Acting isn't everything: It's the only thing
'Lombardi' of state theater returns from East for 'True West'
By DAMIEN JAQUES
Journal Sentinel theater critic
Milwaukee Repertory Theater actor Mark Corkins recalls the intermission of a comedy that was being staged by the Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the mid-1980s.
Sanford Robbins
Sandford Robbins will direct Sam Shepard's "True West" for the Milwaukee Rep. Although classics are his specialty, Robbins has an affinity for Shepard's work and has staged it here and abroad.
Robbins left the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Professional Theatre Training Program for Delaware in 1988. Sixteen years later, he is returning as a thriving acting professor, but the program he left behind has almost wilted away.
Sandy Robbins, former head of the University of Milwaukee Wisconsin's Professional Theatre Training Program, is back in Milwaukee at the suggestion of two former students. He is directing Sam Shepard's "True West," which will star Lee Ernst and Mark Corkins as bickering brothers.
"We're doing a lot of dribbling out there but we are not making any baskets," Corkins, who was in the cast, remembers him saying. "It was his metaphor for landing a joke," the actor explained.
The sport may be different, but Robbins was having a Vince Lombardi moment.
The comparison between the actor-training guru and the football legend is not as farfetched as it may seem.
"He didn't have anything invested in whether we liked him," Corkins said. " 'This is not a democracy,' he would tell us. He would say that a lot."
"Ruthless, he was ruthless," recalls Brian Robert Mani, another happy graduate of the PTTP when Robbins was running it at UWM. "As a student, he easily got my number. He knew what buttons to push to get me to react, to get me motivated.
"He's very persuasive. It is very hard to say no to him."
Trained generation of actors
Like Lombardi, Robbins began a dynasty in Wisconsin and then left for the East Coast.
Unlike the Packers deity, Robbins has returned, albeit for only a few weeks.
For the first time since transferring nearly the entire staff and faculty of his training program to the University of Delaware in 1988, Sandy Robbins is back working in Milwaukee.
He's here to direct the Rep production of Sam Shepard's "True West" that opens tonight in the Stiemke Theater.
Using his strong personality and passion for theater, Robbins trained a generation of now middle-aged actors while in Milwaukee, and in doing so was an influential architect of the state's expanding theatrical landscape.
His program's reluctant departure from UWM was caused by funding that was inadequate for competing with the other top graduate-level actor training schools in the country.
But Robbins and the other key members of his training team - Leslie Reidel, Jewel Walker and Susan Sweeney - continued to affect the quality of Wisconsin theater after they moved to Delaware.
Pride in successes
Rep favorite Lee Ernst graduated from the Delaware program, and two of the American Players Theatre's brightest young stars, Colleen Madden and David Daniel, went to Spring Green after being trained by Robbins and his colleagues.
Over a low-carb breakfast on a Sunday morning, Robbins expressed pride in his graduates' successes.
"Almost a third of this company (the Rep's resident acting ensemble) graduated from our program, and I think the percentage is even higher at APT," he said. "There are not many resident acting companies in regional theater, but where there are, we have a lot of people."
In Milwaukee, the Chamber Theatre has relied heavily on Robbins' graduates. Mani, James Tasse, Norman Moses and Carrie Hitchcock have been regulars.
The rising In Tandem Theatre Company was founded by Robbins alum Chris Flieller and his wife, Jane.
Tyne Turner, Jim Butchart and Michael Duncan have been valuable contributors to a variety of theatrical projects and endeavors in the state.
The stage, the classics
Drew Brhel, a Milwaukeean who received his training in Delaware, has emerged as a successful director as well as actor.
Unlike most actor training programs, Robbins' has concentrated exclusively on stage acting, with an emphasis on the classics.
Affecting American theater has been a goal.
"You don't come to us if you want to be on TV," he said.
Corkins and Ernst are playing the leading characters in "True West," brothers whose sibling rivalry is primal and volatile, and Robbins is back directing in Milwaukee because of them.
After they were cast, the two actors were approached by Rep management, according to Corkins, and asked if they had a preference for director. They suggested their former teacher.
