The Drama in the Psalms
April 13th, 2008
Recently, while traveling to Stratford, England, I was reminded of William Shakespeare’s possible association with Psalm 46. Reading that psalm got me thinking of the psalms as small dramas.
The Player King
April 12th, 2008
His last performance of Shakespeare was appropriate – The Player King in Kenneth Branagh’s film of Hamlet. To see Charlton Heston play the old actor is to understand why Lord Laurence Olivier called him America’s greatest Shakespearean actor.
The Secret of Being a Hypocrite
July 28th, 2007When Jesus accused a person of being a “hypocrite”, the Greek word “hypocrite” is the word for “actor.” So as far as the New Testament Greek original is concerned, Jesus was accusing that person of being an “actor.”
Consequently, learning to act is actually learning to be a hypocrite.
Tyler Perry Redeems Strindberg
June 25th, 2007
In 1888 August Strindberg wrote a seminal work for the modern theater, with his play Miss Julie. In the short battle of the sexes, a lower class servant, Jean, seduces an upper class aristocratic woman, Miss Julie. Miss Julie, dissatisfied with her life as a woman trapped by the social conventions of her age, is conviced by Jean that freedom and esape is possible only in her death. She then commits suicide. The Culture of Death triumphs over the Kingdom of God.
Facing the Giant Controversy
May 7th, 2007
In 1636 a play opened in Paris to riots in the theater’s boxes and seats. The first performance of Le Cid by Pierre Corneille drew rabid opponents and supporters to duke it out as the performance on stage rolled along. So contentious was the debate in Paris that Cardinal Richelieu asked the newly formed French Academy to issue a ruling on the play.
The debate centered on what should be in a play. Two terms, “verisimilitude” and “decorum” focused the arguments. What kinds of character actions and beliefs are proper, suitable, and seemly or fitting for certain circumstances? In particular, was it proper for Chimene to marry her father’s murderer within twenty-four hours? Should love win out over duty? Were the characters’ actions truthful? Did they resemble reality? Given those people in those circumstance, were the actions probable? Critics of the play said the actions were untrue, distorted reality, and were not probable. Proponents argued for a broader definition of theatrical art.
After two years of deliberation the French Academy rendered a verdict, which is not clear even today. And most people who read Le Cid today are left with one question: “What was all the fuss about?”
This question, and The Cid Controversy in general, came to mind after I saw the film, Facing the Giants. Who would have thought that a movie, written and starring the Media Minister of a small Baptist church in Albany, Georgia, produced on a shoestring budget, shot in community homes, starring a volunteer cast of church members, with catering by Sunday school classes, and wardrobe by the pastor’s wife would generate such passionate and fierce debate among Christian film-goers? And over the same three hundred and sixty one year old issues of verisimilitude and decorum!
Do You Know This “Very Great Man”?
April 16th, 2007
The history of Western theater and film notes few people who mastered multiple roles in the production of their art. Thespis, the originator of the Greek theater, wrote, directed, and starred in his plays. Since that time, few individuals have hit the trifecta of production.
In the English Renaissance, Shakespeare wrote the plays, held a share of the company’s profits, played minor roles, but left the staging and music to others. In France, Moliere wrote plays, staged them, and played the leading roles.
In the twentieth century, George M. Cohan wrote a few of the plays in which he starred and the lyrics for a few of the songs he sang. Nevertheless, it was said of him then, “George is not the best actor or author or composer or dancer or playwright. But he can dance better than any author, compose better than any manager, and manage better than any playwright. And that makes him a very great man.”
Since then, artists who did not specialize have grown rare. At mid-century, England’s Peter Ustinov starred in some of the plays he had written. Anthony Newley wrote the scripts, wrote the songs, and starred in Stop the World – I Want to Get Off and The Roar of the Greasepaint. The Smell of the Crowd. More recently Charles Ludlam wrote, directed, and starred in the plays of his Ridiculous Theatrical Company, a cult theater in New York City, producing wonderful work in a very tiny theater. In film, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, and Sylvester Stallone are unique in having written, directed, and starred in their films. Welles and Chaplin also contributed to the design. And Chaplin wrote music, as well.
So were I to tell you that there is a man who has written, produced, starred in, composed the lyrics for, and designed over ten musical plays within the past ten years, which have not only toured all over the United States, drawing upwards of 35,000 people to them a week, and whose DVDs of the live performances sell millions of copies, you might well be astonished. Not just that such a person exists, but that he remains unknown to most of the world’s theater and film-going public.
The Best Theater in Maine
December 10th, 2006
If Garrison Kiellor’s Praire Home Companion and Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company ever sired a child, it could very well be The Oddfellow Theater of Buckfield, Maine. Read the rest of this entry »
