So I got a chance to bring her along with me to the Guthrie.
Sam did the costumes for that show as well. So, it was a beautiful show and set, and wonderful costume. And a great support system at Lyric Arts. But it was still an amazing experience with actors that were open, joyful, and very talented. But, I remember it being a process when they needed a director now, so my prep time wasn't as long as this prep time with the Guthrie. I did more research, and, of course, you do that when you're starting production, you have your concept and design in your head. It did because I learned more about the play. Did the previous directing experience make the production at the Guthrie easier? This isn't your first time directing this play. It was an experience I can't really describe. Because my head and my nose were in the grindstone, I got a chance to hear and see, sometimes for the first time that night. I was able to watch them listen and react. I was able to sit back and watch it, and not take notes. On opening night, everyone was grounded and still they had wings. Something transformative and magical happened-I would even say divine. We had five previews, and every single one we were just counting down, and then the person came back-who's actually contracted to do the roll-to do the last couple of previews, and opened. We had someone out of the show and an understudy came in. So, we had our first preview we were all crossing our fingers.
Especially since having it postponed was a bit soul-crushing. I haven't had a moment to be still, but it was absolutely thrilling to see it up on its feet. How did the opening weekend go? What were your thoughts and feeling before and after the show? Just as Hansberry addressed, Van notes how relevant topics such as homeownership, education, and living the “American dream” are still relevant today as they were in 1959. Inspired by her own family experience in Chicago in the 1930s, the play opened on Broadway in 1959 with an all-Black principal cast, a Black playwright, and a Black director. In a director’s cut video, she was asked what inspired her about the play, and gives credit to Hansberry-the first Black woman to be produced on Broadway. Van, an acclaimed Twin Cities theater professional, co-founder of New Dawn Theatre Company, and producing artistic director at Yellow Tree Theatre, first directed the play at Lyric Arts in 2019. This is the company’s first-ever in-house production of the Lorraine Hansberry classic, but it isn’t the first time Austene Van has directed this theatrical masterpiece. Tonia Jackson (Lena Younger) and Anita Welch (Ruth Younger) in A Raisin in the SunĪfter postponing its January run of A Raisin in the Sun due to the pandemic, the Guthrie welcomed its opening performance of the play on May 6 with success.
0 kommentar(er)
