Some Stills from Marat/Sade

The Barber of Seville: an Electric Opera

Alright, so my last four posts have been about things happening at University of Portland! So what! It may be the last things I get to write about good old U.P.
Anyway, this time I have something truly incredible to share. A massive group of students from both the theatre and music departments (and elsewhere) have put together the first to acts of The Barber of Seville as an electric opera. I saw it on Sunday and was absolutely blown away! Now I like opera anyway, but an opera where the clarinet is played by a hammered organ, the violins and violas are played by guitars with string tone, the oboe is played by a guitar with the engaged wah pedal stepped out, etc. etc., it gets a little crazy! Not to mention how cool it is that all the characters look like they've stepped out of punk band/glam rock music videos.
Bobby Ray, a senior who played Figaro, took this project on as his baby this year, and I hope he is proud, because it was an enormous undertaking that turned out remarkably well! Steven Quirk as Count Almaviva and Danielle Larson as Rosina were great. Danielle can hit high notes like you wouldn't believe! Connor Bond was hilarious as Doctor Bartolo, especially in is Ozzy Osbourne get-up. My favorite song, though, belonged to Brittney Harris who played Bona Basilia. Something about her aria, "La Calunnia," just sounded amazing with rock music backing her up! Not to mention, she totally has the hottest costume!
Also, congratulations to the budding young theatres that my fellow students are getting off their feet. Two student project theatres were involved in this production; Portland Organic Theatre, and the Electric Opera Company. Incredible work, you guys! I'm so proud!
At any rate, I totally recommend checking it out if you are near the U.P. campus on Thursday. It's only a minimum of a dollar donation to get in, and believe me it will be a dollar well spent. The show begins at 7:30 on Thursday and runs about an hour and a half in the Mago Hunt Theatre.

Sorry, I've Been Busy

So Marat/Sade ended and I thought I would finally have a minute to breathe. Oh no, I was wrong. I've had to work on an amazing amount of academic theatre projects in the last week.
Tuesday and Thursday my Commedia Dell'Arte class was doing final performances. As Commedia is mainly a pedestrian art, we were trying our hand at street theatre around campus. We put on masks and trooped around doing small Commedia skits at popular campus hang outs. In my performance I played Arlecchino with one classmate playing Capitano and one playing Dottore. Our skit involved a pumpkin pie, it was very funny.
Wednesday evening I was in a musical revue for my musical theatre class. I had a duet as well as a solo from The Magic Show, and I had a fairly substantial solo in one of our group numbers as Dolly in "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello Dolly. So that was fun.
Wednesday and Thursday night I participated in this awesome project. The University of Portland finally has a new play festival that they hope to make an annual thing. Five plays were read both nights. Some were staged while others were choral readings. I was in a play by my friend William Steele called Wheat and Grapes, in which I played a pregnant seventeen year old considering an abortion. Though I thought all the young playwrights did well, I was particularly proud of my buddy Conor Eifler. Eifler is a young playwright who although he's only finishing his sophomore year in college has enjoyed such successes as having his shows read and Visions and Voices at Portland Center Stage and at the JAW; a Playwrights Festival also at Portland Center Stage. His show at University of was a full length one act, and it was hilarious! Way to go!
Finally, on Friday night it was time to do our annual Performing and Fine Arts Banquet. This is kind of the departments farewell to the seniors. It was very fun and very emotional. I recieved the Outstanding Achievment Award for On-stage work.
So that's why I haven't written much. I promise I'll be back out seeing plays soon!

Marat/Sade at UP (an update)

So Marat/Sade opened Wednesday night, and we'll be playing through Sunday. I feel our production is solid and that we've had two very good performances, although I worry that it's a bit much for a lot of our audience. As one of my friends told me after the Wednesday night performance, "you're not supposed to like this show, it's terrifying, but that aside, I loved it."
From those who "get" the show, we've gotten a wonderful response. Jeff Gauthier, a philosophy professor at the university wrote me this morning to say that Marat/Sade is one of his favorite plays and that I am now his favorite Marat. It was such a nice compliment, though not entirely unexpected from a someone who teaches philosophy.
Anyway, I am truly proud of this production and I'm sure this wonderful cast will have a great three more performances. It's been so much fun. Congratulations to our director, Collin Murray, a directing graduate student at University of Portland. He's done a wonderful job!

