Lend Me a Tenor
Huron Playhouse
July 1998
Ken McCoy
Lend Me a Tenor
General Gorgeous
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Radio Gals
An Evening of Improv
Crimes of the Heart
The Theatre Exchange/El intercambio teatral
A Midsummer Night's Dream
I Hate Hamlet
The Miss Firecracker Contest
Good Woman of Setzuan
The purpose of this portfolio is to attempt to give some flavor of my creative activity as a director. Since theatrical performance is by its nature ephemeral, browsers of these pages must call upon their imaginations for a more complete picture of what the actual production was like (unless of course, they were in the audience). All of the color photos reflect actual staging and composition from the show. Most of the black-and-white photos were press photos. I took all of the photographs, which are also artistic works, albeit in a lesser way. The only exception is the Lend Me A Tenor cover photo which, although taken by the Huron Playhouse staff photographer, was set up per my instructions.
In this play, the head of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, Saunders, and his assistant Max are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their guest artist, the great tenor Tito Morelli, who has a reputation as a drunk and womanizer. Max shoulders the burden of caring for Tito until the night's performance of Verdi's Otello. Unfortunately this includes accidentally giving him too many sleeping pills and too much wine. Mistakenly interpreting Tito's unconsciousness as suicide, Saunders forces Max to climb into Tito duplicate Otello costume and sing the part for him so they don't have to refund the ticket money. When Tito wakes up, gets into his costume and runs to the theatre, chaos ensues through typical farce elements such as mistaken identity, seduction, coordinated entrances and exits, and slapstick technique.
This kind of play is difficult to direct, because of the precision of the timing: actors must exercise exact control while appearing to inhabit chaos.
This was a revival of the 1992 production, which I had previously directed at the Huron Playhouse. It was a great honor to be chosen to direct the show again as part of the Playhouse's 50th anniversary season, which had a "greatest hits of the Playhouse" theme.
This show is a spoof on comic book superheroes, very funny and full of physical activity, including flying (well, jumping), stage combat (swordplay, tumbling, martial arts), and special effects (smoke and flashes).
General Gorgeous has just completed his secret hideout - a penthouse/cave high inside a mountain - where he can keep tabs on crime in his city. All that remains for him to be officially inducted into the League of Superheroes is to engage and defeat a supervillain. His visiting parents, retired superheroes Roar and Mouse Woman have under their protection the "darn blessed secret" which has the power to destroy the universe. So Gorgeous sets a trap, luring the supervillain the Blue Mutant and his sexy henchwomen the Pink Mutations to his lair with the Secret, so that he might defeat them. At first, the Blue Mutant overcomes Gorgeous and kidnaps his parents, hiding them in a tortuous "dimensional sink" to wring the Secret from them. Eventually, Gorgeous triumphs through new age philosophy, his parents are returned, his mistress runs off with the reformed villain, love wins out, and they all sing and dance together at the end.
This high-energy show was chosen to give students experience with the "physical" theatre - the actor as athlete. Its postmodern satire targets New Age philosophy, environmentalism, ethics, and the contradictions of the "good vs. evil" paradigm.
Set in the mid 1780s (on the eve of the French Revolution), Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a compelling drama based on the novel of Choderlos de Laclos where sexual game-playing is elevated to a vindictive art. It is the original stage play from which at least three film versions have been adapted.
The main thrust of the play's plot concerns Valmont's efforts to seduce the married and very beautiful Mme. de Tourvel, who is the very model of virtue and morality. Unfortunately for Valmont, in his long and difficult courtship, he falls truly in love with her. When Merteuil discovers Valmont's genuine love for another woman besides herself, she is moved to seek revenge for what she sees as a betrayal.
This play, written in 1985 and set in the late 1780s, was chosen to give students experience in working with "period style" (costume, makeup, movement, etc.) while making the style accessible to them through contemporary writing. (It was often stated in rehearsal that the play was more about the 1980s than the 1780s). There was also a sword duel of significant length that required some specialized training. The production was coordinated with the Acting III course, which covered Restoration period/Comedy of manners style.
This new musical comedy by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick takes place in Cedar Ridge Arkansas, in the parlor of Hazel Hunt's home, in the late 1920s - during prohibition, but before the Stock market crash. Hazel is the town's music teacher who, upon receiving a 500 watt Western Electric AM transmitter for a retirement present, begins broadcasting as WGAL. She is joined in this endeavor by the "Hazelnuts," composed chiefly of her singers from the local chapter of the Sisters of Pythias, and a collection of town musicians who wander by from time to time.
Amateurs in the true sense of the word (in this case, "lovers of music"), Hazel and the Hazelnuts provide weather reports, gossip, baseball scores, community announcements, and most importantly, a wealth of whimsical musical numbers that range in style from ragtime to swing, from crooning to bluegrass, from the art song to the Broadway show tune. They also finance their enterprise by selling Hunt's Horehound Compound, a dubious brew made from Grandpa Hunt's time-proven recipe - it cures dyspepsia and strips floor wax.
