Out of the Gates in 2014!
With a powerfully transformative year behind us, we launch into this Year of the Horse at full gallop. An original Bare Theatre production begins to tour, three other productions explore oft-overlooked plays by William Shakespeare, and we begin to delve into some of the other noted Jacobean writers.
Five full productions are on tap for this year, three to finish out our ninth season and two in our our tenth. We will return to some of our favorite places to play as well as discover new spaces. Here’s a quick rundown of things to come:
February 21 – March 16: Let Them Be Heard (In Winter)
- The original slave quarters cabins at Horton Grove, Historic Stagville.
The critically-acclaimed original drama based on real slave narratives returns to Historic Stagville in Durham, this time with new characters and stories from North Carolina history. The program is a walking tour that moves in and out of the original slave quarters at Horton Grove, stopping by the bonfire pit outside. Narratives detail life during slavery and The Civil War, and they give insight into life during Reconstruction and beyond.
After a two-week run at Historic Stagville, Let Them Be Heard moves to The ArtsCenter in Carrboro for our first-ever performance there. ArtsCenter Stage Director Jeri Lynn Schulke will take over directing to adapt the show to the theater space and the show will expand to 75 minutes with more narratives. Let Them Be Heard runs at The ArtsCenter March 7 – 16.
- The ArtsCenter in Carrboro.
Later in the year, in June and July, we will also begin to tour Let Them Be Heard to other historic plantation sites, including Hope Plantation and Historic Somerset Place.
March 27 – April 12: Cymbeline
At the end of March, we take on an oft-overlooked gem from William Shakespeare. Cymbeline is a true favorite of some of our company members, and has been referred to by some as “Shakespeare’s greatest hits.” The play is epic, spanning locations and genres, and thus it is difficult to categorize. As such, scholars have listed it among Shakespeare’s comedies or tragedies.
We place it among the comedies because it fits the original sense of the term “comedy” – meaning that the protagonists succeed and there is a happy ending. There is still plenty of humor, however, often provided by the villains of the play. There is betrayal and sadness as well, and the play culminates with a huge battle. There’s romance, laughs, tears, even a beheading…This is a play well worth taking in!
Laura Bess Jernigan, who performed in the very first Bare Theatre production ever, directs Cymbeline with a cast of nine who will double and triple-up roles. She is very interested in the recurring theme of rebellion found in the text, and is taking this production “underground.” We will be performing for our first time in the Cordoba Arts Center at Golden Belt in Durham.
- The cavernous Cordoba Arts Center space.
May 23 – 31: Two Noble Kinsmen: Fire & Shadows
This Spring we return to Stephenson Amphitheatre at Raleigh Little Theatre for the third time with a play not usually included in Shakespeare’s canon. The Two Noble Kinsmen is attributed to both Shakespeare and John Fletcher, another renowned writer of the era who took over as house playwright for The King’s Men after Shakespeare.
“Kinsmen” is a re-telling of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales, and the story centers around two cousins of nobility who both fall madly in love with the same woman and are eventually forced to fight each other to the death.
The theme of this production, “fire and shadows,” reunites Bare Theatre with fire and pyrotechnics artists from Cirque de Vol Studios and Mesmerizing Arts, and will also include shadow play mixed in with live action. The mix of light and dark, fire and shadow, along with a gripping script will captivate audiences in the beautiful outdoor setting.
- Mundi Broda with fire fans in last year’s The Comedy of Errors.
Season X
Our tenth full season kicks into high gear with another lesser-known work by Shakespeare: Coriolanus. This time Bare Theatre will team up with parkour/freerunning athletes from the newly-opened Enso Movement to perform an unforgettable outdoor experience. Inspired by the Moral Monday protests at Halifax Mall in downtown Raleigh (which tie in remarkably well with the political climate in the play), we will turn the government complex into our stage and lead audiences on a thoroughly modern take of this gripping tragedy.
We then turn to the pool of other Jacobean playwrights that get overlooked because of Shakespeare’s prominence. Veteran actor Matt Schedler, who last directed The Merchant of Venice for Bare Theatre, directs a bloody tale called The Revenger’s Tragedy. The play, originally published anonymously in 1607, was performed by The King’s Men and attributed later in the century to Cyril Tourneur, although modern scholars believe it more likely to have been written by Thomas Middleton. Nonetheless, fans of violent revenge dramas will enjoy this show next October.
It’s going to be an exciting year.
We want to thank everyone who has participated with Bare Theatre in 2013 – the actors, directors, crew members, Kickstarter supporters, and of course, audience members! Theatre is about community – live, in person, visceral and intimate – and it is about memorable experiences that cannot be duplicated in the same way on film or television. The community we have found in the Raleigh-Durham area has been wonderful, and we simply could not do any of this without all of you.
2014 stands before us. Come join us for the fun!
A Look Back at 2013…
2013 certainly has been a watershed year for this little theatre company that could. Four different productions took us from Common Ground to Historic Stagville to the amphitheatre at Raleigh Little Theatre. We collaborated with amazing circus artists from Cirque de Vol Studios and brilliant musicians brought to us by PineCone.
Here’s a look back…
February: WINTER ACTS 2013
- Maegan Mercer-Bourne in “The Tape Recorder,” part of Winter Acts 2013. Photo by Jeff Buckner.
Our fourth collection of short works showcased a mix of circus acts and dark theatre, with two original new plays and one piece from the 1960’s. The incredible talent from Cirque de Vol opened the show, featuring a different act each night. The acts included dazzling hoop work by Paige LaWall (“Papyrus”), acrobatics from Liz Bliss and Jewels, sword dancing from Raleigh’s own bearded lady, “Gatita,” and an eye popping juggling act from Adam Dipert. This began the collaborative work that would be featured in The Comedy of Errors in May.
- Mary Forester and Loren Armitage in “Fun House,” part of Winter Acts 2013. Photo by G. Todd Buker.
