edward Bond, as well as his own adaptation of Dickens' Hard Times, The Cherry Orchard, and Don Carlos, among many others. His freelance work includes the world premiere of Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment at South Coast Repertory, later revived at the Geffen Playhouse; the world premiere of Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress at the Geffen; Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone at South Coast Rep; Racine's Britannicus at Cal Rep; and Around the World in 80 Days at the Cleveland Playhouse. 2009 productions include Adam Bock's The Receptionist and Caryl Churchill's A Number at the Odyssey, and the world premieres of Justin Tanner's Voice Lessons at the Zephyr, and Michael Sargent's The Projectionist at the Kirk Douglas. For his work, he has received five LA Weekly awards and three Back Stage Garlands.
A member of the company since January 2008, Breeze Braunschweig has appeared in TheSpyAnts' The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild and What If? Other L.A. theater roles include Peggy in The Women, The Moon in Bloodwedding, Nina in The Seagull, and "The woman who loved to make vagina's happy" in The Vagina Monologues.
Eric Bunton, a founding member of TheSpyAnts Theatre Company as well as a member of the Elephant Theatre Company, has appeared in TheSpyAnts' hit productions of Kidnapped by Craigslist, Infinite Black Suitcase, Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, The Reunion, The Birds, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Terminus Americana, Hellcab, La Ronde, and Edmond.
Adam Dornbusch previously appeared with TheSpyAnts as Charlie (the coworker) and Jason (the pothead) in Terminus Americana.
Jennifer Etienne Eckert is a long time member of TheSpyAnts and is also on the board of the Elephant Theatre Company. Recent stage credits include Seven Redneck Cheerleaders, Tooth and Nail, and One Fell Swoop, all of which were original world premiere productions.
Brett Hren has been a member of TheSpyAnts since 2001 and is also a member of the Elephant Theatre Company. For his role in TheSpyAnts 2009 production of Terminus Americana, he was nominated by StageSceneLA.com for Best Performance by a Lead Actor.
Mari Marks has appeared in TheSpyAnts' productions of What If? (original works by company members), Susan Smith Could Talk, and The Reunion. Other L.A. theater roles include Nat in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Rabbit Hole (The Complex), Karla in Wonder of the World (Hollywood Fight Club), the Doctor in Getting Out (Lyric Hyperion), and a year-and-a-half run as the woman who couldn't get no satisfaction in Sex, Relationships and Sometimes Love (Sierra Stages).
A former front man for the rock band Strawman, John Charles Meyer returned to acting three years ago. TV credits include CSI: NY, The Forgotten, iCarly and Zoey 101. Films include upcoming features The Taqwacores and The Millennium Bug; the Emmy-winning USC pilot The Cost of Living; and more than twenty shorts, including In Twilight's Shadow, love/junkie, Lily and Sam, and Frank DanCoolo: Paranormal Drug Dealer.
Danny Parker-Lopes is a founding member of TheSpyAnts and has been on the Board of Directors since its inception a decade ago. He starred in Hellcab, Kidnapped By Craigslist, and The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild among others, and directed Infinite Black Suitcase, Terminus Americana and The Reunion, which he also co-wrote and acted in.
Mark Slater has performed in The Reunion (TheSpyAnts); In The Boom Boom Room (Underground Theater); Welcome To The Moon and The Woolgatherer (2nd Story Theater); Working (Ascending Artists Theater); Twelfth Night (Descanso Gardens Outdoor Theatre). A dancer, he was a member of Le Studio Dancecorps.
Maria Tomas has been a member of TheSpyAnts since 2003, performing in critically-acclaimed productions of Terminus Americana, The Birds (LA Weekly Award nomination for Best Comedy Ensemble), Hellcab, and La Ronde, among others. Maria portrayed Gabriela in the Los Angeles premiere of Jose Rivera's References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (directed by Jon Rivera).
Scenic Design for bobrauschenbergamierca is by Marina Mouhibian; Lighting Design is by Christopher Kuhl; Sound Design is by Cricket S. Myers; Costume Design is by Leah Piehl; and Lori Evans Taylor produces for TheSpyAnts.
