Why are "green rooms" called that?

For some theories, read William Hageman's article in today's Chicago Tribune.
Green curtains in 17th-century French theaters is what Bobo had heard ...

The first recorded use of the term dates to 1701. Wikipedia offers a bit more information.

Free Theater Night

An NPR report indicates that a program that has grown from three to 120 cities in just three years suggests that half the gratis attendees return at some point to pay full price. (If you're not filling 100 percent of your seats every night, it's a wasted opportunity, points out a TCG spokeswoman.) So why isn't Spokane one of those 120 cities?

upcoming in Spokane-area theater

OCTOBER
Phantom of the Opera, INB Center, through Oct. 25
Oklahoma! through Oct. 26 at Spokane Civic Theatre, Main Stage
Dressed To Kill (murder-mystery dinner theater), Cutter Theater, Metaline Falls, through Oct. 25
Alice: The Musical, SCT, through Oct. 26
Exits and Entrances, Interplayers, through Nov. 1
The Uninvited, Stage West Community Theater, Cheney, through Nov. 2
Moira's Crossing (sequel to Tim Rarick's This Child), NIC, Oct. 23-Nov. 1
Hedda Gabler, WSU, Oct. 23-Nov. 1
Curse of the Starving Class, Gonzaga, Oct. 24-Nov. 2
War of the Worlds: The Radio Play, Pullman Civic Theater, Oct. 29-Nov. 1
Tartuffe, U of Idaho, Oct. 30-Nov. 9
A Few Good Men, Lake City Playhouse, Oct. 31-Nov. 14
Graceland and Never Swim Alone, Civic Studio, Oct. 31- Nov. 23
Sweeney Todd, in concert, Civic, Oct. 31-Nov. 1

NOVEMBER
The Government Inspector, SFCC, Nov. 6-16
No Sex, Please, We're British, Ignite! Community Theater, Nov. 7-9
Peter Pan, Christian Youth Theater at the Bing, Nov. 7-16
Godspell, Sixth Street Melodrama, Wallace, Nov. 7-23
Chicago, Lewis and Clark High School, Nov. 13-22 (354-7053)
Our Town (readers theater), Sage Players, Corbin Senior Center and Manito United Methodist Church, Nov. 14-23
The Foreigner, EWU, Nov. 19-23
Together Again for the First Time, Interplayers, Nov. 20-Dec. 7
A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Civic, Nov. 21-Dec. 20
Madeline's Christmas, Spokane Children's Theatre, Nov. 28-Dec. 13
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, INB Center, Nov. 29-30

DECEMBER
Annie, Lake City Playhouse, Dec. 4-21
I Remember Mama, Regional Theatre of the Palouse, Dec. 4-13
A Christmas Story, Christian Youth Theater at Bing, Dec. 5-14
The Nutcracker, INB Center, Dec. 5-7
The Color Purple, INB Center, Dec. 10-14
Miracle on 34th Street, Pullman Civic Theater, Dec. 12-21
Sweeney Todd, the Fox, Dec. 14-15
A Reduced Christmas Carol, Interplayers, Dec. 17-21
White Christmas, in concert, NIC, Dec. 19-21

JANUARY 2009
12 Angry Jurors, Ignite! Community Theater, Jan. 9-11
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Civic, Jan. 9-21
Fences (readers theater), Interplayers, Jan. 15-19
Little Shop of Horrors, Lake City Playhouse, Jan. 16-31
The Winter's Tale, Gonzaga, Jan. 23-Feb. 1
Cowgirls, Interplayers, Jan. 29-Feb. 14
Raised in Captivity, WSU, Jan. 29-Feb. 7
The Women of Lockerbie, Civic Studio, Jan. 30-Feb. 22
Annie, INB Center, Jan. 31
Alexander, Who's Not ... Not Going To Move! -- SCT, Jan. 31-Feb. 15

FEBRUARY
Kennedy Center, American College Theater Festival (Region 7), U of Idaho, Feb. 16-19
The Doctor in Spite of Himself, NIC, Feb. 19-28
Frankenstein, SCC Lair, Feb. 20-March 1
The Sunshine Boys, Lake City Playhouse, Feb. 20-March 7
No, No, Nanette — Spokane Civic Theatre, Main Stage, Feb. 20-March 15
Cinderella, Christian Youth Theater Spokane at the Bing, Feb. 20-March 14
The Belle of Amherst, Interplayers, Feb. 26-March 14

