Noises Off
Curtain call for Chiorini, and no kidding around for Nashville Children’s Theatre’s big-budget expansion
by Martin Brady
People’s Branch Theatre’s new production of Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist masterwork Rhinoceros concludes Matt Chiorini’s official involvement with the company as artistic director. As of Dec. 1, Chiorini will be in Little Rock, Ark., where he was recently hired to teach at nearby University of Central Arkansas with additional creative and administrative duties at the Arkansas Shakespeare Festival. PBT is in the process of considering candidates for his replacement.
Meanwhile, though PBT is now operating as a non-Equity professional house, the cast of the season opener is filled with familiar local talent, some of them union members working under a guest artist contract. Brandon Boyd, Jessejames Locorriere, Marin Miller, Matt Bassett, Jon Royal, Brenda Sparks and Richard Daniel take on the stiff challenge of bringing to life Ionesco’s 1959 classic, which tells the metaphorical tale of an Everyman’s existential plight when faced with the fact that townsfolk are transforming, some willingly, into rhinoceroses. Thematically, Ionesco explores issues such as conformity and individualism, and the play’s historical thrust echoes the modern world’s dealings with fascism and totalitarianism. This work is clearly an appropriate entry into the PBT repertoire, in line with recent productions such as Brecht’s Mother Courage and consistent with its past adaptations of works by Kafka and Dostoevsky.
“Stylistically, we really want to play up the absurdity as much as possible,” says Chiorini. “Part of the genius of this play is that it’s sadly and comically always going to be relevant. We wanted to make it contemporary without it being necessarily set in 2006. I think it works as any 20th century play might, but there’s new, post-9/11 relevance to it, which we want to suggest without hitting the audience over the head with it. In a new way now, Rhinoceros is more about the perils of ideological dogmatism—right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, black vs. white—and living in a world where fear pushes us to toughen up our skins or reduce complicated issues down to simplistic jingoism. Yet we’re also trying hard to lay off the politics, and to keep things funny and entertaining, because the play is hilarious satire.”
Rhinoceros will be performed Sept. 28-Oct. 7 at the Belcourt Theatre. For tickets, phone 846-3150.
NCT Breaks Ground
While recent cuts in city funding have made life difficult for smaller pro and semi-pro theater companies, the Nashville Children’s Theatre forges ahead with unprecedented support from the local tax base. At a Sept. 21 ceremony headed up by Mayor Bill Purcell, NCT broke ground on a $5.7 million expansion and renovation project, which will include refurbishing of some 13,000 square feet of existing space as well as the addition of 16,220 square feet of new facilities to the company’s 46-year-old building on Second Avenue South.
Scheduled for completion in late 2007, the overhaul includes an expanded lobby and box office; new auditorium seats; additional restrooms; a soundproofed “cry room” for infants; and improved disabilities access. Additions include a rehearsal hall, costume shop and four new classrooms. The Hill Theatre main stage, dressing rooms and administrative offices will also receive a makeover. A new plaza will feature a fanciful dragon-tail sculpture in the new theater courtyard.
A $1.7 million grant appropriation from the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County helped launch NCT’s capital campaign. To date, the company has raised more than $3.2 million toward its goal of $5.7 million, including the grant from Metro and funding from the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation, the Memorial Foundation and the NCT Board of Trustees.
The groundbreaking comes at the outset of NCT’s 75th season, which opens on Oct. 10 with The Shakespeare Stealer. The rest of the 2006-7 season includes Schoolhouse Rock Live! (Nov. 14, 2006–Jan. 14, 2007), Einstein Is a Dummy (Jan. 30–Feb. 18, 2007) and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (Mar. 6–Apr. 7, 2007). For further information on the renovation or upcoming productions, call 254-9103.
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