Think of it as a crazy, retro-1950s picnic. Or as one of those wacky, avant-garde "happenings" from the 1960s designed to glory in the joys of pure Americana.
August 31, 2006 (Press Release) --
Think of it as a crazy, retro-1950s picnic. Or as one of those wacky, avant-garde "happenings" from the 1960s designed to glory in the joys of pure Americana. Or as a fractured "Our Town" for our times, with a nod to Walt Whitman along the way.
In short, just take a peek at Hometown Theatre Project's debut production -- an ambitious and aptly homespun mounting of Charles L. Mee's "bobrauschenbergamerica." And delight in the whimsical, wistful, offbeat, poignant and ultimately profound three-dimensional portrait of an important American artist it supplies.
Robert Rauschenberg's "combine paintings" -- canvases embedded with ordinary objects, including, most famously, his own bed quilt -- became the foundation for the whole pop art movement. As the artist once observed: "I think a painting is more like the real world if it is made out of the real world."
His "real world" began in the poor, buttoned-down, deeply Christian town of Port Arthur, Texas, during the Depression. It was a place where the sky was open and full of stars, where sex without marriage was taboo (though not necessarily non-existent), where rubber chickens and real chickens were both part of life. It also was a place where a child's imagination could run wild, and where the simplest objects, from an aunt's sparkling brooch to a garden hose or ironing board, could become the source of great joy and sublime wonder.
The director, Northwestern University grad Tracy Strausberg (backed by choreographer-sound designer Lauren Ludwig, whose dance sequences are sensational and performed with verve by the marvelous young ensemble), gives Mee's play a less campy rendering than its original SITI company staging -- at once fresh, true and knowingly naive in beguiling ways. Bravos to Erika Schmidt (devourer of angel food cake), Seth R. Field (the brainiac), Nick Giles, Vanessa Evans, Casey J. Baker, Leah Joan Kaplan, Brittney Lower, Marco Naggar, Kevin Reich, Brett Schneider and bagpiper Jim Scott.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
Posted by HEDY WEISS
In short, just take a peek at Hometown Theatre Project's debut production -- an ambitious and aptly homespun mounting of Charles L. Mee's "bobrauschenbergamerica." And delight in the whimsical, wistful, offbeat, poignant and ultimately profound three-dimensional portrait of an important American artist it supplies.
Robert Rauschenberg's "combine paintings" -- canvases embedded with ordinary objects, including, most famously, his own bed quilt -- became the foundation for the whole pop art movement. As the artist once observed: "I think a painting is more like the real world if it is made out of the real world."
His "real world" began in the poor, buttoned-down, deeply Christian town of Port Arthur, Texas, during the Depression. It was a place where the sky was open and full of stars, where sex without marriage was taboo (though not necessarily non-existent), where rubber chickens and real chickens were both part of life. It also was a place where a child's imagination could run wild, and where the simplest objects, from an aunt's sparkling brooch to a garden hose or ironing board, could become the source of great joy and sublime wonder.
The director, Northwestern University grad Tracy Strausberg (backed by choreographer-sound designer Lauren Ludwig, whose dance sequences are sensational and performed with verve by the marvelous young ensemble), gives Mee's play a less campy rendering than its original SITI company staging -- at once fresh, true and knowingly naive in beguiling ways. Bravos to Erika Schmidt (devourer of angel food cake), Seth R. Field (the brainiac), Nick Giles, Vanessa Evans, Casey J. Baker, Leah Joan Kaplan, Brittney Lower, Marco Naggar, Kevin Reich, Brett Schneider and bagpiper Jim Scott.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
Posted by HEDY WEISS
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