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Article about Guy Roberts
Stage of Directors and Choreographers Society
Newsletter, March-April 2011
Pages 6-7
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THE COAST OF UTOPIA: VOYAGE
Main Street Theater
Guy Roberts as Michael Bakunin
"Quick as you can, go to Main Street Theater's Web site and order tickets to Voyage. Don't miss this extraordinary event. You'll soar afterward from the sheer exhilaration from the production's magic and majesty. This is what theater is all about...With its impressive cast, Main Street's production sparkles with discovery. Under Rebecca Green Udden's sensitive direction, the epic is quieted, but there's intimate drama in the sound of a crisp silk dress being arranged on a chaise, or the painterly way Michael drapes himself on a garden bench, being fed strawberries by his devoted sister Tatiana (Lindsay Ehrhardt) under the dappled spring light...The cast is large, but everyone meshes. Particularly good: Guy Roberts's spoiled son with his undefined passions discarded about him like lint from his pockets..."
- D. L. Groover, Houston Press
"Passions, ideas and ideals rush forth in fascinating profusion in Voyage, the heady opening installment of The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard's Tony-winning trilogy about dissident intellectuals dreaming of revolution under czarist rule in 19th century Russia. Main Street Theater's crisp, trim, thoroughly committed rendition of Voyage proves a triumphant launch for the company's ambitious staging of the trilogy - only the second U.S. production of this landmark work, with the two remaining plays to follow in February...Voyage centers upon Michael Bakunin, a young student and aspiring anarchist who, along with his circle of Moscow friends, is in thrall to the ideas sweeping Europe. Act 1 unfolds at the Bakunin estate 150 miles from Moscow, showing how the visits of Michael's friends and their new ideas influence not only Michael, but his parents and four sisters - as when Michael manipulates his sister's romances to suit his philosophies. Act 2 depicts the same years, 1833-44, from the opposite perspective of Moscow, so we see more of Michael's circle, with his relatives the occasional visitors. After detours to St. Petersburg, Voyage concludes back at the Bakunin estate, with Michael's traditionalist father registering his realization of how much their world has changed. It's impossible to do justice here to the play's scope, the many characters and incidents, the ironic wit and earnest involvement of the characters' loves, conflicts and tragedies. For all the historic detail and philosophical discussion, there's always a human heart beating. That's especially true in MST's intimate rendition. Guy Roberts' vital Bakunin conveys his impulsiveness and ever-shifting enthusiasms...With too much contemporary entertainment dumbed down, it's a treat to immerse one's self in a play that insists we smarten up to appreciate its bounteous rewards. I can't wait to see what MST does with Shipwreck and Salvage.
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- Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle
Main Street Theater’s Coast of Utopia, Part I, Voyage, is Brilliant, Brave New World. Main Street Theater is the first American theatre to produce this trilogy outside of its Broadway debut in 2006. Part One, Voyage, premiered Thursday evening at Main Street Theater’s Chelsea Market Theater and is a beautifully detailed and sophisticated journey into the mindset of the birth of the Russian intelligentsia...With a cast of seemingly thousands (twenty in actuality), Main Street Theater has produced a sumptuous and extraordinary piece of theatre which leaves us hungry and ready to partake of the next two installments...Act I looks at the Bakunin family in Premukhino, their estate (where there are five hundred souls in their care) 150 miles northwest of Moscow beginning in 1833 and ending in 1844...The Bakunin’s son, Michael, becomes the spark of the emerging intelligentsia that is trying desperately to ignite a new Russian future while destroying its embarrassing and lackluster past...Guy Roberts as Michael Bakunin is a vibrant ball of energy as he dances through Voyage with new convictions and ideas of Kant, Hegel, and his latest colleagues. Mr. Roberts...is the perfect example of brilliant stage presence and a total immersion of actor into character...On this same stage April 26-May 13, Mr. Roberts directs and stars in Richard III, a tale of villainy, treachery, and conspiracy that you dare not miss...Come witness the theatre happening of the season in Main Street Theater’s bounteous, beautiful, and brilliant production of The Coast of Utopia, Voyage.
-Buzz Bellmont, Houston Chronicle online critic
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AS YOU LIKE IT
Prague Shakespeare Festival/Classical Theatre Company
Performances:
USA - Houston, TX; Czech Republic - Prague and Český Krumlov
Guy Roberts as Adam, also director
"As You Like It charms with wit and whimsy...Director Guy Roberts treats his actors like sheep - and gets great results - in the Classical Theatre Company-Prague Shakespeare Festival co-production of the merry romantic comedy As You Like It... Roberts maintains an informal air of communal storytelling that's hard to resist, both for the determined invention of the ideas and the energy and spirit of the cast...Jessica Boone is utterly winning as the witty, resourceful Rosalind, one of Shakespeare's most beloved heroines..All but the stuffiest souls likely will greet this impish As You Like It with a correspondingly playful, "I like it, I like it."
-Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle
"As You Like It will make everything all better. One of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, this play approaches the weighty subject of love with a sharp wit and a quick pace. The timelessness of the original text, coupled with the clever, modern styling of the production make for an altogether enjoyable experience...Guy Robert's direction is intuitive and sharp...His choices, such as leaving most of the actors onstage for the entirety of the play, provide multiple opportunities for humor, as well as helpful reference...These are the choices that allow an audience to stay focused on the action onstage, instead of squinting down at our programs and whispering "who's that guy, again?"...Houston Shakespeare Festival veteran, Jessica Boone, portrays a perfect Rosalind, from the once pouty girl at court, to the sophisticated and clever woman who utilizes disguise and wit to guide her own destiny. The diversity and size of this cast make it impossible to give each individual the roaring praises that they so greatly deserve. It is a strong ensemble effort, with great cooperation and trust apparent as each actor is given a moment to shine and to make the audience smile...little touches make this production unintimidating, consistently funny, and a perfect experience for Shakespeare-lovers and Shakespeare-phobics, alike."
"Guy Roberts has created the most amusing, most innovative, and most compelling As You Like It this critic has ever experienced...Mr. Roberts has the remarkable ability as a director and an ingenious Shakespearean to make As You Like It seem like it was penned by the Bard only a month or so ago for this particular time and place and, specifically, for these particular actors...Certainly this is what the Bard imagined when he wrote this rollicking romp for the politically exiled, the lovelorn, and assorted undesirables...Jessica Boone as Rosalind and Ganymede pretty much steals the stage when she is on it. I don't know if I have ever laughed so hard during a Shakespeare comedy"
-Buzz Bellmont, Houston Chronicle online critic
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KING LEAR
Prague Shakespeare Festival/Classical Theatre Company
Performances:
USA - Houston, TX; Czech Republic - Prague and Český Krumlov
Guy Roberts as Edmund, also director
"A Masterful King Lear from Classical Theatre Company and The Prague Shakespeare Festival…There is so much to praise in the Classical Theatre Company and The Prague Shakespeare Festival;s joint production of King Lear (which is playing in repertory with As You Like It) that I could fill a short review by simply listing everyone in the cast and crew and remarking on their excellence. Let's start with the potentially daunting play itself: someone, likely director Guy Roberts, did a masterful job of conflating and editing two versions of Shakespeare's thunderous masterpiece, so that the play flies, reaching its tragic, corpse-filled finale in a trim two-and-a-half hours. The story unfolds on the barebones set created by the excellent Jodi Bobrovsky. Lear (Rutherford Cravens), ready to retire from the throne and devote all his waking hours to hunting and "riotous living," calls together his three daughters so that he can abdicate and divide his kingdom among them. Showing himself to be the most foolish of the play's many fools, Lear puts his daughters to the love-test before telling them which portion will be theirs. Goneril (Holly Haire) and Regan (Jessica Boone) have no trouble conjuring up the honeyed words the old man's ego requires…Haire and Boone both grow powerfully into their characters' darkness. The parallel plot involving Gloucester (Thomas Prior) and his two sons, Edmond the traitor (Guy Roberts) and the loyal but betrayed Edgar (Jeff S. Smith), is extremely well performed. The dashing Roberts (who also directed) revels in his character's Machiavellian evil, while Smith most impressively descends into feigned madness when Edgar takes on the disguise of Poor Tom.
The verdict:
The idea of seeing Cravens take his crack at Lear was this production's principal attraction for me, and he doesn't disappoint. He wears the part's demands lightly, and doesn't stint on the humor. It's the performance of a career; I just hope that enough Houstonians--and Praguers (in May the production moves to the Czech capital) --take the opportunity to experience it. If you don't, you're missing quite a show…A word about the Prague component: Guy Roberts also directs the English-language Prague Shakespeare Festival. Some members of the Houston cast, including Cravens, will be taking Lear and As You Like It to Europe, and a couple of Czech performers are in the Houston production, most notably acclaimed actor Pavel Kriz, who brings an impressive physicality to his performance as the Fool. After watching his antics, I wasn't surprised to learn that he was crowned "King of the Dance" on the Czech version of Dancing with the Stars.
