Monday, July 27, 2009

Production History!!!


University of Washington - School of Drama

The Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre
Seattle, Washington
December 2008
Director: Mark Jenkins
Set Designer: Lucian Connole
Costume Designer: Lucian Connole





The cast doesn't go out of their way to persuade you they're Russian--by and large they stick with American accents--but the closest thing we have to the maternal bosom of a state bureaucracy-sponsored theatre is a state university drama department, so the actors have firsthand observation of how precious guaranteed lifetime employment is.
-Michael van Baker, Seattlest
http://seattlest.com/2008/12/08/uws_quick_change_room_asks_what_pri_1.php


The cast features the MFA Acting Class of 2010. The play paints the crumbling Soviet Union as an ever present backdrop to the inner workings of the struggling Kuzlov Theatre of Leningrad (soon to be St. Petersburg).
-Joel Schwarz, University Week
http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=45426

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Creede Repertory Theatre

CRT Black Box Theatre
Creede, Colorado
July 2004
Director: Cynthia Levin
Scenic Designer: Ryan Wentworth
Costume Designer: Georgianna Londre
Lighting Designer: Jeff Cady
Propmaster: Bonnie Franks
Sound Designer: Tristan Wilson



This work by Nagle Jackson highlights the absurdity of politics, greed, and American musicals, in a simultaneously serious and laugh-out-loud funny play about a Russian theater company which decides to convert Chekhov's The Three Sisters into a musical called O My Sister!.
-Marcia Darnell, Colorado Central Magazine

http://www.cozine.com/archive/cc2004/01240291.html

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University of Michigan

Mendelssohn Theatre
Ann Arbor, Michigan
February 2004
Director: Philip Kerr
Scenic/Lighting Designer: Gary Decker
Costume Designer: Sheila McClear
Sound Designer: Christopher Konovaliv


Director Philip Kerr, a professor, describes it as a bittersweet comedy..... The play was chosen not only because of the St. Petersburg themesemester in the fall. “Since September 11, we’re more sensitive to change in our society right here.”.... As ticket prices climb and the new social structure in Russia leaves many hungry and without material goods, the public’s desire for Western entertainment increases. So (the acting group) compromises and shifts Chekhov’s play into a rather tacky musical.... Sound is consequently an important part of the production, and there are even live musicians on stage in several scenes. The play provides strong acting roles, said Kerr of the 10 leading characters, and “the cast is superb.”
-Katie Marie Gates, The Michigan Daily
http://www.michigandaily.com/content/russian-heritage-honored-theater


Sounds like the perfect backdrop for a comedy, right? Indeed, this is the thought-provoking setting for Nagle Jackson's wry comedy "The Quick-Change Room," a play which shows how perestroika was both a blessing and a curse on the international stage ... and on some smaller stages as well.

-Joel Aalberts, Newsletter

http://www.music.umich.edu/performances_events/productions/past/03-04/uprod-qcroom.html#newsletter

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RJeneration (in association with 14th Street Y and The York Shakespeare Company)

14th Street Y Theatre
New York, NY
July 2007
Director/Choreographer: Seth Duerr
Costume Designer: Sean Sullivan
Set Design: Company collaboration






Director and choreographer Seth Duerr does an outstanding job moving the play through its many scenes, onstage in Chekhov's play, offstage in Jackson's, highlighting how the quick-change room is the playwright's metaphor for the sudden transformation of Russia from a communist economy to free-for-all capitalism. Funny and sad, "The Quick-Change Room" is filled with Russian irony and fatalism. Chekhov would have loved it.

-Paulanne Simmons, The New York Theatre Wire

http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/ps07075t.htm


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Whitman College

Harper Joy Theatre
Walla Walla, Washington
Fall, 1994

Director: Nancy Simon
Costume Designer: Aurora Stowell
Set and Lighting Designer: Tom Hines


http://www.whitman.edu/theatre/tech/productions.html

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Lab Theater Company and Pacific Resident Theatre

Pacific Resident Theatre
Venice, California
October 1997
Director: Orson Bean
Set designer Eric Lowell Renschler
Lighting designer Deborah E. Constantine
Sound Designer: Peter Stenshoel
Lighting Designer: Kathi O’Donohue


Jackson is able to garner more mileage from this conceit than one might have thought possible, and also displays a gift for clever scene construction, incisive characterizations and sharp comic dialog. He is aided by Bean's precise direction and excellent performances from the entire cast. But ultimately, "The Quick Change Room" is overlong and confused in its direction; there's nothing as good for the theater, it practically seems to be telling us, as a healthy dose of communism.
- Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

http://www.allbusiness.com/services/motion-pictures/4919153-1.html

Shaped around a production of Chekhov's ''Three Sisters'' that will evolve in alarming ways, Mr. Jackson's script is neatly constructed, for sure. And there's no missing its points. But as directed by Orson Bean (yes, the actor and television personality), the work only seldom achieves the breakneck timing it needs to keep you from pondering its obviousness. And the play's piety about Chekhov's masterpiece is actually more annoying than the characters' mutilation of it.
BEN BRANTLEY, The New York Times

http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?pagewanted=print&html_title=&tols_title=QUICK-CHANGE%20ROOM,%20THE%20(PLAY)&pdate=19971013&byline=By%20BEN%20BRANTLEY&id=1077011432738

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Denver Center Theater Company(Original Production)

The Ricketson Theater
Director:Paul Weidner
Set Designer: Michael Ganio
Costume Designer: David Kay Mickelsen
Lighting Designer: Charles R. McLeod
Sound Designer: Don Tindall

Jackson's commendable take on this transition of power skillfully blends farce with a sympathetic regard for the faithful who have lived for art and find themselves adrift in a dangerously material world. His humor sometimes carries the whiff of '40s comedies, which underscores the nostalgia for grand theater that brims over in his writing.

Paul Weidner's direction succeeds in unifying a multicharacter play into hard-hitting satire. Michael Ganio's evocative setting establishes a faded elegance. Special praise should go to David Kay Mickelsen for the brilliance of his costuming, garments that are seen only for a moment in this striking backstage commentary on the work out in front.

-Allen Young, Variety Magazine

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117909708.html?categoryid=31&cs=


Capitalism doesn't always equal freedom, especially in the arts. That's the bitter pill served up by Nagle Jackson's The Quick-Change Room at the Denver Center Theatre Company. The message goes down easily--sweetened by Jackson's piquant humor--but it burns in the belly.
David Kay Mickelsen's admirable set, though not ragged enough to convey the Kuzlov's deteriorating condition, has a comfortable integrity as the characters move from one spot to another. The effect is like movie editing, really: Lights go down on one scene and instantly come up on another part of the stage. The brisk pace perfectly suits the play, and Paul Weidner's direction is as crisp as crackers.
-Unknown, Westworld
http://www.westword.com/1995-02-01/culture/russian-dressing/

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