Presenting . . . a play featuring a sock puppet armed with blue vocabulary
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Version 0 of 1. Out with the horror musicals and in with the profane plays starring sock puppets at Studio Theatre next summer. The Logan Circle theater announced this week that it will stage the first regional production of “Hand to God,” Robert Askins’s dark comedy about an evangelical teenager who faces a crisis of faith with help from a sock puppet. The play begins previews July 7 and slides into a summer slot where the theater has typically booked a horror musical. In 2014, the theater invited audiences to relive the bloody 1980s prom “Carrie,” and last summer, Studio reimagined Hannibal Lecter as a cabaret crooner in “Silence! The Musical.” “I’d like to think of ‘Hand to God’ as an alteration to that formula, not a total replacement,” said Studio Theatre artist director David Muse. “It’s a play about a young person’s struggles to find oneself in a small town in Texas, and that has been a winning formula at Studio.” “Hand to God” was originally produced by New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre in 2011. Three years later, it reappeared at MCC Theater, and transferred to Broadway in March. For better or worse, it has become known as “That play where the guy tried to charge his phone onstage.” The show’s Broadway ticket sales have been declining, and the production played to only half-full houses last week. “Hand to God” is set to close in New York on Jan. 6, and then reopen in London’s West End in February. Muse is optimistic that the play will resonate with D.C. audiences, or at least with enough people to fill Studio’s Stage 4 — a flexible black box on the fourth floor. Studio also announced a Stage 4 spring offering. “The Object Lesson” will be what the theater calls an “immersive installation by illusionist Geoff Sobelle.” Sobelle has previously appeared at the theater as part of rainpan 43, the collective behind Studio’s 2008 production of “All Wear Bowlers.” “The Object Lesson” debuted at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival; a subsequent production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s multi-arts center sold out. At Studio, designers will turn the black box into a storage unit and encourage patrons to meander around one man’s excessive clutter. There will be no formal seating. “We are blessed with the flexibility of that space,” Muse said. The announcement comes days after Studio issued a major mea culpa for a mishap involving its current main-stage play. Saturday evening’s performance of “Sorry” was canceled just 15 minutes before the show was to begin. Many audience members were already seated and were given little information other than that someone in the cast was ill and that there was a complication with the understudy. Dan Rech, a spokesman for Studio, explained Tuesday that actress Sarah Marshall lost her voice on a day when her understudy, Carol Arthur, was four hours away. Marshall tried to rally so the show could go on but determined at the last minute that she just could not do it. Patrons who had hoped to see “Sorry” were sent an e-mail message saying the theater was “so sorry for this inconvenience.” They were offered a chance to reschedule for either “Sorry” or its companion play, “Regular Singing,” plus complimentary tickets for a future show. While regional theaters such as Studio often look to stage their own productions of plays fresh off successful New York runs, it is far more unusual for a regional theater production to transfer from one city to another. With his current production of “Pericles,” director Joe Haj has managed to do just that not once, but twice. “Pericles” was already in rehearsals at Oregon Shakespeare Festival when Haj finalized a plan to have the play transfer to the Folger Theatre in the District after its summer run in Ashland, Ore. Lucky for him, the play was a hit in Oregon and received equal praise from Post critic Peter Marks. Once “Pericles” closes in Washington, the actors have a mere nine days off before heading to snowy Minnesota for yet another run, in a theater more than four times the size of the Folger. [A rare chance to see ‘Pericles,’ one of Shakespeare’s little known works] In a move that both surprised and pleased many in the regional theater world, Haj was named the next artistic director of Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theatre in February. Haj replaces the retiring Joe Dowling, who directed many shows at the Shakespeare Theatre earlier in his career. To take the job, Haj had to leave his post at PlayMakers Repertory Company, the professional theater attached to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I loved my job,” Haj said. “I used to say, I’m not interested in climbing rungs. I’m here until the Guthrie calls.” Baltimore’s struggling cultural organizations got a supportive boost last week from an odd trio of arts supporters: a tortoise, a penguin and Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz. Kamenetz and the Hippodrome Theatre hosted a gathering Friday aimed at encouraging suburbanites to go downtown to enjoy cultural attractions. Although ticket sales at the Hippodrome have been strong this fall, other organizations have noticed a downturn in attendance, and they worry that the drop can be attributed to the racial unrest in April and the city’s homicide rate, which is at a per-capita record high. To show a unified front, the Maryland Zoo, the National Aquarium and various arts groups sent emissaries to the Hippodrome event, resulting in an interesting performance. Among those sharing the stage were Winnie the penguin, Baltimore Symphony music director Marin Alsop and Caitlin Cohn, who is starring in “The Secret Garden” at Center Stage. “Winnie was a hit,” said Olive Waxter, director of the Hippodrome Foundation. “She was really cute and also very friendly.” But Joey, the yellow-footed tortoise representing the aquarium, was apparently jealous that only Winnie got a chance to perform. “I told the aquarium folks no.” Waxter said. “If we had to wait for him to crawl across the stage, we were going to be there all day.” Ritzel is a freelance writer. |