TheSpyAnts is a 26-member company that started as play reading group and quickly evolved into a formidable theater company that has developed numerous critically acclaimed hit productions including The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, The Birds, Hellcab (1st production) and the co-production with the Elephant Theater Company, Edmond, Infinite Black Suitcase, Rudolph The Red Hosed Reindeer, The Reunion (2006 production and 2007 production) and Kidnapped By Craigslist. TheSpyAnts strive to provide a quality theater experience while challenging the audience to "think outside the box."
bobrauschebergamerica is the second production in the 2009-10 Season at [Inside] the Ford, a three-play, curated series of new works from three L.A.-based theater companies. The 2009-10 Season at [Inside] the Ford is supported by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Ford Theatre Foundation, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
bobrauschenbergamerica runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm and 7pm, January 23 through February 28. Two previews take place on Thursday, January 21 and Friday, January 22, both at 8 pm. General admission is $20; seniors and full-time students with ID are $12; Pay-What-You-Can tickets are available for previews and all Sunday matinee performances when purchased at the door (subject to availability). [Inside] the Ford is located in the Ford Theatres complex at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068, just off the 101 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios. On-site, non-stacked parking is free. For reservations and information, call the Ford Theatres Box Office at 323.461.3673 (323.GO1.FORD) or go to www.FordTheatres.org.
When:
Previews: January 21 and 22 Performances: January 23 through February 28: - Thursdays at 8 pm: January 21 (preview), 28; February 4, 11, 18, 25 - Fridays at 8 pm: January 22 (preview), 29; February 5, 12, 19, 26 - Saturdays at 8 pm: January 23 (opening night), 30; February 6, 13, 20, 27 - Sundays at 3 pm: January 24, 31; February 7, 14, 21, 28 - Sundays at 7 pm: January 24, 31; February 7, 14, 21, 28
Where: [Inside] the Ford (the 87-seat indoor theater in the Ford Theatres complex) 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East Hollywood, CA 90068 (just off the 101, across the freeway from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios) How: (323) 461-3673 (GO 1-FORD) or www.FordTheatres.org
Tickets:
General admission: $20 Students with ID and Seniors: $12 Pay-What-You-Can . Tickets are available for previews and all Sunday matinee performances when purchased at the door (subject to availability). Parking: Free on-site (non-stacked)
Thursday, July 23, 2009
LA Times review of "Terminus Americana"
Theater Review: 'Terminus Americana' at Elephant Theater
The title of "Terminus Americana" refers to the tome of conspiracy theorem that drives Matt Pelfrey's coruscating satire. That volume is something of a Macguffin. The core focus of "Terminus" is the twilight of American empire, as refracted through a violence-infatuated media, which the jaggedly effective production by TheSpyAnts caustically embraces.
It begins benignly enough, as Mac Winchell (the excellent Brett Hren) takes a chirpy phone call from wife Brenda (CB Spencer). His confidential exchange with fellow employee Felix (Hal Perry) suggests the kind of corporate evisceration that Billy Wilder patented.
Then Felix goes on a shooting rampage, whispers a tacit message to Mac before killing himself, and "Terminus" barrels into pitch-black absurdist territory.
Pelfrey ("An Impending Rupture of the Belly") possesses an unflinchingly original voice. If the polemic can be overt, that seems the point, with the accuracy of Pelfrey's broadsides both hilarious and disturbing.
Barring some halting transitions, director Danny Parker-Lopes keeps the tone grimly akimbo. The designs are sparely resourceful, and the cast (with alternates) is adept, impressively centered by Hren's antihero. At the reviewed performance, John Charles Meyer's outré executive, Maria Tomas' secret-society emissary, and Justin Dabuet and Adam Dornbusch as hacking Marlboro Men stood out amid an accomplished pack.
Written well before Sept. 11, 2001, the play premiered at Lodestone Theatre Ensemble shortly afterward. Its relevance has only deepened in the wake of subsequent gun-related national tragedies. "Terminus Americana" won't be for everyone -- but perhaps it should be.
--David C. Nichols
"Terminus Americana," Elephant Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 15. $20. (323) 860-8786. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.
Photo: Hal Perry and Brett Hren in "Terminus Americana." Credit: TheSpyAnts
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Backstage review of "Rudolph the Red Hosed Reindeer"
Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer
Dec 20, 2006
There’s no need for a Grinch in this screwy musical by David Cerda and Scott Lamberty: Christmas Town is a police state and Santa Claus (Danny Lopes) a tyrant who has driven Mrs. Claus (Marina Mouhibian) to drink. When one of the reindeer wives (Etienne Eckert) has the temerity to criticize Santa, she’s whisked away to be reprogrammed as a Stepford Doe.
And intolerance is rampant. Santa’s reindeer are decidedly homophobic, so when Mr. and Mrs. Donner (Jerry Pappas and Lori Evans Taylor) produce a fawn named Rudolph (Eric Bunton) with a taste for wearing women’s clothes, it’s a scandal to be kept under wraps—till he turns up in ruffled panties and red fishnets. At the other end of the spectrum, Santa’s Elves (Brett Hren, Florian Klein, Mark Schaefer, and Brett Nelson) are hedonistic gay gym bunnies, with no sympathy for the square in their midst, Herbie (Jeffrey Christopher Todd), who doesn’t do drugs, doesn’t go in for casual sex, and—gasp!—doesn’t go to the gym.
