Posts from — December 2011

The Tony-winning actor plays a spy in “Blood and Gifts”

Welcome to Building Character, TDF Stages’ ongoing series about how actors create their roles

The first time we meet Simon Craig, the dissolute British spy played by Jefferson Mays in Blood and Gifts, he is muttering to himself as he spills pocket change all over the floor. The second time, he’s about to be shot by an ostensible ally.

By the end of J.T. Rogers’ sprawling look at Western involvement in the 1980s war between Russia and Afghanistan, Simon’s CIA counterpart—a square-jawed Texan named James Warnock—has received a brutal crash course in the consequences of realpolitik. But so, in odd and tragic ways, has Simon, who after 14 years in Afghanistan knows the lay of the land but is still capable of crippling disappointment.

“We started referring to Simon as Cassandra during rehearsals,” says Mays. “He sees what’s coming down the pike before anyone else.” That’s not to say, however, that Simon is ready to face what’s coming. “I learned a couple interesting things about MI6,” Mays says of the British intelligence service. “They generally leave their fellows out in the branch for a fairly long time, so they tend to go native. Or to seed. Or both.”

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Two services push the theatre into online publishing

And then suddenly, the theatre entered the world of online publishing.

Until this year, scripts were largely absent from the booming field of ebooks, stranding readers who wanted to add their favorite dramas to their Kindle or Nook. In recent months, however, two services have emerged to fill the void.

In November, prominent play publisher Samuel French launched its eBook program. Customers can visit Apple’s iBookstore to download plays and musical by writers like Charles Busch and Israel Horovitz, with new titles being added regularly. Most scripts retail for $8.99, and soon, Samuel French will make them available at all digital retailers

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The “Stick Fly” star can’t worry if we agree with her character

Welcome to Building Character, TDF Stages’ ongoing series about how actors create their roles
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Tortured love affairs, parental disapproval, and a board game that leads to a wall-rattling fight: There’s plenty of juice in Lydia R. Diamond’s Stick Fly. However, drama’s only half the equation in the play, which is running at Broadway’s Cort Theatre. The show stands out from other family meltdown sagas because it fuses fury with deep conversations about race, class, and gender. The characters are just as likely to hurl accusations about racist subtext as they are to cry about their daddy’s dark secrets.

Both elements spring naturally from the story, which centers on the Le Vays, a clan of wealthy, African-American intellectuals. When the sons bring home their girlfriends—Taylor, an African-American entomologist, and Kimber, a white scholar who works with urban youth—philosophical differences quickly lead to personal explosions.

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The playwright makes her Broadway debut with “The Mountaintop”

Note: TDF members can purchase discount tickets to The Mountaintop through December 24.

Playwright Katori Hall has the best kind of laugh—a loud explosion that almost forces you to laugh along. During a recent phone interview, she was so buoyant and effusive, laughing at herself and her own good fortune, that it was easy to imagine her slapping five with passers-by.

She’s got plenty of reasons to be in a good mood. The Signature Theatre just announced she’s one of five playwrights to receive a five-year residency award, meaning Signature will produce three of her plays in the next five years while offering health insurance and other support.

More immediately, Hall’s debuting on Broadway with The Mountaintop, now playing at the Bernard Jacobs. The play imagines a meeting between Martin Luther King, Jr. (Samuel L. Jackson) and a mysterious hotel maid (Angela Bassett), and when it premiered on London’s West End, it won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Play—the equivalent of a Tony.

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The “War Horse” sequel finds the power of a good yarn

This month, children’s novelist Michael Morpurgo may be the most prominent author in New York. The stage adaptation of his book War Horse, about a young man and his horse surviving World War I, has been on Broadway since March, and Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation arrives on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, 59E59 is presenting Farm Boy, a War Horse sequel that follows the young man’s family through several generations.

In all cases, it’s evident why Morpurgo’s work is so alluring: His books tell sweeping, emotional stories that blend epic adventure with intimate relationships. “He has an innate storytelling, dramatic quality within his writing.” says Daniel Buckroyd, artistic director of Britain’s New Perspectives Theatre Company, which is producing Farm Boy. Buckroyd adapted and directed the material, and true to Morpurgo’s spirit, he says he wants it to be an exercise in “good old honest storytelling, as though we were gathered round the campfire.”

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