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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Tag Archives: Orlando Shakespeare Theater

Episode 215: Lisa Wolpe!

16 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Shakespeare, Theater

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Lisa Wolpe, Macbeth, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender

Episode 215 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I interview the actor and writer Lisa Wolpe,

Lisa Wolpe open arms Alchemy

plus Mistie Watkins reads her essay, “Why I Write.”

Mistie Watkins

NOTES

Get tickets for Lisa Wolpe’s current run of shows here.

macbeth3

Alchemy of Gender

Learn more about Lisa’s work and the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company here.

THAT

Check out THAT Literary Revue here.

Kevin Crawford as Macbeth

Check out my interview with another Shakespearean actor, Kevin Crawford, back on episode 4 here.


Episode 215 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 196: Joe Vincent!

12 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Shakespeare, Theater

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

C.T. McMillan, Joe Vincent, John McMahon, Lisa Martens, Moby Dick, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Pericles, The Tempest

Episode 196 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing, literature, and drinking, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I interview the actor Joe Vincent,

Joe Vincent

Plus John McMahon writes about how Moby Dick changed his life.

John McMahon

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Riverside Shakespeare
Moby Dick

 NOTES

Check out Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s current offerings, and use the discount code mentioned at the beginning of this week’s episode.

See my reviews of OST’s Tempest and Pericles.

Check out C.T. McMillan’s blog, McMillan’s Codex.

CT McMillan 1Check out Lisa Marten’s blog, On Top of It.

Do not climb on rocks

I am so proud to share this wonderful Kerouac House/Burrow Press event from last month, My Queer Valentine, starring Ashley Inguanta, Claire Robin Thorne, Amber Norman, and Sarah Viren.


 Episode 196 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing, literature, and drinking, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Shakespearing #41: OST’s The Tempest

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Shakespeare, Shakespearing

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Anne Hering, Lisa Wolpe, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, The Tempest

One of my articles of literary faith is that Shakespeare is the best writer who has ever lived.

A related article of literary faith is that few of my writer friends quite understand this because they think Shakespeare can’t really be understood, or play in an authentic way.

They think this because their curiosity has not survived trying to read his plays in high school and college. They blame the bard for their reading mildewed books with half-assed footnotes.

When you see a good production of any of Shakespeare’s plays, though, the experience is vital, and fun. They are called plays, after all. When performed well, the stories are not much hard work at all to follow.

Orlando Shakespeare Theater offers wonderful productions of Shakespeare that simultanously deliver some classic sense of period and also enough imaginative flair to surprise more experienced audiences. I’ve seen every one of OST’s Shakespeare productions over the last five years, and every one of them have been superior.

Lowndes Center Red Carpet

OST’s The Tempest is no exception.

The Tempest is one of those plays that is so conceptually weird that the stage is actually a far superior place than the cinema for showing its action. At the core of the play is the wizard, Prospero, driven to something like madness in his exile. He controls the loyal sprite, Ariel, and the disloyal beast Caliban as well. Prospero has lived his life on an island alone from any human company, except for his beloved daughter, who has grown up in the time of his exile.

When the noble relations are traveling near the island, Prospero cataclysmically affects the weather in order to shipwreck them onto his home in exile, and sets about forcing these people into undergoing trials in their survival, in the hope of gaining retribution for his betrayals, and a reconciling with his family. The Tempest is known as a problem play, for it feels as dark and wrenching as a tragedy, even if it has some moments of slapstick hilarity, as well as the marriage plot ending typical for comedies. Making the tone of the play seem natural is a great accomplishment.

TempestOST_3LR
TempestOST_5LR
TempestOST_2LR
TempestOST_4LR
TempestOST_1LR

As usual, the acting from OST’s players is superior. Richard B. Watson makes a formidable Caliban, animalistic, barbaric, yet vibrantly human. John P. Keller is delightful as the alcoholic butler, Stefano, well-matched with an equally crapulent Brad DePlanche as Trinculo. Dameka Hayes is a compelling Ariel, otherworldly, balletic, yet intelligent, and somehow the conscience of the play. Gracie Winchester as Miranda renders the love story of The Tempest wonderful, along with Brad Frost as her suitor, Ferdinand. Greg Thornton brings a noble gravitas to the role of the wizard, Prospero. Joe Vincent adds just the right amount of pathos as Gonzalo. And Lisa Wolpe, as the treacherous usurper Antonia, extracts exquisite humor as a self-satisfied villain, yet with a few subtle gestures manages the transformation of profound contrition. The Tempest is a difficult play, in all its bizarre modulations of emotion, yet this production by Anne Hering finds the psychological logic perfectly, as if it were a straightforward play.

