11 posts tagged “theatreworks”

Trying by TheatreWorks

Tonight's performance was outstanding, really helped me empathize and connect with those more mature members of my practice - patients who dress up to come to clinic and have great respect for the profession of a physician, more so than even we young'uns have for our own kind.

It was a beautiful story of the sunset of a celebrated judge's life, flashbacks to his childhood, and turning points in his career to shape his political views.

It brought me back to my formative years at Brown, the activists who inspired me, and my years in residency seeing the suffering of the indigent patients I cared for.

We're subscribing for another season, and expecting as great performances in the coming year.

TheatreWorks threw me for a loop with moliere in rhyme in the roaring 20's. I was ready to be a hater, but it was really funny. After a while I forgot about the rhyming and found the over-the-top caricatures hilarious, along with their reinterpretations/resurrections of trite phrases into interesting poetry...

Learned Ladies of Park Ave

Tania and I were again suprised by the musicality and depth of message from TheatreWorks.  Tonight, we had the chance to see Dessa Rose in its West Coast premiere after a sucessful NYC run.  It was such a treat to hear the painful stories of slaves in the 1st half, and find hope in the 2nd half's creative freedom schemes.

The leads interestingly switched between playing their youthful selves to assuming hunched over/gravely voiced narration as elder versions of themselves.  I appreciated the fact that this slave tale had 7 african american actors and 5 caucasian actors.  More than race, I appreciated the quality of their acting, and the beautiful score that was well played by the orchestra.

I just wished young non-white locals would wisen up to the quality that plays in our local theater.  It's a real hidden gem.

Merc Review...

Photo_10.jpg

update: review by the Merc

We're going to see this next tuesday 10/10/06 but you can get a deal this Wednesday & Thursday:

Special $12* Ticket Offer for Dessa Rose
Wednesday, October 4 at 8 pm
Thursday, October 5 at 8 pm

To purchase $12 tickets:  You can order online at   
http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?regionfiltered=sfbay&query=schedule&venue=mvcpa
or print out this offer and bring to the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts box office before the show  
* includes $2 Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts Facilities Use Fee

Spread the word! Please pass this along to a friend.

*If you received this email from a friend and would like to sign up for our Quick Tix email club to receive similar notifications and occasional special offers, please click here http://www.theatreworks.org/quicktix.htm

THEATREWORKS HOTLINE: (650) 463-1960 or toll free 1(888) 273-3752, Monday through Friday, 11 am -  6 pm.

If you do not wish to receive similar messages in the future or would like to be removed from our e-mail list, please send a message with "Remove me from your email list" as the subject line to mailto:jeanette@theatreworks.org 

we loved this show, check my post about this when we saw it last month...
Special $12* Ticket Offer for M. Butterfly
Wednesday, September 20 at 8 pm
Thursday, September 21 at 8 pm

To purchase $12 tickets:  You can order online at   
http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?regionfiltered=sfbay&query=schedule&venue=mvcpa
or print out this offer and bring to the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts box office before the show  
* includes $2 Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts Facilities Use Fee

Hmmm... just bought season tix but this would have been an interesting option, not to have to buy tix to every show:

$30 membership for discounted tix, and access to the preparties and fundraisers.

http://www.theatreworks.org/images/email_membership.jpg

Theatreworks

Amazing to think Francis Jue played this role 14 years ago here...  I remember seeing it in San Francisco at that time, and I'll bet it was a Theatreworks production, albeit in San Francisco.

A decade and a half helps me appreciate the pain of this play much more.  Back then, I was a angry young college student and only saw the anti-imperialist politics as the ruling part of the play.

This time around, Jue seemed much more intense, less lilting butterfly than asian tiger.  I'm a romantic at heart, much like Rene Gallimard, and after a decade of marriage I wanted to believe that Song Liling wasn't in it just for survival - due to the Communist Chinese gov't demands.  I wanted to believe that Song Liling was in love as well with Rene.  I confess it was hard for me to do so until the very last words of the play, although my wife felt it earlier.

This enactment was more powerful than the first memory i have of the play - either acted or at my first reading of the script.  Somehow I appreciate more the sacrifice of Rene for Song, however selfish and illusory, I can feel that more now -- kids and that aforetomentioned decade do that to you.  You live for a certain construct of identities that you're drawn to, and if those identities are broken it's hard to look past it.  Song's pleading for Rene to be more like a woman really resonated with me - to place the relationship first - to love the person and transcend the fantasy.  That's so hard.  I want so much for my wife to be content, but that's just not possible for now.

I hope it's not another decade before I have the opportunity to see this again.  The issues brought up are so timely, with our war in the middle east ensconsing daily the "other" in our faces.  It's suprisingly ambivalent to me in this viewing, much less the anti-imperialist political statement, and much more a love story, however angry and edgy Song is...  It's really beautiful.  Marc Capri as Rene made it that for me today, and Francis Jue brought realism to cut the dreamy sweetness.

