Theatre is a bit unusual on the Woodstock Fringe

August 15, 2003

The Daily Freeman, Kingston

August 2003

 

By Bonnie Langston

 

A NEW theater company called Woodstock Fringe begins its inaugural season at the Byrdcliffe Theater in Wood- stock with a festival of concerts and theater that includes magic, masks and music in innovative works ranging from the world premiere of a one-woman play to tiny Ninja turtle figures playing Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” on a stage the size of a briefcase.

The festival opens Wednesday with a new play called “Murder, Madness and Lady Macbeth,” written and acted by Rebecca Ortese and directed by Leigh Silverman, who directed the’ hit play “Wit” on London’s West End.

AS ONE might guess, the festival does not present ordinary fare, and that’s the way Wallace Norman, producing artistic director, wants it.

Norman is an actor, singer and writer who has appeared in more than 60 productions off-Broadway, and he is co-founder of the Gilgamesh Theater Group, part of a campaign promoting resident theater companies working collaboratively on Theater Row in New York City. In Woodstock, his seasonal home, he has been producing, directing and performing during the past five years.

‘I THINK the theater (in general) is struggling to find new forms,” Norman said in a telephone interview from his home in New York City. “To provide a venue for those new forms to find expression is what we’re about.”  Norman is former president of the Woodstock Theater Company, which he directed with Deborah Savadge for three years — “really terrific years,” he said.

ALTHOUGH they were proud of the work presented, the two eventually realized they had different long-term goals, the Woodstock Theater Company dissolved, and the two amicably went their separate theatrical ways.          

Woodstock Fringe is dedicated to developing, encouraging, presenting and promoting new and experimental theater and musical works including plays, performance art and opera. “It can include theater arts of any type as long as it’s professional,” Norman said.

AMONG other things, Woodstock Fringe will present musical performances on a larger scope than formerly offered by the Woodstock Theater Company. A trio of concerts under the heading “American SongFest” will celebrate the achievements of selected American composers, including Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Larry Thomas Bell, who also is composer-in-residence. Larry Alan Smith is artistic director, and featured vocalists will be soprano Catherine Thorpe and mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato.

‘IT’S GOING to be of extremely high caliber,” Norman said. “I’m sort of tingly about it. These are people who’ve spent their whole lives in the music world and achieved some success and distinction.” Additional works featured at the festival are:

·          “The Great Nebula in Orion,” a music-play by Lanford Wilson and Kenneth Fuchs, with musical direction by Michael Conley and stage direction by Nicola Sheara.

·          The award-winning Tiny Ninja Theater, directed by Dov Weinstein.

·          “Man of Infinite Desire,” a one-woman play written and performed by Christina Nicosia.

·          “Mouth/Music” with master storyteller Gerald Fierst and jazz keyboardist Mikael EIsila.

·          “Wake of the Essex,” a new play by Lou Rodgers.   

·          “Ordinary Occurrences,” a staged reading of a new play at 2 p.m. Aug. 31 by Charles Traeger, will be given free of charge.

Although the festival, called the Woodstock Fringe Festival of Theater and Song, is just opening, the theater company already offered a sample of its talent at a sold-out concert cabaret the last Saturday in July as part of the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony centennial celebration.

MEMBERS of the company are experienced professionals both from the area and New York City, the majority of them Equity actors, Norman said. “

Murder, Madness and Lady Macbeth” will run for five more performances after Wednesday. The play about an actress whose life drifts dangerously close to her role was developed at Mabou Mines, an off-off-Broadway theater. A sampling of 10 pages came to Norman over the transom, and when he started reading, he found the script hard to put down. ‘When I got to page 10 and there was no page 11, I was very disappointed,” he said.

THE OTHER play to be presented in six performances, “The Great Nebula in Orion,” is a one-act piece that nevertheless is a full evening of music, Norman said. The play, which is both spoken and sung, was received in the spring, which is a bit late, but Norman said he had to include it.

Tiny Ninja Theater is a realm unto itself.

Director Weinstein, who also manipulates his tiny plastic thespians, has traveled the United States and the world with them, visiting festivals that range from the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, to the Scotland-based Edinbugh Fringe, among the largest arts festivals in the world. Norman said he saw the production in New York City through binoculars that were loaned to theater-goers.

“It’s an extremely persuasive rendering of the play. It’s not a joke, but it’s humorous to see how it’s done It’s truly a remarkable achievement on a really small scale,” Norman said.

He said each of the two performances is limited to 25 audience members, so interested persons should get tickets early.

Norman said he is not worried about the overlapping Woodstock Poetry Festival siphoning off potential audiences for the festival of theater and song. Last year, when the same situation occurred between the Woodstock Theater Company and the poetry events, each festival fed into the other.

“I think Woodstock is a really good place to do stuff that isn’t necessarily mainstream,” Norman said, “If you can’t do that in Woodstock, where can you do it?