January 28, 2010 at 5:22 pm (Uncategorized)
Photograph: Shari Perkins with Kalamandalam John as Bhima in Duryodhana Vadham.
I have just returned to New York City from the state of Kerala, India, where I spent the past month studying kathakali and other performing arts traditions of the region. For three weeks, we (20+ students from City University of New York) studied kathakali at the Kalamandalam, the state performing arts academy. In such a brief amount of time, it is only possible to learn a small amount of a complex performance tradition like kathakali. Nevertheless, the experience was invaluable. With what knowledge I have picked up about the form, I can appreciate what I see more fully. I also have a clearer idea of how the texts, which I have read in the past, are actually brought to life on stage. Additionally, I had the opportunity of seeing several productions of kathakali, as well as performances of teyyam, kutiyattam, mohiniyattam, bharata nattyam, kuchipudi, odissi, and others. Although I have studied various Asian performance traditions in the classroom, it is impossible to grasp them fully from descriptions and videotapes alone.
While in India, I had an opportunity to present my first paper at a conference, an exciting experience both because I got to share my ideas and because I met interesting scholars whose papers raised intriguing questions. Hopefully, I can pursue some of the threads which I discovered and develop them into future research projects!
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January 28, 2010 at 12:14 am (Conferences)
Abstract
In Playing the Victim, the Presnyakov Brothers’ 2004 reimagining of Hamlet, Valya, a twenty-something university drop-out, takes an unusual job: he plays the role of the murder victim in crime reconstructions led by the Russian police. Haunted by the belief that his mother murdered his father and influenced by the continual reenactments the violent encounters of post-Soviet life, Valya devises his very own Shakespearean climax. This paper will examine how the Presnyakovs’ use of onstage technology, particularly in the form of a video camera, creates multiple distinct points of view, forcing the characters and the audience to ask: what is real? How can the truth be manipulated? How can contemporary “heroes” forge their own realities?
I presented this paper on January 15, 2009 at CPRACSIS’s conference “Body, Space and Technology in Performance.” It will be expanded into a more comprehensive study of the topic.
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October 29, 2009 at 4:43 pm (Uncategorized)
From the review:
Two massive electrical outages during two very different decades provide a conceptual framework for J. Anthony Roman’s Blackouts, currently being produced by Swandive Studio at Center Stage. The play, an exploration of the problems of addiction, family, and responsibility, has serious flaws yet manages to pose a few interesting questions.
Read more of “Hard Times in Hell’s Kitchen” …
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October 6, 2009 at 4:25 pm (reviews)
From the review:
John Ford’s titillating play ‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore is a controversial work which plumbs the depths of incest, adultery, vengeance, and murder. Originally produced in the 17th century, Ford’s sex- and gore-filled story about the love affair of a pair of siblings may seem slightly less sensational in our tabloid-centered modern world. Nevertheless, Toy Box Theatre Company’s recent rendition is a solid, well-acted and well-designed production which definitely diverts.
Read more of “Brotherly Love”…
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September 25, 2009 at 8:14 pm (reviews)
From the review:
With all the theatrical marvels that modern technology can create, it is easy to forget that at its core, effective theater requires very little: an actor, an audience, and a good story to tell. Fiasco Theater’s current production of Cymbeline is an excellent exemplar of how to create great theater with the most minimal of means. Using just six actors, a specially-designed trunk, and a trimmed version of William Shakespeare’s words, the company creates an intelligently performed and thoroughly diverting production.
Read more of “Less is More” …
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September 18, 2009 at 10:07 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: reviews
I have recently noticed that out of all the shows that I have reviewed in the past year, only a few have been new works. I count one new musical (the excellent Kasper Hauser), two new performance pieces (Chuck.chuck.chuck. and Black Girl Ugly), one new dance piece (beyond.words), and two new plays (Shekinah and Asclepius). That is six works out of a total of fifteen!
Why so few?, I ask myself. I like new works. I’m a dramaturg. I am invested in supporting a new generation of playwrights — or so I tell myself.
I suppose it comes down to two factors. First, I am a relatively new critic on the scene, and it is much easier for me to commit to reviewing a more classic piece, which I can research and the text of which I know I can read in advance. This is not a good excuse, however. It is perfectly within my power as a critic to request a copy of the script to read either in advance or while writing up my review.
The second reason is that very few new plays have compelling publicity. Due to my schedule, most months I can only review one or two plays, which means that I select which ones I attend carefully. I try to pick shows that look like they are going to be stimulating — shows that have some meat to them, which will give me something to write about. Unfortunately, many new plays have underwhelming advance publicity. When all I have to go by when picking a play to review is a two sentence blurb, that blurb had better be good.
Most of the time, it isn’t. Most of the time, the descriptions of new plays seem either blandly generic or needlessly shocking. That’s really too bad, because I try to go into every show I review with excitement and an expectation of enjoying myself, and that kind of publicity makes attending less than tempting.
