Berkeley Rep Blog
Category archive: Backstage buzz
Tony Taccone talks shop with Butler and Moscone
posted by Chad Jones on Tue, Aug 31, 2010
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz
Though he's off in London directing the Tricycle Theatre's re-mount of Tiny Kushner opening Sept. 1, Artistic Director Tony Taccone's words are echoing through the Bay Area.
Tony sat down with a round-table discussion with fellow East Bay artistic directors Michael Butler of Center Repertory Company and Jonathan Moscone of California Shakespeare Theater, and their thoughts were recorded by writer Robert Taylor for the September issue of Diablo magazine.
Among the myriad topics covered by the ADs is what excites them in their upcoming seasons. Here's Tony's response:
We’re part of a tour of this piece called The Great Game, a 12-play cycle about Afghanistan. It’s a marathon day: You start at 11 o’clock in the morning and end at about 10 o’clock at night. Basically, Nicolas Kent of the Tricycle Theatre was watching television one night and he was sick of talking heads talking about Afghanistan. He thought, What would it be like if my friends responded to Afghanistan in an artistic way? Because it’s the major issue of our time. Then, we’re going to do The Composer Is Dead, a Lemony Snicket project. It’s got a puppet theater about 35 feet wide and a movie we’ve filmed backstage with Geoff Hoyle.
Above photo of Tony Taccone by Mike Thompson for Diablo magazine.
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2010/11 sneak peek: The Composer Is Dead and Ruined
posted by Chad Jones on Thu, Aug 19, 2010
in Backstage buzz , Our shows
Delving into the riches of the 2010/11 Berkeley Rep season, we've already talked about the season opener, Compulsion, starring Mandy Patinkin, and the epic play cycle The Great Game: Afghanistan and Mike Daisey's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs and The Last Cargo Cult.
Now it's time to explore Lemony Snicket's The Composer Is Dead and Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined.
Lemony Snicket's The Composer Is Dead
Check out the pedigree on this world premiere. It is written by Lemony Snicket (the bestselling author also known as San Francisco writer Daniel Handler, pictured at right in a photo by Meredith Heuer) with music by Nathaniel Stookey. Based on the children's book, it was originally conceived for the stage by Lemony Snicket and Phantom Limb Company, the amazing puppet troupe under the artistic leadership of Jessica Grindstaff and Erik Sanko. The show was developed with Tony Taccone, who also directs, and Geoff Hoyle, who also stars.
That's a lot of genius piled into a show that will have audiences of all ages giddy with delight.
Earlier this summer, Mr. Snicket/Handler spoke to the Los Angeles Times about his work and mentioned that Lemony Snicket is writing a new four-book series. But he didn't want to say too much about it.
"It's in its first trimester, so you don't want to poke at it too much. It's early, so I don't want to go around bragging about it. That's actually a Jewish tradition, not to set up the baby's room while you're pregnant or even say the baby's name out loud. It's bad luck."
Daniel also talked about his San Francisco neighborhood in this charming New York Times article.
Nathaniel Stookey, the composer of Composer (who happens to be very much alive, thank you very much), has had a busy summer, including a stop in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he conducted The Composer Is Dead with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. Read about the event here.
And finally, meet Jessica and Erik of Phantom Limb. This video is from late last year when they were working on a show called The Devil You Know with Ping Chong & Co.
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Carrie Fisher feels the force, films for HBO
posted by Chad Jones on Mon, Aug 16, 2010
in Backstage buzz , News , Our shows
We haven't reported on Carrie Fisher in a while, and there's a lot going on, so let's get up to (light) speed.
First of all, at the end of June, Carrie filmed several performances of Wishful Drinking, which, as you'll remember, had two runs here at Berkeley Rep. The live footage shot at the South Orange (New Jersey) Performing Arts Center will be combined with interview footage of Carrie and the people in her life — of course her mother, Debbie Reynolds, will feature prominently.
The Wishful Drinking documentary will air in December on HBO. Carrie talked to the Huffington Post about the movie. Read the interview.
On her ever-eccentric Twitter feed, Carrie announced that her sixth book is in the pipeline. It was also on Twitter that she posted the photo at right, undoubtedly a humorous plug for her recent keynote speech at the American Pyschiatric Association in New Orleans.
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Mandy Patinkin to make Berkeley Rep debut
posted by Chad Jones on Mon, Aug 9, 2010
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz , News
Let's start off the new season with some exciting news. Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor Mandy Patinkin (pictured above) will star in Rinne Groff's Compulsion, the first show of the 2010/11 season.
Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of The Public Theater, directs this co-production of Berkeley Rep, The Public, and Yale Repertory Theatre, where Compulsion debuted in January (also starring Mandy Patinkin).
Of course we love Mandy for his incredible body of stage, film, and TV work, not to mention his extraordinary albums and concerts. But he lives in cinema history forever with one of the most memorable lines of all time. You know the movie and the line I'm talking about.
The movie is The Princess Bride, a treasure from 1987. And the line, "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die," ranked 88 out of 100 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 years of great movie lines.
For this and for so many other reasons, we're thrilled that Mandy Patinkin will be making his Berkeley Rep debut alongside cast members Hannah Cabell, last seen here in Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), and Matte Osian, last seen at Berkeley Rep in Mad Forest.
Compulsion begins previews September 13 and opens September 16 on the Thrust Stage. The show continues through October 31.
What is your favorite Mandy Patinkin role? Leave your answer in the comments section.
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Toasting (and roasting) Susan Medak's 20th!
posted by Chad Jones on Thu, Jul 22, 2010
in Backstage buzz , Events
This year we're celebrating Susan Medak's 20th anniversary as Berkeley Rep's managing director.
We asked some prominent community leaders to toast and roast her in honor of her remarkable tenure at the Theatre. This short video includes loving and humorous commentary from her partner in crime, Artistic Director Tony Taccone, as well as legendary performer Rita Moreno, renowned producer Tom Hulce, local politicians like Tom Bates and Loni Hancock, and philanthropists such as Marjorie Randolph of Walt Disney Studios and Bernard Beaudraux of Target® Corporation.
Read an interview with Susan Medak.
Above photo: Berkeley Rep Managing Director Susan Medak and her husband, Greg Murphy, at the 2010 ONSTAGE! Gala.
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Digging Scoop and his Crazy Wisdom
posted by Chad Jones on Wed, Jun 30, 2010
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz
Wes “Scoop” Nisker is known for his decades of work as a Bay Area radio news anchor and commentator as well as for his teachings in Buddhist meditation and philosophy. But he has a secret: there’s theatre in his past.
Back in the day, he dabbled in stage work with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and in the late ‘70s, he was part of a performance work called The Empire Strikes Out, which ran at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco and at the Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley.
As his journey took him into the Buddhist community, Scoop performed some short pieces during workshops and at conferences until people encouraged him to go public. That’s when he started performing different versions of Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again at venues such as The Marsh and Freight & Salvage.
For the last few months, Scoop has been working on Crazy Wisdom with Mina Morita, Berkeley Rep’s Bret C. Harte Directing Fellow, along with Literary/Dramaturgy Fellow Rachel Viola, to transform Crazy Wisdom from a lecture piece to something more theatrical. This revamped, more theatrical version will have two performances as part of Berkeley Rep’s Fireworks festival July 2 and 3.
“It used to be very casual,” Scoop recalls. “It was me getting up and making observations, musing on life and the universe. Now the show is being given thematic and dramatic arcs than it never had, which is interesting and exciting. It’s also hard work!”
According to Scoop, the underlying theme of the show hasn’t changed, which is essentially him musing on stuff. “The new structure gives me freedom to get into the character that is me, to let the character come into it and let it be full-blown exposition,” Scoop says. “My main objective is to share my own wonder, my own excitement about the things that I am taken with – science, the universe, existence, what it’s all about. In the show I describe myself as kind of a cosmic journalist and a comic philosopher.”
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Leaving us In the Wake
posted by Chad Jones on Fri, Jun 25, 2010
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz , Our shows
As we head into closing weekend for Lisa Kron's In the Wake, we'd like to leave you with a few parting thoughts courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.
Charles McNulty, in his essay "The Kushner effect, an Angel in American playwriting," celebrates the lasting legacy of Tony Kushner's epic Angels in America, a play that has inspired a generation of writers to bring national scope and creative imagination to the stage. He writes:
Three plays in recent months have pressed an awareness of the continuing artistic impact of Angels: Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Julia Cho's The Language Archive and Lisa's Kron's In the Wake...
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Meet Dan Hoyle's secret weapon
posted by Chad Jones on Thu, Jun 24, 2010
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz
Sure Dan Hoyle is a skilled journalist, a fascinating writer, and an incredibly talented performer. But he also happens to make savvy choices when it comes to picking his collaborators.