Inevitably the two outcasts, Rudolph and Herbie, join forces for a series of adventures that introduce them to doughty lesbian prospector Yukon Cornelia (Madelynn Fattibene) and a towering transvestite known as the Abominable Drag Beast (Mark Landres). They also make a flying visit to the Island of Misfit Toys, where they discover Trailer-Trash Barbie (Shelby Kyle), the Half-Naked Cowboy (Hren), and Charlie-in-the-Box (Nelson). And, oh, yes, there’s a reindeer named Clarice (Stephanie Turner) who falls for Rudolph. (Rudolph quickly reminds us that most cross-dressers are straight.)
It’s all pretty silly, the plot doesn’t make much sense, and the musical numbers are more spirited than memorable, but director Richard Israel and a talented cast keep it lively, fast-paced, and amusing, with noteworthy performances by Todd, Nelson, Fattibene, Turner, and Hren, on Chris Bell’s picture-book set.
Presented by TheSpyAnts Theatre Company at the Elephant Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thu.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Nov. 24-Jan. 13. (323) 860-8766.
Saturday, September 3, 2005
"Birds" Playwright David Cerda on our show
David Cerda, one of the co-writers of The Birds came in from Chicago to see our show at the McCadden Theater over the weekend, and posted his take on it on his blog, and here's what he had to say:
So you're all dying to know...How was it? Saturday night, Chris myself and the Yourex lot attended 'The Birds- A Tail of Ornithic Proportions' (they chose that subtitle) at the McCadden Place Theater in Hollywood, California, baby. The theater was small, holding about 55, which adds to the claustrophobic effect that suits this play so well.
For those of you out of the loop , or for those who weren't in Chicago during the fall of 2001, I'll fill you in about what 'The Birds' is all about. The Birds is a combination, parody and backstory of Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'. But wait, there's more..., It's also a feminist drag deconstruction of the film with 90's pop culture icon Camille Paglia serving as the tour guide to the inner sanctum of Tippi Hedren's journey into the darkness created by the HUGE shadow Alfred Hitchcock cast once he decided Tippi was to be his personal property. Unfortunately for Ms. Hedren, this is all true, and the making of 'The Birds' was quite an experience for her.
The feminist deconstruction part was inspired by many things a, including my own take on the film but the nail that solidified this view was Camille Paglia's brilliant, and compulsively over the top essay on the film for British Films Institute. When Camille, like myself, likes something, she doesn't 'sort of' like it, she embraces it, swallows it whole, much like myself.
Soooo..., this is not an easy show to do. There's the problem of bird attacks.There's the mimicking of the film style of the period, there's the very silly jokes and double takes mixed with the very real and disturbing systematic 'pecking' at Tippi Hedren's psyche, and there's a Camille Paglia interrupting and interacting with the cast. Particularly Tippi and Suzanne Pleshette. I read a review that says 'Alfred Hitchcock asks Camille Paglia to travel back in time to help psychologically dismember Tippi Hedren'. Okay..., The wonderful thing about theater is that I don't have to explainthingslike the fact that Camille Paglia pops up out of nowhere. She's just there. If people want to think she traveled back in time, then I guess that's okay, but for the record, Pauline Pang and I didn't really think that when we wrote it.
Where was I? Oh, yes, how were they? They were wonderful. They made bold choices, they were funny, they were scary, they were committed- they obviously loved the piece, and it shows. Did I like every single thing they did? No. But they made their choices, and director Kelly Ann Ford did some amazing things and staged the show beautifully and smoothly, and that is NOT an easy thing to do with the size of the cast, the scenes and the space. Everybody knows I love my Tracy Repep (Chicago Tippi) , but Lori Evans kicked ass as Tippi/Melanie, and I was so pleased with her performance I was like a smitten little school boy with her after the show. She even held the cotton swab the correct way, and in my world, things like that really matter. LA Suzanne was a feisty, lusty woman with a commanding stage presence, and her powerful take on the role was different then mine, but it worked, and the actress, Maria Tomas plays it it to the hilt. Brett Hren as Mitch is cute as hell, and has this Ewan McGregor thing going on, that literally charms the pants off of you when he smiles; and LYDIA...., Well, that would be the handsome Eric Bunton, who immerses himself in the role and is dressed to the nines and is a little more affectionate with Mitch then the movie or Chicago version. He's hilarious, and he's also the man to go to when you need to learn about any of the cast members. Peggy Robinson took the Natasha Fatale route with the beautifully sadistic Marina Mouhibian and Mrs. Bundy was played by (gasp) a WOMAN, the dead on Randi Pareira. Darcy Halsey was a smart and sexy ass Camille Paglia and gee, I can't mention everybody, but they were wonderful and so nice. Kim Estes was an incredibly scary and sexy Birdman in wings made by Brett Hren! Mrs. MacGruder was played by Patrik Carlok who was in the original cast of HAIR- he was wonderful, and it was such a blast feeling that theatrical connection. Oops, let's not forget the ugliest little girl in Bodega Bay, the darling Hal Perry as Cathy Brenner.
