Call for Artists

Red Tape Theatre seeks proposals from artists of all media to showcase at our Fresh Eyes Project one night celebration event, Saturday, January 31st.

Proposals due December 14th.

The driver for this event is conversation. We want participants to interact with each other, with the artists on display, and with the art itself. It is an excellent opportunity to network with artists, hang out with friends, or make out with strangers. The theatre will be transformed into a series of intimate spaces that have interactive activities, art and are great for lounging. Guaranteed to be a fun, sexy, and kind of grungy event, performances will flow in and out of each other throughout the night. We're not looking for any specific themes, but will create a journey throughout the evening with the work presented. Alcohol, food, and beverages will be sold. There's also a raffle with great prizes!

Proposals must include:

• Contact information, including e-mail.
• 1-2 page artist statement, including description of piece or pieces to be considered.
• Resume of artist or artists.
• Any additional materials that showcase or explain your work (photos, cds, dvds, writing samples, reviews etc). Unfortunately these materials cannot be returned- Please do not submit originals.
• Technical/Space requirements for displaying or performing your piece or pieces.

Submissions:

Please submit materials via e-mail to info@redtapetheatre.com.

Hard copies can be mailed to:

Red Tape Theatre
c/o St. Peter's Episcopal Church
621 W. Belmont
Chicago, Il 60657

Please submit written documents in triplicate.

Accepted artists will be notified via e-mail by December 20th. A follow up meeting will be held in the space with all artists and production staff.

Contact Myah Shein at info@redtapetheatre.com with questions.

Cat in a Manger

I awoke this morning with two bruised knees. (Insert your own jokes here). In Dog in a Manger I put on a pair of cute cat ears and engage in a raucous courtship dance with my beloved. Yesterday I let things get a little too raucous and tripped over part of the set. Stealthily I pursued my partner offstage on my hands and knees as if to say “Ah, I meant to do that, as my cat-like posture increases my adorability.” I’m sure no one in the audience noticed the blooper… Meow.

Dog in a Manger is gearing up for its final week and the rest of the season is gearing up. I’m helping James and Myah review submissions for January’s Fresh Eyes Festival and researching Rob’s dramaturgical questions for May’s adaptation of An Enemy of the People. Blog posts will resume in December when the Fresh Eyes lineup is ready to announce. Meanwhile I welcome new readers to look through the past few months to learn some fun facts about our cast and our adaptation.

Final performances of Dog in a Manger are October 30, 31 and November 1 at 7:30 pm.
Visit www.redtapetheatre.com for details and to purchase tickets online!

Adapting the Classics - The Discussion

Red Tape Theatre's panel Adapting the Classics was presented on Saturday, October 11 at 4:30 p.m., alongside our adaptation of Dog in a Manger. I led a discussion with four Chicago artists who'd successfully helmed their own adaptations

The panelists were:

• Libby Ford, Associate Artistic Director of Greasy Joan & Co.


• Tony Lewis, Artistic Director of MidTangeant Productions


• Katie McLean, Artistic Ensemble Member at Lifeline Theatre Company


• Blake Montgomery, Artistic Director of The Building Stage

In Mr. Montgomery's production of The Master Builder, he felt he couldn't let an ensemble member play a character who "dies in act one and then sits in the green room. First of all we don't have a green room!" The decision to double cast the supporting roles led to greater discoveries. As the paranoid title character unraveled , the reality of those he meets became ambiguous. Do they exist? Are they creations of his rivals or his imagination?

Ms. Ford's production of The Misanthrope examined the contrasts of a decadent society in a time of war, as France indeed was. She described Kevin Depinet's set as a "bombed out mansion" in which Celimine and her followers were "squatting." Her rank was established in her refusal to acknowledge the hole in the wall. If she ignored it, so must her suitors, who entered through the doorway instead. Alceste, the title character, of course entered through the wall.

When Ms. Mclean began Lifeline's adaptation of The Mark of Zorro she was surprised by the darkness in the original books. Zorro's justice lacks mercy as he tortures and eventually kills his foes. In a post-Dark Knight age it seemed appropriate to instead explore the comic aspects of the story. She described the excitement of collaborating with actor James Elly, who not only explored Zorro the fighter and Don Diego the clown, but the mystery man who wears both masks. (Code named "Z").

Mr. Lewis received a variety of responses to the finale of A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Queer Tale. The production transformed Shakespeare's lovers into same sex couples fleeing a tyrannical government to a fairy land of drag queens, club kids and leather daddies. While the popular show had a festive, party atmosphere the finale introduced a somber tone with a closeted homosexual actor committing suicide in the middle of "Pyramus and Thisbe." In a production commenting on gay rights, Mr. Lewis felt it important to respect those who would be "left behind" when the rest of the communities "needs were met."

At the end an audience member asked when an adaptation ceases to be connected to the original work. The panel agreed that every production had it's own line in the sand. In most cases, they felt, you avoid crossing it. On special occasions, one added, one must embrace the opportunity to tell their own story. That's when you not only step over the line... you leap!