The first play up was “The Hitler Youth Knife,” written by former Rogue Company member R. Alex Davis. Matt Fields and Justin Smith played college roommates discussing the betrayal of a mutual love – and its consequences. Heather Strickland directed “Fun House” by Tarboro playwright Jordan Carlson. Mary Forester and Jeff Buckner explored a surreal dark world inhabited by a mysterious Loren Armitage, who brought back a final memory. Closing out the night was “The Tape Recorder” from English-born playwright Pat Flower. The piece, which was featured in the first color broadcast on the BBC, found an innocent young woman (played by Maegan Mercer-Bourne) taking dictation from author Loren Armitage’s reel-to-reel tape recorder – only to discover a diabolical plan waiting for her.
May: The Comedy of Errors
- The set of “The Comedy of Errors” at Stephenson Amphitheatre at Raleigh Little Theatre. Photo by Paul Cory.
Our first production in the Stephenson Amphitheatre had us going big. Working with the incredible Sara Phoenix and Cirque de Vol studios, the play was set in an antique circus environment, complete with “nimble jugglers,” belly dancers, acrobats, and aerial artists who performed high above the stage on the huge aerial silk and trapeze rig we constructed and dismantled every night. Pyrotechnics and fire spinning/juggling lit up the nights, and we even made a couple of new friends with the albino pythons that took the stage with us!
I’m proud of every production we take on, but I will always have a special fondness for this one. The company tackled a lot and conquered several fears along the way – of heights, fire, blades, snakes – and got the audiences rolling with laughter along the way at one of William Shakespeare’s earlier works.
- Mora Harris, Rebecca Blum, Brian Fisher and Chuck Keith in “The Comedy of Errors.” Photo by Paul Cory.
The Comedy of Errors brought in audiences numbering almost 2,000 over four evenings. Our previously most-attended production, Much Ado About Nothing (2011), saw about 480 over the course of ten performances. Getting this many people out to see one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays is an achievement in itself, and one I hope all involved are very proud of.
June: Let Them Be Heard returns to Historic Stagville
- Barbette Hunter in “Let Them Be Heard.” Photo by Jason Raitz.
Hot on the heels of Errors was the remount of our 2012 original production based on North Carolina slave narratives. This time, however, the cast powered through three times as many performances, completing 11 shows in all.
The show had already made INDYweek’s “Best of Triangle Theatre” list for 2012 in the categories of Best Ensemble, Best Direction, Best Production, and Special Achievement in the Humanities. 2013 brought new honors, including a 5-star review of the show, and additional recognition for Best Costumes in the 2013 “Best of” list (congratulations to David Serxner and Phillip B. Smith for that honor!).
- Justin Smith in “Let Them Be Heard.” Photo by Jason Raitz.
Barbette, Phillip, Kyma, Warren, Gil (the new kid!) and Justin even deeper into the characters that gave us these important narratives, and they continue to make this show an overwhelming success.
August: As You Like It
- The Zinc Kings and cast members from “As You Like It.” Photo by Barry Jaked.
We opened our ninth – yes, ninth – full season with one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. Heather directed her personal favorite Shakespeare play on the very stage on which she played Rosalind back in 2005 – right before Bare Theatre returned to Triangle stages. This time we worked with PineCone: The Piedmont Council for Traditional Music, who taught us a lot about live music and bluegrass, and introduced us to some truly excellent musicians.
We knew we were in luck when The Zinc Kings contacted us about doing the show. Not only did they rehearse and play live throughout the performances – they wrote all original music for Shakespeare’s songs and recorded a new album! Mark, Christen, and Dan were so much fun to work with, and we hope we cross artistic paths with them again some day. Incidentally, they picked up a “Best of” honor from INDYweek in the category of Best Original Music!
- The Zinc Kings in “As You Like It.” Photo by Jason Raitz.
I have to say that for me personally, this was one of the most fun shows we’ve ever done. The cast was so positive and the energy was absolutely contagious. This production, like Errors, brought in almost 2,000 audience and we couldn’t be more pleased to see such enthusiasm for these plays.
September: SPARKcon 2013
- Stephen Wall, Katie Anderson, Joanna Herath, Joyce Davis, Mora Harris, and Debbie Tullos in Bare Theatre’s theatreSPARK street dance. Video still from “Bare vs. SPARK,” shot by Arthur Earnest.
Our third appearance at “the creative explosion of the South” was a bit different this year. Since we were on early break and were not promoting any show specifically, we decided to have a dance party in the street. Actors from at least nine different productions over the past nine years dressed up as their favorite characters and danced like no one was watching. Not only were people watching, but many of them joined in with us! If you missed it, the video is here.
November: Company Meeting
- Heather J. Strickland being distracted from directing “Fun House.” Photos by G. Todd Buker.
The first company-wide meeting was held on Nov. 7, and we shared some sad news. Heather J. Strickland, who had served as Managing Director from 2005 – 2009 and had been serving as Artistic Director ever since, had decided to step out of that role to give her growing family more of her time and energy, and she had just started a new day job as well.
Though I will really miss having Heather in a strategic and artistic decision-making role, I am very pleased that she will continue to be an important member of the company, acting and doing fight choreography in our upcoming Cymbeline, and working on fights in Two Noble Kinsmen.
- Heather J. Strickland interviews with Scott Mason for WRAL TV in the house at Stephenson Amphitheatre at Raleigh Little Theatre.
A great deal of positive ideas came out of this meeting, which was just a first step as we chart new territory with Bare Theatre. We will continue to seek input from company members moving forward, and we will always strive to make this company a safe, fun, and welcoming environment for artists to create and explore.
What a year. As amazing as 2013 was, 2014 looks to go even further, with Let Them Be Heard returning to Stagville in winter before touring to The ArtsCenter in Carrboro and later in the year to Hope Plantation and Somerset Place near the NC coast. Veteran director, actor, and writer Laura Bess Jernigan – who was in the very first Bare Theatre production – directs Shakespeare’s Cymbeline at the Cordoba Arts Center at Golden Belt in Durham. We close out Season IX with Two Noble Kinsmen: Fire & Shadows, which will reunite us with Cirque de Vol performers in the amphitheatre at Raleigh Little Theatre.
