Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Special Topic: Religion 1:1 and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Catholic Online, Saints and Angels
1. This is a website that is really helpful because in the play there are alot of Saints and and others that many may not no the background of. If you search the names on this link you can better understand the characters in the play and their purpose. For example, Saint Luke, Saint Monica, Saint Peter, Saint Matthew, etc.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php
Broadway World
2. This will give you a breif overview of the play, so you can get an understanding of what will be going on.
http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=30690
Religion News Blog
3. This is a more detailed explanation on the Judas and Jesus story, this is very important to read because majority of the play has to do with how he was betrayed.
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/14236/did-jesus-ask-judas-to-betray-him
Beliefnet : The Great Betrayl"
4. I feel that this is a very useful site because you can learn about judas not only how he betrayed but what was Judas Iscariot purpose, who he actually was.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/189/story_18921_1.html
5.Wikipedia
This will also enlighten you on who Satan actually was as well as his character. For example Satan was a angel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan
1. This is a website that is really helpful because in the play there are alot of Saints and and others that many may not no the background of. If you search the names on this link you can better understand the characters in the play and their purpose. For example, Saint Luke, Saint Monica, Saint Peter, Saint Matthew, etc.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php
Broadway World
2. This will give you a breif overview of the play, so you can get an understanding of what will be going on.
http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=30690
Religion News Blog
3. This is a more detailed explanation on the Judas and Jesus story, this is very important to read because majority of the play has to do with how he was betrayed.
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/14236/did-jesus-ask-judas-to-betray-him
Beliefnet : The Great Betrayl"
4. I feel that this is a very useful site because you can learn about judas not only how he betrayed but what was Judas Iscariot purpose, who he actually was.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/189/story_18921_1.html
5.Wikipedia
This will also enlighten you on who Satan actually was as well as his character. For example Satan was a angel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan
Space 10
This was the spinning top that Judas gave to Matthais of Galilee. This is very important beacuse this showed that Judas did share, as well as cared for others.
Space 9
This is the end of the play the Judas and Jesus scene. How Jesus tells Judas how he really feels.
Sapce 8
This is a picture of how I view the real Pontius Pilate. His facial expression on this picture fits his personality in the production.
Space 7
When Saint Monica was describing how Judas sadness appeared, she quoted, " His sadness ran through him like a river that had frozen up and died and no one lived there anymore."
This is how I see Judas sadness.
Space 6
This is a picture of Santa Monica Bulverard, Saint monica also stresses this is her bulverard. Her purpose was to let you know that she is someone important.
Space 5
This is Santa Monica Pier, this is where Saint Monica stresses that this is her pier.
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/USA/Cities/SantaMonicaPier.jpg
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Space 4
This is what it looks like when Saint Monica, is leaving from talking to Judas and she going back up to heaven to call GOD.http://www.podcastshow.com/images/bryce/bryce_large/stairway_to_heaven.jpg
Space 2
Bath Sheeba's Bar and Grill this is where Satan ruins into Judas. where Judas had taken full advantage of Happy Hour.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Space 1
This is how I see the courtroom in Purgatory.very spacious not alot of colors. Very simple and plain but alot of room.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Production "Photos # 4
of Last Days was shown at New York’s Public Theatre in 2005
NY, NY
Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Production "Photos # 3
A Black Dahlia Theater
Directed by Matt Shakman.
Sets, Denny Dugally; costumes, E. B. Brooks; lighting, Mike Durst; sound, Joel Spence; production stage manager,
Tabatha Roy. Opened, reviewed July 28, 2007; runs through Aug. 26. Running time: 3 HOURS
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.robnagle.com/Judas-2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.robnagle.com/judas.html&h=524&w=818&sz=38&hl=en&start=15&um=1&tbnid=y0b-XeZzVKOGyM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=144&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlast%2Bdays%2Bof%2Bjudas%2Biscariot%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLD%26sa%3DN
Production "Photos # 2
Production Photos #1
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Reviews
Review Number 1
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Reviewed By: Dan Bacalzo · Mar 3, 2005 · New York
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Sam Rockwell and John Ortizin The Last Days of Judas Iscariot(Photo © Carol Rosegg)
Has Judas Iscariot suffered long enough? He's languished in Hell since he committed suicide following his betrayal of Jesus Christ, but does he really deserve to be there? In The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis makes a case for the potential redemption of the most infamous sinner in the Bible -- or, rather, he has Judas' defense attorney make it.
The ambitious production, co-presented by LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theater, has much to recommend it. It's witty, irreverent, epic in scope, and it showcases several outstanding performances; yet it also features a number of weaker actors, has a sprawling narrative that doesn't quite come together, and is in serious need of editing.
The action centers around a courtroom in Purgatory. Fabiana Aziza Cunningham (Callie Thorne) appeals the sentence of eternal damnation that has been handed to her client, Judas Iscariot (Sam Rockwell). At first, the presiding judge (Jeffrey DeMunn) dismisses the seemingly ludicrous case, but Cunningham is persistent. She asks Saint Monica (Elizabeth Rodriguez) to intercede and, eventually, the judge can ignore her no longer. Arguing for the prosecution is Yusef El-Fayoumy (Yul Vázquez), a rather inept lawyer who is himself "temporarily" detained in Hell, which he attributes to a problem with his papers.
The play never actually explains how Judas became Cunningham's client; whenever the audience is given a glimpse of Judas in Hell, he is in such a catatonic state that it's obvious he didn't hire the lawyer. It's also unclear what Cunningham gets out of arguing the case. She's not even sure that she believes in God, and her interactions with Satan (Eric Bogosian) make it clear that she's not trying to do the devil any favors. An intriguing possibility is that she was hired by Jesus Christ (John Ortiz). This would be in keeping with the portrayal of Jesus within the play; however, at no point is this actually stated or even hinted at.
Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is often broadly farcical. Several cast members give over-the-top performances, not always to good effect. Vázquez, for example, plays nothing more than a caricature and gets (some) laughs due to his wacky delivery. On the other hand, the high-octane approach is well-suited to Rodriguez's foul-mouthed Saint Monica, whose energy and attitude is complemented by a depth of feeling that is not in evidence in Vázquez's performance.
Rockwell's portrayal of the play's title character, primarily in flashback sequences, is uneven. The actor is not that convincing when portraying Judas at age eight but he acquits himself quite well when he converses with Satan at a bar following his betrayal of Jesus. Bogosian is a treat as the devil, who is on such friendly terms with the judge that the latter calls him "Lu" (short for Lucifer). A snazzy dresser (costumes by Mimi O'Donnell), Satan is friendly and laid-back one moment but capable of supreme nastiness the next.
Among the other witnesses called to testify, the standouts are Stephen McKinley Henderson as a riveting Pontius Pilate and DeMunn, stepping down as judge in order to do double duty as a conflicted Caiaphas the Elder. The testimony from Judas' mother could be interesting but is not as performed here by Deborah Rush, who lacks expressiveness and seems to be saying her lines by rote. To make matters worse, it's her character that opens the play, so things don't start on a good note. One of Adly Guirgis's conceits is to have more recently deceased individuals such as Sigmund Freud (Adrian Martinez) and Mother Theresa (Liza Colón Zayas) also take the stand. While it makes some sense for Freud to serve as a psychiatric expert, the sequence with Mother Theresa has little bearing on the case at hand, and an extended joke about her being hard of hearing goes on too long without much of a payoff.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Photo © Carol Rosegg)" o:spid="_x0000_i1025"> (Photo © Carol Rosegg)" src="file:///c:\winnt\profiles\stdssr15\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg">
Adrian Martinez, Yul Vázquez, and Jeffrey DeMunn in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot(Photo © Carol Rosegg)
There are a number of other scenes that, like this one, could either be edited or eliminated entirely. For example, an expository speech by new angel Gloria (Colón Zayas again) at the top of the play doesn't seem all that necessary, and the more crucial information contained in it could easily be given to one of the other characters to impart. A second act conversation between Saint Monica and Mary Magdalene (Yetta Gottesman) could also be dropped without losing much.
Andromache Chalfant's set design includes a second tier that surrounds the main playing area on three sides. This is where several saints give speeches, as if from Heaven on high -- but, curiously, the scenes in Hell also take place on this elevated platform. Since sections of the audience seating are located directly underneath, it appears that some patrons do not have great sightlines for the action taking place above them.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a departure for Adly Guirgis in that it's much more allegorical than such previous works as Jesus Hopped the A Train and Our Lady of 121st Street. But, as the titles of those plays indicate, there are commonalities, as well. Most significantly, the playwright returns to the theme of redemption -- or, at least, the possibility of redemption.
The closing sequence of the play is one of its strongest yet seems oddly detached from the main proceedings. Jury foreman Butch Honeywell (Kohl Sudduth) delivers a lengthy, moving speech reminding the audience that betrayals do not have to be on the scale of that committed by Judas to have a debilitating effect on the lives (and afterlives) of those guilty of them. This monologue is followed by a touching interaction between Judas and Jesus, riveting in its simplicity. If the entire play were as well-written and compellingly performed as this sequence, the production would be much more satisfying.
Review #2Arts Review
The good, the bad and the photocopier
Saints and sinners slug it out in a thrilling courtoom drama, while Rear Window meets The Office
Susannah Clapp
The Observer,
Sunday April 6 2008
Article history
Too many words ... The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot Almeida, London N1
Contains Violence Lyric Hammersmith, London W6
Iracible, talk-hungry and rapid, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is the perfect match for Rupert Goold and his Headlong company. The play's vaulting subject matter is also an exact fit.
The New York dramatist Stephen Adly Guirgis stormed the Edinburgh Festival seven years ago with Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, in which a man driven to kill a religious leader meets a born-again mass murderer in jail. Headlong have long made it their project to stage epics and to investigate faith in a secular age: they've boldly enacted Paradise Lost as well as a Faust influenced by the Chapman brothers. Now Guirgis and Goold come together to create a demotic mock trial of the betrayer of Christ.
Judas - a scraggy and riveting Joseph Mawle (last seen batting for the other side as Jesus in BBC1's The Passion) really looks as if he's just been cut free of his noose - is not so much arraigned as reassigned to a category of unfairly or at least unprovenly traduced. With the help of testimony from Freud, Mary Magdalene, Mother Teresa and Simon the Zealot (a very funny John Macmillan mumbles sullenly under his hood), Christianity is put on a series of argumentative racks: the main contention is that a God who was really both loving and all-powerful would not have created an unforgivable human being.