If you were a young solo performer seeking to develop new work, to whom would you turn for help? Dan went straight to Charlie Varon (Rush Limbaugh in Night School, Rabbi Sam), one of the country's best solo performers who also helps steer other solo shows — often at The Marsh in San Francisco — toward brilliance.
Charlie and Dan first collaborated on Tings Dey Happen, a show about Dan's experience as a Fulbright Scholar studying Nigerian oil politics on the Niger Delta. That show went so well they embarked on a second show, The Real Americans, about Dan's cross-country trip in search of "the real America."
Both shows had critics raving and audiences thronging. And both shows just happen to be part of Berkeley Rep's Fireworks festival. The Real Americans begins performances tonight and runs through Sunday, June 27. And Tings Dey Happen runs June 30 and July 1.
The San Francisco Chronicle's Rob Hurwitt sat down with Charlie to talk about his collaboration with Dan in today's newspaper. Read the interview.
Visit our online box office for Fireworks ticket information or call 510 647-2949.
Above photo: Charlie Varon, director and co-developer of Dan Hoyle's Tings Dey Happen and The Real Americans. Photo by Liz Hafalia, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle
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More Dan Hoyle and The Real Americans
posted by Chad Jones on Wed, Jun 16, 2010
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz
When you hear the phrase "due to popular demand" it can seem like so much promotional hoo-ha. But when we say it, we mean it. Due to popular demand, we've added one more performance of Dan Hoyle's acclaimed solo show The Real Americans to the Fireworks festival. Dan has sold out his Real Americans performances June 24-26, so another one just had to be added.
Tickets are $25. You can order them here. When they're gone, that's it!
While we're on the subject of the dynamic Mr. Hoyle, you should check this new profile from the San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa Times. Karen D'Souza talked to Dan about bringing Americans and Tings Dey Happen to the Fireworks festival.
Karen had this to say about Dan:
"If his father, Geoff, has been dubbed the clown prince of the Bay Area theater scene, Dan is the Marco Polo of monologuists. The quick-witted performer scours the globe and then fills the stage with a menagerie of characters, from Alabama NASCAR fans to Nigerian warlords, with equal parts chutzpah and empathy. In show after show he etches quicksilver portraits of the people, politics and issues that make the 21st century such a beguiling time to live."
Karen also talked with Charlie Varon, who helped develop Dan's shows and directed them.
"`A lot of solo performers can run through a series of characters one after another,' says veteran director Charlie Varon (Rush Limbaugh in Night School). `Dan's work is so much more rich and complex than that. He can play everyone sitting at the table all at once. With his physical dexterity and his intellectual adventurousness, he can create an entire universe.' While many assume that Hoyle inherited his mimetic gifts from his father, Varon, who began collaborating with him back on Circumnavigator in 2004, is quick to point out that he has labored long to hone his skills.
`A lot of people think it's native talent, but he works very hard to make it look easy,' Varon says. `You can't overestimate the number of hours he will spend rehearsing a bit of business in the mirror.'
Read the whole article then order your tickets before they're gone! Dan's Tings Dey Happen runs June 30-July 1 and Wes "Scoop" Nisker's Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again closes the festival July 2-3.
Above: Dan Hoyle photo by Cheshire Isaacs
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Check out David Sedaris' recommended reading list
posted by Chad Jones on Tue, Jun 15, 2010
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz
We're beyond thrilled to have David Sedaris with us this week as part of our Fireworks festival. The first performance of An Evening with David Sedaris took place last night, and it was, as expected, full of laughs and great writing. (David also mentioned his new mission: get people to buy tickets for In the Wake next door at the Roda — he may even have said something about "hot lesbian action with a message.")
David read five stories from his forthcoming book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, and if you were at all concerned about David diverging from his series of bestselling memoirs, relax. The fables are an ideal vehicle for his humor, insight, and wonderfully macabre leanings. As if the evening wasn't enjoyable enough, David then read from his diary.
During the question-and-answer session, David was asked about books he's reading or recommending these days, and his answer was Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, a short-story collection by emerging author Wells Tower. He raved about the title story, which is about Vikings. Speaking of Vikings, David also gave a shout-out to the Viking movie Valhalla Rising.
David is often asked about his favorite books, so he has kindly created a virtually permanent recommendation list. Below you will find a few of his recommendations, and you can find the complete