More great things to come! We hope you will be there with us. Happy New Year!
– GTB
SPARKcon: What It Is and What It Isn’t.
When SPARKcon first started in 2006, I clearly remember seeing the iconic little stick figures with their heads on fire in all sorts of random places. The branding obviously worked – it was memorable – but I didn’t know what “it” was. A year later, the little flameheads were back and there were more posters getting plastered around. SPARKcon returned again and again each year.
In those first few years, I thought I wasn’t cool enough for SPARKcon. I thought it was some big underground party that I wasn’t invited to. I could see that there was music, art, film, circus, ideas, but I didn’t know what was going on or when or how this was taking place. It just seemed overwhelming and impossible that so much was going on in such a short amount of time.
I finally got a chance to see some of SPARKcon a few years ago. Some friends, the Nickel Shakespeare Girls, were performing in “theatreSPARK,” which at the time was on a small stage in front of what was then known as the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts. There may have only been 3 or 4 companies represented at the time. I saw some potential for growth and wanted to find out how to get involved.
The way to get involved in SPARKcon, it turns out, is to show up.
I somehow found out about a meeting they were having at the old Designbox. When I arrived, they actually got excited that someone was there from theatre! Who knew? They also sort of assumed that I knew what was going on or that I was a representative from the local theatre community. At the time, I wasn’t speaking for anyone – I was just there for information!
That is how SPARKcon goes.
What I saw at that first meeting was a tradition that occurs at all of the SPARKcon general meetings. They go around the room and each SPARK talks a bit about ideas they have, what they are working on, and sometimes ask for help or resources from the others. It was collaborative, and it was exciting to hear about all these new things that were going on around town.
Though this event, this “explosion of creativity,” was conceived by Aly and Beth Khalifa of Designbox, it was obvious that they weren’t dictating who or what should be involved. Even now, eight years on, Aly says “We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen at these events” – a deliberate choice that is one of the defining characteristics of this festival.
I’m a big fan of this choice. There’s no headliners at SPARKcon. It’s not like HOPSCOTCH, the huge annual music festival that precedes SPARKcon by one week. The Roots won’t be playing this weekend. This festival is all about local. The “headliners” here are the major and up and coming artists from Raleigh and the Triangle.
Each SPARK represents a community. The SPARKs come together and show what they do. Some of them come up with really amazing interactive games and opportunities for audiences. One of my favorites this year is the new Raleigh Rampage from geekSPARK. Festival attendees get to dress up like giant monsters and destroy a scale model of downtown Raleigh.
A costume for geekSPARK’s Raleigh Rampage in development.
The other aspect of SPARKcon that is so unique and fascinating to me is the variety. You can go to this festival, FOR FREE, and see visual art, hear new bands, or see scenes from current stage productions. Local filmmakers screen new short films, circus performers juggle fire and do aerial stunts (this year’s circusSPARK even features parkour demonstrations!). There are also design and technology exhibits, and Raleigh’s version of TED Talks, the Pecha Kucha Night, from ideaSPARK.
What SPARKcon isn’t is polished or corporate. There are sponsors, but SPARKcon isn’t dominated by branding. It’s a grassroots festival. A central committee of some 5-7 organizers works with the various SPARK coordinators, who in turn work within their various communities. It’s not a business, and therefore it’s free.
What has come out of SPARKcon? I can only speak from personal experience.
SPARKcon is directly responsible for Bare Theatre’s collaborations with Cirque de Vol Studios, PineCone, and The Zinc Kings that took place at Raleigh Little Theatre this past summer. If there was no SPARKcon, our productions of The Comedy of Errors and As You Like It would not have happened. It was the exposure of theatre to circus and vice versa that began Errors, which led us to seek collaboration with PineCone. These were by far Bare Theatre’s two largest shows ever, by all measurement.
You never know what can happen at SPARKcon. You may be inspired. You may find a great piece of art or jewelry to take home. You may even find yourself dancing in the street.
What you do is up to you. Just make sure that you take advantage of the creative explosion.
– GTB
A Grand Collaboration.
Click above to check out our Kickstarter page for this exciting project!
There is already a certain electricity I can feel out at the Stephenson Amphitheatre at Raleigh Little Theatre. The place has atmosphere, and as more than one cast member has already remarked, it feels like a place in which someone should do Shakespeare. The stonework walls and benches, the raked wooden stage floor that feels like an old ship run aground…it feels like a set even with no actual set pieces in it.
The open air is inviting. Now that North Carolina Spring is (finally!) in effect, the warm air and cool breeze makes for perfect weather. There is a serenity to the place, and a strong sense of time. The amphitheatre has, after all, been there for over seven decades.
Raleigh Little Theatre is the granddaddy of this collaborative effort. As one of the oldest community theatres in the nation, they have a ton of history. Formed during the Great Depression, they’ve seen ups and downs – but they have lasted through good and bad and continued to entertain and educate the Raleigh community for a long time.
A long lifespan by no means indicates that RLT has grown tired. I have to say that this organization, especially with the new leadership of Executive Director Charles Phaneuf, is doing a great job of producing theatre that attracts and engages its audiences.
By contrast, with only eight full seasons under our belt, Bare Theatre is relatively new. We don’t have anywhere near the resources of RLT. We don’t even usually use scenery, much less have a scene shop. Heck, we don’t even have a theater. RLT has three!
However, the fact that we don’t have much if any overhead allows us some flexibility and agility. We can sometimes take some risks. As much as that can sometimes drive me bonkers, it also provides some freedom for us to dream.
Cirque de Vol is the newest entity in our little trifecta, and they’ve generated a lot of interest in their first year of operation. The high ceilings of the colorful and welcoming studios downtown have become a sort of home base to a community of circus performers in the Triangle. Not only does the physical space in the Hue building provide these talented artists with a space to congregate and practice, but they are now instructing a new generation of children and adults in trapeze, aerial silks, acrobatics, lyra, hooping, and yoga (just to name a few).