Guirgis, a writer of tireless ingenuity, renders much of this as hip hop holiness. Saint Monica is all sass as she squares up to the audience: 'Yo, Helen Keller! Yo, wake up'; Pontius Pilate is super-spruce with his golfing plus fours, purple socks and impenetrable - 'I'm a roll-out now, boo' - spiel. Gawn Grainger's grave and perfectly judged Caiaphas the Elder is a counterbalance to the general tumult.
Facetiousness strikes from time to time, as does straggle: Guirgis doesn't so much marshal the debate for and against Judas as throw contradictions up in the air and let them fight it out. Still, the arguments are multifarious (Mother Teresa gets a bit of a bashing) and the intensity is terrific: even when apparently secular, this is a play fuelled by the white heat of belief.
Goold's direction echoes and amplifies the excitement. The region of downtown Purgatory in which the action is set whirls tipsily with videos of clouds and traffic. Satan rises through the floor in a wreath of smoke, and turns out to be Douglas Henshall, plausible, white-suited and, as so often, more eloquent and beguiling than the patsyish Jesus.
If anything, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot has too many words. Contains Violence, the latest theatrical disruption from David Rosenberg of Shunt Collective, has too few.
In an office above Pret a Manger in Hammersmith, a woman in a polka-dot dress shimmies round the photocopier with her mobile. A couple of floors above, a chap in a suit taps away at his computer, lit by a fluorescent blaze. A figure bobs around among a line of ornamental plants. A sleek dining room, with gleaming table and high stools, stands empty under dangling lamps. And opposite, across the street, spectators sit in ranks on the roof terrace of the Lyric, scrutinising this action through binoculars, hearing the sounds of each room through specially calibrated headphones.
In an imaginative leap, Rosenberg upturns audience's expectations. In Contains Violence the spectators aren't in the same building as the actors. You make up your own long-shots and close-ups, using their binoculars to zoom in and out at will; the headphones, which are designed to lock you into the action (you hear not just conversation but the slosh of water, the ring of a phone, the crackle of paper, the clink of a keyboard), also protect you from the sound of other audience members and from street noise. You are, weirdly, much further away from the actors than usual but aurally much closer up. Beneath the imaginary acts of violence, as in a dreamlike backdrop, buses pass by silently, pedestrians bustle, and ambulances speed to real emergencies. Occasionally, a non-actor - a cleaner or late worker - gets snarled up accidentally in the action.
So far, so illuminating: this inside-outsideness sets you up to look quite differently at your surroundings - which is not something The Importance of Being Earnest will usually help you do. But the exciting stuff has actually all happened before the show begins: this is a concept, an occasion, not a drama. Contains Violence has contrived the most thrilling of settings, but it doesn't manage to convey a real story or any richness of expression. The hard-to-follow plot, which has a vague Hitchcockian theme of voyeurism, culminates in an apparent murder, with a bit of blood smeared down glass, but for most of the time it staggers along from incident to incident with no sense of development. This is a show that points - as did the National's speechless play, The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other - both to a gap and an opportunity in British theatre. These are shows which offer the stage new manoeuvres, and which are alive with visual ideas. They make audiences squirm, leap up and walk out: they don't make them comatose. What they lack are stories and writers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/apr/06/theatre2
Review # 3
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
From Jesus to Judas Mawle given lead in Last Days of Judas Iscariot
See all posts on this filmJoseph Mawle, shortly to be seen on our screens as Jesus in the BBC's take on The Passion, will play Judas in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Mawle has always switched between television and the theatre, so in many ways his stint at the Almeida is nothing new. Yet at the same time it's a fascinating choice for his next role. The Almeida's website describes The Last Days of Judas Iscariot as a "hilarious and extraordinary court-room drama where history’s most infamous betrayal is dissected by the forces of good and evil."It will be interesting to see how this turns out given the fate of other actors who have played Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth's Robert Powell struggled to find any more serious work and ended up being Jasper Carrott's sidekick in The Detectives. Ted Neeley decided to make playing the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar his career, and James Caviezel hasn't exactly done a great deal since starring in The Passion of the Christ. So is this an attempt to make a clean break from The Passion by playing the opposite character straight after? Or did he find the subject matter so engaging that he immediately sought to explore it from a different angle? Either way, whilst it may be precisely the thing that enables him to have a decent career post-Jesus, I suppose there's a risk that he might end up being type cast.The most notable example of the same actor playing both Jesus and Judas is John Drew Barrymore who played both roles in 1962's Ponzio Pilato. Other notable oddities are in Godspell where the roles of Judas and John the Baptist are often played by the same actor, and I seem to recall that the aforementioned Ted Neeley was originally planning to audition for the role of Judas rather than Jesus.As for the play itself, there's a good preview at Indie London which describes it as
...a time-bending, serio-comic drama in an imagined world between Heaven and Hell that re-examines the plight and fate of The New Testament’s most infamous sinner. In a trial of "God and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth versus Judas Iscariot", figures ranging from Pontius Pilate to Sigmund Freud are called to testify.Guirgis’ distinct and utterly contemporary voice uses the violent, chaotic energy of modern America, and particularly of New York, to explore timeless questions of free will and responsibility, of faith and fate.One last connection here is that the original version of Last Days was shown at New York’s Public Theatre in 2005, and was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman, of course, had previously featured in Along Came Polly as an actor who is playing the roles of both Jesus and Judas in an am-dram version of Jesus Christ Superstar.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.almeida.co.uk/Images/Judas/judasmonica1gallery.jpg&imgrefurl=http://feignedmischief.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/theatre-review-the-last-days-of-judas-iscariot/&h=400&w=601&sz=62&hl=en&start=17&tbnid=c0hswyNekumvPM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlast%2Bdays%2Bof%2Bjudas%2Biscariot%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Review #4
Oct 25-Nov 18Thu-Sat 8 pmSun 2 pm
Director Tom Parr IV
By LAWSON TAITTE / Staff Writer Last year, Tom Parr IV cast Dan Forsythe as a serial killer in Risk Theater Initiative's Glory of Living, my favorite Dallas production of 2006. This year, Mr. Parr has cast Mr. Forsythe as Judas in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Does he know something about this actor that we don't?
Actually, Mr. Forsythe is a personable young fellow who teaches at the University of Dallas. He'll also play Orlando in WaterTower Theatre's upcoming As You Like It, so he doesn't just portray bad guys.
But the matchup of director and actor promises great things for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, which opens Risk's new main stage space just outside downtown on Thursday.
Risk's headquarters is a beautifully preserved former church on Ross Avenue, but the two main performance spaces are in adjoining warehouse-type structures. A flurry of building has been going on since Risk signed the lease-to-buy papers last spring.
"It's looking good," Mr. Parr says. "We're getting all the chairs in, the sets in, all that stuff. The dressing rooms and things aren't finished yet."
The playwright, Stephen Adly Guirgis, is hot these days. Kitchen Dog Theater will do its second production of one of his pieces next month, for instance. Mr. Guirgis often approaches religious topics from a decidedly edgy point of view, which is OK by Mr. Parr, who started out as a religion major at Baylor University before deciding on theater as a career.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is set up as a trial of the disciple who betrayed Jesus. In Mr. Parr's production, R Bruce Elliott plays the judge and Chad Gowen Spears and Jennifer Pasion play the attorneys. Some of the witnesses might be a little surprising. Sigmund Freud is one of them, and Mother Teresa (played by the usually hilarious Ginger Goldman) is another.
Are religious folks likely to find this one way too outrageous?
"Honestly, I think it's one of those plays that if people come in and want to be offended, they might be. But I don't see how someone who stays through the end would be offended," Mr. Parr says. "It's definitely R-rated, or maybe PG-13, mostly because of the language, but we're talking to church groups, encouraging them to come."
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/10-07/GLjudas2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/columnists/ltaitte/stories/DN-risk_1026gl.ART.State.Edition2.4343604.html&h=407&w=300&sz=26&hl=en&start=10&tbnid=B3yLhlMpHPXCJM:&tbnh=125&tbnw=92&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlast%2Bdays%2Bof%2Bjudas%2Biscariot%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Review #5
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
From Jesus to Judas Mawle given lead in Last Days of Judas Iscariot
See all posts on this filmJoseph Mawle, shortly to be seen on our screens as Jesus in the BBC's take on The Passion, will play Judas in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Mawle has always switched between television and the theatre, so in many ways his stint at the Almeida is nothing new. Yet at the same time it's a fascinating choice for his next role. The Almeida's website describes The Last Days of Judas Iscariot as a "hilarious and extraordinary court-room drama where history’s most infamous betrayal is dissected by the forces of good and evil."It will be interesting to see how this turns out given the fate of other actors who have played Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth's Robert Powell struggled to find any more serious work and ended up being Jasper Carrott's sidekick in The Detectives. Ted Neeley decided to make playing the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar his career, and James Caviezel hasn't exactly done a great deal since starring in The Passion of the Christ. So is this an attempt to make a clean break from The Passion by playing the opposite character straight after? Or did he find the subject matter so engaging that he immediately sought to explore it from a different angle? Either way, whilst it may be precisely the thing that enables him to have a decent career post-Jesus, I suppose there's a risk that he might end up being type cast.The most notable example of the same actor playing both Jesus and Judas is John Drew Barrymore who played both roles in 1962's Ponzio Pilato. Other notable oddities are in Godspell where the roles of Judas and John the Baptist are often played by the same actor, and I seem to recall that the aforementioned Ted Neeley was originally planning to audition for the role of Judas rather than Jesus.As for the play itself, there's a good preview at Indie London which describes it as
...a time-bending, serio-comic drama in an imagined world between Heaven and Hell that re-examines the plight and fate of The New Testament’s most infamous sinner. In a trial of "God and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth versus Judas Iscariot", figures ranging from Pontius Pilate to Sigmund Freud are called to testify.Guirgis’ distinct and utterly contemporary voice uses the violent, chaotic energy of modern America, and particularly of New York, to explore timeless questions of free will and responsibility, of faith and fate.One last connection here is that the original version of Last Days was shown at New York’s Public Theatre in 2005, and was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman, of course, had previously featured in Along Came Polly as an actor who is playing the roles of both Jesus and Judas in an am-dram version of Jesus Christ Superstar.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQ_ZmhBmMsqAsw7jQvA44kEGq30ICKcoSXcp9npjwv3RMLMt1sbm5gT77sAcjBG9tnQ84f_KyF21zUJydUgxeB0Y7ULFzfe3iXSWBmzlW-nistVpSdyJhbWrMUzqKgw1cGFMkX4Z5UoGO/s320/2008+Last+Days+of+Judas+Iscariot.jpg&imgrefurl=http://biblefilms.blogspot.com/2008/02/from-jesus-to-judas-mawle-given-lead-in.html&h=175&w=273&sz=15&hl=en&start=9&tbnid=fU6ISBY1F6v1mM:&tbnh=72&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlast%2Bdays%2Bof%2Bjudas%2Biscariot%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Review # 6
Posted: Mon., Jul. 30, 2007, 1:55pm PTS
July- Aug 2007
Sets, Denny Dugally; costumes, E. B. Brooks; lighting, Mike Durst; sound, Joel Spence; production stage manager,
Tabatha Roy. Opened, reviewed July 28, 2007; runs through Aug. 26. Running time: 3 HOURS.
