BD Wong in Herringbone, photo by Rich Termine

As I’m sure you know, there were five entries in our Herringbone Haiku Competition this year, each exhibiting great humor, accuracy, and mastery of the Haiku form.  Because of the strength of most of the entries, I’ve decided to announce both a winner and a runner-up (who will be given the prize—a pair of free tickets to any Theater Series production this season—in the event that the winner fails to claim his or her prize.

The runner up is Lanny Baugniet, whose Haiku won points for alliteration and accuracy in describing the plot of Herringbone in only 9 words, with his brilliant haiku:

Dazzling dancing frog
Elicits bizarre revenge
On killer chicken

We enjoyed Lanny’s Haiku on many levels, and thought it a fine piece of writing.  But the winning Haiku showed a level of artistry, wit, ability to quote Sondheim, and downright mastery of the Haiku form while also creating a spot-on description of the dramatic arc of Herringbone.  I give you Freddy’s brilliant and contest-winning Haiku:

The practical frog
Having no legs of its own
Borrows another’s

Hearty congratulations to all who participated.  Freddy, we’ll be e-mailing you soon to set up your free tickets.  If you missed the contest cut-off, and still want to share your Haiku brilliance, feel free to post a Haiku in the comments section below.  You won’t win anything, but we’ll enjoy reading your Haiku anyway.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

BD Wong in Herringbone, photo by Rich Termine.

BD Wong recently sat down for an American Theatre Wing “Downstage Center” interview for a podcast and for XM Satellite Radio. In the wide-ranging conversation, he talks about Herringbone, M. Butterfly, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown and a variety of other topics. I think it’s a neat interview to listen to whether or not you’ve seen Herringbone yet (although if you haven’t, you don’t have too much time left, so buy your tickets soon!). Links to the audio feed of the interview and a downloadable podcast version are below. Enjoy!

From Herringbone. Original air date - September 26, 2008 Running Time - 59:12.

If you enjoyed this episode of Downstage Center you may want to:
Subscribe to their podcasts

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

The set design model for Talley’s Folly, designed by John Lee Beatty.

Talley’s Folly rehearsal is definitely underway. Today the rehearsal room went on a field trip to see the set under construction. For me, this beginning was quite lovely. Having already seen the model for the set, seeing it coming together in person was a reminder that it won’t be long until the play will be rehearsing on stage. The set, designed by John Lee Beatty, is the same design as the Tony award-winning Broadway production. It consists of raked platforms to make a boathouse and gazebo. (The boat actually floats in water!) The platforms create a very specific ground plan from which the actors and director negotiate movement patterns. Take a look at the model. I’m sure you’ll want to climb the actual set. I know I do!

One of the challenges of Talley’s Folly is creating an accurate “playground” for the actors. The day before rehearsals began I helped the stage management team tape the floor. It took about 8 hours, but we successful taped the outline of the set to the rehearsal room floor. We also taped reminders to the floor to indicate the height adjustment from one platform to another. Presented with the obstacle of representing the various posts that sprinkle the set, Alison, the stage manager, came up with the great idea of making hexagons to represent each post. The actors, however, also needed some real posts to maneuver around, so we use six eight-foot poles to represent the taller posts on the set. For the downstage posts, we use a little stool so that the actors can practice sitting until they can use the actual posts that will be in place on the set. Another challenge with imitating the set was creating the railings around the gazebo and upstage platforms. They play an important part in the actors’ mobility on the set and offer more options for staging. To solve this problem, we aligned the backs of chairs to create a faux railing where the actual railings of the set will be.

After physically creating the space for the actors, the ambiance was created. In the rehearsal for Talley’s Folly, we actually have some control over the lights and sounds, so the stage management team actually gets a little pre-tech practice in creating this nighttime rendezvous. I have never been privy to rehearsal conditions that allow for so much technical control. From dimming the lights to cueing the dogs, the stage management team stays busy. Their work is pretty effective, too. Some nights, I come home from rehearsal with crickets still chirping in my ears or feeling like it’s later than into the evening than it really is. As Matt says, “we have everything here to help us” and it makes a big difference.

Posted by Anthony Sanford Jr., Directing Producing Intern at McCarter Theatre

So loyal blog readers will recall that at about this time last year, I posted a blog entry about Young Ensemble auditions for A Christmas Carol.  I wrote about the frequency with which we heard some songs or monologues at auditions, and talked about using the lists as a cultural barometer for the pieces of art that will influence our children as they grow into mature artists.  Here’s this year’s list:

• Sound of Music - 5
• High School Musical - 2
• Annie - 6
• Annie Get Your Gun - 1
• Anne of Green Gables - 3
• Wicked - 6
• Alice in Wonderland - 4
• Monty Python - 1
• Cinderella - 6
• Mary Poppins - 3
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star - 3
• Jingle Bells - 1
• Deck the Halls - 1
• Chanukah, oh Chanukah - 1
• Little Mermaid - 4
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 5
• Les Miserables - 1
• Walt Whitman - 2
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow - 4
• Hairspray - 3
• Hair - 1
• Shel Silverstein - 11

Compared to last year’s list, you can start to see some fun trends.  I’ll make sure to post the list next year as well!