Sara Phoenix and her sister, Sheryl Howell, have created a strong atmosphere of positivity – it washes over you when you walk through the door. Sara’s sunny can-do attitude is so reassuring when we talk about things that make me somewhat nervous – aerial silk rigs, trapeze hanging from towers, and flamethrowers shooting fireballs off of said towers.
I’d also like to mention Greg Whitt of Drum for Change, who has agreed to head up our percussion ensemble that will accompany the madness. Sound has always been important to me in theatre (that’s how I got started with Bare), and drums provide energy and pulse to help keep driving the action.
So here we are. And we now have a complete cast! After auditioning via Skype from London, Brian Fisher will now be playing the part of Antipholus of Syracuse, and we are glad to have him.
The pace quickens. The show gets louder.
-GTB
Bringing People Together With “Errors.”
I’ll start this entry with a disclaimer. I love Netflix, watch it all the time. I hardly ever go to the movie theater anymore, and I don’t see nearly as many live shows as I want to. There, I said it. I don’t get out enough.
However, I don’t think I’m alone in this respect, and that is a little sad to me. I think live entertainment used to bring people together more.
Obviously back in Shakespeare’s time people had to see entertainment live because they couldn’t get it any other way. I think it’s kind of neat to imagine the crowds that gathered at The Globe – up to 3,000 people attending one show. People from all walks of life, rich and poor, all gathered to see plays that are still being performed today.
The reconstructed Globe theatre in London.
The actors and the audience members who could afford better admission got sheltered seats with a roof over them. Those who couldn’t, “the groundlings,” had to stand at the bottom. If it was raining, they stood watching for about four hours…in the rain.
Not many people would watch a play in the rain today (although Heather did – at The Globe!). Sure, we don’t have to, but the shift in attitude towards live theatre is pretty striking.
This got me thinking: what events bring people together like this nowadays? Pop music concerts and sporting events, right? I once stood in pouring rain with thousands of other people at Raleigh Amphitheater to see Fleet Foxes (totally worth it!), but that’s a pretty rare thing these days.
Could drama bring members of the community in Raleigh and the Triangle together? I’d like to think so, especially after seeing the crowds at Shakespeare productions at Koka Booth Amphitheatre the last three years.
The folks who built the outdoor stage at Raleigh Little Theatre back in the late 1930’s must have been dreamers. The formation of RLT and its construction during the depths of the Depression are testaments to the power of people whose imaginations conquered harsh financial and practical realities. They succeeded in building an amphitheater at one end of the old State Fairgrounds race track – and now that space stands ready for our imaginations.
Raleigh Little Theatre’s Stephenson Amphitheatre when it was first constructed in the late 1930’s. Photo on http://www.raleighlittletheatre.org
My goal is pretty simple. I want people to give Shakespeare a try because I think many of them will like it, just like we do. Errors is the shortest play we have from Shakespeare (a mere 1,787 lines compared with Hamlet’s 3,800+ lines). It is not a heady play by any stretch. It’s a broad farce with a ridiculous premise (what are the odds of two sets of twins both having the same name?). It’s accessible.
Does this mean it’s not worthwhile to perform? I say no, because it’s still a fun play. It’s funny today because we all understand the humor. Errors is a situation comedy and we can all enjoy watching the chaos that unfolds.
With circus added in, I’m hoping to make this more than a play. I’ll defend spectacle in addition to broad comedy because I think it does have its place. From what I’ve seen of Cirque de Vol and their surrounding circus collective, these performers are artists and they spend a lot of time working on their craft. What we will create with them over the next two months will hopefully be a fresh and rollicking rendition of this early Shakespeare text.
I’m taking for granted that it will rain at least a couple of the performance nights. If we can get a night or two without rain, the North Carolina weather in late May should be warm and inviting. People can bring their children to this show, pack a picnic or grab some concessions or food truck treats.
There will be comedy and there will be spectacle. Hopefully, this will be a dream that we can share together.
– GTB
“The Hitler Youth Knife.”
“The Hitler Youth Knife” has been on our desk for a while. It was written by R. Alex Davis, who performed in our first three Rogue Company productions beginning with Titus Andronicus (2005). He played Reverend Hale in The Crucible (2006) and the title role in King Lear (2007).
With that background, Alex is obviously no stranger to dark psychological material. This short play is a disturbing but fascinating study of two college friends.
Mike is typical of many young men – once at university, he pushed his boundaries. Towards the beginning he got heavily involved with drugs and became sexually promiscuous. He has since moderated his drug habit, but there is some question about his relationships with women. He claims to have fallen deeply in love with at least two women in particular, but also seems to have a “love ’em and leave ’em” attitude – which could be an act.
Norman also has gone through some pretty serious experimentation, but doesn’t appear to be as callous with regards to women. Whereas Mike found meaning in the writings of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, Norman is more interested in religions of the world. In fact, he seems to fancy himself something of a teacher, perhaps even a prophet of sorts. He is particularly occupied with atonement and retribution.
Mike and Norman have a young woman in common. Mike dated Therese first, and took her virginity in a night of drug-fueled excess. According to Norman, this was not a consensual experience, and Mike’s abusive behavior and callousness towards Therese afterwards left her extremely hurt and confused.
Norman is now with Therese, and he is focused on exacting punishment on Mike. The two have not spoken to each other for a while, presumably since Norman and Therese have been together.
“The Hitler Youth Knife” is the conversation that occurs when Norman confronts Mike with what he now knows about Mike’s relationship with Therese.
I’ve tapped Matt Fields, who has been performing with Bare since he was 14 (he’s now in college himself), to play Mike. Matt has been in almost every show I’ve directed. Justin Smith debuted with Bare in our critically-acclaimed adaptation of NC slave narratives, Let Them Be Heard (2012), and he plays Norman.
