A Tribute to the 2013 Forum

Thoughts on the 2013 Theatre Forum, from the incomparable Ann Thompson...

... across meadows, under trees
see the crowd of devotees
gather, blest by cloudless skies,
to grow culturally wise
absorbing Germany's Kultur
so über, pure and truly ur.

Goethe, Schiller, Berthold Brecht
each teutonically echt.
Wagner  ruled and so did Weill
even Schoenberg for a while
came across melodious
though to me oft odious.

Their impact curbed by sentiment
from the foreign element
of Berlioz, Boito and Gounod
variously limning what we know
will happen to little Marguerite
i.e. Gretchen, sugary sweet.
At least from dear old Donizetti
came some musical confetti
to lighten up historic gloom
cast by Scottish Mary's doom.

But then the icing on the cake!
A finale to make males quake
in their chauvinistic boots
to their atavistic roots.
't Was the cabaret routine
of Berlin Diary's songster queen *
here Sonia Bruzauskas; towering in tails
and ankle boots with chain details,
lacking only Jenny's whip
to cowe the Seeräuber in their ship **.

The menace passed the sex subsided,
now we hear what Kate's decided:
for next year we're on home ground,
Amerika! normal, safe and sound. 
where men and women get along
and a song is just a song ...


* Sally Bowles in Christopher Isherwood's novel,
source for play and film I am a Camera and musical Cabaret.

** from Weill's  Threepenny Opera

In Memoriam - Isidor Saslav

The Theatre Forum remembers with great fondness Isidor Saslav who died on January 26th. A violinist with a remarkable international career, Isidor (who played in the Festival Hill orchestra and coached young players here in Round Top) made a special contribution to the Theatre Forum in 2005 when we took as our focus the work of George Bernard Shaw. Isidor shared works from his enormous Shaw collection—over 8,000 items including a vast library of books, photographs, programs, posters and all things Shavian. Isidor’s enthusiasm and good spirits were unflagging. Our enthusiasm rose as we heard him talk about his love of Shaw. We are grateful for his participation in the Theatre Forum and will not soon forget him and his lovely wife Ann.


Mar. 18, 1938-Jan. 26, 2013

OVERTON — Overton resident and noted symphony concertmaster, concert violinist, musicologist and Haydn scholar, Dr. Isidor Saslav died in the Tyler East Texas Medical Center on January 26, 2013. Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1938, Saslav came to the U.S. as a child, where he studied violin under Detroit Symphony concertmaster Mischa Mishakoff, and became one of the youngest members of the Detroit Symphony at age 17. Saslav graduated from Wayne State University and received a doctorate in Music from Indiana University.

During his long and distinguished career, Dr. Saslav served as the concertmaster of numerous orchestras including the Buffalo Philharmonic, Minnesota Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, the Dallas Opera, Kennedy Center (Terrace Theater) Opera, the Baltimore Opera and Indiana University Opera orchestras. In Texas, he recently retired as the longtime concertmaster of the Longview Symphony Orchestra under conductor Tonu Kalam and also served as concertmaster of the Beaumont Symphony Orchestra. For more than 30 years, along with his wife, concert pianist Ann HeiligmanSaslav, Dr. Saslav concertized in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand and performed classical music programs in schools throughout the country for more than two million students through their non-profit organization, Adventures with the Arts.

Dr. Saslav also taught at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, the Eastman School of Music and the State University of New York at Buffalo. He established, and for more than a decade headed, the strings program at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches. A lifetime devotee of playwright George Bernard Shaw, Dr. Saslav established a library in Overton dedicated to his extensive Shaw collection and memorabilia from his and his wife's remarkable musical careers. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Ann Heiligman Saslav; son, David Saslav; daughter, Leanora Saslav; and daughter-in-law, Melissa Smith, all of San Francisco, California.

In Memoriam - Sidney Berger

The Theatre Forum Remembers Sidney Berger 

 Dr. Sidney Berger, head of the School of Theatre at the University of Houston, Founder and Artistic Director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival, and one of the founding speakers of the Theatre Forum at Round Top died February 15, 2013. Sidney was a great supporter of the Theatre Forum, staging a program of Shakespeare’s Sonnets for the first Forum and lecturing on Sarah Bernhardt for the second. We include this story, originally published in a University of Houston newsletter,  as we remember him with gratitude and fondness.

