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From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.theater
Subject: Re: Prop-intensive plays
Message-ID: <5601@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 21-May-85 17:00:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.5601
Posted: Tue May 21 17:00:41 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 25-May-85 07:14:27 EDT
References: <579@udenva.UUCP> <226@tektools.UUCP> <5322@ucla-cs.ARPA> <2730@nsc.UUCP>
Reply-To: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (Peter Reiher)
Distribution: net
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 26
Summary: 

In article <2730@nsc.UUCP> srm@nsc.UUCP (Richard Mateosian) writes:
>Next year Berkeley Rep is doing "The Art of Dining" by Tina Howe, 
>I'm pessimistic about The Art of Dining, but it ought to
>qualify as prop-intensive, since a great deal of carefully prepared food
>is supposedly consumed on stage.  

Your pessimism is fairly well justified.  I saw "The Art of Dining" at the
Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. a couple years ago.  The play is little
more than a curiosity, and I can't see why anyone would bother doing it
again, particularly because it is a very difficult work in terms of set
and props.  Indeed, gourmet food is required, and part of the idea of the
play is that the audience can smell the food itself, adding to the realism
(about the only good idea in the play).  The kitchen is on stage, so there
is only a certain amount of fudging possible.  The actors, then, must be able
to handle a certain amount of the cooking themselves.  In addition, the set
requires several merry-go-round horses in good condition.  A little rewriting
can get around this, I suppose, but rewriting plays to make them easier to
stage never struck me as acceptable, by and large.

Basically, "The Art of Dining" would make Grotowski barf.  It's all production
values and no text or performance substance.
-- 
        			Peter Reiher
        			reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
				soon to be reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDA
        			{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher