Tag: Bree Luck

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Arts

New direction: Ragtime opens Live Arts’ season with real-life issues

By Leslie M. Scott-Jones

Walking into the downstage theater at Live Arts, the sounds are familiar. Vocal warm-ups have begun, and musical director Kristen Baltes shouts from the balcony that this is “real life,” signaling to the actors to fill the space with their voices (not easy to do in that room).

Seated in the hallway, with the singing in the background, is Ike Anderson, the director of Live Arts’ 2018-19 season opener, Ragtime.

“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever done,” Anderson tells me, speaking of the enormity of the task he’s undertaken, professionally and personally. “To direct the season opener for the largest theater organization in Charlottesville—and I’m black.”

The last time Live Arts had a black director was almost 10 years ago, when Ray Smith directed Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel. This season, Live Arts has two pieces directed by African Americans.

While there are still glimpses of the usually jovial Anderson, there is a new seriousness, a new shadow, that comes with directing a piece that deals with such intense issues. With a smile on his face, in jest or sarcasm, Anderson talks about the day of callbacks. He stepped out of his home excited to meet the day, take on the world, and was met by a racial slur.

Anderson took on the telling of Ragtime because he felt, “If not me, then who?” His mission is to move the audience’s understanding of what it is like to be black in America.

“This play is about white people that kill some niggas, and walk away,” says Anderson. It’s a dark place to spend more than 10 weeks.

Based on the novel by E. L. Doctorow, (book by Terrence McNally), the musical features African Americans, upper-class whites, and Eastern European immigrants. A well-to-do family takes responsibility for Sarah, an African American woman, who tries to bury her baby alive in the family garden because her husband has left her. Immigrants arrive to Ellis Island hoping for a better life, only to realize that the American dream is not accessible for everyone. A socialist movement forms in New Rochelle. As New York changes, the upper-class family moves to Atlantic City to escape the aftermath of a riot. Immigrants and African Americans fight to be heard and taken seriously, taking matters into their own hands. Everyone in the story goes through a transformation, but this is not a happy musical.

Live Arts has been a pillar in the theater community for more than 20 years, and the appointment of Bree Luck as Producing Artistic Director signaled a new direction for the non-profit.

“One thing we need to do at Live Arts is make sure we’re not just telling stories about a couple of white people sitting around the dinner table,” Luck told C-VILLE when she accepted the director position in 2017.

Ragtime, says Luck, is a story that draws parallels to the struggles of Charlottesville in the wake of August 12, 2017, when three people lost their lives. The musical speaks about how race and class can influence the path of a life. That influence is not always recognizable as negative or positive. With three dramaturgs, each focusing on different aspects of the time, it is clear that there is a deep commitment from the theatrical team to tell a true and visceral story.

“We’re dealing with epic issues, on a small stage—which is where Charlottesville is. We’re dealing with epic issues, and we’re a small town,” says Luck. For some theaters this is a bucket-list show, and despite the complications of producing it, Luck rose to the challenge. “It’s my job to respond to the needs, talents, and desires of the community,” she says when explaining how the entire season was chosen. Those wants and needs have certainly changed since the beginning of her tenure.

Deandra McDonald, who plays Sarah, says she was drawn to the role by the opportunity to tell black stories that are not normally told. The link between this revitalization and the changes in what theater audiences want to see has direct lines to what Charlottesville has been through, and the start of the African American Heritage Center’s Charlottesville Players Guild, an all-black theater company. More black artists are getting opportunities, and Ragtime is a part of that.

“This story is not only a black story, it’s an immigrant story, a story of privilege, and how those worlds blend,” says McDonald.

Live Arts’ Ragtime has the makings of everything that makes life-altering theater: a compelling story, a cast of Charlottesville’s best and brightest actors, and a director with vision. They have come together to tell a story that is as old as time, hoping the audience will understand that this story is still very much real life.

Ragtime, directed by Ike Anderson, is at Live Arts October 5 through 27.

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Arts

Review: Women work their way up in Live Arts’ Top Girls

Under the direction of Betsy Rudelich Tucker, the cast of Top Girls brings fierce women to life, including Claire Chandler’s Marlene, the ultimate ’80s businesswoman who was just promoted at the agency where she works. Photo by Martyn Kyle

Enter: a lively dinner party. Lots of crosstalk. Women in a startling array of historical costumes.

