We have a lot of planning to get ready for next season - and Artistic Director Peter Dubois is now (officially) here and giving us lots of things to think about. And it is a massive season with large shows in both theatres.
Here are just a few items from my project list:
How Shakespeare Won the West - final scenic designs (by BU almuna Antje Ellerman) are complete - very old West - it will be fun. It's an epic cross country journey and this world premiere will fit in the BU Theatre just fine. We should see Costume prelims soon and the scenic build should be underway this week!
How Shakespeare Won the West has at least 24 scenes. Designer Antje Ellerman took photos of the model to create a story board for the director (and us). The above is page 3 of 8. It's an exciting wooden structure that can become anything from a tavern, a theater, even the plains of the Midwest.Boleros - Scenic designer Alexander Dodge brought us his prelim designs after several weeks of work with Director Chay Yew. Beautiful work - as usual from Alexander - nailing the feeling of the play while firmly locating us in Puerto Rico for the 1st act and Alabama for the second. We also asked Alexander for some advice on how we might liven up the dowdy lobbies at the BU Theatre. He had a lot of great ideas. And now I've got a lot of organizing to do.
Act I of Bolero takes place in Puerto Rico. The above photo is a rough model photo by Alexander Dodge.
Alexander is also designing our spring production of The Miracle at Naples. This will be the show to see to cure spring fever. It's funny, and it's funny, it's naughty, and oh yeah, it's funny. IMHO anyhoo.
Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher will be paying us a visit in October with her show Wishful Drinking... our buddies at Berkely Rep are sending it out on the road after weeks of sold out performances. Yep - Princess Leah. Post AA. Looking forward to that too! My associate Adam gets to load that one is as most of the rest of production will be in tech for Boleros.
Rock n Roll - ACT in San Fran is building this one as they perform it first, but we've been keeping an eye on the design process. It's coming along great.
The Corn is Green - We're ahead of the curve here - we'll be building the same set (by Jim Noone) that some of you saw in Williamstown last summer, so the design process there is all done. And it's our only single set show in the BU Theatre this year - piece of cake. Except for the costumes. It will be nice to spend a few weeks with Nicky come mid season.
The tale of the Pope takes on Galileo plays out in the Two Men of Florence written by Richard Goodwin will get it's American Premiere come March. We hear that Richard and director Edward Hall (yep - Sir Peter's son) have been working on the script for the last few months - resulting in a title change as well as tweaks to the script.
I'm really just getting rolling on this one - but - I have to tell you how strange it was seeing (Richard's wife) Doris Kearns Goodwin on the Today show one morning this spring, and then getting a phone call from her a day later about the scenery from the 2004 UK production. I may be getting into international set shipping. We'll see!
Enuf for now.
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