Dog in a Manger has been extended through November 2.
Visit http://www.redtapetheatre.com/ for details and to purchase tickets online!

Dog in a Manger Artwork

I thought I'd post my cast artwork for Dog in a Manger. In 1998, inspired by the late Al Hirschfeld, I gave my fellow actors a caricature of the cast as a closing night gift. It went over well so I've kept at it.

For Dog in a Manger I decided to finish it before previews. There was some risk in this as some hairstyles and costumes have altered since then, but as a result I was able to include the image in our lobby display.



Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

Dog in a Manger has been extended through November 1st.
Visit http://www.redtapetheatre.orgfor details and to purchase tickets online!

"Dog in a Manger" Extends through November 1!

Dog in a Manger is a hit! Thank you all for your feedback and support. The show has been extended through November 1.

THE CRITICS SAY:

"Red Tape Theatre is a young group of talented people... in its quest to create fun, thought provoking, avant-garde theatre. "

" There were some talented people in this cast...A booming Bryan Kelly, the lovely Marika Engelhardt and the very funny Michael Gonring."

"...This little scene [between Gonring and Panger] is worth the price of admission."

-Alan Bresloff, steadstylechicago.com

"Finally, cutting edge theater that requires its audience to have taken Sosc. From Foucault to Freud, from Nietzsche to Marx, you'll find it all in James Palmer's adaptation..."

"Paul Miller plays a Fabio that is so convincingly scummy, I wonder what he is like in real life. Michael Gonring plays a sardonic Tristan very well. Bryan Kelly gives a hilarious turn as Ricardo the inquisitor."

- Pete Russell, Chicago Maroon

THE AUDIENCES SAY:

"I never cease to be amazed by the depth of the Red Tape Theatre productions...presenting substantive, challenging and absorbing plays. It warms my heart to see such pertinent and timely issues being raised..."

"What an AMAZING production. [We] were non-stop back and forth all the way to Evanston last night talking about the characters, the themes, and what it all meant. Incredible, really. "

"I had a great time!"

Tickets are going fast, buy yours now at www.redtapetheatre.org.

Adapting the Classics – The Master Builder

Red Tape Theatre's panel Adapting the Classics will be presented on Saturday, October 11 at 4:30 p.m., between performances of Dog in a Manger.

Panelist Blake Montgomery is the Artistic Director of The Building Stage (www.buildingstage.com). He co-directed/adapted Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder in June 2008. The four person ensemble each took a role in this psychological adaptation set in the head of the title character. Halvard Solness fears the next generation will surpass his lifetime of achievements and lashes out angrily at them. His three young ensemble members switched costumes and roles as his lovers, confidantes and rivals confronted him to offer warnings and advice. As Solness’ mind began to shatter the barriers between the other characters roles began to dissolve.

The Building Stage’s mission states “We believe theater is made, not written. And while each project has its own unique process of creation, each is driven by the spirit of investigation: to ask, through action on the stage, how a piece functions, how it is constructed, and what must be done to make it work.” Red Tape will soon begin work on our own adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. I am thrilled Mr. Montgomery could join our panel and am eager to hear him speak on his company’s creative process. Their current production, Dracula, runs through October 18, 2008.

Other panelists include:

• Libby Ford, Associate Artistic Director of Greasy Joan & Co.
• Tony Lewis, Artistic Director of MidTangeant Productions
• Katie McLean, Artistic Ensemble Member at Lifeline Theatre Company

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

Dog in a Manger opens October 6.
Visit www.redtapetheatre.org for details and to purchase tickets online!

Adapting the Classics - The Mark of Zorro

Red Tape Theatre's panel Adapting the Classics will be presented on Saturday, October 11 at 4:30 p.m., between performances of Dog in a Manger.

Panelist Katie McLean is an Artistic Ensemble Member at Lifeline Theatre Company (www.lifelinetheatre.com). Her adaptation of The Mark of Zorro last summer was the smashhit of their 2007-2008 season. The production was transferred to the Theatre Building Chicago where it runs September 27-November 23, 2008.

Lifeline Theatre specializes in original literary adaptations, and McLean went back to Zorro's original adventures bypassing an origin story and dropping the audience right in the middle of the action. I was particularly impressed by her handling of his alter ego, a cowardly fop who can't approach a lover without the black mask. McLean, and actor James Elly, explored the delicious ambiguity between the two roles, suggesting that the "real Zorro" lay somewhere in between.

Gay Chicago Magazine put it best when they presented an After Dark Award for Best Production. "This show had everything going for it, both creatively and technically. This magnificently lovable ensemble’s depiction of Katie McLean’s thrilling adaptation, polished off with Dorothy Milne’s brilliantly ingenious direction, created an all ages laugh festival extravaganza that was CRAZY FUN!"

Other panelists include:

• Libby Ford, Associate Artistic Director of Greasy Joan & Co.
• Tony Lewis, Artistic Director of MidTangeant Productions
• Blake Montgomery, Artistic Director of The Building Stage

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

Dog in a Manger opens October 6.
Visit www.redtapetheatre.org for details and to purchase tickets online!

