Coppelia

Went to a rehearsal a couple of weeks ago of George Balanchine's Coppelia at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Coppelia is a lifelike doll that is so beautiful that one of the men in the village falls in love with her much to the chagrin of a jealous girlfriend. Everyone dances and it work out in the end that the two actually get together and Coppelia ends up as a pile of lifeless limbs. Great.

However the real comedy came because what we were seeing was a dress rehearsal. So periodically we were taken completely out of the performance by a voice from above asking the guest conductor, Nathan, to adjust the music. I am guessing that the person we heard was either the stager or the director or someone like that but her requests started off small but then seemed more worrisome as the rehearsal went on.

She first began with, "A bit slower please Nathan." Repeated several times in about 15 minute intervals.

Which turned into, "A bit faster please Nathan."

Then finally and hilariously, "OK. Now split the difference Nathan."

But the best rehearsal moment came when we were all taken inside the doll maker's shop and someone has flung back a curtain to reveal the tiny room where Coppelia is sitting. Apparently however the curtain was not flung back nearly as much as it should have been because a very round, bearded, and generally scruffy looking stage hand waddles out and opens the curtain the rest of the way. It was this that made me decide that I only wish to attend rehearsals when I go to the ballet.

The Thin Place

The Thin Place is described as the place where the human and the divine meet.

Intiman Theatre's production of the one man drama, The Thin Place, Gbenga Akinnagbe portrays multiple different characters recounting spiritual and religious experiences. The stories are based on interviews with actual people ranging from a local Buddhist meditation teacher, a gay South African Anglican priest, and a survivor of the 2006 shootings at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

They all describe their history with their different faiths and are tied together by the main character, Isaac, who channels each character when he has seizures. Gbenga Akinnagbe, who was once a part of the HBO series The Wire, described the challenges of a one man show in a post performance discussion forum. He described one of the female roles being the most difficult to get a hold of as an actor.

Despite pretty awful reviews from critics, everyone who stayed for the discussion, had nothing but wonderful things to say of the writer, actor, and the piece as a whole. The set was beautiful in its simplicity and appeared as a dock that extended away from the audience divided by three transparent fiber frames that made the lighting look ethereal. I was really touched by the subject matter (religion, faith, and loss) but in retrospect decided that these were topics that are somewhat overdone. The actor's portrayal of seizures left me unconvinced and removed. They were used as transitions between characters but seemed unnecessary and almost comical.

I think that the performance should be seen by all, if only to weigh in on the discussion.

The Seattle Times is not a fan.