Director Matt Shakman
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
The setting is a courtroom in Purgatory, and the guilt or innocence of Judas (Daniel Jay Shore) is on the docket. Egyptian
lawyer El-Fayoumy (Jay Harik), up from Hell for the job, represents the prosecution, and the tenacious Cunningham
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot - Review Print - Variety.com http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_review&reviewid=...
2 of 2 7/30/07 2:26 PM
(Susan Pourfar) stands for the defense in a case the court doesn't particularly want to hear. Various people are called to
testify, from notables such as Mother Theresa (Deborah Puette) and Sigmund Freud (Rick D. Wasserman), direct witnesses
including Saint Peter (Marco Greco) and Pontius Pilate (Terrell Tilford), to Satan (David Clennon), who is conjured up to
confess to any influence he might have had. Meanwhile Judas sits catatonic in a room in the ninth circle of Hell,
uncommunicative since his death, attended only by Jesus (Joshua Wolf Coleman).
Shore makes for a sympathetic Judas, presenting a miserable intensity underlaid with a core of strength in the role. It's
difficult to not play Jesus as a stereotypical icon, but Coleman manages to demonstrate human dimension and frustrated
compassion in the part. Shore and Coleman's scene together, the heart of the play, feels like the playwright authentically
struggling with his own beliefs, and the result, as performed by these two fine actors, is simultaneously angry, fragile, and
quite moving. Clennon, resplendent in a fur-lined jacket, crimson silk shirt and leather pants, steals the show as Satan.
He's genially amusing as the seemingly casual Prince of Lies, who nonetheless, in a fit of pique, demolishes both lawyers
by revealing all the dark secrets of their lives.
Harik is delightfully energetic as the flattering El-Fayoumy, and Pourfar is solid as Cunningham, a lawyer who is not out
of her depth at all. Greco delivers a brash New York take on Simon the Zealot and Saint Peter, and Wasserman is excellent
as the self-satisfied Freud. Robert Machray's Caiaphas, arrogantly motioning the prosecuting attorney to object, benefits
mightily from the actor's superb voice, and Tilford's Pilate is one cool customer, turning the tables on Cunningham with
righteous anger. Chane't Johnson is a bright spot as the brassy but compassionate Saint Monica, and Puette is humorously
immovable as Mother Theresa. Finally, Rob Nagle's closing monologue as Butch Honeywell, a simply affecting
declaration of loss, is a subtle and powerful piece of acting.
Director Matt Shakman gets the best from his cast, and uses the church as a setting very well, staging scenes everywhere
from the front and center of the room to the organist's balcony. E.B. Brooks' costumes add flair to the show, and Mike
Durst's lighting--a challenge in this traditionally nontheatrical space -- is professional and evocative. Those who are easily
offended should know that there is a good deal of profanity in this show. Although it is at first a bit disconcerting to hear
"motherfucker" inside a church, this production mixes the sacred and the profane with estimable grace.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.robnagle.com/Judas-2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.robnagle.com/judas.html&h=524&w=818&sz=38&hl=en&start=15&um=1&tbnid=y0b-XeZzVKOGyM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=144&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlast%2Bdays%2Bof%2Bjudas%2Biscariot%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLD%26sa%3DN
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Reviewed By: Dan Bacalzo · Mar 3, 2005 · New York
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Sam Rockwell and John Ortizin The Last Days of Judas Iscariot(Photo © Carol Rosegg)
Has Judas Iscariot suffered long enough? He's languished in Hell since he committed suicide following his betrayal of Jesus Christ, but does he really deserve to be there? In The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis makes a case for the potential redemption of the most infamous sinner in the Bible -- or, rather, he has Judas' defense attorney make it.
The ambitious production, co-presented by LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theater, has much to recommend it. It's witty, irreverent, epic in scope, and it showcases several outstanding performances; yet it also features a number of weaker actors, has a sprawling narrative that doesn't quite come together, and is in serious need of editing.
The action centers around a courtroom in Purgatory. Fabiana Aziza Cunningham (Callie Thorne) appeals the sentence of eternal damnation that has been handed to her client, Judas Iscariot (Sam Rockwell). At first, the presiding judge (Jeffrey DeMunn) dismisses the seemingly ludicrous case, but Cunningham is persistent. She asks Saint Monica (Elizabeth Rodriguez) to intercede and, eventually, the judge can ignore her no longer. Arguing for the prosecution is Yusef El-Fayoumy (Yul Vázquez), a rather inept lawyer who is himself "temporarily" detained in Hell, which he attributes to a problem with his papers.
The play never actually explains how Judas became Cunningham's client; whenever the audience is given a glimpse of Judas in Hell, he is in such a catatonic state that it's obvious he didn't hire the lawyer. It's also unclear what Cunningham gets out of arguing the case. She's not even sure that she believes in God, and her interactions with Satan (Eric Bogosian) make it clear that she's not trying to do the devil any favors. An intriguing possibility is that she was hired by Jesus Christ (John Ortiz). This would be in keeping with the portrayal of Jesus within the play; however, at no point is this actually stated or even hinted at.
Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is often broadly farcical. Several cast members give over-the-top performances, not always to good effect. Vázquez, for example, plays nothing more than a caricature and gets (some) laughs due to his wacky delivery. On the other hand, the high-octane approach is well-suited to Rodriguez's foul-mouthed Saint Monica, whose energy and attitude is complemented by a depth of feeling that is not in evidence in Vázquez's performance.
Rockwell's portrayal of the play's title character, primarily in flashback sequences, is uneven. The actor is not that convincing when portraying Judas at age eight but he acquits himself quite well when he converses with Satan at a bar following his betrayal of Jesus. Bogosian is a treat as the devil, who is on such friendly terms with the judge that the latter calls him "Lu" (short for Lucifer). A snazzy dresser (costumes by Mimi O'Donnell), Satan is friendly and laid-back one moment but capable of supreme nastiness the next.
Among the other witnesses called to testify, the standouts are Stephen McKinley Henderson as a riveting Pontius Pilate and DeMunn, stepping down as judge in order to do double duty as a conflicted Caiaphas the Elder. The testimony from Judas' mother could be interesting but is not as performed here by Deborah Rush, who lacks expressiveness and seems to be saying her lines by rote. To make matters worse, it's her character that opens the play, so things don't start on a good note. One of Adly Guirgis's conceits is to have more recently deceased individuals such as Sigmund Freud (Adrian Martinez) and Mother Theresa (Liza Colón Zayas) also take the stand. While it makes some sense for Freud to serve as a psychiatric expert, the sequence with Mother Theresa has little bearing on the case at hand, and an extended joke about her being hard of hearing goes on too long without much of a payoff.
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Adrian Martinez, Yul Vázquez, and Jeffrey DeMunn in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot(Photo © Carol Rosegg)
There are a number of other scenes that, like this one, could either be edited or eliminated entirely. For example, an expository speech by new angel Gloria (Colón Zayas again) at the top of the play doesn't seem all that necessary, and the more crucial information contained in it could easily be given to one of the other characters to impart. A second act conversation between Saint Monica and Mary Magdalene (Yetta Gottesman) could also be dropped without losing much.
Andromache Chalfant's set design includes a second tier that surrounds the main playing area on three sides. This is where several saints give speeches, as if from Heaven on high -- but, curiously, the scenes in Hell also take place on this elevated platform. Since sections of the audience seating are located directly underneath, it appears that some patrons do not have great sightlines for the action taking place above them.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a departure for Adly Guirgis in that it's much more allegorical than such previous works as Jesus Hopped the A Train and Our Lady of 121st Street. But, as the titles of those plays indicate, there are commonalities, as well. Most significantly, the playwright returns to the theme of redemption -- or, at least, the possibility of redemption.
The closing sequence of the play is one of its strongest yet seems oddly detached from the main proceedings. Jury foreman Butch Honeywell (Kohl Sudduth) delivers a lengthy, moving speech reminding the audience that betrayals do not have to be on the scale of that committed by Judas to have a debilitating effect on the lives (and afterlives) of those guilty of them. This monologue is followed by a touching interaction between Judas and Jesus, riveting in its simplicity. If the entire play were as well-written and compellingly performed as this sequence, the production would be much more satisfying.
Review #2Arts Review
The good, the bad and the photocopier
Saints and sinners slug it out in a thrilling courtoom drama, while Rear Window meets The Office
Susannah Clapp
The Observer,
Sunday April 6 2008
Article history
Too many words ... The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot Almeida, London N1
Contains Violence Lyric Hammersmith, London W6
Iracible, talk-hungry and rapid, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is the perfect match for Rupert Goold and his Headlong company. The play's vaulting subject matter is also an exact fit.
The New York dramatist Stephen Adly Guirgis stormed the Edinburgh Festival seven years ago with Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, in which a man driven to kill a religious leader meets a born-again mass murderer in jail. Headlong have long made it their project to stage epics and to investigate faith in a secular age: they've boldly enacted Paradise Lost as well as a Faust influenced by the Chapman brothers. Now Guirgis and Goold come together to create a demotic mock trial of the betrayer of Christ.
Judas - a scraggy and riveting Joseph Mawle (last seen batting for the other side as Jesus in BBC1's The Passion) really looks as if he's just been cut free of his noose - is not so much arraigned as reassigned to a category of unfairly or at least unprovenly traduced. With the help of testimony from Freud, Mary Magdalene, Mother Teresa and Simon the Zealot (a very funny John Macmillan mumbles sullenly under his hood), Christianity is put on a series of argumentative racks: the main contention is that a God who was really both loving and all-powerful would not have created an unforgivable human being.
Guirgis, a writer of tireless ingenuity, renders much of this as hip hop holiness. Saint Monica is all sass as she squares up to the audience: 'Yo, Helen Keller! Yo, wake up'; Pontius Pilate is super-spruce with his golfing plus fours, purple socks and impenetrable - 'I'm a roll-out now, boo' - spiel. Gawn Grainger's grave and perfectly judged Caiaphas the Elder is a counterbalance to the general tumult.
Facetiousness strikes from time to time, as does straggle: Guirgis doesn't so much marshal the debate for and against Judas as throw contradictions up in the air and let them fight it out. Still, the arguments are multifarious (Mother Teresa gets a bit of a bashing) and the intensity is terrific: even when apparently secular, this is a play fuelled by the white heat of belief.
