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(11/16/09 6:09am)
If you thought the nearly seven-hour duration or the lineup of more than 150 characters spoke to the scope of “Nicholas Nickleby,” try counting the costumes and sets that allow the show to go on.The production crew created or borrowed 700 costume pieces, a 1,000-pound steel platform and locations for all the scenes. The first half alone has 35 sets.PlayMakers Repertory Company opened “Nicholas Nickleby” on Nov. 11 and will perform the show through Dec. 20 at Paul Green Theatre.The show’s elaborate costumes and sets contribute to its $311,000 cost. A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts supplied $30,000 of the total for the performance, which is based on Charles Dickens’ novel.“Dickens’ world is so rich that you can pull from the language and pull from the text before looking at the illustrations. It’s a gold mine,” said McKay Coble, chairwoman of the Department of Dramatic Art.Coble said that those who know their Dickens will find her sets familiar.Illustrations from the original edition of “Nicholas Nickleby” served as a reference for several of the sets.The set is constructed as a single unit, with interchangeable pieces that work together to create varied environments.“It actually captures a whole lot of different locations, encompassing the industrial feel of the time, one class building itself on top of another class of people, economic struggles, poverty next to wealth, and beauty next to squalor,” Coble said.The back wall to the stage has been left open, extending to the back of the theater to give viewers a sense of London’s streets and their exceptional depth.Overall, by changing various elements within the larger unit, the designers of “Nicholas Nickleby” will take viewers around England, from a city apartment building to the countryside.“Ultimately for scenery and costumes, the designers and directors have a vision and an aesthetic for the show. The shops carry that artistic vision through to what the audience sees,” said Michael Rolleri, production manager for PlayMakers. The costumes might be even more of a colossal task, with 150 characters, some of whom have multiple costumes.“I’ve never designed a show this big in over 30 years,” said Jan Chambers, costume designer for “Nicholas Nickleby.”PlayMakers budgeted $15,000 for the costumes. The company is treating “Nicholas Nickleby” as the equivalent of two plays budget-wise, because it is presented in two self-contained parts, Chambers wrote in an e-mail.Some costumes are produced on site, while others are borrowed.“We can usually build a show in three to four weeks, but they’ve been working on costumes since Aug. 1,” Rolleri said.“Even now we have to be careful once we have all costumes in dressing rooms to get actors in there, too.”Matters are further complicated when it comes to costume changes, which involve a station of five people who might have to undress and redress an actor within a matter of 15 seconds.“There’s no way we could make the changes if we didn’t quick-rig them. It may mean a scarf that’s loosely around somebody’s neck is in fact tacked within an inch of its life and snapped to their shoulders. Whatever makes it happen quickly and gets it right,” Chambers said. Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(10/19/09 4:53am)
PlayMakers Repertory Company has started a new program to engage audience members before the play even opens.For its next main-stage production, “Nicholas Nickleby,” which is based on the Charles Dickens’ book of the same name, the group launched the Dickens Initiative to reach out to the community beyond the confines of the stage.The initiative includes events with members of the cast and production staff that cover a variety of topics, from the difficulties of adaptation and direction to the play’s set and costume design.“It’s about opening up the doors of the theater and giving the community an opportunity to understand the significance of this particular play and novel, and the process of taking a novel and adapting it for the stage,” said Jeffrey Meanza, director of education and outreach for PlayMakers.While the production of “Nicholas Nickleby” has been three years in the making, the programs for the Dickens Initiative were built during the last year.The events focus on the inherently unique challenges of adapting a 900-page novel for the stage while preserving the novel’s nuances and intricacies.PlayMakers will present the work in two 3-hour plays. Part I opens on Nov. 11.The talks have been spread throughout the Triangle to give back to as many patrons as possible, Meanza said.“The goal isn’t to have one person come to all of the events, although if they did, they would have a great time,” he said.Convincing local venues to host the events “wasn’t a hard sell,” Meanza said.In fact, after hearing about the program, multiple organizations came to PlayMakers to offer their support.“I was absolutely tickled,” said Marian Fragola, humanities and adult programming coordinator for Durham County Library, about working together on the project.“And for a library it makes perfect sense to join the literary resources of the library with the dramatic resources of PlayMakers,” she said.The initiative was funded through a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.The grant, Access to Artistic Excellence, aims to create a production that gives its community opportunities to interact with the work on a deeper level than in the past. “It’s certainly a very special opportunity that’s not going to come around very often,” Fragola said.
(10/05/09 3:16am)
Rha Goddess brought her audience into the tumultuous mind of a young woman suffering from manic depression with her performance Friday night.The show pushed people to challenge traditional notions of mental health and the definition of sanity.
