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VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS

RAVES FOR THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS!

(5/16/12) • The West Coast Premiere of The Scottsboro Boys has touched and amazed both audiences and critics! The inspiring musical runs through June 10 at the Globe.

“FEARLESSLY INVENTIVE!
Best known for Cabaret and Chicago, John Kander and Fred Ebb were masters of
‘the concept musical,’ and The Scottsboro Boys is arguably the duo’s most audacious crack
at the form. The musical left me feeling elevated as only original works of art can.”
-CRITIC’S CHOICE – Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times

“BRILLIANT!
It’s a stunning production, sharply conceived, ingeniously designed, gorgeously
sung and danced. This unique and incandescent show gets you in the gut.
This is must-see theater—provocative, stirring, dispiriting, amazing. Do not miss it!”
-Pat Launer, KSDS Jazz 88.3

“The musical manages to be both funny and deeply unsettling, typically in the same
moment, with a versatile and committed 13-member cast that’s tuned into the piece’s
appetite for the audacious. Their performances bring pizazz to the show’s old-timey
jazz and blues tunes, tap exhibitions and over-the-top comedy.”
-CRITIC’S CHOICE – James Hebert, U-T San Diego

“THIS IS THEATRE YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO MISS!
Kander and Ebb not only write great musical material but manage to dig to the very core
of the piece’s social relevance, and like Shakespeare and all great theatrical experiences,
make the entire show simultaneously entertaining and enlightening.”
-U-T San Diego

To view additional photos from The Scottsboro Boys, visit our Facebook page!

THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS AND ALL THAT JAZZ

(5/15/12) • On Thursday, May 10, the cast of the touring production of Chicago took in a student matinee performance of The Scottsboro Boys. Supermodel Christie Brinkley, who plays merry murderess Roxie Hart in Chicago, was among those in attendance. Both shows feature music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, the legendary composing team also responsible for Cabaret and Kiss of the Spider Woman.

EVERYBODY’S WATCHING
An Interview with Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter

(5/14/12) • Old Globe Literary Manager and Dramaturg Danielle Mages Amato talks with the creators of the World Premiere musical Nobody Loves You.

Where did the idea behind Nobody Loves You come from?

ITAMAR MOSES: Quite a few years ago our director, Michelle Tattenbaum, brought me in as the book writer on another musical, a dark, funny piece that used as its frame an episode of a television news magazine. Over the course of working on it, the idea of using a reality TV conceit lodged in my mind as an interesting world to musicalize. At about the same time, Gaby Alter, who is an old friend of mine, had moved to New York and enrolled in the graduate musical theatre writing program at NYU, and we always said that when he was done with the program that the two of us would write a musical together. I brought up the reality TV idea, and specifically the idea of using it as a lens to investigate our cultural obsession with stories of perfect romance that on some level we all know to be false. Gaby liked the idea, and, five and a half short years later, here we are in San Diego.

GABY ALTER: We also thought the story would make a good musical because reality TV is heightened reality, just as musicals are heightened because of the singing. Originally the conceit of our show was that people only sang when they were on camera. We eventually dropped that, because it got in the way of our storytelling. Still, at what times people burst into song in the show and what type of music they sing says a lot about how complicit they are with reality TV’s falsely heightened reality. On the other hand, we’re not cynics, and there is real love in this story. So there is another kind of singing, when people are moved by their genuine emotions to do so, just like in other musicals.

ITAMAR MOSES: Even though we got more flexible with our initial conceit, this idea about reality vs. heightened reality remains there, in the bones of the piece, in a way that I think draws some deep parallels, not just between musicals and reality television, but also to things like alcohol, religion and even the whole notion of infatuation itself.

Do you watch a lot of reality TV?

GABY ALTER: I don’t watch very much reality TV myself. Of the shows I’ve seen, I like “Project Runway” and the one about hairdressers. Those are both shows about artists and creativity, so obviously I identify with the contestants. (The judging process reminds me of grad school.) I think Itamar and Michelle are much better versed in shows like “The Bachelor.” I did watch one of the season finales and thought it was kind of weird because the people did seem to really think they were finding “the one.” This was clearly an extremely contrived situation, and yet the emotions were genuine.

ITAMAR MOSES: Notice how Gaby pretends he’s not insulting me when he says I’m “better versed” in “The Bachelor” than he is, as though I did more of my homework than he did. But, yeah, I have that complex love-hate relationship with reality TV that I think a lot of people have. I think “Project Runway” is genuinely good, and I like “Face Off,” with the special effects artists. Basically the best ones are ones where people are displaying a genuinely impressive skill that can be primarily evaluated visually (“Top Chef” is also good but crippled by the fact that you can’t smell or taste the food). But it’s true, I have to confess that I’ve watched more of “The Bachelor”/“The Bachelorette” than I can possibly justify as research for this musical, which, in my defense, is how it started. Every season of that show is like a fascinating slow motion train wreck, and even though 90% of the couples that get engaged at the end of the show break up within a year, every season the contestants talk about it like it’s definitely going to work, they all parrot the same rhetoric. There’s this massive disconnect between the world of the show and everything you’d see if you just pulled back the lens even slightly. Which is very much what our show is about.

Do you see Jeff and Jenny’s story as something specific to this generation?  

ITAMAR MOSES: I’d say it’s a universal story that inevitably has the particular trappings of the media and technology that are ascendant right now. The need to protect yourself with irony while actually having a core of earnestness—which is sort of how I’d describe our two heroes—is not as new as we sometimes pretend. So I’d say they’re part of a long, long tradition of romantic comedy couples but hopefully a worthy addition to the canon.