Like I said, it's difficult for me to gauge anything I've written, but Christopher thought the show was great and he's always brutally honest with me, so there. Go see it! The LA Times was there the night I went and if the review comes out it will be Thursday I'm told, so keep your fingers and toes crossed that she 'got' it.
Monday, August 15, 2005
LA Weekly review of "The Birds"
THE GULL CAN’T HELP IT
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds lands onstage
STEVEN MIKULAN
Published on August 18, 2005
At the time of its release, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film, The Birds, was blown out of the sky with critical buckshot, dismissed as further proof that the director was becoming irrelevant in Hollywood. I saw it a year later, on my 11th birthday, and remember being disappointed — sure, there were some scary parts, but most of the movie seemed to consist of long, boring scenes of tense grownups holding cigarettes and talking to each other from across a room. And what kind of ending was that — why didn’t the Army or Air Force come to Bodega Bay and blast all those gulls and crows away? Today, of course, The Birds forms part of the immortal trinity of movies, with Vertigoand Psycho, that we most readily associate with the name Hitchcock. In 1998, culture critic Camille Paglia published a monograph analyzing The Birds through a pop-cultural/feminist lens. (“Hitchcock sees the house in historical terms as both safe haven and female trap.”) You wonder why she bothered — most of the film’s subtext is so apparent that it’s practically become a living-room tradition to provide running commentary as the movie plays on our TV screens. If anything, the real question has been why hadn’t The Birds been staged live as a loving spoof, A la a verbatim homage like The Singalong Sound of Music or an abbreviated satire along the lines of Phoxes. TheSpyAnts Theatre Company has answered that need with David Cerda and Pauline Pang’s 95-minute one-act, now running at the McCadden Place Theater, The Birds: A Tail of Ornithic Proportions is a crafty evening combining tribute, farce and feminist critique – with just the right sprinkling of camp. It’s a film within a play that searches for symbolic meaning in Hitchcock’s masterpiece even as it mocks such searches. The program notes tip us off to part of the game as we find actors doubling for such roles as “Worried Girl/Gull” while other parts are played in drag. Yet Cerda and Pang’s show, which premiered in Chicago five years ago, pushes the entertainment beyond an evening of cross-dressing and broad double takes. (Ryan Landry’s own transvestite sendup, The Gulls, appeared in 2003.) Underlining the onstage re-enactment of Hitchcock’s film is an examination of the auteur and his well-known twin obsessions for control and icy blond actresses — in particular, The Birds’ star, Tippi Hedren, whom he subjected to a grueling ordeal while shooting Evan Hunter’s script. The play opens as a Charlie “Bird” Parker melody fades from the speakers to be replaced with Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman,” while the lights come up on Paglia (Darcy Halsey) reading aloud from her book Sexual Personae. In a moment she’s on the phone speaking to Hitchcock’s ghost, who pleads with her to go back in time to become Hedren’s shrink on the set of The Birds. The film then unwinds onstage, beginning with the bird-shop scene, where Hedren’s character, Melanie Daniels (Lori Evans Taylor) first encounters Mitch Brenner/actor Rod Taylor (Brett Hren). It’s a moment of oversexed innuendo that portends the incestuous twitches of Mitch’s mother, Lydia, played in the film by Jessica Tandy (Eric Bunton), and the twilight sisterhood of Mitch’s ex-girlfriend, Annie Hayworth (Maria Tomas).The narrative moves in and out from the film’s “reality” to the story about the making of the film. Hitchcock’s birds appear onstage either as feathered creatures yanked about with sticks and wires, or acted out with ensemble members in wing-and-beak outfits designed by Marina Mouhibian. This may sound hopeless, but the re-enactment of the famous schoolhouse scene alone, with the town’s children singing the folk song “Risseldy Rosseldy” as murderous crows mass outside, vindicates director Kelly Ann Ford’s choice.Those looking for over-the-top antics will not leave disappointed. Whenever