MARCH
Othello, SFCC, March 5-15
Museum (by Tina Howe), Whitworth, March 6-14
Bridge to Terabithia, Spokane Children’s Theater at SCC, March 7-22
Much Ado About Nothing, Ignite! Community Theater, March 13-15
Ain’t Misbehavin’, INB Center, March 19-22
Defending the Caveman, the Bing, March 20-21
Godspell, Civic’s Studio Theater, March 20-April 11
Festival of New Works I and II, Kiva Theater, U of Idaho, March 25-April 4
Urinetown, Gonzaga, March 26-April 4
James and the Giant Peach, Lake City Playhouse, March 26-April 5
Waiting for Godot, Interplayers, March 26-April 11

APRIL
Shakespeare in Hollywood, Civic’s Main Stage, April 3-19
Die Fledermaus, Hartung Theater, U of Idaho, April 16-26
The Graduate (adapted by Terry Johnson), Interplayers, April 23-May 9

MAY
One-acts, Gonzaga, May 1-2
Spamalot, INB Center, May 5-10
Sherlock's Last Case, Ignite! Community Theater, May 8-10
Big River, Lake City Playhouse, May 8-23
The Affections of May, Civic’s Studio Theater, May 8-31
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Civic’s Main Stage, May 15-June 14
Heidi, Spokane Children’s Theater at SCC, May 16-31
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Christian Youth Theater Spokane at the Bing, May 22-31
Hole in the Sky, SFCC, May 28-June 7

Not a crisis but an opportunity

An L.A. Times article suggests the economic meltdown may provide a chance for theaters to draw in more of their lukewarm customers by offering "Pay What You Can" nights out.
(photo: La Jolla Playhouse at UC San Diego)

Actors Rep auditions on May 18

Audition for next season at Actors' Repertory Theater of the Inland Northwest
Sunday, May 18, from 1-5 pm
by appointment only
at SFCC's Spartan Theater, Bldg. 5, 3410 W. Fort George Wright Dr., Spokane
Write mweaver@actorsreptheatre.com
Call (509) 570-2745
Prepare two two-minute monologues, classical and contemporary; bring a photo and resume.

ARt will also hold season auditions in Seattle on Friday, May 9, as well as in San Francisco on Monday-Tuesday, June 2-3.
Five productions a year, 15 performances each.
Productions rehearse for three and a half weeks followed by two and a half weeks of performances. Visit www.actorsreptheatre.com.

ARt’s 2008-09 season will include The Importance of Being Earnest, Doubt, Relatively Speaking, Swansong, and Steel Magnolias, Rehearsals for the first production, The Importance of Being Earnest, begin July 28 for an Aug. 22 opening.

Drinking out of a firehose

Drinking out of a firehose: Bobo's first three days at the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in L.A.
Getting exposed to a lot of new ideas here, and, hate to say it, but I'm doing it while it's 65 degrees and sunny. My hotel room has a view of the Disney concert hall by Frank Gehry, the Mark Taper (being refurbished) and the Ahmanson and Dorothy Chandler. From the 24th floor, I can all the way to the Griffith Park Observatory thru the L.A. smog.
Day 3 of the Institute. Saw The Color Purple musical, as produced by Oprah herself. Maybe I'll append the (short) review we did as a first writing-group exercise. Visually interesting, esp. in the Celie goes back to Africa dream sequences, but mostly unmemoralbe score, some good perofrmances, but matters of life and death (incest, rape, abuse, separation, cruelty oddly downplayed). Audiences in the big city just want to be happy too.
Orson's Shadow at the Pasadena Playhouse for a Wed. matinee. They're getting a new Gehry building too. I'd seen the Artists Rep produciton in Portland in May. This was in a larger house, less intimate. The Orson Welles, a recognizable TV face (as were two others in the cast), not as good as the impersonation or threat and intimidation in the Portlnad actor's renditon. Wonderful Olivier. Felt, on second viewing, like a good play with a limited shelf life: too insidery (though I LOVE the script,a nd 5e0 years from now, they'll forgotten. Sharon Lawrence from NYPD Blue as Vivien Leigh -- incredible job of shwoing how VL bcame subtly like Blanche Dubois lateer in life; good insanity bipolar scene.
This is a place where you get into film vs. theater criticism chats with the likes of Michael Phillips, film critic for the Chi Tribune, one of the inssdtructors here; I worked with him at hte O'Neill back in July '04.
Great talk with one of hte instructors here, arts reporter at the Missoulian, about music criticism, being an advocate for the arts, etc.
They keep us going here. I snuck in a swim yest. morning, but every wwakin moment takne up.
Took mamy notes during Carey Perloff's keynote address -- she's AD at ACT in SF, wanted to ask about her working with Stoppard but no chance. Boring formal dinner at Cal Tech's fancy faculty club last night, but talked to some theater marketing types and LA Arts Commission's exec director; hilariious story about the Christma Eve perf. of the "Dulcimer Ladies."
ACting classes-- lots of movement work, felt a bit silly; about to enact other people's first memories, or first memories; they wrote it, we have to memorize it and enact it.
Today on digitial media, lots of good ideas, newspapers working on an outdated biz model, n time to type up all my notes just now.
Tonight: 3 hrs of Wooster Group's Hamlet; write about it all Fri. morning. Seeing Athol Fugard's latest, Victory the next night. I dont even have time to look ahead on the sked. Some great folks int he group-- invigorating to see so many worried about the same things,