" -David Theis, Houston Press
"Prague Shakespeare Festival/Classical Theatre Company present [an] intimate, powerful, stunning King Lear…Guy Roberts has ingeniously directed King Lear with strong assurance and formidable grace in the classical style...Mr. Roberts digs into Edmund, the bastard son of Gloucester who is one of Shakespeare's most provocative villains, with charisma and gusto."
-Buzz Bellmont, Houston Chronicle online critic
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Houston Shakespeare Festival
Guy Roberts as Dogberry with Scott Fults as Verges
"From the opening moments of the Houston Shakespeare Festival's 2010 incarnation of Much Ado About Nothing, it was clear that we weren't in Messina anymore...Dogberry addressed Leonato in 3.5 with 'Howdy, your majesty!' and proceeded to excuse Berges by explaining, "A good old man, sir--see, he's from Shreveport. As they say, 'When the Cajun is in, the wit is out." This last emendation drew a huge laugh from the audience, who clearly delighted in the local reference...Dogberry was the primary crowd-pleaser, played as a countrified hick with a thick drawl. He and Verges peppered their speeches with exclaimations of "sweet Jesus" and "thank the Lawd", and Dogberry's delivery prominently recalled Foghorn Leghorn. He sent the audience into hysterics at his repeated requests to remember that he had been called "ass," and at one point gestured to the spectators to supply the word, which many loudly did. He then thanked them, assured them he'd reappear on Sunday night, and excited to tumultous applause. Interestingly, when Don Pedro mocked Dogberry's accent in 5.1, the audience refused to favor him with a laugh, indicating their loyalty (perhaps class or region-based) to Dogberry."
- Elizabeth Klett, Shakespeare Bulletin
"Guy Roberts proves a great scene stealer as the blustering, inept yet somehow triumphant Dogberry, abetted by Scott Fults' dimly agreeable Verges. With his braggadocio and outlandish character voice, Roberts seems to be channeling Yosemite Sam and Foghorn Leghorn, with his backup men as the Hillbilly Bears. At first, you fear it's going to be too much, but darned if the approach doesn't pay off with some very droll scenes."
- Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle
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ONE MAN HAMLET
Classical Theatre Company/Prague Shakespeare Festival
Guy Roberts as Hamlet, also director (with JJ Johnston)
"I have finally fallen in love with Shakespeare…What a piece of work is this man, Guy Roberts…Every actor who has ever spoken a word onstage, every playgoer who has ever entered the sacred space of the theatre, and everyone twixt the two should stand in line to see Guy Roberts' brilliant and ingenious conception and adaptation of Hamlet…One man. Eighteen characters. Ninety minutes….If you have never heard the tears and taunts of Hamlet's most famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy intimately, passionately, prophetically, and poetically pronounced from only several feet away, may I suggest your sitting on the front row aisle. For that is where I sat and experienced Guy Roberts as he sat on the edge of the stage and personally, masterfully, and tearfully delivered the Bard's beautiful text to myself and others...There is such crisp, careful, and clever differentiation of character from Roberts' ingenious inhabitation of each character that we are amazed as much as we are entertained in this spectacle of the most elusive character ever written for the stage. Hamlet as entertaining and funny?...Roberts plays the final bloodbath with self-assurance, deftness, and in his final act, slowly lies upon his cot, poisoned by Laertes' rapier, and lets go of all of his defense mechanisms, and dies….To miss this spectacular tour de force by Guy Roberts would be a tragedy….…[a] dazzling, powerful, and magnificent piece of theatre."
- Buzz Bellmont, Houston Chronicle Online, Critic's Critic
"Roberts shows he's up to the undertaking immediately twisting and turning around the small stage hitting the different marks all the while never breaking the flow of the lines. He is choreographing an intricate dance with no partner but himself (or his alter-egos)…Roberts continues to deliver a mesmerizing performance…The comedic intertwines with the dramatic until the two are difficult to separate. Smiles quickly turn to looks of shock and back again before we as the audience know how to react. It becomes more of a reaction than a rational act. At this point I'm keenly aware that we have become an extension of Roberts' character with no fear whatsoever of partaking in the delirium...The play crescendos for a final time and the lights come back on and bows are made by one. The standing ovation is just and deserved as Guy Roberts takes his bows…I can only say one thing in conclusion. "Hamlet" closes on the 18th of October. You need to make the trip to the Heights before the run ends."
