The Rehearsal Process: Arcadia (Installment 4)

Well, we've reached opening night of Arcadia! and thus the final installment in Alex Wiles blog of glimpses behind-the-scenes.  Now, you must come to see the performance, which runs only through October 30. Alex is a marvel, and the entire cast is truly outstanding.  I hope you will join us.  Grab tickets here. -GM

I guess you could say acting is a way of taking a walk in someone else’s shoes, only they more than likely don’t exist in reality, and if you’re doing it right, they’re kind of your shoes, too.

A few weeks ago as we began to have final costume fittings, Liz Blake White (playing Chloe) told me how excited she was to get her shoes for the show and start wearing them in rehearsal: “They just add something special to getting into character!”

She’s quite right--and it’s not just the shoes, either.  While the clothes don’t make the man (or woman), they certainly help you craft your character’s movement vocabulary, particularly in a period play.  Grant teased me one day in rehearsal that I moved as though I live in jeans.

Well, I do.

For the past four days or so, I’ve been living in long, airy Regency-period dresses with big pouffy sleeves in lovely, feminine fabrics.

While corsets weren’t typical of the period (the Regency empire waist freed ladies up for era from full-torso corsets for a little over a decade), a little foundational structure helps remind me of the extent to which my movement is constrained, but not so much that I can’t aim for the physicality of a 13-year-old girl.

After a few hours of wearing dresses that fit rather closely to the upper body, I get to change into my nightgown, which is equally lovely, though far more billowy.  It’s dreamy and ethereal, and ridiculously comfortable.  (Also, it is what my four-year-old self would have termed “a good twirler.”  This is particularly important, and if you see the show, you’ll know why.)

Everyone’s costumes are incredible.  Rebecca Cairns and Annie Hoskins have outdone themselves again!  Their work is beautiful, functional, and informs so much of the work we do as actors.

The funny thing is that this applies to the 1993 cast as well!  As a child of the early 90s, I didn’t pay much attention to fashion in the first place.  Little Mermaid shoes went with everything, even a white and black polka-dotted ruffle dress with matching bolero jacket trimmed with yellow ric-rac. (Oh yes, it was quite a sight, especially when topped off with that 90s classic, the bowl cut.)

I suppose it never really occurred to me that there was a style in the 90s.  

Oh, but there was.

Turtlenecks.  Big sweaters.  Pants that come up to your ribcage.  Pleats--everywhere.  “The Rachel” was becoming a singular trend in ladies’ hairstyling. It’s all here! 

It’s so wonderful to be working in, on, and around the gorgeous set (designed by Brian Barker) in these delightful costumes, juggling so many fabulous props against a backdrop of music and light.  If you pause and look around in the quiet of backstage, you think, “hey, this looks like a show.”

I am so pleased and honored to be a part of a production that is coming together so brilliantly.  

With that, I believe it’s time to review some dialect notes and go to bed.  We preview tomorrow and open on Friday!  Please join us--and stick around afterward to say hello!  For now, enjoy a teaser of the phenomenal hair design--here’s the first trial of Thomasina’s Hair, Look #2 of 3.

Timeless 'Hamlet' has modern feel

SUSAN HAUBENSTOCK SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Published: July 19, 2009

Like your "Hamlet" to have a colloquial, of-the-moment feel? The revamped Richmond Shakespeare production at Agecroft Hall has a Hamlet whose manner is so contemporary, you expect at any moment to see him texting Horatio.

There's no effort here to change the period of the tragedy, which is probably the 17th century, but Becky Willet's lovely costumes are not tied to any particular age. What's notable is the 21st-century sensibility -- lots of sarcasm and heavy irony in the line readings, and Jeff Cole's thoroughly extroverted Hamlet, with many modern mannerisms.

Grant Mudge directed both this and last fall's indoor-season version of the tragedy, and there are some differences. Jay Banks' Horatio is just as intelligent as Andrew Hamm's, but he's not the staunch friend Hamm's was. There's less romance and more insanity between Cole and his Ophelia, Liz Blake. And the production works better overall because of the more conventional thrust stage at Agecroft; Mudge can move his actors naturally, without the constraints of the long rectangle he had for a stage in the fall.

All the best elements of the production remain: high-quality spoken verse (Rebecca Jones was text and verse consultant), Blake's touching vulnerability, Cole's unflagging intensity. Timothy Saukiavicus is an even more craven Claudius than he was before, and Joseph Anthony Carlson is magnetic as Laertes -- his execution of Vanessa Passini's fabulous fight choreography includes a full-out leap that left audience members gasping.
A three-piece ensemble provides lovely background music, and the summer stage makes possible some effective stagecraft, like the entrance of Ophelia on her bier, hauntingly lit by designer J. David White.