"One of the great things about the Rep is that Joe has this tremendous faith in and a commitment to a resident company," Corkins said of artistic director Joseph Hanreddy. "Lee and I were asked if we could think of anyone to direct, and we immediately came up with Sandy (Robbins). He has an edge to him, has a lot of history directing Shepard, and we both spent an extended period of time with him."
Changed relationship
Although the classics are his specialty, Robbins has a recognized affinity for Shepard's gritty plays, directing the American dramatist's work in Europe.
He has staged the Finnish premiere of "The Tooth of Crime" and the Russian and Cypriot premieres of "Buried Child," a piece he directed at UWM during his tenure there.
The Russian production was at the world-renowned Moscow Art Theatre, where Robbins sat in a chair once occupied by the legendary Constantin Stanislavky.
The students in the Moscow Arts theater school were most interested in knowing if he knew Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
The relationship Robbins has with Corkins and Ernst is different now, because they are veteran professionals rather than his students.
"I was still thinking of Sandy as an authority figure," Corkins said about their first day of rehearsals.
"But the relationship has completely changed. He is giving us a lot of respect and trust. We are collaborators now. He began by asking us what we needed from him."
No victimhood
Robbins has always emphasized professionalism as much as learning to speak and move on stage.
Work ethic and attitude are key ingredients in his professional credo, according to Mani.
"I am responsible for my own life, and I should not be a victim in my career," the actor said he learned from his three years of training under Robbins.
Mani said victimhood is a tempting mental posture for actors to assume if they are not getting the roles for which they audition.
"If I am not getting work, I should not blame the theater company." An honest self-assessment of the reasons is in order, Mani added.
Corkins recalls Robbins constantly telling his students to create a context and have a meaning for their work.
" 'You want a job, but why?' he would ask. What are you doing, why are you doing it?'
"At the very beginning of rehearsals for 'True West,' Sandy talked about the possibility of this show being a breakthrough for anyone involved with it." If that were possible, Robbins wanted to facilitate it.
"I thought," Corkins said, "Oh, yeah, that's Sandy."
Monday, September 24, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
'You Can't Take it With You' Directed by Sanford Robbins
Originally published by Houston Press Mar 13, 2003
Meet Alice Sycamore, a perfectly normal young Wall Street secretary who's just found the man of her dreams. Marriage is in the offing (this is the 1930s, after all), but first Alice must introduce her handsome fiancé and his wealthy parents to her own rather eccentric family. You'd never know it from her carefully coiffed blond hair or her smart new dress, but Alice comes from a clan of lovable weirdos, and she's rightfully afraid of the impression they might make on her future in-laws. Such is the farcical setup of George Kaufman and Moss Hart's beloved comedy You Can't Take It with You, now running at the Alley Theatre.
Alice's mother, Penny (Annalee Jefferies), writes plays. The happy woman doesn't have much talent, but when a typewriter was mistakenly delivered to the Sycamores' New York residence eight years ago, she abandoned her portrait painting and took up the new art with gusto. Down in the basement, Alice's father, Paul (James Black), is busy concocting fabulous fireworks. At his side is Mr. De Pinna (James Belcher), who came to deliver ice some years back and ended up staying. Leaping across the living room is sister Essie (Robin Terry). She studies ballet, which she practices with wild abandon between candy-making sessions in the kitchen. Essie's husband, Ed (Jeffrey Bean), delivers boxes of sweet confection throughout the neighborhood, always including a leaflet or two from his printing press. Ed likes to quote Trotsky, because the old communist said things that are easy to print, like "God is the state and the state is God."
Heading up the clan is Martin Vanderhof (Charles Krohn), the wizened old grandfather who quit his job on Wall Street 35 years ago because he realized he wasn't having fun anymore. Now he spends his days attending commencements, walking through the zoo, collecting snakes and avoiding the tax man.
Much to the poor girl's horror, Alice's Tony and his uptight parents accidentally show up for dinner on the wrong night. Fireworks ensue, but before the story comes to a close, everyone arrives at Kaufman and Hart's lovingly plain point: You can't take it with you, so why spend your life doing something you hate just for the sake of money?
