Posts from — July 2011

How projection designers create their increasingly prominent art

Call it the revenge of the A/V club. As theatre becomes more and more expensive, freestanding sets are increasingly giving way to projections, and projection designers are becoming increasingly indispensable artists. From Rock of Ages to Wicked, their work is a constant Broadway presence, and it’s equally prominent in theatres throughout the world.

Theatrical projections—sometimes still photos, sometimes filmed footage—have helped expand the possibility of what can be depicted on stage while reducing the cost. A glimpse at the two Broadway productions of Sunday in the Park With George is instructive: Tony Straiges took components of the Georges Seurat painting at the musical’s center and converted them into an array of painted simulacra for the 1984 premiere, while Timothy Bird and the Knifedge Creative Network used elaborate computer animation to create similar pictures and more in 2008.

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Director Michael Greif revisits the musical for its New York revival

When Rent opened in 1996, AIDS was very much in the public eye. Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” was AIDS researcher David Ho, and new drug treatments were helping AIDS patients live longer. Those milestones underscored the musical’s message that someone could live with (and not just die from) the disease, and that message helped the musical become such a culturally relevant phenomenon.

Fifteen years later, Rent‘s legacy includes 5,124 performances at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre, where it ran until 2008; four Tony awards; a Pulitzer Prize for composer Jonathan Larson; and even a dedicated fan base known as Rent-heads.

But can the phenomenon continue? Can Rent mean something in New York City in 2011, when issues like gay marriage have taken center stage and AIDS, though still uncured, no longer dominates the public conversation?

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The actor-writer launches “The Patsy” and “Jonas”

With his gray temples, strong features, and sunken eyes, David Greenspan could almost pass for Mitt Romney’s bantamweight cousin. And if you think Romney has developed a reputation for flip-flopping, you haven’t seen Greenspan take on The Patsy.

This 1925 stage comedy by Barry Conners may be best known (or at least better known) for the subsequent silent film version, which starred Marion Davies and Marie Dressler. But Greenspan’s appreciative and virtuosic one-man version of the show, now in previews at the Duke on 42nd Street courtesy of the Transport Group, manages to both clear away and bask in its cobwebs. Conners’ script follows the romantic travails, alternately comic and poignant, of two sisters, one of whom has spent her life in the other’s shadow. Greenspan plays them both.

In fact, with a minimum of character-defining body language and vocal filigrees, the five-time Obie Award winner plays the two women, their parents, two of their suitors, and a pair of other characters. Whether they’re feuding at the top and bottom of the stairs or tentatively reaching out to hold hands, Greenspan makes it absolutely clear who’s who and why we should care.

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Here they are: The answers to our Theatre Trivia Quiz.

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Earlier this week, TDF’s Young Patrons Committee hosted its first-ever Theatre Trivia Night. It was pretty amazing: Over forty theatre lovers competed to win TKTS gift certificates, and the evening was hosted by Broadway darlings Celia Keenan-Bolger and Sarah Saltzberg (both of 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee fame.)

But if you couldn’t be there, don’t worry: We’ve recreated our quiz online. Just follow this link, and you can answer all of the questions yourself.

(If you’re stumped, then you can find the answers here.)

And in case you don’t know: Our Young Patrons Committee is made up of young professionals, ages 23-40, who come together to create and participate in projects that raise awareness and support for the theatre and TDF’s programs .

If you’d like more information about the Young Patrons Committee (or if you’re interested in becoming a member), just contact Chris Reichheld at development@tdf.org or 212-912-9770 x 341.