GABY ALTER: Jenny and Jeff are fighting to be authentic to themselves and find a real connection in a society that has a lot of rigid narratives and expectations. As Itamar says, the particulars are what come with our current technology, but that’s a problem that has dogged self-aware people forever.

The idea of “performing” versus “being real” or “being yourself” is an issue with dating in general, of course, but it seems to be heightened in this reality show context.  

ITAMAR MOSES: I think this is an idea that is both very current and very ancient. It’s basically about what academics might call the public sphere vs. the private sphere (and indeed the academic in our show, Jeff, makes some comments early on about the blurring of the line between public and private in the house). I think the reason the idea goes back so far is that it has to do with some mechanism in our brains that makes us feel like we matter, like the things we do have weight and meaning, only to the extent that other people are aware of us, to the extent we’re being watched.

GABY ALTER: This idea has always been central to our show. Originally Itamar came to me with a lyric, “What’s the point of happiness if nobody’s watching?” That was his thesis about what drives people to be on reality shows. I think Jeff ends up wrestling with this, because he considers himself to be above this crass, worldly desire. But similar to Aschenbach, the ascetic artist in Death in Venice, the world ultimately bites him in the ass. By the way, I’m pretty sure that’s the only similarity between our show and Death in Venice.

ITAMAR MOSES: The new element in our time, probably, is the democratization of access to the public sphere via things like Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and even the affordability of digital filmmaking equipment. Because what this means is that absolutely everybody feels that the world stage (in at least some small way) is available to them and that they have a right to it. Which cuts both ways: it probably stokes the unhealthiness of this need in us, this need to be watched, but also amazing things can spread very quickly.

(Photos: (top) Composer and lyricist Gaby Alter; (bottom) playwright and lyricist Itamar Moses. Photos by Henry DiRocco.)

NIGHTS OUT AT THE GLOBE

(5/14/12) • The Globe has been bustling with exciting events associated with the theatre's two newest productions: The Scottsboro Boys and Nobody Loves You. On Thursday, May 10, LGBT theatre lovers and their friends enjoyed food, drinks and live music before their performance at OUT at the Globe. Catering was provided by Empire House. Also on May 10, Pacific Magazine hosted an event for patrons that featured sushi provided by Sabuku Sushi, desserts by Cremolose, beer by Sapporo and water by Palomar Water. The next day, patrons gathered to celebrate the end of the week at Thank Globe It's Friday, which was co-sponsored by U-T San Diego and catered by The Tractor Room.

There are numerous pre-show events throughout the year at the Globe. The next OUT at the Globe will take place on August 9, and the next Thank Globe It's Friday events will be held on May 18 and August 3 & 10. For more information or purchase tickets, visit the Nights at the Globe page or call the Box Office at (619) 234-562..

Below are just some of the people who joined in on the festivities. To view additional photos, visit our Facebook page!

COMPLETE 2012 SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL CAST ANNOUNCED

(5/10/12) • The complete cast and creative team for the 2012 Shakespeare Festival, performed in repertory in the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, has been announced.  Adrian Noble returns for his third season as the Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Festival and will direct Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit the Wind.  Renowned British director Lindsay Posner makes his debut at the Globe with his production of Richard III.  The 2012 Shakespeare Festival runs June 3 – Sept. 30. 

Jay Whittaker will play the title role in Richard III and Oliver in As You Like It, Globe Associate Artist Robert Foxworth will play Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind and Lord Hastings in Richard III, Adrian Sparks will play Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind and Corin in As You Like It, Dana Green will play Rosalind in As You Like It and Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Dan Amboyer will play Orlando in As You Like It, Bertram Cates in Inherit the Wind and the Earl of Richmond in Richard III and Jacques C. Smith will play Jaques in As You Like It, Mr. Meeker in Inherit the Wind and the Duke of Buckingham in Richard III.

The repertory company also features Happy Anderson, Vivia Font, Aidan Hayek, Old Globe Associate Artist Charles Janasz, Joseph Marcell, Jonas McMullen, Robin Moseley, Bob Pescovitz and Lou Francine Rasse, as well as The Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program candidates Matthew Bellows, Adam Daveline, Jeremy Fisher, Rachael Jenison, Jesse Jensen, Danielle O’Farrell, Allison Spratt Pearce, Deborah Radloff, Stephanie Roetzel, Christopher Salazar, Jonathan Spivey, Whitney Wakimoto, Bree Welch and Sean-Michael Wilkinson.

The creative team includes Old Globe Associate Artist Ralph Funicello (Scenic Design), Deirdre Clancy (Costume Design), Alan Burrett (Lighting Design), Lindsay Jones (Sound Design), Shaun Davey (Original Music), Peter Golub (Original Music), Old Globe Associate Artist Steve Rankin (Fight Director), Elan McMahan (Music Direction), Christine Adaire (Vocal and Dialect Coach), Calleri Casting (Casting) and Bret Torbeck (Stage Manager).

For artist biographies, acting company grid, show descriptions and performance and 3 Plays/3 Days schedules, please view the 2012 Shakespeare Festival PDF.

HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY! THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS OPENS!

(5/7/12) • The cast and crew of The Scottsboro Boys were all smiles as they celebrated the successful opening night of this exciting and moving musical. Acclaimed director and choreographer Susan Stroman was on hand to congratulate the team on a job well done, and the cast of Nobody Loves You stopped by to party, too!

