Chicago Shakespeare Theatre presents:

Richard III

by William Shakespeare
directed by Barbara Gaines
thru November 22nd (buy tickets)

reviewed by Richard Millward

Richard III is among Shakespeare’s earliest and most enduring successes and Richard, Duke of Gloucester and later King of England, perhaps his most thoroughly evil character. Despite the ingratiating manner he can turn off and on at will, Richard’s heart is as ugly and twisted as his body is deformed. Trusting no one, and thinking of nothing but his own gain, he is by turns vicious, conniving, dishonest – and utterly fascinating to audiences since Shakespeare’s colleague Richard Burbage first stepped onto the stage to declaim, "Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this son of York."

And that tradition continues unabated at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. In the capable hands of Artistic Director Barbara Gaines, Richard III once again works its magic of simultaneous attraction and revulsion. Briskly paced and sensibly edited, this "Richard III" is relentless in its march towards its anti-hero’s tragic, self-inflicted destiny.

Wallace Acton as the amoral royal of the title brings a surprising amount of humor to his role. His soliloquies and asides to the audience succeed in drawing us in, making us complicit in his mad determination to seize the throne. By the time the culminating battle is approaching, Acton’s Richard has come completely undone, but with a mania and a desperation entirely in keeping with the vicious joker of but a few hours earlier.

Other standout performers in the generally strong company include Kevin Gudahl as Richard’s cousin and accomplice, the Duke of Buckingham, John Reeger as the steadfast Lord Stanley and Dan Kenney as Catesby, Richard’s personal enforcer. Brendan Marshall-Rashid brings authority and gravitas to the small but pivotal role of Richmond, the future King Henry VII and founder of the royal House of Tudor after Richard’s death.

Interestingly enough, it is the women of this "Richard III" who truly shine – women who give lie to the assumption that politics in the Fifteenth Century must have been a man’s game. Wendy Robie, as Richard’s sister-in-law, Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to the soon-deceased Edward IV, and Mary Ann Thebus as his mother, the Duchess of York, are fine, strong actors and women to be reckoned with; they deal with Richard on their own terms. Angela Ingersoll as Lady Anne Neville brings a delicate intensity to a notoriously difficult role. One can feel her chaotic emotions as she is wooed literally over the dead body of her father-in-law, King Henry VI, by the monster who killed not only that monarch, but Anne’s husband and her father. Ms. Ingersoll makes Anne’s impossible choices seem understandable – not an easy task.

Gaines makes terrific use of the sleek, heavily reflective multi-level set clad in plexiglass – designed by Neil Patel and lit beautifully by Robert Wierzel - including inventive use of exits and entrances all through the CST’s auditorium. Special mention needs to be made of Susan E. Mickey’s brilliant costuming. Evocative of traditional Elizabethan shapes and silhouettes, but executed in muted palettes and of lighter weight fabrics, these are clothes that suggest and reference, without encumbering actors in layers and layers of detail (see video of Ms. Mickey’s perspectives on the visual world of the play here). The director and this designer all star team continue to surprise with images of startling beauty, right up to the closing moments.

Richard III may be one of Shakespeare’s most familiar vehicles, but this is a "Richard III" to remember.

Rating: ««««

Richard III cast:

Wallace Acton
Richard III

Scott Baity, Jr.
Prince Edward

Phillip James Brannon
Duke of Clarence, Tyrrel

Kevin Cox
1st Murderer

Matt DeCaro
Edward IV, Ratcliff

Marc Grapey
2nd Murderer/Lord Mayor

Kevin Gudahl
Lord of Buckingham

Jennifer Harmon
Queen Margaret

Matthew Heffernan
Duke of York

Joshua Heinlein
Duke of York

Mark D. Hines
Citizen

Angela Ingersoll
Lady Anne

Samuel L. Johnston
Prince Edward

Dan Kenney
William Catesby, Citizen

John Lister
Lord Hastings

Brendan Marshall-Rashid
Earl of Richmond

Steve Pringle
Scrivener, Cardinal

John Reeger
Lord Stanley,
Archbishop of York

Wendy Robie
Queen Elizabeth

Juan Gabriel Ruiz
Lord Grey, Christopher

Mary Ann Thebus
Duchess of York

Demetrios Troy
Lord Rivers

James Anthony Zoccoli
Brakenbury, Citizen

pictures/bios courtesy of
Chicago Shakes website.

I like his 53 tips on being a better entrepreneur and dude has a noble goal:

Over the next few years my number 1 goal is to share what I have learned with you so that you can have a better life than me.

via Fresh Inc.