Marat/Sade at UP

I apologize for not being able to write too often these days. I've been working hard on my final production at the University of Portland. We're doing Marat/Sade, and even though the role is out of my age range, type, and gender, they have me playing Jean-Paul Marat. Anyway, tonight is the first dress rehearsal, and we'll be opening on Wednesday.
This show tends to be a bit difficult to follow so here are my top four things (not in any specific order) to know before coming to see it:

1. Charenton is the location of the show. It was a famous insane asylum founded in 1645 in France. It was known for its humanitarian treatment of patients especially under Abbe de Coulmier (an important character in the show), and may be most famous for housing The Marquies de Sade.
2. The Marquies de Sade is where we get the term "sadism." This stems from his fascination with writing about sadomasichism, rape, bestiality, and necrophilia. He was also a philosopher and revolutionary. Interestingly, Sade wrote the Eulogy for Jean-Paul Marat.
3. Jean-Paul Marat was a Swiss born physician, political theorist, and scientist who was far better known for being a radical journalist during the bloody French Revolution, and was considered, at one point, one of the most important men in France. History calls Marat responsible for the Reign of Terror which killed some 20,000 to 40,000 "enemies of the revolution." Marat unfortunately suffered from a debilitating skin disease which kept him confined to his bathtub for three years prior to his famous murder.
4. Charlotte Corday was associated with the Girondins, the rival political faction of the Jacobins (the party Marat lead), and in 1793 Corday was executed under the guillotine for the murder of Marat, famously pictured in the painting by Jacques-Louis David above. This murder incited a new streak of executions in France.

I would recommend checking out the movie Quills. It takes place at Charenton, and Geoffrey Rush does a beautiful job with his character, The Marquis de Sade!
Hope to see you there this week! Despite the history lesson, it is a lot of fun!

Fresh Northwest at RTR

This month at Readers Theatre Repertory (RTR) is a celebration of new works by local playwrights, a celebration they call "Fresh Northwest." The plays read were Pete and Petey by Gary Rogowski and Little Vixens by Dalene Young. Pete and Petey is a dark comedy that takes place between two men sharing a bed platonically in the middle of the night. I was very fond of this show. It's been a while since I've laughed so hard. Jonah Weston and Andy Lee-Hillstrom make a hillarious pair. Little Vixens took a more sentimental turn as it is an exploration of a small group of female friends growing together from budding teens, through college, marriage and children, old age and even death. I was especially happy with Ana Reislman's performance. The show is happening tonight, too! I cannot stress enough how important I feel it is to support new works, and I thank RTR for their contribution!

The Wilhelmis Go to the Theatre (Humana Fest at ATL) III

I'm pleased to say that the Wilhelmis are safe at home after their successful trip to Louisville. Here are the last few shows they saw at the Humana Festival!

Brink!
by Lydia R Diamond, Kristoffer Diaz, Greg Kotis, Debrorah Zoe Laufer, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb & Deborah Stein
directed by Sean Daniels
This show, written specifically for the 2008-2009 Acting Apprentice Company, proved itself hilarious. It showcased the acting talent of the Apprentice company with an anthology of sketches based around the 'Rites of Passages' theme. While silly and rambunctious, the show was also thought-provoking, touching on many creative & insightful observations on today's 'Rites of Passage', from a Jewish neu-extistentialist (Anna Kull) receiving her modern Bat Mitzfah (Today I Am a Woman, by Laufer) to a struggling father (Jacob Wilhelmi) who decides & declares (with his magnificent voice and questionable mustache!) to revolt against the current financial fiasco (American Dream by Kotis). Along with scenes current with today's news, there were also creative scenes from the past, such as Evolution by Laufer, where a family of fish argue about their 'different' child (Allison Moy) with land-bound urges. Alison Clayton plays up the evolution-fish's sister to a note-worthy hilariousness. Another scene, Instructions to my Future Life Partner… by Debrorah Stein, has a convincing Matthew Baldiga meandering through his future last wishes with great enthusiasm recalling the emotional surge of life I personally find parallel with listening to Radiohead's Videotape or Animal Collective's Flesh Canoe). Also standing out from the crowd, Anne Veal, who collectively plays her many parts with a subtle richness that balances perfectly with the chaos often ensuing elsewhere on stage. Her part as the Jewish mother in Laufer's Today I Am a Woman brought a refreshing humor through naturalism, catching the nuances of the polite mother at a party. Recognizable scenes from everyday life & running scenes that we come back to again and again keep the material intriguing & cohesive even at its fast running pace. A particularly entertaining insight was the plethora of theatre-insider jokes, a plus with this festival. The Apprentice Company and the playwrights involved pull this show off as a whole, successfully & impressively. Yet another recommended show at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays!

