Hindsight

Since I moved to NY, I haven’t been able to attend all the Actor’s Shakespeare Project shows like I used to (for past shows click here and scroll past the honeymoon stuff). However, I did manage to get to their current production of Antony and Cleopatra. It was in an actual theater, unlike many of their shows. I think ASP perhaps failed to overcome some of the problems of pacing and structure in this play, and it probably didn’t help in this case that they were using a small number of actors to play a large number of incidental characters on both sides of a war. It was a bit hard to follow at times. However, where this play really shines is in the depiction of the two title characters — and in particular the complex character of Cleopatra, which was played VERY effectively by Paula Plum. Also noteworthy was their “reenactment” of the naval battle of Actium.

The show is up for just a few more days, so hurry if you want to catch it.

Unfortunately for me this wasn’t a dress rehearsal, it was a regular performance, and they kept the lights very low, so basically (except for the first drawing which I did before the lights went down) these are all blind contour drawings. The thing about blind contours is that they can be pretty interesting, but are seldom flattering. So with apologies to the actors, here’s what I got.

Let’s start with a bit of off-color humor, eh what?

Day 6

We started at the Globe Theater, and took the entertaining, actor-led tour.

They were setting up for their production of Macbeth, inspired by Gustav Dore’s etchings of Dante’s Inferno.

We went back to the Tate Modern, this time to actually look at the art. I have to say it was a bit of a disappointment, even though I loves me some modern art. They do have a great bookstore, though. This first shot is a bit of found art by Alison.

After that we went to see Warhorse. Absolutely amazing play based on a YA novel about a horse drafted into the army in WW1, just when cavalry became obsolete in the face of modern war technology. It’s supposedly coming to NY soon, so go see it if you get a chance.

Day 7

The (aforementioned wonder-family) the Gormleys took us to Greenwich to see the Christopher Wren buildings of the former Naval College campus, the National Maritime Museum, and the Royal Observatory where they mark the Meridian for Greenwich Mean Time.

That last pic is Zula the wolfhound, who is incredibly sweet, and who pretty much looks exactly like my drawings of Odysseus’ faithful dog Argos, in The Odyssey (coming out October 12!) When we got home I did a few drawings for the Gormleys of Zula, Gabriella, and Mary Clare. I also played on their trampoline!

Day 8

This was the day we were supposed to fly home, but our flight got canceled due to a certain unpronounceable volcano in Iceland. We were flying American, and they handled the whole thing very poorly. They didn’t cancel us until we were at the gate, and made us walk all the way back to the check-in to reschedule. They tried to put us on the same flight the next day, but we asked a lot of annoying questions and eventually learned that a 757 cannot carry enough fuel to fly around the ash cloud, so we got ourselves put on a different flight with a larger plane (a 767).

After that, we headed back into the city, counting our blessings that we had a free place to stay and nothing super-urgent to rush home to. We didn’t have time to do a whole lot, but we went to visit the Museum of Natural History, which has a lot of cool stuff displayed in an absolutely magnificent building. I think the last drawing I did might be my favorite from the trip.

(click to make larger)

After that we went to see the Peter Pan sculpture in Kensington Gardens, then headed home by way of the opera house.

We also saw this cool wall of colored pencils.

Day 9

Finally we flew out. All transatlantic flights were being diverted around the volcanic ash cloud, so the got an extra couple of hours in the air (boo!), and some pretty spectacular views of Greenland (magnificent and inhospitable!).

And there you have it — our wonderful honeymoon in Paris & London.

Now you’ll have to excuse me for a bit, as I have to find an apartment in NY, move into it, set up my new studio, and finish a little book I’m working on by October — plus a bunch of marketing stuff I need to do for the Odyssey, plus polishing off a proposal for the next book. Yikes! You may not hear much from me for a while.

Here are the sketches I did last weekend at ASP’s Timon of Athens. I didn’t add color to any of them because the costumes are basically all black and white. And because I didn’t have time, which is also why I’m not going to write a full review. I basically agree with the two reviews I linked to previously.

