Author: Charleston Stage

Playing the role of Amber has been a great and challenging experience for me. I’ve never played the villain before so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to try something new. To prepare for this role I thought back to my days as a teenager in high school. As most people know, high school can be a lot of fun but also a time of development and turmoil. Each student is changing and maturing and that often creates many insecurities with one’s self.

My character has a very outwardly confident demeanor at the top of the show, but the minute her status is threatened and her man taken away, she loses control. Amber isn’t mean just for the sake of being mean. She’s just a brat who has had most of her life handed to her by her equally bratty mother, so she has a hard time coping with the entrance of the new “it” girl, Tracy. She takes her insecurities out on Tracy in an effort to restore her own confidence. This is something every girl who went to high school can relate to. It’s only when we are older that we look back and realize that bringing others down doesn’t make us any bigger.

 

 

 

 

Hairspray is one of those scripts that we have been waiting to produce.  It first hit Broadway in 2002 and ran for over 2,500 performances, closing in January 2009 after winning eight Tony Awards.  Though I was not lucky enough to see it in NYC, I did fall in love with the soundtrack and followed the production from afar.  It ignited a whole new generation of young theatre people and our TheatreSchool students began performing numbers from the show as soon as we could get our hands on the material.  The idea of a young girl who is not just like everyone else appeals to the educator in me and the fact that she discovers her voice through music and dance makes the story really come alive.  We wanted something special to celebrate our Dock Street Theatre homecoming and this show not only offers us a story we believed in, but the opportunity to cast many actors in their first show with Charleston Stage.  Twenty members of our cast of thirty are performing for us for the first time!

I have always been a fan of John Waters, who wrote and directed the original movie version of Hairspray.  I love that his stories are based on characters that most people overlook or push into the background.  Hairspray manages to deal with the turbulent early 60s without becoming preachy or didactic; instead it allows us to vicariously relive the changing attitudes of the younger generation as they experience the music, fashion, fads and politics of the time. Tracy is not a typical leading lady – she is a big girl with big dreams and very big hair – but her clear view of herself and of right and wrong make her an instant favorite.

The following John Water’s quote is one of my favorites.  It seems to sum up Tracy’s view of the world, except she is not reading banned books but delighting in learning the prohibited dance moves of the day.

“It wasn’t until I started reading and found books they wouldn’t let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else.”  —  John Waters

In many ways, this quote seems to sum up the way I feel about theatre.  Here’s hoping we all find a way to be “insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else”.

 

 

 

by Prentice Clark, Theatre Wings Apprentice

After participating in acting classes and performances with Charleston Stage, I decided to switch things around a bit by joining the TheatreWings program. I was very happy to do so because it was a complete change of pace. As a Wings student I get to make costumes and do alot of the things that I have never seen done. As an actor we would learn the play and then go to the theatre and everything was just there, but i never quite knew how it was done. Being a Wings student I can help make those elements that the audiences never really see happen. I am glad that I joined the TheatreWings program and, who knows, I may even start making my own clothes!

Charleston Stage celebrated their return to the newly renovated Dock Street Theater with a star-studded Summer Soiree on Friday, July 31. Actress Carrie Preston, of HBO’S hit series True Blood, andEmmy Award-winning actor Michael Emerson, of ABC’s LOST, guest starred in a staged reading ofA.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, and Charlestonians flocked to the striking venue before the show to sip blueberry vodka lemonade and enjoy delicious prosciutto and melon skewers.

The crowd was buzzing in anticipation of the night’s show, and they were certainly not disappointed. Preston and Emerson delivered a stirring, captivating performance of Gurney’s tale of a complicated lifelong love, and received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the house. “That was amazing. My eyes welled up!” one man confessed at the after-party.

Charleston Stage Associate Artistic Director Marybeth Clark directed a question and answer session with the stars after the reading, and then Preston and Emerson joined their fans and Charleston Stage board members at an exclusive after-party at the gorgeous Meeting Street home of John Dewberry. In between nibbling savory bites, such as scallop ceviche and braised short rib, guests got their chance to speak with the personable, charming actors, and more than a few aspiring thespians waited eagerly for their turn to snap a photo, discuss their craft, or recount their favoriteLOST and True Blood moments. The soiree was a fabulous success, and the perfect way to welcome Charleston Stage back to their historic theater.

