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
No comments:
Post a Comment