To view more opening night photos, visit our Facebook page!

A NOTE FROM JOHN KANDER

(5/3/12) • Nearly every musical I have ever written started as an idea around Fred Ebb's kitchen table. The Scottsboro Boys is no different. One morning in 2002, Susan Stroman, David Thompson, Fred Ebb and I were gathered around Fred's table, eager to start a new project. One of us proposed an idea: what if we were to write a musical about a true story — one based on an important chapter in American history.

In order to find inspiration, we turned to the landmark court trials of the 20th century. Immediately, the case that jumped out at us was the story of the Scottsboro Boys. As a young boy growing up in Kansas City, I remember when the Scottsboro Boys were first in the headlines. I remember the conversations with my parents about what the trials meant. I am sure there were similar conversations at kitchen tables across the country. I also remember when the headlines began to fade and the Scottsboro Boys gradually disappeared from the national spotlight.

As we began to write The Scottsboro Boys, it was immediately apparent why it was so important to tell their story. Behind the headlines, the spectacle, the ongoing trials and the histrionics of politicians and lawyers was the story of nine young African American boys determined to prove that they mattered. And as collaborators, our kitchen table conversations continued: how was it possible that a group of innocent boys could be destroyed by a single lie? Why was it easier to believe that lie than it was to accept the truth?

The Scottsboro Boys is a story that still resonates today as we struggle to give voice to those who are marginalized or disenfranchised. I remember how much the story touched me as a young boy growing up in Kansas City. And it touches me even more today. Writing The Scottsboro Boys has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. I am eager for you to join us and become part of a conversation that I know you will take back to your own kitchen table.

(Photo: Protestors carry signs in front of the White House in 1933 demanding the freedoom of the Scottsboro Boys. The protest was led by Mother Patterson, the mother of accused Haywood Patterson. Photo courtesy of Bettmann/Corbis.)

THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS: AN AMERICAN LEGACY

(5/1/12) • One beautiful but chilly spring morning in 1931, nine young African American men, ages 13 to 19, boarded a boxcar heading through the northeast corner of Alabama. Like thousands of young men and women, they were looking for work, a new life, something to do. Before the day was over, the nine would be accused of a crime they never committed.

The trials that followed would divide the nation along racial, political and geographic lines and become a turning point for the emerging Civil Rights Movement. But beneath it all was the story of nine young men, reluctantly drawn into the national spotlight, desperate to prove to themselves that they mattered. Not until 1976, when Alabama Governor George Wallace pardoned the last living Scottsboro Boy, would they finally be exonerated. After 45 years, the case had come to a close.

In its wake, the story of the Scottsboro Boys changed America. During the first flush of public outcry, demonstrations in support of the teens spread like wildfire across the north. Following the first verdict, over 300,000 black and white workers gathered to protest the convictions in 110 American cities. Crowds in New York, fueled by the passions of the emerging Communist Party, reached 10,000 in Union Square alone.

The ongoing trials brought changes to the legal system as well. The Supreme Court reversed the convictions for two of the trials. In 1932, the verdict was overturned because Alabama had failed to provide adequate assistance of counsel as required by the 14th Amendment. In 1935, the conviction was reversed again because African Americans had been excluded from sitting on the juries in the trials.

But the Scottsboro Boys changed lives in smaller, more personal ways. Take the story of Rosa McCauley, who, in 1931, marched to free the Scottsboro Boys. At a rally sponsored by the NAACP, the young 19-year-old met Raymond Parks. A year later they married, and together, Raymond and Rosa Parks continued the fight against injustice.

It's essential to bring the Scottsboro Boys back into the national conversation about race. Nine lives were destroyed. Nine lives that matter every bit as much now as then.

(Photo: Attorney Samuel Leibowitz confers with Haywood Patterson in a County Jail cell. His co-defendants stand behind him. Photo courtesy of NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images.)

GLOBE HONORS AUDITIONS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WILL BE HELD ON MAY 5, 6 AND 7

REGISTRATION FOR GLOBE HONORS 2012 AUDITIONS IS NOW CLOSED.

(4/28/12) • Preliminary round auditions for the 2012 Globe Honors and The Road to the Jimmy™ Awards, an annual competition recognizing excellence in high school theater, will take place on May 5, 6 and 7 at The Old Globe.  Presented annually by The Old Globe, and this year in association with Broadway/San Diego – A Nederlander Presentation, final rounds will take place on May 21 at 8:00 p.m. on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and conclude with the announcement of the winners.  For eligibility and audition requirements, please visit www.TheOldGlobe.com/GlobeHonors or email GlobeLearning@TheOldGlobe.org.  Tickets to attend Globe Honors and The Road to the Jimmy Awards™ on May 21 are $5 for students and $10 for adults and can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

There is no fee to participate in the Globe Honors and The Road to the Jimmy™ Awards program.  High school students may compete in one of four categories:  Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theatre, Spoken Theatre, Technical Theatre and leading role in a High School Musical.

Winners of all Globe Honors categories will receive $1,000 scholarships and the winners of the Musical, Spoken and Technical Theater categories will participate in a two-day trip to Los Angeles where they will go behind the scenes at the Center Theatre Group, see a production of War Horse at the Ahmanson Theatre and visit the historic Pantages Theatre.  The Leading Actor and Actress in a High School Musical winners will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to participate in the National High School Musical Theater Awards/The Jimmyâ„¢ Awards (NHSMTA) competition to be held on June 25 at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway.

