presets Approaching Moomtaj:
A Fairytale for Grownups by
Michael Weller
World
Premiere
September 15th - October 16th,
2004
Directed by Rick Lombardo
Set
design by
Janie E. Howland
Original music by
Haddon Kime
Costume design by
Frances Nelson McSherry
Lighting design by
Dan Meeker
Multimedia Design by
Dorian DesLauriers
Sound design by
Haddon Kime & Rick Lombardo
Cast
Walker Dance/Sir William
Powers
..........
Robert Prescott
Wylie Dance/Sufi Sid
..........
Thomas Derrah
Kelly Dance/Queen Aunt Noor
..........
Rachel Harker
Faith Cherubini/Fatma
..........
Natalie Brown
Madeline/Mawan
..........
Lordan Napoli
Josh Dance/Boy
..........
Jacob Aaron Brandt
A Bakht
..........
Kevin Topka
Production Photos
Jacob Aaron Brandt and Robert Prescott
Tommy Derrah and Robert Prescott
Listening Station
Here is a piece I call IMAGINING
MOOMTAJ. It's an amalgamation of themes and ideas
form this show...
Kevin Topka, a bodybuilder with a, how shall
I say, "very respectable" stage presence, played a
Bahkt Warrior in this play. From time to time the Bahkt would
jump out to threaten someone. In the spirit of a video game,
this is what you'd hear when this happened. For the full effect
play it loud!
Sound
Advice
Traveled back to Boston for
a weekend to do this one with my friends at New Rep. A really
interesting piece that just kept evolving in every way,
and probably will all the way through the run. Great cast
on this one as well. Tommy Derrah is amazing, but everyone
already knows that. So immediate and present in every scene
he plays.
As far as my job is concerned.
I took along my usual bag of tricks in a heavy piano case.
Instead of my Radium USB synth I opted to use my MOTU MTP
AV, and borrowed a friends Korg X5 unit for the MIDI input.
Worked like a charm. I don't know what it is with these
USB MIDI keyboards, but they just don't feel right. Rick
and I set up two stations for this one. He worked the levels,
cue names and decks while I produced the effects and such.
It worked quite well.
As far as the play is concerned,
the writing really grew on me. The play is centered around
a man who is in the throes of a mid-life crisis around the
same time as the country is going through the changes we
went through after 9/11. With everything around him thrown
into question he finds solace and meaning in an Arabic themed
video game. Literally.
I love what Michael Weller
has done with the convergence of media, globalization, and
the search for meaning in this script. The two brothers
in the play remind me of my own bro and I, warts and all.
Too many warts at times. Anyway, writing for this show was
more a matter of keeping up with the playwright than devising
conventions to breathe life into the half formed sonic reality
that most playwrights offer.
In the end however; this show
wasn't greeted by an enthusiastic audience. It's too bad,
I'm still hoping to see it again somewhere...
Reviews
Approaching
Moomtaj
A Boston theater kicks off its 20th season with a script about
9/11 and the American psyche.
by Bill Marx
(September-24-2004)
The New Repertory Theatre kicks off its 20th season with something
risky and that is to be congratulated. Not only is "Approaching
Moomtaj" a world premiere production but it is also a
play that deals with the reverberations of 9/11 in the American
psyche. The cast includes some of the area's most talented
performers, from Thomas Derrah and Natalie Brown to Lordan
Napoli. Local composer Haddon Kime provides
some lively original music...
This "fairy tale for adults" does
eventually get to "Happily ever after", though the
route is a bit tortuous. Still in development, this latest
response to the national malaise stemming from 9/11/2001,
is worth seeing for all its current foibles. Weller has let
his imagination loose, and the result is often realistic scenes
full of insight and quirky dream sequences. Rick Lombardo,
given the usual short rehearsal period, with the help of a
superb ensemble, has crafted an darkly humorous production.
Robert Prescott in from LA is a compelling leading man as
Walker Dance/ Sir Robert, while Thomas Derrah from the ART
constructs two related but unique types as Wylie Dancer/Sufi
Sid with his usual flair. The whole cast plays dual roles
in the domestic drama set uptown in Manhattan and in the computer
induced fantasy.
Walker's wife Kelly is played by an extremely self-assured
Rachel Harker, a New Rep regular who's graced other local
stages. Harker gets to cut loose as Queen Aunt Noor in Moomtaj,
the scene of Walker's dream. Lordan Napoli, seen last winter
with John Kuntz in "The Kringle Cult" is charming
as Walker's recent fling Madeline the cellist and comically
inventive as Mawan, the court musician. Natalie Brown from
Hartford Stage, seen last at New Rep in "The Real Thing"
as Faith, Walker's therapist, has some unique moments trying
to question him with a mouth full of Novacaine from a root
canal, and is reduced to the palace maid-of-all work in the
fantasy. Rounding out the cast is local student Jacob Brandt
who plays Walker's young son and the presumably deaf/blind
Prince in the fantasy and Liberian body builder, Kevin Topka,
as A Bahkt, a video game assailant brought to life. Weller
couldn't ask for a better ensemble for this world premiere.
There have been recent calls for more world premiere's in
the area. Here's one by a noted American playwright with a
great deal of current resonance, warts and all. The
technical support with a set by Janie E. Howland, executed
by Wooden Kiwi, multi-media by Dorian Des Lauriers, original
music by Haddon Kime, and costumes by Frances Nelson McSherry,
award-winners all, is equal to just about anything you're
liable to see in town or even in the Big Apple. Go
decide what Weller's saying; there's a lot worth thinking
about in this script.