Goold's direction echoes and amplifies the excitement. The region of downtown Purgatory in which the action is set whirls tipsily with videos of clouds and traffic. Satan rises through the floor in a wreath of smoke, and turns out to be Douglas Henshall, plausible, white-suited and, as so often, more eloquent and beguiling than the patsyish Jesus.
If anything, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot has too many words. Contains Violence, the latest theatrical disruption from David Rosenberg of Shunt Collective, has too few.
In an office above Pret a Manger in Hammersmith, a woman in a polka-dot dress shimmies round the photocopier with her mobile. A couple of floors above, a chap in a suit taps away at his computer, lit by a fluorescent blaze. A figure bobs around among a line of ornamental plants. A sleek dining room, with gleaming table and high stools, stands empty under dangling lamps. And opposite, across the street, spectators sit in ranks on the roof terrace of the Lyric, scrutinising this action through binoculars, hearing the sounds of each room through specially calibrated headphones.
In an imaginative leap, Rosenberg upturns audience's expectations. In Contains Violence the spectators aren't in the same building as the actors. You make up your own long-shots and close-ups, using their binoculars to zoom in and out at will; the headphones, which are designed to lock you into the action (you hear not just conversation but the slosh of water, the ring of a phone, the crackle of paper, the clink of a keyboard), also protect you from the sound of other audience members and from street noise. You are, weirdly, much further away from the actors than usual but aurally much closer up. Beneath the imaginary acts of violence, as in a dreamlike backdrop, buses pass by silently, pedestrians bustle, and ambulances speed to real emergencies. Occasionally, a non-actor - a cleaner or late worker - gets snarled up accidentally in the action.
So far, so illuminating: this inside-outsideness sets you up to look quite differently at your surroundings - which is not something The Importance of Being Earnest will usually help you do. But the exciting stuff has actually all happened before the show begins: this is a concept, an occasion, not a drama. Contains Violence has contrived the most thrilling of settings, but it doesn't manage to convey a real story or any richness of expression. The hard-to-follow plot, which has a vague Hitchcockian theme of voyeurism, culminates in an apparent murder, with a bit of blood smeared down glass, but for most of the time it staggers along from incident to incident with no sense of development. This is a show that points - as did the National's speechless play, The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other - both to a gap and an opportunity in British theatre. These are shows which offer the stage new manoeuvres, and which are alive with visual ideas. They make audiences squirm, leap up and walk out: they don't make them comatose. What they lack are stories and writers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/apr/06/theatre2
Review # 3
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
From Jesus to Judas Mawle given lead in Last Days of Judas Iscariot
See all posts on this filmJoseph Mawle, shortly to be seen on our screens as Jesus in the BBC's take on The Passion, will play Judas in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Mawle has always switched between television and the theatre, so in many ways his stint at the Almeida is nothing new. Yet at the same time it's a fascinating choice for his next role. The Almeida's website describes The Last Days of Judas Iscariot as a "hilarious and extraordinary court-room drama where history’s most infamous betrayal is dissected by the forces of good and evil."It will be interesting to see how this turns out given the fate of other actors who have played Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth's Robert Powell struggled to find any more serious work and ended up being Jasper Carrott's sidekick in The Detectives. Ted Neeley decided to make playing the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar his career, and James Caviezel hasn't exactly done a great deal since starring in The Passion of the Christ. So is this an attempt to make a clean break from The Passion by playing the opposite character straight after? Or did he find the subject matter so engaging that he immediately sought to explore it from a different angle? Either way, whilst it may be precisely the thing that enables him to have a decent career post-Jesus, I suppose there's a risk that he might end up being type cast.The most notable example of the same actor playing both Jesus and Judas is John Drew Barrymore who played both roles in 1962's Ponzio Pilato. Other notable oddities are in Godspell where the roles of Judas and John the Baptist are often played by the same actor, and I seem to recall that the aforementioned Ted Neeley was originally planning to audition for the role of Judas rather than Jesus.As for the play itself, there's a good preview at Indie London which describes it as
...a time-bending, serio-comic drama in an imagined world between Heaven and Hell that re-examines the plight and fate of The New Testament’s most infamous sinner. In a trial of "God and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth versus Judas Iscariot", figures ranging from Pontius Pilate to Sigmund Freud are called to testify.Guirgis’ distinct and utterly contemporary voice uses the violent, chaotic energy of modern America, and particularly of New York, to explore timeless questions of free will and responsibility, of faith and fate.One last connection here is that the original version of Last Days was shown at New York’s Public Theatre in 2005, and was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman, of course, had previously featured in Along Came Polly as an actor who is playing the roles of both Jesus and Judas in an am-dram version of Jesus Christ Superstar.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.almeida.co.uk/Images/Judas/judasmonica1gallery.jpg&imgrefurl=http://feignedmischief.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/theatre-review-the-last-days-of-judas-iscariot/&h=400&w=601&sz=62&hl=en&start=17&tbnid=c0hswyNekumvPM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlast%2Bdays%2Bof%2Bjudas%2Biscariot%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Review #4
Oct 25-Nov 18Thu-Sat 8 pmSun 2 pm
Director Tom Parr IV
By LAWSON TAITTE / Staff Writer Last year, Tom Parr IV cast Dan Forsythe as a serial killer in Risk Theater Initiative's Glory of Living, my favorite Dallas production of 2006. This year, Mr. Parr has cast Mr. Forsythe as Judas in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Does he know something about this actor that we don't?
Actually, Mr. Forsythe is a personable young fellow who teaches at the University of Dallas. He'll also play Orlando in WaterTower Theatre's upcoming As You Like It, so he doesn't just portray bad guys.
But the matchup of director and actor promises great things for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, which opens Risk's new main stage space just outside downtown on Thursday.
Risk's headquarters is a beautifully preserved former church on Ross Avenue, but the two main performance spaces are in adjoining warehouse-type structures. A flurry of building has been going on since Risk signed the lease-to-buy papers last spring.
"It's looking good," Mr. Parr says. "We're getting all the chairs in, the sets in, all that stuff. The dressing rooms and things aren't finished yet."
The playwright, Stephen Adly Guirgis, is hot these days. Kitchen Dog Theater will do its second production of one of his pieces next month, for instance. Mr. Guirgis often approaches religious topics from a decidedly edgy point of view, which is OK by Mr. Parr, who started out as a religion major at Baylor University before deciding on theater as a career.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is set up as a trial of the disciple who betrayed Jesus. In Mr. Parr's production, R Bruce Elliott plays the judge and Chad Gowen Spears and Jennifer Pasion play the attorneys. Some of the witnesses might be a little surprising. Sigmund Freud is one of them, and Mother Teresa (played by the usually hilarious Ginger Goldman) is another.
Are religious folks likely to find this one way too outrageous?
"Honestly, I think it's one of those plays that if people come in and want to be offended, they might be. But I don't see how someone who stays through the end would be offended," Mr. Parr says. "It's definitely R-rated, or maybe PG-13, mostly because of the language, but we're talking to church groups, encouraging them to come."
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/10-07/GLjudas2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/columnists/ltaitte/stories/DN-risk_1026gl.ART.State.Edition2.4343604.html&h=407&w=300&sz=26&hl=en&start=10&tbnid=B3yLhlMpHPXCJM:&tbnh=125&tbnw=92&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlast%2Bdays%2Bof%2Bjudas%2Biscariot%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Review #5
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
From Jesus to Judas Mawle given lead in Last Days of Judas Iscariot
See all posts on this filmJoseph Mawle, shortly to be seen on our screens as Jesus in the BBC's take on The Passion, will play Judas in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Mawle has always switched between television and the theatre, so in many ways his stint at the Almeida is nothing new. Yet at the same time it's a fascinating choice for his next role. The Almeida's website describes The Last Days of Judas Iscariot as a "hilarious and extraordinary court-room drama where history’s most infamous betrayal is dissected by the forces of good and evil."It will be interesting to see how this turns out given the fate of other actors who have played Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth's Robert Powell struggled to find any more serious work and ended up being Jasper Carrott's sidekick in The Detectives. Ted Neeley decided to make playing the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar his career, and James Caviezel hasn't exactly done a great deal since starring in The Passion of the Christ. So is this an attempt to make a clean break from The Passion by playing the opposite character straight after? Or did he find the subject matter so engaging that he immediately sought to explore it from a different angle? Either way, whilst it may be precisely the thing that enables him to have a decent career post-Jesus, I suppose there's a risk that he might end up being type cast.The most notable example of the same actor playing both Jesus and Judas is John Drew Barrymore who played both roles in 1962's Ponzio Pilato. Other notable oddities are in Godspell where the roles of Judas and John the Baptist are often played by the same actor, and I seem to recall that the aforementioned Ted Neeley was originally planning to audition for the role of Judas rather than Jesus.As for the play itself, there's a good preview at Indie London which describes it as
...a time-bending, serio-comic drama in an imagined world between Heaven and Hell that re-examines the plight and fate of The New Testament’s most infamous sinner. In a trial of "God and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth versus Judas Iscariot", figures ranging from Pontius Pilate to Sigmund Freud are called to testify.Guirgis’ distinct and utterly contemporary voice uses the violent, chaotic energy of modern America, and particularly of New York, to explore timeless questions of free will and responsibility, of faith and fate.One last connection here is that the original version of Last Days was shown at New York’s Public Theatre in 2005, and was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman, of course, had previously featured in Along Came Polly as an actor who is playing the roles of both Jesus and Judas in an am-dram version of Jesus Christ Superstar.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQ_ZmhBmMsqAsw7jQvA44kEGq30ICKcoSXcp9npjwv3RMLMt1sbm5gT77sAcjBG9tnQ84f_KyF21zUJydUgxeB0Y7ULFzfe3iXSWBmzlW-nistVpSdyJhbWrMUzqKgw1cGFMkX4Z5UoGO/s320/2008+Last+Days+of+Judas+Iscariot.jpg&imgrefurl=http://biblefilms.blogspot.com/2008/02/from-jesus-to-judas-mawle-given-lead-in.html&h=175&w=273&sz=15&hl=en&start=9&tbnid=fU6ISBY1F6v1mM:&tbnh=72&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlast%2Bdays%2Bof%2Bjudas%2Biscariot%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Review # 6
Posted: Mon., Jul. 30, 2007, 1:55pm PTS
July- Aug 2007
Sets, Denny Dugally; costumes, E. B. Brooks; lighting, Mike Durst; sound, Joel Spence; production stage manager,
Tabatha Roy. Opened, reviewed July 28, 2007; runs through Aug. 26. Running time: 3 HOURS.