Both actors are talented individuals who are fearless onstage. I am looking forward to the energy they bring to this piece, and I think it will be an electrifying part of WINTER ACTS!
-GTB
On tap for 2013…
Happy New Year! Hope you kicked off this year of the snake with a bang.
We are gearing up for what will be an ambitious year. It will involve collaboration with some amazing artists and organizations in the Triangle and it will be a ton of fun.
We will be returning to our roots and mounting TWO Shakespeare productions this year…but first we will explore short works that have not been previously seen in the area. Our fourth annual installment of Winter One-Acts at Common Ground Theatre runs February 21-24, and it will be funny and creepy! More on that to come.
This Spring, mistakes will be made. We perform Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors at Raleigh Little Theatre’s amphitheater May 24 – June 1. We are looking to collaborate with Cirque De Vol and local circus artists to turn the town of Ephesus into a vintage circus! Bring a picnic or grab some grub from a tasty food truck and enjoy amazing feats and mistaken identities under the stars!
Bare Theatre is also in talks with Historic Stagville to remount Let Them Be Heard. If last year you did not get a chance to see this show, taken from the testimony of former slaves in North Carolina, this is a powerful experience not to be missed. More details will follow.
This Fall, Artistic Director Heather J. Strickland will return from baby-break to direct Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It at the RLT Amphitheater. This show is shaping up to be incredible already. We are partnering with Pinecone – the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music – to create a bluegrass version of the show with live music!
All in all, it’s going to be a good year. Stay tuned!
-GTB
Looking back on 2012.
2012 was a challenging year in many ways for a lot of people. The economy was still a bit shaky and we all endured a grueling election cycle. There were challenges for us in Bare Theatre – the most notable being the unfortunate closure of Raleigh Ensemble Players, which had seemed to be the perfect new home for us in Raleigh after Much Ado About Nothing.
It’s always interesting to me to look back at what we’ve done and where we’ve been. 2012 brought a lot of firsts for us, and it saw our “little company that could” transitioning into a more established company here in Raleigh and in the Triangle as a whole.
Here’s a brief look back:
February. Winter One-Acts: One Night of Absolute Dismay
Jeff Buckner as Lawrence and Joanna Herath as Amanda in “For Whom The Southern Belle Tolls.” Photo by Jason Bailey.
February held our third collection of one-acts, a mix of short plays from playwrights new and well-established. We presented new works by Lucius Robinson, Rajeev Rajendran, Ben Ferber, Donnie McEwan, and Mora Harris, as well as a favorite by Christopher Durang.
We premiered three installments of “Hot Greek Porn,” a mashup of Greek tragedy, the European debt crisis, and well…porn. We bloodied the stage with “Everything Seems So Plausible at 1 A.M.,” and explored a couple’s faith being tested by a homeless person. The show wrapped up with “For Whom The Southern Belle Tolls,” a twisted retelling of Tennessee Williams’ classic, The Glass Menagerie.
Notable firsts included Jason Bailey’s first time directing on stage and Olivia Griego’s first time directing with Bare!
May. We had so much fun with “For Whom The Southern Belle Tolls” in Absolute Dismay that we decided to mount the entire collection from which it came, Durang/Durang. That show, originally scheduled for May, had to be postponed because of the closure of REP.
We had already rehearsed well over a month by the time we got the sad news, so rather than cancel the show entirely we moved it to July, thus canceling our summer youth conservatory, Rogue Company.
June. Let Them Be Heard
Justin Smith as Dave Lawson and Phillip B. Smith as Reverend Squire Dowd in Let Them Be Heard. Photo by Jason Bailey.
Our first location-based production, Let Them Be Heard, took place at Historic Stagville in Durham, NC. The seven monologues taken from the Slave Narrative Project were staged in actual slave quarters and a hand-built mule barn at the site.
Let Them Be Heard was a powerful experience for us. The fact that the narratives came from men and women who lived in Raleigh and Durham and grew up as slaves made already compelling stories even more meaningful.
Among many firsts with this show was our first Kickstarter campaign, which successfully raised over $1,250 to cover the costs of the production. This in turn helped us donate 100% of ticket sales – over $1,800 – to Historic Stagville to support their mission of historic preservation.
It was also our first appearance on WUNC 91.5 FM’s The State of Things with Frank Stasio. It was also our first (of hopefully many more) production that was audio recorded and broadcast with the help of Kurt Benrud and Triangle Radio Reading Service.
Additionally, the sold-out show was recognized by Byron Woods and The Independent Weekly as among the best of 2012’s Triangle Theater, receiving recognition for best achievements in ensemble, directing, production, and a special achievement in the humanities.
July. Durang/Durang
Clockwise from left: Jason Bailey as Wesley, PJ Maske as Mae, Richard Butner as Jake, G. Todd Buker as Beth, Lucinda Gainey as Dr. Martina, Hilary Edwards as Meg, and Julie Oliver as Ma in “A Stye of the Eye.” Photo by Andrew Martin.
July saw Durang/Durang finally get its run (with a few new cast members), and it was a blast. Olivia was a fantastic director, and we even got her husband Drew onstage with us!
Not only did this show have the honor of being our first-ever production at Burning Coal’s Murphey School, it was also the second-highest grossing show in Bare Theatre history (after our 2011 run of Much Ado About Nothing).
September. SPARKcon 2012
Cassandra Wladyslava, Matthew Hager, Patrick Cox, Matt Fields, and G. Todd Buker making friends at SPARKcon. Photo by Patrick Campbell.
SPARKcon 2012 was Bare’s second appearance at the huge four-day creative explosion in downtown Raleigh. TheatreSPARK wanted to go bigger and better, so local theatre companies took to the streets with an interactive scavenger hunt. With our upcoming clown-centric show, The Leader, rapidly approaching it was time to send in the clowns.
October/November. The Leader
Matt Fields, Jeff Buckner and Matthew Hager in “Excuse Me, pt. 2.” Photo by G. Todd Buker.
