Better Than Average Week

Last week (May 9-15) provides an example of what in my family passes for a "pretty good week" of theater. Let's look at that:

• Monday, the 9th, staged reading of "You Got Older" at the Shotgun Players
• Tuesday, "The Heir Apparent" at Aurora Theatre Company
• Wednesday, night off with the family
• Thursday, further recuperation
• Friday, I went to see "Hamlet" at the Shotgun Players, while others went to see "Treasure Island" at Berkeley Rep
• Saturday, took the whole family, plus a couple of friends, to see "Hamlet" at Shotgun
• Sunday, "Anne Boleyn" at Marin Theatre Company

Now, see? Clearly this is not "too much theater" because we had two whole nights without any at all! Truly, seeing "Hamlet" twice in a row was out of the ordinary, and we had already seen "Anne Boleyn" once before, so there was a bit more repetition than usual.

You Got Older

This was the first reading in Shotgun's Champagne Reading Series for this season. [Disclaimer: my wife and I are sponsors of the series this year.] I like the way Shotgun does their staged readings, with about four days of rehearsal, a little bit of blocking, lighting, sound, etc. And then two public readings: opening night on Monday, closing on Tuesday.
"You Got Older" by Clare Barron was a nice enough start to the week, though I have to say it wasn't as good as many of the readings they've done in the past. For one thing, the family coming to grips with the terminally-ill parent has been done a fair amount, so it feels a little trite. Something was missing from the scene that was supposed to be heartwarming at the hospital. Maybe in a full production with more rehearsal the chemistry would come together, but in the reading, I just didn't feel it.

The Heir Apparent

This was just theater candy. We went because we enjoy the intimate setting of Aurora, and a couple of actors we've enjoyed in other performances (Patrick Kelly Jones and Kenny Toll) had big roles. It was pretty much what we expected: silly and clever.

Hamlet

I will definitely have to do a separate posting about Shotgun's take on "Hamlet," so I'll be brief here. Seeing it back-to-back was great because it's a different casting every night. Director Mark Jackson dreamed up the notion of having the whole cast learn all the roles (in a heavily-edited version of the play), then five minutes before each performance, have the audience draw the roles out of Yorick's skull.
I've seen it five times now, and it's brilliant. I've also been fortunate enough to see five different actors play Hamlet, out of the seven in the cast.

Anne Boleyn

Sunday was the closing matinee performance of the West Coast premiere of Howard Brenton's clever take on an important slice of British history. We had the opportunity to see it several weeks before at a one-time-only performance at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, which was pretty spectacular, but after that I kind of wanted to see the play in its intended staging. It didn't hurt that they offered 2-for-1 tickets for the last few performances.
Added bonus: the lighting design was by Kurt Landisman, who happens to be an old friend. I always enjoy seeing his work.
Anyway, it was worth it. The cast for this show was very strong. Craig Marker obviously had a good time in the dual role of Henry VIII and James I, and Liz Sklar was terrific as Anne Boleyn. During this final extension of the run, the dual role of Woolsey/Cecil was played by an understudy (sorry...I didn't get his name, but he's extremely tall), replacing Charles Shaw Robinson, who had been excellent the first time we saw the show. I was worried that the change would adversely affect the play, but it didn't at all. It was quite seamless.
All in all, I was very pleased with our theater selections for the week, and what looked like it could be a bit of an overload was fine, especially since this week is remarkably theater-free.