The road to such homespun wisdom is made deliriously entertaining by the magic of Kaufman and Hart's writing and the Alley's near-perfect cast. Jefferies's absentminded matriarch is a big-hearted, middle-aged nerd who snorts when she laughs and twinkles with girlish naughtiness every time she looks at the new lovebirds. And Krohn's silver-haired grandpa is a model of patience and infinite good cheer, relaxing into center stage to dispense loving advice.
Some of the best performances come from the endless stream of oddball visitors who traipse through the Sycamore house. John Tyson's Boris Kolenkhov, Essie's ex-patriot Russian dance instructor, is reason enough to see this production. Everything that makes Tyson one of the most compelling actors in Houston shines through this larger-than-life character. The audience howls with laughter each time he stomps through the front door -- all wild black hair and bushy eyebrows -- declaring that everything "stinks," including dear Essie's dancing. Also terrific is David Rainey as Donald, who turns the simple act of walking across the stage into hilarity. And Elizabeth Heflin (who's having a terrific season all around) is a riot as Gay Wellington, an over-the-hill drunken actress whom Penny met on the bus.
With the exception of Victoria Adams's Alice, who comes off as strangely wooden, the entire cast is a delight. Sanford Robbins's direction is so deft that it all but disappears behind the charming characters. And Linda Buchanan's Victorian-style town house provides a perfectly jumbled backdrop for all the comings and goings. It's increasingly rare to find entertainment, live or otherwise, that is both intelligent and tender enough for the entire family. Happily, You Can't Take It with You has survived the decades to delight all ages once again.
Meet Alice Sycamore, a perfectly normal young Wall Street secretary who's just found the man of her dreams. Marriage is in the offing (this is the 1930s, after all), but first Alice must introduce her handsome fiancé and his wealthy parents to her own rather eccentric family. You'd never know it from her carefully coiffed blond hair or her smart new dress, but Alice comes from a clan of lovable weirdos, and she's rightfully afraid of the impression they might make on her future in-laws. Such is the farcical setup of George Kaufman and Moss Hart's beloved comedy You Can't Take It with You, now running at the Alley Theatre.
Alice's mother, Penny (Annalee Jefferies), writes plays. The happy woman doesn't have much talent, but when a typewriter was mistakenly delivered to the Sycamores' New York residence eight years ago, she abandoned her portrait painting and took up the new art with gusto. Down in the basement, Alice's father, Paul (James Black), is busy concocting fabulous fireworks. At his side is Mr. De Pinna (James Belcher), who came to deliver ice some years back and ended up staying. Leaping across the living room is sister Essie (Robin Terry). She studies ballet, which she practices with wild abandon between candy-making sessions in the kitchen. Essie's husband, Ed (Jeffrey Bean), delivers boxes of sweet confection throughout the neighborhood, always including a leaflet or two from his printing press. Ed likes to quote Trotsky, because the old communist said things that are easy to print, like "God is the state and the state is God."
Heading up the clan is Martin Vanderhof (Charles Krohn), the wizened old grandfather who quit his job on Wall Street 35 years ago because he realized he wasn't having fun anymore. Now he spends his days attending commencements, walking through the zoo, collecting snakes and avoiding the tax man.
Much to the poor girl's horror, Alice's Tony and his uptight parents accidentally show up for dinner on the wrong night. Fireworks ensue, but before the story comes to a close, everyone arrives at Kaufman and Hart's lovingly plain point: You can't take it with you, so why spend your life doing something you hate just for the sake of money?
The road to such homespun wisdom is made deliriously entertaining by the magic of Kaufman and Hart's writing and the Alley's near-perfect cast. Jefferies's absentminded matriarch is a big-hearted, middle-aged nerd who snorts when she laughs and twinkles with girlish naughtiness every time she looks at the new lovebirds. And Krohn's silver-haired grandpa is a model of patience and infinite good cheer, relaxing into center stage to dispense loving advice.
Some of the best performances come from the endless stream of oddball visitors who traipse through the Sycamore house. John Tyson's Boris Kolenkhov, Essie's ex-patriot Russian dance instructor, is reason enough to see this production. Everything that makes Tyson one of the most compelling actors in Houston shines through this larger-than-life character. The audience howls with laughter each time he stomps through the front door -- all wild black hair and bushy eyebrows -- declaring that everything "stinks," including dear Essie's dancing. Also terrific is David Rainey as Donald, who turns the simple act of walking across the stage into hilarity. And Elizabeth Heflin (who's having a terrific season all around) is a riot as Gay Wellington, an over-the-hill drunken actress whom Penny met on the bus.
