The Taper's Stellar 'Father Comes Home From the Wars' Arts and Culture

Table of Content

• Modernized ‘Jungle Book’ Production Comes to Pasadena Playhouse on July 17th
• American Apparel and Manufacturing in L.A.
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• Performance Length
• Sterling K. Brown Jumps From ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’ to Civil War in ‘Father Comes Home’
• Review: ‘Tootsie’ Proves Its Worth as a Musical
• FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS, DISGRACED and More Slated for 2016 at CTG's Mark Taper Forum

Stay up to date with all things KCRW by signing up for our newsletters! And, if you can support our efforts, make a donation today.Sign-up for our newsletters. Though all of the performances are impressive, Brown serves as the anchor. It’s a low-key portrayal, but Hero’s barely contained rage is always visible, as is a self-hatred that reveals he’s more like the Colonel then he admits. Penny wants him to stay, but the Oldest Old Man , a slave who is like a father to Hero, thinks he should head off to war, even if the Colonel’s promise may not be true.

Bonney has a strong handle on tone and is able to navigate rapidly from comedy to pathos, often displaying both simultaneously, which at times leaves half the audience laughing and the other half disturbed. She also effectively incorporates Steven Bargonetti, who throughout the production provides impressive musical accompaniment on the guitar and banjo. The three parts are one story with the same characters in the same time period, though either of the first two segments could be presented alone and still feel complete. Brown was part of the play's 2014 world premiere at the Public Theater in New York. The rest of the Taper cast is collectively strong, though Powell's Homer and Wingate's Smith aren't as sharply characterized as they could be.

Modernized ‘Jungle Book’ Production Comes to Pasadena Playhouse on July 17th

Hero is played by Sterling Brown, who played Christopher Darden in the FX miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.” The master is played by Michael McKean from “Better Call Saul” and “This is Spinal Tap.” It was written by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks. In this devastatingly beautiful new play set during the Civil War, a slave named Hero (played bySterling K. Brown) is offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy. The choice is to leave the woman and people he loves for what may be an empty promise. His decision brings him face to face not only with a nation at war with itself, but with what freedom truly means.

But the Oldest Old Man , his surrogate father, wishes him to put on the scraps of uniform the Colonel has given him and seek out a better fortune for himself than he'll find picking cotton. Looking for a Twitter alternative to get your theatre news? BroadwayWorld is now on two new micro-blogging social media sites. A new art and culture exhibit, FUTURE WITHOUT FEAR, is set to open Jan. 13, 2023 and run through Jan. 26, 2023 at the Praz-Delavallade gallery and will be free and open to the public. LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE has announced that pianist and actor Hershey Felder will present his musical masterpiece as he portrays Monsieur Chopin in CHOPIN IN PARIS. The brilliantly subversive "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" by Martin McDonagh will close out the Taper's 49th season on a darkly comic note, November 9 through December 18, 2016.

American Apparel and Manufacturing in L.A.

"Disgraced" then premiered in London at the Bush Theatre in 2013, and made its Broadway debut in 2014. Akhtar's play "The Invisible Hand" was nominated for the ATCA/Steinberg Award, and won Best New Work 2013 from the St. Louis Theater Circle. "These five playwrights have strong, distinctive voices," said Ritchie. "Their tales are riveting. Plan to spend the entire season at the edge of your seat."

Hero expresses ambivalence about what his life will be worth is he no longer can command a price. “Seems like the worth of a colored man, once he’s made free, is less than his worth when he’s a slave,” he says. And both of these dimensions are fully realized in Brown’s sonorous performance. This section is enlivened by the return of Hero’s dog, Odyssey (played with roving canine high-spiritedness by Patrena Murray in a kind of furry vest).

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They were doing incredible stuff that was very funny but also very socially conscious. It feels now like we’re entering a time where people are willing to push that envelope again. Parks mixes modern speech with 19th century dialects, and the costumes represent various time periods. That is only part of the boundary-breaking, as she also enjoys blending reality with fantasy. A case in point occurs in the final section, when she matter-of-factly makes Hero’s dog Odyssey capable of human speech.

Michael Ritchie, CTG's Artistic Director, announced five important and involving plays, from celebrated new works to definitive productions of classics, for the theatre's 2016 season at the Los Angeles Music Center. The evening also features bluesy songs, well played by Steven Bargonetti at the side of the stage, that add atmosphere and dimension. TheFather Comes Hometunes, written by Parks, are woven in between and at times worked into the personal and public battles shown in Father Comes Home From the Wars. The play will be at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles through May 15.

Performance Length

It’s an ambitious, nearly three-hour production that breaks new ground in depicting the now-familiar era of American slavery. First, the play explores some of the complicated moral dilemmas faced by the slaves themselves, giving them an agency and a culpability that is far too often bypassed. And second, it frames the conflict not as some stilted, hyper-serious period piece — but as a yarn loaded with modern idioms and an often whimsical humor.

We find Homer and Penny carving out a life for themselves, post-Hero. Parks introduces a new group of slaves, runaways who are headed to freedom and want Homer and Penny to join them. The arrival of the dog Odyssey (pronounced "Odd-see" because of his eyes) is a harbinger of another return. Patrena Murray's earnest performance as Odyssey is a pillar of emblematic fidelity , but her presence causes the writing to jump the rails a bit here. While it’s set during the Civil War, it has a remarkable way of bringing things to light that are happening right now.

Rather, he’ll be on stage at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, starring in the first preview performance of Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3). The 2014 play by Pulitzer winner Suzan-Lori Parks is making its West Coast premiere, officially opening April 17. "These playwrights are exploring what it means to be part of a culture, a community and a family. Their characters are confronted with decisions that will challenge and ultimately define them," said Ritchie.

And soon his fellow slaves begin wagering on whether he’ll join the Confederate fight. Phylicia Rashad, who directed Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at the Taper in 2013, will direct this groundbreaking play which depicts the racism and exploitation in the music industry through a 1927 recording session in Chicago with a legendary blues singer. "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is inspired by the real-life Gertrude "Ma" Rainey. Ayad Akhtar was born in New York City and raised in Milwaukee. His play "Disgraced" premiered at the American Theater Company in January 2012 and was staged at LCT3/Lincoln Center in New York in October 2012.

Sterling K. Brown Jumps From ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’ to Civil War in ‘Father Comes Home’

There's a character named Homer, a love interest named Penny and even a dog named Odyssey. What's more, there's a hero named Hero, who goes off to war and returns to find things have changed quite a bit while he's been away. On the one hand, she adopts a traditional three-act play structure and uses deliberate echoes of classic Homeric literature, giving the leads names like Hero and Penny and Odyssey, for Hero’s loyal dog.

This loyal and lovable pooch has a full report on Hero’s whereabouts but is easily distracted by the smells and sights of characters who are fiercely debating whether to make a break for it or wait around for a possible good ending to the Civil War. He also offers occasional accompaniment, allowing the playwright’s springy dialogue to play like recitative. Scenic design is by Neil Patel, costume design is by ESosa, lighting design is by Lap Chi Chu, sound design is by Dan Moses Schreier and Bargonetti is the music director. Casting is by Meg Fister and the production stage manager is Evangeline Rose Whitlock. The Colonel is a tour-de-force role for the always interesting Michael McKean, who is either playing an outright bastard or a closet hero himself.