The Leader involved several firsts. Using Eugene Ionesco’s short 1953 play by the same name as a jumping-off point, we explored a creative process unlike our typical process. The devised short plays and sketches that filled out the show were created by the ensemble, with several pieces written by Chuck Keith, and Todd Buker.
Our pals, The Nickel Shakespeare Girls, came to participate in our clown workshops, and we took what we learned out onto the streets of downtown Raleigh to field test it. The Leader was our first production in an art gallery, too – at the wonderful Visual Art Exchange. We also got to visit Frank Stasio at The State of Things again to talk a little about political theatre!
What a year. There were so many unforgettable moments on stage and back stage. We had the pleasure of working with a ton of great new actors, and trying new things with old friends.
Here’s to 2013, which we’ll discuss more on the next post! Wait ’til you hear what’s in store!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
– GTB
So, What Is It?
An image from “Fuerza Bruta” in NYC.
I’m getting this question a lot these days.
The short answer might be that THE LEADER is a dreamlike collection of sketches, movement and clowning that looks at leaders and their followers in a variety of different ways.
That would be accurate, but probably doesn’t convey the emotions we are finding in this process. I hope and do think we are progressing towards a show that is wildly entertaining, funny and disturbing all at once.
It’s a really hard thing to describe. I know what it looks like in my head, but we’ve only even conceptualized half the show at this point (which is amazing to me, considering that we’ve only been at this for a little over a week).
I was describing it to a friend the other day as more of an experience than a play. I used to spend as much time as I could in New York City, especially when working on a show that went to the International Fringe Festival several years ago. I was really influenced by De La Guarda, Fuerza Bruta, Snow Show, and Arias With a Twist. These aren’t plays. They’re non-linear and they don’t even necessarily tell stories, but they do convey emotions and thoughts, and there’s something about them that engrains them in the memory.
Image from Arias With a Twist
The imagery used in these shows is extremely powerful, as is the music. Where words may well be forgotten days or even hours later, the images and the sounds persist, as do the sensations and emotions they create together.
This is the kind of show I’m looking to create in THE LEADER. I’ve been wanting to do a show like this for years, and this fall seemed like the right time. We don’t have the budget of those New York companies, but their shows in a way are very Bare Theatre. They’re not overly complicated, and they go right to core emotions of joy, fear, and sadness.
It is my hope that audiences in Durham and Raleigh enjoy this type of theatrical experience in much the same way as I have enjoyed these type of shows in New York.
More will, of course, be posted…
Publicity shot from Snow Show
October Surprise.
It came to me one night after a post-show hurrah during Durang/Durang.
The plan had been to do Shakespeare this fall – The Comedy of Errors at Raleigh Little Theatre’s amphitheater. Shakespeare and amphitheater go together like brie and bacon, and I was getting pretty fired up about the show. However, there was a problem.
The trouble was threefold:
- Hopscotch is at the beginning of September and SPARKcon is mid-September.
- Actor’s Comedy Lab is doing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at RLT at the end of September, and there is not enough parking for two shows.
- It’s cold at night in October.
So September was not possible and RLT was only available during October. No sweat, right? Find another venue. We’ve made a firm commitment to performing in Raleigh from now on – it’s where most of us live, and there is a relatively large theatre crowd here.
The only problem is that finding performance space in Raleigh is one of the most difficult challenges I face as a managing director, especially after the closure of Raleigh Ensemble Players.
Being a vagabond theatre company is a lot of fun, but also at times like this a royal pain in the arse.
Theatres in Raleigh in the fall are busy with their own seasons, and most don’t really want to squeeze another show in when they’re trying to rehearse and get ready for their next opening. Trying to book consecutive weeks in Raleigh and Durham makes it even trickier.
So it was time to do something different. I had already been wrestling with the idea of using non-theatre spaces, and the next best thing I could come up with was art galleries. Sure, they don’t have raked floors or lighting plots, but they understand the challenges of finding spaces and getting work seen.
I figured if we weren’t going to go big with a grand amphitheater show, we should do exactly the opposite. It was time to think of an intimate, funky show that wouldn’t need a lot of space, but that would make an impact.
That’s what occurred to me that Saturday night after Durang. Then I realized we shouldn’t do Shakespeare this fall. There’s at least four other productions of Shakespeare plays going on in the Triangle, anyway.
I thought about a show I had seen 17 years ago, one that I still remember because it made such an impact. It was an original adaptation of Eugene Ionesco’s “The Leader,” an absurdist comedy about people excitedly (and blindly) following a mysterious leader figure.
“The Leader” is only about 10 pages long, but the production I saw had sliced up the script and inserted several original sketches and movement pieces, making a full length play.
Immediately I knew we needed to do this piece in the fall – right in time for the 2012 election.
Expanding the play will be a challenge, and it’s not what we normally do, but I think it will be a great experience. I’ve already got some ideas for clown pieces and vignettes that we can try out. We’ll spend the next few weeks playing theater games and work-shopping, and the ensemble will devise the show together.
I went to two of the fine ladies at ground zero of SPARKcon – the two Sarahs at Visual Art Exchange – and they turned out to be as wonderfully supportive as I thought they’d be. We have ourselves a show.
The Leader goes up October 25-28 at Common Ground Theatre in Durham and November 3-11 at Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh.
See you then,
GTB
Reflections on the Age-Old Question, “What Next?” and the Troublesome Questions of Identity and Purpose That Ensue, Part 1
It has been a banner year for Bare Theatre. Almost twelve months ago we were dusting off “The Shakespeare Zone” for its Raleigh debut at SPARKcon 2011. “The Zone” is a Bare Theatre original collection of comedic sketches mashing up Shakespeare and modern TV and, despite the rains, it was a crowd pleaser. This was especially true at Raleigh Ensemble Players, where we huddled out of the cold and damp with a truly appreciative audience.
