Press Clippings-
Back Stage August 8-14, 1997
Cannon Fodder: Classics Comapnies Keep the Faith
By Robert Simonson
In a city preoccupied with the here and now-where skyscrapers tumble to make way for taller ones, and your favorite restaurant is there one day and gone the next-it's hard to get the citizenry intrested in the past. But such is the difficult daily task of the New York theatre companies which devote themselves to the classics.
Certainly, there is a market in New York for classics, but successes in the field are often either British imports or "event" productions. The current Broadway mounting of Ibser's "A Doll House" for example, is both. Staging classics season in and season out, however, is a harder, particularly on Broadway. The Roundabout Theatre Company has been fairly consistent in its commercial success, but the track records of otehr companies, such as Circle in The Square and Lincoln Center Theater, have been spotty.
As a result, the classics torch has burned most brightly at Off-and Off-Off- Broadway comapnies such as the East Village's Jean Cocteau Repertory and Pearle Theater Comapny, and Hell's Kitchen's Theatre for a New Audience. However, these comapnies too, must often fight for their share of audience and media attention.
Still, despite the inherent difficulty of the mission, classics companies continue to sprout in Gotham, formed by people with an undying love for the great works of the theatre. Perhaps the most recent of this breed is the Cannon Theater Comapny. The name, as artistic director Richard Kimmel explains, has a double meaning: "We're looking to shoot a cannon through the canon."
Cannon grew naturally out of a close alliance of artists, including Kimmel and actor Andrew Garman, who, after working together for several years, decided to make the connection official. Lending the company an eye-catching imprimatur, members recruited an impressive advisory board, including directors Andrei Serban and Anne Bogart.
Cannon's inagural production-part of the New York International Fringe Festival and the American Living Room Festival at HERE- is a Shakespearian adaptation called "Witches' Macbeth." The production speeds through the Bard's Scottish tragedy in 75 minutes and approaches the drama from the point of view of the three weird sisters. "Imagine that the text of 'Macbeth' itself is the witches' doing," suggested Kimmel.
"We want to bring the classics to a new audience," said Kimmel, explaining the troupe's mission. "We want to sho that theater can be as sexy as a nightclub or concert. The spark of humanity in these plays will never die. It's a question of taking that spark and seeing where it can go. The question is, 'Why do this play now?' Just to do it isn't good enough for us."
Cannon's Kimmel also said that while training is very important" for actors tackling classical roles, he, too looked for more than a noble mien and a fine speaking voice.
"I really do look for a degree of flexibility and trained imagination," explained Kimmel. "By trained imagination, I mean the ability to put the imagination into the voice and the body." Kimmel said that Cannon's audition process departing from the traditional. Performers are tested , sink-or-swim style, by having them attend a rehearsal, where they interact with the other actors and attempt to learn parts of the production on their feet. "We're looking for something live and energetic and free. And yetr, to bring to that a craft."