shakespeare meets wainwright meets wilson

this has been by far the most enjoyable night at a theater in quite a while – the words of the bard combined with rufus wainwright’s music and robert wilson’s perfect ability to create a mood on stage through lightning, directing and choosing perfect actors for perfect parts – two and a half hours slipped by and i never noticed, i was enraptured by the music, the dancing, the acting and the undying words of shakespeare – there can be no better way to celebrate 400 years sonnets than that

shadows, large, small, loud, bright, silent, just a whisper, then loud and overwhelming – saucy fool, majestic queen, a dark lady, a light youth, a great poet, a nasty rival, a little (or not so much so) love-good – a whirlwind of emotions created through references to different music through the ages – so suddenly you feel directly plunged into brecht’s threepenny opera, the world of french chansons, baroque finery, swoony-cheesy love ballads or pop-art musicals – every lover of good music and shakespeare will be as ardently in love with it as me – i would watch it again and again and again until i have no more tears left to shed, no more laughs left to laugh and all my energy is spent – a gripping experience for all senses – a feast for body, mind and soul

and in the end this is all that can be said (or sung)

the innocents inland

tomorrow it’s opening night and up till now i was in no mood for that – but today the excitement took hold of me and i can hardly wait – it will be so good to be finally done with rehearsals and actually have an audience – all the planning’ll be over and we’ll come to rest, instead of rushing around doing last-minute planning, organizing and whatever – and man, do i need to dance – haven’t danced in weeks and feel very very unstable, so dancing and drinking champagne are my main goals for tomorrow’s poening party – let’ssee what will happen, shall we

and here some photos to get your taste up for an incredible play to be seen at the thop, göttingen from tomorrow on – “unschuld” by dea loher (photos curtesy of dirk o.)

three cheers for the swedes

melli – this is mostly just for you – don’t thank me, thank my extensive procrastinating skills

living on the edge

art is everything – everything is art – these two brazilian brothers took that wisdom quite literally and are now living on a wall in downtown rio – me thinks, pretty cool

and a very good reason for a classic sing along song for today

werewolves

a whole night of playing werewolves – totally delightful – made me forget all my worries – what delicious fun

three cheers for the BBC

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David To Reprise Role Of Hamlet For BBC

David has signed up to reprise his role of Hamlet for BBC Two.

He will be joined by key cast members from the RSC production, including Patrick Stewart as Claudius.

BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow said the 180-minute screen production of Hamlet was “a wonderful opportunity to bring one of the great stage successes of last year to a wider audience”.

Tickets for the stage performances, which opened in Stratford-Upon-Avon and later moved to London, sold out in hours.

After his debut appearance, the Guardian called Tennant the “best Hamlet in years”.

In February his return to the stage as Hamlet was named the event of the year in the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards.

The full press release from the RSC can be seen below:

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s award-winning production of Hamlet, directed by RSC Chief Associate Director Gregory Doran, and with David Tennant in the title role, will premiere on BBC Two later this year.

Produced by Illuminations, the screen version of Shakespeare’s great tragedy will retain the quality and tone of the critically acclaimed stage production but filming will take place on location. All key original members of the cast, including Patrick Stewart as Claudius, are confirmed to star in this special 180 minute production, alongside the same creative team.

RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd said; “We are very pleased that this RSC production will be seen by so many people when broadcast. As the show was sold out for its entire run, this is a really great opportunity for our work to be seen by so many who could not come to the theatre and see it on stage.”

Filming begins in June for broadcast later this year on BBC Two. Broadcasts in the US and Japan will follow in 2010. Illuminations previously worked with Doran and the RSC on the filmed version of Macbeth with Antony Sher and Harriet Walter. Chris Seager will be in post as Director of Photography; Robert Jones, who designed the stage production, will also design the film and, as on stage, the music is composed by Paul Englishby, the movement director is Mike Ashcroft and the fight director is Terry King.

John Wyver is the producer for Illuminations and Bethan Jones is Executive Producer for BBC Wales. The project was commissioned by Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning and George Entwistle, Controller, BBC Knowledge Commissioning.

