Blog Seattle Repertory Theatre
Archive for the ‘2011-12 Season’ Category
Seattle Goes Red: Win cool prizes!
- For example, our Arts Management Intern, Melissa Fagan, took this photo of Alexander Calder’s “Eagle” at the Olympic Sculpture Park.
Winner of six Tony Awards, Red is a riveting drama that takes an insider’s look at abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko as he defends—and doubts—his life’s work after receiving the biggest commission in the history of modern art.
Seattle Goes Red: In honor of our upcoming production of Red—preview performances start this Friday, Feb. 24—we’re offering folks a chance to win a Red-inspired gift basket by sharing with us iconic images of red objects, landmarks, art, etc. in Seattle.
How do I participate in the “Seattle Goes Red” contest?
Take a photo of something that is red and just screams Seattle. And try your best to make it pretty (and by that we mean, it should be a photo that would impress Rothko!). So let your inner artist have some fun about town!
After you’ve shot your photo, post it on the wall of our Seattle Repertory Theatre Facebook page and you’ll be entered to win. (Make sure to leave a comment saying that you’re entering our competition too.)
What do I win? The Red Basket
- 2 tickets to Seattle Rep’s production of Red
- 2 passes to the Seattle Art Museum (they have two Rothkos you can check out!)
- $20 Red Robin gift certificate
- Six red velvet cupcakes from Cupcake Royale
- A red Seattle Rep mug
The contest begins on February 24 and runs through March 9. If you have any questions about the contest, just leave a comment on this post and we’ll get back to you. We’ll select a winner on Tuesday, March 13. Good luck Red hunters!
What did you think of Red?
No really, what'd you think? We'd love to know.
Nick Garrison’s German Love Affair
Actor Nick Garrison.
Actor Nick Garrison’s love of German history, art, and music began long before he took on the role of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in I Am My Own Wife.
In his extensive Seattle acting career, Garrison has played everything from the titular role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Re-Bar—a role he went on to play in San Francisco, the U.K., and Chicago—to performing as the Emcee in The 5th Avenue’s Cabaret. Garrison is a veteran of playing German characters for the stage and has always had a strong interest in German history and culture.
“I went to school in Paris for a while,” Garrison said. “While there I studied voice for years and was always very drawn to music from Weimar Berlin. I don’t know why German characters have found me and German culture has kind of haunted me. It didn’t even begin with Hedwig [and the Angry Inch]. It began before that. I played some German characters, I learned early on how to sing in German with some facility—even though I don’t speak German—but I’m learning more German for this show.”
“There’s a vibration of that era, particularly the early part of the twentieth century in German culture, which rests well with me as a performer,” Garrison said. “It was a flowering before the war of incredible ideas and art and democracy and freedom. That soul of Germany is in this play. It’s all over it. And Rob Witmer, our sound designer, is bringing it literally into the room, with some of the beautiful music he’s bringing into the show.”
Nick Garrison in I Am My Own Wife at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Photo by Chris Bennion.
Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife holds a special place in Garrison’s heart. After seeing the original production in New York and being awestruck by the play and Jefferson Mays’ performance as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in 2004, Garrison immediately knew he wanted to do the play someday.
“For me, Charlotte represents German history in a way,” he said. “She is a literal representation of the German soul. Charlotte stands for survival in the face of anything, which to me is what gay people have done and many other disenfranchised groups have done for years. She’s implacable. She’s steady survival, calm survival, and that to me is beautiful. I love her as you can tell, I adore her. I think she’s a hero for the ages. And like most good heroes, she’s a little bit flawed and strange. “
What rituals do you have in your life?
Patron responses to "What rituals do you have in your life?"
In the play, Bill tells the audience, “Ritual is a good form of prayer for a writer.” Here are just a few of the audience replies to the third question we asked in our New Book lobby display.
What rituals do you have in your life?
- I get out of bed at 5:27.
- Grace at supper (say thanks), Rachel Maddow at night, & church on Sunday
- Sunday morning NPR & New York Times
- I write at least a page a day. Usually more.
- I drink a perfect martini everyday at 4 p.m.
- Always have Friday night Shabbat dinner with friends and family.
- Bring coffee to wife in bed in morning.
- Going to the theatre with my mom. Taking my daughter to the theatre.
- Each year, on the day after Christmas, my daughter and I join a larger group to sing Handel’s Messiah. It’s become an important ritual for us.
- I kiss my dog and my husband everyday—in that order!
How would you write a new book for the Bible?
We received a wide variety of audience responses to our second question: What do you wish the Bible said? OR What are you glad it says already?
