Thursday, November 12, 2009
8–10 p.m.
Friday, November 13, 2009
8–10 p.m.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
8–10 p.m.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
8–10 p.m.
Friday, November 20, 2009
8–10 p.m.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
8–10 p.m.
2:30–4:30 p.m.
Location: Arts Building Studio Theatre, ARTS 113
Parking Information
Category: Performance
Description:
METAMORPHOSES
A play by Mary Zimmerman
In this retelling of the classic Greek myths of Midas, Orpheus and Eurydice and others, we witness the transformative power of love, redemption, and forgiveness.
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre
_______________________________
Details
To metamorphose is to change - to undergo transformation by enchantment. Zimmerman’s theme of mythic enchantment uses myth as a hybrid of antiquity and twentieth-century culture. Based on Ovid’s epic poem of the same name, Zimmerman’s influences also include a 1908 poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.), the theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, plus the writings of Joseph Campbell and James Hillman. Using these voices, she explores links between myth, theatre, and therapy. As one character puts it, “Myth is a public dream!”
The play opens with a giant pool of water that occupies most of the stage, becoming a swimming pool, a washing basin, the River Styx of the Underworld, and the sea. Twelve actors in multiple roles portray classic myths marked by a desire to transform the self through love. Zeus, a scientist, and “Louise” - a player not yet in character - bring the world into being by talking about it. The scientist walks the pool’s deck in a white lab coat, carrying a specimen of the undifferentiated universe (a jar full of blue gel and sand) in her hands. King Midas resembles an American industrialist millionaire. Erysichthon, though dressed in a toga, comes across as a greedy mogul unconcerned about the environment who pays dearly for incurring Ceres’ wrath. The tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, as told by Ovid and by Rilke’s poem, creates a poetic bridge between myth and modernism, artistic process and its inviolate root in the unconscious. Phaeton’s tale is montaged with a full-blown session of Freudian analysis. Though delightfully lost in the fiction, the cast speaks in contemporary language.
The costumes of the play are "evocative of a generalized antiquity but one in which such things as suspenders and trousers are not unknown." They range from classic Grecian “togas” to modern bathing suits, sometimes in the same scene. This juxtaposition of old and new is particularly striking in the story of Midas, in which Midas is shown wearing a smoking jacket while being confronted by a drunken reveler in a half-toga and vine leaves in his hair.
____________________________________
Biographies
Mary Zimmerman (Playwright, 1960 - ) is the recipient of a 1998 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2002 Tony Award for best direction and 10 Joseph Jefferson Awards, including ones for best production and best direction. She is the Manilow Resident Director of Goodman Theatre, a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company of Chicago, an artistic associate of Seattle Repertory Theatre, and a professor of performance studies at Northwestern University. Works which she has adapted and directed include Silk at the Goodman Theatre; The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci at the Goodman, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and Seattle Repertory; The Odyssey at the Goodman, Lookingglass, McCarter Theatre and Seattle Repertory; Arabian Nights at Lookingglass, MTC and BAM; Journey To The West at the Goodman, Huntington Theatre and Berkeley Repertory; Metamorphoses at Lookingglass, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Mark Taper Forum and Second Stage; Secret in the Wings at Lookingglass, McCarter and Berkeley Repertory; and Eleven Rooms of Proust at Lookingglass and About Face. Ms. Zimmerman has also directed the highly acclaimed Pericles at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. in 2004; Measure for Measure and Henry VIII at New York Shakespeare Festival; A Midsummer Night's Dream at Huntington Theatre; All's Well That Ends Well and Seneca's Trojan Women at the Goodman. In 2002, she created a new opera with Philip Glass called Galileo Galilei which premiered at Goodman Theatre, and went on to the Barbicon in London and BAM.
