September 2006

Dear Subscriber:

WELCOME TO THE NEW SEASON, a yearlong celebration of our 40th anniversary! We salute those of you who have been with us for this entire period of time and appreciate the extraordinary devotion and support you have given us. We also applaud all of our continuing subscribers and extend a warm welcome to our new friends who have joined us for this anniversary season.  All of you together have enabled this institution to thrive, develop and grow. Thank you so much.

I AM SO PLEASED that we are opening this season with the world premiere of the new American musical ACE. This is an original show with a book full of heart and humanity and a score packed with songs that will excite you, move you and make you laugh. The dynamic cast of 18 will transport you through time, beginning in St. Louis in 1952, with international stops ranging from 1917 to 1943. By the time you leave the theatre, you are certain to be humming many of the show’s most memorable tunes and feeling a special connection with these hometown characters whose originality makes ACE so special. While Broadway is dominated by musical adaptations of films, books or recordings, this piece is entirely original, sprung from the imaginations of Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor, the show’s writing team.  In today’s creative environment this is truly unique and affords you a rare opportunity to participate in the development of this show as well. As always, you partner with us in our work, but a world premiere makes this even more evident, as no one fully knows what bits will earn laughs or which scenes or songs will resonate with an audience until the seats are filled. What the creative team learns here will shape the show forever, and you join us in making a little history at each performance. You can also encourage your Cincinnati friends to take part in this exciting venture, as this production will travel to the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park after closing here.

THE STORY OF ACE IS BOTH SIMPLE and magical. As the show opens in St. Louis during 1952, the dream of the Arch is in the hands of architects and land excavators while the world is dealing with events in Korea, even as it struggles to recover from the Second World War. Ten-year-old Billy finds himself placed with foster parents, Edward and Louise, after his mother, Elizabeth, is hospitalized with paralyzing depression that prevents her from caring for her son. When Edward brings home a model airplane for Billy in hopes of starting conversation and breaking through Billy’s wall of resistance, he does not anticipate the toy’s far-reaching effects. As Billy drifts off to sleep with the gift at his bedside, his dreams are overtaken by the wildly exciting lives of World War I and II pilots and the people who surround them. His nightly journeys into the world of these apparent strangers are guided by a man known to him only as Ace, but the more that Billy dreams, the greater the impact that these people and their stories have on his waking life. Stafford Arima, who is directing ACE, comments:

Dreams allow each “scene” to open our eyes to the wonderment of life and the possibilities that lie deep within us.  Billy discovers through his dreams… answers to the riddles that have kept him locked inside of himself.  It is these visions that unlock the truth and guide him and his mother to their next discovery. The authors have given Billy a world of magic realism where dreaming becomes real life and real life takes on a dreamlike quality.  Billy is able to see through things, and it is through his sixth sense and the vivid yet faded memories of his past that he allows us to [see] the possibilities within ourselves. The characters and stories in ACE fly from the stage direct to your heart… but at the core of this musical is a sturdy message of forgiveness, the pursuit of making our dreams a reality and the transformative power of speaking our dreams and literally putting them out in the stars.  Billy unravels his dreams and discovers through the help of his father and his grandfather that he is free to choose to fly.

Through his experience, we see that regardless of how isolated our lives may seem, we simply do not exist in a vacuum. We cannot become who we are destined to be until we confront and accept the past that continually informs our present.