When the investigator O.B. Abbott pays them a visit, he is horrified at their technique of choosing random broadcast frequencies as they search for a "clear channel." Unfortunately for him, he is also love-stricken with Gladys Fritts, the Hazelnuts' "masked soprano." Torn between love and duty, Abbott flees on his motorcycle pursued by Gladys, who turns his flight into an elopement. The two are brought back to Hazel's parlor at the point of her ancient shotgun to immortalize their love on the airwaves. Abbott contributes his talent as a tenor and accordionist the group, and leaves his job to join the "radio gals" permanently.
Radio Gals was a very new musical at the time; our production was approximately the fifth in its history. It has since experienced dozens of productions all over the country. It was an experiment in collaboration with voice faculty and students from the School of Music. As it turns out, the show's off-Broadway producer lives in nearby Spruce Creek and was able to fly in the playwright and one of the original cast members to see the production and meet the students. The play was discovered through internet research, and email correspondence with the author/composer allowed us to make changes in the writing to suit our production demands.
Probably the most important adjustment had to do with casting. The play was written to be performed a by a small cast who act, sing, and play very specific musical instruments; the talent pool at Stetson did not allow for this arrangement exactly as written, so the main creative task for the director was to make the play work by separating the actor/singers from the band. This resulted not only in giving the musicians lots of stage business and writing some lines for them, but also in giving the show its first choreography for several numbers, since actors who were not playing musical instruments now had to dance. It was the first time the play had been performed in this manner.
An Evening of Improv was a performance/demonstration created from theatre games and techniques practiced by the Improvisation Workshop, a group of students which continued to meet regularly during the 1997-98 year.
A four-week workshop on improvisation techniques yielded this "public demonstration" in the form of an improvisational competition or "game show" format (known as TheatreSports in Australia and elsewhere). The Improvisation Workshop continued to meet regularly during the 1997-98 year, led by a group of students who were able not only to perform on and off campus, but who also earned some money and recognition for their efforts.
Set in a small town in southern Mississippi in October of 1974, Crimes of the
Heart concerns the relationship between three sisters and their coming to terms with the difficulties they face in life. Lenny, the eldest, has taken care of her ailing grandfather for the past several years, who is now in the hospital. Meg, her younger sister, returns home from Hollywood, where she has been unsuccessfully pursuing a career as a singer, to defend their youngest sister Babe, who is accused of attempting to murder her husband, a prominent politician. As Babe's motivations for shooting her husband become clear, the sisters relive their family history, complete with sibling rivalries, lost loves, and leafing through the family picture album. Gradually, the sisters rally together, and gain the strength from each other they need to survive the occasional bad day and change their lives for the better.
This show was chosen to give students an opportunity to work on an intimate play with a very naturalistic setting and acting style. The concrete scene design (the kitchen of a large farmhouse: sink with running water, refrigerator, oven, etc.) gave the students a firm base upon which to draw to make real emotional contact with their characterizations.
This was the performance element of the Hollis International Scholars pilot project, in which students investigated the Spanish-language theatre of Miami and Puerto Rico as both audience and performers. The project as a whole was co-conducted by Dr. Iliana Mankin and myself (see the Hollis International Scholars Theatre Project page for more information and photos).
This production consisted of four one-act plays: two in English, one in Spanish, and one bi-lingual play by student Mark Kenneally.
La historia del hombre que se convirtió en perro (The Story of the Man Who Turned into a Dog), by the Argentinian playwright Osvaldo Dragún, is an absurdist piece with shades of Kafka in which an unemployed man is forced to take a job as a guard dog. It was chosen to represent the area of Latin American drama, and was performed in the original Spanish.
15 Minute Hamlet by Tom Stoppard, is a condensation of Shakespeare's masterpiece into fifteen minutes; as expected, it is tumultuous with plenty of laughs. This piece was chosen to represent contemporary English-language theatre, and was performed in English.
Libaciones (Libations) is a tongue-in-cheek piece written by one of the actor-participants, Mark Kenneally, in which a bartender discovers a double meaning behind his customers' consistent loss of consciousness. As an original work, this piece was meant to represent a more personal perspective on the contemporary American theatre. It was a truly bi-lingual play, having been performed in a mix of English and Spanish.
The final play, and the one most directly relevant to the project, is The Great American Justice Game by the Emmy-Award-winning documentary film-maker, historian, and playwright Miguel González-Pando. The play is a keen satire of ethnicity in white America, experienced through a grotesque parody of "Court-TV" in which a young Hispanic woman is put on trial for her use of the Spanish language. The author is a prominent member of Miami's Hispanic community, and a member of the Latino Studies faculty at Florida International University. These Hollis International Scholars have received special permission to give this play its first full production.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most original plays, combining elements from several different sources, and inventing some of his own. In the play, four lovers escape to the wilderness to flee the harsh law that keeps them apart. They soon find themselves in a realm of enchantment and confusion, as they become subject to the whims of the creatures who rule the Fairy kingdom. With the juice from a magic flower, the four youths' love interests are made to change from one to another, causing them great confusion in this comedy of errors.