- The Loop Scoop, loopscoop.com
"In multi-character moments, Roberts keeps it fairly clear who's who with simple changes of body language and more dramatic ones in voice characterization. Roberts summons convincing force in outbursts of rage, rejecting Ophelia or seething with contempt at his usurping uncle, King Claudius. Yet inevitably, his best opportunities come in the title role, especially in more extended speeches…his facility with the language comes through in Hamlet's more straightforward utterances, which Roberts speaks "trippingly on the tongue" - as Shakespeare advises in the famous speech to the players, here cleverly done as a direct lecture to the audience, with lights up and direct involvement. Roberts even manages a fresh twist for Hamlet's soliloquy, using a touch of audience participation. As co-directors, he and Johnston supply other useful touches, such as a reverberating recorded voice for the ghost of Hamlet's father and having Roberts scrawl the name of each of the play's victims (eight murders!) on the floor with chalk as each is dispatched. Anyway, if you can't get to New York to see Law's Hamlet, here is Roberts', right in your backyard. And this one is $15 per ticket, rather than $150."
- Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle
"Roberts manages to jump from one character to another with just a toss of his head or a change in his voice, making it easy for the audience to keep up. …The Classical Theatre Company's well-received production of Hamlet comes to a close on Sunday; it's a show we highly recommend."
- Olivia Flores Alvarez, Houston Press
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PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE
Houston Shakespeare Festival
Guy Roberts as Pericles, Jessica Boone as Thaisa
"...perhaps it is the perfect performance of another brilliant thesbian, worthy of Shakespeare's Globe...the great Guy Roberts, who wows us with his every word, breath, and movement! Here reigns a royal Shakespearean and one whom must be seen while in our midst. Guy Roberts in Twelfth Night is impish and happy-go-lucky and here, as Pericles, commands the stage as we expect a good prince to command---with stalwart strength, stunning projection, and heartsome compassion. Rarely have I witnessed such a heartfelt performance of Shakespeare...a master of his craft...There is no rush to speak. There is only the hush to hear his every shade, sublimely spoken in the rhythm of the Bard's dazzling dance of iambic pentameter. Roberts reminds me of a young Richard Harris, perhaps even a young Richard Burton."
- Buzz Bellmont, Houston Chronicle Online, Critic's Critic
"In the tricky assignment of a protagonist more acted upon than acting, Guy Roberts makes a resolute and resilient Pericles, spanning a considerable range of expression...To the credit of the leads and the director, the crucial scenes in which Pericles and his family are reunited convey the requisite power and authenticity. The play's most beautifully written scenes, they justify the whole enterprise (as Shakespeare no doubt intended.)"
- Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle
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HAMLET
Best Production - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Best Actor - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Guy Roberts as Hamlet, also director
"As played by — and directed by — the artistic director of Austin Shakespeare Festival, the most notorious character in dramatic literature appears first as a priggishly mewling boy, then a ferociously vindictive warrior, then a calculatingly loopy clown. Often, Roberts' blond and variable Hamlet compresses all three into one soliloquy, sometimes into one line. Rightheadedly, Roberts places himself center stage, physically and metaphorically, through three hours of Shakespearean tragedy about the Danish prince who must revenge the death of his father. It's a blank stage, standing for constantly shifting exterior and interior worlds...An actor with a nimble technical style and a thorough knowledge of Shakespearean tradition...It surprises no one who has observed Roberts over the past few years that his Hamlet is outrageously ambitious, thoroughly researched and...electrifyingly fulfilled."
- Michael Barnes, Austin-American Statesman
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OTHELLO
Best Actor - B. Iden Payne Award
Best Actor - Austin Critic's Table Award
Guy Roberts as Iago, also director
"Quick, focused and treacherous, Roberts' Iago was a sociopath in army fatigues. Beautifully economical in his gestures and coldly and calculatingly explosive, he created a remorseless villain."
- Jamie Smith Cantara, Austin-American Statesman
"Clear and purposeful direction by Guy Roberts, who also plays Iago, brings the story into modern times. The buzzing court becomes, genteel place of business where suits hold sway over swords for hire. The soldiers, who appear in beige and brown camouflage fatigues, are armed with laptop computers as well as guns...As Iago, Roberts was the consummate career soldier turned secret rogue. Quick witted, steely-eyed and precise, his Iago was economical in movement, firm in stance and artful in machinations. Neither Jeremy Brown's trusting Cassio nor Hilary Spillar's guileless and transparent Desdemona stood a chance against him. Sarah Johnson's practical and worldly Emilia, Iago's wife, rendered the play's heart. As military men, bureaucrats and relatives stood silently around Desdemona's dead body, Emilia's cries pierced the silence, and it was she who angrily revealed the truth of Iago's depravity without regard for her own welfare."