I know how hard it can be to write up those fifty word descriptions. I suffered over the one I produced for A Bicycle Country earlier this summer. But it is an essential part of marketing new works.
So here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to make a conscious effort to attend new plays in order to promote new playwrights and artists.
What are you going to do?
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September 18, 2009 at 9:13 pm (reviews)
Tags: reviews
From the review:
Comedy. Farce. Drama. Romance. Although audience members having a night on the town may not consciously classify the genre of a play they’re watching, they are nevertheless gathering clues in order to understand its world. John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves, for example, is a black comedy, mining uncomfortable topics for their humor without undermining their gravity. Unfortunately, The Gallery Players’ current revival of Guare’s 1966 play is so muddled that it has lost both its incisiveness and its sense of humor.
Read more of “Unrealized Potential”…
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August 31, 2009 at 12:19 am (reviews)
Tags: reviews
From the review:
Though the powerful can be perverse, those who try to curry favor with the powerful are often even more so. Jean-Paul Sartre considered Jean Genet’s Deathwatch to be reiteration of themes explored in the playwright’s more famous effort, The Maids. Locked away in a cramped prison cell, two petty criminals vie for the approval of their idol, an illiterate murder by the name of Green Eyes. Genet’s poetic thieves and killers conflate power, violence, and masculinity in their battle for dominance, but when one of them finally strikes out to establish his position, he discovers that glory is not so easily obtained.
Read more of “Power Play”…
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July 20, 2009 at 9:20 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: Dramaturgy, projects, reviews
Dramaturgs don’t usually get mentioned in reviews, but this time I got lucky!
Though a knowledge of fiscal models, trade relations, and the fall of European Communism is not essential to appreciate Cruz’s play, the current staging by East 3rd Productions, enjoying its New York premiere at Theatre Row’s Lion Theatre, benefits from a superb program-included primer by dramaturg Shari Perkins. Without this context, Cruz’s story of three balseros plays out as a taut, character-driven survivalist yarn; with Perkins’s insights, the production expands into a melancholic meditation on the loss of cultural identity.
The rest of the review is positive.
The production is gripping and harrowing, with strong performances from each of the three leads.
The rest of the review is positive, and in the last paragraph:
In the her note accompanying the program of A Bicycle Country, dramaturg Shari Perkins challenges the audience to look at the world as Ines, Julio, and Pepe have, asking what we’d be willing to sacrifice in order to fix what we think has gone wrong. If we are to take a cue from A Bicycle Country, the answer would be a lot, and it would all be worth it in the end.
A Bicycle Country is currently the pick of the week on offoffonline.com.
Other Reviews
The review by Alexis Soloski in Village Voice is negative, but I offer the link for reader reference. Also, if you have seen the show, I’d be pleased to read your comments.
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July 15, 2009 at 3:22 pm (Dramaturgy)
Tags: Dramaturgy, program notes, projects
The following is from the program for Nilo Cruz’s A Bicycle Country, currently playing at the Lion Theatre at Theatre Row.
INES
Oh, I’d like to live in a place where the land extends and I can walk for miles, where I can run and never reach the end. Here, there’s always the sea.
What would you be willing to sacrifice to escape a world gone wrong? Your possessions? Your family? Your freedom?
Playwright Nilo Cruz has experienced the kind of hard choices Ines, Julio, and Pepe face in A Bicycle Country. His father served time in prison after attempting to flee Cuba on a boat, and years later, the ten-year-old Cruz and his parents finally left the country, leaving his married sisters behind. Disappointed by the direction the Revolution was taking, they escaped to Miami.
Several of Cruz’s plays explore the theme of escaping from a broken world in search of something better. Night Train to Bolina, set in a Latin American country torn by guerilla warfare, follows the story of two children who flee from the abuse and hunger of their rural town to the city, where they discover a different kind of oppression. In Two Sisters and a Piano, the Cuban title characters, who are under house arrest for their political leanings, begin a hunger strike to protest their – and their country’s – condition. A Bicycle Country is the story of three balseros who dare to give up everything they have for a chance to start their lives anew.
Changing directions requires bravery, as does acknowledging the shortcomings of your own homeland. East 3rd Ensemble’s production of A Bicycle Country is timely: it comes at a moment when many Americans are being forced to acknowledge the crumbling face of our own nation. Art is a transformative medium. However, one cannot effect change alone: like Ines, Julio, and Pepe, we must come together in solidarity. At a moment when many established theatres are vanishing, East 3rd Productions is opening its doors with a vision to create art that is meaningful and socially aware.
Perhaps it is time to ask what we’d be willing to sacrifice to right a world gone wrong. After all, as Pepe says, we’d all like something better.
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Photograph: Shari Perkins with Kalamandalam John as Bhima in Duryodhana Vadham.