With the exception of Victoria Adams's Alice, who comes off as strangely wooden, the entire cast is a delight. Sanford Robbins's direction is so deft that it all but disappears behind the charming characters. And Linda Buchanan's Victorian-style town house provides a perfectly jumbled backdrop for all the comings and goings. It's increasingly rare to find entertainment, live or otherwise, that is both intelligent and tender enough for the entire family. Happily, You Can't Take It with You has survived the decades to delight all ages once again.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Cyrano de Bergerac: Directed by Sanford Robbins
The Milwaukee Repetory Theater just opened a croduction of Cyrano de Bergerac directed by Sanford Robbins that was reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal
From the Journal Sentinal sept, 9 2007
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater traditionally opens its Quadracci Powerhouse Theater season with a bang. Being the first in line of 14 productions the company mounts during its year, the Powerhouse opener can be given a little more preparation time and attention. "Cyrano de Bergerac" continues through Oct. 7 in the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater at the Baker Theater Complex, 108 E. Wells St.Tickets are on sale at the Rep box office in the complex's lobby, by phone at (414) 224-9490, and online at www.milwaukeerep.com.
In seasons past, the Rep has used the first slot for large original works - the Frank Lloyd Wright biography "Work Song" and Eric Simonson's adaptation of "Moby Dick" - and sprawling epics such as "Angels in America" and "King Lear." This year, "Cyrano de Bergerac" breaks the ice and shows us why it is the most appropriate season opener of them all.
Edmond Rostand's unabashedly sentimental swashbuckling romance is a metaphor for the theater. The title character with the super-sized nose loves to make the grand, dramatic gesture. Panacheis his favorite word.
But there is much more to Cyrano than a flair for showmanship. His craving the limelight is accompanied by deep-running passion, sensitivity, loyalty and a commitment to doing the right thing. We can even find noble selflessness in him.
"To make myself in all things admirable" is Cyrano's declared goal.
Those of us who cherish the theater see all of those qualities beneath the designers' art and the director's skill. Heart and soul are the essence of the stage.
The Rep's new production of "Cyrano de Bergerac," which opened Friday night, crystallizes the metaphor for us. Milwaukee audiences are overly generous in their awarding of standing ovations, but the fervor with which people leaped to their feet at the close of Friday's performance was testimony to the connection they made with the play.
This "Cyrano" is directed by Sanford Robbins, the founder of the moribund Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The program was highly influential in promoting and shaping the growth of theater in the state before Robbins and most of his faculty left for the University of Delaware in 1988. Despite the departure, the director and his acting graduates continue to return here to work with Wisconsin stage companies, and seven of Robbins' former students, including those playing the three leads, are in this show.
The team of director, designers and actors achieve a curious effect. The framework they create to tell Rostand's story is fittingly large and sweeping, but the relationships and emotions reflected within that structure are precise, specific and possess the tight focus of a movie close-up.
This begins with Cyrano, a character who fits Rep veteran Lee Ernst's talents and abilities so well. Ernst is a physical actor who dotes on perfecting disguises and bits of stage combat and movement. But he is also capable of attaining sublime levels of sensitivity and human vulnerability.
If Ernst were performing in Europe at the end of the 19th century, Rostand could have written Cyrano for him.
Roxanne, the comely woman he loves but refuses to pursue, is more than an ingénue. Although it initially appears she is on the verge of acquiescing to a marriage she knows will be bad for her, we can perceive flickers of early feminism. Erin Partin brings a sense of grounded maturity and inner wisdom as well as beauty to the role.
Not as much is asked of the actor who plays Christian de Neuvillette, the inarticulate but dashingly handsome military cadet for whom Cyrano ghost writes love letters to Roxanne. Andre Martin gives the character as much authenticity as we can expect.
It's a treat to see Steve Hauck, portraying the villainous de Guiche, back on a Milwaukee stage after an absence of too many years.
