Mid-August 2012

Bringing a glimpse of life to the stage

WWU professor joins professional cast to present Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker

Even with 25 years acting experience, summers spent teaching at the National Theatre of Romania in Bucharest and a six-year career at Western Washington University, Rich Brown still found a reason to set foot in an introductory theatre class.

For the last month, Brown has been working alongside fellow theatre professionals in Idaho Repertory Theatre’s production of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker.

Set in an adult introductory theatre class, the play tells the story of instructor “Marty” and her eclectic mix of students as they muddle through acting games that push emotions and abilities, or lack thereof, to the limit. Winner of the Off-Broadway Theatre Award for best new play, it has been called “absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny” by the New York Times.

Brown plays “Schultz,” a recently divorced carpenter whose life is full of emotional ups and downs — dark secrets divulged through the many theatre exercises through which “Marty” pushes the class.

An associate professor teaching physical acting at WWU, Brown said his training with master teachers Stephen Wangh and Mary Overlie at New York University’s Tisch’s Experimental Theatre Wing has helped him apply his talents directly to creating the character of “Schultz.”

Physical acting is about connecting the mind and body, Brown said.

“The actor should always be seeing, and seeing is in the whole body. (Physical acting) is trying to connect images — whether imagined or physical — and those images land on the spine and emanate throughout the body,” he said.

When “Schultz” first finds himself in the classroom full of strangers — including “Marty’s” husband, a 16-year-old amateur and a former actress full of sexual confidence — Brown said it’s easy to tell he feels out of place.

“He’s collapsed ... shoulders forward to protect his heart,” he said.

For director Daniel Haley, the play is a cross section of life. The external action relies on the quirky theatre games “Marty” comes up with, but the internal action built from what is learned about each character falls well outside the walls of the classroom.

“For me, it’s a microcosm into everything theatre should be ... a highly comic yet heartfelt glimpse of life,” he said.

“Schultz” goes through many changes throughout the class,  and his mannerisms reflect his newfound openness to the world. “Shultz’s” ability to navigate hardship — and still return to class week after week— is one of his most respectable qualities, Brown said, something everyone should strive for.

“There’s a payoff for having the courage to connect with other people,” he said. “‘Schultz’ is holding back from life, from himself, but he finds the courage ... he gets hurt and moves forward ... this is a huge payoff.”

Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker shows 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16-18, 23-25 and 2 p.m. Aug. 19 and 26 in the UI Hartung Theater on the corner of Sixth Street and Stadium Drive in Moscow.

General admission is $10. Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling (208) 885-6465 or by visiting the University of Idaho Department of Theatre Arts’ main office in Shoup 201 on the Corner of Sixth and Rayburn streets. Payment also can be sent to PO Box 442008, Moscow, ID 83844-2008.

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Looking in the Mirror

Notes from Artistic Director Ann Hoste

When I began this season as Artistic Director, I thought it best to review IRT’s Mission Statement; it outlines several of the Rep’s core values:
    
•    Theatre is composed of a community of artists, committed to addressing the issue of community, for the community.
•    Theatre is the mirror of the community it serves.

Circle Mirror Transformation clearly reflects IRT’s philosophy. It’s a play about an acting class — a temporary community of artists who discover through deceptively simple "theatre games" that their lives are more interconnected than they ever imagined. They learn that theatre designer R.E. Jones was right — drama allows us to “see our own lives reflected as in a magic mirror, enlarged and simplified, in an order we had not perceived before.” It’s a view that’s occasionally frightening — but always, always enlightening.

I hope you’ll join us for Circle Mirror Transformation as we share playwright Annie Baker’s unique perspective on the nature of life, art, and community.

See you at the theatre!

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A Piece of IRT History ... from 1970

Hay Fever by Noel Coward
Directed by Forrest Sears

Hay Fever is one of Coward's funniest, dealing with a short- tempered, rude and disorganized English family - The Blisses! Each of the four family members invite weekend guests without consulting anyone else. The result is chaos! Guests are ignored and are left on their own while the Blisses continue in broiling domestic quarrels. Finally each weekend visitor finds himself preferring a rainstorm and/or another visitor to the lunacies of the Bliss household.

PLACE: Hall of Bliss' house at Cookham
TIME: 1925 three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon in June