Here’s our second edition of the How to Write a New Book for the Bible post-it note sharing extravaganza. And if you didn’t read the last post and are wondering what we’re talking about, here’s a brief recap:
In the spirit of the New Book notion that the “ordinary is extraordinary,” we wanted our audiences to share with us stories and rituals of their own lives.
Read below for a few of their answers to our second question.
What do you wish the Bible said? OR What are you glad it says already?
- Love God. Love yourself. Love others.
- Don’t believe everything you read.
- If God is infinite, why aren’t there infinite ways to reach her/him?
- Deut 1:31 (paraphrased): And you have seen how God cared for you, like a father for his child, all the way until you came to this place.
- All people are created equal.
- Homosexuality isn’t an abomination.
- The kingdom of God is within you.
- Tonight free pizza for everybody! We are tired of the holy bread!
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
- You know? I don’t really know; I’ve never read the Bible actually. I do have a friend who just finished. Cover to cover. It took a year exactly.
Check back tomorrow for our last post that shares some of our patrons’ answers to “What rituals do you have in your life?”
Seattle Rep audience shares family rules
The Rep's New Book lobby display: in the process of accumulating post-its.
In How to Write a New Book for the Bible, playwright Bill Cain asks questions that speak to the heart of every family. A recent Crosscut review characterized it this way: “What Cain wants us to see is the intense sacredness of ordinary life as well as the significance of the lives of ordinary people, of their living and their dying.”
In the spirit of this notion that the “ordinary is extraordinary,” we wanted our audiences to share with us stories and rituals of their own lives. We invited patrons to answer three questions—inspired by the play—and share those answers on post-it notes that they’d leave on our lobby display.
The response was overwhelming! Front of house staff had to replenish the post-it note supply often and many patrons lingered in the lobby after shows to read every note stuck on the board.
Read below for a few answers to our first question.
What is the most important rule of your family?
- Do your best—in all things.
New Book audiences answer, "What is the most important rule of your family?"
- There are no points off for loving.
- If talking is good, yelling is better.
- Try.
- Living well is the best revenge.
- Keep the women fed.
- Don’t get hit by a car.
- It is okay to make mistakes.
- This moment is holy.
Stay tuned for future blog posts that share audience answers to “What do you wish the Bible said? OR What are you glad it says already?” and “What rituals do you have in your life?
What did you think of I Am My Own Wife?
Opening night of I Am My Own Wife is approaching fast! Preview performances start this week, and we’d like to give you a place to share your thoughts about the show. So what’d you think? Leave a comment on this post and let us know how you feel.
Nick Garrison: 1 Man, 30 Characters
Not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, playwright Doug Wright began a conversation with Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, an elegant and eccentric 65-year-old German transvestite who, against all odds, hid from the Nazis in plain sight as a woman. In the play, Doug Wright uses more than 30 characters—played by actor Nick Garrison—to piece together Charlotte’s controversial life.
Click below to hear Garrison talk more about creating these characters and the rehearsal process of I Am My Own Wife, a play which he calls an “incredible exercise in storytelling.”
It’s all in the name: Playwright Bill Cain explains the title of ‘New Book’
Moving on: An illuminating encounter with Bill Cain
It’s been gone for nearly 15 years, and I still miss Nothing Sacred like I miss fifth-grade recess. Nothing Sacred was a TV drama that shone brightly — and briefly — during the 1997-98 season on ABC. Some conservative Catholics thought America ought not to be exposed to programming about a priest who questioned his church’s doctrines and his own faith. At the same time, it was heaven on earth for me, a Seattle P-I television critic who had once thought he might become a priest. ABC pulled the plug a few episodes shy of a full season; the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which deemed the show deeply offensive and had urged a boycott of any company that dared sponsor it, claimed victory. Nevertheless, Nothing Sacred received a Peabody Award and a Humanitas Prize for its rich affirmation of human dignity. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
It is sad irony that Nothing Sacred, the most catholic of shows, faces excommunication. Nowhere is there a more universal, all-inclusive series that speaks so eloquently to the “values” that critics of mainstream television harp on. … Sure, Father Ray is a liberal priest, but his compassion and generosity of spirit in the face of ecclesiastical paradox are the central elements in Nothing Sacred, not his politics. Unlike other values-oriented programming, the character development is deep, the writing thoughtful and clear, the plots provocative and often surprising.
I mention this because the show’s creator, Bill Cain, is the author of How to Write a New Book for the Bible. True to Cain’s intellectual nature — he’s a Jesuit priest with a fine sense of what constitutes community — Nothing Sacred was all about discovering the love and compassion that exist in a family. This is precisely the essence of How to Write a New Book for the Bible. The difference here is that the family is Cain’s own insular family, not an entire parish. read full post »