THIS SENSE OF CONNECTION that pervades the piece and the writers’ incredible attention to detail are particularly evident in the score. Just as Billy’s life unfolds from the lives of those who preceded him, the music of each era emerges one from another, giving us a score that we easily fall in love with. Richard Oberacker, who wrote the score and co-wrote the lyrics for the show writes quite eloquently about his inspiration for the music:

I wanted each world to have its own sound—the world of Billy in 1952, and the world of John Robert/Ruth in the early 1900s and Ace/Elizabeth in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s.  I set out to make Billy’s world the most distinct. It needed to represent a world that is slightly skewed—viewed from a child’s perspective, a child who is caught between actually being a child and having to function as an adult… I wanted an angularity, a world [that] was drawn by Edward Gorey… This is quite clear in the construction of the opening number of the show, “It’s Better This Way”...In the case of Louise’s “Make It From Scratch” I kept my ear tuned to “Nick at Nite” for TV shows from the 50’s.  The underscoring for them had such a specific vocabulary and I wanted to quote that just enough to give a context, and then straight back into the angular contemporary sound I was giving to that world as a whole…[For] John Robert’s world, my main influence was Aaron Copeland. Everything about these scenes needed to say “American” even if it wasn’t exactly period specific…But in the underscoring, which adds that filmic aspect to the whole show—again a uniquely American style—I was inspired by John Williams.  He’s the best and when scoring action scenes, like the dogfight, he captures an almost cowboy sensibility of reckless abandon…For Ace’s world during his courtship with Elizabeth, the spirit of Gershwin and early Rodgers (and Hart) stayed with me. But again, when Ace slams into “I Know It Can Be Done,” I go again for a Copeland-esque feel that echoes his father (unknowingly) with a modern beat from the drums to draw us in…As for the end of the show, my more romantic side really comes into play. It has a very contemporary sound and the chording is unabashedly “pop” because we need to connect to a contemporary audience—I want the sense of universality and of “now.”

Of course, as you listen to the musical, you won’t be thinking about these theoretical musings because the score just pulses with life and excitement and romance. But in retrospect, you’ll be able to see all the skillful intersections of concept and a fully realized score.
ACE IS FULL OF SPIRIT and wonderful, quirky characters that give life to the story and all the eras that the show samples. But what is interesting is that it is not what most of us would consider a standard musical. There is no big tap number, no chorus dance numbers, and the storyline delves into the dark moments of armed conflict and of troubled parenting. Coupled with this though, are the giddy moments of falling in love, of trying to make the best cookies possible because it means being a good mother, and of making a real childhood friend for the first time. Ultimately the show soars because it lets us embrace the joy of discovery and share communally in a personal world being changed for the better.
DAVID KORINS HAS DESIGNED a fascinating set that can be any number of locales including runways and airplanes. Its invention is amazing and our shops have done remarkable work to help realize the vision of the show. Marie Anne Chiment’s costumes span almost half of the twentieth century and demonstrate tremendous imagination and the great craft of our costume shop. We’re pleased that Chris Akerlind is here designing the lights—he was lighting designer for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for many years and won a Tony Award two seasons ago for his design of The Light in the Piazza. Providing outstanding audio ambiance from playgrounds to dogfights are John Shivers and David Patridge, sound designers for many Broadway productions.

OUR LARGE CAST IS LED by Broadway stars Matt Bogart and Jessica Boevers—recently married in real life—in the respective roles of Ace and Elizabeth. You’ll enjoy welcoming the rest of the company, all of whom are new to us, including Noah Galvin as Billy and Gabrielle Boyadjian as Emily, who are taking on two very substantial roles for children. We are also joined by St. Louis native Danny Rothman, Missouri native Heather Ayers and two local children, Jimmy McEvoy and Ariane Rinehart. Choreographing the production is the imaginative Andrew Palermo, and musical direction is by David Kreppel, conducting the pit orchestra of ten of St. Louis’s finest players.