For additional information and audition requirements, please visit the Globe Honors page or read the press release.

THE OLD GLOBE'S 2012-13 SEASON ANNOUNCED!

(4/27/12) • The Old Globe’s 2012-13 Season will feature the World Premieres of two new musicals: Allegiance – A New American Musical by Jay Kuo and Lorenzo Thione and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak. The season also includes George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion in celebration of the classic play’s 100th anniversary and the World Premiere of a new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House by Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey and Kirsten Brandt. Two recent Broadway hits will make their San Diego debuts at the Globe: David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People and Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities. Rounding out the season are the West Coast Premiere of Bekah Brunstetter’s Be a Good Little Widow and the Southern California Premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size.

Special events during the 2012-13 Season include the 15th anniversary production of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and The Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Tickets to the Globe’s 2012-13 Season are currently available by subscription only. Subscription prices range from $99 to $598. Subscription packages may be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office.

For complete details about the new season, including descriptions and biographies of the artists, please view the press release.

MEET THE CAST OF THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS

INSIGHTS SEMINAR: THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS

(4/26/12) • Five-time Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Susan Stroman and playwright David Thompson will discuss the creation of The Scottsboro Boys at the Globe's FREE Insights Seminar on Monday, April 30.  A reception is at 6:30pm; the seminar starts at 7:00pm in the Old Globe Theatre.  
 
If you’re unable to attend, you can also watch the event live on your computer or mobile device!  The seminar will be broadcast at 7:00 p.m. through Ustream on the Globe’s Facebook page, or you can watch on the Globe's Ustream page.

Nominated for 12 Tony Awards, The Scottsboro Boys features music and lyrics by the legendary team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, libretto by David Thompson, musical direction by Eric Ebbenga and direction and choreography by Susan Stroman. The Scottsboro Boys will run April 29 - June 10 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

MEET THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM OF NOBODY LOVES YOU

A FIRST LOOK AT NOBODY LOVES YOU

(4/09/12) • The cast and creative team has been announced for the World Premiere of Nobody Loves You, a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Gaby Alter and book and lyrics by Itamar Moses set in the world of reality television.  Directed by Michelle Tattenbaum with music direction by Vadim Feichtner and choreography by Mandy Moore, Nobody Loves You will run May 9 – June 17 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

Filled with tuneful pop songs, Nobody Loves You takes audiences on a hilarious behind-the-scenes ride through reality television and into real life.  When Jeff, a philosophy grad student, joins a dating show to win back his ex, he breaks all the rules and tries to blow the game wide open . . . until he meets Jenny.  In a world where every kiss is staged for the cameras, can two people find a real connection?
 
The cast of Nobody Loves You features Jenni Barber (Jenny), Alex Brightman (Chazz, Dominic, Evan), Heath Calvert (Byron), Kate Morgan Chadwick (Samantha, Bonnie), Adam Kantor (Jeff), Kelsey Kurz (Christian, Steve), Nicole Lewis (Tanya, Nina, Zenobia) and Lauren Molina (Megan).
 
The creative team includes Michael Schweikardt (Scenic Design), Emily Pepper (Costume Design), Tyler Micoleau (Lighting Design), Paul Peterson (Sound Design), Stephanie Klapper, CSA (Casting) and Diana Moser (Stage Manager).

To view additional photos of the cast of Nobody Loves You, visit our Facebook page!

THE OLD GLOBE BOARD OF DIRECTORS CONFIRMS DUAL LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE
Board appoints Michael G. Murphy as Managing Director
Nationwide search in progress to identify Artistic Director

(4/4/12) • The Old Globe's Board of Directors today named Michael G. Murphy as Managing Director.  Murphy was appointed Interim Managing Director in October 2011 after the resignation of CEO/Executive Producer Louis G. Spisto, who oversaw both the artistic and administrative operations of the theatre.
 
As previously announced, executive search firm AlbertHall&Associates has been retained to conduct a nationwide search to identify artistic leadership for the company.  The Globe's Transition Committee, chaired by board Vice Chair Elaine Bennett Darwin, will continue to work closely with the firm to enlist an Artistic Director.  The Old Globe intends to engage the successful candidate by late Summer/Fall of 2012 with residency at the theatre to commence as soon thereafter as practical.
 
Board Chair Harold W. Fuson Jr. stated, "The board's initial decision to appoint Michael to the Managing Director position on an interim basis was made to provide the board with the necessary time to determine the appropriate leadership structure for the Globe.  That question has been resolved in favor of returning to the dual leadership structure common to most regional theaters, engaging both a Managing Director and an Artistic Director who report jointly to the Board of Directors."
 
Fuson continued. "For nine years Michael has been an integral part of the Globe's management team and supervised a large part of the theatre's operation.  The Board is pleased to secure Michael's talents and views his presence as an important factor in attracting the best artistic director candidates."
 
Managing Director Michael G. Murphy commented, "I'm honored to continue to work with the extraordinarily talented staff of The Old Globe.  I look forward to joining with a new Artistic Director to build upon the legacy of great theatre developed by Craig Noel, Jack O'Brien, Tom Hall and Lou Spisto.  I am fortunate to live and work in a community that understands the value of the arts and I am grateful for the continued support of our amazing audiences, board of directors, volunteers and generous donors."
 
