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From: silberma@agrigene.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.theater
Subject: Re: Prop-intensive plays
Message-ID: <117@agrigene.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-May-85 16:18:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: agrigene.117
Posted: Thu May 30 16:18:28 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 12:35:38 EDT
References: <579@udenva.UUCP> <226@tektools.UUCP> <5322@ucla-cs.ARPA> <2730@nsc.UUCP> <5601@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: Agrigenetics Madison,Wi.
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> 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

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