LOST CREATURES - New play about Louise Brooks opens in Denver, CO on November 3

Lost Creatures, a new play about Louise Brooks by Melissa McCarl, will be staged for the first time in Denver, Colorado on November 3, 2016. (A public reading of the play was given last year.) Here are the details about this exciting new project.

WORLD PREMIERE -- Thursday, November 3 at 7:30 PM MDT The play runs November 3rd through the 19th, 2016

Directed by Patrick Elkins-Zeglarski
Starring Billie McBride, Mark Collins and Annabel Reader

About the play: Lost Creatures follows the evening in May of 1978 when British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan met his long time cinematic idol Louise Brooks. He travels to her dingy little apartment in Rochester, NY where she has sequestered herself for many years. He is there ostensibly to write a profile on Brooks for the New Yorker, but he discovers that they are kindred spirits, and in spite of an age gap of twenty years, theirs becomes an unlikely love story discovered through a marathon dialogue about sex, philosophy, art, and criticism. There is also a silent third character, Lulu, (based on Louise’s role in her most famous silent film Pandora’s Box) who drives the action of the play.


Set/Sound Design-Darren Smith
Light Design-Emily Maddox
Costume Design-Susan Lyles
Stage Manager-Lauren Meyer

Venue: The Commons on Champa, 3rd Floor Studio, 1245 Champa Street
Support provided by The Next Stage NOW

About Melissa McCarl: Author of Painted Bread, a full-length play named Best New Work by the Denver Post, about the tumultuous life of Frida Kahlo (recently produced by the Aurora Fox.) Commissioned by the Mizel Arts Center to write Poignant Irritations, celebrating the unorthodox life and love of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Commissioned by the Curious Theatre Company to write for the War Anthology directed by Bonnie Metzgar of the Public Theatre. Winner of the Steven Dietz award for the one act Carlene Yakkin’. Melissa has been named best local playwright by Westword newspaper and the Denver Post.

Play about Louise Brooks at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland

The Winter Gift, a play written by Tim Davies and directed by Nerys Rees about the life of Louise Brooks, is being staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The play runs August 22 through August 27. Tickets and a little more information HERE.

 

"Berlin, 1928 – a fun-loving young American actress and a straight-laced German film director come together to make a classic of the silent screen, Pandora’s Box. New York, 1955 – a solitary, alcoholic, penniless and forgotten idol of the silent screen languishes in a slum tenement. She expects visits only from the rent collector. One day, there is a knock at the door – someone has found Louise Brooks, and it isn't the rent collector. The Winter Gift uses original sources to tell the story of Louise Brooks, GW Pabst, Pandora’s Box... and what happened afterwards."

Play about Louise Brooks in Denver

Louise Brooks is a character in a new play which will be given a public reading in Denver, Colorado on Monday, November 16th. The reading, at the Café Max (2412 E. Colfax Ave.), is part of the And Toto Too Theatre Company Reading Series.

Lost Creatures, by Melissa McCarl, centers on the meeting of Brooks and the British drama critic Ken Tynan. The play "follows the evening in May of 1978 when British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan met his long time cinematic idol Louise Brooks. He travels to her dingy little apartment in Rochester, NY where she has sequestered herself for many years. He is there ostensibly to write a profile on Brooks for the New Yorker, but he discovers that they are kindred spirits, and in spite of an age gap of twenty years, theirs becomes an unlikely love story discovered through a marathon dialogue about sex, philosophy, art, and criticism.  There is also a silent third character, Lulu, (based on Louise’s role in her most famous silent film Pandora’s Box) who drives the action of the play."

Lost Creatures stars Billie McBride, Mark Collins, and Erica Sarzin-Borillo, and is directed by Patrick Elkins-Zeglarski.

The event is free, though patrons are asked to purchase something at the restaurant  has donated his space to this performance. More information at www.andtototoo.org/the-reading-series/ and on Facebook.