There’s Isabella Bird, a 19th-century globe-trotter and well-educated author. There’s Joan the Pope, a ninth-century intellectual who lived as a man and briefly became the pope. There’s Dull Gret, a sword-wielding peasant and army leader lifted from the Bruegel painting Dulle Griet. There’s Lady Nijo, a 13th-century Japanese concubine who became a wandering nun. There’s Patient Griselda from The Canterbury Tales, a peasant-turned-wife-of-a-marquis, forced to prove her loyalty again and again. And then there’s Marlene, the polished hostess and ultimate ’80s businesswoman, who has organized this gathering of powerful independent women to celebrate her recent promotion.

As the conversation volleys like an uneven tennis match, each woman argues the rightness of her actions and the normalcy of her isolation, pain or sacrifice. Even as she describes breaking free from the status quo, she justifies the behavior of others who beat, tortured or abused her.

You’re struck by the striving of individuals who cannot outpace the parameters of their time. Each woman is a bonsai tree, lovely but limited, unaware of the container controlling her growth. And you can’t help but wonder, as you shift in your seat, what invisible limits stifle you.

So begins Live Arts’ production of Top Girls, Caryl Churchill’s award-winning 1982 play that examines women chasing success in a man’s world. Despite being written nearly 40 years ago, the show feels fresh and painfully relevant.

Top Girls
Live Arts
Through February 24

As the story moves from timeless dinner party to Top Girls, a job placement agency in 1982 London, we’re invited to peer through the glass of one specific fishbowl: the professional and personal life of “ball-breaker” Marlene, whose circles include a frustrated sister, rebellious niece and high-flying female co-workers.

In the Playbill, Assistant Director Kelli Shermeyer writes, “TOP GIRLS presents us with a network of women who must navigate their identities and desires through the mutually-reinforcing structures of misogyny and capitalism.”

From every angle in the show, women suffer and sabotage one another. Money and career stand in direct opposition to marriage and children. Women who chase personal freedom steal power from women who choose family values—and vice versa.

Unsurprisingly, resentment simmers between each rigidly defined social role. There’s a distinct lack of empathy between women of different generations, relentless measuring against personal standards and passing judgment on those who, circumstantially or preferentially, find themselves on varying paths.

Most disturbing, for me, is the creeping idea that individualism destroys humanity. In the world of Top Girls, sisterhood seems like a laughable concept. As a woman, you either embrace solidarity through second-class status, or you transcend by trampling your peers.

But Live Arts’ production (and Churchill’s fantastic script) gives viewers the chance to draw their own conclusions.

Jen Bottas forcefully portrays Angie, a teenager constantly wrestling with her emotions. Photo by Martyn Kyle

In a tight space transformed by clever set pieces and a delightful ’80s soundtrack, you witness the manifold ways women connect, clash and spar in their quest for a better life.

Under the talented direction of Betsy Rudelich Tucker, the cast of Top Girls does a remarkable job of bringing fierce women to life. Each character feels distinct and often multilayered, which is amazing considering every performer (aside from the show’s lead) does double or triple duty.

As Marlene, Claire Chandler is tremendous, facing slings and arrows and sharing her own hardened pronouncements with a red-lipped smile. Even when she breaks in the powerful third act, she lacks the softness associated with feminine sorrow despite her real-looking tears.

That same flinty foundation underpins all the women of Top Girls, excepting teenagers Angie and Kit. Angie especially, forcefully played by Jen Bottas, repeatedly wrestles her flashpoint emotions in hopes of winning her aunt’s affection. She’s furious one minute, fragile the next, and it’s painful to watch her clumsy attempts to don the straightjacket of a top girl persona.

Jess Kristensen captivates as the show’s lone romantic, while Gretchen York makes an enjoyable man-eater who knows how to hang with the boys.

Madison Weikle plays girls who are young and desperate to be taken seriously, and Barbara Roberts gets caught in a gap between generations. Kat Maybury gives us long-suffering matrons who offer gruff comic relief, conservative outrage or martyred resignation depending on the era.

Also, did I mention the costumes? Maybe I’m just an ’80s kid, but damn, I loved the looks by designer Sri Kodakalla.

Watching these women play a game with all the rules rigged against them, it seems no surprise they lash out in frustration and bitterness at one another.

What does it mean to become a “top girl” in a culture of misogyny? What does it take to support other women while jockeying toward success? Can you make space for nuance and personal freedom without sacrificing one another?

