The Robber Bridegroom opened last week and received glowing reviews from Chicago critics. Here are the links below to some of the best. Congrats to director Paul Holmquist and the cast and crew of the production! The production also received a Jeff Recommendation.
Read the Chicago Tribune review HERE.
Read the Chicago Sun Times review HERE.
Read the Chicago Reader review HERE.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Year that Was....a Great Year
We haven't posted in a while due to the fact that the company has been incredibly busy with projects both large and small. I thought I would bullet point some of the highlights.
* The Griffin touring production of Letters Home played to more than 10,000 people this fall. Stops on the fall tour included Madison, WI., Cleveland OH., Cerritos CA., Indianapolis, IN., Brooklyn NY., Westhampton Beach NY. and Peekskill, NY. The tour continues in the spring with stops in Syracuse, Buffalo, Watertown NY and Concord NH. And negotiations are underway for the production to tour to Alaska, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Seattle, Wilmington and Hartford to name more than a few.
The LH cast on the beach in Montauk, NY
* On The Shore of the Wide World concluded a great run at Theatre Building Chicago, garnering outstanding reviews. If you saw the production the Griffin is now the proud owner of 4 dozen chairs--none matching. Anyone want one?
On The Shore of the Wide World
* "Best of the Year Lists" The Griffin production of Journey's End was listed by Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune as one of the "top ten productions of the year" and one of the "top five revivals of the year" in New City Newspaper. And Be More Chill was listed as one of the "top five productions of the year" in New City Newspaper too.
Be More Chill & Journey's End
* The Griffin touring production of Letters Home played to more than 10,000 people this fall. Stops on the fall tour included Madison, WI., Cleveland OH., Cerritos CA., Indianapolis, IN., Brooklyn NY., Westhampton Beach NY. and Peekskill, NY. The tour continues in the spring with stops in Syracuse, Buffalo, Watertown NY and Concord NH. And negotiations are underway for the production to tour to Alaska, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Seattle, Wilmington and Hartford to name more than a few.
The LH cast on the beach in Montauk, NY* On The Shore of the Wide World concluded a great run at Theatre Building Chicago, garnering outstanding reviews. If you saw the production the Griffin is now the proud owner of 4 dozen chairs--none matching. Anyone want one?
On The Shore of the Wide World
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The First Word On - THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM
Here is the first post from Paul Holmquist, the Director of our next production, The Robber Bridegroom. Remember this production opens in February. On the Shore of the Wide World is running for four more weeks--GO SEE IT! It's great. And we are on tour for Letters Home - in Indianapolis next week. Busy, busy fall.
"The auditions for The Robber Bridegroom have come to a close and I've been fortunate to assemble quite a cast. Something my Musical Director Mark Elliott and I agreed over early on in discussing this project was that I cared less about having "pretty" voices than I did about having authentic and talented actors to play the characters. I have it all with this group and I couldn't be more thrilled.
Each show I direct (heh, all five of them now) has had a different audition focus for me: auditions for The Island of Dr. Moreau involved groups of 8 - 10 at a time for a two hour movement and vocal lab, The Constant Wife required straight on reading of sides for scenes, for The Flight of the Dodo I asked actors to sing a ditty, experiment with bird movement and perform a short group scene.
For The Robber Bridegroom I simply had them sing - sixteen bars in the style for the initial audition and selections from the score for the callback. While the audition process was going on, Mark and I were listening to their voices and watching them for infusing character into their singing. As important to me however was observing the personalities in the room. Watching the way they interacted and treated each other, watching how they asserted themselves while balancing the competitive nature of the evening graciously. The fact that they are incredibly talented singers and skilled actors felt to me to come hand in hand with being excited to work with these people for the sheer joy of sharing a creative process with them.
Part of the beauty of this play is the nature of it's storytelling, a group shared experience with the audience. From the moment the audience walks into the theatre there should be something special in the air and the fact that the entire ensemble will be onstage for almost the entirety of the 90 minute show will add to community feeling the show is meant to produce.
There are a slew of co-existent dualities in the story. Jamie Lockhart has two faces, the clean cut gentleman and the robber stained with berry juice. Rosamund is spoiled but bored and lonely. Salome wants money and gets it but can never be satisfied. Further themes contrast passion and violence, love and lust and actor and audience. We see the actors are audience as they act and as audience we participate in the performance. This dual shared role will bind us in the experience of performance - for 90 minutes we share the support of the tale and it's telling. Hence my interest in the inherent charm and grace of the actors I've cast - this concept can only be produced by a generosity of spirit."
And here they are:
Rosamund - Caroline Fourmy
Jamie Lockhart - Cameron Brune
Salome - Amanda Hartly
Clement Musgrove - Dan Loftus
Little Harp - Steve Best
Big Harp - Michael Kingston
Goat - Kyle Gibson
Goat's Mother - Darrelyn Marx
Airie (Goat's Sister) - Kate McGroarty
Ensemble/Raven - Julie Nichols
Ensemble/Narrator/Banjo - Dylan Lower
Ensemble/Violin - Hilary Holbrook
Ensemble/Salome Understudy - Katie Swimm
Ensemble/Jamie Understudy - Eric Lindahl
Ensemble/"Deeper in the Woods" soloist - Sean Dean Effinger
Ensemble/Rosamund Understudy - Jennifer Tjepkema
"The auditions for The Robber Bridegroom have come to a close and I've been fortunate to assemble quite a cast. Something my Musical Director Mark Elliott and I agreed over early on in discussing this project was that I cared less about having "pretty" voices than I did about having authentic and talented actors to play the characters. I have it all with this group and I couldn't be more thrilled.
