Here's What's new at Stages

We’ve still got a few amazing shows left in the 2012-2013 season, but we’re also gearing up for 2013-2014! Season tickets (subscriptions) are on sale now, and you can see the full season lineup here. Subscribers get first dibs on seats!

Individual tickets for the summer shows (Marvelous Wonderettes: Caps & Gowns and Late Nite Catechism Las Vegas: Sister Rolls the Dice) are on sale now, and the rest of the 2013-2014 shows will be available later this summer after our wonderful subscribers have been seated.

Questions? Get in touch via the contact form at the bottom of this page, email the box office, or give us a call at 713.527.0123.

James Cichocki is the dramaturg for Stages' production of Road Show (meaning he’s a smarty-pants who helps support the creative process with research and background information). Here, as part of our 2013 Suround, James shares what he learned about the real-life Mizner brothers, who inspired Sondheim's & Weidman’s most recent collaboration. Road Show runs May 22 - June 30 and is the first regional theatre production of Sondheim's latest work.

“Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet them on your way down.”

- Wilson Mizner

The notorious Mizner brothers, the central characters of Stephen Sondheim's and John Weidman’s musical Road Show, were real-life, flesh-and-blood men who lived during the turn of the twentieth century. Addison and Wilson Mizner were two of eight children born in the 1870s to a well-connected, upper-middle class family in the northern California town of Benicia. Their father, Lansing Bond Mizner, was an attorney and the former American ambassador read on...

As part of our annual Surround, an education program structures a context for dialogue about a play (or plays) in our season, Stages’ artists and guest bloggers have been writing about The Economy of the American Dream. Martine Kei Green-Rogers, a dramaturg and all-around smarty-pants, strikes up this conversation about the “American Dream.” Read more in our blog series here.

Road Show and Dollhouse share a common theme – the pursuit of the “American Dream.” These plays provide a very different understanding of obtaining this dream, but they do share one aspect in pursuit of the dream – the importance of freedom.  Addison Mizner, from Road Show, desires to honor the memory of his father and rebuild the family’s fortunes and Nora, from Dollhouse, feels as though —financially and emotionally— she has placed herself between a rock and a hard place and needs to obtain a bit of power and freedom to make herself feel valuable and viable again.

Reflecting on this made me realize how read on...

“It’s almost summer!” say all the students in all the places (“It’s almost summer…” say all the parents). The spring semester is winding down and with it our free Shakespeare outreach tour of Romeo & Juliet is coming to an end for this school year.

“No gimmicks just straight up good acting. I really appreciated the attention to the words themselves and the speed of the performance. The actors spoke the words trippingly off their tongues!” - Teacher

This year, Stages partnered once again with the Shakespeare Globe Centre of the Southwest to present free performances of an hour-long Romeo & Juliet to area schools for 8th – 12th grade students. The tour provides students the opportunity to hear Shakespeare’s words and see the action live – it’s different than reading it in class or watching a movie (does anyone else remember watching the 1968 Zeffirell film in class? Did your teacher stand up with a sheet of paper to cover Juliet’s … “exposure” ?

“Thank you so much for performing read on...

Alexandra Szeto-Joe is a sophomore at Kinkaid School, and a YAC-tor – that means she is one of a select ensemble of young actors that train at the Young Actors Conservatory during the summer. She wrote a review for her acting class at school, and shared it with us too! Her responses join the blog series in this year’s Surround. 

Dollhouse Review – Date attended April 13, 2013

New actors of Stages Repertory Theatre made their debut in Rebecca Gilman’s Dollhouse, an updated adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, which is a classic tale of feigning ignorance to escape the harsh truth of reality. I had the privilege of attending this play last Saturday, April 13. The play ran from April 3 through April 28. While it contains rather adult themes and expressive language, it really shows that for every decision, there is a consequence that follows.

This version is set in 2004 Chicago, right after the scandal of Enron and in the middle of the economic downturn. Nora Helmer, a read on...

Rachael Logue plays Nora in Dollhouse, Rebecca Gilman’s modern adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. As part of our annual Surround, we asked Rachael about preparing for this role and about her version of living the American Dream. 

Rachael, what research prepared you to play Nora in this adaptation of the play?

No one can read this and not be struck at the way both of Nora’s parents are mentioned, especially her father. So I started there - I wanted to know what it would have been like to be raised by a single, alcoholic father. I came across a website called AdultChildren.org. It’s an organization, much like Alcoholics Anonymous, which provides support and solutions for grown adults whose childhoods were marked by one or more alcoholic parents. On the website they have a “Laundry List” - 14 Traits of an Adult Child of an Alcoholic. Most of them can be found in Nora. Intense fear of abandonment, denial, a heightened sense of responsibility and an addiction to excitement read on...

contributed by Martine Kei Green-Rogers

Rebecca Gilman’s Dollhouse has an unexpected resonance today. Yes, I know it is set in 2004, which gives it a contemporary context, but I am encouraging us to look at the hidden issues just underneath the surface of this play. What I’m thinking about, specifically, is why partners find themselves in the position of having to lie about how they spend money.  The examples in this play range from the benign to the severe (depending on how you view lying to your spouse about money).

In Gilman’s adaptation, I think it might be easy to dismiss Nora’s behavior, at times, as immature and petty in terms of how she views and uses money. Yet, I’m one to feel that any character on a stage requires more contemplation than a flippant dismissal would bring.

LET’S LOOK CLOSER AT NORA

As I began to think about Nora and her motivations, I spent a great deal of time mulling over her particular circumstances. She had a career before she made the choice read on...

contributed by Eva Laporte

Stages hosted an intimate salon reading of scenes from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House on Monday, April 22, as part of the 2013 Surround: The Economy of the American Dream. The event, which was free and open to the public, offered another chance for dialogue about this much-talked-of play. Rachael Logue, David Matranga, Jon L. Egging, Samuel John and I read scenes and hosted discussion of the original play and the modern adaptations in Rebecca Gilman’s script.

We had a mix of patrons, including some who had already seen Dollhouse and some who had not yet seen it – which made navigating around certain plot points very fun! Overall, I was struck by the open and generous tenor of the conversation. Everyone who attended participated in a lively discussion of the issues in the original play, and articulated their responses to the adaptation as well.

I read a quote that I found especially important while directing Dollhouse. This is from Rolf Fjedle’s read on...