A thrilling, tumultuous and life-changing year for me both professionally and personally. Some end of the year validation in the way of Top Ten and Year in Review lists is always a nice way to think back over the year. I was pleased to find two of my productions, one in Pittsburgh and one in Chicago make some notable lists. Find them below:
For Merchant on Venice with Silk Road Theatre Project
1. Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, "All of Chicago a world-class stage
http://www.chicagotribune.com
A risky, rambunctious, acerbic and highly intelligent piece of new
writing, this omnicultural take on the troubled Shakespearean classic
introduced us to the work of Shishir Kurup. And Stuart Carden's
lively, punky, premiere production was a great leap forward for Silk
Road and a perfect match for such an insouciant script.
2. Hedy Weiss, Chicago Tribune, "A bite of the apple, and more"
http://www.suntimes.com
Silk Road Theatre's exuberant Bollywoodized production of "Merchant on
Venice," Shishir Kurup's contemporary take on Shakespeare, with Los
Angeles' diverse Indian community in the spotlight.
3. Time Out Chicago Theater staff, Time Out Chicago, "Ten Most
Wanted: We pick the year's best"
http://www.timeout.com/chicago
In transferring Shakespeare's Merchant to present-day SoCal,
playwright Shishir Kurup gave the Bard a dash of hip-hop flavor and
Bollywood flair, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Shifting Shakespeare's Christian-Jew conflict to Hindus and Muslims,
Kurup managed to comment on everyday religious discord and the
challenge of reconciling traditional values with modern America.
Stuart Carden's production assembled a bevy of too-rarely-seen
nonwhite actors, led by fiery Anish Jethmalani as a Shylock tough
enough to rival Mike Nussbaum's.
4. Venus Zarris, PerformInk, "Emotional Vocabulary Lessons"
http://www.performink.com
Silk Road Theatre Project's Merchant On Venice took another
Shakespearian standard and transformed it into an amusing spectacle of
cultural intersections. It was a polemic on theological and ethnic
collisions that illuminated the overlooked Hindu-Muslim American
communities, thereby emancipating the general perceptions of our all
too homogenized body politic.
For Lieutenant of Inishmore
with Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Top Ten Plays of the Year
The Lieutenant of Inishmore'
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07361/844586-325.stm
Martin McDonagh turns the nostalgic images of the sainted rural Irish and their revolutionary struggles into a farcical conflict between country buffoons and a homicidal maniac with a sentimental heart. The result is a bloody good, bloody bloody comedy, with even a small bloom of love.
Washington Observer Reporter
Top Ten Plays of the Year http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Story/12_28_THEATER_YEAR_IN_REVIEW
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