Michael G. Murphy has been the General Manager at The Old Globe since 2003, overseeing the Production, Education, Human Resources, Information Technology and Facilities Departments, as well as Front of House operations. He also managed the construction of the Globe's new theatre and education facilities. Prior to the Globe, he was the Managing Director of Austin Lyric Opera in Austin, Texas, Director of Administration of San Diego Opera and General Manager of San Diego Repertory Theatre.  Before relocating to San Diego from New York, he held similar positions at Theatre for a New Audience and the Joyce Theater Foundation's American Theater Exchange.  He also served as negotiating assistant for the League of Resident Theatres and sales representative for Columbia Artists Theatricals Corporation.  Murphy has served on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Performing Arts League and serves as a Management Trustee for San Diego County Theatrical Trusts, the pension and welfare trust for IATSE stagehands in the San Diego region.  He was also an adjunct faculty member of the Music Department at the University of San Diego. Murphy earned his B.F.A. degree in Stage Management from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri and his M.F.A. in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

GLENN SEVEN ALLEN SINGS "NON FATE GUERRA" FROM A ROOM WITH A VIEW

A GATHERING AT THE TECH CENTER

(3/28/12) • On March 22, 2012, Director of Production Robert Drake welcomed over 70 members of the production departments to a Meet & Greet at the Old Globe Technical Center in southeastern San Diego. The informal gathering provided an opportunity for those who work at the Tech Center to meet with those who work in Balboa Park. The Scenic Art Department transformed the paint space into a lovely dining area complete with beautiful flower arrangements in paint buckets for the tables. To view additional photos, visit our Facebook page!

¡VIVA A ROOM WITH A VIEW!

(3/27/12) • On Friday, March 23rd, The Old Globe celebrated San Diego's vibrant Hispanic community at ¡Viva el Teatro!, a fun night of friends, fun, food and theatre. Guests enjoyed backstage tours, a reception catered by Northgate González Market plus wines from local Baja California wineries and live flamenco music, followed by a performance of A Room with a View. For more information on upcoming ¡Viva el Teatro! events or to join the email list, please visit www.TheOldGlobe.org/Viva or email Events@TheOldGlobe.org.

To view additional photos, visit our Facebook page!

BROADWAY WORLD VISITS A ROOM WITH A VIEW

KYLE HARRIS SINGS "I KNOW YOU" FROM A ROOM WITH A VIEW

DAT OLE DAVIL CAST PARTY

(3/20/12) • The cast and crew of Anna Christie left "dat ole davil sea" behind and made their way to Hattox Hall to celebrate their successful opening night. The cast of A Room with a View also dropped by to offer kudos and congratulations. To view more opening night photos, visit our Facebook page!

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS FROM A ROOM WITH A VIEW

ROOM MAKES A SPLASH!

(3/16/12) • The World Premiere of A Room with a View has enchanted both audiences and critics! The magical new musical runs through April 15 in the Old Globe Theatre.

“DON’T MISS THIS!
A beautifully written and executed musical. Boasts a phenomenal cast,
magnificent art direction, exquisite sets and period perfect costumes.”
-Broadway World

CRITIC’S CHOICE!
“A sweeping, funny romance. A fresh take on Forster’s sweetly charming story
about love and discovery in an Italian room with a view.”
-North County Times

“MAKE IT A PRIORITY TO SEE A ROOM WITH A VIEW.
If there’s any justice in the world, this one’s going to open on Broadway.”
-Talkin’ Broadway

CRITIC’S CHOICE!
“Witty writing, appealing actors, a gorgeous and well-orchestrated score.”
-U-T San Diego

To view additional photos from A Room with a View, visit our Facebook page!

BRINGING THE SEA INDOORS
Talking with Scenic Designer Wilson Chin about the Set for Anna Christie

(3/16/12) • Anna Christie was written in 1921 at a time when most if not all plays were written for the proscenium stage. When you read the stage directions, everything is conceived toward a framed, impenetrable stage picture. As we translated it for in-the-round, we had to completely redefine each scene and, in doing so, rediscover the essential elements of the play.

The play is very much about the sea and each character’s differing relationship with it, so we are surrounding the characters in evocations of water. The entire floor is made of rusted metal. The cold, shiny metal oxidized with rust evokes water as well as the power of what water can do. The wetness of the world should feel dangerous, ugly, peaceful, beautiful — contradictions that are all reflected in each character’s mind.

We’re using a lot of raw materials: metal sheeting, plastic sheeting, hemp rope, plywood, water. We’re not creating pictorial scenery or illustrations. Instead, we’re using raw materials to create a tactile and almost contemporary environment. We’re also experimenting with dry ice and fog to create a dampness and depth of space. We’re playing with moments where the entire floor is obscured and the characters are almost floating in a glowing fog.

And because this is Classics Up Close, the audience is right there with the actors. You’re inside the scene. In a proscenium theatre, the audience is essentially looking at a picture in a frame. Here, you are inside the picture. So much of the play takes place in really small, claustrophobic spaces, and a lot of the time there are only two or three people on stage. In the round, the audience is the extra character. Sometimes you’re closer to the actors than they are to each other.

