John Douglas Thompson
John Douglas Thompson Stars in Red Velvet at Shakespeare and Company
Shakespeare & Company presents the first full American production of Lolita Chakrabarti’s Red Velvet, directed by Daniela Varon, and starring Obie award-winning actor John Douglas Thompson. This powerful drama runs in Lenox through September 13.
An imagined version of real events, Red Velvet recalls the pride and prejudice that greeted the pioneering young American actor named Ira Aldridge, who dared to follow his dreams of playing Shakespeare in 19th century London. Aldridge becomes the first black man to play Othello on the legitimate stage, even as the public riots in the streets while Parliament considers the Slavery Abolition Act.
“Ira Aldridge was born just a few years after the end of the French Revolution, and died just a couple of years after the end of the American Civil War,” says director Daniela Varon. “In a lifetime spanned by revolutions ‘out there,’ in the world, he was a revolutionary ‘in here,’ in the theater. Lolita Chakrabarti’s play is a love letter to the theater, and to the art of transformation which is its essence. Whether we know it or not, all of us who play Shakespeare today and all of us who come to see Shakespeare played are walking in Aldridge’s footsteps. I am thrilled to be part of bringing Red Velvet to Shakespeare & Company, and for us to get to know and to honor Ira Aldridge together.”
“His Girl Friday” playwright John Guare and Barrington Stage director Julianne Boyd. (Photo by David Fertik)
John Douglas Thompson has appeared on Broadway in A Time To Kill, Cyrano de Bergerac and Julius Caesar. His off-Broadway credits include: The Iceman Cometh, Tamburlaine, and Satchmo at the Waldorf at the Westside Theater, Shakespeare & Company, and Long Wharf Theater. His regional credits include Antony and Cleopatra at Hartford Stage; Othello, Richard III, King Lear, and Mother Courage at Shakespeare & Company; and productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Trinity Repertory Company, American Repertory Theater and Yale Repertory Theatre.
For details: 413-637-3353 or www.shakespeare.org.
John Guare Revamps a Classic
Barrington Stage Company presents the American screwball comedy His Girl Friday, John Guare’s adaptation of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s original play The Front Page and the screen version His Girl Friday, from August 6-30 at Barrington Stage’s Boyd-Quinson Mainstage in Pittsfield. Staged by the theatre’s artistic director Julianne Boyd, His Girl Friday is a no holds barred satire on tabloid journalism that crackles with quick quips, rapid-fire repartee and a big dose of sexual sparring.
Guare sets his adaptation on the eve of World War II, August, 1939. On the world stage Hitler is about to invade Poland, but tonight tough-talking, ace word-slinger Hildy Johnson (Jane Pfitsch) has had enough of the Chicago newspaper racket. She’s ready to throw it all away to catch the midnight train east, settle down with her fiancé Bruce Baldwin (Mark H. Dold) and become a lady of leisure. But that’s before her former editor and ex-husband Walter Burns (Christopher Innvar) puts the kibosh on her plans, luring her back with the biggest breaking story of the year – no, it’s not the threat of an impending war, but some poor dope who lost his job, went berserk, shot a cop and is waiting to swing; all this so the mayor can be re-elected.
Playwright John Guare is author of the ward-winning House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, Landscape of the Body, A Few Stout Individuals, A Free Man of Color, Lydie Breeze, and Two Gentlemen of Verona (the musical), among others. His adaptation of His Girl Friday premiered at London’s National Theater in 2012.
Jessie Mueller stars in Waitress at ART in Cambridge. (Photo by Palma Kolansky)
His Girl Friday started life as the play The Front Page, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1920s comedy about Chicago newsmen. It was then adapted by film director Howard Hawks in 1940 as His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, one of the great screwball film comedies of all time. The movie was originally supposed to be a straightforward adaptation of The Front Page, with both the editor and reporter being men. But during auditions, Howard Hawks’s secretary read reporter Hildy Johnson’s lines. Hawks liked the way the dialogue sounded coming from a woman, and the script was rewritten to make Hildy a woman and the ex-wife of editor Walter Burns. John Guare’s adaptation folds all of these ideas into one dynamic theatrical package.
For details: 413-236-8888 or www.barringtonstageco.org.
Evan Pappas directs West Side Story at Opera North.
Road Trip
Waitress, the new musical by Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson is playing at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge through September 27. Based upon the movie written by Adrienne Shelley, it stars Jessie Mueller, and it’s staged by Diane Paulus with choreography by Chase Brock. A.R.T. has sent Hair, The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Finding Neverland and Pippin to Broadway in recent years. I’ll wager that Waitress follows. For details: http://americanrepertorytheater.org/events/show/waitress
Opera North is the only professional opera in Northern New England, and they’re in reisdence at Lebanon, NH’s Opera House until mid-August. Evans Haile is the new prroducer, and he’s importing world class talent.to stage and perform Mozart’s The Abduction from The Seraglio, Copland’s The Tender Land, and Bernstein’s West Side Story. The latter’s being directed by Broadway star, Evan Pappas (A Chorus Line, My Favorite Year, Parade), who area audiences may remember seeing in Goodspeed’s Promises Promises and Hartford Stage’s Falsettos. For details: www.operanorth.org.
Rocco Sisto co-directs The Club at Berkshire Theatre Group
Keep in Mind…
Mr. Burns – A Post-Electric Play, Anne Washburn’s acclaimed play, closes New Century Theatre’s 25th Anniversary season in Northampton through August 8. In a post-apocalyptic world a group of strangers pass the time attempting to retell the infamous Cape Feare episode from The Simpsons. Sam Rush directs. For details: 413-585-3220 or www.newcenturytheatre.org.
The Club, Eve Merriam’s musical play, gets a Berkshire Theatre Group staging at The Garage at The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, through August 9. Rocco Sisto and Barbara Allen co-direct, and Allen choroegraphs. The cast includes.Deborah Grausman, Kathy Jo Grover, Annette Miller and Maureen O’Flynn as members of a gentlemen’s club. For details: 413-997-4444 or www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org.
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