I don’t want to reveal too much about the staging and effects that OST uses to make The Tempest feel like a tempest, how OST makes Ariel seem like a multi-dimensional being. I need to leave some surprises intact. But Orlando Shakespeare Theater is a blessing upon our town, and you owe it to yourself to get out to see a show. Tickets are only slightly more than the cost of going to a movie, and this particular theatrical experience, unlike most movies, is unforgettable.

_______

Production photos by Tony Firriolo.

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John King (Episode, well, all of them) holds a PhD in English from Purdue University, and an MFA from New York University. He has reviewed performances for Shakespeare Bulletin.

Episode 193: Mary Gaitskill!

20 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Beverly Army Williams, David Foster Wallace, Mary Gaitskill, Mothershould, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, The Mare, The Tempest, Veronica

Episode 193 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing, literature, and drinking, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I interview fiction writer Mary Gaitskill, and share her reading from Miami Book Fair International,

Mary Gaitskill

plus Beverly Army Williams and I discuss Mary Gaitskill’s new novel, The Mare.

FullSizeRender-5

TEXTS DISCUSSED

The MareVeronicaNOTES

Check out Beverly Army Williams’s site, Mothershould.

Litlando-PosterGet tickets for Litlando here.

The music used in this show was by Michael Hearst. “Alprazolam” (Songs for Fearful Flyers) and “Nicht Lustig Fight” (Film Music and Other Scores, Vol. 1) appeared in the opening, and “Theme From Magic Camp” (Film Music and Other Scores, Vol. 1) at the close.

Check out his wonderful music.

Film Music and Other ScoresSongs for Fearful FlyersIf you live in Orlando, check out Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s 2016 production of The Tempest.

Greg Thornton (Prospero) and Lisa Wolpe (Antonia) star in Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. (Photo by Luke Evans.)

Greg Thornton (Prospero) & Lisa Wolpe (Antonia) in OST’s The Tempest. (Photo by Luke Evans.)


Episode 193 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 148: Jennifer Hoppe-House!

17 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Theater

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Jennifer Hoppe-House, Orlando Shakespeare Theater

Episode 148 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the playwright Jennifer Hoppe-House, whose debut play is experiencing its world premiere at Orlando Shakespeare Theater,

Jennifer Hoppe-House

plus Lori D’Angelo writes about discovering The Scarlet Letter as a teenager, and reading it in a way probably not endorsed by her high school curriculum.

Lori

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Bad Dog PosterThe Scarlet LetterMirrorsThe Tin DrumSHOW NOTES

Ginger Lee McDermott as Molly in Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog (Photo by Tony Firriolo).

Ginger Lee McDermott as Molly in Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog (Photo by Tony Firriolo).

Check out Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog, playing at Orlando Shakespeare Theater through May 3rd.

Read my Portland Review essay about Sylvester Stallone here.


Episode 148 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 147: Scott Bailey!

11 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bad Dog, Chad W. Lutz, David Kirby, Erin Belieu, Jennifer Hoppe-House, New York Quarterly Press, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Philip Levine, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Scott Bailey, Sharon Olds, stephen king, Thus Spake Gigolo

Episode 147 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I talk to the poet Scott Bailey, whose work is newly banned in South Korea…

Scott Bailey

Scott Bailey and Raquel Obando.

plus Chad W. Lutz writes about Stephen King’s novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.”

Chad Lutz

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Thus Spake Gigolo

Different Seasons

Life StudiesNOTES

The music accompanying Chad W. Lutz’s essay was “Crater” by The Spanish Donkey.

Bad Dog

Ginger Lee McDermott as Molly in Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog (Photo by Tony Firriolo).

Check out Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog, playing at Orlando Shakespeare Theater through May 5th.

Shakespearing #20.1: Another Interlude, This Time Out of Sequence

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Shakespearing, Theater

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Orlando Shakespeare Theater

Shakespearing #20.1 by John King

Another Interlude, This Time Out of Sequence

A Review of Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s 2015 production of Henry V

Lowndes Center Red Carpet

One of the ironies of the current season of offerings at Orlando Shakespeare Theater is that in the spacious Margeson Theater, Merry Wives features the hijinks of Falstaff in a 1950s domestic setting, while the epic sweep of Henry V is being enacted in the snug spot of the Goldman Theater, separated from the Margeson only by a soundproofed wall.

If Falstaff shakes the water from his ears and listens really closely, he might be able to hear the gratifying sounds of his friends mourning his death in the history play next door.

