Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
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December 1, 2011
Homerathon Post-Homer-tem
Ok, so the title of this post is a stretch, but the word “postmortem” sounds just so…well…morbid…that I thought I would spice things up.
The Homerathon….ah yes, The Homerathon…well, it all started one seemingly innocuous Wednesday several months ago when two students from UC’s Classical Entertainment Society sat in on our weekly marketing meeting and asked us if we would like to team up with them to put on a 24 hour reading of Homer’s Iliad. I believe my initial reaction was something along the lines of “Wait…what? This is a thing? People do this? Wait…are you serious?” As it turns out…they were serious.
Fast forward past literally hundreds of emails (I counted), five weekly meetings in Einstein Bros Bagels, and one trip to the craft store to Tuesday, November 20th.
In 24 hours, 75 readers including 8 professors from the University of Chicago managed to read all 24 books using 5 English translations (Fagles, Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Pope, Chapman) as well as six foreign translations (ancient Greek, modern Greek, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Turkish.). Some passages even benefited from the bolstering effects of puppetry, clowning, and singing. There were Trojan Horses made out of graham crackers and there were shields made out of paper plates. There were children too young to read and there were best-selling authors (that’s right, UC alum Sara Paretsky stopped by and even signed our banner). There was Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief...twice.
Basically, it was awesome. Not only did we mobilize and engage the Humanities division at UChicago, we also seemingly captured the imagination of the Chicago community at large with what was an almost unbelievable amount of press coverage:
Chicago Sun-Times
Examiner.com
Crain’s Chicago Business
Huffington Post
Theatre in Chicago
Broadway World
Janine’s Entertainment Blog
Diskord
Free Things to Do in Chicago
PHOTOS
Professor David Wray gets the party started with Book 1:
A Trojan Horse is born…
The translations
Wide-angle Iliad
Two of the students who made it happen
Note the ear muffs.
Round about midnight—
I missed the puppet show, but I did get to see this:
And here’s Sara Paretsky!
A sincere thank you to everyone who made this event possible. Erin Kelsey, Evan Garrett, Ryan Mease, Drew Dir, Brea Hayes—you are all awesome. In the words of Drew Dir, “Shine on you crazy diamonds.”
November 29, 2011
Circling up and nerding out
There have been some very blog-worthy happenings that have yet to be blogged about this month, and I think it’s high time I chronicle these bloggable occasions with some overdue blog posts, don’t you? (blog is a very fun word btw).
So! As November draws to a close, let me tell you about the Producer’s Circle event we had waaay back on the very first day of this month.
I think we at Court can all safely say that we’ve truly been celebrating our inner nerds this month with the development and opening of An Iliad, and the Producer’s Circle event was no exception. Let me be clear that I use the term “nerd” in the most loving and positive way, being that I am definitely one myself. I invited myself to this event not only for some blog-material and dinner, but also because I thought the whole concept for the evening was pretty cool. Basically we got to see rare editions of The Iliad and The Odyssey that are housed in the Special Collections Research Center in the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library and learn about the evolution of the material and its seemingly endless translations (my favorite being the 18th century french translation by Madame Dacier.You go girl.)
The evening wrapped up with a fascinating talk by Classics professor David Wray about the first couple of pages of text in the Alexander Pope translation and a conceptual overview of our production of AN Iliad by Artistic Director Charlie Newell.
I’m not even going to try and recreate what was said because I’m just not that smart (although I have to say I was proud of myself for asking Prof David Wray if ancient Greek was a tonal language like modern Korean, which I felt was quite the erudite question. (As it turns out, ancient Greek was indeed tonal.)), but I did take lots of pictures—so enjoy!
(for more info on the producer’s circle contact Melissa Aburano-Meister at maam@uchicago.edu).
November 23, 2011
Something to be thankful for
I’ve linked to all the rave reviews that have rolled in for An Iliad at the bottom of this post, but I also wanted to share some of the responses we’ve received from our patrons with you. An Iliad seems to have captured that uniquely galvanizing, electrifying, and unifying kind of magic only live theatre can provide, and we here at Court are quite thankful for that.
“Speechless…I’ve never, never been so stunned or moved. Tim is apotheosized. I’ve never experienced the like.”
“This was the most magnificent play I have ever attended at Court or really anywhere. I consider…tonight an Academy Award performance.”
“Engrossing. A brilliantly staged one-man show.”
“So real, it’s hard to remember I’m watching someone perform a script.” “Must see.”
“Amazing—storytelling unlike any other I’ve seen.”
“Incredible anti-war expression.”
“Excellent, thought provoking, truly felt performance.”
“Vivid and imaginative.”
“Great job of bringing this piece to life for the modern audience.” “Must see theatre!”
“Loved the modern touch to it and the conversational nature.”
“Amazing lighting and ambience, acting, direction, and so forth.”
“You can come to this production without having read the Iliad and understand it completely.”
“He had more energy than anyone in any monologue I have seen.”
“See it, see it now!”
And now the reviews:
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sun-Times
TimeOut Chicago
NewCity
Chicago Theater Beat
Chicago Critic
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
November 4, 2011
Blog Saga Part II: The set of An Iliad’s photo journal
I have to admit, I’m a little obsessed with the set for An Iliad. I’ve watched it grow up over the past few weeks from its nascent stage as a tiny, unassuming set model with big dreams through its difficult teenage years as a mess of blue foam, tile, and rubble to the confidence and grandeur of its emerging “set adulthood.” And now I share this journey with you:
The Concept (as previously pictured)
The Beginning
Middle School
High School
Graduation Gown (being sewn in the lobby)
Getting ready for the big day! (as in opening…this metaphor may or may not be working but I’m sticking with it)
Scenic design by Todd Rosenthal.
November 3, 2011
An Interview with Set Designer Todd Rosenthal
The blog and myself were sick yet again, so I will be posting today and tomorrow to make up for our mutual absence on Tuesday. I have a lot of great material about the set of An Iliad, so instead of cramming it into one post, I am going to spread it out over two posts and create what I am calling a “blog saga.”
Blog Saga Part 1: An Interview with Set Designer Todd Rosenthal
1) Tell me about the design concept for the set of An Iliad
We want the space to feel like an ancient sight, but not too specific. Is it an ancient bath, a temple, a swimming pool? It needs to be ambiguous like the narrator, but antiquated.The walls are covered with ancient graffiti, so the space resembles an insane asylum covered with possessed scrawling. The poet onstage is a reluctant narrator. The story of the Iliad is being channeled through him, and he tries to stop, but he can’t. We want the space to reflect this struggle. The white fabric above the set came out of artists depictions of ancient theaters that were covered with awnings to protect the audience from the elements. We also wanted to control the color and texture of the sky.
2) How did the design concept for An Iliad change and evolve over time?
The stage directions infer that the poet enters into a space that is not his own. He enters into our space. So Charlie and I originally imagined a contemporary theater space. But, we eventually felt it would more interesting to make the space that could transport the audience to another time.
3) What is your favorite part of the design and why?
The fabric overhead. It makes the theater intimate and unified. It makes the theater go away, and it creates a space where a community of people can listen to a story under a tent.
4) You have quite a large body of work—do you think this set is a good representation of your “style” or does it differ in any major ways from your usual work?
I always try to create a space with a strong point of view that has enough detail to reflect the history of the people who inhabit it. This fits into that category.
5) Is there anything else you’d like to share about the design or process?
It’s great to be back at Court Theater. It’s been 10 years.
You can check out Todd’s body of work on his website: www.toddar.com