the Annie/Suzanne Pleshette character appears, for example, she’s in the mood to rip Melanie’s clothes off. (Not surprisingly, when Paglia arrives on the set, she makes a beeline for Annie and the two become quite literally inseparable.) And so it goes with the smothering Lydia, a brittle Jocasta who is the widowed mother of a 33-year old son and 13-year-old daughter (Hal Perry), a woman ever on the verge of tears while pawing at Mitch.Today, the movie’s Annie and Lydia scenes are the funniest because they are the most transparent examples of Park Avenue Freudianism turned to pulp fiction. We knew from the moment Pleshette’s smoky eyes locked onto Hedren that Annie’s picket-fence gate swung both ways. The school teacher’s cottage (safe haven or female trap?), with its modern art and crowded book shelves, screamed defiance against the town’s staid farming community. And, of course, her shared cigarettes and brandy toasts with her temporary roommate, Melanie, posed the intriguing question, Is there such a thing as a pre-coital smoke? Director Ford responds to the film’s Annie and Lydia by having Tomas and Bunton ramp up their characters, if such a thing is possible. Tomas plays her role as an out-of-control Liza Minelli in a negligee, while Bunton comes across as a women’s prison warden. I’m not sure that’s the subtlest approach, although the other choice would be to underplay the roles, which may not work at all; and Cerda and Pang make the show’s goosiness go down a little easier with a couple of music-hall-style songs that inexplicably interrupt the proceedings. Hitchcock never appears in the play; instead, a sullen assistant named Peggy Robinson (Mouhibian) occasionally materializes to bark her master’s orders at Hedren. While sexually alluring in heels and tight skirt, Robinson obviously chafes under her brunette status as a second-class citizen in Hitchock’s world. Her lines are the playwrights’ most overt judgment of Hitchock’s personality; they also happen to be the show’s most stilted and bring it to a dead stop. The writers get their points across better through comic action, as when Paglia memorably demonstrates to Hedren that sometimes a handbag is not always just a handbag. Certainly, their play’s final moment, when Hedren walks away from the film, alone but independent, as the actor-crows watch, is completely gripping — and it occurs in total silence. Overall, TheSpyAnts have given us an intelligent romp nicely balanced between the ridiculous and sublimely ridiculous. The 15-member cast demonstrates both energy and discipline, with Lori Evans Taylor seeming to grow into her role as much as Hedren did hers, and Bunton turning in a wry performance that never goes too far overboard. Working with what seems to be a tight budget, Ford has marshaled some fine technical talents to give her production a sparkle far exceeding its means. Joel Daavid’s flexible set invokes a sunburst of weathered slats of wood and a skewed window frame to suggest the Brenners’ farmhouse, and readily lends itself to quick scene changes. Mouhibian’s costumes play with the idea that their wearers’ unruly bodies must be bound by repressive clothing; even Taylor’s blond wig, with its Novakian whorl, indicates the twisted, vertiginous Hitchcock universe. I recently had lunch at Bodega Bay’s Tides restaurant, built on the site of the diner featured in the film. There was Birds iconography everywhere — framed lobby cards from the film, autographed photos of some of the actors, a sign announcing a September appearance of Hedren. Like the Hitching Post restaurant profiled in the film Sideways, the Tides clearly enjoys the curse of pop fame. My parents, who had taken me to see The Birds 41 years ago, quietly ate the overpriced salmon, then showed me the Tides’ gift shop, which offered equally expensive DVDs of The Birds and some Hitchcock books. Since my long-ago birthday trip to the movies I’ve come to realize that The Birds was never a horror movie, camp commentary on fashion nor even the apocalyptic fable of Daphne DuMaurier’s Cold War–tinged short story. Instead, it was a glimpse of the adult world and what the duties of that tense world would entail — always looking over one’s shoulder, stuffing ashtrays with lost hopes and speaking to other adults from across a room. How lucky children are not to know a metaphor when they see one.
