Hamlet

Many consider Hamlet the greatest play in the English language and its complexity is a major reason for that. So, I was skeptical that the Springer would be up to the difficulties of the roles and subtleties of the language. I was pleasantly surprised.

Chris Graham, as Hamlet, turned in a studied and delightful performance with just the right touch on the famous lines-"To be or not to be", "Poor Yorick, I knew him well", etc. His transitions from brooding, to angry, to remorseful were a little too abrupt but his delivery of the language was crisp and understandable.

Being understandable is what often kills productions of Hamlet. The language in this production was quite accessible and, excepting the first two minutes of both acts where the adrenaline was too high, enunciated well.

Rebecca McGraw as Gertrude also turned in a surprising strong performance. I'd seen Ms McGraw previously but had not grasped her stage presence and emotional palette.

The other performances were adequate but when Hamlet and Gertrude were off stage the pace seemed to slow. Ron Anderson, who is a magnificent actor as a rule, as the ghost of the king actually evoked laughs at one point. There are laughs in Hamlet-Polonius, the grave digger, even Hamlet-but the Ghost's warning is not one of them. Bruce Evers as Claudius was a little stiff and unlike my image of Claudius who must have been clever and charming to have conceived of his plot and seduced his brother's wife. In particular, the final scenes when he schemes with Laertes seemed contrived.

Most of this is trivial to a well delivered presentation, but director John Ammerman's costume choices defy explanation. One would think that since Hamlet has not been seen on the Springer stage in 130 years or so, a traditional performance wouldn't have been out of line. It's perfectly reasonable to reinterpret a play that has been seen over and over again. I even once saw Chris Coleman at the Actor's Express do Hamlet in the nude. Butt naked. So there's room for costuming decisions but it was the inconsistencies in this Hamlet that baffled me.

The Ghost showed up with a 19th Century German pointed helmet and a leisure suit. Hamlet and Horatio standing together looked exactly like Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Hamlet's last scene was played in a red vest that made him look like a Biloxi black jack dealer. For the most part, it appeared that they were using Victorian clothing in some sort of update, but they also wore swords and daggers-a little unusual in the 19th Century. Horatio rattled on about the Ghost in his armor while the Ghost stood there in his safari suit. And then, just when you thought it was updated clothes on 1600 characters, Laertes whips out a pistol.

Practically no one does Hamlet in its entirety and the cuts made in this version were well done. Characters such as Fortinbras, who is minor but closes the written play to keep the Tudors happy, were cut out entirely. There being more senior citizens in the audience than Tudors, completing Hamlet by 10 pm was welcome. Unfortunately, there were seats available though and I hope that's more a reflection of the economy than Columbus taste.

One place we're bush

I believe the arts in Columbus compete well with that of any other city in Georgia other than Atlanta and even there we sometimes compete. If a performance can get close, then we have it all over Atlanta since we don't have the traffic and parking problems. I think we get close with the symphony and the museum. We don't have a chance with theater because there's 70 companies in Atlanta and not one totally professional one here. The big show story is mixed-we don't get nearly as many but what we do get is every bit as professional as that at the Fox and we don't have to pay $15 for parking and hope the radio is there when we get back.
One place Columbus is bush league though is in the starting time for every live performance in town. They all start at 7:30 pm which is twixt and between. If you eat ahead of time, you have to start at 5:30 pm, preferably downtown. The River Club opens early on River Center performance nights for that reason. If 5:30 is too early for you and you decide to wait you'll have trouble finding a place open after 10 pm. If you go to Aida next Saturday, you'll be seeing a very long opera which probably won't get out until nearly 11 pm so you won't have much choice except to eat at 5:30.
This probably suits the Spring Harbor crowd who eat at 5 anyway and then board their bus to the venue, but everyone else is inconvenienced. It's simply bush.

