Project #4: Unconventional Theatre

1. Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

• Produced by Front Row Productions and Stephen C. Byrd with Alia M. Jones. Preivews began February 12th 2008, it opened on March 8th, and the limited engagement closed June 22, 2008. This production of the Tennessee Williams classic was directed by Debbie Allen.
• "Don't miss this bold new staging of TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' rich and timeless family portrait. " http://www.cat2008onbroadway.com/about.htm.
• Cat On A Hot Tin Roof had always been previously staged with white cast members depicting the family of a southern livestock business. Historically in that time period and in that region, it would be very rare for a black family to be owners of plantations and livestock. Yet this version shows that the dynamics and relationships in a family are universal across race.
  

James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad http://www.playbill.com/multimedia/gallery//68/?pnum=4

2. Fuerzabruta

Diqui James (co-founder/co-creator) and Gaby Kerpel (composer/musical director). Ran Off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre October 11 2007 through February 18th 2008. Produced by Concert Productions International (CPI), Ozono Productions and David Binder Productions.

• Fuerzabruta (Brute Force) "breaks free from the confines of spoken language and theatrical convention [where] both performers and audience are immersed in an environment that floods the senses, evoking pure visceral emotion in a place where individual imagination soars." http://www.playbill.com/news/article/112173.html
• This performance breaks the conventions of proscenium, thrust, and even In-The-Round theatre as it moves some of the act directly above the audience. With no dialogue or spoken word, the audience is jarred by strong, raw images backed by energetic percussion. Fuerzabruta translates to brute force, and as far as conventional theatre goes, this show easily forces it's way out of that classification
  

3. Company - 2006 Revival
Raul Esparza and company in the 2006 Revival of Company

• Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by George Furth. Directed by John Doyle it opened November 29, 2006 and closed July 1, 2008. Won Tony for Best Revival.
• "This visually severe, aurally lush reinvention of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s era-defining musical of marriage and its discontents from 1970 is the chicest-looking production on Broadway."
• Company was not a traditional musical when it made its debut in 1970. It was a series of vignettes with no particular chronology, that surrounded one character's journey. The revival used the actors as the orchestra, making the meaningful music of Sondheim even more of a personal expression of emotion. Traditional musicals have the orchestra in the pit, led by the conductor, yet this pared down version of Company had the actors responsible for accompanying their fellow actors and themselves.

4. Spring Awakening

• Music by Duncan Sheik, Book and Lyrics by Steven Sater. Produced by the Atlantic Theatre Company and Ira Pittleman, Tom Hulce, and Jeffrey Richards. Directed byMichael Mayer and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, it opened December 10th, 2006 and closed January 18th, 2009 (888 performances)
• "With a few exceptions, like John Doyle's Sondheim revivals, musicals tend to follow the Lloyd Webber principle that a respectable show needs eighteen sets and huge machinery. Michael Mayer, by contrast has put a rock concert on Broadway. The band sits onstage in plain view, and along either side of the playing area are risers for audience members." http://nymag.com/arts/theater/reviews/25582/
• This show combines a period piece of writing (Frank Wedekind's 1891 'Spring Awakening') and contemporary Indie-Pop songs. But the songs not only contrast with their counterpart dialogue, they burst out from the script more as separate performances. Characters pull microphones from their period school boy uniforms and sing in contemporary vernacular what they are feeling, rather than follow the tradition of attempting seamless transition of dialogue leading into song. In some opinions, that doesn't work in the first place, so Spring Awakening embraced the different statements a musical can make with its book, and with its songs.

From the National Tour of Spring Awakening, http://www.saturdaymatineeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/springawakening1.jpg

5. Shakespeare's R&J, Houston Premier

• Adapted by Joe Calarco, Directed by Rob Bundy, produced at Stages Repertory Theatre, Houston TX
• "The first forbidden kiss of two schoolboys. Put those boys in a school where Catholicism reigns, patriarchy rules, and where simply reading Shakespeare is forbidden, and you have a world pulsating with repressed hysteria."http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/issue/i02-00/shakespeare.html
• Another reinvention of Shakespeare's classic love tale, this one makes enough of an impact to garner reproduction of the show through the years and across the country. The widely accessible story makes a willing stage for unconventional twists, like the 4 person all male cast who tell the entire story by themselves. No lush, garish sets--not even a balcony--appear in this retelling of the star-crossed lovers. The line between the actors playing the students and the students playing the characters are stretched and blurred. The audience is forced to see beyond the traditional garnishings of this play and straight into the heart of this passionate love story.