Meet the Cast! - Bryan Kelly

Part four in a series of interviews with the cast of Dog in a Manger at Red Tape Theatre.

1. Where are you from?
It's hard to say where I'm from. I was born in Hawaii. Then when I was two, we moved to Rochester, NY. In second grade, I stayed briefly in New Jersey, then eventually Long Island until fourth grade when I found myself in Nashua, NH. Then another great opportunity and new job happened for my dad, and we moved to Walled Lake, Michigan for the last two years of high school. Went to Western Michigan in Kalamazoo, then moved to Chicago. After a brief two year stint in LA, I'm back in where I consider home - Chicago.

So the short answer is "I'm from Chicago"

2. What is the first stage play you remember seeing?
I actually wrote a show and performed in two before I saw a live show. In NH high school, I played Lacrosse, Football and Basketball mostly, and for a change, I joined Odyssey of the Mind. We ended up choosing the performance problem and wrote a show in which I was the MC. I did a few shows in high school and it wasn't until I went to college that I actually saw a live theatre performance I was not in. I actually did not realize that until I attempted to answer this question. Interestingly enough, my best friend was in the first show I watched and it was also the first time I met him.

3. When/why did you start acting?
I chose acting on a possible sign and a whim. I thought I was going to be a mechanical engineer, and I had applied to four schools I was kind of interested in. I applied to Western Michigan frankly because there was a small application fee, and no essay. I put Theatre as my major of choice, just to see what could happen. Then, one day, I got the acceptance letter from Western while my mom was driving me to rehearsal. It was an overcast day, and as I opened the letter the clouds parted and light broke through. It was weird to say the least.

Those moments are rare and odd and again, weird. I was mulling over the decision, every day after submitting the application I thought about what to do if it worked out, and although I had missed the first department audition, I was generally accepted to the University. When I read the letter in the sudden sunshine, I just felt confident in going forward in the direction of my dreams. It's funny how a small coincidence can suddenly alter the course of one's major life decisions, and we will mull over what cereal to buy for a good half hour and regret it for days after even when it is clearly delicious. I decided that entertaining is important to me and I want to entertain in all facets. I figured theatre training would be a way to get started. Since then, I've been involved in large and small production theatre, tons of improv, stand-up, sit-coms, movies, shorts, I was a tour manager for the Dollyrots travelling all over the US, I've MC'd several events and I've even presided over two weddings. I love entertaining. If given the choice, I would rather be Willy Wonka than one of the kids.

4. Tell us about your character in Dog in a Manger.
I play Ricardo, the inquisitor. He is an overbearing presence to say the least. As an inquisitor, he is used to being in absolute power in most any situation. Since the inquisition is being dismantled slowly, he finds himself basically waving a gun loaded with blanks. As a man of immense power, he has basically been able to say and do whatever he wants. Power does things to people who crave it, and it has definitely warped Ricardo. He has done so much wrong in the name of right that he believes that everything he does is right by default. This man can convince your mother that you have fosaken all that is good and get her to cast the first stone at your death all in the name of God. Personally, I am a gifted skeptic and devil's advocate and so it is interesting to play a true believer.

5. Do you have a favorite moment/scene in the play?
If I had to pick a scene I really like to do, it'd have to be the first speech to the audience. I've been a stand-up comic and in general a comedy guy for a while, and to be so blatantly evil and mean with a bit of charm is exquisite for me. I've tried to be mostly a gentle giant most of my life on and off stage, so to be able to bring out my inner asshole is really.... relieving.

As for a scene I like to watch, I like when Belflor hits Teo. It's sweet, vengeful, heartbreaking and ridiculous.

6. What's next for you?
What's next? I'm lucky I know what's happening this week. I'm in the pilot episode for A&E's The Beast, so hopefully we'll all see me and other fine Chicago actors in the winter.

Dog in a Manger runs October 2-26.
Visit www.redtapetheatre.com for details and to purchase tickets online!

Two Takes on Fuente Ovejuna

Fuente Ovejuna (or The Sheep Well) is one of Lope de Vega’s best known works. It was interesting to re-read this midway through the rehearsal process for Dog in a Manger.

A wicked Commander terrorizes the villagers of the title town and deflowers all the maidens on their wedding nights. When Laurencia resists, and is violently raped for it, she leads the villagers in bloodthirsty rebellion. The Commander and his men are slaughtered at her command, making her one of de Vega’s most proactive heroines.

LAURENCIA: “I swear to God above that women alone shall be responsible for their honour, for their blood, and make these traitors, these tyrants pay…. And once again we’ll see that age return where there were women who were strong, true Amazons, whose deeds amazed the world.” (translation by Gwynne Edwards)

King Fernando and Queen Isabel send a magistrate to investigate the Commander’s death. Despite torture and imprisonment, when the people are asked who killed the Commander they claim it as a group crying “Fuente Ovejuna!” When the people report the Commander’s misdeeds and his rebellion against the crown to the King he pardons the entire town.

