A Musical Holiday

“Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful…”

Admit it: as you read that, you were singing along.

It’s now officially winter, snowy and wonderful (well, sometimes), and that means that it’s time for the most musical of seasons. All those reindeer with red noses that need to be sung about, all those Christmas carols, all those bells jingling all the way: December is a time for song.

We at Two River Theater certainly agree. We love December not only for the snow and the sparkly decorations and the plentiful cookies that start showing up in our office kitchen (and eaten - everyone knows you need an extra layer of insulation against cold winters!), but because it’s time for our holiday musical. And this year, we have one that is utterly delightful.

The Wind in the Willows is a classic, beloved by generations now. The stories of Rat and his friend Mole, and the animals of their community by a river, are as heart-warming as a mug of cocoa on a cold day. The writing team of Mindi Dickstein (book), Sarah Schlesinger (lyrics), and Mike Reid (music) have brought those stories to life, telling the story of lonely Mole’s search for a home for Christmas and the friends along the way, and added songs that are beautiful and fun – although, warning, they will get stuck in your head for days, (and you MIGHT get weird looks on the subway when you realize that you were accidentally singing Mrs. Otter’s song about being born to fish out loud instead of in your head. Not that that’s happened to me or anything.)

We’ve got all the things that makes a show delightful – a great cast, some of the coolest costumes around, and a set that is rather magical (look closely at the decorations around the proscenium – some of them are made out of such humble materials as raffle tickets and potato chip bags!). We love watching the show, but what we love watching even more is the kids watching the show; seeing their faces light up as their favorite character appears, or hearing them laugh at a joke, or watching as they realize it’s magically snowing on the audience - well, it’s a Christmas gift to us, every time. 

But don't take our word for it - come see the show. And just as a little teaser (or shall we say stocking stuffer?), here's a preview video:

And from all of us here at Two River Theater to all of you, may your cars be full of vroom, your brambleberries be sweet, your poems be beautiful, and your homes be warm and full of friends.* Happy Holidays. 

*this will all make more sense after you've seen the show. 

It's Happening, People. BOOK CLUB.

All of my life, I have been someone who loves to disappear into a story. Plays, musicals, books, TV shows, movies - I can spend hours enveloped in the world of a good story being told to me (sometimes to my detriment; I got one of the worst sunburns of my life when I was reading the final Harry Potter book - I got so carried away I didn't realize I was frying). But what I love almost as much as getting swept away in a piece of art is coming back and connecting with the other people who have taken the same journey. The joy of loving a story is doubled by sharing it with other people who love it, and learning more about it from their own perspectives. What's a better catalyst for a good conversation than a good piece of art?

Thus, one of the things I have always wanted to be a part of (and oddly never have been in) is a book club. The idea of good art combined with good company and good discussion is just a triple win, if you ask me. When I came to the theater, I realized that there was something else that I had overlooked before - what if there was a book club that didn't only discuss books, but discussed them in combination with the theater happening at Two River? Discussing books and plays that have connections to each other might illuminate facets of each previously unseen.

For example, during On Borrowed Time I was struck by how interesting the portrayal of death was in the play. Mr. Brink was not sinister or scary like the traditional scythe-wielding image, but rather (as embodied by the wonderful Tom Nelis) warm and wise and a little bit melancholy. It reminded me of the truly marvelous book The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak, about a German girl during the Holocaust, which has a similar portrayal of Death. How interesting that both of these works of art, written at very different times about very different eras and places, would share this unusual portrayal. What does it mean about their respective times? About the fears and feelings of their creators, and expected audiences? Does it change things if On Borrowed Time was intended for adults, knowing they are facing the oncoming specter of World War II, while The Book Thief is classified as a young adult book? Is there something about our current culture that would trigger the desire for Death to be seen as a benevolent figure instead of a terrifying one, despite the fact that our political climate is very different from pre-WWII America?

This is a discussion I want to have. And specifically, it's a discussion I want to have with Two River Theater audiences, who have proven themselves at talkbalks to be smart, receptive people with fascinating insights to share.

So, we're starting a book club. On Sunday, November 10th, at 5:00 PM, we'll kick it off in the Victoria J. Mastrobuono library, with some wine and cheese (because let's be honest, every discussion is better with wine and cheese). And we'll be discussing Martin Moran's heartbreaking and hilarious memoir 'The Tricky Part: A Boy's Story of Sexual Trespass, A Man's Journey Towards Forgiveness'. Talking about this book seemed too good an opportunity to pass up, since Martin is performing his two one-man plays, adapted from his memoir, in the theater during the same time. He'll come join us for part of the discussion, and to sign copies of the book, which is available on Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble and at our box office.

So if you love discussing theater and you love discussing books, and you especially like doing things while eating cheese and drinking wine, please come! It's free, and hopefully it will just be the beginning of some fascinating conversations to come.