Each show I direct (heh, all five of them now) has had a different audition focus for me: auditions for The Island of Dr. Moreau involved groups of 8 - 10 at a time for a two hour movement and vocal lab, The Constant Wife required straight on reading of sides for scenes, for The Flight of the Dodo I asked actors to sing a ditty, experiment with bird movement and perform a short group scene.
For The Robber Bridegroom I simply had them sing - sixteen bars in the style for the initial audition and selections from the score for the callback. While the audition process was going on, Mark and I were listening to their voices and watching them for infusing character into their singing. As important to me however was observing the personalities in the room. Watching the way they interacted and treated each other, watching how they asserted themselves while balancing the competitive nature of the evening graciously. The fact that they are incredibly talented singers and skilled actors felt to me to come hand in hand with being excited to work with these people for the sheer joy of sharing a creative process with them.
Part of the beauty of this play is the nature of it's storytelling, a group shared experience with the audience. From the moment the audience walks into the theatre there should be something special in the air and the fact that the entire ensemble will be onstage for almost the entirety of the 90 minute show will add to community feeling the show is meant to produce.
There are a slew of co-existent dualities in the story. Jamie Lockhart has two faces, the clean cut gentleman and the robber stained with berry juice. Rosamund is spoiled but bored and lonely. Salome wants money and gets it but can never be satisfied. Further themes contrast passion and violence, love and lust and actor and audience. We see the actors are audience as they act and as audience we participate in the performance. This dual shared role will bind us in the experience of performance - for 90 minutes we share the support of the tale and it's telling. Hence my interest in the inherent charm and grace of the actors I've cast - this concept can only be produced by a generosity of spirit."
And here they are:
Rosamund - Caroline Fourmy
Jamie Lockhart - Cameron Brune
Salome - Amanda Hartly
Clement Musgrove - Dan Loftus
Little Harp - Steve Best
Big Harp - Michael Kingston
Goat - Kyle Gibson
Goat's Mother - Darrelyn Marx
Airie (Goat's Sister) - Kate McGroarty
Ensemble/Raven - Julie Nichols
Ensemble/Narrator/Banjo - Dylan Lower
Ensemble/Violin - Hilary Holbrook
Ensemble/Salome Understudy - Katie Swimm
Ensemble/Jamie Understudy - Eric Lindahl
Ensemble/"Deeper in the Woods" soloist - Sean Dean Effinger
Ensemble/Rosamund Understudy - Jennifer Tjepkema
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Jeff Awards - We Have a Winner!
Griffin ensemble member Bill Morey won a Jeff Award on Monday night for his Costume Design work on the Porchlight Theatre's production of Nine. Congrats Bill!
Click here to see the complete list of winners.
Click here to see the complete list of winners.
Friday, October 17, 2008
LETTERS HOME tour - The Performance
We had a very early call the day of our performance at the Cerritos Center. 6:30am in order to load-in and tech the show. The venue was beautiful as you can see by the pics posted here.
The view from the stage
The performance went really well and for some of the actors it was their first big venue performance. Afterwards we had a short discussion with the audience, mostly high school age kids. I am always struck by the fact that some of them view the play as pro-war. It really takes no stance, but, I think since most of America today is not for the war (well any war for that matter) it just comes off that way unless you are blatantly bashing it. That would be an easy target for an artist. And this of course, is not something we would do as it would be a disservice to the soldiers and families who provided us with their stories. I think presenting the letters as we do gives the audience so much more to think about in terms of the costs of war and the humanity that lies within it as seen through the eyes of the men and women fighting it.
Cheap sunglasses that you could only buy on Venice Beach.
Obvious Chicagoans in SoCal
After the performance we had some time to kill and we went to Venice Beach. Had a drink or two and then left for the airport. The first performance is under our belt and now we move on to Indy.
The view from the stageThe performance went really well and for some of the actors it was their first big venue performance. Afterwards we had a short discussion with the audience, mostly high school age kids. I am always struck by the fact that some of them view the play as pro-war. It really takes no stance, but, I think since most of America today is not for the war (well any war for that matter) it just comes off that way unless you are blatantly bashing it. That would be an easy target for an artist. And this of course, is not something we would do as it would be a disservice to the soldiers and families who provided us with their stories. I think presenting the letters as we do gives the audience so much more to think about in terms of the costs of war and the humanity that lies within it as seen through the eyes of the men and women fighting it.
Cheap sunglasses that you could only buy on Venice Beach.
Obvious Chicagoans in SoCalThursday, October 16, 2008
LETTERS HOME tour - The OC
We arrived in LA around 1:30pm pacific time so we had the day to kick back and chill. A group of us drove to Huntington Beach. Who could resist seeing the sunset over the pacific ocean?
Can you see the surfers in the background?
Drinks on the Beach.
Can you see the surfers in the background?
Drinks on the Beach.
The perfect OC sunset. It's like this everyday?
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