Jun 04
A Scene from 'The Last Ninety Minutes in the Life of Nikoa Tesla'; Sam Bowman
explains Phoebe Holtzman, her face lit by a loose lightbulb that hangs from a string above her head. “Production has been considered in every element of the show.” Bare, hanging bulbs are just one element of the set design in “The Last Ninety Minutes in the Life of Nikola Tesla,” a new play written by University of Chicago fourth-year Augie Praley and directed by Holtzman at University Theater.
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Mar 12
Bobby Strong's revolt; photo by Daniel Forbush
The musical, which won three Tony Awards, is an unsettling, zesty, and genuinely funny send-up of Broadway hits such as “Annie,” “Evita,” “Les Misérables,” “West Side Story,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” It explores elements of dramaturgy and spits out a side-splitting caricature of its results, often blatantly drawing attention to the fact. (“Nothing can kill a show like too much exposition.”) This is one play that certainly doesn’t ask you to suspend your disbelief. It makes its meta attitude clear from the get-go, as a character after the overture welcomes the audience to, “Urinetown. Not the place, of course. The musical.”
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Jun 05
“Bat Boy: The Musical” is a play based on a recurring feature in the Weekly World News tabloid about a boy who grows up in a cave isolated from mankind with bat-like features—sharp, pointy ears and fangs—until he is discovered in his hideout. The plot of “Bat Boy” is very much like that of French author Michel Tournier’s 1967 novel, “Friday or The Other Island,” a spin on the original “Robinson Crusoe,” where Crusoe finds an uncivilized human being who can’t communicate (he can neither talk nor read), gives him a name, Friday, and chooses to “raise him” as a man. Read the rest of this entry »
May 22
A pale beam of light washes over an elevated throne, lending it a sickly glow that cuts through the darkness. We will see many swords, but appropriately, this glistening prize is the only object remaining onstage throughout the grotesque affair. It is both the catalyst for the ensuing butchery and its silent witness. Slowly the players emerge, and fall into stylized stances around the throne, as a menacing, hunchbacked Richard addresses the audience in his famous monologue: “Now is the winter of our discontent…” Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 24
College was supposed to be a land of both social and academic opportunity. To a large extent it is, even at a work-intensive school like the University of Chicago. But how exactly these opportunities present themselves, and how ardently we protect them and involve ourselves, is a more complicated tale. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 21
If you were to approach Sean Graney out of context, he could pass quite easily as another nerd here at the University of Chicago—if one could ignore the soul patch and bald head for a moment. As I was fumbling around with the tape recorder, the easygoing director, dressed in a hoodie, whipped out a four-by-four Rubik’s cube. “I can do a regular one in about 1:20, but this one is harder to figure out,” he explains. “In high school, I didn’t do sports or anything else…so that’s how I got involved in theater, and I just fell in love with it.” Read the rest of this entry »