In his introduction to the play Gwynne Edwards writes that the play does not advocate revolution. “Rather, [de Vega] shared the desire of his contemporaries for the continuity of established social structures, ending the play, therefore, not with the victory of the citizens but with the restitution of order by the Catholic Kings.” Even so, the people demand responsibility from their King as they did from their Commander. Though peasants, their honor is no less than that of any so-called nobility.

Dog in a Manger focuses on a conflict between a Countess and her servants. Both sides disrupt the status quo. Neither will back down as each regards their honor as something worth defending. While the Countess is a nobler specimen than Fuente’s Commander, she too learns the dangers of underestimating the lower classes.

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

Dog in a Manger opens October 6.
Visit www.redtapetheatre.org for details and to purchase tickets online!

Adapting the Classics – Midsummer

Red Tape Theatre's panel Adapting the Classics will be presented on Saturday, October 11 at 4:30 p.m., between performances of Dog in a Manger.

Panelist Tony Lewis is the Artistic Director for Midtangeant Productions (http://www.myspace.com/midtangent). They've had great success with their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Queer Tale which I had the good fortune to see in its third revival this July.

Tony's production of Shakespeare's comedy cast Lysander as a no-nonsense lesbian, Helena as a lonely gay man, and Titania as a fantabulous drag queen. When Lysander and Hermia flee the king's persecution, Demetrius gives chase with lovesick Helena close behind. They find themselves in the Boyshood ruled over by Titania and her band of pansexual, club-kid fairies. Love and sexuality prove fluid as Puck's drugs cause couples to mix and match in all combinaitons.

Tony's adaptation was brash, raucous and loaded with sex, but there were more tricks up his sleeve. Not every character in the play was happy to discover their sexuality and the final scene at court turned unexpectedly tragic. This scene fascinated me and convinced me that Tony was someone to invite to our panel.

Other panelists include:

• Libby Ford, Associate Artistic Director of Greasy Joan & Co.
• Katie McLean, Artistic Ensemble Member at Lifeline Theatre Company
• Blake Montgomery, Artistic Director of The Building Stage
  

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

Dog in a Manger opens October 6.
Visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/ for details and to purchase tickets online!

Meet the Cast! – Paul G. Miller

Part three in a series of interviews with the cast of Dog in a Manger at Red Tape Theatre.

1. Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Corvallis, OR. I moved to Portland, OR in 1998 and Chicago in 2006.

2. What is the first stage play you remember seeing?
My grandmother was directing a production of Little Women at the local arts center. I’d go with her to rehearsals and helped her build the set. There’s a scene where the March sisters put on a melodrama. Grandma built a “Castle tower” out of a large cardboard box. We colored the exterior together with pastel markers. When the show reached performance I got scolded because I knew all the jokes and would laugh loudly before the rest of the audience could respond. I didn’t realize I was being rude. I was just loving the play!

3. When/why did you start acting?
Grandmother again. She gave me two roles in a children’s theatre when I was very small. I played a servant in The Emperor’s New Clothes who rang a gong when the emperor appeared, then a turtle in Red Riding Hood with a big paper mache shell. I was tiny with a loud voice and the grown ups thought I was adorable. I loved the attention. Then I auditioned for some other companies and discovered that being adorable wasn’t enough to get me cast. My bruised ego, and the dreadful pageants at my elementary school, were enough to keep me from acting again till high school. By then I was no longer adorable, just closeted and socially awkward. The theatre scene helped me make friends, come out, and try on some new identities. It’s been a rocky romance ever since.

4. Tell us about your character in Dog in a Manger.
Fabio is bodyguard and confidante to the Countess Belflor. In a play about changing social roles, Fabio is an advocate for the status quo. He wants to be a protector but his fear of the Inquisition, and of change in general, causes him to give some very poor advice. It isn’t until others start breaking the rules that he finds the courage to pursue a love of his own.

5. Do you have a favorite moment/scene in the play?
Fabio gets to perform a little dance, which I’ve enjoyed learning. However my favorite moment would have to be a speech late in the play where Fabio finally speaks his mind about all the chaos that’s been going on around him. He spends most of the play biting his tongue so it’s a relief to finally cut loose.

6. What’s next for you?
This fall I’ll be co-organizing Red Tape’s Fresh Eyes Festival and doing dramaturgical research for our original adaptation of An Enemy of the People. Acting-wise it’s simply a matter of audition, audition, audition.

Dog in a Manger runs October 2-26.
Visit www.redtapetheatre.com for details and to purchase tickets online!

Adapting the Classics – The Misanthrope

Red Tape Theatre's panel Adapting the Classics will be presented on Saturday, October 11 at 4:30 p.m., between performances of Dog in a Manger. I'll be devoting a post to each of our panelists, starting with Libby Ford.

Libby Ford is the Associate Artistic Director of Greasy Joan & Co. (www.greasyjoan.org) where she recently directed Moliere's The Misanthrope. Set in a crumbling city, the social climbing characters did their best to ignore the gaping whole in the wall of Celimene's boudoir. Bedecked in 1980's finery they sniped, gossiped and formed alliances in a world that had no rewards to give them. Alceste, the misanthrope of the title, ignored the door and entered through the wall itself; a prelude to the illusions he would shatter.The production opened at the Athenaeum Theatre in March 2008 and was revived at Theatre on the Lake that June.

