{"id":3409,"date":"2009-05-10T11:33:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-10T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3409"},"modified":"2009-05-10T11:33:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-10T18:33:00","slug":"artists-are-only-respected-when-they-are-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=3409","title":{"rendered":"Artists Are Only Respected When They Are Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>In the classic American story \u201cThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer<\/i>\u201d, the title character attends his own funeral, just to hear the good things people are saying about him. Death has that interesting effect: we tend to focus about the good of the person. This is especially true in the art world: when an artist dies, no matter his quality, the value of his artworks often go up in value. So, suppose you have a penniless artist and his friends, who owe a lot of money, and they have just come to this realization. What do they do?<\/p>\n

The answer is simple: The artist must die. But before you think this is some murder plot, think again. The artist just comes back as his long-lost twin sister. Add to this a classic melodramatic villian (think \u201cMusical of Musical\u201d — \u201cI must have the rent!\u201d), an engenue in love with the artist, the villian in love with the engenue, and a second engenue in love with the artist\u2019s best friend… who thought up the plot. Add to this a man dresses up as a woman, some limberger cheese, and lots of doors, and you have the making of a farce. A very good farce.<\/p>\n

I mention this because last night we went to see this farce. The play is called \u201cIs He Dead?\u201d, and was written by an author you might have heard of: Mark Twain<\/a>. Almost a hundred years ago, he wrote this play<\/a>, but no one knew about it until it was rediscovered a few years ago and mounted on Broadway to great critical reviews. It is currently having its Los Angeles premier at the International City Theatre in Long Beach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs He Dead?\u201d tells the story of the French artist Jean-Francois Millet<\/a> (Perry Ojeda<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup>), who owes a significant amount of money to Bastien Andre (Steve Marvel<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup>). Also owing Andre money is Papa Leroux (Jerry Hoffman<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup>), father to the sweetheart of Millet, Marie Leroux (Suzanne Petrela). Neither can pay Andre; in particular, Millet can\u2019t pay because his paintings aren\u2019t selling. Millet\u2019s pupils: Agamemnon \u201cChicago\u201d Buckner (Brian Stanton<\/a>), Hans \u201cDutchy\u201d Von Bismark (Chip Bent<\/a>), and Phelim O\u2019Shaughnessy (Blake Silver<\/a>)) come up with an idea: Millet\u2019s paintings will be worth more if Millet is dead. So they invent an unmentionalable disease for Millet to contract and quickly die from, as well as a sister, the widow Daisy Tillou, who is Millet\u2019s identical twin sister. Now, add to this mix Leroux\u2019s other daughter, Cecile Leroux (Jules Hartley<\/a>), who is in love with \u201cChicago\u201d, and the two widowed landlady\u2019s of Millet (Madame Bathilde (Terra Shelman<\/a>) and Madame Caron (Jeanine Anderson<\/a>)). Stir the mix with a number of love triangles (both Andre and Millet love Marie; both Papa Leroux and Andre love the Widow Tillou). Add misunderstandings and jelousy (Cecile thinks Daisy loves Chicago). Season with dialects and great comic timing, as well as a great supporting performance by Joe Fria<\/a>\u00e6<\/sup> as a British art patron (Basil Thorpe), a French detective (Claude Riviere), a servant (Charlie), and the King of France… and you have a very funny farce.<\/p>\n

Farce is very different than situational comedy. Situational comedy are plays such as \u201cThe Odd Couple\u201d (Neal Simon), where the comedy come from the people and their relationships, not just sillyness. Farce is almost sillyness for sillyness\u2019 sake — think \u201cA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum\u201d or \u201cNoises Off\u201d. There\u2019s timing and doors slamming; there\u2019s misunderstandings and overreactions; there\u2019s dialects and cross-dressing (men as women, women as men). Everything is played for the laugh. Farce also requires spot-on timing. I do have to say that this company was excellent. Ojeda, as Jean-Francois\/Daisy, milked the cross-dressing and the kissing for as much as he could get out of it. Marvel played the evil villian well, and Stanton was an excellent schemer. The reactions and timing of the whole cast was just remarkable.<\/p>\n

Turning to the technical side: ICT is a thrust stage, almost 3\/4 round like the Mark Taper Forum. They had about 1\/3 of their seats blocked off. The sets were mostly backdrops: in the first act, they portrayed Millet\u2019s studio; in the second act, the opulant quarters of the Widow Tillou. The sets were designed by Stephen Gifford<\/a>. The lighting was unnoticable (a good thing): there were no spots or lighting tricks, just overall lighting that established the time of day and mood. The lighting was designed by Bill Georges, assisted by Sean Conlin. The costumes (by Kim DeShazo) and wigs\/hair (by Anthony Gagliardi) established the time period well and were quite creative. Props were designed by Patty and Gordon Briles, and included a significant number of reproductions of Millet\u2019s works. Stage management was by Pat Loeb\u00e6<\/sup>, assisted by Terri Roberts\u00e6<\/sup>.
\n[\u00e6<\/sup> denotes members of \"\u00e6\" Actors Equity<\/a> ]<\/font><\/p>\n

As I noted above, the story was by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)<\/a>. The manuscript was found by Shelly Fisher Fishkin<\/a>, who had it adapted for the stage by David Ives<\/a>. The original production was in 2007 in New York. The readaptation for Long Beach was under the direction of Shashin Desai<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs He Dead?\u201d continues at ICT through May 24, 2009. Only Thursday and Friday performances are up on Goldstar. For other performance, contact the box office at (562) 436-4610 or visit the ICT Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Theatre<\/b>: Next Friday or <\/del>Saturday (5\/16) at 7:00pm, we\u2019re likely<\/del> going to the student dance production at Van Nuys HS, for which nsshere<\/a> will be doing some of the lighting design. Sunday May 17 will be \u201cbig<\/a><\/i>\u201d at West Coast Ensemble<\/a>, to be followed (hopefully)<\/del> by \u201cThe Green Room<\/a><\/i> at Hermosa Beach Playhouse<\/a> on May 24 @ 7:00pm<\/u> (pending ticketing)<\/del>. The end of May (May 28, 29, 30) brings \u201cFiddler on the Roof<\/i>\u201d at Nobel Middle School<\/a>, where nsshere<\/a> is doing the lighting design. June 6 we might go to the last weekend of \u201cMarry Me a Little\/The Last 5 Years<\/a>\u201d at East\/West Players<\/a>. , June 20 @ 8pm is \u201cThe Little Foxes<\/i>\u201d at The Pasadena Playhouse<\/a>. Lastly, July 11 will bring \u201cFat Pig\u201d at Repertory East Playhouse<\/a>. Other shows pending scheduling and ticketing include \u201cSpamalot\u201d at the Ahmanson<\/a>, Liza Minelli at the Hollywood Bowl<\/a>, and the \u201cGuys and Dolls\u201d concert at the Hollywood Bowl<\/a>. I\u2019m also always looking for interesting productions on Goldstar and LA Stage Tix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the classic American story \u201cThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer\u201d, the title character attends his own funeral, just to hear the good things people are saying about him. Death has that interesting effect: we tend to focus about the good of the person. This is especially true in the art world: when an artist dies, Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,28,1],"tags":[74,320,301],"class_list":["post-3409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-theatre","category-lj-xfer","tag-ict-long-beach","tag-reviews-2009","tag-theatre-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}