OUR SECOND SEASON OF THE OFF-RAMP series opens on September 22nd at the Grandel Theatre with Martin McDonagh’s provocative, vibrant, harrowing The Pillowman. This award-winning play is like a great Halloween tale for grown-ups—scary at times, gruesome at others, and oddly, often very funny. In disturbingly real fashion, this show brings to mind that moment that so many of us have experienced either sitting around a campfire or gathered in a darkened room, in which we suddenly question whether or not the wonderfully chilling tales that our friends have been spinning just might be true. If so, what then?  Katurian, the character at the center of McDonagh’s play, must face this question when he is hauled in by the police in an unnamed totalitarian country because of an extensive collection of rather unusual short stories he has written. It seems that three of these vividly violent tales have now been enacted in exacting detail on three local children, leaving two bodies and a missing child. The police are determined to connect art and life, but according to Katurian, the artist has only one responsibility—to his stories. That makes interpreting his onstage version of “actual” events a little challenging and causes us to question whether the stories are fact, fiction or both. The artistry in the crafting of this play is just amazing. McDonagh spins tales that are at once quite intellectually and ethically interesting while also being terribly disturbing. As gruesome as some of the scenarios are, each story contains a strangely positive perspective. Though born out of a curious point of view, the motivations of Katurian’s characters are as compassionate and possibly comforting as they are brutal or cruel. Within this scenario McDonagh also raises the issue of an artist’s responsibility to society and consequently brings into question government interference with artists. Certainly this is not a political play, but given that the state is interrogating a writer about his creations, this is part of the landscape in which the work is placed. You will never forget this play. It will haunt you, and it may disturb you—as all good spooky stories should.  I’m pleased to be directing this show with a wonderful cast consisting of Joseph Collins, Paul DeBoy, Tim McCracken and Anderson Matthews—all Rep veterans with marvelous abilities to storytell. The setting by Adrian W. Jones, lighting by Mary Jo Dondlinger, costumes by Alejo Vietti and sound design by Tori Meyer all add to the fascinating world of this amazing play.

OUR EDUCATION DEPARTMENT is launching Kids ArtStart, a new arts exposure program scheduled for the first Saturday of every month, October through April. A collective effort with other area arts organizations, this series provides young people with hands-on experiences in a variety of art forms. We encourage you to learn more about these free daytime activities by calling (314) 968-7340.

PLEASE NOTE that we have recently gone through a major software conversion in order to enhance our services for all our patrons.  While we strive for a seamless transition, we know there may be some unavoidable errors and ask for your help and your patience.  If there is anything incorrect about the contact information we used to send this letter to you, please alert us by calling (314) 968-4288 and we will make immediate corrections.

BOTH OF OUR OPENING SHOWS deal with the worlds of storytelling and dreams, realms that are full of potent ideas and images. With ACE you will be thrilled as you soar to new heights with imagination, music and a great cast. And The Pillowman takes you into a landscape that is gritty, odd and thoroughly captivating. Thank you so much for your support and for joining us as we enter our 40th season. We are all so proud to be able to share our work with you.

See you at the theatre,

Steven Woolf
Artistic Director
NEW YORK REPORT: If you are intrigued by Martin McDonagh, his play The Lieutenant of Inishmore is wildly funny and probably the most grisly play you’ll ever see onstage. It is like seeing a Quentin Tarantino film live—but you will laugh all through the show. It is certainly not for the faint of heart. Opening in the fall will be Spring Awakening, an adult musical based on Wedekind’s play. It is fresh, fascinating and full of youthful energy but not a play for the very young. The Wedding Singer is cute if not very fulfilling, but fun nonetheless. And don’t forget [title of show] which is an off-Broadway hit featuring Hunter Bell, who has performed in many shows for us and is a Webster Conservatory graduate. He is one of the authors of the piece and has gotten a lot of attention for his work on it.

P.S. I would also like to sadly note the passing of two friends of ours. Bruce Summers lost his valiant fight with cancer in early August. Bruce ran our costume shop for several years, designed several shows for us and later became a professional photographer. You’ve seen many of his photographs of our productions in the lobby and the newspaper. He had a spirit and heart as large as the world of theatre, and we all miss him. Harold Scott passed away in July. Hal had directed several shows for us, the most recent being Frozen in the Studio Theatre two seasons ago. He also directed a landmark production of A Raisin in the Sun for us starring Esther Rolle in 1984 as well as Fences starring Avery Brooks in 1990. He was a noted director and educator who worked throughout the country.