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent an inconceivable amount of time watching YouTube videos of Broadway powerhouse Christine Ebersole singing songs from her Tony Award-winning performance in the dual roles of “Little” Edie Beale and Edith Bouvier Beal in Grey Gardens. Check out this clip of Ebersole singing “Around the World”—it’s quite possibly my favorite number from the show!

Warning!  This clip is not safe for work—it has naughty words.

But my days of witnessing Ebersole’s prowess only via YouTube are over, and so are yours!  The two-time Tony Award winning actress—she also won in 2001 for her performance in the revival of 42nd Street—is bringing her cabaret act (with pianist Billy Stritch) to McCarter on Friday, October 18th at 10pm.  Get your tickets here.

I’ll be there.  You should be too!

Posted by Patrick McKelvey, Literary Intern at McCarter Theatre.

Normally we don’t post announcements for other programs on this blog, but I got this note recently from Princeton Physics Professor Christopher Herzog that I thought had some really interesting ideas about science and magic (and an upcoming reading of Copenhagen), which I thought were neat and worth sharing.  Anyway, here it is!  Hope you can go to his reading!

Heisenberg, Bohr, and Pauli

I’m a professor in the physics department at Princeton University, and I’ve put together a reading of Michael Frayn’s Tony award winning play, Copenhagen.

The play is a semi-historical retelling of a pivotal meeting between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg at the start of World War II.  Bohr and Heisenberg were key figures in the development of quantum
mechanics —the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the Bohr atom.   Deeply concerned about the ethical and moral implications of developing an atomic bomb, Heisenberg sought the advice of his old mentor Bohr.

I’m hoping the event will be a magical experience.

My own love of science began undoubtedly with magic—Tolkien’s unforgettable Gandalf, the magical wardrobe of C.S. Lewis.  Soon though, there were other books, by Niven and Asimov, about faster than light travel and great empires in space.  It was a logical evolution, given Arthur C. Clarke’s remark that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  There are many reasons why today I am a scientist, but one is undoubtedly that at some early age I realized with crushing disappointment that I could never be a wizard, at least in this world, but that being a theoretical physicist was the next best thing.

To me, today, magic is the use of language and special objects to work powerful and mysterious effects. Tolkien’s ring of power is certainly magical, though made up.  Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, is real, and those who understand its language have created lasers, computers, and atomic weapons.  A good production of a well written play is magic too, creating or recreating a world on a stage, in the best instances helping us to know our own hearts a little better.

Hoping you will come on October 6 at 7:30 pm, Taplin Auditorium, and leave with a little bit of quantum mechanics, a little bit of wisdom, and a little bit of magic.  - Christopher Herzog

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre

Jennifer Von Mayrhauser, costume designer for Mrs. Warren’s Profession.

Intrepid literary manager Carrie Hughes recently sat down with Emily Mann for an interview about our upcoming production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, which Emily is directing.  Carrie asked Emily a question about her design process with costume designer Jennifer Von Mayrhauser, and I thought the answer was blogworthy, so I’ve excerpted it below.  I love that it shows the factors that go into a design, and what a director and designer might be thinking about at this point, a few months before the first rehearsal.

Carrie:  I know that you haven’t made your final decision about period yet, but you’re having your first round of conversations with your costume designer.  Can you talk a little bit about the issues that you and Jennifer are talking about?

Emily:  We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to put it in the 1890s or 1920s.  You know, it premiered in London in 1925 in twenties dress.  And it premiered here in 1895, in the dress of the day.  There are pros and cons to both.  The basic pro for 1895, besides it being the time when it’s written, is that for women, the cut of clothes accentuates the bosom, and the lines are very sexy.  It’s very glamorous and the hats are fabulous, and the shoulders are fabulous, and you know, all this is great.