- Jamie Smith Cantara, Austin-American Statesman
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HENRY V
Best Production - B. Iden Payne Award
Best Actor - B. Iden Payne Award nomination
Best Production - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Best Director - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Best Actor - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Guy Roberts as Henry V, also director
"Austin Shakespeare Festival has crowned its 19-year history with its finest show to date. Guy Roberts' staging of Shakespeare's Henry V is lean, smart and charged with dramatic action...At the center of the show was Roberts' as Henry, at turns tentative, cunning, fierce, chastened, flirtatious and forceful...his performance fired this production, his direction made it sing and his leadership has borne Austin Shakespeare from the margins to the forefront of Austin theater."
- Michael Barnes, Austin-American Statesman
"Fast-paced and executed with split second timing, this production is nothing if not intense…With confidence and grandeur, the warrior-king exhorts his men to greatness…the real winners were the playgoers who witnessed a most dynamic production of Henry V"
- Mel Meeks, Shakespeare Bulletin
"But despite its timeliness and many modern touches, this Austin Shakespeare Festival production is not about parallels between the Bard's "star of England" and our current commander in chief. ASF Artistic Director Guy Roberts clearly comprehends that George is not Henry, Baghdad is not Agincourt...
Based on the evidence of this lean and vigorous production -- as tight and inventive a staging of Shakespeare as Roberts' A Macbeth -- the director is more interested in the way the playwright has written about all wars...Roberts provides a sweeping panorama of life during wartime...As the war gathers momentum, we feel it, the thunderous percussion work of the duo Austin Teiko pounding like blood in our temples, quickening, quickening. Scenes flow by briskly, their urgency deepened by the emotional commitment of the actors...Just as Roberts is at the heart of the production -- as adapter of the text, director, and star -- his Henry remains at the heart of the drama, his actions precipitating the war, his speeches inspiring his troops, his passion pulling them back from the brink of despair and defeat and urging them to victory. Roberts begins the play looking boyishly insecure upon the throne, but he quickly assumes an authoritative air, challenging the messenger from France, the traitors in his midst, and the French themselves with an almost preternatural confidence and calm...Because he bears so much responsibility for what happens, his reactions are especially significant. He responds to his soldiers' cynicism about his motives with disbelief that grows into defiance. And after his decisive victory at Agincourt, through the blood smearing his face, one can clearly read the sorrow and the outrage he feels over so much bloodshed. He is the leader who comes to see firsthand the cost of war, and it changes him. With a new humility, he gently wipes the blood from the face of one of his soldiers."
- Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle
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AS YOU LIKE IT
Best Production - B. Iden Payne Award nomination
Best Director - B. Iden Payne Award nomination
Best Production - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Best Ensemble - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Guy Roberts as Jaques/Adam, also director
"I've been going to the Austin Shakespeare Festival's performances at Zilker Hillside Theater since my parents wheeled me in on a wagon to watch until I fell asleep. But the company's new "As You Like It" — playing a truncated run after leaving Austin Playhouse — is easily one of my favorites...This scaled-down performance teems with Shakespearean comedy essentials: playful interaction with the audience, improvised joking among the cast, moments of tenderness between lovers and catchy, live music...The entire ensemble rolls with the energy...each player contributing a spot of anarchic energy, delightful doddering, or country copulation. Capping it all off is accompaniment by Ed Kliman, whose gravelly drawl and country plucking wouldn't be out of place 100 yards across the park at the Blues on the Green."
- Joey Seiler, Austin-American Statesman
"The limitless joy of the eight-member cast was felt in every line...the experience was magical..."
- Michael Barnes, Austin-American Statesman
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THE DOG IN THE MANGER
Best Alternative Production of the Year, Austin-American Statesman
Best Production - B. Iden Payne Award
Best Director - B. Iden Payne Award nomination
Best Actor - B. Iden Payne Award nomination
Best Production - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Best Director - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Best Actor - Austin Critic's Table Award nomination
Guy Roberts as Teodoro, also director
"The Dog in the Manger by Spanish Golden Age master Lope de Vega is, without a doubt, smart and silly. But it's also rather dark. Austin Shakespeare Festival finesses that fine line between comedy and tragedy, wit and schtick, delivering a Dog that sparkles."
- Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin-American Statesman
"My favorite production of the year..."
- Michael Barnes, Austin-American Statesman
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