Greasy Joan's mission is to re-imagine classic plays for the contemporary stage. I'll be asking Libby about the company as a whole but particularly look forward to a discussion of The Misanthrope.

Other panelists include:

• Tony Lewis, Artistic Director of Midtangent Productions
• Katie McLean, Artistic Ensemble Member at Lifeline Theatre Company
• Blake Montgomery, Artistic Director of The Building Stage

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

Dog in a Manger runs October 6-26.
Visit www.redtapetheatre.org for details and to purchase tickets online!

Meet the Cast! – Marika Engelhardt

Part two in a series of interviews with the cast of Dog in a Manger at Red Tape Theatre.

1. Where are you from?
I'm from Portland, Oregon.

2. What is the first stage play you remember seeing?
The first play I really remember seeing, and more importantly, liking, was a production of Waiting for Godot at the college where my father taught. It's one of his favorite plays (and now mine), and I found the show really moving. The actors in that show really have to explore what it means to be on this earth, and it demands intelligence and bravery.

3. When/why did you start acting?
I started acting when I was little, I would write fake tv commercials and perform them live for my parents. I saw other people acting and I thought: that looks like an awesome job!

4. Tell us about your character in Dog in a Manger.
Diana is a countess during the Spanish inquisition. She is the ultimate matriarch. She is a powerful woman, someone who has to take charge and provide for those around her. She comes across as cold and temperamental, but those traits are what help her manage her enormous responsibilities.

5. Do you have a favorite moment/scene in the play?
My favorite moment in the play is probably a monologue in which I express my private thoughts about love. It is a rare moment for the audience to see Diana in a vulnerable moment, and I think it shows how human she is underneath and how important it is to maintain a controlled exterior to the world.

6. What’s next for you?
What's next? Continue to get to know the Chicago arts community and involve myself with projects that excite me!

Dog in a Manger runs October 2-26.
Visit www.redtapetheatre.com for details and to purchase tickets online!

Adapting the Classics – Peter Brook’s thoughts

Red Tape Theatre’s adaptation of Dog in a Manger takes the plot and central characters from Lope de Vega’s play and weaves them into a script with several new surprises. On Saturday, October 11 at 4:30 p.m., I’ll be hosting a special panel of Chicago artists who’ve put their own spin on classical works. The panelists for Adapting the Classics include:

• Libby Ford, Associate Artistic Director of Greasy Joan Theatre Company
• Tony Lewis, Artistic Director of Midtangent Productions
• Katie McLean, Artistic Ensemble Member at Lifeline Theatre Company
• Blake Montgomery, Artistic Director of The Building Stage

I’ll be posting a series of blogs about their recent productions this month, but first I thought I’d share a quote from a recent article about director Peter Brook.

“He [Brook] thinks that the writer’s words are always sancrosanct, but that the stage directions can legitimately be modified. ‘The two things come from different sources,’ he argues controversially." *

Some of our panelists created their own texts while others found ways to update the plays without changing a word. We look forward to hearing our panelists thoughts on this process!

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge


* The full Peter Brooke article was published in The Independent, September 5, 2008 and can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/65doyd

Dog in a Manger runs October 6-26.
Visit http://www.redtapetheatre.com/ for details and to purchase tickets online!

Q and A: Choose Your Own Adventure

QUESTION – Red Tape’s Adaptation of Dog in a Manger has gone through multiple endings in the writing process. How did Lope de Vega end the original?

ANSWER – I’ll keep the Red Tape production spoiler free. If you don’t want de Vega’s original ending revealed, read no further.


Still with me? The central conflict of de Vega's The Dog in the Manger involves a Countess who falls for her secretary, Teodoro. The Countess can not have the lower class man for herself but cannot abide his engagement to another. Teodoro’s servant Tristan cons an old nobleman, Ludovico, into claiming Teodoro as his long lost son. The Countess sees through the deception and must decide whether or not to play along.

Lope de Vega was able to claim his Deux Ex Machina and mock it too. In a different play Teodoro’s noble parentage would be true, but in de Vega’s play it is blatantly contrived and few believe it. Through Ludovico the playwright mocks the shallowness of social prestige as well as the impossibility of theatrical happy endings.

In Red Tape’s adaptation the Countess has the Inquisition and her own pride to deal with along with class prejudice. While the character of Ludovico was experimented with in the workshops he has since been cut from our script, leaving our protagonists with no easy solutions.

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on Dog in a Manger visit here:www.redtapetheatre.org.

Q and A: Chaos is a Snake

QUESTION – In Red Tape’s adaptation of Dog in a Manger, a philosopher speaks of a snake affixed to the soil by “the staff of Hermes.” What is the origin of this tale?

ANSWER – The staff of Hermes, or caduceus, comes from Greek myth. The traditional image depicts a staff with wings and two snakes wrapped around it. Another Greek symbol, the rod of Asclepius, features a single snake round a staff and no wings. The American Medical Association includes the latter in its logo, and both have been associated with healing.