The Hard Weather Boating Party
by Naomi Wallace
directed by Jo Bonney
The play starts off cool, mysterious, dangerous & intriguing. The cast of three drop hints and pieces of a puzzle to come. As it draws you in, however, abstract thoughts & puzzling choices get laced into the plot, becoming more dominant as the show rolls along. Finally, an epic, puzzling ending suddenly surprises everyone at the end for better or worse. Intriguing, but somewhat unpolished, this show is a weaker production at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays!

Slasher
by Allison Moore
directed by Josh Hecht
With a behind-the-scenes of a low-fi, low budget B rated slasher film in a small town, this show captures humor and slasher-esque horror with all the scantily clad women, bathtubs of blood and, horror upon horrors, Churchies! We enjoyed this show, the light-hearted sequential production of the festival. I enjoyed Lucas Papaelias' slack-jawed approach to his Slasher-enthusiast character. Mark Setlock, a possible familiar face in Portland if you saw Portland Center Stage's Fully Committed, also commanded attention with his performance calling the likeness of John Malkovich. The many characters of Christy McIntosh also stood out for being vastly different in all areas but the level of humor brought to the show. Definitely a shiner of a show at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays!

Ten-Minute Plays
1) On the Porch One Crisp Morning
by Alex Dremann
directed by Sean Daniels
2) 3:59am: a Drag Race for Two Actors
by Marco Ramirez
directed by Amy Attaway
3) Roanoke
by Matt Schatz
directed by Steven Rahe
These 3 Ten-Minute Plays were a fun little ride, each packing a punch in its limited time. While showcasing the the short scripts, it also gave another angle of depth into the acting abilities of the few members of Actors Theatre of Louisville's Apprentice Company. In On the Porch… it was interesting to find Nancy Noto again wrapped up in assassin attempts. 3:59am… certainly found a somber tone with Daniel reyes & Matthew Baldiga, and the threesome wrapped up with Roanoke a silly mockery of the land of failed actors, aka, Historic Reenactments at the Roanoke Colony Living Museum. Although short as a whole, this provided a breather from the fast pace of the festival, and clearly exists as a favorite with long time festival goers.

Under Construction
by Charles L Mee
directed by Anne Bogart
created & performed by Siti Company
http://www.siti.org/
The title is the theme, which is explored throughly & still left wide open for interpretation. Siti Company performs Mee's show Under Construction, which is the third piece in a future collection of four, although I'm pretty sure they are meant to stand alone. Regardless, this show certainly does work alone, as that's how i saw it and that's how I loved it. Avant Garde, Artsy-Fartsy, and yet full of comprehendible moments. Often in piece like this, it seems too much is random and not enough thought has been given to the underlying purpose or rhythm. This show is certainly crazy, on the edge, sometimes trying, but there were still a great many moments, elements & strains that really gave it weight & purpose. And since this paragraph is sounding a little like fluuf itself at this point, I'll stop and say this is definite recommendation at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays! (even though it's over by now. ahem.)

…and that wraps it up for the Humana Festival! Sorry to be recommending shows after the fact, but keep an eye out for those scripts, and we better see you there next year for the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 34th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays! This is the HGttT field team, signing off!

The Wilhelmis Go to the Theatre (Humana Fest at ATL) II

More play reviews from the Wilhelmis' trip to Humana Fest at the Actors Theatre of Louisville!

Ameriville
by UNIVERSES
(Gamal Abdel Chasten, Mildred Ruiz, William Ruiz aka Ninja & Steven Sapp)
The buzz preceded our arrival, and so we entered the theatre with excitement.
Described as putting "the state of the Union under a microscope—race, poverty, politics, history and government—examining our country through the lens of Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans", this show captures it all with amazing accuracy & inventive delivery. The three men and one woman cast clap, stomp & generally beatbox their way through the show, interweaving the stories & social commentary with emotion & wonder. This was fantastic production. The timing was on, from musical elements to present day relevance. The vocals of Mildred Ruiz made our jaws drop. It was a voice that commanded attention, and then justified it. A completely recommended show at Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays!
Link: http://www.actorstheatre.org/humana_ameriville.htm