EUGENE O’NEILL: TRANSFORMING THE AMERICAN STAGE

(3/16/12) • Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953) pioneered modern American drama. Instead of the melodrama, variety shows and drawingroom comedy so popular on American stages, he wrote earthy, naturalistic plays drawn from his own life, and then experimental, expressionist dramas, and finally some of the great masterworks of American theatre. He is the only American playwright ever to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The second son of James O’Neill, a popular touring actor, O’Neill was born in a hotel and spent much of his childhood traveling the country with his family. After an an ill-fated year at Princeton University — he was asked to leave when he failed to complete any of his courses — he entered a period of wandering. He worked a series of short-term jobs, tried his hand at acting and took to the sea. He sailed to Honduras to look for gold; he worked as a seaman on a Norwegian ship bound for Buenos Aires; he traveled back and forth to England on tramp steamers and passenger liners. When he returned to New York, he found it hard to leave his sea-going habits behind him. He took a room in a flophouse above a saloon that catered to sailors, a “bottomof- the-sea rathskeller” called Jimmy the Priest’s. (That bar and its denizens would form a major setting for both Anna Christie and his later play The Iceman Cometh.) Dark times descended upon O’Neill. In early 1912, he attempted suicide, was rescued by his flophouse roommate and just months later contracted tuberculosis.

During his recovery in a Connecticut sanitorium, however, he devoured plays by the great new European dramatists: Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Maxim Gorky. On his release, he had a newfound purpose: “To be an artist or nothing.” With the support of his father, he published a volume of one-acts. In 1916, he found his way to the Provincetown Players, who gave him his first production and launched his career as a playwright. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his first full-length play, Beyond the Horizon.

Writing the play that would eventually become Anna Christie was a struggle for O’Neill. Over a number of years he wrote and rewrote it, worked and reworked it. He gave the play four different titles over the course of its development — Chris Christopherson, The Ole Davil, Tides and finally Anna Christie. It was even produced and published in two very different versions. The final version of the play opened on Broadway in 1920, where it was a critical and commercial success. It was embraced by audiences and won O’Neill his second Pulitzer Prize. It was quickly adapted as a silent movie, and 10 years later it was made into a major film starring Greta Garbo as Anna — her first talking picture.

Daring for its time, Anna Christie is populated by characters O’Neill knew from his years living on the ocean and at Jimmy the Priest’s. Set in a barroom and onboard a ship, Anna Christie reflects O’Neill’s desire to bring new characters and new stories onto the American stage, to fulfill his sense that “the playwright today must dig at the roots of the sickness of today as he feels it.” By bringing Chris Christopherson, his daughter Anna Christie and Irish sailor Mat Burke to the stage, O’Neill asks audiences to see their lives, their struggles and the rough, everyday language they speak as worthy of artistic representation.

In many ways, Anna Christie was a transitional play for O’Neill. After Anna Christie, he went on to write The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape, works that moved away from realism toward a more expressionist style. In Anna Christie, O’Neill sets realistic characters against a backdrop charged with mystery and symbolism — the sea, the fog — a constant, ever-present lure and threat. O’Neill would go on to experiment with and draw from different theatrical styles in his career. He wrote work inspired by Greek drama (Mourning Becomes Electra, Desire Under the Elms), plays inspired by his own family life and struggles (Moon for the Misbegotten, Long Day’s Journey Into Night) and a single comedy (Ah, Wilderness!).

Perhaps what made Anna Christie such a struggle for O’Neill to write was his desire to present the vast, unceasing flow of life — as vast as that old devil sea — within the confines of a single evening. He wrote of Anna Christie, “I wanted to have the audience leave with a deep feeling of life flowing on, of the past which is never the past — but always the birth of the future — of a problem solved for the moment but by the very nature of its solution involving new problems.” When Anna Christie draws to a close, therefore, there is no real ending. Instead, said O’Neill, the ending “is merely the comma at the end of a gaudy introductory clause, with the body of the sentence still unwritten. The sea outside —
life — waits.”

—Danielle Mages Amato

(Top photo: Playwright Eugene O’Neill. Bottom photo: Members of the Provincetown Players setting up the stage for O’Neill’s Bound East for Cardiff in New York City, fall, 1916. O’Neill stands on the ladder at the far left.)

2012 GLOBE GUILDERS FASHION SHOW TO FEATURE THE DESIGNS OF MONIQUE LHUILLIER

(3/16/12) • As one of the premier fashion events in San Diego, the 22nd Annual Globe Guilders Fashion Show — Celebrating Couture 2012 — will take place on Tuesday, August 7, 2012, at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel.  Proceeds benefit the artistic and education programs of The Old Globe, which reach over 300,000 people annually.  This year’s event will feature, for the first time on the Celebrating Couture runway, the Fall collection of acclaimed fashion designer Monique Lhuillier.

The designs of Monique Lhuillier capture the essence of sophisticated luxury by provoking the femininity, allure and glamour that have made her renowned in the world of fashion design.  Her innate sense of style and understanding of a woman’s desire to look and feel beautiful are prevalent throughout her collections.  Celebrities such as Catherine Zeta-Jones, Beyoncé, Faith Hill, Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria and Sofia Vergara frequent the Monique Lhuillier salons in New York and Los Angeles and grace red carpet events wearing her designs.

Attracting over 600 guests last year including San Diego’s most prominent philanthropists, the Globe Guilders fashion event has added to the group’s successful history, which includes more than half a century of community service as the volunteer auxiliary of The Old Globe.

Ticket prices start at $105 and are on sale through the Globe Guilders website at www.globeguilders.org.  For further event information, call Carol Hanson at (619) 229-2090.

AN AUTHOR WITH A VIEW

(3/16/12) • A Room with a View was E.M. Forster’s third published novel. It appeared in 1908, after Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and The Longest Journey (1907). Its optimism, humor and romance have made it one of his most popular works. Forster himself said it was his “nicest” novel, and he considered its heroine, Lucy Honeychurch, one of his most successful characters. Although the novel is not explicitly autobiographical, Forster drew heavily on his own personal history to create its characters and settings.