Update: Rosemary from TheatreWorks sales (650-463-7106) sold me on a 5 show tuesday deal... great deal of 50% off since Tania's registered as a homeshooling teacher (her Stanford masters in Ed helped) & I've lectured at Stanford Medical Informatics, works out to be even better than the $10 discount we got off tickets this show since we'd seen Brooklyn Boy.  We've seen so many shows I figured we'll keep seeing every Theatreworks show for now... since we can't make it up to the city.

M Butterfly

Update: scroll to the bottom for discounts on upcoming shows...

Brooklyn Boy successfully brought me back to reminescing about my parents influence on my beliefs, behaviors and peculiarities.  It shared the angst of family dynamics, pulling on your heartstrings without being saccharine.  The situations transcended jewishness, without robbing me of the delight of seeing a glimpse of the intimacy afforded jewish customs.  The show succeeds where the protagonist can't -- crafting a story beyond his experience, calling back to all of our own.

link to merc review

Here's what Tania thought of it:

One of the few things my husband and i still enjoy from our dating days is theatre. These days, we find ourselves catching last minute tickets at Theatreworks.
Today we scored. We got to watch Brooklyn Boy a hop skip and away from our house at Lucie Stern. It was one of those surreal nights when you know you're watching a New York caliber world-class play right in the suburbs of Palo Alto. We didn't have to line up for hours at Tix, we didn't have to get all dressed up, we were still snacking on dinner 5 minutes till curtain call, we sat down and watched a Pulitzer Prize winning play.
It was excellent. The kind of play that makes you feel like you came out eating a 5 course dinner. The kind where the hours just flew by and you couldn't get enough. The kind where you didn't have to rely on eye-candy to get through the 2 hours. The kind where you didn't have to remind yourself why you go to the theatre -- to seem intelligent and cultured and smart. It was the kind of that left you resonating in so many places that you wouldn't have the courage to go on your own.
The actors were world class. You know because there was very little plot. No action. Simply amazing characterization and nuances so subtle that you would have to breathe to lose it.
It was such a treat to have front row seats. It would have been so different afar. The actors were incredibly talented. So well-played. i know because i ended up falling in love the lead protagonist which was a barely-balding guy in his 40s who was awkward and reserved and uptight. Somehow he came across endearing.
A brilliant portrayal of the complex tensions between father and son, class and race and a hilarious insight into Jewish culture.

 

One funny thing was that this brochure from our preschool co-op was tacked to the bulletin board in the hospital scene:

http://www.paacf.org/documents/PreSchoolFam8_06.pdf

Special $16* Ticket Offer for
Thursday 8/3 at 8 pm

Friday 8/4 at 8 pm

Saturday 8/5 at 2 pm

Saturday 8/5 at 8 pm

Sunday 8/6 at 7 pm

Saturday 8/12 at 2 pm

Sunday 8/13 at 7 pm

AND if you book your Brooklyn Boy Quick Tix ticket by calling 650.463.1960 you can also receive $10 off your ticket to the first week of M Butterfly August 23-August 26 (Preview Nights and balcony seating on Opening Night)

Brooklyn Boy

By Donald Margulies

Directed by Joy Carlin

AN INSIGHTFUL DRAMATIC COMEDY

July 19 – August 13, 2006

Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto http://www.theatreworks.org/venues.htm.      

This funny and warmly human Broadway hit from Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies surprises and delights with a tale of a Jewish novelist suddenly thrust into a world of best-seller acclaim and Hollywood hustle. But what price success? Revisiting the rowdy neighborhoods of his youth, he makes a deeply personal discovery: you can take the boy out of Brooklyn but you can't take the Brooklyn out of the boy.

"funny, thoughtful, and deeply affecting"
San Francisco Chronicle

"emotionally rich"
Oakland Tribune

 Starring David Kudler, Craig W. Marker, Ray Reinhardt, Amy Resnick, Kristin Stokes, Victor Talmadge, and Pamela Gaye Walker.

For a calendar and more information on the show: http://www.theatreworks.org/06_07_Brooklyn-Boy.htm

To just purchase $16 tickets:  You can order online at   
http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?regionfiltered=xxx&query=search&interface=ticketweb&newhps=1&search=TheatreWorks&x=0&y=0
or print out this offer and bring to the Lucie Stern box office before the show.  
Please note: if you book your tickets online you will not be able to take advantage of the above M. Butterfly offer.  To take advantage of the M. Butterfly offer AND get your $16 Quick Tix on Brooklyn Boy, please call 650.463.1960.
* includes $1 Lucie Stern Facilities Use Fee

Spread the word! Please pass this along to a friend.

*If you received this email from a friend and would like to sign up for our Quick Tix email club to receive similar notifications and occasional special offers, please click here http://www.theatreworks.org/quicktix.htm

I enjoyed this chick musical, and ironically tania less so.  I loved how the musical theme reminded me of the tune GrooveLiliy uses in their song about their RV travails in Striking 12.  The women sang with conviction, passion, and a hollywood-meets-musical smooth style.  Papa slept thru a lot of it though...

Vanities