REMEMBERING LONGTIME THEATRE DIRECTOR SIDNEY BERGER

February 15, 2013-Houston

In 1969, Sidney “Doc” Berger arrived at the University of Houston with one goal – to transform the university’s small drama department into a world class training center for aspiring theater professionals.When he departed the university 41 years later, he could confidently say, “Mission accomplished.”

Berger passed away on Feb. 15.
In 2010 Berger stepped away from UH’s stages as a director, producer and mentor. His contributions to the local and national theater landscapes, however, will continue to flourish.

Berger served as the director for UH’s School of Theatre & Dance from 1969 -  2007 and groomed hundreds of students. He also enlisted star faculty including Broadway vet Stuart Ostrow, Pulitzer Prize winners Edward Albee and Lanford Wilson, directing legend Jose Quintero, noted educator Cecil Pickett and Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company.Among the many actors and artists who learned from Berger were Robert Wuhl (“Batman”), Jim Parsons (“Big Bang Theory”), Brett Cullen (“Lost”), Cindy Pickett (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”), Loretta Devine (“Waiting to Exhale”) Dennis Quaid and Randy Quaid.

Berger also left an indelible impression on Houston’s cultural landscape by founding the immensely popular Houston Shakespeare Festival (HSF) at Miller Outdoor Theatre in 1975. This festival continues to entertain thousands each summer and showcases the talents of leading stage professionals.

He also was a driving force behind the Children’s Theatre Festival, which entertained young audiences during summer months.  Under his guidance, the festival ran from 1980 – 2008. Berger tapped the talents of Broadway greats to create world premiere works for this annual event. Charles Strouse (“Annie”) and Jerry Bock (“Fiddler On The Roof”) were among the creative minds that contributed to the festival.

Berger stepped down as the school’s director in 2007. He officially retired from UH in 2009. In 2010, he took a last bow as the director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival.

The final play Berger directed at UH was “At Home At The Zoo,” which was written by close friend and colleague Edward Albee. His final HSF play was “Much Ado About Nothing” in 2010.
"He ran a fine, humanistic ship, and his gentleness and his humor will be missed," Albee said of Berger’s retirement in 2007. "There's much to be learned from Sid, whom I love dearly, and I hope those who follow him have the wisdom to learn it."

Berger's accolades include the 1992 Esther Farfel Award, UH's highest faculty honor, and the 2007 Theatre Under the Stars Ruth Denney Award, which recognizes arts educators. In 2007, he was recognized by U.S. Congressman Gene Green in the Congressional Record for his tireless efforts with the Houston Shakespeare Festival. Mayor Annise Parker paid tribute to Berger during his final year with HSF by proclaiming Aug. 6, 2010 as “Sidney Berger Day” in Houston.

"I have had a wonderful career here at the university," Berger said in 2007. "I could not think of another place I would have wanted to spend my professional life."

“It is next to impossible to encapsulate Sidney Berger’s life in Houston into a few sentences. Creator, director, visionary, chair, teacher, friend, colleague, passionate Shakespeare lover, giant in educational theater world – are all words that come to mind,” said Steve Wallace, director of the UH School of Theatre & Dance. “His work was his life , his life was his work.  He was happiest directing a Shakespeare play at the wonderful Miller Outdoor Theatre that gave the Houston Shakespeare Festival a home since 1975. Whether audiences were sitting on the front row or enjoying glasses of wine on a blanket out on the hill,  it didn’t matter to him; they were all his friends because they loved his friend William Shakespeare.

"Sidney would want to have Shakespeare say goodbye the way only the Bard could...'Good-night sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.'"

Mike Emery
pemery@uh.edu
713-743-8186

2013 REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

The Theatre Forum is now taking registrations for 2013!!

 Please call Vickie at Festival Hill at (979) 249-3129  to register today!

