Khail bryant biography of william shakespeare
DramaWatch: A sideways tale of Hamlet
Scott Palmer is, by his own admission, “just a big Shakespeare dork” – so much so that he even has a bit of “Hamlet” (“What a piece of work is man…” etc.) tattooed on his forearm. Which means that The Last White Man, although contemporary rather than classical, is very much his kind of play.
Though it might suggest some sort of Great Replacement Theory screed, the play’s title actually is a sidelong reference to Hamlet, and the play itself is a kind of fractal presentation of Shakespeare’s “melancholy Dane,” the character’s status as the pinnacle of theatrical roles, its psychological depths and complexities, and so on.
For Palmer, the play makes a fitting vehicle for a return to Hillsboro’s Bag & Baggage, the theater company he founded a couple of decades ago and built into a respected regional mainstay before leaving in 2018. A classicist with an iconoclastic streak, Palmer specialized in creative adaptations and vivid interpretations of Shakespeare and other Elizabethan writers, often interrogating the continued relevance of such work.
“Part of why I wanted to direct this play is because it’s a show that is reflective of the moment,” he said, chatting recently over coffee during a rehearsal break. “It asks, ‘Do we still have to do Shakespeare? And if there’s still space for it in the culture, what kind of space is that?’”
The Last White Man will be Palmer’s first directing work in Hillsboro since he left his home town for what looked like the greener pastures of Sun Valley, Idaho’s Company of Fools.
“After 15 years with Bag & Baggage, I was so excited to go to a larger theater, an Equity house with a bigger budget,” he recalled. “But after the pandemic hit, we had to let go of most of the staff. Begging for money and not actually producing anything was not going to work for me. Then my husband and I both got Covid. My dad got sick. My mom and our friends needed help. So we moved Even as a young girl eagerly devouring the “ladies” magazines my mother brought home from the corner newsstand, I thought the advice I found there about keeping a husband’s interest after marriage quite unfair. Especially the part about hurrying to the bathroom to apply makeup before he woke up and caught you with a nakedly unadorned face. Although privately agreeing with the magazine beauty columnists that one looked much better enhanced by the sorcery of cosmetics than not, I did wonder how come the man didn’t have to do anything special to keep the marriage going. Of course this was a long time ago, when in most marriages — as I realized long before I had finished high school — the man earned all or almost all the money and the woman’s job, if you could call it that, was to make sure he wanted to go on supporting her. Whether a heavily made-up face was what a man fantasized about in the privacy of his side of the double bed is another question entirely, and not within the purview of this piece, wherever you thought its headline was leading. But even if the magazine editors didn’t quite get the male psyche, they were right on the button with the then-economic interests of their readers. Keep yourself attractive, by whatever standards then obtained. Whether “attractiveness” also included faking pleasure between the sheets even where there really was none was probably determined privately by the woman on a case-by-case basis. In any event, back in those long-ago days when I was still living under my parents’ roof, I thought both parties simply exploded simultaneously with some kind of as yet unimaginable joy upon vaginal entry, which meant that kind of fakery was not an issue. When at last old enough actually to share a double bed with another, I never was able to force myself to reach for the cosmetic case before he opened his eyes. However, time had marched on and that was no longer [Broadway] Original Broadway Production, 1997 Young Nala (Alternate)[Replacement] Soho Rep and PlayCo Extend GENERATIONS Through 11/23 Soho Rep and PlayCo Extend GENERATIONS Soho Rep & PlayCo Present GENERATIONS, Now thru 10/26 They alternate with fellow young lions and current cast members Alphonso Romero Jones II (Young Simba) and Khail Toi Bryant (Young Nala). The Broadway company also currently features Gareth Saxe as Scar, Alton Fitzgerald White as Mufasa and Tshidi Manye as Rafiki. The Broadway score features Elton John and Tim Rice's music from "The Lion King" animated film along with three new songs by John and Rice; additional musical material by South African Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Taymor and Hans Zimmer; and music from "Rhythm of the Pride Lands," an album inspired by the original music in the film, written by Lebo M, Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer. The book was adapted by Roger Allers, who co-directed "The Lion King" animated feature, and Irene Mecchi, who co-wrote the film's screenplay. Other members of the creative team include Steve Canyon Kennedy (sound design), Michael Ward (hair and makeup design), John Stefaniuk (associate director), Marey Griffith (associate choreographer), Clement Ishmael (music supervisor). Directed by Taymor — who became the first woman to ever receive a Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical — The Lion King has become an international hit with productions playing all around the globe. In fact, the Elton John-Tim Rice musical has won over 30 major awards. Those include six Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical; eight Drama Desk Awards; six Outer Critics Circle Awards; two Sir Laurence Oliviers; the Evening Standard Award for Best Theatrical Event; and three Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards. For more information visit www.DisneyOnBroadway.com. Khail Toi Bryant
STAGE CREDITS
News
by Tyler Peterson - Oct 22, 2014
In response to popular demand and critical acclaim, Soho Rep. and The Play Company, in association with John Adrian Selzer, announce a second extension of the U.S. premiere of debbie tucker green's generations to November 23. The production, which opened on October 12, was declared a New York Times Critics' Pick by Charles Isherwood who called it 'a singular theatrical experience,' noting 'that the play reverberates in your mind and heart long afterward, like the taste of a great meal that you savor for days.' In her Time Out New York Critic's Pick review, Helen Shaw called it 'a devastating aria,' while Hilton Als in The New Yorker called it 'a miniature spectacle' that 'is filled with so much warmth and thought that the feeling it imparts lasts for a long time after you've left the theatre.'
by Tyler Peterson - Oct 7, 2014
In response to popular demand, Soho Rep. and The Play Company, in association with John Adrian Selzer, extend the U.S. premiere of debbie tucker green's generations to November 9. The production, which opens on October 12, reunites the playwright with director Leah C. Gardiner, who worked together on the OBIE Award-winning 2011 production of born bad. generations features a 13-person choir led by music director Bongi Duma (The Lion King). The cast includes Shyko Amos (An Octoroon), Mamoudou Athie, Khail Toi Bryant (The Lion King), Ntombikhona Dlamini (Sarafina!), Thuli Dumakude (The Lion King, Poppie Nongena), Jonathan Peck (The Lion in Winter) and Michael Rogers (born bad, Breakfast With Mugabe).
by BWW News Desk - Sep 30, 2014
Soho