Did you like what the Drew is cooking? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe and get articles like this delivered to your inbox.

Go to Dumbworld- New Entertainment- New Media- New Art- A Dumbworld Order

Check out my comment on Neil Patel’s blog post: 15 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started My First Blog. His tips are helpful.  My favorite tip was: Respond to Every Commentor to make sure that you are building and maintaining relationships with other bloggers.

My goal over the next year and a half is to design an interactive agricultural knowledge database (including agricultural sciences, market information, and resource coordination) accessible on any mobile platform (including widely available mobile phones like the Nokia 1110). I plan to work with a variety of people and organizations, including Tapan Parikh, Jenna Burrell, Question Box, Kurtis Heimerl, Neil Patel, and Ken Banks of Kiwanja.net. These people are approaching agricultural knowledge exchange from diverse angles, including voice messaging, radio, telephone trees, live operators, and text messaging.

My next step would be to analyze these various approaches and identify which is the most scalable model. To do this, I would need to further explore the limitations farmers face in exchanging knowledge across distances. After identifying the approach that best responds to these limitations, I would like to work with the project lead to design a growth plan or respond to the project’s key challenges or next steps.

Neil Patel, a CS PhD student at Stanford, visited my Designing Rural Computing Applications course on Tuesday. Neil is studying ICT in agriculture in rural Gujarat, India. He presented two projects he’s been working on: Avaaj Otalo and Jatan Certification System. Neil explained that most international certification systems are designed with a global standard in mind. The problem is that local farming practices are diverse – organic doesn’t mean the same thing in all countries. Additionally, certification systems often leave out smallholder farmers, as they often require the infrastructure provided by cooperatives and other organized farmer associations.

The Jatan Certification System is designed by farmers for farmers. The requirements of Jatan reflect the realities of organic agriculture in Gujarat, which is locally known as Sajiv Kheti (sustainable farming). Jatan includes farmers in the inspection process, but as appraisers rather than inspectors. These volunteers serve as mentors to farmers that are pursuing certification. Another important aspect of Jatan is that certification under this system is not binary (organic/inorganic), but rather scalar in three criteria: environmental sustainability, health, and social. Farms receive a sustainability score that recognizes farmers who are going above and beyond in their practices. Farmers believe that this will help them gain a market premium, but the concept is still too new for real metrics of the success of the program. Certificates are in the local language (different from most certification systems where the certificates are provided in a European language). I asked Neil about the cost to become certified. There is a nominal fee to join the system, somewhere in the hundreds of rupees (50 rupees = US$1), and Jatan will assist farmers who cannot afford this (this is similar to the Fair Trade certification financial requirements, where a nominal fee is required but a scholarship is available).

I was particularly interested in Neil’s second project: Avaaj Otalo. Avaaj Otalo is a project where farmers are exchanging agricultural information via mobile phones. This is very similar to a personal project I am pursuing. In Avaaj Otalo, a local radio program serves as a “development support center” for natural resource management information and communications. The information is broadcast as a radio program translated as “Network of NGOs” in English. This program is about 2 years old, and is a public state broadcast. In this system, farmers call into the program via a toll-free number (which is subsidized by the NGO) with a question or comment. The question or comment is then featured in the next broadcast of the radio program.

Avaaj Otalo is an example of a mechanism for the exchange of agricultural information. Other examples include Question Box and Kiwanja.net. I will integrate these projects in my next post, where I will also propose an ICTD project that I would like to pursue over the remainder of my graduate education (through May 2010).

Our production team has been building and installing scenic designer Neil Patel’s excellent design into our mainstage space over the past three weeks.  While the main action of the play takes place in several Los Angeles studios and apartments the four piece band will set up on both sides of this interior space.   Here are a couple of pictures in process….

The floor being laid and fit to the stage

Detail of the floor before shaping and painting

Michael Weller is one of those supremely busy playwrights who swiftly churns out a play before the previous one has even completed previews, as though fearfully intuiting that if he didn’t, the second work may never get on its feet at all.  This hastiness is more than apparent in both of Weller’s productions that are currently running Off-Broadway.  First, there’s Beast, a puzzlingly uninspired piece that revolves around the traumatic psychological and physical effects of the Iraq War on two veterans, which began previews at the New York Theatre Workshop in early September.  Poorly utilizing comedy (do we really need another satiric impersonation of our soon-to-be past president that depicts him as completely moronic and incompetent? Is that actually still funny?), this so-called dramedy makes no statement against the war, nor its number one supporter, that hasn’t already been made ad nauseam.  It does this with ridiculous stunts (and strange bursts of unrealism in an otherwise realistic script) like the “Teeexaaas”-chanting and humorlessly didactic Mount Rushmore that ludicrousy inspires the two men to pay our country’s leader a psychotically induced and decidedly absurd afternoon visit to his country ranch.  Soon, in 2009, we’ll witness Weller’s musicalized Dr. Zhivago (with music by The Secret Garden composer. Lucy Simon), but even sooner — concurrently with Beast — we have MCC’s production of Fifty Words, another dramedy of a more domestic nature that, thankfully, more effectively and certainly more realistically, centers on the intense dissolution of a New York marriage.

