|

|
| Design: Luis Gonzales |
| Click here for info & tix |

|
| Timothy Babcock as "The Professor" |

|
| Photo: Dixie Sheridan |
At the 2008 New York
International Fringe Festival ... A
new 60-minute one-person drama with absurdist echoes. A skewed version of music history is the platform for an exploration
of the conjunction of madness, violence, and art. ... Who is the Professor? Why is the lecture? Where is the cello? And what of soft-boiled eggs? Benvenuto
Cellini? The earrings in the ashtray? And love?
Review by Martin Denton, www.nytheatre.com 080908
Robert Moulthrop's Lecture, with Cello is a tantalizing
puzzle of a play. It's a mystery story, or maybe even two mysteries—as it begins, we are wondering: who is this professor
who has arrived on stage so hesitantly and seemingly pre-occupied, and why is he lecturing us, and where is his cello? An
hour later, as the piece reaches its conclusion, and we have received many clues about what this man may or may not have done,
the questions are more concrete: what is real in this man's tale, and what is illusory? Is he sane?
Meanwhile, beneath
and hovering all around the garden-variety questions posed by the circumstance are fragments of enigmas that, for me, are
the most exciting and interesting aspects of this supposed Lecture. When we enter the theatre, the stage is set for a recital
by a string quintet: there are chairs and music stands arranged in a semi-circle, and the promise of a "Lecture, with Cello"
projected on a screen behind them. But when our protagonist makes his entrance—apparently as surprised as we that five
musicians haven't materialized—he compensates for their absence in startling ways. He drags out a boom box and presses
its play button; he sets up oversized placards, each displaying a painting of a specific string instrument; he brings forth
sheets of music. I thought: are these representations of music, both analog and digital, ultimately different from the music
itself?
Throughout the
professor's monologue, Moulthrop revisits this fundamental question. What is art? Does it lie in its physical manifestations,
or in someone's brain; and if the latter, whose brain—the creator's or the observer's? One of the most fascinating sections
of Lecture, with Cello is a deconstruction (quite literally) of the cello. I thought:
what a marvel, that someone was able to figure out how to put together all these pieces of wood, glue, string, resin, and
hair in just this precise way, so that glorious music could emanate from them.
Another highlight for me was the consideration
of music, like light, as both particle and wave—the sound's physical form obviously being the latter, but its representation
on paper, as musical notes, being the former.
Moulthrop's piece
is thus a remarkable feast for the intellect, brimming with ideas that help us look at what we take for granted in art in
new and compelling ways. So I was somewhat disappointed that the character of the professor proves not to be so interestingly
resolved here. But, under Kent Paul's expert direction, Timothy Babcock makes this man consistently engaging and empathetic,
even as the hints of his madness are peeled away. (Babcock's work in this solo performance is astonishingly good.)
The press release
for Lecture, with Cello describes the play as an "exploration of the conjunction
of madness, violence, and art." Maybe it's just me, but I mostly stayed focused on the subject of art on its own, and reveled
in the piece's rich meditations on where it is to be found.
At the Milagro Theatre CSV Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street (F train to Delancey, walk 2 blocks towards Williamsburg Bridge, turn left on Suffolk. Theatre entrance
is mid-block, on left, under scaffolding).
SAT 8/9 @ 5:30 – 6:30 SUN
8/10 @ 7:00 – 8:00 WED 8/13 @ 5:45
– 6:45 SAT 8/16 @ 8:00–9:00 SAT
8/23 @ 2:30 – 3:30
Robert Moulthrop (Playwright) won a Fringe Outstanding Playwriting Award
in 2005 for Half Life; and solo actress Margaret Daly won a Fringe Outstanding Performer Award in 2006 for her work in T. L. C.
