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British playwright HAROLD PINTER won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature last week. For nearly 50 years, the politically outspoken writer has created works — including The Room, The Birthday Party and The Caretaker — that use the oblique, truncated, sometimes ominous words of working-class people to explore philosophical positions. The Swedish Academy said, "Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles." He has been outspoken in his opposition to the war in Iraq for the past two years; some speculated that naming his award is in part a reflection of anti-American sentiments in Europe. Be that as it may, Pinter is one of the theater's great writers, and his plays have achieved the status of classics. His most recent work staged for Cincinnati audiences was Betrayal by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival five years ago. It's time for more.
The Cincinnati Playhouse opens Tennessee Williams' classic, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, on Thursday evening (running through Nov. 18). The show, which premiered 50 years ago on Broadway, is staged by one of the most influential directors of the 20th century, MARSHALL MASON, who worked at the Playhouse in 2001 when he re-created his award-winning Broadway production of Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly. Mason's 12 Broadway productions earned four Tony Awards and five nominations for best director.
British playwright HAROLD PINTER won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature last week. For nearly 50 years, the politically outspoken writer has created works — including The Room, The Birthday Party and The Caretaker — that use the oblique, truncated, sometimes ominous words of working-class people to explore philosophical positions. The Swedish Academy said, "Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles." He has been outspoken in his opposition to the war in Iraq for the past two years; some speculated that naming his award is in part a reflection of anti-American sentiments in Europe. Be that as it may, Pinter is one of the theater's great writers, and his plays have achieved the status of classics. His most recent work staged for Cincinnati audiences was Betrayal by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival five years ago. It's time for more. ...
The Cincinnati Playhouse opens Tennessee Williams' classic, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, on Thursday evening (running through Nov. 18). The show, which premiered 50 years ago on Broadway, is staged by one of the most influential directors of the 20th century, MARSHALL MASON, who worked at the Playhouse in 2001 when he re-created his award-winning Broadway production of Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly. Mason's 12 Broadway productions earned four Tony Awards and five nominations for best director. He was the founding artistic director of New York's Circle in the Square, a theater company dedicated to staging new works — especially those of Lanford Wilson. Tickets: 513-421-3888. ...
KEVIN BARRY's A Note on the Type, staged by the Know Theatre Tribe in 2004, has earned a new play prize from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, where it's getting a student production. Barry tells me there's also a staged reading planned for London next spring at the Darby Playhouse. ...
I often write about graduates of UC's COLLEGE- CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC who move on to exciting performance careers. CCM also trains professional theater designers. Two students were recently recognized by the Ohio Valley Section of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology: LILIANA DUQUE, who just completed her M.F.A., was honored for the set design for Life of Galileo (October 2004), while MATT STEINBRENNER, who graduates next spring with his B.F.A., was singled out for his set for the February 2005 studio theater production of Side Show. ...
SHOWBIZ PLAYERS won a Cincinnati Entertainment Award for the best community theater production of 2002 with Frank Wildhorn's The Civil War. They've just announced that they'll reprise the show at Tall Stacks 2006 a year from now with performances at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Several members of the original production's excellent multi-racial cast have committed to return, but other roles need to be filled. Auditions will be held in July. Info: www.showbizplayers.com . ...
Elsewhere around the region: If you've seen Ensemble Theatre's production of Permanent Collection (see Tom McElfresh's review on page 54), and you're intrigued by plays about the world of visual arts, you might head down I-75 to ACTORS GUILD OF LEXINGTON, which is staging Nicholas Wright's Vincent in Brixton (through Nov. 13), a play about a youthful Vincent Van Gogh living in London. I enjoyed the British production that came to New York two years ago; it's worth seeing. (Info: 859-233-7330) Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, THE PHOENIX THEATRE, which does a good job of finding and staging plays that audiences love, has extended its run of the regional premiere of Urinetown: The Musical through Oct. 23. It was set to close on Oct. 9, but strong demand for tickets has caused the Phoenix to juggle its schedule and run for a few more weeks. Tickets: 317-635-2381.
