A theatre makes an asset of its unusual space

Actors have clambered up it. Paintings have hung on it, as have flags and bunting. It has been a fence post, a ship mast, a tiny house and (on numerous occasions) a tree. No matter what it is, though, the pillar looming in the downstage right corner of the Irish Repertory Theatre’s stage is always the elephant in the room.

“It’s an old friend by this point,” says artistic director Charlotte Moore, who has wrangled with the pillar on dozens of occasions. “When you design for this space, that’s where you have to start.”
Luckily, she and her producing director, Ciarán O’Reilly, use the same designers repeatedly, among them James Morgan, Tony Walton and Klara Zieglerova.

A pillar in the far corner would attract little notice in most theatres, but the odd configuration at Irish Rep’s cozy Chelsea venue draws attention. At stage right, where actors typically can exit into the wings, there’s a small side pocket of additional seating. These 40 seats—”the jury box,” Moore calls them— make the pillar seem to be dead center in the stage.

She and her set designer, Antje Ellermann, have gone the tried-and-true route of turning the pillar into a tree for their acclaimed revival of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, which closes Jan. 29. “We often set up ladders next to it,” Moore says, “and this time we have Gerry Evans, the ne’er-do-well in the play, climb up it at one point.”

[Read more →]

Director John Tiffany brings the hit indie film to the stage

The 2007 film Once charmingly blurs the line between reality and fiction. The stars, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, are indie musicians who dated in real life, so they’re natural on screen as struggling musicians who fall in love.

But how does Once work without them? That’s the question facing John Tiffany, who’s directing a stage musical adaptation at New York Theatre Workshop. Best known for innovative productions like Black Watch, he’s focusing not only on the story, but also on the story’s theatrical shape.

[Read more →]

Inside the new musical’s daring projection design

The Blue Flower is not just a musical—it’s a collage.

“The music and the words and the images and the stage movement are all operating at once,” says Ruth Bauer, who developed the show with her husband Jim Bauer. Now at Second Stage, the formally daring production follows a group of artists and thinkers across both World Wars, tracing the rise and fall of their romantic and intellectual lives. (The story is loosely inspired by the painters Max Beckmann and Franz Marc, the scientist Marie Curie, and the Dada artist Hannah Hoch.)

From the very first moments, it’s clear that projections will be as integral to the storytelling as actors and music. The show begins with Max, a painter, sitting on a park bench in modern day New York. He speaks in a made-up language, and translations are projected behind him. In another scene, Hannah gives a performance dressed in fairy wings and horns, and she uses a flyswatter to squash images of giant bugs. After she whacks them, we see projections of splattered bug parts.

[Read more →]

Designer Jill BC DuBoff creates a sonic world

A sound designer is both an artist and a technician, matching every aesthetic insight with a choice about how sound is produced. After all, a beautiful music cue won’t reach anyone if the speakers are facing the wrong way, and a cleverly hidden microphone doesn’t matter if the sound it’s projecting doesn’t suit the production.

Art and craft shape Jill BC DuBoff’s sound design for Other Desert Cities, a new play from Jon Robin Baitz that’s now playing at Broadway’s Booth Theatre. A close look at her design reveals how much it takes to create a sonic world on stage.

The play, which is presented by Lincoln Center Theater, follows the Wyeths, a staunchly conservative, politically powerful family in Palm Springs. Over Christmas, daughter Brooke (Rachel Griffiths) announces she’s going to publish a memoir about the family’s secrets, which leads to explosive revelations.

[Read more →]

Chunky Move changes the rules of dance

There’s a massive paper net hanging over the floor. It’s suspended in the air by dozens of strings, and when they move, the net springs to life, undulating like a wave or swinging like a pendulum.

And then there are dancers. They move beneath the sculpture and beside it, creating elegant shapes with their paper partner. It’s an eerie, beautiful effect, and it makes Connected, the latest show from the Australian dance company Chunky Move, a striking part of the Joyce Theater’s fall season.

“[The sculpture] is mesmeric and organic,” says Gideon Obarzanek, the company’s founder and artistic director. “When it first moves, the audience gasps, giggling in awe. It’s very gratifying.”

[Read more →]