Entertainment Central Pittsburgh: What’s the meaning of myth? Why are fables so fantastic? And when does local lore become legendary? In Pittsburgh this February, theaters are exploring the power of storytelling in very different and dramatic ways. From Shakespeare’s idyllic woodland fantasy retold in Harlem to Aleshea Harris’ myth of dire revenge set in a California desert, Pittsburgh’s many and prolific stages will present a panoply of tales woven from time and testimony.
2 comments:
This sounds like an exciting lineup coming up in Pittsburgh! I love seeing reimaginings of classics, so I will probably try to make it out to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Harlem at Pittsburgh Public Theater. The retelling of Dracula sounds interesting too. Midsummer is such a wacky show that it lends itself really well to the most wildly conceptual of stagings. My favorite that I’ve seen was a version where the characters of Titania and Oberon were switched; so they were still the original characters, but Titania was the one who had Puck fetch her the love flower to make Oberon fall in love with donkey-headed Bottom, instead of Oberon doing this to her. Shakespeare is pretty much wide open to do whatever you want; it can be used as a vessel to explore more contemporary themes and cultures. The Harlem production sounds incredibly cool.
It’s always interesting to hear about the theater line up of the month, and this is a really good one! Beetlejuice, of course will be amazing - I’d love to see how they adapted the technical elements to the tour as the show itself was so involved. Maybe someday a load in or strike timelapse will exist - I’m sure this is quite a complicated show to move every week to few weeks. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream in Harlem and What the Constitution Means to Me also both look great. The production photo for A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream in Harlem looks really cool - I love the scenery, and I’d love to go and see this adaptation. I know that What the Constitution Means to Me has a number of CMU students working on it - and for that reason alone I think it’d be good to go and see it, to support the students and their design work on the stage.
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