THE BIRDS: A Tail of Ornithic Proportions| By DAVID CERDA and PAULINE PANG | TheSpyAnts at the McCadden Place Theater, 1157 McCadden Pl., Hollywood | Through August 28 | (323) 860-8786
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds lands onstage
STEVEN MIKULAN
Published on August 18, 2005
At the time of its release, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film, The Birds, was blown out of the sky with critical buckshot, dismissed as further proof that the director was becoming irrelevant in Hollywood. I saw it a year later, on my 11th birthday, and remember being disappointed — sure, there were some scary parts, but most of the movie seemed to consist of long, boring scenes of tense grownups holding cigarettes and talking to each other from across a room. And what kind of ending was that — why didn’t the Army or Air Force come to Bodega Bay and blast all those gulls and crows away? Today, of course, The Birds forms part of the immortal trinity of movies, with Vertigoand Psycho, that we most readily associate with the name Hitchcock. In 1998, culture critic Camille Paglia published a monograph analyzing The Birds through a pop-cultural/feminist lens. (“Hitchcock sees the house in historical terms as both safe haven and female trap.”) You wonder why she bothered — most of the film’s subtext is so apparent that it’s practically become a living-room tradition to provide running commentary as the movie plays on our TV screens. If anything, the real question has been why hadn’t The Birds been staged live as a loving spoof, A la a verbatim homage like The Singalong Sound of Music or an abbreviated satire along the lines of Phoxes. TheSpyAnts Theatre Company has answered that need with David Cerda and Pauline Pang’s 95-minute one-act, now running at the McCadden Place Theater, The Birds: A Tail of Ornithic Proportions is a crafty evening combining tribute, farce and feminist critique – with just the right sprinkling of camp. It’s a film within a play that searches for symbolic meaning in Hitchcock’s masterpiece even as it mocks such searches. The program notes tip us off to part of the game as we find actors doubling for such roles as “Worried Girl/Gull” while other parts are played in drag. Yet Cerda and Pang’s show, which premiered in Chicago five years ago, pushes the entertainment beyond an evening of cross-dressing and broad double takes. (Ryan Landry’s own transvestite sendup, The Gulls, appeared in 2003.) Underlining the onstage re-enactment of Hitchcock’s film is an examination of the auteur and his well-known twin obsessions for control and icy blond actresses — in particular, The Birds’ star, Tippi Hedren, whom he subjected to a grueling ordeal while shooting Evan Hunter’s script. The play opens as a Charlie “Bird” Parker melody fades from the speakers to be replaced with Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman,” while the lights come up on Paglia (Darcy Halsey) reading aloud from her book Sexual Personae. In a moment she’s on the phone speaking to Hitchcock’s ghost, who pleads with her to go back in time to become Hedren’s shrink on the set of The Birds. The film then unwinds onstage, beginning with the bird-shop scene, where Hedren’s character, Melanie Daniels (Lori Evans Taylor) first encounters Mitch Brenner/actor Rod Taylor (Brett Hren). It’s a moment of oversexed innuendo that portends the incestuous twitches of Mitch’s mother, Lydia, played in the film by Jessica Tandy (Eric Bunton), and the twilight sisterhood of Mitch’s ex-girlfriend, Annie Hayworth (Maria Tomas).The narrative moves in and out from the film’s “reality” to the story about the making of the film. Hitchcock’s birds appear onstage either as feathered creatures yanked about with sticks and wires, or acted out with ensemble members in wing-and-beak outfits designed by Marina Mouhibian. This may sound hopeless, but the re-enactment of the famous schoolhouse scene alone, with the town’s children singing the folk song “Risseldy Rosseldy” as murderous crows mass outside, vindicates director Kelly Ann Ford’s choice.Those looking for over-the-top antics will not leave disappointed. Whenever the Annie/Suzanne Pleshette character appears, for example, she’s in the mood to rip Melanie’s clothes off. (Not surprisingly, when Paglia arrives on the set, she makes a beeline for Annie and the two become quite literally inseparable.) And so it goes with the smothering Lydia, a brittle Jocasta who is the widowed mother of a 33-year old son and 13-year-old daughter (Hal Perry), a woman ever on the verge of tears while pawing at Mitch.Today, the movie’s Annie and Lydia scenes are the funniest because they are the most transparent examples of Park Avenue Freudianism turned to pulp fiction. We knew from the moment Pleshette’s smoky eyes locked onto Hedren that Annie’s picket-fence gate swung both ways. The school teacher’s cottage (safe haven or female trap?), with its modern art and crowded book shelves, screamed defiance against the town’s staid farming community. And, of course, her shared cigarettes and brandy toasts with her temporary roommate, Melanie, posed the intriguing question, Is there such a thing as a pre-coital smoke? Director Ford responds to the film’s Annie and Lydia by having Tomas and Bunton ramp up their characters, if such a thing is possible. Tomas plays her role as an out-of-control Liza Minelli in a negligee, while Bunton comes across as a women’s prison warden. I’m not sure that’s the subtlest approach, although the other choice would be to underplay the roles, which may not work at all; and Cerda and Pang make the show’s goosiness go down a little easier with a couple of music-hall-style songs that inexplicably interrupt the proceedings. Hitchcock never appears in the play; instead, a sullen assistant