February 07, 2008 1:39 PM

review of *The Last Five Years*

at Spokane Civic Theatre, downstairs, through Feb. 17

What if you went through a passionate love affair and the subsequent breakup, only backwards? Your disillusioned self would laugh at the puppy in love; your young lover’s yearnings would scoff at the idea that passion like this could ever die.
Jason Robert Brown’s *The Last Five Years* (at the Civic’s Studio Theatre through Feb. 17) bends time like that to evoke wonder and disenchantment with love. Cathy, traveling backward in time, falls out of and into love; Jamie, progressing in regular chronological fashion, falls into love and then out of it.
The cross-plotting may sound like a gimmick, but the result embodies a bittersweet mood. Even in the midst of a love affair, we know it’s fleeting; even when we’re scalded by a bad breakup, at least we have some fond memories. Brown’s contrivance is incisive: For all the people who dismiss musical plays as hopelessly artificial, here’s a contemporary musical that’s honest and intimate and true.
The Civic’s production is perceptively directed by Yvonne A.K. Johnson and passionately sung and performed by Andrea Dawson and Robby French. As Jamie, the New York novelist whose career is taking off just as he meets this nice shiksa girl, a struggling actress from Ohio, Robby French has the easier job: His version of the story is the one told in chronological order. But French responds with the best work he has turned in locally: exuberant in love, rationalizing and defensive when he strays, he’s enacting the songs instead of merely presenting their emotions. French seems a bit overwhelmed by the rapid-fire demands of a tune called “Moving Too Fast,” but Brown may simply have written an overly demanding song. Besides, Brown springs surprises on us: What’s moving too fast isn’t Jamie and Cathy’s romance, but Jamie’s career. This is a guy who fixates on his job, using emotions to further his career, and French embodies Jamie’s contrasts well.
As Cathy, the small-town girl willing to pay her dues to make it as an actress in New York, Dawson is particularly good at depicting wonder and happiness. That serves her well (by contrast) in her audition scene, “Climbing Uphill,” when suddenly all he comic self-doubt comes pouring out — and in the show’s opening sequence, when she’s the one looking back with regret and sadness.
Brown’s five-year saga — passion gets turned on, then off — is so intently autobiographical that all its neuroses and emotional exhibitionism are fully on display. But he has written, composed and gotten himself all caught up in the details of his own journey that some scenes will resonate more for him than for audience members. (That time on the lake in Ohio? I guess you had to be there.)
But Johnson directs so as to maximize the tragicomic mood. She stages the last scene so as to echo the wedding (a scene in the show’s middle that offers its only duet). You know that kind of affectionate goodbye you say to someone you’ve just fallen in love with, and you keep coming back because you can’t wait to see your special someone tomorrow and the next day and the next? That’s the kind of goodbye we witness from the woman’s perspective in the play’s final scene. But in Brown’s time-twisted musical, the other character — the man who has made this journey in the usual order, from start to finish — is simply saying, forever, goodbye.
There are subtle parallels throughout that reveal a sure-handed director’s touch: At different junctures, both lovers teeter along a ledge, evoking the giddiness of being in love. Brown and Johnson will have Jamie puttering around his apartment while Cathy sings about him in hers (or the reverse). The effect is to keep separate these two flawed but likeable characters who, we’re hoping, will eventually work things out. Except that they don’t.

From her keyboard, musical director Carolyn Jess leads violin, cello and bass in some delightful musical mimicry. When Cathy gets depressed about her acting career, the music winds down too; when Jamie’s excited about his writing, the piano throbs with energy.
Brown’s tunes emulate Stephen Sondheim’s: lyrical in the moment, unmemorable after the fact, clever and witty and sometimes too much so. But their talkiness characterizes Cathy and Jamie well. The autobiographical particulars may clutter and confuse this show, but there’s no denying that we make an emotional journey with these two young lovers and emerge at the end with view of romance that’s wiser, jaded and refreshed all at once.
Between two living areas, set designer David Baker slashes a ramp rising to a versatile, neutral space; his projected slides nicely suggest the action of 14 shifting scenes. And when we see French’s and Dawson’s baby pictures, and then photos of their characters in love, we tend to go Aww, isn’t that nice? even though we’ve just witnessed their breakup. We all want to fall into — or stay — in love. Even when we know better, even when we know it won’t last.