New UK stage play about Louise Brooks "American Venus"

The Stage, an English theatrical publication, has an article about a new stage play about Louise Brooks which has just opened in the UK. The play is titled American Venus and it's by Leslie Mildiner, a Canadian playwright.

The article starts this way: "One of the most luminous stars of the silent era, Louise Brooks has been all but erased from cinema history. Only a handful of movie buffs keep her memory alive, mostly through the 20-year-old Louise Brooks Society, whose aim is to honour the charismatic actor and stimulate interest in her life and work."

American Venus opens September 2 and runs through September 27th at 6 Frederick’s Place, London, as part of the Ever Hopeful Rep Season. More information at www.everhopefullrep.com

The description of the play on the theater's website reads this way: "'Fictionalized' from the true life story of Louise Brooks, the silent movie queen, star of 1929's Pandora's Box and lover to Charlie Chaplin, AMERICAN VENUS, is a moving and funny exploration of growing old...ungracefully. Set in 1985 Louise, now a recluse in her shuttered apartment, does daily battle with her primary care-givers, neighbours Phyllis and Frank. To her chagrin, the more she rejects her past, the more her mistakes of youth come back to haunt her."

The older Louise Brooks is played by Susan Penhaligon, while the younger Brooks is played by Angharad George-Carey.

Pictured here is an image of Angharad as Louise. I'm convinced.

The Louise Brooks Society would love to hear from anyone who attends this play. And of course, you are encouraged to do so!

Rogue'z Theatre Company play about Louise Brooks, The Winter Gift

The Rogue'z Theatre Company play about Louise Brooks, The Winter Gift, is being performed for three nights next month, in the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, South Wales. Details at 
http://www.chapter.org/roguez-theatre-present-winter-gift

Rogue'z Theatre present: The Winter Gift
NERO-Film Studios, Berlin, 1928 – a fun-loving young American actress and a strait­laced German director make a film destined to become a classic of the silent screen.

Slum tenement flat, New York, 1955 – an alcoholic, penniless, washed-up star of the silent screen hears a knock on the door. Someone has found Louise Brooks...

The Winter Gift, premiered to great acclaim last year in the Wales Millenium Centre, tells the story of Pandora's Box and the men and women who made it – and what happened afterwards...

£11/9

Louise Brooks character included in Seattle stage production

According to an article in the current issue of The Stranger, Seattle's alternative weekly, a stage production there features a character based on Louise Brooks. The piece, The Invisible, by Jessica Jobaris and Luke Allen, is being staged at the Chamber Theater (915 E Pine St). This theater piece is described as "part silent film, part Hollywood satire, part surreal comic drama." This from The Stranger review

I thought The Invisible was a wry, if sometimes messy, satire of the movies until I talked to choreographer/director Jessica Jobaris. She said it was actually about the frustration of being an artist in the modern world. "But," she added generously, "there's room for interpretation."

The Invisible is a varied piece of dance theater with five characters from film history—Eadweard Muybridge, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, Shirley Temple, and Erast Garin—who clown, roll, and pose on the stage in themed scenelets. They dance-fight in a lampoon of action sequences, chase and reject each other like a hacky romantic comedy. In voiceover asides, Garin (a Soviet-era actor) keeps reminding the audience that he's "very intense." Deanna Mustard (as proto-sexpot Brooks) spreads her legs, wiggles her tail, and slams herself viciously on the floor, over and over and over again. (It's painful just to look at her deep yellow bruises.) The Invisible uses dancers for actors, actors for dancers, and a soundtrack ranging from the Kinks to slamming doors in a confusing (usually delightfully so) performance hash.

Then there's the film bit, with its voiceover asking heavy questions about meaning and aspiration while the characters skate around an ice rink. The audience laughed—parts of it were very funny—which surprised Jobaris. "I think that part is really sad," she said. "Maybe I haven't, you know, learned—" I cut her off, saying any jerk can be lugubrious, but it's the rare artist who can translate depth into light, accessible performance—think of sad-but-funny clowns like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Superficiality can be an asset.

For those interested, here is another review.