Many people consider Peter Brook to be one of the greatest directors in modern theater history. His reputation is international, global.
And Yale Rep’s got him.
“The Prisoner,” the latest production from the esteemed director and his regular collaborator Marie-Hélène Estienne, is part of Yale Repertory Theatre’s just-announced 2018-19 season. The five-actor play will be in New Haven Nov. 2 to 17 and will also be seen in France, England, Poland, Germany and New York City.
“The Prisoner” is about a man who is “sitting alone in front of a prison.” It raises questions of justice, identity, culture, sanity, redemption and imprisonment.
In a career that has lasted more than 70 years (and which has involved Estienne for around 40 of them), Brook has continually challenged the prevailing ideas of how and why theater is made. His productions of “Marat/Sade,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Mahabharata” are the stuff of legend. His films include “Lord of the Flies” and “Meetings with Remarkable Men.” Brook has lived in France since the 1970s, where his home base is the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. “The Prisoner” is being performed there this month.
Brook is 92 years old. His shows typically take years to create and are carefully adjusted based on audience reactions in different cities. It’s safe to assume “The Prisoner” could be among his last and thus historic for New Haven.
The Yale Rep has announced three other shows it will be doing next season, leaving just one slot on the 2018-19 schedule yet to be determined. Two of the shows are new works by playwrights who studied at the Yale School of Drama. Charise Castro Smith’s “El Huracán,” which opens the season Sept. 28 through Oct. 20, is described as “a powerful tale of family and forgiveness” set in Miami before a major storm. “El Huracán” will be directed by Laurie Woolery, who did the Elizabethan-age fantasy drama “Imogen Says Nothing” at the Yale Rep in 2016.
“Cadillac Crew,” premiering April 26 through May 18, 2019, is by Tori Sampson, whose extraordinary folktale-based social satire “If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka” was part of the Yale School of Drama’s Carlotta Festival last year and will be seen off Broadway next year. “Cadillac Crew” will be directed by Jesse Rasmussen, who was at the Yale School of Drama at the same time as Sampson. Rasmussen was co-artistic director for the memorable 2016 “Seven Deadly Sins” season of the Yale Summer Cabaret.
The sole old play on the Rep season so far is Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” March 15 through April 6, 2019. Director Carl Cofield will be giving the comedy what the Rep is calling a “vibrant Afro-futurist production.” Cofield’s directing resume (he’s also an actor) includes the premiere of the political drama “One Night in Miami” at Denver Center Theatre, the 50th anniversary production of Amiri Baraka’s “Dutchman” for the Classical Theatre of Harlem and the National Black Theatre and Shakespeare projects in New York, Oregon and elsewhere.
The Rep’s 2018-19 season showcases forthright writers and directors shaping new visions. It’s exciting to contemplate and painful to have to wait seven months for it to start. Details at yalerep.org.
ArtFarm Gets Generative
ArtFarm — the Middletown-based ensemble that does those summer “Shakespeare in the Grove” productions, among many other things — is starting a new Generative Theater Institute. According to a press release, the GTI is a three-week “training program in which committed emerging activist artists will cultivate voice, body and breath work as well as mindfulness, meditation and healing practices, while exploring group-generated content and developing original work for performance.” Cool. We sure need more activist artists to emerge.
The first Generative Theater Institute program, led by ArtFarm Artistic Director Marcella Trowbridge, will be July 2 to 22 and focus on “issues and concerns of young women.” The program is open to women aged 17 to 24. It will culminate in public performances July 20 to 22. Details at 860-346-4390 and art-farm.org.
This Year’s Carlotta Crop
Have you met Carlotta? The Yale School of Drama has announced the plays that will be in its 2018 Carlotta Festival: “Tent Revival” by Majkin Holmquist, directed by Rory Pelsue; “The Girl is Chained” by Genne Murphy, directed by Shadi Ghaheri and “Marty and the Hands That Could” by Josh Wilder, directed by Lucie Dawkins.
The festival (named for Eugene O’Neill’s widow Carlotta Monterey) consists of full productions of full-length scripts by student playwrights who are about to graduate from the Yale School of Drama. The plays are directed, designed and performed by other YSD students.
In recent years, a good number of onetime Carlotta plays have been found off-Broadway, at regional theaters or at important new-works festivals. Lindsey Ferrentino’s “Amy and the Orphans,” currently at New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company was seen at the Carlotta Festival in 2016 — with the same performer, Jamie Brewer, in the lead role.
The three plays of the 2018 Carlotta Festival will alternate performances over an eight-day period, May 9 to 16. Details at drama.yale.edu.
Arts & Ideas News
The announcement that Mark Morris Dance Group’s “Pepperland” will be at New Haven’s Arts & Ideas Festival June 21 and 22 bodes well for the latest edition of the fest, which is still transitioning to a new management style (the triumvirate of Chad Herzog, Liz Fisher and Tom Griggs) and is operating with a smaller budget due to the general decrease in national and state arts funding.
The MMDG’s two previous A&I appearances — both chamber operas — were the sort of astonishing-yet-accessible artworks that the festival is know for. “Pepperland” is a dance interpretation of six songs from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” arranged and enhanced by Ethan Iverson formerly of The Bad Plus (the fierce modern classical ensemble that’s played in Connecticut numerous times).
Another A&I event just came to light: “Requiem for an Electric Chair” by Congolese playwright and activist Toto Kisaku. The festival is also reportedly collaborating with New Haven’s Elm Shakespeare Company on a production of “The Merchant of Venice.” The full A&I slate will be revealed in late April. Details at artidea.org.
‘Paradise Blue’ Completes Long Wharf Season
The Long Wharf Theatre filled its empty slot on its 2018-19 season last week. It’s going to be Dominique Morisseau’s “Paradise Blue,” running Nov. 21 through Dec. 16.
I loved Morisseau’s “Sunset Baby” at TheaterWorks last year. Her issue-laden urban dramas are necessary plays for our time, and every one of them deserves to be seen in Connecticut. This one’s set in a Detroit jazz club in 1949.
The Long Wharf has also announced the directors for a couple of next season’s shows. They’re the directors who know these scripts best. Mike Donahue, who has helmed two other key productions of Jen Silverman’s “The Roommates,” will direct it again at Long Wharf (Oct. 10 through Nov. 4). Boo Killebrew’s “Miller, Mississippi” will be directed by Lee Sunday Evans, who oversaw a staged reading of the Southern drama at Long Wharf in 2016.
Details of the Long Wharf season are at longwharf.org.