Kent
Paul (Director) helped launch Contemporary
Stage Company in Wilmington, Delaware,
working as Associate Artistic Director with Keith Powell, where he directed the productions Donald Marguilies’ Collected Stories starring Lynn Redgrave, and Joe Sutton’s Restoring the Sun. In 2006 he directed the two plays in that
theatre’s Athol Fugard Festival: The Island with Keith Powell and Sean
Patrick Thomas as the two prisoners, and the new Exits and Entrances. Other
productions include: The Bird Sanctuary by Frank McGuinness with Elizabeth
Franz and Hayley Mills. (U.S. premiere, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival); Long Day’s Journey Into Night with Sam Waterston, Elizabeth Franz, John Slattery, and James Waterston
(Syracuse Stage); The Glass Menagerie and Look
Homeward, Angel (PlayMakers Repertory Company); Landford Wilson’s The
Mound Builders (Burning Coal Theatre Company). Musicals include: She Loves
Me (choreographed by Marge Champion) and Kiss Me, Kate (Berkshire
Theatre Festival openers). His interest in new scripts led to
directing productions of The Double Bass with Boyd Gaines (an adaptation
by Eric Overmyer of the German play by Patrick Süskind); Peking Man by Cao
Yu (the foremost Chinese playwright of our time), and Journey to Gdansk,
which introduced the Polish playwright Janusz Glowacki in this country.
His documentary film Sanford
Meisner—The Theater’s Best Kept Secret was broadcast on the PBS series American Masters, had an extended run at the Public Theater, and was seen at film festivals around the
world. A native of Nebraska, he is a graduate of Harvard
College and the Neighborhood
Playhouse School of the Theatre.
Timothy Babcock
(The Professor) trained in acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and in composition at the Eastman School of Music. Some favorites:
Bunny in David Mamet's Romance (Wellfleet Harbor Actor’s Theatre), Luke in Eugene O'Neill's The Rope (New
Provincetown Playhouse), Mason in Kathryn Grant’s The Wound of Love (Provincetown Repertory Theatre) and Carl
in Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz (Provincetown Theatre Company). Most recently he played Father Flynn in John Patrick
Shanley's Doubt and last summer played all 40+ roles in Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (Counter-Productions).
Provincetown Magazine noted: “You will leave this production feeling or knowing
one thing: that Timothy Babcock is sensational … a performance that encompasses more than 40 roles with feeling, purpose,
and a powerful control that is indisputable.”
David Newell (Set Design and Projection Design) is
a recipient of the 2007-2009 NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers. Recent credits include: Co-conceiving and overseeing (with John Conklin and Catherine Owens) the Macbeth project
for the 2008 Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab, Iphigenia at Aulis (Inaugural production of Highwire Theatre),
The Leopard and the Fox (Alter Ego). Scenic design
credits include: The double bill of Massenet’s La Portrait de Manon
and Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine (Glimmerglass Opera), Sake with the Haiku Geisha (Gotham Stage Company),
the American Premiere of Martinu’s Mirandolina (Manhattan School of Music), the World Premiere of Deborah Drattell’s
Marina: A Captive Spirit (directed by Anne Bogart, American Opera Projects), Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito
(Opera Boston), and Jeff Daniels’ Apartment 3A (costume design). Also
Transparency of Val, Seductions of the Desert (DanceRink), Philistines (directed by Liviu Ciulei), Dangerous
Corner, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Le Nozze di Figaro. With director
Giovanna Sardelli he has designed scenery for the World Premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s All This Intimacy (Second
Stage), The Seagull, The Three Sisters, Earth Girls are Easy-The Musical (Benefit Concert for Lark Theatre Company
starring Kristin Chenoweth) and Lynn Rosen’s Apple Cove (Todd Mountain Theatre Project). Productions for which he has designed scenery and costumes include La Voix Humaine (La Maison
Français) and the 2007 Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab workshop and subsequent Summer Play Festival production of minor
gods by Charles Forbes, directed by Gaye-Taylor Upchurch. David received
his MFA from the Department of Design for Stage and Film at New York
University. dnewelldesign.com
Robert C. Rees (Sound Design) is thrilled to be working on his first piece for the Fringe
Festival and his seventh piece with director Kent Paul. Before beginning a career writing music for theater, Robert appeared
as an actor numerous times on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and with the Cleveland Play House acting company. Robert lives in NYC
with his wife and best friend, Maureen Pedala.