Excellent performances from the whole cast — depicted below — Steven Barkhimer, Daniel Berger-Jones, Allyn Burrows, Joel Colodner, Michelle Dowd, John Kuntz, Will Lyman, and Bobbie Steinbach).

I just saw ASP’s Othello. Unfortunately I missed the dress rehearsal for this show, so it was just a regular performance. Well, actually, it was a daytime performance primarily for local schools. It was kind of neat seeing Shakespeare with a bunch of high school students. I could sense their confusion at times, but for the most part they got into it. They were most audibly impressed by the fight scenes (very well-done) and the kissing scenes.

This is an emotionally powerful performance. Jason Bowen has the title role, and he starts off as a very mild and genteel Othello, but once Iago turns his mind to jealousy, his wrath is palpable. At the intermission the audience already knows Othello has fallen wholly into Iago’s trap, and it becomes almost an exercise in masochism to return for the second half and experience the tragic conclusion, wherein dread and pathos for Desdemona’s fate is amped up higher and higher before — well, if you haven’t already seen or read it I guess I shouldn’t spoil the ending, but it’s a Shakespearian tragedy.

The set design is interesting, but odd.  There’s a weirdly-shaped backdrop that has lines radiating out like cracks, not just across its surface, but out across the whole theater space (above the actors’ heads — see first two sketches). One of the kids sitting near me asked “what are those lines for?”, so at least somebody was paying attention. Most of the platforms are pointy triangles, and have more triangles cut out of them. I read it as a cracked-mirror metaphor, the whole performance being enacted in the cracked reflection of Othello’s broken love/trust. (Not bad, for what I’m sure is a tight budget for set design.)

As usual for ASP, the acting is excellent across the board. Ken Cheeseman does a great job with the juicy role of Iago, and I especially enjoyed Doug Lockwood as the inept Roderigo. It’s somewhat long, at almost 3 hours, and the parking is kind of tough around there. But the show is worth it. It only runs through this weekend, though, so hurry if you want to see it.

On Wednesday I went to see Sleep No More for the second time. Still great. Still confusing, still almost no narrative, but still spooky as hell, with dancing that still blows my mind. I’ve done aikido for 10 years, and if I tried some of the stuff these folks are doing, I would break numerous bones.

I mentioned previously that this show is (sort of) Macbeth mashed up with Hitchcock’s Rebecca. You can watch Rebecca on YouTube, which I did. It’s pretty good — the story is just a watered-down version of Jane Eyre, but it’s Hitchcock, so it plays out well. Here are a few sketches I did while I was watching.

Then on Saturday we went to see The Donkey Show, completing our experience of the ART’s Shakespeare Exploded festival. We’d heard great things about this show. It was a TON of fun. Basically the equation is Dance Club + attractive half-naked dancers + a very rough approximation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The last part of the equation was probably the weakest. The rendition of Midsummer as simplistic enough that I think we would have had about as much fun with just the dancing and the eye candy. Certainly there were none of Shakespeare’s words in evidence. It was really just a highbrow excuse to ogle shapely torsos and dance for a few hours. Which is important, because that’s the kind of excuse I need sometimes! In summary, Art: B-, Entertainment: A+ (if you like dancing).

I only did a few quick sketches at the beginning. Because, really, it’s more fun to watch people dance than to try to draw them.

I went to the dress rehearsal of ASP’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and did lots of sketches. I’ve seen this play so many times,  that I found myself focusing less on the story and more on the differences and surprises in this production. The main plot is solid and moves along well, with good performances and some very nice blocking in the “forest” scenes (read: urban jungle), but what really stand out are the scenes with the players. John Kuntz and Robert Walsh are two of my favorite ASP actors, and they are hilarious as Peter Quince and Nick Bottom, along with their troupe of misfit tradesmen-actors. The end of the play is a masterpiece of comic staging. I also liked Marianna Bassham as a punked-out Titania.

I’m trying to do less sketches per page, so that each piece stands on its own a bit more. Consequently I filled a prodigious number of pages. I’ll put a few highlights above the cut, and the rest below, for those who are interested.

more below the cut:

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For those who aren’t aware, the American Repertory Theater is in the midst (or really toward the end) of a program they call “Shakespeare Exploded.” I previously blogged about the reading of Robert Brustein’s play Mortal Terror, but that reading series is the sideline to the three main shows, which are: The Donkey Show, a dance club musical remix of Midsummer Night’s Dream; Best of Both Worlds, a gospel / R&B musical version of Winter’s Tale, and Sleep No More, a sort of… well, not a play, and not Macbeth, but… more on that in a moment.

I bought tickets to all three shows, and I’ve now seen Sleep No More and Best of Both Worlds. Below the cut is my full review, with some mild spoilers and more detailed advice. Here is the summary: unless you are easily freaked out AND really don’t like art that freaks you out, DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND GO SEE SLEEP NO MORE. Bring someone with you, but be aware that you may be separated in the course of the evening. Also you will be walking around, not sitting in a theater. DO NOT waste your time on Best of Both Worlds (unless you like really cheesy imitation Broadway stuff —  and don’t say I didn’t warn you).

Unfortunately it’s too dark to draw in Sleep No More, but these blind contours came out okay. More drawings below the cut.

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I have heard absolutely fantastic things about all of the performances that are part of the ART’s “Shakespeare Exploded” festival — http://www.americanrepertorytheater.org/events/festival/shakespeare-exploded — and I am planning to see them all, but events have so far conspired against me. However, I did get to the reading of a new play by Robert Brustein, called Mortal Terror. This is his second play about the life of William Shakespeare, and as I have been seriously contemplating the possibility of writing & drawing a graphic novel on that very topic, I was keen to see what he has done with it. So keen, in fact, that I went out and bought his first play about Shakespeare, The English Channel. I was really hoping for a Q&A afterward, but no such luck.

I suppose I’ll give you a full review of both plays, but put it below the cut for those who don’t care or don’t want spoilers. In the meantime, here are some sketches I did of the (fabulous) actors reading Mortal Terror.

They are: Stafford Clark-Price as Will Shakespeare, John Kuntz as John Marston, Tommy Derrah as Ben Jonson, Jeremy Geidt as Sir John Harrington, Michael Hammond as King James, Merritt Janson as Queen Anne, Ian Kerch as Robert Catesby, and Wesley Savick as Guy Fawkes, with Laura Liberge reading the stage directions.

Apologies if my attempt at a likeness is unflattering to any of these fine actors. I really enjoyed their performances.

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I went to the dress rehearsal for ASP’s Taming of the Shrew on Tuesday, and it was huge fun. I really like what they’ve done with this show. Die-hard feminist detractors of this play will probably still find it lacking in redemptive qualities, but Sarah Newhouse is a strong Kate, and there is a fairly clear “this-story-is-a-male-invention” frame around the whole thing that helps. ASP continues their strong tradition of musical experimentation, lively choreography, and excellent comic performances.

Here are my sketches – somewhat but not entirely chronological, because I was jumping between different digital and traditional media.

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – Photoshop 1b

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – Photoshop 1c

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – Photoshop 2b

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – Illustrator 1

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – traditional 2

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – traditional 3

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – traditional 4

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – traditional 5

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – traditional 6

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – traditional 7

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – traditional 8

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – traditional 11

Taming of the Shrew sketch by Gareth Hinds – traditional 12

I went to see ASP’s Much Ado About Nothing the other night. Had a great time, except for navigating to Roxbury. I really love that the seating for this play is arranged around tables, cabaret-style. Here are some of my sketches of the performance:

Sketch 3 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds

Sketch 6 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds

Sketch 7 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds

Sketch 8 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds

Sketch 9 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds

Sketch 10 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds

Sketch 11 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds

Sketch 12 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds

Sketch 13 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds

Sketch 14 of ASP’s Much Ado by Gareth Hinds