Director Matt Shakman
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
The setting is a courtroom in Purgatory, and the guilt or innocence of Judas (Daniel Jay Shore) is on the docket. Egyptian
lawyer El-Fayoumy (Jay Harik), up from Hell for the job, represents the prosecution, and the tenacious Cunningham
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot - Review Print - Variety.com http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_review&reviewid=...
2 of 2 7/30/07 2:26 PM
(Susan Pourfar) stands for the defense in a case the court doesn't particularly want to hear. Various people are called to
testify, from notables such as Mother Theresa (Deborah Puette) and Sigmund Freud (Rick D. Wasserman), direct witnesses
including Saint Peter (Marco Greco) and Pontius Pilate (Terrell Tilford), to Satan (David Clennon), who is conjured up to
confess to any influence he might have had. Meanwhile Judas sits catatonic in a room in the ninth circle of Hell,
uncommunicative since his death, attended only by Jesus (Joshua Wolf Coleman).
Shore makes for a sympathetic Judas, presenting a miserable intensity underlaid with a core of strength in the role. It's
difficult to not play Jesus as a stereotypical icon, but Coleman manages to demonstrate human dimension and frustrated
compassion in the part. Shore and Coleman's scene together, the heart of the play, feels like the playwright authentically
struggling with his own beliefs, and the result, as performed by these two fine actors, is simultaneously angry, fragile, and
quite moving. Clennon, resplendent in a fur-lined jacket, crimson silk shirt and leather pants, steals the show as Satan.
He's genially amusing as the seemingly casual Prince of Lies, who nonetheless, in a fit of pique, demolishes both lawyers
by revealing all the dark secrets of their lives.
Harik is delightfully energetic as the flattering El-Fayoumy, and Pourfar is solid as Cunningham, a lawyer who is not out
of her depth at all. Greco delivers a brash New York take on Simon the Zealot and Saint Peter, and Wasserman is excellent
as the self-satisfied Freud. Robert Machray's Caiaphas, arrogantly motioning the prosecuting attorney to object, benefits
mightily from the actor's superb voice, and Tilford's Pilate is one cool customer, turning the tables on Cunningham with
righteous anger. Chane't Johnson is a bright spot as the brassy but compassionate Saint Monica, and Puette is humorously
immovable as Mother Theresa. Finally, Rob Nagle's closing monologue as Butch Honeywell, a simply affecting
declaration of loss, is a subtle and powerful piece of acting.
Director Matt Shakman gets the best from his cast, and uses the church as a setting very well, staging scenes everywhere
from the front and center of the room to the organist's balcony. E.B. Brooks' costumes add flair to the show, and Mike
Durst's lighting--a challenge in this traditionally nontheatrical space -- is professional and evocative. Those who are easily
offended should know that there is a good deal of profanity in this show. Although it is at first a bit disconcerting to hear
"motherfucker" inside a church, this production mixes the sacred and the profane with estimable grace.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.robnagle.com/Judas-2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.robnagle.com/judas.html&h=524&w=818&sz=38&hl=en&start=15&um=1&tbnid=y0b-XeZzVKOGyM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=144&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlast%2Bdays%2Bof%2Bjudas%2Biscariot%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLD%26sa%3DN
Production History
History 1: The ambitious production,
co-presented by LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theater,
Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman,
(open: March 2, 2005 - close: April 3, 2005 - preview: )
Tuesday 8:00pm Wednesday 8:00pm Thursday 8:00pm Friday 8:00pm Saturday 2:00pm & 8:00pm Sunday 2:00pm & 7:00pm
Andromache Chalfant's set design , costumes by Mimi O'Donnell.
Lead Roles
Judas Iscariot (Sam Rockwell),Fabiana Aziza Cunningham (Callie Thorne) ,Yusef El-Fayoumy (Yul Vázquez).
This production is memorable on how the small scenes that I feel can be dropped the reviewer also agrees with. As well as how several members give off top performances and have two roles and how their minor roles were totally opposite from their other characters.
History #2
Director Tom Parr IV
Oct 25-Nov 18 2007
Dallas, Tx
Risk Theater Initiative
Lead Roles,
Yusef El-Fayoumy, the prosecuting attorney for the Kingdom of Heaven is played by Steve Campos , The defense attorney is played by Michelle Keffer, Travis Tinnin, as Judas.
co-presented by LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theater,
Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman,
(open: March 2, 2005 - close: April 3, 2005 - preview: )
Tuesday 8:00pm Wednesday 8:00pm Thursday 8:00pm Friday 8:00pm Saturday 2:00pm & 8:00pm Sunday 2:00pm & 7:00pm
Andromache Chalfant's set design , costumes by Mimi O'Donnell.
Lead Roles
Judas Iscariot (Sam Rockwell),Fabiana Aziza Cunningham (Callie Thorne) ,Yusef El-Fayoumy (Yul Vázquez).
This production is memorable on how the small scenes that I feel can be dropped the reviewer also agrees with. As well as how several members give off top performances and have two roles and how their minor roles were totally opposite from their other characters.
History #2
Director Tom Parr IV
Oct 25-Nov 18 2007
Dallas, Tx
Risk Theater Initiative
Lead Roles,
Yusef El-Fayoumy, the prosecuting attorney for the Kingdom of Heaven is played by Steve Campos , The defense attorney is played by Michelle Keffer, Travis Tinnin, as Judas.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Time
There were so many different situations going on in 2005, life has a complete change.
Judge Littlefield might have some interse being that he is into politics as well as older judge.
In State of the Union address, President Bush announces his plan to reform Social Security; despite months of campaigning, his plan receives only a lukewarm reception (Feb. 2). Saudis (men only) are allowed to vote for the first time in municipal elections (Feb. 10). Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri > a nationalist who had called for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon—is assassinated (Feb. 14). The Terry Schiavo case becomes the focus of an emotionally charged battle in Congress (March 20). Schiavo dies 13 days after a federal judge refuses to order the reinsertion of her feeding tube (March 31).
All the Saints might be effected as well as mmany others.
Pope John Paul II dies (April 2). Benedict XVI becomes the next pope (April 24).
Mother Theresa as well as Cunnighman may have different views because Cunnighman had two abortions and Mother Theresa does not believe in abortions.
Federal appeals court upholds lower court decision that so-called Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unlawful because it fails to make an exception to the law for women whose health would be in jeopardy without the late-term procedure (July 8).
This would effect the attorney Aziza Cunningham because she is from New York as well as an attorney.
The New York Times reports that in 2002, Bush signed a presidential order to allow the National Security Agency to spy on Americans suspected of being connected to terrorist activity without warrants (Dec. 15).
The defense attoney El- Fayoumy has family from Iraq.
About 11 million Iraqis (70% of the country's registered voters) turn out to select their first permanent Parliament since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein (Dec. 15). Pennsylvania judge rules teaching of intelligent design in biology class is unconstitutional (Dec. 20).
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933369.html
Judge Littlefield might have some interse being that he is into politics as well as older judge.
In State of the Union address, President Bush announces his plan to reform Social Security; despite months of campaigning, his plan receives only a lukewarm reception (Feb. 2). Saudis (men only) are allowed to vote for the first time in municipal elections (Feb. 10). Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri > a nationalist who had called for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon—is assassinated (Feb. 14). The Terry Schiavo case becomes the focus of an emotionally charged battle in Congress (March 20). Schiavo dies 13 days after a federal judge refuses to order the reinsertion of her feeding tube (March 31).
All the Saints might be effected as well as mmany others.
Pope John Paul II dies (April 2). Benedict XVI becomes the next pope (April 24).
Mother Theresa as well as Cunnighman may have different views because Cunnighman had two abortions and Mother Theresa does not believe in abortions.
Federal appeals court upholds lower court decision that so-called Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unlawful because it fails to make an exception to the law for women whose health would be in jeopardy without the late-term procedure (July 8).
This would effect the attorney Aziza Cunningham because she is from New York as well as an attorney.
The New York Times reports that in 2002, Bush signed a presidential order to allow the National Security Agency to spy on Americans suspected of being connected to terrorist activity without warrants (Dec. 15).
The defense attoney El- Fayoumy has family from Iraq.
About 11 million Iraqis (70% of the country's registered voters) turn out to select their first permanent Parliament since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein (Dec. 15). Pennsylvania judge rules teaching of intelligent design in biology class is unconstitutional (Dec. 20).
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933369.html
Friday, July 18, 2008
Characters and Casting
Characters and Casting
1. Saint Monica- Female, African American age not specified, Mother Of Saint Augustine, Father of the Church , God’s Nag. Nags to God about whatever news bad or good, she has found out for the day. She is not liked by many people.
2. Mary Magdalene- Female, Caucasian, very shy young lady, Saint Monica Best friend, known as whore, followed Jesus through his ministry. She loves Jesus, also a witness, she tells about how Jesus and Judas were so close.
3. Jesus of Nazareth- Born: c. 5 B.C. , Birthplace: Bethlehem, Judea , Died: c. 30 A.D. (crucifixion) ,Best Known As: The son of God in the Christian religion,
Jesus of Nazareth is the central figure of the Christian religion, a savior believed to be both God incarnate and a human being. He is also known as Jesus Christ, the term "Christ" meaning anointed or chosen one.
http://www.answers.com/topic/jesus-christ?nr=1&lsc=true
4. Henrietta Iscariot- Female, mother of Judas Iscariot, Caucasian, tries to be there for Judas for emotional support
5. Pontius Pilate- Male, any race, age not specified, called to testify about what all he knows about Judas.
6. Fabiana Aziza Cunningham-Female, older than 25,Irish gypsy, an agnostic defense lawyer who obtains a writ from the God, she doesn't believe in to force a retrial for Judas.
She presents a petition signed by God to the ill-tempered Civil War era presiding judge.
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/03/03/theater/reviews/03juda.html
8.Yusef El Fayoumy, Male, older than 25, Arabian, womanizing prosecutor, wants to win the case.
9.Judge Littlefield- Male, older man, any race, went to law school, a grumpy judge who is tired of listening to all the different witnesses and seems as if he does not want to be there. He has no sense of humor and is very straight forward.
10. Gloria- Female. Any race called as an African American, older lady, God’s only Angel in the play, very mature.
Non Traditional Casting
I feel that this play has many different calls for different ethnicities , but I feel that all the men need to play men and all the women need to play women. This play is very flexible as well as diverse casting because of the language and the modernized twist of the play. Saint Monica is the only person I feel that needs to stay as what the play has called for African American. This play would seem very strange to have all her ways and language, for someone other than an African American female.
