INCUBATOR Series: Promethean Theatre Ensemble
The Problem of “Datedness”
by Ed Rutherford, co-director of A Month of Development
As I work on adapting these short stories by John Collier to the stage, one of the major hurdles I’ve had to overcome personally is how to deal with and react to content that I’ll charitably call ‘dated.’ I love John Collier’s stories- they’re alternately witty, creepy, goofy, and can make for very entertaining reads. But it’s really clear that some of these stories were written by an author living in an era before widespread enlightenment with regards to gender, and race. The fact of the matter is, it’s clear to a certain extent that Collier was something of a misogynist.
Thoughts on Shakespeare’s Accessibility
by Derek Jarvis, co-director of A Month of Development
A few months ago, I was having dinner with a relative who is in the publishing business. He is an avid fan of language in general, from prose to poetry, and had spent several years studying English literature before going into the publishing industry. During dinner, our conversation turned to Shakespeare. With my theatre background, I argued that Shakespeare was best consumed in performance, as that was what it was created to be. His argument was that Shakespeare could only be fully appreciated as literature, as there are so many archaic references that the audience won’t understand everything that is said without footnotes and a glossary.
This made me think. Obviously, all performances do not do justice to Shakespeare’s text. Quite a few fail to capture his words and tell the story, but what is it that the successful productions do to convey the message without sacrificing the text itself? Adapting the play to modern times and dialects just avoids performing the original text rather than making it accessible. Performers can also just cut out those references, but that does nothing to make it more accessible either.
For my portion of A Month in Development, I will be experimenting with how to make Shakespeare as accessible as possible to an audience. Utilizing different styles of performance, I hope to find ways to make even the obscure references a clear part of the story. Shakespeare is meant to be seen, not read. Now I just have to prove it.
Ed’s project #2
by Ed Rutherford, co-director of A Month of Development
In my last blog post a talked about one of the scripts I’m workshopping during this process. Now it’s time to talk about the other one. In order to explain the background of this second script and how I came to start working on it, though, I first must make a confession. I am a huge musical theatre geek. I mean massive. I mean, I listen to showtunes almost exclusively, and songs from musicals make comprise something like 95% of the music on my iPod (ok, also a little They Might Be Giants, ABBA, and The Decemberists).
Though not a writer of music myself, I have tremendous admiration for those who do that for the stage, from the classic musical theatre composers like Rodgers and Hammerstein, to the more modern and avant garde musical composers we see nowadays like Adam Guettel, Jason Robert Brown, and Michael John LaChiusa. But my favorite will always be Stephen Sondheim. His style is so intricate and instantly recognizable, yet each of his shows (Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd, to name just a few) are incredibly distinct. While many of his musicals are quite well known, he also took part in some more obscure pieces that aren’t as well known today. One of them is called Evening Primrose.
Ed’s project #1
by Ed Rutherford, co-director of A Month of Development
Well, here we are. The start of Promethean Theatre Ensemble’s “A Month of Development.” Why such a vague title, you might ask? It’s because we are workshopping not one, not two, nor even three, but FOUR projects this month thanks to the gracious support of the DCA! I’ll leave my compatriots Derek and Brian to talk about their projects. Two of them are mine, so I guess I’ll get this blog ball rolling by writing a bit about one of them. My portion of this workshop process is devoted to exploring and getting ideas for rewriting a couple of scripts of mine. We had a table reading of the first on on Monday, 8/10, and so I’ll talk about that first.
To preface this: I’m a huge fan of fantasy novels (not science fiction, a very different genre with which fantasy is grouped all too often). Those of you already familiar with my work with Promethean might have already guessed this- after all, my next project after this is the start of rehearsals for my adaptation of the Peter S. Beagle fantasy novel The Last Unicorn. One author that has successfully explored the darker corners of the fantasy realm is H.P. Lovecraft. Hopefully most of you are at least slightly familiar with his work, but in case not: he was a New England author of short stories who basically pioneered a lot of the “horrible demons in parallel dimensions” fiction that has since permeated our culture- in everything from episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” movies. His protagonists are bookish, scholarly types, who manage to prevent horrible fates befalling all mankind by relying on intellect, courage, and sometimes just luck. The basic premise of his stories is always this: there are other realms and worlds than are own, and most of them are filled with malevolent beings that wish us harm, one single glimpse of which would drive anyone completely mad. Which brings us to the first script I’m working on “The Peculiar Case of Dorothy Gale.”
From the Artistic Director
by Stephen F. Murray, Promethean Theatre Artistic Director
Promethean Theatre Ensemble is grateful for the opportunity to work with the Department of Cultural Affairs in the month August. For the past three years we have been bringing our imaginative storytelling to Chicago audiences and the DCA has given us the unique opportunity to develop our own voice through the Incubator project. We are taking the time to workshop three new scripts adapted by our ensemble for possible full productions in one of our upcoming seasons. We are also taking the time to really delve deeper into different performance methods of Shakespeare. Language-based plays are essential to our mission and seeing how live audiences respond to different styles of acting will help inform our production choices in the future.
I look forward to seeing you at the DCA as we celebrate our hard work and discoveries at the end of the month.
CURRENT SHOWS