Eric Barr (Director) teaches acting and directing classes and regularly directs in the UCR season. In recent years he has directed such departmental productions as Nickel and Dimed, The Rocky Horror Show, The Sea Gull, Angels in America, and The Visit. For five years he was the Artistic Director of the Porthouse Theatre, a professional summer stock company in Cleveland, Ohio. He taught acting and movement for actors at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in Los Angeles and worked as an acting coach with the National Theatre of the Deaf. He received his MFA from Wayne State University, where he was an acting and directing fellow in the Hilberry Repertory Theatre and he studied movement, masks, and theatre at Ecole Jacques LeCoq in Paris, France. He is the Founding Director of the Palm Desert MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts and was one of the architects of the UCR MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. He recently finished writing The Heart of Acting, a book on acting, and is at work on a directing text entitled Direct from the Center.
Haibo Yu (Scenic Designer) is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and The Society of British Theatre Designers. He has a BFA from the Central Academy of Drama, in China, an MA from the University of Leeds, in England, and an MFA equivalent from Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, London. He has worked in theatre, film, and television in Europe, China, Hong Kong, and the United States. His design credits include: The Adventure of Pør Quinly for South Coast Repertory; The Little Prince, and Tea for Sacramento Theatre Company; Convenience for Human Race Theatre, Ohio; Modigliani for Elephant Theatre, LA; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Women of Windsor, and As You Like It for Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival; Stone Angel for Broomsberry Theatre, London; Whale for Haragate Theatre, England; Casablanca, The Dance (Associate Designer) for Warner Brothers Film; The Opium War for Xie-Jin Films and The Foreign Moon for Media Asia (Hong Kong) and BBC Films. He was a co-author of the book Devised and Collaborative Theatre and is skilled in the use of digital technology in theatre design.
Bonnie Cherrie (Costume Designer) is the Costume Shop Manager, and a Designer/Lecturer for the UCR Department of Theatre. She has previously worked for the University of Houston, the Houston Shakespeare Festival and the Children’s Theatre Festival, and served as Head Cutter/Draper and Adjunct professor and Designer. She was a visiting assistant professor at Prairie View A & M University in Texas, serving as Costumer and Historian. Bonnie completed her MFA at Utah State University. She worked as technical designer in the California fashion industry before pursuing a career in costume design. She also worked seven seasons with the Utah Shakespearean Festival in various capacities including costume shop manager and costume designer for a touring production.
Glen Dunzweiler (Lighting Designer) has an MFA in Lighting and Sound Design from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and is the resident Lighting and Sound Designer for the UCR Department of Theatre. He has designed for the Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, Henlopen Theatre Project in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and International City Theatre in Long Beach, California. While in Las Vegas, he was the Resident Designer for the UNLV Dance Department and worked for the moving light company VariLite Production Services. In 2005, his work was featured in the ‘How I Did That’ section of Lighting Dimensions Magazine. He has worked with sculpture artist Randy Cooper on lighting his Shadow Sculptures and is currently developing a new theatrical work entitled The Bad Play.
____________________________
Tickets: (951) 827-4331 $14.00 General admission, $12.00 Students and Seniors
Advance Tickets: University Theatre Fine Arts Ticket Office, Monday-Friday 10am-4 pm
Walk-Up Tickets: ARTS Building Ticket Office, one hour before each performance
Ticketmaster: (213) 480-3232, (714) 740-2000, www.ticketmaster.com
Show your UCR Alumni card to receive the student price.
Open to: General Public
Admission: Entry Charge: $14 General, $12 Students/Seniors
Sponsor: Departments of Dance, Music and Theatre
Contact Information:
Kathy DeAtley
(951) 827-3245
performingarts@ucr.edu
8–10 p.m.
Friday, November 13, 2009
8–10 p.m.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
8–10 p.m.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
8–10 p.m.
Friday, November 20, 2009
8–10 p.m.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
8–10 p.m.
2:30–4:30 p.m.
Location: Arts Building Studio Theatre, ARTS 113
Parking Information
Category: Performance
Description: METAMORPHOSES
A play by Mary Zimmerman
In this retelling of the classic Greek myths of Midas, Orpheus and Eurydice and others, we witness the transformative power of love, redemption, and forgiveness.
