Court Theatre

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern

For his final production as thirty-year artistic director of Chicago’s Tony-winning Court Theatre, Charles Newell transforms Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead into an unexpectedly joyful celebration of legacy and theater. Newell reveals his lengthy relationship with not only Stoppard’s plays but with the man himself, and shares how he cast two halves of a whole; how he chose to respond instinctively to what was happening in rehearsal rather than adhere to an intricate plan; and how he embraced the counterintuitive and seemingly-oxymoronic phrase “joyful requiem.” (PICTURED: Erik Hellman and Nate Burger as Guildenstern and Rosencrantz in the Court Theatre production of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, directed by Charles Newell. Photo by Michael Brosilow.) (Length 20:20)

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By austin, ago

Lionesses In ‘Winter’

Rebecca Spence (left) and Netta Walker play Eleanor of Aquitaine and Alice Capet, the estranged wife and mistress, respectively, of Henry II, in the Court Theatre production of James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter, directed by Ron OJ Parson. Spence and Walker discuss what it’s like to be playing the smartest characters in the play; the joy of facing off in their second onstage collaboration; the highly flattering comparison they make to Robert Preston; the privilege of working with such a sensitive ensemble of actors (and a director who trusts them); and how they navigate their power as women in a play with such, as they say in the 12th century, Big Dagger Energy. (Length 20:23) (Photo by Michael Brosilow.)

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By austin, ago

Ron OJ Parson

Ron OJ Parson is a multiple award-winning director and Resident Artist at the 2022 Tony-winning regional theater Court Theatre in Chicago, where his production of Arsenic and Old Lace opens this Saturday night. Ron’s extraordinary range includes over 30 productions of August Wilson’s plays, musicals, classics, and world premieres, and he discusses how he approaches each script, regardless of genre; how the best direction is collaboration; bonding with Brian Dennehy and formative mentoring from Marion McClinton and Stephen McKinley Henderson; the art of not doing all that much to the play while you’re doing the harder work of just doing the play; how he’s one of the folks responsible for it being a golden age of August Wilson in Chicago (and elsewhere); and how believes in the fundamental importance of laughter, not just as entertainment but as catharsis. Can you say #RonaissanceMan? (Length 18:33) (Photo of Ron OJ Parson by Joe Mazza.)

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By austin, ago

Amanda Drinkall’s Desdemona(s)

Amanda Drinkall plays Desdemona in Othello, The Tragedy of the Moor of Venice, at the Court Theater in Chicago – and, as it happens, she’s also played Desdemona before with the Back Room Shakespeare Project. Amanda discusses the differences between the two productions and reveals why she continues to be drawn to the role; the appeal of approaching the text irreverently; the advantages of intimacy; further attempts to make #TheatreInTheSurround happen; the question of whether Desdemona is a victim; how we see her through Othello’s eyes; how Desdemona is like other Shakespeare heroines like Juliet and Viola; and the importance of grounding tragedy in fierce love. (Length 17:25) (PICTURED: Kelvin Roston, Jr. and Amanda Drinkall in the Court Theatre production of Othello, The Tragedy of the Moor of Venice, directed by Charles Newell and Gabrielle Randle-Bent. Photo by Michael Brosilow.)

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By austin, ago

Othello’s Powerful POV

Chicago’s Court Theatre is producing a powerful and intimate production of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, and they are absolutely leaning into the play’s full, proper title. Kelvin Roston Jr. (as Oedipus, left, and Othello, above) stars in the title role and discusses how he was brought in early in the process by directors Charles Newelland Gabrielle Randle-Bent, and shares fantastic insights about he approaches Shakespeare’s text; how it’s sometimes better to find physical alternatives to the text; the similarities between Shakespeare and August Wilson; how you can’t stage a vehicle without getting a good driver; the importance of specificity in language; the power of presenting an epic tragedy on a human scale; the valuable lesson that it’s not what or how the classics speak to us, but how and what we say to the classics; and a determination to make the phrase #TheatreInTheSurround happen. Now playing – and streaming! – until December 5, 2021; visit courttheatre.org for more information. (Length 20:34) 

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By austin, ago