The dates of the Theatre Forum weekend are November 1, 2 and 3, 2013. Participants can register for the entire three days, including overnight accommodations, receptions and gourmet meals, or for Saturday only, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.   Reservations may be made by phone at (979) 249-3129 or by faxing in the registration form. Payment may be made by Visa/MasterCard, or check.

Check the links above for Schedule, Pricing and Registration Info.

For more information, to request a brochure by mail, 

OR to register for the Theatre Forum, 

please call Vickie at Festival Hill at (979) 249-3129. 

For 16 years the Theatre Forum has invited audiences to come for a long weekend at Festival Hill to explore the western world’s rich dramatic heritage. During this time Theatre Forums have addressed many national styles of theatre: Russian, Irish, Scandinavian, French and Austrian. Alternatively, Forums have sometimes focused on influential writers: Shakespeare, Moliere, Gilbert and Sullivan, Noel Coward. They have always brought distinguished artists and lectures to perform, demonstrate, or speak, and have sought out and presented lost works of dramatic literature: those not often produced, or lost from view.

The 16th Annual Theatre Forum, to take place November 1-3, 2013, is called The Rhine and the Lorelei, and focuses on Treasures of the German Theatre from Goethe to Brecht. The Forum will explore, through lectures, talks, and performances, the rich heritage and influence of German drama.

Presenters include distinguished theatre historian and author Felicia Londre from Kansas City; opera singer and musicologist Vern Sutton from Minneapolis; artist and designer Tom Foral from New York city; as well as Houstonians Ann Thompson and Kate Pogue.  The featured event in this year’s forum will be a performance of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins. Mezzo-soprano Sonja Bruzauskas will be joined by dancer Garland Goodwin Wilson, members of the Houston Chamber Choir and players from the Greenbriar Consortium in this rare presentation of the last collaboration between Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht.

Wagner article on NPR

An interesting article on NPR this week:

Extreme Drama: The Life And Music Of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner was, and still is today, arguably the most controversial figure in classical music.  A self-appointed deity and hyperdriven genius, Wagner is often considered the ultimate megalomanic.  He dreamed up and achieved a single-minded plan to change the course of classical music history. 

If you have a few spare moments, you might take the time for a Google search on this controversial figure.  OR click here for today's results!

Reading List

A number of registrants have been asking for a list of books in order to read ahead about our rich topic. Below are some suggestions, with a request that if you are aware of a wonderful book or recording on this subject you’ll please share it with the rest of us.

Caveat: As you all know, theatre is written for performance, and this is a particularly dense school of drama. So, please, if you find reading any of the plays hard going, trust us!

One goal of the Theatre Forum is to introduce audiences to and acquaint audiences with materials that have been of supreme importance in the history of Western culture. You can all thoroughly enjoy the weekend (and feel greatly enlightened, we hope) without doing alot – if any - of homework.

That said, here are some works you might enjoy browsing through. All are available on Amazon (links included below, and also in the sidebar to the left), some can even be read on your computer screen by accessing them through Googlebooks. And, while you’re on the computer, you can, of course, check Wikipedia for basic background information. The Wikipedia entries for all these extraordinary theatrical artists are well documented.

General Background: 
     Essays:  The Romantic Imperative by Frederick C. Beiser

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832):
     Plays:  Faust I and II (among many)
     Novels:   Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship
                    The Sorrows of Young Werther
     Anthologies:  The Collected Works
                    Selected Poetry

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805):
     Essays:   Aesthetical Essays
     Plays:   Mary Stuart
                 Don Carlos
                 Wilhelm Tell

Richard Wagner (1813-1883):
     Biography/Essays: Wagner Without Fear by William Berger

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956):
     Plays:   The Threepenny Opera (with Kurt Weill)
                 Mother Courage and her Children
                 A Caucasian Chalk Circle
                 The Good Woman of Szechwan
                 Life of Galileo

Kurt Weill (1900-1950):
     Biography:  Love Song, the Lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya 
                            by Ethan Mordden
                 Kurt Weill-Onstage: From Berlin to Broadway 
                            by Foster Hirsch and Kurt Weill

Musical Partners:

Donizetti:  Maria Stuarda (from Schiller)
Verdi:   Don Carlo (from Schiller)
Massennet:   Werther (from Goethe)
Gounod:   Faust (from Goethe)
Kurt Weill:   Threepenny Opera (with Brecht)

Brecht Play in NYC this fall

It's always interesting how, when we land on a theme for the Theatre Forum, synchronicity happens -- here's a New York production of a play we'll be discussing this fall.