Live Arts’ Top Girls doesn’t give you the answers. It only asks the uncomfortable questions. But at a time like this, when cultural crosstalk abounds, you ought to go and listen.

See Top Girls at Live Arts now through February 24.

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Arts

The Ghostlight Project inspires Live Arts’ discussions on diversity, inclusivity and community

Leslie Scott-Jones and Brad Stoller joined Bree Luck (center) in October for the first in a season- long series of discussions on diversity, inclusivity and community as part of the theater’s participation in The Ghostlight Project. Staff photo

The next time you use the Water Street and Second Street crosswalk, look in the Live Arts window. There’s a light on in the lobby—the theater’s ghost light. It’s small and casts yellow light from a transparent glass shade, and, according to superstition, keeps ghosts from haunting the theater after everyone leaves. Ever concerned with actors breaking legs, theaters have historically left ghost lights on for practical reasons, too. Live Arts’ Producing Artistic Director Bree Luck says empty theaters can be “treacherous,” and she’s seen more than one person fall off a darkened stage.

This ghost light also serves a more contemporary function. It illuminates Live Arts’ participation in The Ghostlight Project—a national network of individuals in the theater community who came together on January 19, 2017, the night before the presidential inauguration, to pledge their commitment to support and advocate for vulnerable communities. Live Arts was invited to join The Ghostlight Project by Moisés Kaufman, founder of Tectonic Theater Project, National Medal of Arts recipient and co-writer of The Laramie Project.

“Lighting our ghost light was just the first step in our process of being truly inclusive. It isn’t enough to say people are safe here,” Luck says. “It isn’t enough to make gender-sensitive bathroom signs. …We needed to look at the work we were doing from a broader perspective.”

Joining the project inspired Luck and the Live Arts team to begin a season-long series of roundtable discussions on diversity, inclusivity and community.

“Our discussions may be uncomfortable, or difficult to grasp,” says Luck. “We may struggle through anger, and brush up against bruises that we didn’t even know existed. But in the end, we want to make our corner of the world stronger, to give our community members a greater voice, and to help us all feel a little less alone in this day and age.”

Last year, Luck approached local activist, writer and theater professional Leslie Scott-Jones for help in initiating the conversations on diversity. Scott-Jones says this summer’s white supremacist rallies—which occurred a month before Jitney, an all-black play Scott-Jones directed at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center—added urgency to the first discussion, held at Live Arts on October 15.

“If you’re not going to have black directors and producers involved in the process of creating these stories, then you shouldn’t do black theater,” Scott-Jones says. “You don’t understand the story. People in community theater get stymied when talking about inclusion because they think it has to be on the stage. The way to be more inclusive is to attack it from behind the stage first, and to build a group of artists that sees the world differently.”

Like Scott-Jones, Brad Stoller attended the first roundtable discussion and has a long history with Live Arts. Thirty years ago, Stoller participated in the production of Sam Shephard’s A Lie of the Mind at Charlottesville High School’s black box theater—the production that led to the creation of Live Arts. He remembers one rehearsal where John D’earth introduced 19-year-old Dave Matthews, who was so nervous he clung to nearby stage equipment. Stoller agrees with Scott-Jones that change begins behind the curtain.

“We need to include people of color in aspects of direction and design,” says Stoller, who teaches theater arts at PVCC. “We can do plays where people of color act, but that’s a one-off thing. We have to really commit to having people of color be in leadership roles.”

In Live Arts’ next roundtable discussion in mid-January, Stoller wants his fellow theater professionals to make a public commitment to diversity. He and Luck think an interesting challenge would be to have all Charlottesville theaters refuse to present any piece written by a white man.

“It would force us to find the plenty of other material out there, rather than falling back on people who are well-known—who are white men,” says Stoller. “And the fear of not selling tickets, or this isn’t my audience? I don’t have the patience for it anymore.”

On Friday, Live Arts presents Sweet Charity, a musical that features a strong female protagonist. After several recent musicals with male leads, Luck says the Live Arts team was ready for a change.

“Charity embodies a pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality that feels pretty familiar to our community right now,” Luck says. “We may get knocked down, but we’ll keep forging ahead, we’ll keep dancing, and even when the odds are against us, we will still fight for love.”

