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Present Productions
The Man in the Newspaper Hat
by Hailey Heaton
The first production of Hayley Heaton’s The Man in the Newspaper Hat told us the most important thing about the project: the subject matter is interesting to an audience, the writing is poignant, and people leave the theatre in discussion and curious to know more about both Ezra Pound and Elizabeth Bishop.
We also learned that this experience can be strengthened by deepening the relationship between Pound and Bishop. The Man in the Newspaper Hat was never supposed to be a biographical play or a historical play. Its origin in Bishop’s poem, “Visits to St.Elizabeths” essentially circumscribes its scope with a clear focus on the conflicting persona of Ezra Pound as seen by the poet Elizabeth Bishop. It is their pugilistic relationship, a clash of opposite artistic views of the world and temperaments that drive the play.
We had several readings of new incarnations, two of them with invited audience, and finally, after a strong rewrite in the winter of 2010 we decided that any really new information about the validity of the script can only be done in front of an audience. To test its universal mettle, we looked for a theatre city outside of New York
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Seattle is one of the major US theatre towns, and its audience is known for its openness and interest in literary subject matters. Aside from the four big theatres, Seattle has a wealth of smaller companies doing very interesting work. The Man is in development, and ManyTracks wants to get it ready for a larger company and/or bigger producing partners.
So I went searching for an independent company to partner with and found it in Randy Dixon, Artistic Director of Unexpected Productions, who have been performing in the Market Theatre for many a year. They originated the now famous gum wall, and Randy has a letter from the Market director notifying him not for the first time, that they should remove this thing immediately. With likeminded creatives, Randy has founded Theatre Lexicon, which combines spontaneous exploration with new or preexisting texts. He has read the man in its early incarnations, and has followed "his" progress with interest. Therefore it's a natural fit, that Theatre Lexicon will co-produce The Man in the Newspaper Hat for its Seattle run, to open Nov 17.
| CAST |
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| Ezra Pound |
David S.Klein |
| Elizabeth Bishop |
Lisa Keeton |
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| CREATIVE TEAM |
| Director - Katrin Hilbe |
| Scenic Design - Shimon Alkion |
| Costume Design - Karen Ann Ledger |
| Sound Design - Nathaniel Z. Whitten |
| Lighting Design - Chris Scofield |
| Stage Manager - Chris Scofield |
We are aiming for a five week run of weekends preceded by an in-depth rehearsal period for a deep-tissue exploration of the script. It will be quite the ride, so come out to see it!
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UPCOMING PRODUCTION
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LINKS
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