Saturday, July 31, 2004
An Interview with "Red" Director: Robert Kelley
As you might know, "Red" is closing August 8th, and if you haven’t seen it - buy your tickets now, because they are going fast!
We were able to snag some time with director Robert Kelley (who is also, of course Artisic Director for TheatreWorks.).
When asked why "Red" is an important piece of theatre to produce today, Kelley was eager to talk about the cultural, political and artistic reasons to produce this piece of art:
"It's a play about the value of art in society and specifically theater art - the art of the Beijing Opera. It’s a political world in opposition to and devaluing art of all kinds while at the same time trying to harness them...the acknowledgement of the power of arts and then trying to control them. This is a danger in our own country."
Beyond the political story, though, Kelley is interested in the script's ability to tell a powerful human story and show people under incredible pressure. He also mentioned that working again with Francis Jue, who has had much history with TheatreWorks in productions such as "Cabaret" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman", was amazing.
The "Red" script does represent a huge challenge for a director. While many directors might see this play on a blank stage with the variety of different scenes Kelley remarked: "I tended to see it visually...I wanted the set to keep changing, so the production could have a lot of different looks."
Kelly also commented. "I was worried whether I would have enough energy and creativity to work on back to back plays." (Kelley just recently directed Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia".)
Given the challenges and the opportunities, how does Kelley think it all turned out? When asked about the results he remarked finally, "I'm very proud of the production. It came out beautifully...there are very challenging, dark, political themes and very inspiring human themes...the actors are superb, and the design is exceptional."
See it in its remaining 8 days...and don’t miss Kelley's next directing event - "Shakespeare in Hollywood" by Ken Ludwig!
We were able to snag some time with director Robert Kelley (who is also, of course Artisic Director for TheatreWorks.).
When asked why "Red" is an important piece of theatre to produce today, Kelley was eager to talk about the cultural, political and artistic reasons to produce this piece of art:
"It's a play about the value of art in society and specifically theater art - the art of the Beijing Opera. It’s a political world in opposition to and devaluing art of all kinds while at the same time trying to harness them...the acknowledgement of the power of arts and then trying to control them. This is a danger in our own country."
Beyond the political story, though, Kelley is interested in the script's ability to tell a powerful human story and show people under incredible pressure. He also mentioned that working again with Francis Jue, who has had much history with TheatreWorks in productions such as "Cabaret" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman", was amazing.
The "Red" script does represent a huge challenge for a director. While many directors might see this play on a blank stage with the variety of different scenes Kelley remarked: "I tended to see it visually...I wanted the set to keep changing, so the production could have a lot of different looks."
Kelly also commented. "I was worried whether I would have enough energy and creativity to work on back to back plays." (Kelley just recently directed Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia".)
Given the challenges and the opportunities, how does Kelley think it all turned out? When asked about the results he remarked finally, "I'm very proud of the production. It came out beautifully...there are very challenging, dark, political themes and very inspiring human themes...the actors are superb, and the design is exceptional."
See it in its remaining 8 days...and don’t miss Kelley's next directing event - "Shakespeare in Hollywood" by Ken Ludwig!