NY Times: "Good Person of Szechwan" with Taylor Mac, LaMaMa

Foundry Theatre's "Good Person of Szechwan"

Peer Gynt in San Francisco

For those of you who attended the Theatre Forum in 2012, you may be interested to hear that Peer Gynt fever is sweeping the nation!

This week, January 17-19, Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony in a sweeping multi-media production of music composed for the play by Grieg, Schnittke, and Robin Holloway. In a video interview, he discusses the music, the meaning, and the inspiration behind these ambitious performances.

Synchronicity

One of the delightful mysteries that happens each year when the Theatre Forum theme is announced is the way the works we have decided to feature turn up suddenly in the wider world. Two instances concerning our 2013 Forum have already surfaced. As our title The Rhine and the Lorelei suggests, we will explore the German theatre from Goethe to Brecht. We will be stressing the relationship between great drama and great music and therefore looking at the relationship between the plays of Schiller and the operas of Verdi. As if we had put in an order, the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD filmcasts will be presenting Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda beginning January 19, and the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, will be presenting Schiller’s Mary Stuart from May 31 through September 21 – a rare event in the North American theatre. Anyone able to attend either of these performances will find much to relate to the events at Round Top next November!
-Kate

2013 Topic: The Rhine and the Lorelei

The Lorelei Rock  -  William Turner

The Rhine is the storied river that flows through Germany to the sea, castles rising on its banks, and history rushing by in its currents. The Lorelei is the great rock rising over the Rhine Gorge between Switzerland and the North Sea. Strong currents make this an area of ship wrecks and undoubtedly once fueled the legends of water sprites or Rhine maidens distracting sailors with their beauty and luring then to their deaths.

The power, movement, and waters of the Rhine, and the strength and beauty of the great rock make them ideal symbols for the plays we will study in this Forum.

More than any other national theatres we have studied (those of England, France, Italy, Austria, and America) – see the Theatre Forum List – great German theatre is connected with music: the Faust of Goethe inspires the Faust of Gounod; the plays of Schiller inspire Donizetti and Verdi; Brecht finds a musical collaborator in Weill; and the greatest single creator of theatre of the 19^th century is the extraordinary Richard Wagner  in whose work theatre and music become the product of a single magnificent imagination.

2013 Presenters

Kate Pogue:   
Producer for the Theatre Forums, Kate is a playwright, librettist and theatre director. She received an undergraduate degree in theatre from Northwestern and an M.A. from the University of Minnesota. For ten years she was Artistic Director of both Opera to Go and The Shakespeare by the Book Festival, for which she directed numerous productions. Her book Shakespeare's Friends was published in January 2006 by Praeger and a companion volume, Shakespeare's Family, came out in June 2008. Her most recent Shakespeare book, Shakespeare's Figures of Speech was published in 2010. She teaches at the University of Houston Downtown where she recently received the 2010 Outstanding Adjunct Professor award.

Sonja Bruzauskas: 
Praised for her “captivating performance”,“entrancing vocal line” and “youthful vigor”, German Mezzo Soprano Sonja Bruzauskas ' enraptures audiences' throughout the United States and the world. Sonja has appeared with the Staatsoperette Dresden, Volkstheater Rostock, Nordharzer Staedtebundtheater, Filmorchester Babelsberg, Bochumer Symphoniker, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, to name a few.In Texas, she has appeared as soloist with Da Camera, the Bach Society, Mercury Baroque, Symphony of Southeast Texas, the Greenbriar Consortium, the Houston Chamber Orchestra, ROCO, the Houston Chamber Choir, the Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre and Ars Lyrica. Besides being a performing artist, Sonja creates concerts and gives talks about interactive and provocative approaches to music and thought.

