Friday, December 14, 2007

A note and a plug or two.

What a great ice storm.

The trees looked awesome, though it seemed rather dangerous walking around the neighborhood as everything melted.

It's Xmas. A very busy time of year for musicians.

If you have the time...check out one or both of the following:

December 16th at 3PM at St. John's Lutheran (off the one ways in Rock Island near the Moline Border) there will be a "Warm Winter" concert featuring Hersong and with the Bethel Wesley UMC, Moline Bell Choir as guests. Admission is free with a blanket donation. This is to benefit Churches United.

December 22nd at 3PM (popular time) at Bethel Wesley UMC (1201 13th street, Moline, IL)
There will be an "Informal Christmas Recital". An hour, or perhaps a little more, of Christmas music. All kinds. Sung and played. If there is time and the spirit...perhaps a sing-along. Come as you are. Admission is free. Refreshments to follow

and While we're at it:

The Prenzie Players will have a fund-raiser on January 4th 8-11PM at the Masonic Temple (420 18th Street) in Rock Island.

And the I've added new products to the Capitalist corner.
It's right where capitalists belong at the bottom of this page.

1 comment:

derekmichaelwest said...

Hey, I saw your comment on the RC Reader website. I tried posting my comments a few times, but it never went through...so here it is. I wrote this when the production was still running, so it's written in present tense. Thanks so much, derek

* * * *

Thanks so much for your comment. I wish you could see the production, as I’m pretty sure it would answer some, if not all, of the questions you bring up.

I would never use the atrocities of the Holocaust to “bump up” the emotion for any show. The emotion just happens because the actors are human. In rehearsals and performances, there are times in which the actors become overwhelmed with emotion and sometimes they don’t. That’s what makes real theatre. The performances are not contrived - they are natural – and that’s what makes for an amazing theatrical experience.

The research I’ve done for the production is extensive. In brief, Ferenc Molnar, who wrote the play “Liliom” which the play Carousel is based off of, was a Hungarian-born playwright and moved to New York in 1935, right as the Nazi Party was coming to power. While Molnar’s original 1909 production of “Liliom” was a dismal failure, the play received productions all over Europe in the 1930s and 40s – including Theresienstadt. Having some of the roles “played” by Nazis had crossed my mind, but that never happened historically in the world of Terezin.

I have no clue if those that perished during the Holocaust would want to be remembered this way, but I have had many audience members come up to me after performances and say they didn’t even know things like this went on. If our production opens the eyes of one individual over the course of two weekends of performances, I feel we have done our job.

I do feel confident that our production serves a purpose, all while staying true to the Rodgers score and Hammerstein text. As a director, I think it’s my job to make sure that today’s theatre has a direct relation to today’s audiences. The original production of Carousel was written in a different time for a different audience. Audiences in 2007 are different than those in 1945 (when Carousel opened in New York). Bottom line, I wish you could see the production. I am extremely proud of it.