OCTOBER 2015 Lyric Theatre@Illinois A Conversation between Director and Designer LTI’s Beatrice & Benedict Our second season kicks off with Hector Berlioz’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in a delightful French opera, Beatrice & Benedict. To give you a look at how our shows are developed and how Lyric Theatre collaborates with the Krannert Center’s Level 21 program, stage director Michael Foster (’13 DMA Voice Performance) sat down with Regina García, professor of “All the world’s a stage…” theatre and scenic designer, to talk about bringing this enchanting opera to life. LTI’s Shakespeare Season Michael: How did you come to design our production? And what went through by Michael Tilley your mind when you first heard of the New Orleans concept for While most people would readily name Shakespeare the greatest Beatrice & Benedict? playwright in history, perhaps fewer realize that he has also inspired more music than any dramatist or author. Besides the operatic Regina: I was very excited to jump in as settings of his plays by Verdi, Britten, Berlioz, and numerous others, part of the team of Beatrice & Benedict. we have incidental music by Mendelssohn and Sibelius, William Professor Michael Griggs and I realized Walton’s scores for the Olivier films, Tchaikovsky’s overture- that there were several productions that fantasias on Hamlet, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet, whose star- needed designers. These shows were crossed lovers inspired six ballets, including Prokofiev’s. large and needed to be designed before (continued on p. 7) the summer. (continued on p. 2) Upcoming Performances Beatrice & Benedict Opera Scenes Concert LTI Studio Showcase Nov. 5 - 8 Nov. 19 Dec. 2 Bel Canto & Tryon Festival Scenes from Mozart & Rossini Golden Age Theater, Th-Sat, Regina García 7:30, Sun 3:00 operas; 7:30, Smith Musical Theatre; Michael Foster Recital Hall 3:30, Opera Rehearsal Room LYRIC THEATRE@ILLINOIS OCTOBER 2015 Beatrice & Benedict Conversation continued from front page “Here we approach the heart of Berlioz; We immediately got to work as we only a compound of energy, melancholy and had five weeks to study and design our serene detachment, an unfathomable shows. sadness beneath a shimmering surface of high spirits. Again and again… he I looked forward to exploring the conveys a unique sense of the landscape of the Italian island from a transitoriness – even the ambivalence of purely emotional and poetic point of all human experience.” view. I had just completed a project proposal with colleagues Olga Maslova Yes, of course, the heart! I was hooked, and Kim Weild for a future production and then felt much better about of Catán’s Il Postino. I was enthralled by responsibly separating our New Orleans the glorious music and the story from any attempt at poetic realism. resonated deeply with me, as I studied Most importantly, the music allowed us Art abroad, and Neruda’s work, when I to organize our landscape free from any was younger. potential anchor to a city, to any color palette in particular. When I heard that we were transposing Regina: What are your goals, as a the story to a more urban American Regina: When you were asked to direct professor/director for this production? landscape in the same period, I was and where faced with the challenge of slightly concerned and overwhelmed. setting it in New Orleans, where did you Michael: I shared a handful of goals Firstly, I had five weeks to “unload” the go first with your research and prep with the students at our first meeting, music, the story, and have it make sense work? Or did you come up with the idea which boil down to this: tell a great dramaturgically in this new landscape. after your conversation with Julie and story. That is a deceptively simple goal New Orleans has always been both a Nathan? that involves understanding how to dynamic city port and a potentially perform with relatable acting style, fine racially charged urbe- all major cities are, Michael: The idea of setting the opera in vocal technique and an added dose of but this one is highly cosmopolitan and New Orleans was actually my idea that theatre magic. My personal goal is that American at the same time- this duality started as a hunch. I suppose I set myself the students, production team and is tricky to navigate. New Orleans in the up for my own challenge, but I'm audience come away from the show 1810’s and into the 1840’s is exploding actually glad of it. For educational with a sense of having participated in in every direction, with local purposes, this production of Beatrice the best things that life has to offer: good communities growing and new ones and Benedict was to be sung in French relationships and a beautiful communal arriving and claiming their nooks in and with spoken dialogue in English, but the experience. around the city. idea of having the work of a British author about characters in Sicily Regina: I know you love small, intimate We are all professors, so I was also realized with French music and English spaces. But the garden idea spoke to you concerned about what the period / local dialogue seemed like a cacophony of from the very beginning. What is it research would provide our students – cultural influences. I didn't think that about a garden that inspires people to be would it be would be easily digested by the romantic and flirtatious? confusing? audience. So to clarify the story, I felt it How do we best to change the location to an area Michael: I actually enjoyed the garden organize it that was bilingual where people spoke because you, Regina, enjoyed the all French and English. This location also garden. I was happy to see this pique effectively? had to have commonalities to historical your interest, but as a director, I don't Set design model How could references in the script. For example, a marry myself to any concept until I'm in we honor few of the lead characters are officers it. I always feel like the location is a the charm returning from a naval conflict in North character in the show and so I don't try and beauty of Berlioz’s music without Africa. New Orleans was and continues to shape it as much as I try to accept first clarifying our intent and setting to be a naval hub and coincidentally, the what it is. There are some practical parameters? United States was involved in the things that we had to create such as Barberry Wars in the early 1800's, which levels and sight lines, but I really wasn't Some clarity was provided immediately is when we set this production. There fixed to any particular set until the by William Dale Cockiel’s dissertation has been more than a fair amount of deadline came to approve one. The last from 1973 and his comments on artistic serendipity in the research of this model of the set that you created conventions of the 1860’s: project, which I feel proves NOLA to be became vital to me because I was able to a great setting for the opera on many spend time with it seeing how it might levels. impose its will on the story. 2 LYRIC THEATRE@ILLINOIS OCTOBER 2015 Once I see all the structures, nooks and A space for contemplation, romance crannies of a set, then the story just kind (around the doorways and through of unfolds in my mind. the garden) and also a public square where you can hear the latest gossip Michael: What attracted you to the or fool around with a friend. courtyard design? Regina: How do you see the courtyard Regina: Like many of my friends and working? I know that you have a great colleagues, I explore space in three- sense of humor, how do you see the dimensions. I sculpt space for story unfolding in the space, especially performance, so I build a crazy number the comedy and the romance? of rough white models throughout the process. I am quite methodical about it Michael: One of the fascinating things actually. There are “many roads to about New Orleans, and especially the Rome” as they say, and when I design I French Quarter, is the dichotomy like to be prepared for any kind of between openness and secrets. New feedback from the director. At our first Orleans is well known for its bawdy meeting you asked me about my process lavishness, but if you look closely, you and what I love and hate about it. I believe will see residential courtyards that are I was very honest when I said- I love the tucked away and closed-off. They are research and considering the potential of heavily guarded from the general each idea. I hate having to do research later population. That is representative of on in the process, so that’s why I cast the net Beatrice and Benedict as well as several nice and wide from the very beginning. As of the other characters in the opera. The partners, if we decide that we hate the idea characters, like New Orleans, have along the way, most likely I have something secrets to reveal. The set with balconies already that could help us. and courtyard details gives us plenty of chances to hide literally and So for this project, we ended up with figuratively, which then heightens the four different rough designs, each reveal of subsequent vulnerabilities such one responded to a different impetus, as love or insecurity couched in while still focusing on storytelling.