Play Guide [2.6MB PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

More documents

Recommendations

Info

LUDLAM R. Hamilton Wright and Bob Sorenson in Arizona Theatre Company’s 1999 production of The Mystery of Irma Vep. Photo by Tim Fuller/Arizona Theatre Company. CHARLES LUDLAM Playwright Charles Ludlam The Mystery of Irma Vep I sometimes think that the Ridiculous is the only serious theatre. After all, everywhere you look in this world there’s something that’s ridiculous. It’s important to help people see that. I often think all theatre is ridiculous, but we’re willing to admit it. —Charles Ludlam, from Confessions of a Farceur Actor, director, playwright and set designer Charles Ludlam spent twenty years with New York’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. The theatre’s goal was to synthesize many forms (parody, vaudeville, farce, melodrama, satire) to create a modern American comic theatre. Charles Ludlam was born on April 12, 1943, in Floral Park, New York, the second of Joseph William Ludlam and Marjorie Braun’s three children. His fi rst encounter with the theatre took place when he was six at the Minnesota State Fair, where he saw a Punch and Judy puppet show and a “freak” show. This early exposure to exaggerated theatre forms seems to have infl uenced his entire theatrical career. Among his other early infl uences, Ludlam counted the movies and the Catholic Church. “I love Gothic Horror. I was in Dracula, now playing for its second decade, at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The audience would pack the theatre every night to collectively scream in terror. As I work on The Mystery of Irma Vep, Ludlam's great spoof of Dracula, Wuthering Heights, The Wolfman, Gaslight, The Mummy, and many more, I fi nd myself screaming often, not in terror but with laughter. – Oliver Wadsworth, actor in ATC’s The Mystery of Irma Vep Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 6
LUDLAM Costume rendering for The Mystery of Irma Vep by designer David K. Mickelsen By age seven, Ludlam was writing and staging plays in his backyard and at his grade school. Beginning at an early age, the playwright was a rebel and an outcast, not fi tting in well with the other young people in high school. In 1958, he won an apprenticeship at a local summer stock company and by the age of 17 had founded his fi rst theatre company. “God, if I hadn’t discovered theater early on, I would almost certainly have become a juvenile delinquent.” – Charles Ludlam The Mystery of Irma Vep He matriculated at Hofstra University in 1961 where he was considered an outrageous character. While he attended Hofstra, Ludlam began to spend most of his time in Manhattan and became well acquainted with New York City’s Off-Off-Broadway theatre. In the mid-sixties, he began his lifelong association with the theatre that was then known as the Playhouse of the Ridiculous. He acted, directed, and did set design and construction; his fi rst play, Big Hotel, was produced there in 1965. During the next 22 years, all of his plays were produced at the theatre, which was re-named The Ridiculous Theatrical Company; eventually Ludlam became the company’s Artistic Director. Charles Ludlam was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986. He died of that disease on May 28, 1987 at the age of 44. His plays have since been produced throughout the world. -written by Toni Press-Coffman for ATC’s original Study Guide for The Mystery of Irma Vep in the 1999-2000 season The Plays of Charles Ludlam Big Hotel Conquest of the Universe Turds in Hell The Grand Tarot Bluebeard Eunuchs of the Forbidden City Corn Camille Hotel Ice Stage Blood Jack and the Beanstalk Isle of the Hermaphrodites Caprice Der Ring Gott Farblonjet The Ventriloquist’s Wife Utopia, Incorporated The Enchanted Pig A Christmas Carol Reverse Psychology Love’s Tangled Web Secret Lives of the Sexists Exquisite Torture Le Bourgeois Avant-Garde Galas The Mystery of Irma Vep Medea How to Write a Play Salammbo The Artifi cial Jungle Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 7
Page 1 and 2: Play Guide The Mystery of Irma Vep
Page 3 and 4: WHO WE ARE Arizona Theatre Company
Page 5: CHARACTERS SYNOPSIS Jane Twisden: T
Page 9 and 10: IRMA VEP Costume rendering for The
Page 11 and 12: IRMA VEP MANIFESTO The Mystery of I
Page 13 and 14: PENNY ALLUSIONS Working class boys
Page 15 and 16: ALLUSIONS THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP J
Page 17 and 18: REBECCA as Rebecca's in order to pr
Page 19 and 20: DESIGN DISCUSSION DB: For me, it wa

Play Guide [2.6MB PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?