Two months later we were back onstage with a steampunk-clad version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. This was a big production for us, with 24 cast members (several of whom had several costume changes); video projections that featured flying airships, fireworks, and characters appearing onscreen; a couple of company dance numbers; and a big fight sequence pitting clowns against drunks.
Much Ado was our biggest box office success since the company began, and we had a fantastic three-week run in Durham and Raleigh.
The winter brought our third annual collection of short plays, One Night of Absolute Dismay. This collection featured three originals and one parody from Christopher Durang, “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls.” This was our best attended one-acts show so far.
Towards the end of spring we were gearing up for the entire collection of shorts that included “Southern Belle,” Durang’s humbly-titled Durang/Durang. The show was supposed to go up in May but had to be postponed at the last minute due to the sudden and very sad closure of Raleigh Ensemble Players’ space on Fayetteville St.
So we ended up following Absolute Dismay with an original adaptation of slave narratives from North Carolina, called Let Them Be Heard. It featured seven monologues performed by African American actors portraying people who had experienced life under slavery and survived to the Great Depression.
We staged these narratives at Historic Stagville in Durham, NC, which had been one of the largest plantations in the South. The show led four sold-out audiences on a lantern-lit tour across the plantation grounds, beginning in an original slave quarters cabin and ending in the huge Great Barn, hand-built by the slaves in 1860.
Let Them Be Heard was not only our first environmental play, but also our first Kickstarter campaign. With Kickstarter we successfully raised over $1,400 to cover production costs, which in turn enabled us to donate 100% of the ticket sales – $1,850 – to Historic Stagville, helping the Stagville Foundation preserve the important historical landmark.
Immediately after Heard, we got right back to work with Durang/Durang. We had a great opening week at Burning Coal Theatre at the Murphey School in Raleigh, and are finishing out the run in Durham at Common Ground Theatre.
Christopher Durang’s work has been insanely fun, especially after the tragic stories told in Let Them Be Heard. These six shorts are hilarious, ridiculous, silly and satirical, and as we always do – we have a great group of people involved. Not to mention, there are a ton of great photos of us in wigs (courtesy of the magnificent Mario Griego) on Facebook!
We’ve stretched ourselves, pushed the envelope, and had a blast in the process. Now that our eighth full season (yes, eighth full season!) has begun, we are faced with a question of identity.
We’ve done a lot of Shakespeare – almost half the canon at this point. We’ve done plays by Miller, Pinter, Stoppard and Durang. We’ve done a slew of original works from playwrights around the country. The question for me lately is: does the work define us or do we define the work?
I keep coming back to the latter answer. What makes us “Bare” is not necessarily what we do – it’s how we do it.
We are “Bare” because we tell stories with intensity and passion using little more than a room, some actors, and the text. Everything that happens between those elements is what hopefully makes our work worth watching.
It’s not an option for us to rely on production values. This limitation is actually what I find the most liberating about Bare Theatre. When you don’t have money, or set, or a ton of crew members, you have to get creative. You have to use your imagination.
We are constantly challenged by the fact that we do not have a performance space of our own. Common Ground has been a great home to us in Durham, but it has always been difficult to find suitable venues in Wake County and Raleigh.
That ongoing search has led me to a conclusion: that we embrace the challenge of finding venues that fit the pieces, and make that a central part of what we do. The experience at Stagville proved that we could create a one-of-a-kind experience with nothing more than actors, text, a location, and lanterns.
It doesn’t get any more Bare than that.
In Part 2, I’ll talk about The Next Show and Where We Go From Here…
-GTB
Reflections on LET THEM BE HEARD.
I needed a couple weeks after LET THEM BE HEARD to let it all sink in. This was a huge experience in many ways, and I’m still wrapping my brain around what we managed to accomplish.
It was historic, for starters, and I’m not just referring to the source material. This was Bare Theatre’s first performance in a historic site, and I believe this was the first time any theatre has been done in the original slave quarters and barn at Historic Stagville.
Not only that, but we think this may have been the first theatrical adaptation of the seven monologues included in LET THEM BE HEARD. There are others from other states included in the film Unchained Memories, and there have been other theatrical adaptations elsewhere around the country, but we have not found any other record of these narratives being performed anywhere.
The cast of LET THEM BE HEARD warms up just before the show at Historic Stagville
One of our goals was to create awareness of Historic Stagville, and I believe we succeeded. The site usually has between 300 – 350 visitors for its annual Juneteenth event, a celebration of the day the last slaves were set free. This year, that day saw 970 visitors.
Among the four audience groups we had that night, there were some 120 people in attendance, meaning we raised over $1,000 for Historic Stagville. On top of that, our 29 Kickstarter contributors donated $1,301 to Bare Theatre for the creation of LET THEM BE HEARD, so they deserve much credit and many thanks for making this possible.
The publicity the show received was fantastic. We also need to thank the Durham Herald-Sun (read the article), The State of Things and WUNC 91.5 FM (listen to our interview), as well as The Independent Weekly and Classical Voice of North Carolina (read the review).
All four performances were sold out a couple of days before the event, and we were still receiving calls and emails from folks trying to get tickets. There have been many requests from those that were not able to see it and many who did see it to bring the show back to Stagville.
These numbers are all important and a great sign of how much this show resonated with the community, but most striking to me was our audiences’ reactions. I told the cast in advance not to expect applause – not because the show did not deserve it – but because people would simply be unable to applaud at the end. After such tales of tragedy and suffering, it just didn’t feel right.
Their faces were enough, however.
I saw many people who couldn’t speak afterwards, some choked up by tears, others silently burning with a simmering anger and frustration that such things could have ever happened on these lands and in our community. That is a testament to the power of the narratives themselves, and of the incredible talent and ability that our cast displayed in order to tell those stories.
We are currently in the process of creating audio recordings of these seven narratives, with the help of Triangle Radio Reading Service, a service for the blind. The actors have adapted readily to the studio and I am blown away by the recordings so far.
It looks promising for us to return to Stagville, but as yet we do not know exactly when.