contact rick Pender: rpender(at)
A very young Harold Pinter, long before the British playwright ever imagined he'd win the 2005 Nobel Prize for literature, including his ominous, insightful plays
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British playwright HAROLD PINTER won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature last week. For nearly 50 years, the politically outspoken writer has created works — including The Room, The Birthday Party and The Caretaker — that use the oblique, truncated, sometimes ominous words of working-class people to explore philosophical positions. The Swedish Academy said, "Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles." He has been outspoken in his opposition to the war in Iraq for the past two years; some speculated that naming his award is in part a reflection of anti-American sentiments in Europe. Be that as it may, Pinter is one of the theater's great writers, and his plays have achieved the status of classics. His most recent work staged for Cincinnati audiences was Betrayal by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival five years ago. It's time for more.
The Cincinnati Playhouse opens Tennessee Williams' classic, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, on Thursday evening (running through Nov. 18). The show, which premiered 50 years ago on Broadway, is staged by one of the most influential directors of the 20th century, MARSHALL MASON, who worked at the Playhouse in 2001 when he re-created his award-winning Broadway production of Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly. Mason's 12 Broadway productions earned four Tony Awards and five nominations for best director.
British playwright HAROLD PINTER won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature last week. For nearly 50 years, the politically outspoken writer has created works — including The Room, The Birthday Party and The Caretaker — that use the oblique, truncated, sometimes ominous words of working-class people to explore philosophical positions. The Swedish Academy said, "Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles." He has been outspoken in his opposition to the war in Iraq for the past two years; some speculated that naming his award is in part a reflection of anti-American sentiments in Europe. Be that as it may, Pinter is one of the theater's great writers, and his plays have achieved the status of classics. His most recent work staged for Cincinnati audiences was Betrayal by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival five years ago. It's time for more. ...
The Cincinnati Playhouse opens Tennessee Williams' classic, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, on Thursday evening (running through Nov. 18). The show, which premiered 50 years ago on Broadway, is staged by one of the most influential directors of the 20th century, MARSHALL MASON, who worked at the Playhouse in 2001 when he re-created his award-winning Broadway production of Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly. Mason's 12 Broadway productions earned four Tony Awards and five nominations for best director. He was the founding artistic director of New York's Circle in the Square, a theater company dedicated to staging new works — especially those of Lanford Wilson. Tickets: 513-421-3888. ...
KEVIN BARRY's A Note on the Type, staged by the Know Theatre Tribe in 2004, has earned a new play prize from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, where it's getting a student production. Barry tells me there's also a staged reading planned for London next spring at the Darby Playhouse. ...
I often write about graduates of UC's COLLEGE- CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC who move on to exciting performance careers. CCM also trains professional theater designers. Two students were recently recognized by the Ohio Valley Section of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology: LILIANA DUQUE, who just completed her M.F.A., was honored for the set design for Life of Galileo (October 2004), while MATT STEINBRENNER, who graduates next spring with his B.F.A., was singled out for his set for the February 2005 studio theater production of Side Show. ...
SHOWBIZ PLAYERS won a Cincinnati Entertainment Award for the best community theater production of 2002 with Frank Wildhorn's The Civil War. They've just announced that they'll reprise the show at Tall Stacks 2006 a year from now with performances at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Several members of the original production's excellent multi-racial cast have committed to return, but other roles need to be filled. Auditions will be held in July. Info: www.showbizplayers.com . ...
Elsewhere around the region: If you've seen Ensemble Theatre's production of Permanent Collection (see Tom McElfresh's review on page 54), and you're intrigued by plays about the world of visual arts, you might head down I-75 to ACTORS GUILD OF LEXINGTON, which is staging Nicholas Wright's Vincent in Brixton (through Nov. 13), a play about a youthful Vincent Van Gogh living in London. I enjoyed the British production that came to New York two years ago; it's worth seeing. (Info: 859-233-7330) Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, THE PHOENIX THEATRE, which does a good job of finding and staging plays that audiences love, has extended its run of the regional premiere of Urinetown: The Musical through Oct. 23. It was set to close on Oct. 9, but strong demand for tickets has caused the Phoenix to juggle its schedule and run for a few more weeks. Tickets: 317-635-2381.
contact rick Pender: rpender(at)citybeat.com