Early next month I'll be seeing the new Mark Medoff play, Prymate which just had a run in Florida and got a write-up in the NY Times. Andre de Shields is one of the stars along with Phyliss Frelich (sp). James Naughton will play the other male lead here in NYC. It's about two researchers who communicate with an orangutan (I believe that's the species) through American Sign Language. The orangutan is played by de Shields. One of the researchers wants to continue using the orangutan in AIDS research experiments and the other just wants to let him grow old. It should be very interesting.
I envy you the opportunity.
Playbill commented:
Mark Medoff's Prymate to Jump to Broadway's Longacre May 5By Robert Simonson
March 15, 2004
In a surprise late entry in the 2003-04 Broadway season, Mark Medoff's new drama Prymate, recently premiered at Florida State University at Tallahassee, will jump to Broadway this spring. Opening is May 5.Michael Parva and Chase Mishkin will produce. The theatre will be the Longacre, Mishkin told Playbill On-Line. As at FSU, Ed Sherin will direct. Tony nominee Andre De Shields starred in the Feb. 20-29 Florida staging. His involvement in the New York show has not been officially announced.
Phyllis Frelich (Children of a Lesser God) will be in the Broadway cast.
The work follows the story of two scientists who are battling for control over the life of an aging gorilla, and debates whether the animal should be allowed to grow old peacefully or be tested in hopes of finding a cure for a deadly disease. The ape communicates through American Sign Language.
The show's profile was heightened considerably by a feature article written by Bruce Weber that appeared in the New York Times.
Medoff is the author of 1980's Children of a Lesser God, his last play on Broadway.
The
Talahasse Democrat crows:
Posted on Thu, Mar. 18, 2004
FSU relishes recognition from play 'Prymate'By Kati Schardl
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Broadway shows are often tweaked into top form during out-of-town previews in cities such as Boston and Philadelphia before opening on the Great White Way.
Mark Medoff's new play "Prymate," which opens May 5 at the Longacre Theatre in Manhattan, ventured a bit farther afield for its preview performances - FSU's Richard G. Fallon Mainstage Theatre, to be exact.
Having his latest work vault so swiftly from Tallahassee to Broadway is sweet indeed for Medoff, FSU playwright-in-residence and Reynolds Scholar.
"It's like a mid-life dessert," Medoff said from his home in New Mexico. "Every element of my psyche has gone very Zen-like. I'm just having a good time."
"Prymate" opened in Tallahassee on Feb. 20 and ran for two weeks. It starred renowned deaf actress Phyllis Frelich and television veteran Robert Walden as scientists and former lovers dueling over the fate of a Graham, a gorilla taught to communicate in American Sign Language. Broadway sensation Andre De Shields was cast as Graham, and daytime TV star Heather Tom played Walden's sign-language interpreter. The local production was helmed by FSU artist-in-residence and noted director Ed Sherin. Frelich's husband Robert Steinberg designed the set.
All but Walden, whose replacement should be announced by the end of the week, are on board for the play's New York run at the Longacre. It's the same theater where Medoff's Tony Award-winning play "Children of a Lesser God" ran for nearly 900 performances in 1980 and 1981.
Frelich's performance in "Children" earned her a Tony for best actress. "Prymate" is her fifth collaboration with Medoff.
The May 5 opening makes "Prymate" eligible for consideration for this year's Tony Awards in the new play category.
…
The FSU production of "Prymate" attracted immediate attention from movers and shakers in the theater mecca of New York. New York Times writer Bruce Weber flew down to cover the opening and wrote a substantial feature story that ran on the front page of the paper's Arts section.
"The minute we opened, we had people who were interested (in the play)," Medoff said. "A lot of producers and theaters requested copies of the script, and we started talking with several theaters - one in New York, one in L.A. and one in Chicago.
"The current producers (including lead producer Chase Mishkin) entered the picture a week ago, and within 24 hours we made the deal to do the play on Broadway."
"In the New York theater world, you've got to have an intriguing hook to grab the attention," Sherin said before departing Wednesday for New York. "We had an African-American actor (De Shields) in the lead role as a gorilla. That did the trick.
In his
NY Times Article, Bruce Weber opines:
On a Florida Campus, Theater Turns Daring By BRUCE WEBER (NYT)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Feb. 22 -- The startling image that opens ''Prymate,'' a new play by Mark Medoff being presented at Florida State University here through next Sunday, is that of a black man perched on a desert butte. He is dressed in dark shorts and a dark T-shirt, his shoes and socks also dark. On all fours, he is supporting most of his weight on his knuckles. It's the pose of an ape, and the man -- the actor André De Shields -- is snorting and baying, scratching himself, occasionally beating his chest with absent-minded, simian hubris. He is playing a gorilla.
This direct confrontation of racial sensitivity is only the most obvious of the obstinately original qualities of this production. The play also depicts an interspecies sexual act and a woman's deliberate infecting of a man with the AIDS virus, and it argues with Darwinian force that the dividing line between humans and apes is indistinct. It's a peculiar fit in a conservative Southern capital, on a campus where creationists make regular public appearances and where the football stadium is far better known than the theater for boldness and innovation.
''Prymate'' is being produced under the auspices of the university's theater school, with student stagehands and staff, but with an all-professional cast that in addition to Mr. De Shields includes Phyllis Frelich, Robert Walden and Heather Tom, and a prominent director, Edwin Sherin. The creators were all acutely aware of the show's potentially inflammatory nature.
…
The dean of the theater school, Steven W. Wallace, joked about job security and declared that the theater program was part of a research university and that work like this was what constituted research and experimentation for artists.
''Nobody's going to go into the chemistry department and say, 'I'm sorry, but you can't mix those two chemicals together,' '' Mr. Wallace said.
In a signal, perhaps, of how unusual such a production is here, the opening passed without a murmur of controversy. The first-night audience stood and applauded, and the review in The Tallahassee Democrat was a rave, never mentioning any of the orthodoxy-challenging themes or that the idea that a black man playing a gorilla might be eyebrow-raising. The university provost, Lawrence G. Abele, said the only thing that bothered him was that the play underscored the stereotype of egotistical scientists; he's a biologist.
…
It was also Mr. Sherin who had the idea to cast Mr. De Shields, with whom he was working in ''Ghosts.'' In a previous production, Graham had been played by a man in a gorilla suit, and the introduction of a black actor instantly infused the play with racial overtones. The idea of Graham as a celebrity plaything to be gawked at, entertained by and ultimately demonized came out in relief.
Mr. De Shields, who is 58, prepared for this very physical role by visiting the Museum of Natural History and the Bronx Zoo. He describes the character of Graham as being ruled by a mantra -- ''I desire'' -- that has been somewhat mitigated by the civilizing influence of Esther. ''But when his world is threatened,'' he said, ''that goes all to hell.''
He admits he has been chastised by other black actors for taking on a role that perpetuates a racial insult, but responds to such criticism by asking if only white actors should be allowed to play gorillas.
''Intellectually I understand that position,'' he said, ''but if we objectively embrace that point of view, what we avoid is the real possibility of healing.'' It was the opportunity to make this point, he said, that made him see the role as important.
''It occurred to me that being qualified to assay this role, it is inescapable I'm bringing to it a sensibility that is racially explosive,'' he said. ''No conscious adult can come to the play and not think of O. J. or Kobe Bryant or of any African-American male who has achieved trophy status.''
der Brucer (Kudos to FSU!)
