New New Moon
I've mourned the passing of Theatre de la Jeune Lune much more that I thought I would (even after spending over 12 years working there). Seeing the building sit empty and leaking, going to shows that critics called "Jeune-Lune reminiscent" but weren't quite there, even the momentos in our home.
So it's been really good for me, in the last few weeks, to see some amazing shows that perhaps begin a new era.
Over at Nimbus Theatre, Barbra Berlovitz stars in Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. Barbra is such a compelling performer, and the book is one of my all-time favorites, so I was a little afraid to see it on stage. But the performance is amazing — luminescent and powerful — that it reached to my inner being in the way that theatre does more than any other medium. Her performance, like the book, gains its ultimate effect from the passion of dispassion, and Barbra is spot-on. I've seen her perform since Jeune Lune, but nothing liek this.
Then, last night, we went to the opening night of Come Hell or High Water, by The Moving Company (the new Dominique Serrand and Steve Epp company, which also featured Nathan Keepers and Christina Baldwin and a large and very talented chorus. I don't even have words. The actors I know well have matured and somehow gotten even better, for incredibly stirring performances. Those new to me were a delight. The scenography was beautiful and evocative; the story all the more compelling if you listen to NPR today. I'm still thinking about the show.
I've recently seen Bob's studio; I know that Vincent is happy in France; I even caught a glimpse of a hard-hat tour Steve Richardson led down at Carleton.
For the first time, it seems like there might be a post-TJL world that incorporates the passion and poetry I had while I was there. I hope so.
See the shows.
So it's been really good for me, in the last few weeks, to see some amazing shows that perhaps begin a new era.
Over at Nimbus Theatre, Barbra Berlovitz stars in Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. Barbra is such a compelling performer, and the book is one of my all-time favorites, so I was a little afraid to see it on stage. But the performance is amazing — luminescent and powerful — that it reached to my inner being in the way that theatre does more than any other medium. Her performance, like the book, gains its ultimate effect from the passion of dispassion, and Barbra is spot-on. I've seen her perform since Jeune Lune, but nothing liek this.
Then, last night, we went to the opening night of Come Hell or High Water, by The Moving Company (the new Dominique Serrand and Steve Epp company, which also featured Nathan Keepers and Christina Baldwin and a large and very talented chorus. I don't even have words. The actors I know well have matured and somehow gotten even better, for incredibly stirring performances. Those new to me were a delight. The scenography was beautiful and evocative; the story all the more compelling if you listen to NPR today. I'm still thinking about the show.
I've recently seen Bob's studio; I know that Vincent is happy in France; I even caught a glimpse of a hard-hat tour Steve Richardson led down at Carleton.
For the first time, it seems like there might be a post-TJL world that incorporates the passion and poetry I had while I was there. I hope so.
See the shows.
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