Charleston Stage is South Carolina’s largest professional theater company. Founded in 1978 by current Producing Artistic Director Julian Wiles, Charleston Stage is known for their quality performances as well as their commitment to arts education and premiering new works.

Click Here to visit Charleston Magazine’s Party Scene Blog and view photos from the Soiree!

We are busy getting ready for Season 33. Each year we receive applications from high school students interested in joining our TheatreWings High School Apprentice Program. This free education program is a pre-professional look at all aspects of live theatre. The selection process begins after a week long summer training. I wrote to several WINGS alumni to ask them what they learned in the WINGS program. Below are some responses.

“All of the staff at Charleston Stage demand professionalism of their actors and also of the WINGS kids and this is also something that I am grateful to have learned there.  Colleges and future employers want to see they are going to hire a confident and professional person, and when the staff is treating you like an adult they are truly preparing you for future jobs.  I believe above all else that Charleston Stage is a family and you are the babies.  All of the staff love and appreciate what you are doing for the company and want to encourage you and see you succeed.”  Bessie Edwards

“Wings gave me confidence in my shy self.  I talk now.  A lot.  I don’t have to know everything in order to do a job well;  I’m not afraid of asking for help and working in a team, because it ultimately makes me stronger.”  Caroline O’Connor

“I don’t think of the ‘theatre skills’ when I think of the ways that participating in the WINGS program helped me in my life.  What I remember is the responsibilities that were placed on our shoulders, and the trust that we would get the job done.  I feel like we did so many things, and worked so hard, without any question that we couldn’t.”  Ben Neuhaus

“WINGS was not just an after school program it became a second home for me.  Thanks to WINGS I am now one of the top undergraduate stage managers at Brandeis.  Next year I will be the only undergraduate stage managing a production for the Brandeis Theatre Company.”  Alex Corsaro

 

 

 

To learn more about our TheatreWings Program, click here.

Yesterday, I received an Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award from the South Carolina Arts Commission.  This award was for my work as an individual artist but in the theatre, there really is no such thing.  Theatre is a collaborative art.  While I’m honored that my work as a director, scenic designer, and playwright are being recognized, I know that none of my work would ever have seen the light of day without the contributions of hundreds of theatre artists who have made up Charleston Stage’s staffs and production teams over the years.

I was honored to know Elizabeth O’Neill Verner in the twilight of her life.  Mrs. Verner, like many Charleston artists of her generation, was in the final years of her long and distinguished career.  In addition to Mrs. Verner, Charleston’s luminaries at the time included Milby Burton of the Charleston Museum, artists William Halsey and Corrie McCallum, Lucien de Groote of the Charleston Symphony, as well as my mentor, the multi-talented Emmett Robinson of the Footlight Players.  These creative artists and their brilliance lit up Charleston’s cultural scene for a generation.   Mrs. Verner’s daughter, Betty Hamilton, was also a mentor of mine.  I was one the many struggling literary and visual artists whom Mrs. Hamilton championed.  Her Tradd Street Press published my one and only children’s book, The Tradd Street Follies, in 1978, the same year I founded Charleston Stage. I owe an enormous debt to that great generation of Charleston artists who preceded me, many whom were members of the famed 1930’s Charleston Renaissance.  There is no doubt that my work is built upon the artistic foundations they laid.

Legendary folksinger Pete Seeger once said that “there is an eternity and we are it.”  We are the living bridge that links one artistic generation to the next.  As I accepted my Verner award yesterday, I was reminded of those Charleston artists who paved the way for me, many of whom personally championed my dream of what would become Charleston Stage.  While I am proud of the great productions and many original plays and musicals we’ve produced at Charleston Stage in the Historic Dock Street Theatre and elsewhere over the past 32 years, I am most proud of the fact that Charleston Stage continues to provide opportunities for the next generation of Charleston’s actors, singers, dancers, and scenic artists to try their artistic wings.  Only with the never-ending support of my remarkable colleagues and generous contributions from the Charleston community, would this be possible.  While yesterday I was one of the ones who got to stand in the spotlight, I know the recognition I received was only made possible by the many who all too often are backstage, hidden in the shadows.