named Peggy Robinson (Mouhibian) occasionally materializes to bark her master’s orders at Hedren. While sexually alluring in heels and tight skirt, Robinson obviously chafes under her brunette status as a second-class citizen in Hitchock’s world. Her lines are the playwrights’ most overt judgment of Hitchock’s personality; they also happen to be the show’s most stilted and bring it to a dead stop. The writers get their points across better through comic action, as when Paglia memorably demonstrates to Hedren that sometimes a handbag is not always just a handbag. Certainly, their play’s final moment, when Hedren walks away from the film, alone but independent, as the actor-crows watch, is completely gripping — and it occurs in total silence. Overall, TheSpyAnts have given us an intelligent romp nicely balanced between the ridiculous and sublimely ridiculous. The 15-member cast demonstrates both energy and discipline, with Lori Evans Taylor seeming to grow into her role as much as Hedren did hers, and Bunton turning in a wry performance that never goes too far overboard. Working with what seems to be a tight budget, Ford has marshaled some fine technical talents to give her production a sparkle far exceeding its means. Joel Daavid’s flexible set invokes a sunburst of weathered slats of wood and a skewed window frame to suggest the Brenners’ farmhouse, and readily lends itself to quick scene changes. Mouhibian’s costumes play with the idea that their wearers’ unruly bodies must be bound by repressive clothing; even Taylor’s blond wig, with its Novakian whorl, indicates the twisted, vertiginous Hitchcock universe. I recently had lunch at Bodega Bay’s Tides restaurant, built on the site of the diner featured in the film. There was Birds iconography everywhere — framed lobby cards from the film, autographed photos of some of the actors, a sign announcing a September appearance of Hedren. Like the Hitching Post restaurant profiled in the film Sideways, the Tides clearly enjoys the curse of pop fame. My parents, who had taken me to see The Birds 41 years ago, quietly ate the overpriced salmon, then showed me the Tides’ gift shop, which offered equally expensive DVDs of The Birds and some Hitchcock books. Since my long-ago birthday trip to the movies I’ve come to realize that The Birds was never a horror movie, camp commentary on fashion nor even the apocalyptic fable of Daphne DuMaurier’s Cold War–tinged short story. Instead, it was a glimpse of the adult world and what the duties of that tense world would entail — always looking over one’s shoulder, stuffing ashtrays with lost hopes and speaking to other adults from across a room. How lucky children are not to know a metaphor when they see one.
THE BIRDS: A Tail of Ornithic Proportions| By DAVID CERDA and PAULINE PANG | TheSpyAnts at the McCadden Place Theater, 1157 McCadden Pl., Hollywood | Through August 28 | (323) 860-8786
Monday, August 1, 2005
LA Splash review of "The Birds"
The Birds
By Jane Emery
Deep in the center of this famed little town called Hollywood, I made my way to the McCadden Place Theatre to see the west coast premiere of 'The Birds'. Like most theatres, the lobby was small, but as I entered, I was immediately transported to the world of The Birds'. Joel Daavid's set design was incredible and Bosco Flanagan's lighting was mesmerizing and dramatic, giving the look many dimensions. Both captured the energy and vibe of the story in an extremely clever way. It was like walking into a themed Disneyland production, and I mean that in a good way. It took you to another place, and as you stepped into it, you knew you were going for a ride.
And quite a ride it was. The play takes us on two journeys simultaneously and intrinsically.
Director Kelly Ann Ford explains 'David Cerda has created a piece that give me two worlds to explore: The theatrical and the cinematic. He has turned the world of the movie upside down into a place where I can explore an extreme comedic, non-naturalistic and stylized form that is pure theatre through and through. At the same time, he has provided the world behind the scenes of the movie, where I can delve into the absurd yet realistic aspects of the tragic-drama that went into the making of the film. This part of the work is grounded in a realism-based acting style more akin to what we're used to seeing in the movie theatre. These two worlds challenge the versatility and craft of the actors and myself on every level. This kind of work is a rush to perform because 1) it's not easy and 2) because it requires us to have enormous faith in our audience to suspend their disbelief and join us on the ride - both scary and thrilling prospects for any artist."
The cast that worked together so succinctly, their physicality, movement in their use of the space and their ability to navigate the text and double story, added an extra entertaining element.
Another glorious element that made it such an enjoyable experience was Lori Evans Taylor in the role of Tippi. Her comedic range, solid acting talents, and her ability to navigate two simultaneous stories within a story flawlessly made it worth the price of admission alone. She kept me with her on her journey, experiencing it as she was. That's the best you can hope for. Besides all this, she performed physical stunts like an expert. This girl is a pro's pro.
Maria Tomas was a dynamo of husky-voiced energy, very multi-fasceted within her character. She made it great fun.
Last but definitely not least was the amazing sound design by Dino Andrade, which within itself, formed the story, the drama, the emotions and gave this piece added dimension to make it a total experience. It was rich and generous and completed this work of art, down to the same mechanical seagull sounds used in the original film.