The title, Fifty Words, refers to wife Jan’s fervent wish that there exist fifty words for “love,” much like the Eskimos’ varied verbal selections for “snow.”  This is a rather fitting designation for a work that attempts to explore the infinite depth, complexities, and limitless kinds of love that exist, both realistically and idealistically within marriage.  The kitchen sink dramedy (Neil Patel’s über-realistic set incorporates a working sink and all the other state-of-art trimmings – as well as a fully stocked fridge – of an upper-middle class couple’s home) opens as it closes with the unhappily wedded couple, Jan and Adam (Elizabeth Marvel and Norbert Leo Butz), calmly and evasively discussing the mundane routine of their lives in a superficial attempt to avoid recognition of the tenuousness of their swiftly deteriorating relationship.  The notable change that occurs over the course of director Austin Pendleton’s energized and intermissionless production is that there is no real change.  What does happen, though, is a blunt and rather violent recognition of the myriad problems that have been festering to a boil in Jan and Adam’s not exactly atypical go-through-the-motions American marriage.   And boy, oh boy, the marathon catfight erupts in quite the cathartic explosion midway through the production.  Infidelities are revealed, of course, but there’s also vegetable slinging; glass shattering; angry-but-disturbingly-triumphant, throw-down-on-the-table sex; and yes, even a slap and beating or two (this marriage swings both ways on that account).  While there are some genuinely insightful and moving moments, these are disappointingly outnumbered by the script’s various inherent problems. 

At its core, Fifty Words does not offer an illuminating dissection of marriage, therefore failing as a thoroughly engaging piece of theatre.  Because it takes place over the course of one evening, we are never allowed to know Jan and Adam as they were in the early, wondrous relationship stage of over-the-top affection, or even as they, blissfully content and unknowing, slipped into the happy routine that naturally develops over the course of the first months of a young marriage. Nor do we witness their playful interactions with their (only talked about) son, and we are also denied a single entirely pleasant and affectionate conversation between the two.  Instead, we are proffered two selfish individuals who each possess moments of generosity and heartbreak, but these moments are so few and so brief that we have no time to grasp unto them and offer up our sympathy.  We don’t fully understand what drove them to this breaking point, or even if they were always on this path of self-destruction; the necessary back story and/or exposition simply doesn’t exist in Weller’s text.  We are kept at a distance, watching a marriage viciously breakdown before our eyes, and we never fully engage.  It struck me that Weller’s work here creates a similar effect as much of Neil Labute’s repertoire: an intriguingly difficult situation that ideally challenges one philosophically, but lacks the necessary character likability to create an emotional dimension to the work.  Such an emotional void is particularly significant problem when the work is all about relationships.  After all, what is a relationship if, at its essential core, it’s not based in emotion?

Luckily for Weller and for MCC, Telsey & Company possessedthe fantastic foresight to cast Elizabeth Marvel and Norbert Leo Butz as the emotionally inept and doomed couple.  While the noticeable age gap between the two creates a rather awkward picture of a couple upon first meeting, the clever and incredibly game actors infuse fiery spirit, zany charm, and yes, even some genuine warmth into what could easily verge on caricatures of the brutal George and Martha of Edward Albee’s imaginings.  With two lesser actors, the potential failure of this work seems high, and though it’s still a play about relationships from an obviously male perspective (reminiscent of The Last Five Years, another Butz vehicle attempting an unbiased view of a marriage on the rocks), and is therefore inherently problematic, it is also an exciting 90 minutes of theatre.  If nothing else, this current production is worth the price of admission if only to witness the fierce commitment and sexually – and violently – charged interplay between Marvel and Butz.  Few things are more rewarding than watching the power of a performer to translate a merely average play into a riveting production.  While offering a tighter and overall more engaging piece of theatre than Beast, Weller’s work here demonstrates that sometimes Words just aren’t enough.

Since I spend the majority of my day sending news and media to Kunal M for GetBusyNYC.com , he has graciously invited me to be a part of GetBusyNYC.com team. Check back later for some new shit from ya boy down south!

