Official uVu Blog

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

 

 

The Adrienne Arsht Center continues a partnership with the House Theatre of Chicago, bringing new and inventive productions to South Florida.  This holiday season brings a reimagined "Nutcracker." Not a ballet but as a play, this in-the-round production features many of the traditional elements but in a more cohesive narrative that tells the story of joy and loss at the is time of year.

Meant as family entertainment, it still features some elements that might be a little frightening to the youngest audience, including the battle with the Rat King and his minions, but there are also some surprises that will delight young and old, including cookies, living toys and even snow.

In this clip get a sneak peek and meet the director and a few of the Miami based cast for this production, including young Clara the heroine.

 

The Edge of Our Bodies

Adam Rapp's "The Edge of Our Bodies" is the final play of the season for the Mosaic Theatre in Plantation.  The play was a tremendous hit at this year's Humana Festival andpresents the story of Bernadette, sixteen, on the train from her New England private school to New York City to give her boyfriend some big news. Achingly articulate about all she can't know or control, this play captures a young woman at the threshold of vulnerability and experience.

Bernadette is played by Lexi Langs, herself not much older than the character, which makes th shocking moments all the more shocking.  The play is clearly as challenging for the young performer as it is for the audience, but it is a rie we all convincingly take together. And as with most of the Mosaic productions, it shouldn't be missed. 

We had a chance to sit with Lexi and talk about her role and the why this one woman show was a part she knew she wanted to play.

 

Red Carpet Highlights

A last look at some of the hoopla from last week's Carbonell Awards as we met some nominees on the Red Carpet.

 

 

WORKING for a Living

The revamped, updated, and contemporized musical WORKING features the music of Tony winners Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell), Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) and Grammy winner James Taylor opens this week at the Caldwell Theatre Company.  The original source material for this unabashedly American musical is based on the original novel WORKING by Studs Terkel.

”WORKING has a structure similar to A Chorus Line in that we really dive inside the mindset of these characters,” said Clive Cholerton, Artistic Director. “What we also see is just how interconnected we all are and how shared all of our experiences are. Its themes are possibly the most universal of any show we’ve done recently at Caldwell Theatre Company.”

Watch video after the jump

The Mother of all Theatre

For discretions sake we will refer to the latet production at GableStage as "The Mother (blank) with The Hat," but for what it is worth the title is tame compared to the actual production which sizzles with the poetic if somewhat shocking script and a dynamic young cast (some of whom come directly from the New World School of The Arts).

This limited run is not be missed, and in this short clip you can meet the cast.

 

 

Also recently opened "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity" at the Caldwell Theatre Company, see some video from that production on uVu.

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity

The newest production at the Caldwell Theatre Company is far more than the title and program graphic may suggest.  Using the world of Wrestling as a backdrop, the play is a metaphor for globalization, racism and the evolving role of America in the world view.  Of course there is a suplex or two and the real chance that one of the actors may get hurt, but that may be just value added.

We had a chance to meet the cast and see a few scenes from the production, the experience was certainly reminiscent of changing in the High School locker room.  Let the testosterone flow.

 

 

The Cast

The Creative Team

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

SEEING RED

RED by John Logan, which is playing at the GableStage Theatre through December 4th offers an interesting and personal look at the famed Abstract Expressionist, Mark Rothko, during a period in the late 1950s.  The production opened this week, but was kicked off with a special event at MOCA, where Bonnie Clearwater (MOCA’s Executive Director ) who literally wrote the book on Rothko, had a chance to interview the artist (in the person of actor Gregg Weiner) using text from Logan’s play.

 

The play itself takes place during the period from 1958-1959, when Rothko was commissioned to paint a series to hang in the Four Season's Restaurant housed in the newly constructed (and designed by Phillip Johnson) Seagram's Building and through the play we watch as the artist struggles with the idea of his work hanging in this monument to wealth and excess.

 

Gregg Weiner as Rothko, channels the artist by drawing upon his photographs and writings and he is able to fully realize the "character" through interactions with his protégé/employee (played by recent NWSA Alum Ryan Didato).  Their interactions turn from cold and scholarly to passionate and angry, with no warning and that makes the production exciting even for someone with little background on the tumultuous modern art scene of the period.

 

Ultimately RED is less about art than relationships, which is the more important theme of Logan’s work.  The production, directed by GableStage’s Producing Artistic Director, Joseph Adler, leaves the audience as exhausted as the two man cast by the end which exactly what live theater ought to do.

Seeing RED

GableStage's Producing Artistic Director Joseph Adler and MOCA Executive Director Bonnie Clearwater finish off an evening of art and theatre at an event held at MOCA on November 2, 2011, part of MOCA by MOONLIGHT SPECIAL series.

 

 

 

The evening began with "In Conversation with Bonnie Clearwater and Mark Rothko"
Bonnie Clearwater interviews the actor (Gregg Weiner) playing Mark Rothko in anticipation of the opening of RED, bio-drama on the life of the artist that wowed New York critics during its Broadway run in 2010. 

 

 

 

About RED:

Red   by John Logan
November 5 - December 4, 2011 at GableStage 

It is 1958 and abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko has just landed the biggest commission in the history of modern art; a series of murals for New York's famed Four Seasons Restaurant. Raw and provocative, this 2010 Tony Award-winning play is a searing portrait of the ambition, vulnerability and agony inherent in the art of making art.

"A fresh, exciting portrait of a brilliant mind! Red captures the dynamic relationship between an artist and his creations!"
- New York Times

 

Up Close and Personal

The Theater Up Close series at the Adrienne Arsht Center's intimate Carnival Studio Theater looks like an interesting and eclectic season of plays, but don't take our word for it, just share a quick elevator ride with some of the creatives behind the productions.

 

Captiva

Death and Harry Houdini

The Santaland Diaries

Moscow

From the uVu Vault (of Horror)

Okay we can't get enough of Robert The Doll but we throw in something new too, a chance to meet the cast of the Addams family (making stps at the Adrienne Arsht Center and The Kravis Center) this season.

Happy Halloween