A Civil War Christmas - Video

A Civil War Christmas - An American Musical Celebration by Paula Vogel. Music supervised, arranged, and orchestrated by Daryl Waters. Directed by Jessica Thebus. At the Huntington Theatre Company's main stage; The Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston MA, 02115. Runs November 13 through December 13, 2009. Box Office 617 266-0800 or buy online at HuntingtonTheatre.org

Inbox: Civil Beard War for "Christmas" Opening

On occasion I'll forward something straight from my inbox that doesn't need much explanation. Last week our Scene shop foreman, Brian Sears, wrote the following:

In the scene shop we have decided to get into the spirit of A Civil War Christmas with some good old fashion facial hair. I encourage all in the company that is capable of growing some facial hair to join us in our adventure. Two weeks from today is opening night and we are hoping for a nice showing, after that it can be over and you can shave off your new look. So please stop shaving today and join us.

Here is photo of approved scene shop facial hair styles

 There are plenty of beards sprouting here on Huntington Ave  - the contest has taken root (sorry) across the company. I should mention that a fair  percentage of the staff is female and many were eager to participate. Come back in a few weeks for photos!  Audience members coming to Opening night are also encouraged to participate.

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A Civil War Christmas - An American Musical Celebration by Paula Vogel. Music supervised, arranged, and orchestrated by Daryl Waters. Directed by Jessica Thebus. At the Huntington Theatre Company's main stage; The Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston MA, 02115. Runs November 13 through December 13, 2009. Box Office 617 266-0800 or buy online at HuntingtonTheatre.org

August Wilson's Neighborhood

One of the more interesting things we heard at our post show discussions for Fences was that many people really thought they had seen the play here before, even though we had never done it. The world of this play was a very familiar place for our patrons, as we have now staged 9 out of the 10 plays.

Several weeks ago I received the following comment:

lgalen said...

"I've been watching August Wilson's neighborhood evolve at the Hungtington since Joe Turner in the mid 80's. I've been fascinated by the scenic design. Am I imagining it, or is there an attempt to reconstruct or reconfigure some of the past Huntington Wilson sets, in the more recent plays? IIRC, Radio Golf's set seemed to be a recreation of Jitney's. Fence's backyard seemed reminiscent, maybe of Seven Guitars, or maybe another of the plays? Is my mind playing tricks? Is it just a function of the plays occuring in a specific neighborhood, or is this (as I believe) a conscious device?"

I wrote lgalen back to let him know that, over the years, we've had many different designers and several different directors and yet the plays certainly all had a feeling of the same place. We did not share any past designs or photos with the current team and we don't save our sets. So there was certainly no conscious device on our part to place elements of previous productions into the newer ones. You're giving us a lot of credit - I wish we had thought of it! There certainly might have been a few of the same props - we've been building our stock for 27 years now. And each design team did extensive research on the Hill District.

I thought I would post a few photos from our past August Wilson productions. We don't have too many that show a lot of set - but I found what I could. Do they seem like reconfigurations of each other? What elements do they share.Can you name the productions? I'll give a free pair of tickets to A Civil War Christmas to the first person who emails me with the play titles in the right order (my email address is on the comment form, click below). Scroll to the end for a few hints.

Photo 1

photo 2

photo 3

photo 4

photo 5

 

photo 6

photo 7

photo 8

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Hints: 

Photo 1: Hassan El-Amin and James A. Williams

Photo 2: 1990-1991 season. Bonus tickets if you can name all three actors in this photo
Photo 3: Reuben Santiago-Hudson and LisaGay Hamilton

Photo 4: Eugene Lee and John Beasley

Photo 5: Tony Todd and Russell Andrews

Photo 6: Charles Dutton and Rocky Carroll

Photo 7: August Wilson and Lloyd Richards

Photo 8: Not Radio Golf - and Bonus tickets if you can name both actors in this photo.

Which shows are missing?

Finding the Calderwood Pavilion - A Long and Winding Road

I just HAD to share this great story left by one of our patrons who came and saw A Long and Winding Road recently:

abbygirl said...

"My husband and I literally traversed "A Long and Winding Road" to reach your theater to enjoy the show - which we did, immensely, by the way. We don't get into Boston frequently, and the traffic and patterns of same are confusing to say the least. Armed with two different sets of directions, we amazingly actually found the theater and began searching for a parking spot. With many one-way streets, we went around in circles several times. Finally, apparently, we did not STOP, when we were supposed to as we were looking at signage, etc. and one of Boston's finest just happened to be right in front of us. He got out of his car and approached our vehicle, saying we did not STOP."

"My husband just started to relay our problem - that we were were lost looking for the Huntington Theatre, etc. I tried to intervene and tell him we were looking for a parking spot and had found the theater, but no one heard me. The policeman was so very helpful and said he would guide us and to follow him. We followed him in, around, and through Boston at a mighty clip - I might add - ending up at the OTHER Huntington Theater [the Boston University Theatre] on Huntington Ave. OH my God - we were going to be late. I had to tell him it was the wrong theater."

"He then offered to guide us again - back to the Calderwood Pavilion and showed us where to park. We really had a grand tour of Boston - and did not get a traffic ticket. We made it to the show, very stressed - but just in time. As soon as Maureen McGovern started to sing, we relaxed, enjoyed her perfomance, laughed and reminisced. Well, we know where you are now and where to park. Hopefully, that will never occur again."

"Boston has great officers - maybe it was our gray hair that had an effect on him. He probably was cursing "senior citizens"."

Thank you for sharing your experience, Abbygirl

The Huntington Theatre Company performs at two venues - The Boston University Theatre, and our second stage (The Virginia Wimberly Theatre) in Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

Patrons should check the venue information for the show that you are coming to see... we would hate to hear that you arrived at the wrong theatre and missed the show. If you buy your tickets online - the venue info is on your order confirmation. It's also on your tickets, and on our main website.

We continue to refine our venue information, directions and parking, and dining data on our websites even as we continue to hear stories about people ending up in the wrong place after five years of becoming bi-venue.. We're about to launch a new "plan your visit" section on our website too - which should help us all - I'll let you know when that is up and running. If you have any ideas for us - please let us know.

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