Other Characters with foreign names can also play any race just as long as they carry the accent to portray the character to the full extinct. For example, Yusef El Fayoumy, and Fabiana Aziza Cunningham.
1. Saint Monica- Female, African American age not specified, Mother Of Saint Augustine, Father of the Church , God’s Nag. Nags to God about whatever news bad or good, she has found out for the day. She is not liked by many people.
2. Mary Magdalene- Female, Caucasian, very shy young lady, Saint Monica Best friend, known as whore, followed Jesus through his ministry. She loves Jesus, also a witness, she tells about how Jesus and Judas were so close.
3. Jesus of Nazareth- Born: c. 5 B.C. , Birthplace: Bethlehem, Judea , Died: c. 30 A.D. (crucifixion) ,Best Known As: The son of God in the Christian religion,
Jesus of Nazareth is the central figure of the Christian religion, a savior believed to be both God incarnate and a human being. He is also known as Jesus Christ, the term "Christ" meaning anointed or chosen one.
http://www.answers.com/topic/jesus-christ?nr=1&lsc=true
4. Henrietta Iscariot- Female, mother of Judas Iscariot, Caucasian, tries to be there for Judas for emotional support
5. Pontius Pilate- Male, any race, age not specified, called to testify about what all he knows about Judas.
6. Fabiana Aziza Cunningham-Female, older than 25,Irish gypsy, an agnostic defense lawyer who obtains a writ from the God, she doesn't believe in to force a retrial for Judas.
She presents a petition signed by God to the ill-tempered Civil War era presiding judge.
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/03/03/theater/reviews/03juda.html
8.Yusef El Fayoumy, Male, older than 25, Arabian, womanizing prosecutor, wants to win the case.
9.Judge Littlefield- Male, older man, any race, went to law school, a grumpy judge who is tired of listening to all the different witnesses and seems as if he does not want to be there. He has no sense of humor and is very straight forward.
10. Gloria- Female. Any race called as an African American, older lady, God’s only Angel in the play, very mature.
Non Traditional Casting
I feel that this play has many different calls for different ethnicities , but I feel that all the men need to play men and all the women need to play women. This play is very flexible as well as diverse casting because of the language and the modernized twist of the play. Saint Monica is the only person I feel that needs to stay as what the play has called for African American. This play would seem very strange to have all her ways and language, for someone other than an African American female.
Other Characters with foreign names can also play any race just as long as they carry the accent to portray the character to the full extinct. For example, Yusef El Fayoumy, and Fabiana Aziza Cunningham.
Exegesis
The Facts: Exegesis
1. archaic or foreign words and phrases
-Domine Adjuva Incredulitatem Meam”- Lord Helping Unbelief, Latin word
2. idiomatic language (slang):
Bangin’- having sex with…
3. idiomatic language (slang):
“Dass”- that’s…
4. archaic or foreign words and phrases
Dismantle- to take part; disassemble; tear down
http://www.answers.com/topic/dismantle?nr=1&lsc=true
5. archaic or foreign words and phrases
-Rabble-rousing- A leader or speaker who stirs up the passions of the masses; a demagogue
http://www.answers.com/rabble-%20rousing%20
6. archaic or foreign words and phrases -
Juxtapose- To place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.
http://www.answers.com/Juxtapose
7.archaic or foreign words and phrases
-Ontological- The branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being
http://www.answers.com/ontological?nr=1&lsc=true
8.archaic or foreign words and phrases
Buxom- Healthily plump and ample of figure: Full-bosomed.
http://www.answers.com/Buxom
9. geographic settings
Basilica-
a. A public building of ancient Rome having a central nave with an apse at one or both ends and two side aisles formed by rows of columns, which was used as a courtroom or assembly hall.
b. A Christian church building of a similar design, having a nave with a semicircular apse, two or four side aisles, a narthex, and a clerestory.
2. Roman Catholic Church. A church that has been accorded certain privileges by the pope.
http://www.answers.com/Basilica
10. real people, names, and pronunciation
Simon the Zealot- The apostle Simon, called Simon the Zealot in Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13; and Simon Kananaios ("Simon" signifying שמעון "hearkening; listening", Standard Hebrew Šimʿon, Tiberian Hebrew Šimʿôn), was one of the most obscure among the apostles of Jesus; little is recorded of him aside from his name.
http://www.answers.com/Simon%20the%20Zealot
11. idiomatic language (slang):
“ax”- to ask
12.
--real people, names, and pronunciation-
Misogynist- Of or characterized by a hatred of women.
http://www.answers.com/topic/misogynistic
13. geographic settings
Cappadocia -An ancient region of Asia Minor in present-day east-central Turkey. Heart of a Hittite state and later a Persian satrapy, it was annexed by the Romans in A.D. 17.
http://www.answers.com/Cappadocia%20-
14. idiomatic language (slang):
“dishrag”- difficult, stubborn, jerk
15. idiomatic language (slang):
“ sip on dat”- so how about that, here is something for you to think about.
16. -geographic settings-
Purgatory- Roman Catholic Church. A state in which the souls of those who have died in grace must expiate their sins.
http://www.answers.com/Purgatory
17. real people, names, and pronunciation-
Mary Magdalene- Mary Magdalene is one of several women who followed and "provided for" Jesus of Nazareth during his traveling ministry, according to Christian scriptures. She is also variously portrayed in other ancient texts, medieval legends and modern interpretations as a reformed prostitute, a rich person, a disciple with special gifts and authority, and a model of feminism. Brief direct references to her in the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, indicate her importance. She is among the women present at Jesus' execution who later discover his empty tomb, and is the first person to whom he appears after his resurrection. Some Christians also identify her with unnamed women elsewhere in the Gospels, such as the "sinner" who anoints him with costly oil, or one caught in adultery whom he saves from stoning. The mother of Jesus is a different Mary.
"Magdalene" means "of Magdala," a fishing village (modern-day Migdal) on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. She is sometimes called "the Magdalene"... The Bible does not say she was a prostitute. All it mentions of her past is that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her... A 2003 novel and 2006 movie, The Da Vinci Code, popularized the theory that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, had children with her, and thus has descendants -- and that the church over the centuries has suppressed this truth... Basilicas in Vezelay and Saint-Maximin, France, both claim to house her remains.
http://www.answers.com/Mary%20Magdalene?nr=1&lsc=true
18. real people, names, and pronunciation
Saint Matthew- Matthew (1st century), apostle and evangelist. Called Levi by Mark and Luke, Matthew was a publican, i.e. a taxcollector of Jewish race who worked for the Romans, before he left all at the call of Christ (Matt. 9: 9). From very early times he has been regarded as the author of the first of the four Gospels, to which both Irenaeus and Papias are witnesses. Written in the second half of the 1st century and commonly, though not universally, believed to be dependent on Mark, Matthew's Gospel is in correct, concise style, suitable for public reading. His usual emblem as an evangelist is a man, because his genealogy emphasized the family ties of Christ.
http://www.answers.com/saint%20matthew?nr=1&lsc=true
19. real people, names, and pronunciation
Saint Thomas- Thomas (1st century), apostle. Called Didymus (=the twin) in the Gospel of John but mentioned by all the evangelists, Thomas was impulsive enough to offer to die with Jesus on the way to Bethany, but dubious both about where Christ was going and the way there ( John 11: 16 and 14: 5). Above all he is remembered as the apostle who refused to believe in the Resurrection unless he actually touched the wounds of the risen Christ ( John 20: 25–8), an attitude for which the Fathers both blamed him for his lack of faith, and thanked him for his scepticism. This was the occasion for reassuring future generations of believers by his confession of Christ's Divinity. There is much uncertainty about his missionary work after Pentecost.
http://www.answers.com/saint%20thomas
20. archaic or foreign words and phrases
exasperation- The act or an instance of exasperating/
The state of being exasperated; frustrated annoyance
http://www.answers.com/exasperation?nr=1&lsc=true
1. archaic or foreign words and phrases
-Domine Adjuva Incredulitatem Meam”- Lord Helping Unbelief, Latin word
2. idiomatic language (slang):
Bangin’- having sex with…
3. idiomatic language (slang):
“Dass”- that’s…
4. archaic or foreign words and phrases
Dismantle- to take part; disassemble; tear down
http://www.answers.com/topic/dismantle?nr=1&lsc=true
5. archaic or foreign words and phrases
-Rabble-rousing- A leader or speaker who stirs up the passions of the masses; a demagogue
http://www.answers.com/rabble-%20rousing%20
6. archaic or foreign words and phrases -
Juxtapose- To place side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.
http://www.answers.com/Juxtapose
7.archaic or foreign words and phrases
-Ontological- The branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being
http://www.answers.com/ontological?nr=1&lsc=true
8.archaic or foreign words and phrases
Buxom- Healthily plump and ample of figure: Full-bosomed.
http://www.answers.com/Buxom
9. geographic settings
Basilica-
a. A public building of ancient Rome having a central nave with an apse at one or both ends and two side aisles formed by rows of columns, which was used as a courtroom or assembly hall.
b. A Christian church building of a similar design, having a nave with a semicircular apse, two or four side aisles, a narthex, and a clerestory.
2. Roman Catholic Church. A church that has been accorded certain privileges by the pope.
http://www.answers.com/Basilica
10. real people, names, and pronunciation
Simon the Zealot- The apostle Simon, called Simon the Zealot in Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13; and Simon Kananaios ("Simon" signifying שמעון "hearkening; listening", Standard Hebrew Šimʿon, Tiberian Hebrew Šimʿôn), was one of the most obscure among the apostles of Jesus; little is recorded of him aside from his name.
http://www.answers.com/Simon%20the%20Zealot
11. idiomatic language (slang):
“ax”- to ask
12.
--real people, names, and pronunciation-
Misogynist- Of or characterized by a hatred of women.
http://www.answers.com/topic/misogynistic
13. geographic settings
Cappadocia -An ancient region of Asia Minor in present-day east-central Turkey. Heart of a Hittite state and later a Persian satrapy, it was annexed by the Romans in A.D. 17.
http://www.answers.com/Cappadocia%20-
14. idiomatic language (slang):
“dishrag”- difficult, stubborn, jerk
15. idiomatic language (slang):
“ sip on dat”- so how about that, here is something for you to think about.
16. -geographic settings-
Purgatory- Roman Catholic Church. A state in which the souls of those who have died in grace must expiate their sins.
http://www.answers.com/Purgatory
17. real people, names, and pronunciation-
Mary Magdalene- Mary Magdalene is one of several women who followed and "provided for" Jesus of Nazareth during his traveling ministry, according to Christian scriptures. She is also variously portrayed in other ancient texts, medieval legends and modern interpretations as a reformed prostitute, a rich person, a disciple with special gifts and authority, and a model of feminism. Brief direct references to her in the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, indicate her importance. She is among the women present at Jesus' execution who later discover his empty tomb, and is the first person to whom he appears after his resurrection. Some Christians also identify her with unnamed women elsewhere in the Gospels, such as the "sinner" who anoints him with costly oil, or one caught in adultery whom he saves from stoning. The mother of Jesus is a different Mary.