The director Gregory Doran said “Contrary to press reports at the time, the RSC always had plans to make a recording of this production but had the inevitable long journey in getting the cast together again and securing funding for this project. The Hamlet cast and the RSC are all really delighted that we now have the chance to share this show with audiences around the world, and I would like to thank all those involved in making this plan a reality at last”

Janice Hadlow, Controller BBC Two said “It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring one of the great stage successes of last year to a wider audience.”

To support the new film of Hamlet, a rich online BBC site is being created in collaboration with the RSC. It will feature behind-the-scenes stills and footage; specially shot interviews with the actors talking about their characters and how they’ve approached the play; further interviews, with the director and other key backstage personnel; and a comprehensive range of links through to the full depth of BBC Learning’s content on Shakespeare and RSC Education’s content on Shakespeare in performance.

George Entwistle, Controller, BBC Knowledge Commissioning said “We hope we can use our experience in building compelling online sites to encourage a large TV audience to pursue their interest in Hamlet and Shakespeare as far as possible, off the back of a superb TV version of the play.”

shakespeare #5

shakespeare #4

i’m back and just in time for yet another vote – this one combines two of my favourite people in the whole wide world of time and space – shakespeare and david tennant – so, who’d you put in the shakespeare hall of fame, huh? – vote here

uh, isn’t he simply delicious and such a genius? – now, see both of them together – an unbelievable amount of genius and great words – the doctor and the bard, together to save the world – such an amazing adventure and you wish, you’d have been right there with them to see and hear for yourselves – i know, i do!

shakespeare #3

shakespeare #2

shakespeare #1

hello, my name is …

… and i will be your personal shopper today – ah, i see, you want casual, but smart clothes for a weekend in the country – if you would follow me please and try on those pants, while i will be going to look for a couple of nice shirts to go with those – oh, very nice indeed! – splendid, i like those on you, now try this pullover, i think it brings out the colour in your eyes very nicely – yes, that’s it – wonderful! – you’re next, you’ll want to try these pants with a polo shirt – that’s nice and smart, but adds a little sportive weekendy feeling …

i love shopping and being a personal shopper is a dream, even if i am only doing it as costume assistant for a play and not to earn money – i seem to have a pretty good sense of the things other people can wear and enjoy picking stuff out and making them try it on – it’s almost as good as buying something for myself to find the perfect outfit for somebody else and seeing how wonderful they look wearing it

i cannot express in any words, how this makes me feel

“I was playing King Arthur in Edinburgh, which was only my second job, and the review in The Scotsman said: `The cast of 18 are uniformly excellent, with the exception of David Tennant, who lacks any charm or ability whatsoever.” Which I have to say floored me for quite a while.”

David on the harshest critic he has encountered : The Guardian 1999

but back to nicer things

he was a dentist

after i have been slaving for three years at the theatre and felt slightly overlooked sometimes, i now have some kind of a fan club and suddenly i get swamped with offers to help out and do, what i can do best – organize, procure obscure things, costumes and props, backstage and bar-tending – that is very nice indeed and last night i had my first official date as costume design for woody allen’s midsummer night’s sex comedy – that was fun and the following is my favorite scene in the whole of the play

dreams, plans and such

dreams of a happy-go-lucky childhood – plans of a play to relive childhood memories and happiness because others share my dreams and plans – and i am sure i need not mention that this is exactly my dream of eternal happiness – running through the woods, carefree and yelling out to welcome spring:

hamlet yourself

goodbye krabat

some last photos to say goodbye, sniff, snuff, sigh – being a corbie was fun and i miss my wings

dancing the night away

last night – me, some thrilled theatre crowd, very good music – what else do we need? – oh, space! – and there’s always room to dance at the theatre – o, what a night! – i haven’t had so much fun since, oh well, opening night, but that doesn’t count because that was planned – last night was totally spontaneous and oh so much fun! – i can’t wait for tonight and us to start all over again – till then i’ll just dance my day away…

stage update

just some photos to keep you up to date on my stage career – let’s see if you can figure out, which one’s me in the next photo;)

i simply adore this photo

girls beware, there’s seven miller lads, who’d give anything to be freed by you!

and day to day they went on begging food of strangers – not so strange in this photo, but hey, you gotta work with what you have…