(09/04/09 4:23am)
UNC alumna Carina Cortese never expected to discover family secrets in an Argentine history book.But during her sophomore year when she studied abroad in Argentina, Cortese discovered that the brutal murder of her mother’s uncle was made famous in a popular history book.Yet she had never heard the story.She turned this experience into an autobiographical performance titled “After-Images of the Disappeared.”This piece opens the Process Series this fall, with a performance at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday in Gerrard Hall.The Process Series presents new works free of charge and develops the pieces further based on audience feedback.There are five additional works in the Process Series, and they will be presented throughout the year.Cortese’s great-uncle was abducted during Argentina’s “Dirty War,” during which people disappeared if they disagreed with the controlling military dictatorship.Her family had made hints but never directly spoke about the conflict.“At the beginning, it was more shock. We never talked about it,” Cortese said.After a second trip to Argentina with the help of the Institute for the Study of the Americas Halpern Award and a senior honors thesis research grant, Cortese wrote the play as her honors thesis for the dramatic art department. She received the highest honors and the Federico G. Gil Award for best thesis on a Latin American topic when she graduated in May 2009.“This project just took on a life of its own. I didn’t know where it was going to go, and it morphed out of this need to understand my family,” Cortese said.“It is a very personal journey, but showing that and experiencing that gives people a greater awareness of what happened in Argentina.”Joseph Megel, director of the Process Series, was essential in helping Cortese develop her work.“For me it’s like being the midwife of something really exciting and special,” he said. “I feel sort of blessed for getting to go on the journey and helping to shape it so it has a future that will want to be seen by others.”Cortese’s performance pulls the audience close to the tragedy, and the impact of the work becomes apparent.Because this story revolves around the actress’s actual family, the horror of the “Dirty War” transcends the historical context and is more relevant for viewers.“Carina really discovered an important history, but also her very personal family history,” Megel said.After learning her family’s stories, Cortese said she was in disbelief of the atrocities committed on them and by them.“My mother was there at shoot-outs. She was so involved,” Cortese said. “To be able to put faces to those events changed them so drastically.”The show is not meant as a history lesson but as an experience to which everyone can relate.“It’s not unique to my family, or Argentina; it happens all the time across the world,” she said.Contact the Arts Editor artsdesk@unc.edu.
(07/16/09 4:00am)
Not only do the historic walls of the Horace Williams House take its visitors on a trip into the past but so does its latest art exhibition" ""In With The New.""Artist Jeana Klein" professor of studio art at Appalachian State University has used her love of artifacts keepsakes and heirlooms in tandem with the art and craft of quilting to communicate her interest in the past. The exhibit which opened last Sunday revolves around the personal stories and broader histories of seemingly mundane objects" Klein said. ""I have a constant curiosity about those objects that are preserved and cherished" or those that are abandoned and lost Klein said in a statement. Motifs found throughout her work include toy soldiers and Christmas lights that were a part of her childhood holiday tradition. We used to put out my dad's toy soldiers under our Christmas tree instead of a nativity scene and it seemed perfectly normal growing up" Klein said. While her focus was on the inanimate objects, which she said have meanings that change over time, Klein said her military motif was not intentional. I don't think that's a blatant meaning" but it was probably a bit subconscious" she said, referencing the Iraq invasion coinciding with the production of her work. I don't think I ever intended to make a political statement."" The 18 pieces hanging in the house's parlor and Octagon Room range in size and style" including elements such as dyed fabric acrylic paintings screen printings and hand-embroidery. Carolyn Rugen chairwoman of the art committee for the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill" said Klein was selected out of roughly 45 applicants to be one of nine or 10 to have work displayed in the Horace Williams House in 2009. ""We attempt to select a variety of artists"" Rugen said. But each exhibition is vibrant and special in its own way."" Phyllis Busel" who frequents the art openings at the Horace Williams House" was just as enthusiastic. ""I just think her quilts are beautiful — all the intricate work that gives you the feeling of three dimensions."" ""In With The New"" will be on display in the Horace Williams House until July 31.Contact the Arts Editor at arts.dth@gmail.com.