Tara Faircloth: 
Tara trained as a singer in the University of Houston Opera Program. Turning her interest to stage direction, Tara has become one of American opera’s busiest directors. Her work has been seen in opera houses around the nation: Utah Opera (Rigoletto), Opera Colorado (Il Trovatore) and Houston Grand Opera, The Bricklayer (world premiere) and most recently in a new production of The Rake’s Progress at the Barns at Wolf Trap. A skilled director of traditional repertoire for companies such as Tulsa Opera, Central City Opera, and Amarillo Opera, Tara has a special interest in the baroque repertoire and has directed a number of early operas for Ars Lyrica Houston, including Charpentier’s Actéon and La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers. Next season she presents a new Acis & Galatea with the group, which will tour in both Mexico and the United States.     See pictures and keep up with Tara at www.tarafaircloth.com.

Tom Foral: 
Tom returns from New York City for his thirteenth annual Theatre Forum. Tom's undergraduate degree is from Northwestern and he holds an MFA in theatre from Penn State. His performing experience includes shows on Broadway, off-Broadway and in regional theatre, plus film and television. A painter and designer, Tom specializes in portraiture and figurative works. As a portraitist, Tom has painted among others, H.S.H. Princess Grace of Monaco, Audrey Hepburn, Bill Blass and Eudora Welty. He has been showing his art in New York and Bucks County, including two new series of paintings on the circus and the ballet. You can see some of his work at www.thomasforal.com. 

Chesley Krohn: 
An actress, choreographer, director and producer, Chesley trained as a dancer and was a member of Houston's Allegro Ballet Company. She studied in New York City with Luigi and ap­peared on Broadway in A Chorus Line. In Houston, she has played leading roles with Alley Theatre, Theatre Under The Stars and Theatre Inc., among others. She teaches, directs, and coaches young professionals at Houston High School for the Per­forming and Visual Arts. She received a Best Director nomination from the Tommy Tune Awards for the school's recent production of A Man of No Importance and most recently directed A Little Night Music and Pippen there.

Felicia Londre: 
Felicia Londre is Curators' Professor of Theatre at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she teaches theatre history and dramaturgy. She earned her B.A. in French at the University of Montana, then, following a Fulbright year at the Université de Caen in Normandy, France, she earned her M.A. in Romance Languages at the University of Washington and her Ph.D. in Speech/Theatre at the University of Wisconsin. The author of fourteen books, the twelfth of which, The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theater, 1870-1930 (University of Missouri Press, 2007), won the prestigious George Freedley Memorial Book Award for 2008. Feli­cia was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 1999 and received the ATHE Outstanding Teacher of Theatre in Higher Education Award in 2001. 

Vern Sutton: 
Gifted teacher, lecturer, singer and actor, Vern returns for his twelfth appearance at the annual Theatre Forum weekend. Longtime resident of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Vern recently retired as chair of the Music Department at the University of Minnesota. His performances in the Twin Cities include work with the Plymouth Mu­sic Series, Center Opera, Minnesota Opera, The Guthrie Theatre, the Minneapolis Children's Theatre, and A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. His special interests include Florenz Ziegfeld and the music used to create the scores for the Ziegfeld Follies as well as early styles and techniques of singing and performance.

Ann Thompson:
Born in Indonesia and educated in Switzerland, Ann developed strong cultural interests early on with a special love and enthusiasm for opera. Her series called Let's Go to the Opera includes booklets and tapes giving background to a hundred and twenty operas and tapes which the Library of Congress stocks for use by the visually handicapped. She gives pre-opera lectures for Houston Grand Opera, provides descriptive services for blind patrons, and inspires opera-goers with her talks in various locales in the Houston area. 




Sterling Tinsley: 
For four seasons Sterling Tinsley has been composer, music director, and sound designer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In 2007 he co-created the musical Tracy’s Tiger, performed that season. He composed original music and created the sound design for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Philanderer, Humble Boy, and Restoration. He has been music supervisor andorchestra manager for the 5^th Avenue Theatre in Seattle and for them created the outreach program Adventure Musical Theatre. A graduate of the University of Houston, he helped create the repertory for the Houston Grand Opera Outreach program, Opera to Go. His most recent work includes music for The Firebird, with text by Kate Pogue.