While snakes have been gods, or battled gods, in many ancient religions and myths the Greek god Hermes is said to have used his staff to split two warring snakes, bringing peace between them. Hermes was known as the messenger of the gods and a protector to athletes, travelers and thieves.

In Dog in a Manger the servant Tristan comes across the story during his travels. He seeks to bring peace to his unstable home and separate the furious lady of the household from her equally dangerous foes. What he finds on his travels solves one problem, and causes others.

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on Dog in a Manger visit here:www.redtapetheatre.org.

Q and A: The Map of Borges

QUESTION – In Red Tape’s adaptation of Dog in a Manger, the Countess Belflor tells a story about the map of Borges. What is the origin of this tale?

ANSWER – The story Del Rigor en la Ciencia (On Rigor in Science) was written by Jorge Luis Borges and first published in 1946. A translation by Andrew Hurley reads:

“In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless.”

The map was at last allowed to rot, revealing the true kingdom underneath. The story was referenced by the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard in his 1985 treatise Simulacra and Simulation which Red Tape Theatre studied in our lab series last season. Baudrillard writes:

“The territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it…. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges persist here and there in the deserts that are no longer those of the Empire, but ours. The desert of the real itself.”

In a society where the genteel social codes have failed to obscure their underlying prejudices the Countess Belflor finds the map of Borges a most appropriate example.

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on Dog in a Manger visit here:
http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.

The Many Loves of Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega (1562-1635) married two women, seduced many more, sired at least ten children, and wrote over 1000 plays before ending his life as a member of the priesthood. While he created many strong roles for women, his witty heroines were often as mistreated and abused as his own mistresses.

On such mistress, the actress Elena Osario first crossed paths with de Vega in 1583. Their passionate affair was ended when she married a wealthy protector. He made her the subject of a scathing novel, Dorotea, in which the heroine misuses her lover and her new husband in turn. Extra venom was unleashed against the character of Dorotea’s mother who arranges the marriage to secure her families fortunes. The ensuing libel suit resulted in de Vega’s temporary banishment from Madrid. Incriminating love letters were used as evidence in the trial (and a device in his plays).

Despite his wild lifestyle de Vega was beloved by king, country, military and church. “Es de Lope” became a descriptive phrase for anything of high quality. He even spent some time in the Inquisition: “The Spanish Inquisition accepted him by making him one of its judges. He became official censor and granter of the indisepensible nihil obstat, or imprimatur.” (Hayes, Francis C., Lope de Vega, Twayne Publishers Inc., 1967) The imprimatur was the declaration that a book was moral and acceptable for Roman Catholic readers. de Vega new a thing or two about the power of writing. The disconnect between his social roles and his passions would continue to be channeled through the characters in his plays as his career blossomed.

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on Dog in a Manger visit here:
http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.

Q and A - Can Ricardo Get Married?

Rehearsals for Dog in a Manger have begun and I've decided to use the blog as a spot for answering actor questions, like this one that came up in the workshop.

QUESTION – If you make Diana's suitor, Ricardo, an Inquisitor, is he still allowed to marry?


ANSWER – Yes. The Spanish Inquisition accepted laymen as well as clergy into their ranks. Ricardo need not be a priest to reach the rank of inquisitor.

Historian Henry Kamen writes:

"Contrary to the image – still widely current – of inquisitors as small-minded clerics and theologians fanatically dedicated to the extirpation of heresy, it must be stressed that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at least, the inquisitors were an elite bureaucracy. Because the Inquisition was a court, its administrators had to be trained lawyers…. By the same token, inquisitors did not have to be clergy and could be laymen. All this shows that the inquisitors were in principle a bureaucracy not of the Church but of the State: they received their training in the same institutions that contributed personnel to the councils of state, corregidorships and high courts…. [For many] service in the Inquisition was merely a stepping stone to a further career."

(Inquisition and society in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1985)

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on Dog in a Manger visit here: www.redtapetheatre.org

A Changing World

One of my favorite themes with Dog in a Manger is how one deals with a changing world. Often the changes in life are beyond our control and we adjust out of necessity. But every now and again, a new, positive path opens up to us and we instinctively resist even that. Why? Because it's new. It breaks our cycle. Like getting a new job and realizing, five years later, that you have stopped remembering what the neighborhoods you drove through to get home look like. Your automated senses are thrown and your comfort realm has to shift. You have to grow.

Selfishly, I must admit that I probably cling to this theme because I am the newest company member of Red Tape. I have been given the opportunity to express my artistic vision and contribute to the company's atheistic and message. Now I have to figure out what that means, exactly. How do I fit into this group that has lasted without me for five years? How do I help define RTC? How can RTC define me?

DIM is a perfect show to come into with these questions. The avant-grade nature of the work along with it being adapted by another company member means that I get to grow alongside of the production itself. All of the discoveries made by the director and designers, the cast and crew, I will make along with them. I will see how our patrons respond to the themes and images presented and become entrenched in their thoughts, concerns, beliefs, and joys.

Throughout the workshop process of the play alone, I have already started to see a way for me aid the theatre. And in turn, being a part of Red Tape has helped me understand why it is I am a dramatic addict and why it is my favorite form of communication.

