Production pictures

We've already taken a look at some of these pictures in book that I've brought to rehearsals. But here they are in color! Besides, i felt that our blog needed pictures of some sort.




These pics are taken from the 2001 production of the play at the New York Theatre Workshop, directed by Erin Mee. Harold and Edith were played by Frederick Neumann and Ruth Maleczech, respectively. The photographs are taken from Charles Mee's website.

Reviews of the original production

Here are a couple of reviews of the original production of FIRST LOVE, directed by Erin Mee. Keep in mind, as you read these that the play was written by Mee knowing that his daughter would direct the production. The actors played Harold and Edith also had an impact on Mee and the physicality and, most importantly, the humor of his play. By adapting the play, I feel that we address the interest of each particular actor in our production and of the creative team behind it, just as they did in this original performance.

New York Times Review- Pay attention to how the critic talks about how the actors int he play "don't appear quite that old". Yes, the actors were significantly older than we are, but it is interesting to note that due to the nature of the play, they look younger anyway. Perhaps we can begin to use this to our advantage: a "robust senior citizenship"!

That Seventies Show- This review pays much more attention to the fact that they are seventy. This article does balance out with the previous one in that it reminds us that despite the rejuvenating humor and physicality of the play, the beauty of the play lies in their age itself.

CurtainUp Review- Notice how this article make some assumptions about the characters that we've hesitated with during our rehearsals. Are Harold and Edith lefties? Perhaps some of these conclusions that the reviewer reaches about the play are due to the differences between our two versions. But it is still interesting to read what the review has to say about the Flower Seller (not that none of the articles refer to her as such!) and Edith in light of what we've discussed at rehearsals.

HOWL

Today we get to rehearse the HOWL scene for the very first time and, in preparation for this, I've been doing a lot of research on Ginsberg's poem and on the impact it had on the generation it addressed. Emily was kind enough to forward me a couple of links to articles that may prove useful for us to take a look at when thinking of the poem. I found a couple of others and I've posted the links to all of them below for us to browse and learn about the importance that this poem had, not only on American poetry, but more importantly on those people like Harold and Edith who see this text as a landmark of their youths.

http://www.rooknet.com/beatpage/writers/ginsberg.html#howl ... 'The Beat Page' provides you a short profile on Ginsberg and a copy of HOWL along with some of his other important poems.

http://www.usm.maine.edu/%7Ejkuenz/391/howl.htm ... This link provides us with a bunch of reviews/reactions to HOWL. I've always been very interested in what Williams Carlos Williams says in the introduction to Ginsberg's poem, so make sure you check that one out.

http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/perloff/ ... Follow the sixth link on this page for a more comprehensive study of HOWL. If you don't have much time to read through the whole thing, head over page 7 where Perloff begins her in-depth discussion of the poem. I'd also pay special attention to her discussion of speech and rhythm in page 10 and of madness in page 13.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/04/DDGKPF12031.DTL ... This short article gives us a good sense of the power that Ginsberg's performances of HOWL had on its audience. It is going to be particularly important for us in this production to understand the rhythm of the poem and, not necessarily by imitating Gingsberg himself, recreate the same narrative strength for this scene.

And if nothing else, at least check out the Wikipedia articles on Ginsberg, the Beats, and/or HOWL. Through all this research, what we should be moving towards is an exploration of the idea of an alternate community that the poem draws out for us. Out of the negligence and the indifference of our world, as Harold and Edith point out in the play, we get HOWL. Out of the same sense of alienation from this negligence that the characters in the play experience, we get a celebration of a community that stands out of the mainstream. More on this tonight at our rehearsal!

Bob Rauschenberg: AMERICA

Along the lines of my previous post, I set out to find some information/links that would be useful in terms of Mee's work with Rauschenberg. I found that the A.R.T.'s mainpage for their production of "bobrauschenbergamerica" this past fall served as a rather useful portal. It's got pictures of director Anne Bogart's productionn (she was the one who created this piece along with Mee and in association with the SITI company), videos, and reviews or the play. The link for that is:

http://www.amrep.org/bob

Pay particular attention to the video that the A.R.T. prepared as an introduction to the production. It's about a 10 minute mini-documentary. If you get to see it, pay paticular attention to Bogart's reference to Rauschenberg's technique of "assemblage". This video is a great introductiory resource if you want to lear a bit about Bob's collages (it's got some videos/pics of his pieces), Mee's play inspired by his work (again, the clips from the production are great) and about the collaborative process that was necessary to create this piece. If nothing else, at least take a look at the video! Here's the link in case you can't find the on the other page:

http://www.amrep.org/bob/av/video22MB.mov

Hope you enjoy it!

The Rauschenberg Effect

We've been talking a lot about the work of Magritte, but I think it is also important for us to remember one of Charles Mee's original and most important influences on his writing: Robert Rauschenberg. Not only did Mee devote one of the his most famous plays to the work of this artists, but he often mentions in interviews how the work of this American collage artists and painter truly influenced the structure of his plays. The non-lineary, the fragmentation, the brokeness, and that shattered effect that all of Mee's plays have is a true reflection of the way Rauschenberg creates his pieces. Even the appropriation of culture and of other artists' work can be seen in these.

Below are a couple of links that I believe will be useful for us to take a look at in our attempt to understand how Mee writes and what is the effect that he wants to produce for the entire piece. In the end, our audience should have a similar experience watching our play as they do if they went into the PMA to take a look at one of Bob's collages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rauschenberg- The always reliable, always useful Wikipedia article on the artist. It's a good summary of his life and work with one or two cool pics.

http://www.artnet.com/artist/14005/robert-rauschenberg.html- A collection of 199 of Bob's pieces. The most complete collection of his work I've been able to find online up to now.

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4823&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1- The MoMA's collection of Bob's paintings. These are some of his most improtant and relevant works for our purpsoses as they give us a clear sense what what Mee was interested in.

Useful Links: Magritte's Work and Its Impact

Following today's discussion, I thought it might be useful to take a look at Magritte's place in our society (online, if nowhere else). If Mee wants us to inhabit "the world of Magritte," then maybe we should look at the ways in which that world is already part of our own. We've talked a lot about presenting familiar ideas in unfamiliar ways, in unusual proportions, from odd perspectives. To what extent is that going to be difficult or unusual for us? How much of Magritte's style/approach to art and thought has already infiltrated our culture?

What will it mean to step inside the world of Magritte, not merely to look at it in terms of the rest of the world? Can we bring ourselves up to it, not just bring it down to us?

I've done some Googling and found a bunch of images both by Magritte and inspired by him. Here's a list of sites I think are worth checking out:

René Magritte works - a very large collection, with full details, at a site called Olga's Gallery

New Yorker cartoons related to Magritte at Cartoonbank.com - lots of food for thought re: social/cultural impact of his artwork

More cartoons related to Magritte's work, thanks to CartoonStock.com - political impact suggested here

Another large collection of art by Magritte, care of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium Catalogue - much to see, but somewhat less accessible

The Adman Magritte - an article that includes some more fun Magritte cartoons and also examines the relationship between Magritte and pop culture (there's a sitting coffin, so I have to link to this!)

About the production

FRIST LOVE
by Charles L. Mee
adapted by Jorge J. Rodríguez

Bryn Mawr College
Goodhart Hall Lobby
April 12-14, 2007

Directed by Jorge J. Rodríguez

Cast:
Emily Ambash
Abby Sayre
Jorge J. Rodríguez

Set designer and stage manager:
Vanessa "Brooklyn" Poggioli

Produced by the Bryn Mawr College Theater Department