There is a mystical side to this play as well. The fairies of Shakespeare's imagination are not all gossamer winged flower-dwellers. Some are goblin, trolls, and elves, and not always kind to the unfortunate mortals who wander into their forest at night. A dream may also become a nightmare, and this aspect of this play was given due treatment in the Stover production.
There were two conceptual settings for the play. The city-state of Athens represented order, law, and tradition, while the forest underneath (or more accurately, behind) represented the chaotic, primal, supernatural fabric of human personalities.
The visual design of this production emphasized the postmodern penchant for collage and disunity. The King of the Fairies was reminiscent of a Druid, the Queen of an Arabian dancer, Puck of a Pan-like creature who emerged from underneath the stage to deliver her(!) epilogue. The other fairies were costumed in a similarly eclectic manner, some having been allowed to design and construct their own. The scene design was a combination of a fairy playground and Stonehenge. Traditional Celtic and British folk music was also employed.
One of the remarkable aspects of this production was the great strides taken by the student in their acting. It is not unusual for one or two actors in a production to "find themselves" in a role; in this case, the number of students who connected with the material and demonstrated marked improvement was truly extraordinary.
This play centers on the plight of a famous TV actor, Andrew Rally, who has accepted the role of Hamlet, but is uncertain of his own ability to act Shakespeare. Luckily, he is aided by the ghost of the great Shakespearean actor John Barrymore, who returns to earth to give Andrew some pointers. Torn between desire and fear, Andrew must accept the challenge of playing the greatest role in the English-speaking theatre.
I Hate Hamlet is magical and enchanted, yet farcical and fast-paced: fairy tale meets stand-up comedy. It contains all the tricks of the trade that make the theatre exciting: swordplay, foreign accents, seductions, the play-within-the-play, and lots of big acting.
This production gave students experience working with fragmented scene design and special effects.
Set in the small town of Brookhaven, Mississippi, The Miss Firecracker Contest centers on the efforts of a young woman to win the local Fourth of July beauty pageant. Aiming to redeem her tarnished reputation and leave Brookhaven "in a crimson blaze of glory," Carnelle Williams competes against other misfits in the town. She is assisted by a gallery of quirky characters that includes a visually impaired seamstress, her lunatic cousin "with a checkered past," a former winner of the contest (also her cousin), a mesmerizing balloon seller, and "the ugliest girl in town." The play is an inspirational tale of an idealistic young woman who follows her dream despite gossiping neighbors, a crowded dressing room, and the fact that the odds are against her.
In addition to directing, I also designed scenery and lights for this production.
The Good Woman of Setzuan is a modern parable for the theatre by the renowned German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. Set in the fictitious "half-westernized City of Setzuan," the play questions the possibility of being "good" in a hostile and competitive world. It is a humorous and controversial play, challenging conventional perceptions of morality and ethics through overt theatricality.
In The Good Woman of Setzuan three gods have been sent to earth to find a good person, so that humankind may be saved from destruction. When the "good woman" Shen Te offers them shelter for the night on her floor, the gods respond by giving Shen Te money and ordering her to go forth and perform acts of goodness. Shen Te is soon overwhelmed by relatives and acquaintances who wish to share in her new-found wealth. She is left with no alternative but to occasionally assume the identity of a male cousin, Mr. Shui Ta, who can make the necessary "tough" business decisions without disappointing the gods.
This was a deconstructive staging of the play, which featured an all-female cast to highlight the issues of gender in the play. This concept was based on Shen Te's gender transformations, which equate maleness with brutality, cruelty, and evil, and femaleness with such positive values as charity, kindness, and love. As with many of Brecht's plays, it is very cavalier in its sense of time and place; most critics find the play to be more about life in Berlin than in China. The Stover production expanded this very loose notion of "Oriental" with changes reflected in costume and makeup: some were Japanese Geisha with painted faces, one woman playing a male character sported a "Fu Manchu" mustache, most (but not all) male characters wore masks. It was a potpourri of theatrical elements and styles, with influences from several different kinds of Asian theatres, popular music traditions, acting styles, and scenographic designs.
As a theorist, Brecht was devoted to creating what he called the "alienation effect" -- that is, preventing the audience from surrendering their intellect to the emotional manipulation inherent in Aristotelian theatre and Stanislavskian acting. In order to achieve this in the Stover production, staging was very symbolic and iconographic. For example, a courtship scene between the Good Woman and her Pilot was played under a tree in the rain, with the tree represented by a ladder and two actors dribbling confetti from a bucket marked with the Chinese character for "rain." Other techniques were used to disrupt the audience expectations necessary for Brecht's concept of "alienation." For example, any poem inserted into the dialogue was preceded by an off-stage finger cymbal (ding) and followed by a wood block (clock) before dialogue resumed; another example was that each major scene's title was announced before it began by randomly chosen characters using a movie slate and bullhorn. Other alienation elements included a small puppet playing Grandfather, whose lines were spoken (or sung!) by whichever actor happened to be holding him at the time, a model airplane being run across the stage as the actors gazed into the air, and a giant Mardi-Gras head as part of a priest's costume.
In addition to directing, I also designed scenery and lights for this production.