This cast does a masterful job, taking the audience on a fun and artistic experience, including Brett Hren, playing the handsomely wicked Mitch, Eric Bunton (Lydia), Darcy Halsey (Camille), Randi Pareira (Mrs. Bundy), Marina Mouhibian (Peggy Robinson), Patrik Carlok (Mrs. MacGruder), Kim Estes (Birdman), Kendall Linzee (Sam), hilarious Hal Perry (Cathy Brenner), Linc Hand (Mike), Maureen Darosa, and Shelby Kyle...thank you all for entertaining us so well.
This is a SpyAnts Production. They formed in 2000, and are known for sold-out, highly successful shows. The Los Angeles Times wrote "...the hopes are high for this group because their passion for the theatre hits all the right notes"...and I wholeheartedly agree. The SpyAnts are committed to serving the community by providing quality theatre and continually being involved with local organizations. Having a non-profit status, they have been able to raise money for organizations such as Glaad, Project Angel Food, AIDS Project L.A., and AIDS Ride L.A. They are currently working with The Hollywood and Long Beach Boys and Girls Club on developing an after school theater troup that will lead to the production of several plays. Visit www.thespyants.com
"The Birds" runs from July 29th through August 28th, Thursday thru Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 2:00 p.m. For tickets to "The Birds" call: (323) 860-8786
By Jane Emery
Deep in the center of this famed little town called Hollywood, I made my way to the McCadden Place Theatre to see the west coast premiere of 'The Birds'. Like most theatres, the lobby was small, but as I entered, I was immediately transported to the world of The Birds'. Joel Daavid's set design was incredible and Bosco Flanagan's lighting was mesmerizing and dramatic, giving the look many dimensions. Both captured the energy and vibe of the story in an extremely clever way. It was like walking into a themed Disneyland production, and I mean that in a good way. It took you to another place, and as you stepped into it, you knew you were going for a ride.
And quite a ride it was. The play takes us on two journeys simultaneously and intrinsically.
Director Kelly Ann Ford explains 'David Cerda has created a piece that give me two worlds to explore: The theatrical and the cinematic. He has turned the world of the movie upside down into a place where I can explore an extreme comedic, non-naturalistic and stylized form that is pure theatre through and through. At the same time, he has provided the world behind the scenes of the movie, where I can delve into the absurd yet realistic aspects of the tragic-drama that went into the making of the film. This part of the work is grounded in a realism-based acting style more akin to what we're used to seeing in the movie theatre. These two worlds challenge the versatility and craft of the actors and myself on every level. This kind of work is a rush to perform because 1) it's not easy and 2) because it requires us to have enormous faith in our audience to suspend their disbelief and join us on the ride - both scary and thrilling prospects for any artist."
The cast that worked together so succinctly, their physicality, movement in their use of the space and their ability to navigate the text and double story, added an extra entertaining element.
Another glorious element that made it such an enjoyable experience was Lori Evans Taylor in the role of Tippi. Her comedic range, solid acting talents, and her ability to navigate two simultaneous stories within a story flawlessly made it worth the price of admission alone. She kept me with her on her journey, experiencing it as she was. That's the best you can hope for. Besides all this, she performed physical stunts like an expert. This girl is a pro's pro.
Maria Tomas was a dynamo of husky-voiced energy, very multi-fasceted within her character. She made it great fun.
Last but definitely not least was the amazing sound design by Dino Andrade, which within itself, formed the story, the drama, the emotions and gave this piece added dimension to make it a total experience. It was rich and generous and completed this work of art, down to the same mechanical seagull sounds used in the original film.
This cast does a masterful job, taking the audience on a fun and artistic experience, including Brett Hren, playing the handsomely wicked Mitch, Eric Bunton (Lydia), Darcy Halsey (Camille), Randi Pareira (Mrs. Bundy), Marina Mouhibian (Peggy Robinson), Patrik Carlok (Mrs. MacGruder), Kim Estes (Birdman), Kendall Linzee (Sam), hilarious Hal Perry (Cathy Brenner), Linc Hand (Mike), Maureen Darosa, and Shelby Kyle...thank you all for entertaining us so well.
This is a SpyAnts Production. They formed in 2000, and are known for sold-out, highly successful shows. The Los Angeles Times wrote "...the hopes are high for this group because their passion for the theatre hits all the right notes"...and I wholeheartedly agree. The SpyAnts are committed to serving the community by providing quality theatre and continually being involved with local organizations. Having a non-profit status, they have been able to raise money for organizations such as Glaad, Project Angel Food, AIDS Project L.A., and AIDS Ride L.A. They are currently working with The Hollywood and Long Beach Boys and Girls Club on developing an after school theater troup that will lead to the production of several plays. Visit www.thespyants.com
"The Birds" runs from July 29th through August 28th, Thursday thru Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 2:00 p.m. For tickets to "The Birds" call: (323) 860-8786
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