Sponsored by the Department of Theatre
_______________________________
Details
To metamorphose is to change - to undergo transformation by enchantment. Zimmerman’s theme of mythic enchantment uses myth as a hybrid of antiquity and twentieth-century culture. Based on Ovid’s epic poem of the same name, Zimmerman’s influences also include a 1908 poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.), the theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, plus the writings of Joseph Campbell and James Hillman. Using these voices, she explores links between myth, theatre, and therapy. As one character puts it, “Myth is a public dream!”
The play opens with a giant pool of water that occupies most of the stage, becoming a swimming pool, a washing basin, the River Styx of the Underworld, and the sea. Twelve actors in multiple roles portray classic myths marked by a desire to transform the self through love. Zeus, a scientist, and “Louise” - a player not yet in character - bring the world into being by talking about it. The scientist walks the pool’s deck in a white lab coat, carrying a specimen of the undifferentiated universe (a jar full of blue gel and sand) in her hands. King Midas resembles an American industrialist millionaire. Erysichthon, though dressed in a toga, comes across as a greedy mogul unconcerned about the environment who pays dearly for incurring Ceres’ wrath. The tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, as told by Ovid and by Rilke’s poem, creates a poetic bridge between myth and modernism, artistic process and its inviolate root in the unconscious. Phaeton’s tale is montaged with a full-blown session of Freudian analysis. Though delightfully lost in the fiction, the cast speaks in contemporary language.
The costumes of the play are "evocative of a generalized antiquity but one in which such things as suspenders and trousers are not unknown." They range from classic Grecian “togas” to modern bathing suits, sometimes in the same scene. This juxtaposition of old and new is particularly striking in the story of Midas, in which Midas is shown wearing a smoking jacket while being confronted by a drunken reveler in a half-toga and vine leaves in his hair.
____________________________________
Biographies
Mary Zimmerman (Playwright, 1960 - ) is the recipient of a 1998 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2002 Tony Award for best direction and 10 Joseph Jefferson Awards, including ones for best production and best direction. She is the Manilow Resident Director of Goodman Theatre, a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company of Chicago, an artistic associate of Seattle Repertory Theatre, and a professor of performance studies at Northwestern University. Works which she has adapted and directed include Silk at the Goodman Theatre; The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci at the Goodman, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and Seattle Repertory; The Odyssey at the Goodman, Lookingglass, McCarter Theatre and Seattle Repertory; Arabian Nights at Lookingglass, MTC and BAM; Journey To The West at the Goodman, Huntington Theatre and Berkeley Repertory; Metamorphoses at Lookingglass, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Mark Taper Forum and Second Stage; Secret in the Wings at Lookingglass, McCarter and Berkeley Repertory; and Eleven Rooms of Proust at Lookingglass and About Face. Ms. Zimmerman has also directed the highly acclaimed Pericles at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. in 2004; Measure for Measure and Henry VIII at New York Shakespeare Festival; A Midsummer Night's Dream at Huntington Theatre; All's Well That Ends Well and Seneca's Trojan Women at the Goodman. In 2002, she created a new opera with Philip Glass called Galileo Galilei which premiered at Goodman Theatre, and went on to the Barbicon in London and BAM.
Eric Barr (Director) teaches acting and directing classes and regularly directs in the UCR season. In recent years he has directed such departmental productions as Nickel and Dimed, The Rocky Horror Show, The Sea Gull, Angels in America, and The Visit. For five years he was the Artistic Director of the Porthouse Theatre, a professional summer stock company in Cleveland, Ohio. He taught acting and movement for actors at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in Los Angeles and worked as an acting coach with the National Theatre of the Deaf. He received his MFA from Wayne State University, where he was an acting and directing fellow in the Hilberry Repertory Theatre and he studied movement, masks, and theatre at Ecole Jacques LeCoq in Paris, France. He is the Founding Director of the Palm Desert MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts and was one of the architects of the UCR MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. He recently finished writing The Heart of Acting, a book on acting, and is at work on a directing text entitled Direct from the Center.