(06/26/09 4:00am)
As the curtain went up Thursday night for the third featured performance of the American Dance Festival dancers of the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet walked to the edge of the stage.Inches from the footlights" they moved in unison to music that only they could know.The gestures began as subtle shifts in posture before bursting into a series of convulsions that slid into a unified tribal experience.The scenes in Cedar Lake's ""Decadance"" pulled from various works composed in the past two decades by choreographer Ohad Naharin.The show was full of surprises from the dancers" including solos by Ebony Williams adorned in a feather boa and 2-foot-high stilts and Jon Bond" who danced onstage throughout the entire intermission. ""The show provides the unexpected"" audience member Bobby Ward said. The interaction between numerous vignettes, overlapping and contrasting each other, kept the audience engaged.During one scene featuring five male dancers in a ritual setting, the audience chuckled as Williams strolled across the stage in her flamboyant feathers and stilts.Naharin's works thrive off of the rich variety of styles and ideas within the confines of his choreography. Even the music had variety, featuring pieces such as Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No. 9"" and the ""Hawaii 5-O"" theme. ""His dances exist as statements against conformity"" said Suzanne Carbonneau, critic-in-residence for the festival, in a pre-show discussion. Following the performance, that statement could not have rung more true. Each segment introduced elements of classical ballet before systematically deconstructing them, and pushing dancers back into a more abstract, modern style. Dancers convulsed. They froze in place. They pushed the boundaries of the physically and humanly possible, shifting their weight until they were about to fall over before snapping back upright to recover their balance. As Naharin drove his dancers to their limits, the trust and commitment between company and choreographer became increasingly apparent. Rather than taking the typical three weeks necessary to teach his choreography, Naharin spent three months retraining the dancers. His technique, known as Gaga"" encourages performers to reconnect with their bodies through acceptance and physical awareness, rather than relying on mirrors for corrections. I have a request: Get rid of the mirrors. Don't dance in front of mirrors"" Naharin told the audience. During Cedar Lake's three-month retraining, all mirrors in the studio were covered. His dances are less interested in who we are" but who we will become" Carbonneau said. Naharin was awarded the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement in choreography, along with a check for $50,000. The award has become one of the most prestigious in the country, honoring highly influential choreographers. During his acceptance speech before Thursday night's performance, Naharin advised the audience. Copy — yet" only the good things he said. And if you get an award" make a short speech."" Cedar Lake will continue their series tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m." as well as a 1 p.m. matinee performance Saturday.Contact the Arts Editor at arts.dth@gmail.com.
(06/10/09 4:00am)
On Friday the roof of 150 Rosemary St. will play host to the first annual Boomtown Live an independent music showcase aimed at allowing artists to network and share ideas as well as promoting change for social and civil rights.Alison Bryan a 19-year-old Chapel Hill native" worked with Jonathan Gedney to create an event that would bring about the change that they wished to see in their hometown community.""After election time" we noticed a lot of people talking wanting change and not having a good way to channel that energy into something she said.Both of us grew up in Chapel Hill" said Bryan. And that's where a lot of the people are who want to make a difference but don't know how to channel the energy.""Civil rights is this year's ""B-Cause"" — the theme for each showcase. But the founders and artists alike also wished to restore Chapel Hill to its former claim to fame in music history.""We used to be critically acclaimed by Rolling Stone"" said co-founder Gedney, referencing the town's former place on the magazine's list of the top 10 places to be for music in the country.We want this to be a really influential event that'll spark the industry and change things around here. Locally I'd like to have a better connectivity with the music scene."" Hip-hop artist Evan Draughon of the band Ease had similar feelings on the subject and hoped that because of Chapel Hill's small size"" artists would stick together to support the musical growth of the community.""We're not a huge city like New York or L.A." where there's musicians crawling out of every street corner he said. If one of us is successful" it's a really big opportunity for all the other artists.""I grew up different than most rappers"" he said, referencing his suburban upbringing.Draughon has been in the hip-hop scene as a rapper for five years, but he takes a different perspective than most artists. You're never going to feel bad when you're listening to my music. I think I bring a different level of intelligence to hip-hop.""Draughon expanded on the collaborative nature of the showcase.""It sounds really cliche" but united we stand and united we fall" he said. You should always be open to working with other artists.""Attendees should expect to experience music nonstop from 9 p.m. to midnight" with artists The Crap Rock All Stars Pink Flag J3 Calico and Kaustic performing as well as DJ Don Wilson Is Dead spinning between sets.The founders are hoping to raise more than $2000 from the event. Amnesty International originally was to be included as one of three beneficiaries of the event. But because the showcase is new and lacks corporate sponsorship it will only be able to split the proceeds between two groups.And since they felt that local charities deserved local support the two groups will be Lambda Legal and Equality NC.Food will be sold by Alfredo's Pizza Villa and Chic-fil-A at the showcase. Tickets cost $7 at the door. Contact the Arts Editor at arts.dth@gmail.com.