I'm noticing a lot of people are getting here by searching for my name in conjunction with Eastern Michigan Univeristy. As I seem to have only mentioned it in passing, I suppose I should plug the gig and talk a bit about it. So here goes.
Next week I'm heading to the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area to direct Romeo & Juliet for EMU. The production will be modern dress, with actors carrying both swords and firearms (it's a thing – the Prince and Paris will be the only ones packing heat). It'll be a seventeen person cast - twelve men, five women.
At our first production meeting last week (I snuck into town for a weekend for the meeting and to play with my friend Dennis), I sketched out my take on R&J, which I've outlined in this blog ad nauseum – the structural elements of Comedy, not Tragedy, the desire to flout audience expectations by sticking to the text rather than playing to everyone's common perception of the play as this great romance. To me, a great romance is where the characters survive to enjoy each other.
The show will perform Oct. 10, 11, 16, 17, 18 at 7pm, Oct. 12 at 3pm, Oct. 14 & 15 at 10am (school matinees), and Oct. 18 at 2pm. All performances will be in the Quirk Theatre on EMU's campus, part of the celebration of the theatre's fiftieth anniversary.
While I'm at EMU, I'll be teaching a little stage combat and maybe some creative writing, plus a few lectures and whatnot – we're still hammering all that out. Meanwhile, my wife will be playing Ruth in Blithe Spirit, directed by Susan Morris, cast alongside my lifelong friend, Mr. Jeffrey Stringer. That'll go up at the end of October.
So, for all those students frantically trying to figure me out, that's the haps.