Forster was born in London on January 1, 1879. After the death of his father, an architect, Forster was raised by his mother and her highly conservative family in Hertfordshire. An inheritance from his great-aunt gave him the financial means to attend Cambridge and to take the year-long tour of Italy and Greece that provided the spark for his literary imagination and fueled the writing of his early novels. In 1901, Forster traveled to Florence. He stayed in a small hotel on the banks of the Arno River, a pensione run by a Cockney landlady who catered to an almost exclusively English clientele. A young man of 22, Forster found himself hemmed in on all sides by older women, including his mother, who was his traveling companion. In a letter to a friend, he complained, “I wish I didn’t see everything with this horrible foreground of enthusiastic ladies, but it is impossible to get away from it.”  

This pensione — a little bastion of tea, biscuits and Englishness holding firm against the chaotic and beautiful city of Florence — becomes the setting for the first half of A Room with a View. The novel’s heroine, like Forster himself, both longs and fears to explore the world outside the window. But Lucy is held back by an intricate web of social restrictions and family obligations, a web with which Forster was intimately familiar.  

Throughout his young adulthood, Forster struggled to come to terms with his own sexuality. A gay man in a time when homosexuality was illegal, Forster’s youth was marked by a series of passionate attachments upon which he could never act. He based the character of George Emerson on a classmate at Cambridge, Hugh Owen Meredith, to whom A Room with a View is dedicated. Meredith’s physical beauty and grace, his lower class origins and his sharp intelligence (he went on to become an economic historian) all find expression in George, the object of Lucy’s desire and clearly Forster’s as well.  

In the countryside, culture and art of Italy, Forster found a promise of freedom that captured his imagination. He set two novels and several short stories in Italy, always contrasting his confined English characters against their passionate Italian backdrop. When he returned to England, Forster gave a series of talks on Italian art for the Cambridge Local Lectures Board.  

Forster’s enthusiasm for travel continued throughout his life. After publishing Howard’s End in 1910, he traveled in India, worked for the Red Cross in Egypt and finally returned to India to work as the private secretary for the Maharajah of Dewas. His travels there inspired his 1924 novel A Passage to India, the last novel he published during his lifetime. From then until his death in 1970, he worked as an essayist, literary critic, BBC broadcaster and outspoken proponent of civil liberties.  

Following Forster’s death, one final novel appeared: Maurice (1971). Forster began writing Maurice in 1914, but because it dealt with homosexual characters in an open way, he chose to share it only with friends. (Some say it inspired D.H. Lawrence to write Lady Chatterley’s Lover.) Even as he prepared the work for posthumous publication, he left the manuscript with this note: “Publishable — but worth it?”

—Danielle Mages Amato

LIFE IN EDWARDIAN ENGLAND

(3/14/12) • The Edwardian period in England (1901 – 1910) is often described as a Golden Age, a time of peace and prosperity that was shattered by the First World War. But it was also a time of transformation as social, cultural and political change loomed on the horizon.

There was money to be earned and spent during this period — more money than ever before, in the hands of people who had never possessed it. Edwardian society was still rigidly separated by class, a strict hierarchy that made itself felt in all aspects of life: from which pew you could occupy in your parish church, to which entrance of a shop you were permitted to use, to which railway car you could ride in, to which school you could attend. As the upper levels of society found themselves invaded by new money, and the lower echelons of society found help in new social welfare programs, those in the middle clung even more tightly to the outward signs of class distinction, comforted by the clear, bright lines that showed everyone their place.

The cultural changes that were underway were accompanied by changes in the country’s physical landscape as well. Industrialization grew. Railways expanded, spreading out from London into the countryside. The train and the bicycle worked together to transform formerly rural places like the Honeychurch’s little parish of Summer Street found in E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View. Suddenly, new classes of society — lower classes of society — could live in the country and commute easily into London.

Railways also carried English citizens abroad, giving them easy access to most of Europe. Forster satirizes the image of the English tourist in a foreign land clutching her Baedeker — the distinctive little red guidebook that became a bible for the English abroad. Tourism, like so many other aspects of Edwardian life, was something to be conducted by the book, according to a strict set of orderly principles.

For traveling, Edwardians had their Baedekers. At home, they had countless manuals of etiquette and behavior. (One of Forster’s childhood favorites was simply titled, Don’t.) These rules and restrictions fell most heavily on women, who were tightly corseted in more ways than one. Especially for unmarried women of the middle and upper classes, like Lucy Honeychurch, a violation of the rules of behavior, a hint of scandal, could ruin their chances at marriage. As women were not permitted to pursue professional careers as lawyers, doctors or bankers, marriage was their best way to maintain — and their only way to improve — their economic and social positions. The stakes could not have been higher.

By the end of the Edwardian period, cracks were beginning to show in British imperialism, although one-fourth of the world’s population remained under British rule. The efforts of the suffragette movement would soon pay off: women were granted the right to vote in England in 1918. The Liberal government that took power in 1906 had begun to institute vast social reform — pensions, national insurance, protection for labor unions — and also to raise taxes, changes that King Edward VII feared would “set class against class.” And soon, the Great War would change everything once again.

—Danielle Mages Amato

¡VIVA EL TEATRO!