Put an Apple on Our Tree!!

We're coming up to the home stretch of On Borrowed Time, and, to put it bluntly, we're bummed. This is a special show, with a great cast, and we'll miss them all immensely.

Ugh, now I'm making myself sad thinking about it. So instead, I'll talk about something else I'll miss - our beautiful lobby tree.

You may have noticed that we have a bit of a tree theme going with this show, for obvious reasons (not obvious to you? You still have five chances to see the show and find out what I mean!). If you visit our lobby, you'll see this beautiful tree:

This tree is a little bit different from the others. This tree is designed to celebrate the theater's 20th anniversary season; for a $20 donation to the theater, you can get a red apple, and onto it you can write whatever you'd like to celebrate - a loved one, a special occasion, your favorite production at the theater, the Breaking Bad finale, whatever you'd like. Then hang it on the tree for all the world to see!

This is the final weekend you'll be able to see this tree. I'm not making any promises as to where it'll go after the show closes, but here's a hint: my living room.

Guest Blog: Snickers Speaks!

Do we have a treat for you guys this beautiful Friday morning. For our very first guest blog, one of the stars of On Borrowed Time has graciously agreed to share some thoughts with us. She is a veteran of the stage and I think we can all agree that she has the most beautiful coat of the entire cast of 'On Borrowed Time'. I'm talking, of course, of the "grande dame of theatrical animals," (according to her bio) canine star Snickers, who plays the role of 'Betty' in 'On Borrowed Time'. Thanks to her and to her handler, Brian Michael Hoffman, for sharing her thoughts.
--Anika

Betty (played by Snickers) Woof Grr Arf "Betty:" (arf arf woof dog boy Brian) Grrr-arf, grr-bow-wow! Snausage awoo Two River ON BORROWED HOWL woof-woof Bill's Pups awooo arf Emcee! Arf-arf bark grumble toy...bow-wow grrrrrr-arf ball. Woof woof arf bark bark awoo whimper belly sniff sniff tree awoooo woof arf arf bark grrrrrrrrrrrrr Brink. Bark grrrrr bow-wow pismire awoooooooo arf arf "Betty" hoooooowl "awwwwww." AWOOOOOO! Bark bark opening!!! Arf arf tiny human oak tree, bow wow wooooof treats! Dog boy Brian bark bark bark arf woof bow wow pawtograph howl awooo pupparazzi! Awoooo.....dog boy whimper walking dead woof? Bill Berloni grrrr woof arf bow-wow rescue arf Toto, too. WOOF WOOF Broadway Barks Bernadette!  Woof arf bark bark second chance bow wow howl limelight! Arf!? Sniff sniff woof bark grrrrr arf Two River long walk sniff sniff! Howl woof arf bark bow-wow interweb dot facebark com twitt-grrr. Bark arf arf woof, Red Bank!!!! From the Desk of "Betty:" (as translated by Snickers' handler, Brian Michael Hoffman) Another opening, another show! What a treat (and I don't mean the Snausage-y kind!) to be a part of Two River Theater Company's ON BORROWED TIME, and, as the grand dame of William Berloni Theatrical Animals, to be directed by another legend of the stage, Mr. Joel Grey. I always love the rehearsal process: meeting my new pack...I mean fellow actors and truly playing with the text like a new squeak toy until I really feel comfortable with my blocking and listening to my fellow actors who throw lines back and forth like my favorite red ball. Then we get to the technical rehearsals where I meet all sorts of new friends who have built the amazing new world that I get to run around in. They all dress in black, but are very friendly and always seem to want to take time out of their day to rub my belly! Fine by me! They're all very protective of me around the huge tree we have onstage: I think they think I want to "water" it like I do other trees here in Red Bank (helping you keep your city green, I say!), but I know better...it doesn't smell alive...and I don't think that's just because of Mr. Brink! Although my stage time is limited, I know I play a very important role in the play and I love listening to the beginning of the second half of the show (after my Intermission walk, of course!) when Aunt Demetria tells everyone that "Betty" has died. Everyone "awws!" My favorite part, though, has to be opening night and this one was no different! My scene went very well! Oakes, the small human child I work with is very serious onstage but when we get offstage, he always looks for my tickle spot and scratches me behind my ear! I like him so much, I even share my treats with him sometimes! After my scene on opening night, my work was done and Brian did the "heavy lifting" at the opening night party: he carried me around making sure all the "big dogs" had a chance to meet me! He told everyone about me being a rescue, my history with Bill Berloni and my adventures on the yellow brick road and, sadly, did an excellent job of keeping me away from all the opening night goodies. (And he did all of that after getting shot onstage! It happens every night but he always comes back to my private dressing room. I still haven't figured that out...maybe he's a zombie?) Anyway, everyone was so excited to meet me and get my "paw-tograph" at the reception. I was happy to greet the pupparazzi and all of my fans, including my friend Bernadette Peters! She's so beautiful and kind...and a wonderful friend to all rescue animals, like me! She and my owner and trainer Bill both know that rescues are the best: we've sometimes come from some pretty bad situations and, when we get our forever home, we are getting our second chance!!! Mine just happens to be behind the footlights! Who'd a thunk it? Now that we've gotten thru opening, I'm settling into our normal show schedule. It's a pleasure to be here at Two River and I love the show....but I'm also enjoying the extra time during the day to sniff all of your great smells while exploring this great town!  For more information on me and all of Bill Berloni's other theatrical animals, please visit www.theatricalanimals.com You can also "like" us on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/pages/William-Berloni-Theatrical-Animals-Inc/160644103997612 ) and follow us on Twitter ( @BillBerloni ) Thanks for having me, Red Bank!!!!

