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Porgy and Bess Program [pdf] - American Repertory Theater
Porgy and Bess Program [pdf] - American Repertory Theater Porgy and Bess Program [pdf] - American Repertory Theater
Michael Lutch RE-IMAGINING AN AMERICAN CLASSIC Seventy-six years after its premiere, Diane Paulus, Suzan-Lori Parks and company revamp the Gershwins’ landmark masterpiece, Porgy and Bess by Christopher Wallenberg George and Ira Gershwin’s landmark “folkopera” Porgy and Bess, with a libretto cowritten by DuBose Heyward, may be three quarters of a century old, but Diane Paulus, the director of the current re-imagining of this operatic masterpiece, has been steadfastly approaching Porgy and Bess as if it’s a living, breathing entity as relevant today as it was in 1935. To that end, she’s simultaneously looking backwards to understand its history and its original inspirations while pushing forward to think about what this iconic American work means right now. “What makes a classic great is that it responds. Shakespeare responds. It’s not stuck in 1598. And Porgy and Bess continues to reverberate and hold universal meaning over time,” says Paulus, nestled in an armchair in her spacious office at the American Repertory Theater’s Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge, where her musical-theater version of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess made its highly anticipated debut on August 17. “That’s been my whole interest as a director: How do we look to the masterworks of our the- GONE FISHIN’: (above, left to right) Norm Lewis (as Porgy), Joshua Henry, Wilkie Ferguson, Roosevelt André Credit and Trevon Davis perform a scene from The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. 6 AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER
atrical history and bring them forward in a way that continues to make them feel pertinent and immediate—to make the audience feel as if they’re alive with the work, almost as if it were written yesterday.” These aren’t platitudes, says Paulus, the A.R.T.’s artistic director. She says that she believes in this approach and in these ideals with all her soul and tries to infuse them into every aspect of the theater she creates, which includes the 2009 Broadway revival of another landmark musical work, Hair. That production landed Paulus on the national radar, and Porgy marks another watershed moment for the artistic leader. Indeed, it stands as her biggest and boldest project yet—and the one with the highest stakes—since she took the reins at the A.R.T. three years ago, dramatically shaking up that storied institution. The creative team she’s assembled for Porgy, including Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Suzan- Lori Parks and Obie Award-winning composer Diedre Murray, have been hard at work, shaping and developing their vision for Porgy, which hasn’t been seen on Broadway in decades. (Today, it’s mostly performed as an opera.) The fruits of Paulus and Co.’s nearly year-long labor was unveiled at the A.R.T. last month when the curtain went up on The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess for a seven-week run, with the production then moving to Broadway in December. (The star-studded cast includes four-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald as Bess, Broadway veteran Norm Lewis as Porgy and actor/comedian David Alan Grier as Sporting Life.) The project was launched when Paulus’ Hair producer, Jeffrey Richards, told her that the Gershwin estates and the DuBose Heyward trust (Heyward helped adapt the libretto from his original novel) had been looking for a team to revive Porgy as a musical and asked her if she was interested. “What moved me was their impulse to come to a team in 2011 and say, ‘The opera is the opera. But what about Porgy and Bess living on the musical stage? What could that be? How could it speak to the next generation?’ That was the gauntlet they threw down to us—how can you make this piece dramatically the most powerful and meaningful version for an audience today?” BESS ACTRESS: Stage and screen star Audra McDonald portrays Bess alongside Broadway veteran Norm Lewis, who plays Porgy, in the American Repertory Theater’s production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. When Porgy premiered in 1935 at the Colonial Theatre in downtown Boston, it was immediately embraced. Yet when it moved to Broadway, it was greeted by a mixed reaction. Its reputation, however, grew in the 1940s, especially in Europe. Over time, the groundbreaking and culturally significant nature of the score was applauded. Not only did George Gershwin mash-up the operatic form with folk music styles like gospel and the dynamic sounds of jazz and Michael Lutch THE GERSHWINS’ PORGY AND BESS 7
- Page 3 and 4: Contents SEPTEMBER 2011 12 Artistic
- Page 5: ackstage (continued) Zimmerman’s
- Page 9 and 10: identify with Porgy. I’m rooting
- Page 11 and 12: Miles Davis and Nina Simone, popula
- Page 13: Charlie Haydock, CFA Chief Investme
- Page 17 and 18: Cast (in order of appearance) Clara
- Page 19 and 20: ADDITIONAL STAFF Dialect Coach.....
- Page 21 and 22: Courtesy of Ira and Leonore Gershwi
- Page 23 and 24: ALLISON BLACKWELL Woman of Catfish
- Page 25 and 26: cast (continued) pearances include
- Page 27 and 28: cast (continued) BRYONHA MARIE PARH
- Page 29 and 30: orchestra (continued) LEO EGUCHI Ce
- Page 31 and 32: orchestra (continued) GREG NEWTON T
- Page 33 and 34: creative team (continued) Venus (19
- Page 35 and 36: creative team (continued) and Misal
- Page 37 and 38: creative team (continued) JULIE BAL
- Page 39 and 40: A.R.T./MXAT Institute For Advanced
- Page 41 and 42: annual fund donors (continued) $1,0
- Page 43 and 44: A.R.T. EDUCATION EXPERIENCE & COMMU
- Page 45 and 46: Staff AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER ST
- Page 47 and 48: guide to local theater (continued)
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- Page 51 and 52: SLASHER, Apollinaire Theatre Compan
- Page 53 and 54: Direct from its sold-out run at the
- Page 55 and 56: guide to cambridge dining (continue
Michael Lutch<br />
RE-IMAGINING AN<br />
AMERICAN CLASSIC<br />
Seventy-six years after its premiere, Diane Paulus,<br />
Suzan-Lori Parks <strong>and</strong> company revamp the Gershwins’<br />
l<strong>and</strong>mark masterpiece, <strong>Porgy</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Bess</strong> by Christopher Wallenberg<br />
George <strong>and</strong> Ira Gershwin’s l<strong>and</strong>mark “folkopera”<br />
<strong>Porgy</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Bess</strong>, with a libretto cowritten<br />
by DuBose Heyward, may be<br />
three quarters of a century old, but Diane Paulus,<br />
the director of the current re-imagining of this operatic<br />
masterpiece, has been steadfastly approaching<br />
<strong>Porgy</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Bess</strong> as if it’s a living, breathing entity<br />
as relevant today as it was in 1935. To that end,<br />
she’s simultaneously looking backwards to underst<strong>and</strong><br />
its history <strong>and</strong> its original inspirations while<br />
pushing forward to think about what this iconic<br />
<strong>American</strong> work means right now.<br />
“What makes a classic great is that it responds.<br />
Shakespeare responds. It’s not stuck in<br />
1598. And <strong>Porgy</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Bess</strong> continues to reverberate<br />
<strong>and</strong> hold universal meaning over time,” says<br />
Paulus, nestled in an armchair in her spacious<br />
office at the <strong>American</strong> <strong>Repertory</strong> <strong>Theater</strong>’s Loeb<br />
Drama Center in Cambridge, where her<br />
musical-theater version of The Gershwins’ <strong>Porgy</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> <strong>Bess</strong> made its highly anticipated debut on<br />
August 17.<br />
“That’s been my whole interest as a director:<br />
How do we look to the masterworks of our the-<br />
GONE FISHIN’: (above, left to right) Norm Lewis<br />
(as <strong>Porgy</strong>), Joshua Henry, Wilkie Ferguson,<br />
Roosevelt André Credit <strong>and</strong> Trevon Davis perform<br />
a scene from The Gershwins’ <strong>Porgy</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Bess</strong>.<br />
6 AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER
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