But there’s something about the 20s that takes it out of being so far away from us in every day looks.  A lot of twenties dress looks not that different from now. It’s very modern looking and there’s something about it being mothers and daughters sitting around a kitchen table in more modern dress that’s also very appealing.  And, so what do you do with that?  And the underwear is different. In the 1920s you’re not corseted. It’s a big difference in how you hold yourself.  And the corseted look gives you the period, it gives it that period carriage and it makes it seem—I don’t know—like to the people in New Haven at the original American production:”Oh, it’s important. It’s a classic. It’s from England.”  So I don’t know which way we’re going to go.  I want it to not feel like a musty old historic piece, I want it to be very alive for now, which it is.  Which you know, I try to do with anything I’m working on historically so, I haven’t decided yet.  Both of us are intrigued with the decision.  We will have looked at a ton of materials before we make our choice.  It would be just so voluptuous to do it in the nineties…1890s. And so surprising and fresh to do it in the ’20’s.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

Margot White

Hmmmm… a blog. Let me start with the qualifier that I do actually consider myself as… “understanding”, at least, as to the workings of the 21st Century. I’ve heard of Facebook, appreciate texts and email correspondence, and even got myself a snazzy new iPhone. Knowing how to navigate these ever-changing gadgets, however, well, how can one truly ever keep up? Spiffy new things are now outdated within a year or less, and frankly, I’m not much of a fad follower—particularly on stuff with plugs. All that said, this whole new fangled blog thing has remained somewhat of a mystery to me. I kind of had it in my head that it’s somewhat of an online diary—you know, that little thing where you share your thoughts to a private little book, secured with a lock and key. The one that usually starts on Jan 1 and disappears around mid-March to the realm of “something else to keep on top of.” It’s the kind of thing you keep buried behind your stuffed animals, or find solace in when you just need some escape and “me time”. Only now, instead of Dear Diary, it’s turned into Dear World… Yep, somehow I missed that leap.

Now that we’ve started rehearsals for Talley’s Folly (referred to on day one as “possibly the sweetest and most beautiful play ever written”, and to which I just might have to agree), I suppose some of those same mentalities linger. One of my favorite things in this world is a first day of rehearsal. I also happen to be one of those freaks who loves auditioning, as well as working on my birthday, but for me, rehearsals are truly a special, revered place of solace. As actors, we spend so much of our time and efforts looking for the next gig, the next success, hell—the next paycheck (hmmm…can one say hell in a private-to-the-world diary???), that once we’ve made it across that threshold and GOT THE JOB!, there’s an indescribable joy and inner peace that comes from what my husband refers to as “earning it and owning it.” Sitting in that room the first day, with the entire team of collaborators coming together to essentially make life happen truthfully under imaginary circumstances, well—let’s just say it’s a place where I breathe quite comfortably. We no longer have the pressure to perform, but rather the luxury to be, create, discover, cry, laugh, fly, question, play, fail, try, achieve, listen, be still, jump, wiggle—all the while knowing we’re in the trusted hands of other accomplished artists, all of whom have an active responsibility towards the creative process and final production. Ultimately, all this participation culminates to bring to life the magic of the theater.

It’s a cherished place, that rehearsal room—it’s magic. But you know how it works; as an audience member, if you know the secret, it’s not as much fun anymore—the wonder’s gone. I believe that part of my job is to keep the wonder alive—to believe, and allow you to believe, in magic. I’m overwhelmingly thrilled to be here at McCarter, and am very much looking forward to bringing Sally Talley to life every day from now through November 2. I’m also grateful for all you might want to read, and thankful for your understanding of what I might wish to share (or not) in committing to this cool newfangled blog opportunity.

So with that, I’m going to take my little lock, and close up my diary for tonight—Good night, Dear Diary, we’ll talk again soon

Posted by Margot White, who plays Sally Talley in McCarter Theatre’s Production of Talley’s Folly.

As usual, the Shakespeare Theatre Company continues to provide really extraordinary digital content to support the education and cultivation of their audience.  Since we’re co-producing Twelfth Night with them this year, I hope that we will be able to take advantage of some of their unique digital ventures to share you our audiences as well.  Below, you can find a video of Rebecca Taichman (Twelfth Night director) that they recently posted on their YouTube page.  Enjoy!

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

BD Wong in Herringbone.  Photo by Rich Termine.

A tap-dancing kid
And a murderous midget
Don’t bring young children.

Have you seen Herringbone?  Were you inspired to write a haiku?  Well, now is your chance!  This next one is inspired by (and uses only phrases from) Simon Saltzman’s review of Herringbone in CurtainUp.

Oddly compelling
Horrific and light-hearted
Tour-de-force for Wong.

Yes, today marks the start of the Herringbone Haiku Competition.  Submit a haiku about Herringbone by clicking on the “comments” link below.  The writer of the best haiku (as determined by me), will receive a pair of free tickets to a Theater Series production of his or her choice.  Points will be given for humor, accuracy in describing Herringbone and appropriate use of the haiku form.  Multiple entries are encouraged.

The dancing is great
And the music’s real catchy,
A wee bit bizarre.

This is social media at its best, folks.  Have fun!

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.