A. Zell Williams
Artistic Associate

For more information on Dog in a Manger click here:http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.

The Inquisition Unmasked by Antonio Puigblanch

In recent drafts of Red Tape's adaptation of The Dog in the Manger the Countess Diana is persecuted for writing inflammatory pamphlets about the Spanish Inquisition. I've been exploring Historian Henry Kamen's wonderful books on the Inquisition and thought I'd share his citation from the pamphlets of Antonio Puigblanch, published in 1811.

1. The Inquisition being an ecclesiastical tribunal, its rigour is incompatible with the spirit of meekness which ought to distinguish the ministers of the Gospel.
2. The system of rigour adopted by this tribunal is opposed to the doctrine of the Holy Fathers and the discipline of the Church in its most happy times.
3. The Inquisition, far from contributing to the preservation of the true belief, is only suited to encourage hypocrisy and excite the people to rebellion.
4. The form of trial used in this tribunal tramples on all the rights of the citizen.
5. The Inquisition has not only obstructed the progress of science in the countries wherein it has been established, but has also propagated pernicious errors.
6. The tribunal has supported the despotism of kings, and has itself exercised it.
7. As the Inquisition owes its origin to the decline of the discipline and remissness of the clergy, it opposes obstacles to their reform, which is indispensably necessary if the nation is to prosper.

(Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition, New American Library, 1965).

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge
For more information on The Dog in the Manger click here: www.redtapetheatre.org.

The Rise and Fall of the Inquisition

In Red Tape’s adaptation of The Dog in the Manger the Countess Diana’s chief suitor has been re-imagined as a member of the Spanish Inquisition whose influence in society is waning. The Inquisitors included laymen as well as clergy among their ranks so the scenario is not unthinkable. Though the Inquisition was still in power in Lope de Vega’s lifetime it grew unpopular when Spain’s economy began to sink.

In 15th Century Spain the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel, sought to unite the regions of Portugal, Castille and Aragon, by declaring Christianity the dominant religion. Thousands of citizens “voluntarily” converted to keep their place in society. In 1478 the Monarchs established the Inquisition to investigate these conversos. By 1492 the Jews were officially expelled from all regions of Spain. The elimination of the Jewish middle class and the opening of American territories allowed the fortunes of the nobility to climb as Spain entered a Golden Age.

The Arts thrived in the economy of 16th Century Spain. Meanwhile the Inquisition proceeded to cut Spain off from all foreigners. Historian Henry Kamen writes that “Thereafter the closed society found that it had exhausted its own resources… The disappearance of the Jews and the persecution of the conversos created a void in the world of capital which was never satisfactorily filled by Spaniards. ” (The Spanish Inquisition, New American Library, 1965).

By the 19th Century the Golden Age had long since ended and the Inquisition had fallen out of favor. Spain’s military losses to France and England, and a failed attempt at a republic, had injured the economy. Spain’s parliament, the Cortes, saw the Inquisition as an obstacle to the countries reformation and began to cut off authority and finances. Personnel shrunk as inquisitors complained of unpaid wages. Their last official execution for heresy was recorded in 1825. Kamen writes “a formal decree was eventually issued on 15 July 1834 by which the Inquisition was definitively suppressed, all its properties and canonries applied to the extinction of public debt, and just payment of salaries made to all its formal officials.” By this point the Inquisition’s influence was so small that the decree was considered “little more than a formality.”


Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on The Dog in the Manger click here: http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.

Hearts, Wings and Exposition

We’re two weeks and four drafts into our workshop of The Dog in the Manger. The plays title is taken from a fable by Aesop. It is briefly explained in the play and in a previous blog. However another fable, or myth, is also referenced in the play: the story of Icarus. One actor in our workshop suggested we cut the retelling of the myth saying that our audience would already be familiar with it. Another responded that she’d not heard the myth till reading our script. (I myself have known the story for some time, but was introduced to it in 1986 by the Nintendo game Kid Icarus which took… liberties.)

This discussion led to the larger issue of exposition. The conventions of de Vega’s time allowed for a great deal. Our adaptation has attempted to streamline this, looking for opportunities to show rather than tell. James, our playwright, has begun to explore a visual language for the piece including a giant heart, a crucifix and other moving set pieces that become associated with particular characters. As the workshop progresses the visual elements have taken on a larger role as the dialogue continues to pare down. How we’ll realize these in performance is yet to be determined though Red Tape has had some positive experiences with video projections.

James quote of the week: “I never thought I’d find an excuse to write the stage direction 'the heart breaks.'”

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on The Dog in the Manger please visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.

Workshop Report: The First Readthrough

And we're off! On Saturday we heard a group of actors read through our adaptation of The Dog in the Manger. These folks have generously agreed to join us over three weekends, some switching between multiple roles, as we workshop and tweak the fledgling script. It ran 90 minutes, a manageable length, and told a story in the process. The foundation is there.