Good look Kunal!

And here’s a face to the name! Shout out to T-$ in the back!

Carter’s Way

Producers: Steppenwolf Theatre  

Set-up: It’s 1935.  In America, it’s the middle of the Great Depression.  In Kansas City, it’s the peak of the city’s legendary jazz era.  The Kansas City jazz scene is hopping with recording deals and jam-packed clubs like Planet Mars, owned by Peewee Abernathy (ensemble member K. Todd Freeman).  Here at the Planet Mars, life revolves around Oriole Carter (James Vincent Meredith), a brilliant black saxophonist, who leads the house band.  Carter is falling head over heels for the white girlfriend Eunice (Anne Adams) of a local mobster, just as a brand new invention called the radio can possibly make Carter a nationally-recognized star.  Will this taboo relationship ruin Carter’s expectant success?

 Great performances: Meredith’s Carter is dead-on as the talented, agonized saxophonist (and he plays the saxophone riffs himself); ensemble member Ora Jones’ portrayal of piano-playing caretaker Marilyn Stokes offers up nuanced surprises throughout; Freeman’s impersonation of Peewee adroitly displays the character’s struggles between running his nightclub at a profit all the while appreciating the talents of the club’s band.  Neil Patel’s set works wonderfully, most of the action taking place on the first floor of Planet Mars, with extra scenes using a room built directly above the club.  Darrell Leonard’s original music is remarkable in that one senses that the tunes must have been originally written during the 1920’s era.  Barry Funderburg’s sound design is exemplary and flawless.  Finally, this rave review would not be complete without mentioning the multi-talented ensemble-memberEric Simonson, the playwright and director of Carter’s Way – kudos in every definition of the word.

 From my inspection, there are/were two weaknesses inherent in the production, although all of them can be remedied (though not during Steppenwolf’s run).  The first, less formidable weakness falls on the performance from Anne Adams, playing love-interest Eunice – she comes across second-rate when lined up with the rest of the ensemble powerhouse; unconvincing in presenting a case for her reckless and selfish behavior and choices.  Secondly, the role of the up-and-coming mobster Johnny Russo (Keith Kupferer) really demands a deeper exploration – the character, exhibiting an imaginative entrepreneurism that goes against the grain of the mobster culture, proves intriguing. 

Summary:  In the end, Carter’s Way is a well-crafted, moving play – one that effectively played games on my emotions, as I nervously told myself “Don’t do it.  Don’t screw this up”. The production looks and sounds great, and the overall talented, adept performances propel this drama tragically forward, much like a snowball rumbling down a hill.  Without hesitation, I proclaim Carter’s Way as highly recommended.

Rating: «««½

Related Links: Chicago Tribune review, Sun-Times review

Update:  It appears that I made a mistake in my review regarding my misgivings with Peewee’s final dialogue.  I have thus made an adjustment. 

Personnel and Show Times

Last week I attended the Elastic Path webinar “The Secret of Social Media Marketing”. Neil Patel of ACSSEO spoke about e-commerce marketing through social networking/media. The broadcast was highly informative. Linda Bustos’ recap is very thorough and she adds some nice suggestions, so I will just point out some key points here.

You can leverage the Blogosphere by:

1) creating something worthy for bloggers
2) finding bloggers who blog on similar topics (see Technorati, for instance)
3) writing them a short custom message (short, simple and customized to the blogger)
4) then, let it be (i.e. don’t harass)

Re: Social media sites (Digg, Youtube, Del.icio.us etc.) :

1) When you submit content (articles, video etc.) for any of the social media sites, make sure that most of your submissions are not yours and/or directly related to your business. When you develop a reputation for providing content that is interesting to others you will gain a fan base/virtual friends and build your profile.

2) Then when you eventually submit your own content you will get more attention and more mileage (link-bait).

3) In general, your own content should be useful and link-able. Do not produce mere advertising for your company/product. Rather produce an informative, useful article that stands on its own. This will benefit you far more than a cut-and-dry commercial.

I enjoyed most of the tips on the webinar, though I wouldn’t suggest the (debatable) “spammy” procedures. One quick note to Neil though: I bristle at the repeated suggestions to hire students for grunt work and pay them $6/hr. People deserve to be paid a fair and livable wage. By doing this, you set a fair standard and establish working relationships based on mutual respect.

Quick post today, things are super busy around here but I’m listening to WebMasterRadio while I scramble around. Discovered this awesome social media podcast yesterday and thought I’d share the love. I think it’s must-listening for any search marketing professional or webmaster involved in promoting his or her website.

Social media cannot be ignored!!