It is very important to us to keep working on this project and to continue to tell these stories. I believe we succeeded in creating a safe environment for actors and audience to come together, and to give people a chance to listen.
There will be more to come on this, I promise.
-GTB
The Women and Men of LET THEM BE HEARD.
We are one week away from LET THEM BE HEARD, an original theatrical adaptation of North Carolina slave narratives that will take place at Historic Stagville in Durham, NC.
We’ve talked about some of the history and about Stagville itself. Now it’s time for a look at the characters – men and women who grew up as slaves, viewed as “property” to someone else.
TEMPIE HERNDON
Tempie Herndon of Durham, NC
Tempie is the oldest character in our collection. She was 103 years old in the late 1930’s when she was interviewed by the Federal Writer’s Project. This means that she was in her 30’s during The Civil War, so she remembers slavery differently from the other characters, who were children at the time.
Tempie had a good relationship with George and Betsy Herndon, the couple that owned her, and in her interview she tells of fond memories working in a weaving room with the other slave women (and Betsy). She also recounts her marriage to Exter Durham, a slave from another plantation.
Barbette Hunter as Tempie Herndon
REVEREND SQUIRE DOWD
Reverend Squire Dowd of Raleigh, NC
Squire Dowd was one of the very few slaves who received an education. He remembers being taught to read and write by the white children “as punishment” for the bad things he did. As an adult, he became a Baptist preacher and was fairly well-known in the Raleigh community, where he served in the ministry for 50 years.
Dowd has a self-described “conservative view” of slavery. While he seems to blame carpetbaggers and the Ku Klux Klan for much of the plight of African-Americans after the war, he also recalls several good times he had as a slave child.
Phillip Smith as Squire Dowd
FANNY CANNADY
Fanny Cannady of Durham, NC
Little is known of Fanny Cannady other than from her interview with the Federal Writer’s Project. Fanny and her mother seem to have been very close with her mistress, Sally Moss, but she was terrified of her master, Jordan Moss. She recounts the story of two slave brothers, Leonard and Burrus Allen, who were large strong men who were not afraid of their master. Fanny describes in detail a horrifying chain of events that begin with an off-hand comment from Leonard about Moss’s son. One of the brothers would end up killed by his master, the other whipped mercilessly.
Kyma Lassiter as Fanny Cannady
HENRY BOBBITT
Henry Bobbitt of Raleigh, NC
Henry’s monologue in LET THEM BE HEARD is actually a combination of the two interviews given by Henry and his brother Clay. Both men were slaves, but on two different plantations in Raleigh. He talks about being beaten just for being black, saying “I had a whole heap of dem whuppin’s” (Clay’s line). He also recounts slave sales, including the sale of his wife after just one year of marriage.
Kashif Powell as Henry Bobbitt
ANDREW BOONE
(no photo available)
Andrew Boone begins his narrative by relating how the Works Progress Administration has cut him off. He says he can no longer work, that he has been squatting in tobacco barns for years, and that he has not had much food lately. Andrew’s former owner, Billy Boone, treated his slaves harshly and Andrew remarks on the fact that his master was a preacher. After slavery, Andrew moved to New York City, where he seems to have found a reasonable amount of success working for the entertainers Crawford & Banhay. While in New York, Andrew married and had children, but these successes appear to have all faded away by the time of his interview.
Warren Keyes as Andrew Boone of Wake County, NC
THOMAS HALL
(no photo available)
Very little is known about Thomas Hall, who was 81 at the time of his interview. After beginning to give some details about his parents and owner, he seems to become more and more agitated and ends up refusing to tell the interviewer his story. He rails against the economic slavery and bigotry that continued after emancipation, and he says he hates Harriet Beecher Stowe and Abraham Lincoln for serving their own interests rather than trying to help African-Americans.
Jeremy Morris as Thomas Hall of Raleigh, NC
DAVE LAWSON
(no photo available)
Dave’s narrative is actually a story about his grandparents. Dave was an excellent storyteller, and the first time I read this story it actually made me cry. It is almost Shakespearean in its tragedy. Dave’s grandparents, Cleve and Lissa, lost their infant daughter (Dave’s mother) when they were purchased because their master did not want to also buy the baby and have it impede their ability to work. Some time after this, Cleve realized that the master was planning on selling Lissa. Unable to bear the loss of his wife after losing their child, Cleve decides to resist, knowing full well the consequences.
Justin Smith as Dave Lawson of Blue Wing, NC
Reservations are going fast and all four shows will likely sell out. Complete details are available at www.baretheatre.org.
Also, we have a short video about the project on our Kickstarter page. Bare Theatre is donating all ticket sales to Historic Stagville, so we are asking for contributions to help us pay for the production costs.
-GTB
A Loss for Theatre and a Loss for Raleigh.
Gary Williams and Glen Matthews of Raleigh Ensemble Players
The last month or so has been rough for Triangle theatre companies. I won’t get into all of the details, but I do want to at least recognize the profound loss that was announced Friday – that Raleigh Ensemble Players is closing its doors.
To say the 30-year-old company has made an impact on Raleigh and Cary is a supreme understatement. This is a company that has earned high praise from audience, critics and other theatre producers. Actors love to work with them, and all of us in the local theatre community have so much respect for them.
It seemed perfect back in 2009 when REP acquired their own space on Fayetteville St. after years of innovative theatre at Artspace and Cary Academy. There was so much sweat equity and love that went into that space and it was apparent. This was a great intimate venue and REP knows how to use it.
We were thrilled to have been able to perform there last fall. We thought we had finally found a home in Raleigh, where most of our company members are actually from, and Gary and Glen were so fantastic to work with.
It is my sincere hope – and the hope of many others, I’m sure – that this closing will not be permanent.
The lights may be out for the time being, but there are so many of us in the area that desperately want to see the work continue. While the venue was nice, what really matters is the people and the art they produce. That is what has been such an inspiration to the rest of us.
Hopefully that art will continue in some shape, form or place. We do so need it.
– GTB
Hark, villains! 