Now it's time to build up. The discovery that a key character has only "half an arc," and that a second character disappeared midway through, segued into a discussion of the plays ending. Lope de Vega's play ends abruptly and our draft follows suit. While a certain level of ambiguity can be useful, some decisions will need to be made. Will our leads romance end on a note of hope or cynicism? Will their exes be left to rage like Shakespeare's Malvolio, or will their rage be soothed? And what of the Spanish inquisition? How much danger is everyone in now that our Ricardo is an inquisitor? The consensus around the table was that, while no one wanted a strictly "happy ending," we would like to see what happens when we tie up some loose ends.

Now we'll begin table work, focusing on Teodoro's relationships with his loves and his servant. By the time we reach our second read-through we'll have a different set of scenes and a different combination of actors to read them. The possibilities are exhilarating.

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

Auditions will be held July 23 and 24, 2008. For more information on auditions and performances of The Dog in the Manger please visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.

The Fate of Our Heroine

The title character of The Dog in the Manger is the Countess Diana. Like the dog in Aesop’s fable she’ll not allow others to enjoy what she cannot. In the dog’s case it was food. In Diana’s it is the love of her servant, Teodoro. Her rank gives her power over him, which she enjoys, but this power would vanish if she wed him.

Diana’s decision to wed could reduce her to the status of property. It’s a serious dilemma when one considers that the heroines in Lope de Vega’s plays were often abandoned, raped or killed by their men. Lope highlighted marriage's contradictions in the play Justice without Revenge. When the heroine learns of her husband's affairs she has one of her own. He responds by slaughtering her to restore his "honor." Though frowned upon, a husband in 17th Century Spain was within his rights to murder a wife suspected of adultery, while women had no such legal recourse.

Diana is not slaughtered but she fits other patterns. A recurring figure in de Vega’s comedies was the mujer esquiva; a woman averse to marriage. Her plight is well explored in Women and Society in the Spanish Drama of the Golden Age by Melveena McKendrick (1974). Rather than explore the rational arguments for her singledom, de Vega would make it the result of vanity or pride that must be overcome by the hero. Still he allowed his women to battle against social convention before restoring the status quo. McKendrick concludes “By the standards of their day the Spanish dramatists of the Golden Age were enlightened and sympathetic men in their attitude to women. One cannot ask for more.” How much more should Diana ask of us in 2008? How could she win Teodoro and keep her self respect? de Vega himself provides an answer that we look forward to revealing this fall!

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on our production of The Dog in the Manger please visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

The chief villain in The Dog in the Manger is probably social prejudice. The secondary villains are a pair of bumbling counts who court Diana and plot against Teodoro. Artistic Director James Palmer has given me an interesting assignment. I’m to research the feasibility of making the counts members of the Spanish Inquisition.

I was intrigued. Lope de Vega frequently introduced local politics into his tragedies and honor plays. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand appeared themselves as a deux ex machine to rescue the wronged peasants in Fuente Ovejuna and Peribanez. However as I read about the gruesome instruments of torture and the ugly politics behind the movement I wondered if the Inquisition would be too much for the comedy to bear. It seemed that if the Inquisition accused Teodoro of heresy he wouldn’t survive till Act III. It didn’t take long to convince me the Inquisition could be funny. Mel Brooks had them perform a musical number and Monty Python simply made them ninnies. I was further encouraged to read that the people of Naples, where Dog in a Manger is set, did not take the inquisition seriously.

According to The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision by Henry Kamen (1998) the “Italians felt that Spanish hypocrisy in religion, together with the existence of the Inquisition, proved that the tribunal was created not for religious purity, but simply to rob the Jews…. Moreover, the racialism of the Spanish authorities was scorned in Italy, where the Jewish community led a comparatively tranquil existence. As the Spanish ambassador at Rome reported in 1652: ‘In Spain it is held in great horror to be descended from a heretic or a Jew, but here they laugh at these matters, and at us, because we concern ourselves with them.’” (p.309).

This opens up some possibilities! Teodoro’s parentage is already at question in the play and if his rivals were members of the Inquisition they could certainly try to spread scandal against him without necessarily leading to execution by the Italian authorities. I’ll be interested to see where this path could lead us.

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on our production of The Dog in the Manger please visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.

Welcome to the 2008-2009 Season

In 2007-2008 we began a dialogue with our audiences through a series of post-show discussions, guest panels and Semantic Labs. The positive response has encouraged us to expand the conversation online. I’m pleased now to welcome you to the Red Tape Theatre Company blog!

After reading hundreds of plays, narrowing down to a list of 15, then tossing the list out and starting from scratch, we are pleased to announce our 2008-2009 season. Red Tape Theatre Company will be producing Lope de Vega’s The Dog in the Manger in October 2008 and Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People in May 2009.

Red Tape has long been interested in writing our own work and will be taking our first step this season by creating original adaptations of both plays. At present I’m happily buried in books about the Spanish Golden Age and the rise of the Inquisition. We must gain a greater understanding of de Vega’s time to find the play’s connections to our own. Members of the company, and some special guests, will be asked to write on our blog as the adaptation process continues. We look forward to sharing our findings with you!

Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge

For more information on our season visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/