Mimi Maxmen (Costume
Designer). Other plays by Robert Moulthrop include T.L.C. and Half Life. New York: Becket (upcoming), The Turn
of the Screw (scenery and costumes), The
Frogs, Uncle Vanya starring Tom Courtenay, Amanda Donohoe and James Fox, Public Enemy by Kenneth Branagh, A Shayna Maidel, Inadmissible
Evidence with Nicol Williamson and Philip Bosco, Vieux Carré, North Shore Fish,
The Incredibly Famous Willy Rivers, Moonchildren, Today I Am a Fountain Pen, A...My Name Is Alice,
Virgil Thompson’s Lord Byron and The
Mother of Us All, The Seagull, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Macbeth. She has designed for the Roundabout Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Mark Taper Forum, Santa
Fe Opera, and the New York City, Joffrey, and Metropolitan
Opera Ballet companies. Films include Tumbleweeds
starring Janet McTeer, Frozen Stars with Lana Parilla, Luster, Lucky Bastard (Production and Costume Designer). She currently teaches at The New School/Parsons.
Mike Billings (Lighting Designer) is a New York City Based lighting and scenic designer for the stage. New York lighting
and scenic designs: A Doll's House
(Bated Breath Theatre Co.), Lonely Circus Beast. Regional lighting designs: Macbeth directed by Paul Barnes, The Threepenny Opera directed by Dave Dalton (Connecticut Repertory Theatre)
Regional scenic designs: Love's
Labour's Lost directed by Gabriel Barre, Marat/Sade, The Magic Flute, It Can't
Happen Here (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), The Subject Was Roses directed
by Kim Moore (Dorset Theatre Festival). Film Production Design: The Lake Passage
(Shattered Entertainment), City of the Real (JB Productions). BFA, University of Connecticut. www.mikebillingsdesign.com
Daniel ZS. Jagendorf (Props).
Born in Baltimore, raised in Ithaca, educated at Oberlin, employed
in Illinois, overcome at NYU, ensconced in Brooklyn. Props include a recurring stint with AOP and other opera companies, several commercial
productions, and the yearly Christmas windows for department stores including Saks, Macys, and Lord and Taylor
Jana Mattioli (Production
Stage Manager) has a background in theatre and film. Her favorite off- Broadway productions are Feminazi (Light and Set Design, Stage Manager), Tulip Heaven (Stage
Manager), How To Go Out On A Date In Queens (Lighting Design), and Angry Young Women in Low-Rise Jeans with High-Class Issues (Set Design). In film she works as a production designer.
Her favorite film credits include iMurders, Doughboys, Kinky Killers, Between Love
and Goodbye, BSI, and 3 Chris's. She is also crew chief at Queens Theatre in
the Park and one of the head lighting designers at the Asia Society. onesourcejana@yahoo.com
Griffin DuBois (Associate Producer) is taking a break from acting this summer and trying his hand at producing (sort of).
He's coming up on his first year in NYC and has acted in a number of productions around the city, including Robert Moulthrop’s Jack, the Prince of Ireland, produced at the Manhattan Children's Theatre.
His many duties on Lecture, With Cello have included, but not been limited to, running lines, toting lumber on the
subway, hanging lights in this theatre, and folding the very programs you are holding. Thanks to Robert and Kent for
this opportunity.
Danielle
Schetter (ASM) has been working on the production crew for Queens Theatre in the Park for the last several
months when she transitioned into the NY scene from Ohio. In her short stint here she has worked on numerous shows as well
as the Off Broadway show "Feminazi."
|