In the customary Richmond Shakespeare style, 11 actors play 22 roles. But most of the principals play only one apiece, which leaves Katie Ford, 'Rick Gray, Shirley Kagan and LaSean Green playing 13 parts, and they do admirable work.

Susan Haubenstock is a freelance writer and editor based in Henrico County. Contact her at shaubenstock@gmail.com

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Phil Brown, 2009

May 10 - Have you seen the 'countdown clock?' It faces Broad Street between 6th and 7th, hung on the construction trailers at Richmond CenterStage. All of us at Richmond Shakespeare are enormously excited about our new theatre---opening in very short time! In fact, I have a little miniature version of the clock on my desk and today, both of them read 124 Days.

In two days, on May 12, at 7:30pm we'll hold our last event of the indoor season at 2nd Presbyterian, a staged-reading of Cymbeline, about which you may already have heard. Daryl Clark Phillips (Falstaff '07 and '08) leads a stellar cast including Ray Bullock, Richard Koch, Vicki McCleod, David Janeski, Billy Christopher Maupin, Asher Nicholson, Brad Tuggle, Lucas Hall, Alan Sader (Exeter in Henry V), Ally Wepplo, and James Wingo. Cymbeline is directed by David White and produced by Liz Blake. Catch Liz herself in this summer's reprsise of Hamlet.

This fall (in four months!), Richmond Shakespeare will indeed move our indoor season to the new Gottwald Playhouse inside Richmond CenterStage. Look for an inaugural season announcement (it's also our 25th Year) right at the start of the summer Richmond Shakespeare Festival.

Those performances come first---we'll continue to bring great summer shows to marvelous Agecroft Hall, beginning this 12th annual festival with the performances we've all been waiting for: Phil Brown's Henry V and the return of Jeff Cole's Hamlet. Sandwiched in between, I'm happy to annouce another return--for a limited run--of Andrew Hamm's critically acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Just prior to the summer festival on Saturday, May 23, I invite you to our first public "Mission Meeting." We'll gather at Agecroft Hall, from 1-4pm, to re-craft, re-dedicate and help to re-write the mission of Richmond Shakespeare. To RSVP and to receive more information, e-mail us at MissionMeeting@RichmondShakespeare.com. Come be a part of charting our next 25 years.

Thank you for joining us on this adventure, and be sure to keep in touch! Call, write, and comment or e-mail me here. Of course, you can always just catch my arm at a performance of Richmond Shakespeare.

Cheers,

Grant Mudge
Artistic Director

RAPT-urous Music from Liz Blake & Andrew Hamm

This past Monday night was our monthly gathering of voting members and at-large folk of the Richmond Alliance of Professional Theatres (RAPT), of which Christine Walters is president. This was called a Thirteenth Night celebration, held at ComedySportz, Walters' professional improv theatre company/club (RAPT's event has previously been held at Fielden’s on or about Twelfth Night each year). ComedySportz is doing great work there in a leetle hole-in-the-wall place at Staples Mill and Glenside. Really great. We also shared New Year’s Eve with this hilarious troupe, and if you get the chance, check out their shows. (And, see RS actors Pete Schmidt and Stephen Ryan, at ComedySportz on March 6&8, part of "Cousin Sheckie Improv!")

So, before the festivities, RAPT approved an important structure of RAPT’s foundation for Richmond Theatre Artists. Those in our community who fall on the hardest of times, whether due to illness, injury or extenuating circumstances, who have made significant contributions to Richmond’s theatre scene, may apply for financial aid. Artists dealing with life-threatening disease, life-altering circumstances may apply, or others may apply on their behalf, for assistance. It’s a great program, for whom the fiscal agent is Theatre IV/Barksdale; the fund is run through the Community Foundation. Great folks, great oversight, great mission. Win, win, win. Call our offices if you have any questions. (804-232-4000)

We were pleased to pass this policy structure, which was recommended by the Community Foundation, to govern the fund. Thereafter, Richmond Shakespeare offered to host one of the upcoming meetings. (summertime, to help showcase our wonderful summer venue at Agecroft Hall) Richmond artists do indeed take care of their own.

