Links of interest re: OW-related theater

[71-1045893605]

A good friend of mine and fellow Welles cinephile, Jay Jennings, is out in Hollywood preparing for a small tour of his one man show, ORSON WELLES COMMENTARIES, which is based on Welles' 1945 political radio show of the same name. I've seen bits and pieces of it and I highly recommend it if he ever takes it out on a national tour. I asked if I could help promote it for him, so here's his new site, which will be updated soon. Go to: http://geocities.com/wellestheatre

GA

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks for the info, Gregory. That sounds like a fascinating play; I'd love to see it, or at least see the script. There's also apparently another new play opening in Minneapolis called "Orson Welles Rehearses Moby Dick". This also sounds very interesting. One of these days someone will have to start a Wellesnet thread devoted to Orson Welles as a character! There must be at least a dozen plays and several movies about him by now.

[Johnny Dale]

Could not find existing thread on this category, so starting here
Chicago, June 2004:

It’s All True (Timeline, May 1-June 6): Art and politics collide when the government’s Works Progress Administration shuts down Orson Welles’ new pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock in 1937. This fast-paced and brilliantly witty comedy brings to life a defining moment in the history of American theatre.

ItsAllTrue

[Glenn Anders]

If the Windy City can make a musical out of Winesburg, Ohio, they can make a comedy from the production of Welles and Houseman's WPA Musical The Cradle Will Rock. Old hands may be put off by cross-mixing the whole thing further by calling the play, It's All True, but the scenario is a ready-made one, as Tim Robbins showed in his movie, CRADLE WILL ROCK (1999).

Glenn

[catbuglah]

Everybody’s Welles, a multi-media, solo performance by co-writer/director, Patrice Dubuis

[RayKelly]

The production get underway on Wednesday in Norwich, Conn.
Excerpt from the Aug. 24, 2011 Norwich Bulletin:

Brett Bernardini believes the era in which a 1930s “War of the Worlds” radio program terrified a portion of the United States is similar to today’s.

That’s one of the reasons he signed on to have Spirit of Broadway Theater produce the first professional production of “Panic,” a behind-the-scenes look at that fateful 1938 Halloween night of the most famous radio broadcast in history when America was treated to an adaptation by Orson Welles of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds.”

“It’s had two productions, they were non-professional productions,” said Bernardini, Spirit’s chief executive officer and “Panic” director. Bernardini said he discovered “Panic” after producing writer Stephen Dolginoff’s “Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story” in 2009.

“I’m really fascinated with the parallels between 1938 and 2011,” Bernardini said. “They’re almost identical. You can take any of those news stories from either era and swap them. Whether from the financial crisis to the big boogeyman who’s going to come get you be it Hitler in 1938 to Al Qaeda now.”

“I’m fascinated with not only could this happen again ... but more importantly, what role does media play today in shaping our lives and how much of it is true, how much of it is, for lack of a better word, simply propaganda,” Bernardini said. “You know, from the Rush Limbaughs of the world who have an opinion that may or may not be based on fact, to other media who is ‘fair and balanced reporting.’ ”

Daniel Patrick Smith, of New Jersey, portrays the now famous Welles.

“It’s a little intimidating,” Smith said of playing the man who went on to star in and direct “Citizen Kane.” “But I think it’s exciting in that it’s a side of (Welles) we haven’t seen before.”


A more complete version of this article can be found at http://www.norwichbulletin.com/entertai ... z1W2tqRmgF

[Le Chiffre]

Here's a review:

http://www.theatermania.com/peterfilich ... nd-wells-/

The reviewer said he was rooting for a five week extension. I wonder if they got it.

[Wellesnet]

Besides getting his long-awaited Don Quixote film back on track, director Terry Gilliam has recently directed a production of Hector Berlioz's opera "Benvenuto Cellini" in Britain. This is Gilliam's second time at directing Opera, the first being Berlioz's "The Damnation of Faust" in 2009. Both productions have been well-received, and both have Wellesian connections. Orson Welles and The Mercury staged Faustus in New York in 1937, although his Faust was based on Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan drama (published in 1604), whereas Berlioz's opera uses the famous 1808 play by Goethe.

"Benvenuto Cellini", on the other hand, was a film project of Welles's that never came to fruition, according to Brett Wood's Bio-bibliography of Welles. It's not known whether Welles would have tried to film Berlioz's 1837 opera, or gone straight to the famous autobiography of the great Italian Rennaissance sculptor. Welles was a big fan of opera, but the guess here is that it would have been based on the autobiography.