Haibo Yu (Scenic Designer) is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and The Society of British Theatre Designers. He has a BFA from the Central Academy of Drama, in China, an MA from the University of Leeds, in England, and an MFA equivalent from Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, London. He has worked in theatre, film, and television in Europe, China, Hong Kong, and the United States. His design credits include: The Adventure of Pør Quinly for South Coast Repertory; The Little Prince, and Tea for Sacramento Theatre Company; Convenience for Human Race Theatre, Ohio; Modigliani for Elephant Theatre, LA; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Women of Windsor, and As You Like It for Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival; Stone Angel for Broomsberry Theatre, London; Whale for Haragate Theatre, England; Casablanca, The Dance (Associate Designer) for Warner Brothers Film; The Opium War for Xie-Jin Films and The Foreign Moon for Media Asia (Hong Kong) and BBC Films. He was a co-author of the book Devised and Collaborative Theatre and is skilled in the use of digital technology in theatre design.
Bonnie Cherrie (Costume Designer) is the Costume Shop Manager, and a Designer/Lecturer for the UCR Department of Theatre. She has previously worked for the University of Houston, the Houston Shakespeare Festival and the Children’s Theatre Festival, and served as Head Cutter/Draper and Adjunct professor and Designer. She was a visiting assistant professor at Prairie View A & M University in Texas, serving as Costumer and Historian. Bonnie completed her MFA at Utah State University. She worked as technical designer in the California fashion industry before pursuing a career in costume design. She also worked seven seasons with the Utah Shakespearean Festival in various capacities including costume shop manager and costume designer for a touring production.
Glen Dunzweiler (Lighting Designer) has an MFA in Lighting and Sound Design from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and is the resident Lighting and Sound Designer for the UCR Department of Theatre. He has designed for the Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, Henlopen Theatre Project in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and International City Theatre in Long Beach, California. While in Las Vegas, he was the Resident Designer for the UNLV Dance Department and worked for the moving light company VariLite Production Services. In 2005, his work was featured in the ‘How I Did That’ section of Lighting Dimensions Magazine. He has worked with sculpture artist Randy Cooper on lighting his Shadow Sculptures and is currently developing a new theatrical work entitled The Bad Play.
____________________________
Tickets: (951) 827-4331 $14.00 General admission, $12.00 Students and Seniors
Advance Tickets: University Theatre Fine Arts Ticket Office, Monday-Friday 10am-4 pm
Walk-Up Tickets: ARTS Building Ticket Office, one hour before each performance
Ticketmaster: (213) 480-3232, (714) 740-2000, www.ticketmaster.com
Show your UCR Alumni card to receive the student price.
_________________________
No Reserve Seating: Seating in some venues is limited, so arrive early for best seats. Events begin promptly at the announced curtain time. Latecomers will be seated at an appropriate pause in the program as designated by the management.
Please order carefully. No exchanges or refunds will be made, except in the event a performance is canceled.
Events are subject to change without notice. Regardless of age, all patrons must have a ticket. Infants on laps are not permitted.
____________________________
Parking: $5 in Lot 1 (No fee with UC permit)
Photo: Aphrodite inspires Myrrha (actor Alex Wylie) with lust to commit incest with her father King Cinyras of Cyprus (actor Andrew Mena).
Photo credit: Alan A. Call.
____________________________
Parking: $5 in Lot 1 (No fee with UC permit)
Photo: Aphrodite inspires Myrrha (actor Alex Wylie) with lust to commit incest with her father King Cinyras of Cyprus (actor Andrew Mena).
Photo credit: Alan A. Call.
Open to: General Public
Admission: Entry Charge: $14 General, $12 Students/Seniors
Sponsor: Departments of Dance, Music and Theatre
Contact Information:
Kathy DeAtley
(951) 827-3245
performingarts@ucr.edu