HenryV_2_lr

Stephen Lima & John P. Keller (by Tony Firriolo)

Jim Helsinger’s direction takes its cues from Shakespeare’s own meta-theatrics, explicitly drawing on the audience to buy into the make-believe necessary to make “this wooden O” of the little stage hold throne rooms, taverns, the ocean, and the towns and fields of France. Bob Phillip’s set design was made entirely of untreated wooden planks, making one think not only of Shakespeare’s simple stage in the Renaissance, but also the barns of Andy Hardy movies, and that can-do madcap spirit infects the performance with a level of fun one seldom associates with a history play, especially one in which Falstaff dies off stage.

HenryV_8_lr

Stephen Lima, John P. Keller, & Geoffrey Kent (by Tony Firriolo)

Before the play is over, all of the actors will portray the narrators of the chorus, either singly or simultaneously, in ways that demand the audience imaginatively invest in the creation of the artifice. In a crowd scene, the audience is among the “band of brothers.” Adding to the intricate sense of artifice is the fact that the actors use American accents for the chorus, but use appropriate English accents and variants or French for the characters they play, with sometimes a bizarre amount of doubling. For example, John P. Kellar plays both the emotionally overtaxed Henry and the simpering, foolish Dauphin, the latter to comic excess.

I sometimes wondered if perhaps the comic turns this production finds in Henry V might be somehow contrary to the spirit of the text, but ultimately I sincerely found those comic interpretations funny, which almost renders the question moot. I also enjoyed that the major through-line of the production seems to be fun, as a counterbalance to the somber, sublime experience that is too much in the minds of Shakespeare fans due to Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 film of Henry V. Enough with the pre-game bravado of the Battle of Agincourt speech. This production gives us Shakespeare in his full bathos, the high and the low, the aspirational and the confessional, the spiritual and the slapstick.

Since Merry Wives finishes its run before Henry V, I do hope Falstaff will conceal himself one night in the Goldman, and enjoy the show as much as I did.

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Henry V runs from February 18 – March 22, 2015. Get tickets here.

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1flip

John King (Episode, well, all of them) is a podcaster, writer, and ferret wrangler.

Episode 94: Eleanor Lerman!

12 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry, Shakespeare

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alden Jones, Eleanor Lerman, Krystie Lee Yandoli, Leonard Cohen, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Shakespeare

Episode 94 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to the poet Eleanor Lerman,

Eleanor Lerman

Plus Alden Jones writes about her time working in Cuba.

Alden Jones TEXTS DISCUSSED 

Strange Life

The Blonde on the Train

The Sensual World Emerges

Our Post Soviet History Unfolds

The Spice Box of Earth

The Blind Masseuse

Check out episode 48 to hear Eleanor Lerman’s essay about Leonard Cohen’s Spice Box of Earth.

NOTES 

Check out the indiegogo crowd-sourcing effort to bring St. Mark’s Bookshop to a new home in the East Village. Endorsed by this show and Anne Waldman.

I recommend Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s production of Julius Caesar, playing until April 20th.

Caesar

Check out Beating Windward Press’s call for essays for its forthcoming essay collection, The Things They Did For Money: How Writers, Artists, and Creatives Support the Habit.

___________

 Episode 94 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 65: Orlando Shakespeare Theater!

06 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Blog Post, Episode

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Jim Helsinger, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew

Episode 65 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Lowndes Center Red Carpet

On this week’s show, I talk to three of the stars of Orlando Shakespeare Theatre’s production of The Taming of the Shrew.

Geoffrey Kent (Petruchio)

Kent_Geoffrey

And Deanna Gibson (Kate)

Gibson_Deanna

John Ahlin (Baptista)

John Ahlin

And J. Bradley talks about being haunted by The Cure.

Jesse Bradley

TEXTS DISCUSSED

William Shakespeare Complete WorksYou can read J. Bradley’s essay Reflections yourself at Monkey Bicycle.

NOTES

play-tops-taming

The Taming of the Shrew runs September 11th through October 6th. Get tickets here.

If in New York City, check out

New York Classical Theatre

Episode 65 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 44: Erin Belieu!

14 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Literary Magazines

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Feminism, Literary Magazines, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Writing Podcast

Episode 44 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing, literature, and drinking, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

This week, I talk to the poet and VIDA’s co-founder Erin Belieau,

Erin Belieu

Plus Julie Henderson discusses Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always.

Julie Henderson

Texts Discussed

VIDA

Notes

Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s Titus Andronicus runs through April 28.

Titus

Pablo Neruda’s body is being exhumed, after his poetry was last month desecrated by a Kentucky Senator.

Ireland mints a James Joyce coin.  Textual scholars are already at work discrediting the text.

Music for this week’s essay provided by Steven McClurg.

TheDrunkenodyssey2

Episode 44 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing, literature, and drinking, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

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