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News

Bree Luck’s storied Live Arts’ journey

Bree Luck, who was recently named Live Arts’ producing artistic director, on the set of Death of a Salesman, which runs through Sunday, June 4. Photo by Martyn Kyle

Since 2003, Bree Luck has risen through the ranks at Live Arts—first as a volunteer, performing and directing, and then serving as education director. Most recently, Luck was the theater’s interim managing artistic director. This month, the Henry, Virginia, native—also a former Georgian, New Yorker and Californian—takes the helm as the theater’s producing artistic director, and will lead Live Arts’ artistic, operational, financial and administrative efforts.

Among a teeming list of directives, one of Luck’s priorities is increasing diversity within the company.

“One thing we need to do at Live Arts is make sure we’re not just telling stories about a couple of white people sitting around the dinner table,” she says. “And when we do choose to tell those stories, we need to be aware of the limitations that come with that choice—and even to explore alternate casting choices that might give a new spin to the story, when it feels relevant or compelling to do so.”

Luck says she is inspired locally by Madeline Michel’s work recruiting and retaining minority artists at Monticello High School, and engaging them by selecting stories “that aren’t just white and male-centric,” such as Hairspray, In The Heights and Memphis.

“I mean, that’s why we want to go to the theater, right?” Luck says. “Because we want to see stories that make us feel less alone in the world.”

She also mentions color-blind casting, as in Hamilton, in which a director presumes that race and gender are not essential to the character.

“We have an upcoming show, Pippin, which has a multi-ethnic cast, but the casting choices were not based on ethnicity and don’t change the tenor of the musical,” Luck says. Conversely, in Live Arts’ current production of Death of a Salesman, director William Rough took the color-conscious casting approach and gave African-American men roles that have typically been played by white actors.

Luck says a favorite undertaking outside of Live Arts has been her work as the director of The Voice Project, in which she helped inmates at a local women’s prison tell their stories, find healthy ways to deal with conflict, and connect with each other and the world around them.

“Theater—it’s about real connection. The making of it and the watching of it,” she says. “I love film, too, but there’s a remove there. It’s not immediate. It’s not visceral and live. …It’s cleaned up, and edited and polished. When you’re doing theater, it’s real human beings telling stories right here in the moment with all of the beauty and flaws that come with humanity.”

She worked to teach the 200 inmates that at the heart of story is conflict, and to help them see that “sometimes the things that we think are most despicable or frustrating about ourselves are also the places we can find beauty.”

The inmates’ pre and post evaluation forms showed that their instances of violent infractions within the prison were reduced, and on a scale of 1-5, they gave the course a 4.75 for being an enormous motivator to remain infraction free.

Live Arts currently has 750 active volunteers, and Luck says she is honored every time she walks the Downtown Mall and thinks about the roost she rules and beyond.

“For a town of this size—to be able to be here and to know that this is a community that values the arts—is just pure joy.”

2017-18 Season

A Delicate Balance

October 13–November 11

Sometimes order, no matter how stultifying, is the only defense against chaos, and so we cling to it. How do we go on in the face of nameless, but real, terror? And when the terror recedes, can we regain our equilibrium, can things return to normal after we’ve shown our frailty to our world?

Directed by Fran Smith

Sweet Charity

December 1–January 6

Charity may be down, but she is never out. Persistently optimistic, unfailingly upbeat, this indomitable dancehall dreamer carves out a place in her world where she is seen and heard and valued on her own terms.

Directed by Marija Reiff

Top Girls

February 2–24

This groundbreaking theatrical exploration of the challenges women face in defining their own lives is perhaps more relevant today than ever.

Directed by Betsy Rudelich Tucker

Fun Home

March 9–25

This story traces the coming-of-age of Alison, from her childhood through her college years and finally to the present day, where, now grown, Alison struggles to make sense of her father’s recent death.

Directed by Miller Murray Susen

Hand to God

April 13–May 5

The Exorcist meets Avenue Q in this irreverent and hysterical journey to the basement of a church in Cypress, Texas, where Jason, a painfully shy, mild-mannered kid, joins his mother Margery’s Christian puppet ministry. Jason’s alter ego, Tyrone, is a foul-mouthed, independent and diabolically funny puppet who has other plans for his human.

Directed by Cristan Keighley

The Liar

May 18–June 3

Buckle up for an evening
of razor-sharp modern wordplay and classic Restoration stage combat with our hero, a rapscallion who raises lying to an art form. Blessed and cursed with an unfailing gift for fabrication, young Dorante comes to Paris looking for a good time and promptly falls in love. D

Directed by Mike Long