BLACK SNOW, Theatre Satire, at USC Experimental Theatre Space
February 5, 2013
COLUMBIA, SC – February 25 – March 3, 2013 – The USC Department of Theatre and Dance will stage Black Snow, a farcical look at theatrical life behind the curtains, February 25 – March 3, 2013, at the Center for Performance Experiment.
Show times are 8pm. Feb. 25-27; 8pm & 10:30pm, Mar. 1; and 8pm, Mar. 2-3. There is no performance on Feb. 28. The Center for Performance Experiment is located in Hamilton Gymnasium, at 1512 Pendleton St. Admission is free. Audiences are encouraged to arrive early, as seating is limited.
Playwright Keith Reddin authored this adaptation of legendary Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov’s 1930s novel, also titled Black Snow. The novel is considered to be a semi-autobiographical account of Bulgakov’s experience with the Moscow Art Theatre, headed in part by influential director Konstantin Stanislavski, whose acting technique has gone on to be a foundation of modern, western approaches to the art. In Black Snow, a writer named Sergei Maxudov is persuaded to submit his novel to the Independent Theatre to have it adapted for the stage, and he quickly finds himself and his creation subject to the whims of the theatre’s figureheads. Publication of Bulgakov’s work, which was often critical of the Soviet government, was at the strict mercy of Soviet censors during his lifetime, and Black Snow didn’t actually see publication until 1967, more than twenty-five years after his death.
Professor Steven Pearson, who is directing the production, says that while the story has obvious ties to Bulgakov’s own struggles in the early part of the twentieth-century, the problems of putting on a work in the theatre haven’t changed much.
What happens in Black Snow is really not that different from what happens in big theatres today, he says. It’s still difficult for a young playwright to get their work done in NY, LA, Chicago or even in the regional theatres around the country. This play satirizes the whole production system of big theatres, and portrays the difficulty of getting new plays done in the face of so many already established greats. To get a new play produced is really difficult and this play does a great job of showing how funny it can be, as well.
Pearson says he’s known of Bulgakov’s work, and this story, for quite a long while, and is a fan of Keith Reddin’s adaptation, honored with a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Play for its 1993 Chicago premiere. The Chicago Tribune praised the play at that time as one of the funniest plays of the season, whose second act gets better, darker, even funnier, more poignant and extremely powerful.
Cast in the production are first-year graduate-level acting students Cory Lipman and James Costello, third-year graduate actor Catherine Friesen, theatre instructor David Britt and theatre professor Robyn Hunt.
For more information on Black Snow or the theatre program at the University of SC, please contact Kevin Bush by phone at 803-777-9353 or via email at [email protected].