I am reminded of a scene from one of my first plays, The Boy Who Stole the Stars, first produced at Piccolo Spoleto in 1981.  It too spoke of the passing of the torch from one generation to the next.  In the final scene, a little boy, mourning the loss of his grandfather, muses:

I think I see my grandfather in me sometimes:

in the way I stand or hold my head or in something I’ve said.

And sometimes I think I see everyone I’ve ever known;

everything that ever was—

walking in my shadow.

I know that the shadow I’ve cast, in my artistic life here in Charleston, has been illuminated by the light of those who’ve supported my work and the work of Charleston Stage all these years.  To them I say “take a bow, this award is for you too”.

by Director’s Marybeth Clark and Justin Tyler Lewis

      Readers and audiences around the world know Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends – Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, and all the others – from a huge variety of sources.  Originally published in 1926, A.A. Milne’s stories have been interpreted and reinterpreted in so many ways and for so many generations that keeping all of the versions straight is sometimes difficult.  The common thread through the various adaptations, however, is the idea of friendship and the tie that is shared between friends.  What brings the Hundred Acre Wood to life is Christopher Robin’s relationship with his toys and their connection to each other.  This theme of the unbreakable bond of friendship drives our production of Winnie-the-Pooh.

      The challenge with any classic, familiar tale is how to breathe new life into characters that every audience member has seen in multiple forms.  Can you imagine imitating Winnie’s laugh or Owl’s sonorous voice?  And, in fact, those standards may not serve our production, our cast, our theatre, or our audience.  To address this challenge, we have looked at the Hundred Acre Wood and its inhabitants through the eyes of a child.  Pooh Bear’s world is the world that Christopher Robin has created for him; and it’s the world that we have all created at some point in our own imaginations.

      Creating this world has been a tremendous challenge and an enlivening learning experience.  For everyone from the all-student cast to the assistant director to the stage management staff and even the veteran director, putting the elements of the Hundred Acre Wood and those memorable characters on the stage has been a wonderful way to say goodbye to our 32nd season here at Charleston Stage.

 

 

Q:  What is it like to watch your child grow and mature within the side lines of Charleston Stage?

A:  I’m Tom Hill’s mother Maribeth (the other Marybeth).  Tom has been acting with Charleston Stage since he was 5 years old and every year and every performance is nothing like the last.  Miss Marybeth (as he calls her) is just incredible.  If she says it, its the law. To watch him mature and have the self confidence is so rewarding.  He is so excited to be Winnie-the-Pooh.  He is the perfect person to have captured that carefree…no bother…always thinking attitude.  The picture of him says a thousand words.  Even as a young toddler he was a pooh fan.  Tom, you are the Winnie-the-Pooh that everyone wants on their heart!

 

 

 

 

by Jan Gilbert, Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret

In the original production of Cabaret the legendary Austrian actress and singer, Lotte Lenya played my part.  Lenya was the wife of Kurt Weil and had appeared in his classic Three Penny Opera, winning a Tony Award when it was later presented on Broadway.  Since many of Fraulein Schneider’s songs sound very much like the music of Kurt Weil, it was an appropriate choice.  Weil had made a name for himself with his dark and brooding musicals and indeed the songs I have in this show are not traditional fluffy showtunes—far from it, they are hard hitting, passionate and often dark and brooding.  In many ways Weil’s influence on American Musicals (he was a refugee himself from Nazi Germany) was enormous bringing realism and naturalism to this traditional American form.  There’s no doubt that Kander and Ebb were influenced by Weil and gave Fraulein Schneider some of the most haunting moments and music in the show.

by Michael Christensen, Charleston Stage Property Master 

Part of the fun of being a Property Master is looking for just the right prop for a show.  The Kit Kat nightclub described in Cabaret had telephones on each table so that customers could dial up the cute guy or gal and invite them to join them at their table.  We could have just gone into our prop closet and found some phones to use, but because the phones were such an important element in the design, we decided to research German and European phones and we came across this stunning period design from Sweden—not exactly Berlin, but close enough.  Not only is the design of this phone elegant and unusual, it is tall which will make it stand out on the cabaret tables.  And so I went to work to reproduce this look in our scene shop and the result you’ll see in the second photo below—which I hope when you see the show, you will agree, is the perfect prop for this scene.