To the Planets and Beyond

The Columbus Symphony on Saturday presented two very different programs although they titled the night "To the Planets and Beyond". The title referred to the second program, "The Planets, Op. 32" by British Composer Gustav Holst. Written in 1917, "The Planets" has seven movements describing seven planets.
One of the emerging trends in orchestra presentations is to couple the music with a video that visually describes the music. In this case, a large screen was dropped behind the orchestra and a video of either actual photos or animation of the planet was shown. Listening to the music gives you and idea of where whoever George Lukas got to do his music got their ideas. The first three planets, Mars, Venus, and Mercury depended mostly on actual photos and unfortunately, there's not that much variety in the landscape of any planet. Beginning with Jupiter, the film relied more on animation and was more interesting.
I should say that I think this idea of multi sensory programs is a good one, but the music was a little hard to follow and needed full attention which was hard with planets zooming by.
The first program of the night was the professional premiere of Joseph Packales' "Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op 101" with Columbus State University's Andre Gaskins. Packales was a close friend of orchestra Director George Del Gobbo and it was clear that he wanted to do this performance in honor of his friend-not always a good sign. The concerto was clearly written to give the Cello performer a chance to show his/her stuff and Gaskins was equal to the challenge. During the fast parts, Gaskins was aggressive and ripped the notes out, but he was particularly tentative at the beginning of some of the slower parts.
Columbus audiences are notorious for an unwillingness to explore most modern composing-particularly atonal material-but I heard relatively little griping. This Concerto had moments of real excitement but used a number of odd transitions which were disconcerting. Still, it should be given a wider audience particularly since Atlanta has one of the finest Cellists in the country.
Attendance in the orchestra section was spotty, reflecting the cold rainy weather, but the two balcony levels appeared to be full. There were a lot of parents with young children who attended because of the idea of "The Planets and beyond". Many of the children were asleep by the first intermission and missed the planets altogether. Still, the program was satisfying overall for those who were willing to engage themselves in the presentation.

Theater audiences

When the River Center opened it brought it great shows and great crowds for them. It wasn't long, however, before people began to feel like they were going to something every night and they began to drift away. Between the recession and the demands on people's time, audiences have been soft recently.
The exception to that is the Springer which continues to post increases. The Springer has a two pronged strategy that seems to have made them one of the very few theaters in the country to grow their audiences. The first strategy is the Springer Academy which teaches young people theater skills. Those young people then bring their parents to shows and, when they grow older, come themselves.
The second strategy is to give them what they want. This year they're doing two Tunas-shows that are designed for the 12 year old mind-and musicals get a lot of attention. That does pay for an occasional serious piece-the next play is Hamlet.
One should give Troy Heard and the Chattahoochee Shakespeare Company credit for doing some material no one else in town would. Beginning this week-end they're doing "Reefer Madness the Musical" with a pretty large cast at the Liberty. I'm looking forward to seeing it. I'm not clear, however, about Troy's business model. He did a hilarious Shakespeare last year that ran several week-ends but the show I saw had very few in the audience. "Reefer Madness" gets 11 performances.
If "Reefer" draws good crowds, I might revisit this evaluation of Columbus' audiences, but I'm going to give them a C. Even the Springer doesn't sell out as a rule. There's plenty of tickets available for the Symphony this week-end, and you can get in to see "Aida" on the 31st for $10. How's that for a bargain?

An evaluation of Columbus Theater part 3

The third leg to make a good theater town is acting talent. The Springer will usually bring in one or two of the leads in any given play from out of town. And this has been very successful for them. The rest of the cast is mostly made up of folks who just enjoy doing it although they occasionally cast a Columbus State University Theater major who has hopes of finding a career eventually.

Theater has come to a place where Artistic Directors in professional theaters look for plays with small casts just because of the costs of mounting a larger cast, so a town needs a lot of theaters to have a lot of good actors. It's almost unfair to grade Columbus on actors because there's just not enough productions to keep them here. Lighting or sound folks can work at Cascade Baptist or the Cancer Benefit, but actors are not so versatile. What's worse is that there's not even a lot of good restaurants here to give them work between gigs.

The Associate Artistic Director at the Springer, Ron Anderson, is actually an excellent actor-the best in town actually making his living in theater and probably the best by any measure. Ron's work in "Of Mice and Men" was as good is you could hope for on any stage. JJ Musgrove, who's now at the Symphony, is also an accomplished actor but he only takes an occasional gig. There are some local fill ins at the Springer who have had excellent performances but their body of work is uneven.

For actors, the city gets a D.

An evaluation of Columbus Theater part 2

Theater production talent goes where the theater is. That is to say, there's a lot of talent in New York and Atlanta, but not that much in Columbus since there's only a couple of places that might hire a director or a lighting director. The Springer regularly brings in from the outside acting talent but less so production talent. There are a few folks around town who work on a contract basis and some who actually work on Cascade Baptist Church's productions.


So the talent is thin, but I'll mention three directors with superior talent. Probably the best director in town actually in the business is Dr. Becky Becker at Columbus State University. Directing is about details and Dr. Becker has to do that with college students so she gets extra points for putting on tight shows. She has a special talent for creating drama out of people's personal stories.


The executive director of the Columbus Symphony, JJ Musgrove, has most of his history in theater and is an excellent director. He has recently also acted in a Springer production. Once again, he has a firm grip on the details of a production. JJ and his wife, Kate, now also write for, direct, and operate the Columbus Mystery theater at the Marriott.


Finally, he's rarely gotten the opportunity to direct, but Ron Anderson, the Associate Artistic Director at the Springer, is an excellent director. One can always expect a tight gripping production when he's listed in the credits.
For directors, Columbus gets a B.