"Magdalene" means "of Magdala," a fishing village (modern-day Migdal) on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. She is sometimes called "the Magdalene"... The Bible does not say she was a prostitute. All it mentions of her past is that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her... A 2003 novel and 2006 movie, The Da Vinci Code, popularized the theory that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, had children with her, and thus has descendants -- and that the church over the centuries has suppressed this truth... Basilicas in Vezelay and Saint-Maximin, France, both claim to house her remains.
http://www.answers.com/Mary%20Magdalene?nr=1&lsc=true
18. real people, names, and pronunciation
Saint Matthew- Matthew (1st century), apostle and evangelist. Called Levi by Mark and Luke, Matthew was a publican, i.e. a taxcollector of Jewish race who worked for the Romans, before he left all at the call of Christ (Matt. 9: 9). From very early times he has been regarded as the author of the first of the four Gospels, to which both Irenaeus and Papias are witnesses. Written in the second half of the 1st century and commonly, though not universally, believed to be dependent on Mark, Matthew's Gospel is in correct, concise style, suitable for public reading. His usual emblem as an evangelist is a man, because his genealogy emphasized the family ties of Christ.
http://www.answers.com/saint%20matthew?nr=1&lsc=true
19. real people, names, and pronunciation
Saint Thomas- Thomas (1st century), apostle. Called Didymus (=the twin) in the Gospel of John but mentioned by all the evangelists, Thomas was impulsive enough to offer to die with Jesus on the way to Bethany, but dubious both about where Christ was going and the way there ( John 11: 16 and 14: 5). Above all he is remembered as the apostle who refused to believe in the Resurrection unless he actually touched the wounds of the risen Christ ( John 20: 25–8), an attitude for which the Fathers both blamed him for his lack of faith, and thanked him for his scepticism. This was the occasion for reassuring future generations of believers by his confession of Christ's Divinity. There is much uncertainty about his missionary work after Pentecost.
http://www.answers.com/saint%20thomas
20. archaic or foreign words and phrases
exasperation- The act or an instance of exasperating/
The state of being exasperated; frustrated annoyance
http://www.answers.com/exasperation?nr=1&lsc=true
Basics:
The Facts: Basics
Title- The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Author(s)- Stephen Adly Guirgis
Language/Translator(s)- English
Year of Original Publication- Feb. 2005
Genre/Length/Structure- 2 Act play, approximately 2 ½ hours long
Agency Controlling License- Dramatists Play Service Inc.
Royalty Fee(s)- FEE: $75 per performance.
Cast Breakdown (M/F)- Cast: 10 men, 5 women (doubling): 15 total
Time and Setting- Set in a time-bending, darkly comic world between heaven and hell, in a courtroom in HOPE CITY. UNIT SET
http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3629
Brief Bio of Author(s) -
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Stephen Adly Guirgis is a longtime member of NYC's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. They include: the extended, sold out run of THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, OUR LADY OF 121st STREET (10 best plays of 2003; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Best Play Nominations), JESUS HOPPED THE A TRAIN ( Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Olivier Nomination as London's Best New Play, Barrymore Award, Detroit Free Press Best Play Award), and IN ARABIA WE'D ALL BE KINGS (10 Best of '99, TimeOut New York, critics pick, TimeOut London). All four plays were originally produced by LAByrinth, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and are published through Dramatists Play Service and by Faber and Faber. Stephen was awarded a 2004 TCG fellowship, attended the 2004 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by FILMAKER MAGAZINE, and appeared in Entertainment Weekly’s 2005 Summer Must List. He has received new play commissions from Manhattan Theater Club and South Coast Rep, is a member of New Dramatists and the MCC Playwright’s Coalition, and is a regular contributor to ESOPUS Magazine. Television writing credits include “NYPD Blue”, “The Sopranos”, David Milch’s CBS drama “Big Apple”, and Shane Salerno's NBC drama “UC: Undercover”. As an actor, he has appeared in Brett C. Leonard’s GUINEA PIG SOLO produced at the Public Theatre in New York, and played leading roles in two recent films: Todd Solondz's PALINDROMES, and Brett C. Leonard's award winning JAILBAIT opposite Michael Pitt. Currently, he is developing a project with Mos Def and HBO, and is writing his first feature film for Scott Rudin Productions, to be directed by George C. Wolfe. He lives in New York City.
http://www.dramatists.com/text/authorbios.asp
Brief Plot Summary-
The play centers on Judas’ trial in purgatory, and a liberal, young, female lawyer’s attempt to have him cleared of all charges and let in to heaven. Many famous witnesses are called on his behalf and against him including Mother Teresa, Sigmund Freud, and Lucifer himself. What makes these characters so unique is their portrayal. They use clichés skillfully by upholding them and debunking them at the same time. Typical religious figures such as Peter, Matthew, and Judas himself are modernized in a way that makes them accessible without diminishing the root of their characters.
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/oct/29/theater-review-last-day-judas-iscariot/
Title- The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Author(s)- Stephen Adly Guirgis
Language/Translator(s)- English
Year of Original Publication- Feb. 2005
Genre/Length/Structure- 2 Act play, approximately 2 ½ hours long
Agency Controlling License- Dramatists Play Service Inc.
Royalty Fee(s)- FEE: $75 per performance.
Cast Breakdown (M/F)- Cast: 10 men, 5 women (doubling): 15 total
Time and Setting- Set in a time-bending, darkly comic world between heaven and hell, in a courtroom in HOPE CITY. UNIT SET
http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3629
Brief Bio of Author(s) -
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Stephen Adly Guirgis is a longtime member of NYC's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. They include: the extended, sold out run of THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, OUR LADY OF 121st STREET (10 best plays of 2003; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Best Play Nominations), JESUS HOPPED THE A TRAIN ( Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Olivier Nomination as London's Best New Play, Barrymore Award, Detroit Free Press Best Play Award), and IN ARABIA WE'D ALL BE KINGS (10 Best of '99, TimeOut New York, critics pick, TimeOut London). All four plays were originally produced by LAByrinth, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and are published through Dramatists Play Service and by Faber and Faber. Stephen was awarded a 2004 TCG fellowship, attended the 2004 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by FILMAKER MAGAZINE, and appeared in Entertainment Weekly’s 2005 Summer Must List. He has received new play commissions from Manhattan Theater Club and South Coast Rep, is a member of New Dramatists and the MCC Playwright’s Coalition, and is a regular contributor to ESOPUS Magazine. Television writing credits include “NYPD Blue”, “The Sopranos”, David Milch’s CBS drama “Big Apple”, and Shane Salerno's NBC drama “UC: Undercover”. As an actor, he has appeared in Brett C. Leonard’s GUINEA PIG SOLO produced at the Public Theatre in New York, and played leading roles in two recent films: Todd Solondz's PALINDROMES, and Brett C. Leonard's award winning JAILBAIT opposite Michael Pitt. Currently, he is developing a project with Mos Def and HBO, and is writing his first feature film for Scott Rudin Productions, to be directed by George C. Wolfe. He lives in New York City.
http://www.dramatists.com/text/authorbios.asp
Brief Plot Summary-
The play centers on Judas’ trial in purgatory, and a liberal, young, female lawyer’s attempt to have him cleared of all charges and let in to heaven. Many famous witnesses are called on his behalf and against him including Mother Teresa, Sigmund Freud, and Lucifer himself. What makes these characters so unique is their portrayal. They use clichés skillfully by upholding them and debunking them at the same time. Typical religious figures such as Peter, Matthew, and Judas himself are modernized in a way that makes them accessible without diminishing the root of their characters.
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/oct/29/theater-review-last-day-judas-iscariot/
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Graduate Degree Programs
Department of Theatre ArtsThe University of Iowa
107 Theatre Building
Iowa City, IA
The MFA Program in Dramaturgy
requires a minimum of sixty-four semester-hours of coursework in dramaturgy 2 and half years
theatre history, and dramatic literature/theory/criticism. Although students must fulfill particular course requirements, each student’s plan of study is individualized in consultation with the program head.
This program has a limit of ony 3 student enrollment for this MFA degree.
http://www.uiowa.edu/~theatre/programs/grad-dramaturgy.html
The Towson University Master of Fine Arts in Theatre, Towson, Md.,
Of the 60 units required for graduation, 43 units consist of the program's core courses. We advise students to emphasize the core curriculum during the first two years, so as to leave the third year open to place primary focus on their final projects. Total of 3 years.
Students accepted into this program have already begun to articulate a creative vision, but have decided to return to graduate school to both expand and refine their vision. Whether directing, designing, performing, producing, constructing or writing, the student/artist must be willing to work both independently and collaboratively.
http://grad.towson.edu/program/master/thea-mfa/index.asp
Ohio State University
PH. D Program in Dramaturgy
minimum of 90 credit hours (including the credit hours for the dissertation)
*The Ph.D. program is designed to serve prospective teachers, critics, and scholars in theatre studies
University of Alambama
Tuscaloosa, AL
MFA in playwriting/ Dramaturgy
Virgina Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia
MFA 3 years
* You must have an minium of 30 undergraduate hours to apply for this MFA program
Ranked one of the highest 100 universities.
Mary Baldwin College MFA
MFA — Minimum of 63 hours (including the MLitt)Concentrations in:– Acting– Directing– Dramaturgy
Qualified MLitt graduates with a minimum GPA of 3.3 may apply for advanced work leading to the terminal MFA degree in acting, directing, or dramaturgy. The MFA requires the MLitt degree, an additional 30 hours of course work, and a thesis and defense.
Director
*MLitt/MFA attracts applicants from all over the country. The MLitt/MFA program is open to qualified men and women.
href="http://www.mbc.edu/shakespeare/degree.asp">http://www.mbc.edu/shakespeare/degree.asp
Roosevelt University
MFA, Dramaturgy
Chicago Illinois
* you need a thesis production performance
Hunter College
New York, New York
MFA, Dramaturgy
2 year program
* this is an fast pace school
California State @ LongBeach
Long Beach, California
3 years
MFA Dramaturgy, Dramatic Writing
*Entertainment industry internship opportunities and placements through the California State University statewide Media Internship Program
York university
Toronto, Canada
MFA Dance Dramaturgy
107 Theatre Building
Iowa City, IA
The MFA Program in Dramaturgy
requires a minimum of sixty-four semester-hours of coursework in dramaturgy 2 and half years
theatre history, and dramatic literature/theory/criticism. Although students must fulfill particular course requirements, each student’s plan of study is individualized in consultation with the program head.