From the Journal Sentinal sept, 9 2007
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater traditionally opens its Quadracci Powerhouse Theater season with a bang. Being the first in line of 14 productions the company mounts during its year, the Powerhouse opener can be given a little more preparation time and attention. "Cyrano de Bergerac" continues through Oct. 7 in the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater at the Baker Theater Complex, 108 E. Wells St.Tickets are on sale at the Rep box office in the complex's lobby, by phone at (414) 224-9490, and online at www.milwaukeerep.com.
In seasons past, the Rep has used the first slot for large original works - the Frank Lloyd Wright biography "Work Song" and Eric Simonson's adaptation of "Moby Dick" - and sprawling epics such as "Angels in America" and "King Lear." This year, "Cyrano de Bergerac" breaks the ice and shows us why it is the most appropriate season opener of them all.
Edmond Rostand's unabashedly sentimental swashbuckling romance is a metaphor for the theater. The title character with the super-sized nose loves to make the grand, dramatic gesture. Panacheis his favorite word.
But there is much more to Cyrano than a flair for showmanship. His craving the limelight is accompanied by deep-running passion, sensitivity, loyalty and a commitment to doing the right thing. We can even find noble selflessness in him.
"To make myself in all things admirable" is Cyrano's declared goal.
Those of us who cherish the theater see all of those qualities beneath the designers' art and the director's skill. Heart and soul are the essence of the stage.
The Rep's new production of "Cyrano de Bergerac," which opened Friday night, crystallizes the metaphor for us. Milwaukee audiences are overly generous in their awarding of standing ovations, but the fervor with which people leaped to their feet at the close of Friday's performance was testimony to the connection they made with the play.
This "Cyrano" is directed by Sanford Robbins, the founder of the moribund Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The program was highly influential in promoting and shaping the growth of theater in the state before Robbins and most of his faculty left for the University of Delaware in 1988. Despite the departure, the director and his acting graduates continue to return here to work with Wisconsin stage companies, and seven of Robbins' former students, including those playing the three leads, are in this show.
The team of director, designers and actors achieve a curious effect. The framework they create to tell Rostand's story is fittingly large and sweeping, but the relationships and emotions reflected within that structure are precise, specific and possess the tight focus of a movie close-up.
This begins with Cyrano, a character who fits Rep veteran Lee Ernst's talents and abilities so well. Ernst is a physical actor who dotes on perfecting disguises and bits of stage combat and movement. But he is also capable of attaining sublime levels of sensitivity and human vulnerability.
If Ernst were performing in Europe at the end of the 19th century, Rostand could have written Cyrano for him.
Roxanne, the comely woman he loves but refuses to pursue, is more than an ingénue. Although it initially appears she is on the verge of acquiescing to a marriage she knows will be bad for her, we can perceive flickers of early feminism. Erin Partin brings a sense of grounded maturity and inner wisdom as well as beauty to the role.
Not as much is asked of the actor who plays Christian de Neuvillette, the inarticulate but dashingly handsome military cadet for whom Cyrano ghost writes love letters to Roxanne. Andre Martin gives the character as much authenticity as we can expect.
It's a treat to see Steve Hauck, portraying the villainous de Guiche, back on a Milwaukee stage after an absence of too many years.
Sanford Robbins
Sanford (Sandy) Robbins’ directing credits include productions for the Alley Theatre, Oregon Shakespearean Festival, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival, American Players Theatre, as well as multiple productions for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, where he served for several years as a resident director. Mr. Robbins has directed the international premieres of Sam Shepard plays for the national theatres of many foreign countries, including the Moscow Art Theatre Studio and the National Theatre of Cyprus. His production of Shepard's The Tooth of Crime received the Thalia Award for Best Production in Finland, an award won the previous year by Ingmar Bergman. In addition to his work as a director, Mr. Robbins serves professional theatres as a text and verse speaking coach for Shakespeare and other classic plays, most recently for the Alley Theatre's production of Hamlet. During the 2007-08 season he will direct the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre's production of Cyrano De Bergerac. He is the founder and Director of the Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) at the University of Delaware – ranked as one of the top ten theatre programs in America. He has taught acting, voice, verse speaking, and period style at Carnegie-Mellon University, Los Angeles City College, and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
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