(3/14/12) • Celebrate San Diego’s vibrant Hispanic community with ¡Viva el Teatro!, a special event that will take place on Friday, March 23. This exciting evening will begin at 5:30 p.m. with backstage tours and a catered reception featuring hors d’oeuvres from Northgate González Market and wines from Baja California wineries Guests will also enjoy the live music of flamenco guitarist Anthony García. Following the reception will be an 8:00 p.m. performance of the World Premiere musical A Room with a View. 

Serving on the ¡Viva el Teatro! committee are businesswoman Marie Cunning, businesswoman Jill Gálvez, Globe Board Member Victor Gálvez, Globe Board Member Viviana Ibañez, businesswoman and Globe Guilder volunteer Esther Rodríguez and former Globe Board Member Phyllis Schwartz.

Tickets are $100 each and include both the reception and performance.

Call 619-231-1941 x2317 or click here to make your reservation today!

POSTCARDS FROM THE SET
Scenic designer Heidi Ettinger on her inspiration for the set of A Room with a View

(3/13/12) • In discussions with director Scott Schwartz, he emphasized that we needed to find a contemporary and somewhat abstract approach to the design. In the course of doing research, I sent him images of period postcards. Postcards are a very important plot element in the show, and it occurred to us that they become an apt metaphor for the ephemeral and fragile nature of these pivotal moments our heroine is going through over the course of the play. Every moment becomes potentially transformative for her.

All of the images directly reference moments or locations in the show. Sometimes they are fragments of a place, or fragments of a painting that’s referred to. Sometimes you get a fragment of a sky that then appears again later. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, in that the images are disassembled and then reassembled in other moments in the play. For example, there are references to the tourist guidebook – the Baedeker – and we see a page from the guidebook, which then appears in various other scenes and locations. It’s a kind of cross-referenced collage.

Technical Director Ben Thoron has found a wonderful technique that allows us to print the images directly onto a translucent plastic twin-wall surface. It’s a material that’s frequently used to make greenhouses, in fact. It allows these pieces to be both structural and translucent, which is one of the critical parts of the show, that it feel very lightweight and very ethereal.

A PARTY WITH A VIEW

(3/13/12) • The opening night audience for A Room with a View gave a resounding "Yes" to the splashy world premiere musical. As did the critics! "Witty writing, appealing actors, a gorgeous and well-orchestrated score: A Room With a View has just about the full monty (and that’s not even counting the naked dudes who plunge into a pool onstage)" raved the U-T San Diego.

For more opening night photos of A Room with a View, visit our Facebook page!

"A DOG WITH A VIEW" PHOTO CONTEST

(3/12/12) • Mac, the canine thespian currently playing Griswald in the Globe’s hit musical A Room with a View, has a terrific view of the audience each night as he steals the show from his fellow actors. What’s your dog’s favorite view in San Diego? Enter a photo of your canine friend in his or her favorite San Diego location for a chance to win two tickets to see A Room with a View — and a chance to win the Grand Prize Ghirardelli All Things Chocolate Gift Basket!

Send your photo to contest@TheOldGlobe.org now through March 29. All photos will be posted on the Globe’s Facebook page in the “A Dog with a View” photo album. Each Friday between now and March 30, one winner will be selected by Globe staff from the week’s entries to receive two tickets to A Room with a View. The Grand Prize winner of two tickets to A Room with a View and the Ghirardelli All Things Chocolate Gift Basket (valued at $180) will be selected by a cast member at the end of the contest period and announced April 2. One photo per entrant.

[Photo: Gina Ferrall as Mrs. Honeychurch and Mac as Griswald in A Room with a View. Photo by Henry DiRocco.]

2012 OLD GLOBE VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION RECEPTION

(3/9/12) • On March 1, The Old Globe honored the volunteers who have made outstanding contributions of their time to support the institution at a reception in Hattox Hall.  As a non-profit arts organization serving the community, the Globe relies on the generosity of volunteers.  Volunteers help in the Administrative Offices (Marketing, Development, Business, Education), the Costume Shop, the Helen Edison Gift Shop, Lady Carolyn's Pub, serve as backstage tour Docents, Patron Services Ambassadors and Ushers for our shows, and are members of our auxiliary volunteer group, the Globe Guilders.

In addition to seeing Globe productions for free and the satisfaction of helping support one of the top regional theatres in the country, volunteers also have the opportunity to work alongside some of the most dedicated and talented theatre professionals in the world.

The recipients of the 2012 Globe Volunteer Awards were:

Volunteers of the Year:  Patricia & Norman Gillespie
Outstanding Tour Docent:  Alexa Hirsch  
Outstanding Globe Reader:  Elisabeth Gause & Barbara Kristoff
Outstanding Patron Service Ambassador: Michael & Sheila Dershowitz
Outstanding Administrative Volunteer:  Jane Cowgill
Outstanding Costume Volunteer (Special Award):  Donna Blochwitz
Outstanding Helen Edison Gift Shop Volunteer:  Nancy Stuhler
Outstanding Lady Carolyn’s Pub Volunteer:  Jan Kraklow
Usher Captain of the Year:  Phil Ross

For more information on how to volunteer at The Old Globe, please contact our volunteer coordinator at (619) 231-1941 x2330.

VIDEO GREETINGS FROM THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM OF ANNA CHRISTIE

A BEHIND THE SCENES VIEW OF A ROOM WITH A VIEW

(2/25/12) • Performances of the World Premiere of A Room with a View begin on March 2 and the cast and creative team have been busy at work. Check out the photos below for a view from behind the scenes of this romantic new musical. To view many more photos documenting the making of A Room with a View, visit our Facebook page!