Two Fridays of Plays

It was a goal of mine to see at least one play a month when I stopped running shows. Doesn't sound like much when you think of how many movies you see in a month. Although I am a cheapskate and hardly ever see movies in the theatre, but my Netflix account sure does get a workout. Not to mention free movies, books and cds from the library.
But I digress, the point is theatre tickets aren't cheap, and it is sometimes hard to figure out shich shows are hype and which are good. There are A LOT of theatre companies in Chicago, and many of them good, but it is hard to afford/make time to go to them all.
So I have some basic criteria:
A)see shows that I know people in
B)see shows that I can get in free/at a discount
C)see shows that I am a subscriber to
Some shows meet multiple criteria and that is awesome. There is, of course, the occassional time when the hype of a show is so great and so unmissable that I will flout all of my criteria and pay full price to get into a show, even though I know no one in it.

This month was a good one, I have seen two shows so far.

The first was Celebrity Row at American Theatre Company. This play fit two of my criteria, A and C. ATC is the first theatre that Mike worked at and the first theatre we have subscribed to. Which is actually also a discount, but it is also an investment becuase in order to get your money's worth, you have to go to every show of the season. I was also very happy to see my friend Christopher McLinden play Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City Bomber) as well as other minor charecters.
This play was based on the true fact that in a SuperMax prison McVeigh shared a block with Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), Ramzi Yousef (first World Trade bombing) and Luis Felipe (leader of the Latin Kings).
In a Supermax prisoners are in COMPLETE isolation for 23 out of every 24 hours. There only entertainment is a closed circuit tv that plays handpicked movies. For their one hour of human interaction they spend it with their blockmates in some sort of excercise yard/room, fenced off from eachother. The play is at it's best during the one scene that takes place at this time. I can't really explain what it is that fascinates, some curiousity, some morbidness. But there is no violent talk, in fact just a hint of it and there is a blackout with a searchlight on the offending prisoner accompanied by a sound that drowns out any attempted speech.
The truly wonderful part is the way these actors inhabit their charecters. It is put in strong relief because of the other smaller parts they take on in the course of the show. I'm sure it is exhausting, but it is thrilling as well. I have always thought Chris a great actor, but it was amazing to see him show his versitility in this one show. The whole ensemble very strong, everyone exceding expectation. I would like to single out Usman Ally, who played Ramzi, simply becuase he was lucky to also take on the role of a southern housewife and did such a surperior job, it was impossible to take your eyes of him.
I have done one of Itamar Moses's plays before, Bach at Liepzig was not nearly as good, and although I don't think it's perfect, I think his use of repition is more evenly handed and his subject matter so controversial and yet not preaching but more journalistic, that it makes for a great night of theatre.

Phew. I really should have done these separtely, but here we go...

This past friday afternoon I requested the day off to go to the matinee of Porgy and Bess at the Lyric Opera. This show was part of criteria B, a free ticket. My wonderful friend Shannon works at the Lyric in the Tech department and got me into their dress rehearsal.
This was my second opera, and I had high hopes for it. The one thing that really kept me from being carried away by the first one (Mano) was reading the subtitles, I was hoping that Porgy being in english, would alleviate this. Not quite. Operatic singing, now this is just my observation, not research, seems to be very vowel heavy, consonances don't sound pretty and so they don't strive to pronounce them. The goal is to sound pretty, not to be understood. I think this may be a major difference between it and musical theatre. So I still had to read the subtitles occassionally to make sure I was getting it all.
But the story definitly had more going on, more to empathize with. More to carry you away with your emotions. I teared up a few times, helped along by the gospel roots of the music. I cannot say enough how much I enjoyed it. My favorite performer had a supporting role, but my (and I think the crowds) favorite song. Her name was Jonita Lattimore and she played the role of Serena, who is widowed in the course of the show. Her mourning song at her husbands viewing brought the house down. Another crowd pleaser was Jermaine Smith, playing Sporting Life, the "happy dust" pusher that had a style of dress and dance that reminded me of a young James Brown.
In fact the moves of this group were all exceptional, although there was as much dancing as in Mano, there also were not any players devoted to just dance. But the moves of Bessie were impressive especially when she was on "happy dust" and Porgy did a great job being consistantly lame (dragging his right foot).
And the singing was very moving. I just loved every aspect, no weak links here. There were a couple moments when just the visual, the use of color in the costume and lights came together so perfectly to make a work of art, a painting. Just wonderful.
So I am becoming a fan of opera, I may be a while before I start listening to recordings in my spare time, but I will definitly grab hold of any opportunity to get a free ticket and enjoy the artform it is on the stage.