This program has a limit of ony 3 student enrollment for this MFA degree.
http://www.uiowa.edu/~theatre/programs/grad-dramaturgy.html
The Towson University Master of Fine Arts in Theatre, Towson, Md.,
Of the 60 units required for graduation, 43 units consist of the program's core courses. We advise students to emphasize the core curriculum during the first two years, so as to leave the third year open to place primary focus on their final projects. Total of 3 years.
Students accepted into this program have already begun to articulate a creative vision, but have decided to return to graduate school to both expand and refine their vision. Whether directing, designing, performing, producing, constructing or writing, the student/artist must be willing to work both independently and collaboratively.
http://grad.towson.edu/program/master/thea-mfa/index.asp
Ohio State University
PH. D Program in Dramaturgy
minimum of 90 credit hours (including the credit hours for the dissertation)
*The Ph.D. program is designed to serve prospective teachers, critics, and scholars in theatre studies
University of Alambama
Tuscaloosa, AL
MFA in playwriting/ Dramaturgy
Virgina Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia
MFA 3 years
* You must have an minium of 30 undergraduate hours to apply for this MFA program
Ranked one of the highest 100 universities.
Mary Baldwin College MFA
MFA — Minimum of 63 hours (including the MLitt)Concentrations in:– Acting– Directing– Dramaturgy
Qualified MLitt graduates with a minimum GPA of 3.3 may apply for advanced work leading to the terminal MFA degree in acting, directing, or dramaturgy. The MFA requires the MLitt degree, an additional 30 hours of course work, and a thesis and defense.
Director
*MLitt/MFA attracts applicants from all over the country. The MLitt/MFA program is open to qualified men and women.
href="http://www.mbc.edu/shakespeare/degree.asp">http://www.mbc.edu/shakespeare/degree.asp
Roosevelt University
MFA, Dramaturgy
Chicago Illinois
* you need a thesis production performance
Hunter College
New York, New York
MFA, Dramaturgy
2 year program
* this is an fast pace school
California State @ LongBeach
Long Beach, California
3 years
MFA Dramaturgy, Dramatic Writing
*Entertainment industry internship opportunities and placements through the California State University statewide Media Internship Program
York university
Toronto, Canada
MFA Dance Dramaturgy
Dramaturgy as a Profession
Carlyn Aquiline, Literary Manager/Dramaturg
City Theatre Company
1300 Bingham St , Pittsburgh , PA 15203
Lort Theatre D
Season
Variable (no set beginning or end date)
Celise Kalke, Artistic Associate/Dramaturg
Robert W Woodruff Arts Center , 1280 Peachtree St N.E. , Atlanta , GA 30309
Alliance Theatre
Lort Theatre B, D
Gavin Witt, Resident Dramaturg
CENTERSTAGE
Baltimore, Maryland
Lort Classification B, C
Walter Bilderback, Dramaturg/Literary Manager
The Wilma Theater
265 S Broad St , Philadelphia , PA 19107
LORT Membership Yes
LORT Categories C
Suzy Fay, Artistic Associate, Dramaturgy
The Lark Theatre Company
939 8th Ave, #301 , New York , NY 10019
Diane Conrad Merchant Dramaturg
Northshore Theatre
North Shore Center , 9501 Skokie Blvd , Skokie , IL 60077
Lort Yes C
Celise Kalke, Resident Dramaturg
Court Theatre
5535 S Ellis Ave , Chicago , IL 60637
membership Lort Yes D
Aaron Leichter, Literary Manager/Dramaturg
Manhattan Ensemble Theater
259 W 4th St , #3 , New York , NY 10014
Micheal Kinghorn, Senior Dramaturg
Arena Stage
1101 6th St S.W. , Washington , DC 20024
LORT Membership Yes
LORT Categories B+ B D
Elizabeth Pool, Resident Dramaturg
The People's Light & Theatre Company
Theatre Co , 39 Conestoga Rd , Malvern , PA 19355-1706
LORT Membership Yes
LORT Categories D
City Theatre Company
1300 Bingham St , Pittsburgh , PA 15203
Lort Theatre D
Season
Variable (no set beginning or end date)
Celise Kalke, Artistic Associate/Dramaturg
Robert W Woodruff Arts Center , 1280 Peachtree St N.E. , Atlanta , GA 30309
Alliance Theatre
Lort Theatre B, D
Gavin Witt, Resident Dramaturg
CENTERSTAGE
Baltimore, Maryland
Lort Classification B, C
Walter Bilderback, Dramaturg/Literary Manager
The Wilma Theater
265 S Broad St , Philadelphia , PA 19107
LORT Membership Yes
LORT Categories C
Suzy Fay, Artistic Associate, Dramaturgy
The Lark Theatre Company
939 8th Ave, #301 , New York , NY 10019
Diane Conrad Merchant Dramaturg
Northshore Theatre
North Shore Center , 9501 Skokie Blvd , Skokie , IL 60077
Lort Yes C
Celise Kalke, Resident Dramaturg
Court Theatre
5535 S Ellis Ave , Chicago , IL 60637
membership Lort Yes D
Aaron Leichter, Literary Manager/Dramaturg
Manhattan Ensemble Theater
259 W 4th St , #3 , New York , NY 10014
Micheal Kinghorn, Senior Dramaturg
Arena Stage
1101 6th St S.W. , Washington , DC 20024
LORT Membership Yes
LORT Categories B+ B D
Elizabeth Pool, Resident Dramaturg
The People's Light & Theatre Company
Theatre Co , 39 Conestoga Rd , Malvern , PA 19355-1706
LORT Membership Yes
LORT Categories D
What is Dramaturgy?
1.Online Definition: Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. Some dramatists combine writing and dramaturgy when creating a drama. Others work with a specialist, called a dramaturge, to adapt a work to the stage.
Dramaturgy can also be defined, more broadly, as shaping a story or like elements into a form that can be acted. Dramaturgy gives the work or the performance a structure. More than actual writing, a dramaturg's work can often be defined as designing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy
2.Dictionary Definition: The art of the theater, especially the writing of plays.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dramaturgy
3.Unusual Definition: Dramaturgy refers to a set of activities which are considered to be necessary to the theatre-making process, and the functions of dramaturgy are carried out by the person known as the 'Dramaturg'.
http://www.artsonthemove.co.uk/resources/dramaturgy.html
4.Historical Content:the art or technique of dramatic composition or theatrical representation. In this sense English dramaturgy and French dramaturgie are both borrowed from German Dramaturgie, a word used by the German dramatist and critic Gotthold Lessing in an influential series of essays entitled Hamburgische Dramaturgie (“The Hamburg Dramaturgy”), published from 1767 to 1769. The word is from the Greek dramatourgía, “a dramatic composition” or “action of a play.”
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171026/dramaturgy#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=dramaturgy%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia
5.Job Description
A thorough text/story analysis.
Research into the prior productions of the text as needed.
Historical research of various sorts.
Attendance at at least one quarter of the rehearsals, the first read-through, and as many run-throughs as possible.
Oral or written notes for the director.
Attendance at some preproduction meetings.
A loyalty to the basic mission and ideas of the production and the text. Maintaining that loyalty in the midst of technical difficulties.
Program contributions.
Flexibility.
Other supplementary jobs for the dramaturg, especially in an institution.
Advising the marketing team.
Working with the education staff.
Participation in post-play discussions.
Input on press releases.
Text work -- ranging from true adaptation to suggesting cuts. Keeping a copy of the script as performed (working with the stage manager).
Historical research in conversation with the sound, light and set designers.
Text work with the actors - especially on poetic drama.
Active collaboration with the director during the rehearsal process -- A vocal presence in rehearsals.
Play selection.
Organizing readings of new plays.
Rooting and keeping logs of collaborative writing/performances.
Keeping track of research materials -- both those provided by the dramaturg and those brought in by other people.
http://www.dramaturgy.net/dramaturgy/what/Job.html
6. My on Definition: When a play or drama has been shaped, I see this as an editor of a play that sees something for the better. For example if I am writing a paper and I take it to the writing center they edit and change because they see something that will enhance the paper. Dramaturgy, shaping of written plays that is for the better.
Dramaturgy can also be defined, more broadly, as shaping a story or like elements into a form that can be acted. Dramaturgy gives the work or the performance a structure. More than actual writing, a dramaturg's work can often be defined as designing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy
2.Dictionary Definition: The art of the theater, especially the writing of plays.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dramaturgy
3.Unusual Definition: Dramaturgy refers to a set of activities which are considered to be necessary to the theatre-making process, and the functions of dramaturgy are carried out by the person known as the 'Dramaturg'.
http://www.artsonthemove.co.uk/resources/dramaturgy.html
4.Historical Content:the art or technique of dramatic composition or theatrical representation. In this sense English dramaturgy and French dramaturgie are both borrowed from German Dramaturgie, a word used by the German dramatist and critic Gotthold Lessing in an influential series of essays entitled Hamburgische Dramaturgie (“The Hamburg Dramaturgy”), published from 1767 to 1769. The word is from the Greek dramatourgía, “a dramatic composition” or “action of a play.”
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/171026/dramaturgy#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=dramaturgy%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia
5.Job Description
A thorough text/story analysis.
Research into the prior productions of the text as needed.
Historical research of various sorts.
Attendance at at least one quarter of the rehearsals, the first read-through, and as many run-throughs as possible.
Oral or written notes for the director.
Attendance at some preproduction meetings.
A loyalty to the basic mission and ideas of the production and the text. Maintaining that loyalty in the midst of technical difficulties.
Program contributions.
Flexibility.
Other supplementary jobs for the dramaturg, especially in an institution.
Advising the marketing team.
Working with the education staff.
Participation in post-play discussions.
Input on press releases.
Text work -- ranging from true adaptation to suggesting cuts. Keeping a copy of the script as performed (working with the stage manager).
Historical research in conversation with the sound, light and set designers.
Text work with the actors - especially on poetic drama.
Active collaboration with the director during the rehearsal process -- A vocal presence in rehearsals.
Play selection.
Organizing readings of new plays.
Rooting and keeping logs of collaborative writing/performances.
Keeping track of research materials -- both those provided by the dramaturg and those brought in by other people.
http://www.dramaturgy.net/dramaturgy/what/Job.html
6. My on Definition: When a play or drama has been shaped, I see this as an editor of a play that sees something for the better. For example if I am writing a paper and I take it to the writing center they edit and change because they see something that will enhance the paper. Dramaturgy, shaping of written plays that is for the better.
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