ABSALOM
by Zoe Kazan
directed by Giovanna Sardelli
This new show by Zoe Kazan is probably the most naturalistic show I've seen period. The set is beautifully rendered 60s-70s home, complete with the inside of the house, as only seen through windows, and a impressively large, climbable apple tree. The naturalism doesn't stop there, as the cast uniformly capture the years of depth & authenticity with each character & their relationships. Peter Michael Goetz commands the stage with a authoritative voice that matches his patriarch persona. Todd Weeks, Ben Huber, Katie Kreisler, J Anthony Crane & Stephanie Janssen pull off the complexities of the interwoven relationships between members of a large family (siblings, step siblings & sibling-in-law). Relationships are never explained, but voyeuristically pieced together by the eager eyes of the audience. Another completely recommended show at Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays!
Link: http://www.actorstheatre.org/humana_absalom.htm

Where All This Ends Up

To my dear family, friends, and frequent readers,
I cannot thank you enough for being on this journey with me over the last few months. You've been there for me through my exciting and successful trip to the U/RTAs in Chicago, through my final KCACTF experience, and through my whirlwind visit to Rutgers. Today I am very proud to announce, I have made a decision that affects not only the next three years of my life, but also my career in the theatre.
I recieved an offer the Thursday before last to attend graduate school at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Their program at OU is very focused on nurturing artists to grow, they teach Meisner there, and all my sources tell me that they train very good actors. The University is closely affiliated with a summer stock theatre on Cape Cod. The graduate in acting students from OU may choose to act at this theatre over the summer while enjoying free room and board as well as salary. Every summer guest artists and directors are brought from New York and elsewhere to work on the shows with the grad students. In addition, the faculty members at OU invite successful people in theatre to come spend time in Athens and meet with the graduate students. By the way, did I mention that OU is offering me a full tuition waiver plus stipend for teaching?
I originally became aware of Ohio University's program when I was at U/RTAs. Shelley Delaney, associate professor and head of the actor training program at OU, and David Haugen, assistant professor, were two of the people who called me back after the general audition following the screening audition in Chicago. I truly enjoyed my interview with them. We talked a lot about our mutual love of regional theatre.
In an effort not to be too hasty with my decision, although OU pretty much had me at the words "Cape Cod," I contacted Deborah Hedwall at Rutgers to inform her of my outstanding offer. She told me that while I had made the very short list, Rutgers was still struggling to put together a company of actors, and she advised me to take my "great opportunity" with Ohio. Which is what I did.
Today I called Shelley Delaney, who I am so very excited to have as my new acting coach, and let her know that I was accepting her offer. Shelley seemed really happy and expressed her feeling that I would be a good fit in their program.
My current acting coach, Mindi Logan, is thrilled and thinks that this is the perfect choice for me. I agree with her.
Thank you all again. I am so happy that I know what path to take next, and I couldn't have done it without your ongoing support.
Love,
Heather

The Wilhelmis Go to the Theatre (Humana Fest at ATL) I

As I have been lately tied up with working on my own show, Marat/Sade at University of Portland, I was sadly unable to travel with the Wilhelmi family to Louisville, KY to see the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL). They have kindly volunteer, however, to keep me posted on what shows they are seeing at the festival, and here is what they have to say so far:

HeatherGoestotheTheatre's field report team (the Wilhelmis), covering Actors Theatre of Louisville's 33rd Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays (mouthful!)
The excitement of the play festival met us as we walked out the airport gates at 6p. Unfortunately, the chauffeurs with signs were NOT for us, so we rented a car and zipped along to the DuPont Mansion (a favorite B&B of the HeatherGoestotheTheatre field team located in old Louisville, http://www.dupontmansion.com/index.htm) we quickly checked in @ 7p, and raced to the theater for the first show at 8p! Whoo hoo!

Wild Blessings: A Celebration of Wendell Berry
Adapted for the stage by Marc Masterson & Adrien-Alice Hansel
Described as a multimedia compilation of Wendell Berry's poetry, the show does just that, with beatifully rendered photographs projecting behind multiple instrumentalists weaving in and out of poetry by Mr Berry, coming in at a acceptable 68 minutes.
The show successfully captures the very essence of 'Nature' that Wendell's poetry describes. The set specifically worked, with a small dabble of grass & stones backed by two immense video screens, with a superb resolution, allowing a seamless melding between actor and set.
Standing out in the small cast of 5 was Larry John Meyers, who fell into his characters with authenticity. There was an especially poignant scene between Meyers and Helen-Jean Arthur as an older couple in love that stood out.
The spotlight was accurately handled by Jacob Wilhelmi. ;)

Link: http://www.actorstheatre.org/humana_wendellberry.htm