Next, Liz Blake and Andrew Hamm kicked off the entertainment portion of the evening, singing with skill, beauty, pleasure, grace and passion. In a word, they were fantastic. I’m biased, but I love to hear them sing. They kicked off their set (the evening included standup and improv to follow, but these guys were one hell of an opening act) with "Honor Riches Marriage Blessing," the primary song Andrew composed for this past summer’s 2006 production of The Tempest, followed by a song from Measure for Measure, also lyrics-by-Shakespeare-music-by-Hamm. The song, and its placement in the top of our show’s second half are consistently my favorite moments of Measure. They followed this with a piece from Andrew’s graduate thesis adaptation of Grammy winner Joe Jackson’s Night and Day, "Breaking Us In Two," which showed their full harmonic range together and showcased Liz splendidly scoring passionate low, LOW notes with aplomb. They sounded great. Andrew rounded out the evening with a song inspired by his experiences on Measure, and it might have been sung from the perspective of Angelo, “feasting on her eyes.”

All in all, a great evening. Four chances left to see Hamm & Blake in Measure for Measure.

Style Weekly: "Measure for Measure" is "Bracing" and "Gratifying"

From this week's Style Weekly:

Quick-Change Artists
Actors make the most of multiple roles in “Measure for Measure.”
by David Timberline

Richmond Shakespeare Theatre’s practice of “doubling” — having each of its actors play two or three roles in a show — has always led to some interesting juxtapositions. Its current production of “Measure for Measure” may present the most fascinating and artistically rewarding combinations yet.

In this complex consideration of moral gray areas, Andrew Hamm portrays both the strict Duke’s deputy, Angelo, who must crack down on the reprobates of Vienna, and the unfortunate gentleman Claudio, who gets cracked down upon. Both of these characters are fraught with inner conflict, and it’s a tribute to Hamm’s considerable skills that he is able to make each man’s trajectory riveting and distinct. He even throws in for good measure an amusing comic turn as an elderly constable.

Hearing that Claudio has been sentenced to die, his novitiate sister, Isabella, leaves the nunnery to plead for his life. Angelo makes her a devil’s bargain: If she sleeps with him, he’ll free her brother. As Isabella, Liz Blake is convincingly enchanting and proves her acting mettle in the extreme emotional rollercoaster her character must ride.

Spurring the plot into greater complication is Vincentio, the Duke (David White), who disguises himself as a friar to spy on the proceedings. White doesn’t quite do enough to differentiate the Duke from the pimp Pompey, but he salvages his performance in some exceptional final scenes.

In other supporting roles, Julie Phillips makes her biggest impression as the bawdy Mistress Overdone, and while John Moss’ near-farcical take on the opportunistic Lucio sometimes seems to belong in a different play, it’s also consistently hilarious.

As is befitting one of Shakespeare’s “problem” plays, this production has some issues with the mix of comic and melodramatic elements. But the overall effect is a bracing — and gratifying — journey down a murky moral path.



Great to hear such praise from Style Weeky! And our review appears directly beneath the review of Doubt, making this "Nun Week" at Style.

If I may be so bold, I need to point out that this show has grown tremendously in the two weeks since the Thursday preview that Mr. Timberline saw. All five actors have really deepened their connection to their roles. If you saw the show early, it's worth coming back to see it again.

There are only two more weeks of Measure for Measure. Don't miss this show!

"Measure for Measure:" February 7 - March 20

Next up at the Richmond Shakespeare Theatre:


Directed by James Alexander Bond, who brought you Richmond Shakespeare's critically-acclaimed productions of Julius Caesar and Henry IV, Part 1, featuring the acting talent of Liz Blake, Andrew Hamm, John Moss, Julie Phillips, and David White, costumes by Rebecca Cairns and stage managed by Heather Johnson.

Death! is the sentence for impregnating a woman before marrying her, and even though Claudio does intend to marry his Juliet, he’s in a heap of trouble! The good Duke of Vienna has taken a break from royal duties, handing the reins of government to the strict conservative Angelo, who is tempted by Claudio’s sister Isabella, a nun’s novice; if Isabella will yield to Angelo's desire, he'll spare Claudio. Confused yet? Even though appearances in Shakespeare have a way of unraveling and all might end well, someone will be put to death, someone else spends a reckless night alone with a woman he cannot see, the clowns of Vienna will howl and the city itself could crumble. Be careful who you judge, as judgment might be passed on you!

Richmond Shakespeare's contribution to the Acts of Faith Festival, Measure for Measure is a story of passion and prayer, lust and restraint, sin and virtue, offense and forgiveness. One of Shakespeare's last comedies, the play is in many ways one of his most rich and complex, with broad bawdy humor alternating with theology and philosophy centuries ahead of its time. "The tempter or the tempted: who sins most?"

Mature themes but appropriate for age 14 and above.

Show times are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 8:00 and Sunday afternoons at 2:30. All performances are in the chapel at Second Presbyterian Church (5 North 5th Street). Click here for directions!

Click here for tickets!