In any event, here's hoping Gilliam's production becomes available to see somehow, and that his Quixote film has better luck getting off the ground this time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5dm5OBuk6c

[Wellesnet]

Advertisement for the play? Looks like it was a pretty decent production:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voxEkXLaqas

Nice page on the production:
http://www.montheatre.qc.ca/archives/16 ... elles.html

[Wellesnet]

Gilliam's entire production is now online:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/ ... i-20150622

[Wellesnet]

Deleted threads-

New play based on Welles and Hemingway (May,2017)-
‘Sacred Beasts’ comedy based on Orson Welles, Ernest Hemingway:
http://www.wellesnet.com/sacred-beasts- ... hemingway/

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September, 2015
Stageshow based on Lady From Shanghai-
Sounds like fun:
http://www.wellesnet.com/the-lady-from- ... -festival/

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New play about Welles and Connecticut called "The Wicked Stage"-
By Joe Landry:
http://www.courant.com/entertainment/ar ... story.html

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Rosebud; the Lives of Orson Welles-
Starring Erik Van Beuzekom as Welles. Currently on the road in California, and will also play at Woodstock in May:
https://vimeo.com/59177065

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New Short play about Voodoo Macbeth in NYC- (2014)
THE CHARM'S WOUND UP at the Radioactive Festival
by Heather J. Violanti
Directed by Samantha Saltzman

May 21 at 5 pm
May 23 at 6:10 pm

Location: Robert Moss Theatre
440 Lafayette at Astor Place

"The Charm's Wound Up" looks behind the scenes of Orson Welles historic production of Macbeth in 1936. A young assistant tries to establish herself in Welles' company. But she might not be all that she seems. Then again, no one else might be who they appear to be, either.

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Welles's radio A Christmas Carol recreated onstage with Arthur Anderson (2013) -
Starring former Mercury player Arthur Anderson. The Zac Efron character in "Me and Orson Welles" was loosely based on Anderson, who worked with Welles on both stage and radio.:

http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=8541

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[Wellesnet]

2013
The Third Man to Become a Stage Musical-
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=7008

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New WOTW-inspired play wins competition in Oregon -
WE INTURRUPT THIS PROGRAM is the name of the new play, written by Arkansas playwright Justin Blasdel. Here's Ray Kelly's writeup on the Main Page:

http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=4476

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[Wellesnet]

2012

Orson's Path staged in New Jersey-
http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=2264

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Impressario starring Gil Moon as OW
New Play, written and performed by Gil Moon. Here's the Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/OrsonWellesImpresario

And here's a bit of the rehearsal on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG8cI3xKUSQ

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Simon Callow's production Being Shakespeare -

FROM WELLESNET FACEBOOK:

Simon Callow closes his acclaimed two week run in the play, BEING SHAKESPEARE in Chicago today. It opened earlier in the month to great reviews at the BAM theatre in New York City.

It also appears that Mr. Callow will be staying in the Midwest for the next week or so, to visit certain libraries where new Orson Welles material can be examined, since he will be doing a benefit performance for the Chicago PBS station, WTTW on May 9, 2012.

Theatre is not normally in my budget, but I had the pleasure of seeing the show this past Saturday and I thought it was excellent. Hopefully Callow will make a DVD of it, like the one he made for his one-man Charles Dickens show of a few years ago. He did many Shakespeare excerpts that will be familiar from the Welles movies, including "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" from MACBETH, Falstaff's "What is honor?" speech from HENRY IV, and several others, all beautifully performed. The Shakespeare and Dickens shows, as well as a 2002 revival of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, where Callow played Falstaff to Kieth Baxter's Henry IV, are three of his recent stage shows that intertwine with Wellesian territory

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[Wellesnet]

‘Mercury Man’ creator talks about staging Orson Welles play:
http://www.wellesnet.com/mercury-man-cr ... on-welles/

[Wellesnet]

MERCURY MAN: THE LAST PERFORMANCE OF ORSON WELLES from Joel Pettigrew and starring Rod McTaggart has been called "a smart, fun show with a nostalgic kick." It's coming to the Hamilton Fringe Festival 2019 on July 18–28.
http://www.wellesnet.com/mercury-man-hamilton/