Come See 'On Borrowed Time'!

Hey, remember August 20th? I do. It was my very first day here at Two River, and it was the very first day of rehearsal of 'On Borrowed Time'. My first official act as Literary Manager here was to go to the meet and greet (which, if you're not familiar, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like - everyone working on a show has a chance to introduce themselves, and then you mingle. Although since this is all usually done over a large spread of bagels, I think the name should officially be changed to 'meet, greet, and eat.')

Theater is magical in a number of ways, which would take over this blog if I attempted to list them all. But one of the most fundamentally amazing is the fact that something exists now that didn't a little over a month ago. On August 20th, a group of people met each other, many for the first time, and read through a script. And right now, if you go to our theater and sit in a seat, the lights will go up on a full and delightful world. In and around a house in the Midwest in 1938, a grandfather and his grandson will joke and bond, a community will face a conundrum they have never faced before, and death will get stuck in an apple tree. Through Joel Grey's beautifully realized production, you will feel like you know these people, and you will miss them when you go home for the night. And on August 19th, that world didn't exist. Isn't there something just so cool about that?

In my last post, I showed you a little glimpse into the creation of the show's tree. Now, I can show you a little bit of the actual show! It's but a snippet, but take a look. And if you like what you see, come see the show. I know it's a cliche to say that you'll laugh and cry, but you'll probably laugh and cry. I know I did.

Oh, and if you've seen the show already, please let us know what you think in the comments! Even if your comment is "I loved the show, but that Literary Manager sobbing down the row from me was a little distracting."

A Tree Grows in Red Bank

Big things have been growing here at Two River. Our current production, On Borrowed Time, centers largely around the happenings in a certain apple tree. Kids climb it, apples are picked from it, and, memorably, Death gets trapped in its boughs (if you want to know how that all goes down, you'll have to come see the show!) To create this, set designer and our production team really... branched out*, shall we say . I'm biased, but the tree they created is really quite something. Big and beautiful, it's the kind of tree that cries out to be climbed, that Literary Managers want to sneak onto during the day to read plays in (not that I know of any Literary Managers who have contemplated such a thing, I swear!). And of course, since it's a set piece, it's entirely durable, build to withstand eight shows a week of people enacting touching and hilarious human drama all over it.

Watching the tree go from a design on a page to the glorious thing you can see on the stage has been amazing. And though I can't quite share with you all the delight of watching parts of the tree travel across the parking lot like it was a large and slow-moving commuter, I can share this video that we've made showing some of the tree's construction. Watch, delight, and then come see the tree in action!







 *I know, I know, that's terrible. I'm groaning too.

Welcome to Currents!

Hello Currents readers!

Allow me to introduce myself - I'm Anika Chapin, and I'm the Literary Manager here at Two River Theater. I'm new (this my third week!), and we thought that as I get to know the theater, I would write this here blog so that its readers could do it along with me.

First though, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I've been a theater fan almost all my life, having been brought to my first show when I was six months old (my dad, a theater lover himself, brought me. Apparently I was transfixed by the lights going up on the stage, and I've been hooked ever since). I've had many different jobs within theater, including assistant director, casting director, and, for an interesting spell of time, company manager on an Australian tour of 'Cats' that traveled around Asia (and yes, that yielded many good stories). I'm also a writer, contributing pieces to the New York Times among other spots, and maintaining my own theater blog, called Bloggledygook. I also have my MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University. Well, I WILL have, once I finish that pesky thesis.

Here at the theater I'll mainly be in charge of finding new plays and musicals to develop, as well as various other tasks. I could not be more excited about being here, and I look forward to sharing the world of Two River with you. So stay tuned for posts about theater and how its made, about what's on our mind and in our community, and about the magical parking spot of Two River (that'll make sense soon, I promise).

This is me! Say hi if you spot me at the theater.