UMS Concert Program, Wednesday Sep. 12 To 15: University Musical Society: 2001 Fall - Wednesday Sep. 12 To 15 --

Season: 2001 Fall
University Of Michigan

University Musical Society
of the University of Michigan 2001 Fall Season
@@@Event Program Book
Wednesday, September 12, through Saturday, September 15,2001
General Information
Children of all ages are welcome at UMS Family and Youth Performances. Parents are encouraged not to bring children under the age of three to regular, full-length UMS performances. All children should be able to sit quietly in their own seats throughout any UMS perfor?mance. Children unable to do so, along with the adult accompanying them, will be asked by an usher to leave the auditorium. Please use discretion in choosing to bring a child.
Remember, everyone must have a ticket, regardless of age.
While in the Auditorium
Starting Time Every attempt is made to begin concerts on time. Latecomers are asked to wait in the lobby until seated by ushers at a predetermined time in the program.
Cameras and recording equipment are
prohibited in the auditorium.
If you have a question, ask your usher. They are here to help.
Please take this opportunity to exit the "information superhighway" while you are enjoying a UMS event: electronic-beeping or chiming digital watches, beeping pagers, ringing cellular phones and clicking portable comput?ers should be turned off during perfor?mances. In case of emergency, advise your paging service of auditorium and seat location and ask them to call University Security at 734.763.1131.
In the interests of saving both dollars and the environment, please retain this program book and return with it when you attend other UMS performances included in this edition. Thank you for your help.
Shockheaded Peter (A Junk Opera)
Wednesday, September 12, 8:00pm Thursday, September 13, 8:00pm Friday, September 14, 8:00pm Saturday, September 15, 7:00pm Saturday, September 15,12:00 midnight Michigan Theater
Dear UMS patrons,
I'm delighted to welcome you to this performance presented by UMS. Whether you're a UMS first-timer or a regular attendee, we're delighted you're here, and we hope we'll see you at some of our other events this season. You'll find a complete listing of our 20012002 offerings beginning on page 29.
This season, UMS offers you one of the largest and most diverse set of performances of any performing arts present?ing organizations in the U.S. Some fall highlights include:
Our second annual International Theater Series, which opens September 12-15 with Shockheaded Peter, a very hot show playing in only three U.S. cities this fall.
The October 6 culmination of our three-year Hallelujah! Project with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and scores of local performers.
The special October 12-14 Homecoming Weekend featur?ing the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on Friday night and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra on Sunday after?noon. Our special thanks to Forest Health Services for its extraordinary sponsorship of both of these concerts.
The much-anticipated return engagements of pianist Evgeny Kissin (October 24) and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter (November 13).
The four-day Philip Glass Film Festival October 31 November 3, including a Halloween Night performance of Dracula.
The November 9-11 premiere of a brand new UMS production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, featuring Peter Sparling Dance Company, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, UMS Choral Union, music director Martin Katz, and other outstanding area artists.
One big change to note for those of you who wish to purchase tickets in person: the Ticket Office for walk-up sales is now located at the north end of the first floor of the Michigan League, located at the entrance of the Mendelssohn Theater. The Michigan League is located at the corner of N. University and S. Fletcher. You can also purchase tickets by phone (734.764.2538) or online (www.ums.org). Ticket Office hours are M-F 10-6 and Saturday 10-1.
I encourage you to learn more about UMS, our performance venues, our volunteer opportunities, our generous supporters, Bravo!, Camerata Dinners, Delicious Experiences, etc. by reviewing the pages of this program book.
Finally, I'd like to know your thoughts about this perfor?mance. I'd also like to learn from you about anything you feel we can do at UMS to make your concert-going experi?ence the best possible. If we don't see each other in the lobby, feel free to call my office at 734.647.1174, drop me a note, or send me an e-mail message at kenfisch@umich.edu.
Very best wishes,
Kenneth C. Fischer President
UMS
and
Borders
present
Shockheaded Peter
(A Junk Opera)
A Cultural Industry Project, originally produced in collaboration with West Yorkshire Playhouse and Lyric Theatre Hammersmith
Created by
Julian Bleach, Anthony Cairns, Graeme Gilmour,
Tamzin Griffin, Jo Pocock
Performed by
Julian Bleach, Anthony Cairns, Tamzin Griffin,
Ewan Hunter, Rebakah Wild
Music by
The Tiger Lillies: Adrian Huge, Martyn Jacques, Adrian Stout
Co-directors
Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch
Co-designers
Julian Crouch and Graeme Gilmour
Musical Director Martyn Jacques
Lighting Design Jon Linstrum
Costume Design Kevin Pollard
Shockheaded Peter is inspired by The Struwwelpeter (1844), written and illustrated by Heinrich Hoffmann.
Program
Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 8:00pm Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 8:00pm Friday, September 14,2001 at 8:00pm Saturday, September 15, 2001 at 7:00pm Saturday, September 15,2001 at 12:00 midnight Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, Michigan
First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Performances of the 123rd Season
Second Annual International Theater Series
The Saturday evening performances are sponsored by Borders.
Additional support provided by media sponsors Michigan Radio and Metro Times.
Exclusive U.S. touring for Shockheaded Peter by arrangement with Pomegranate Arts, Inc. For more information, please visit www.pomegranatearts.com
For more information on Shockheaded Peter, please visit www.shockheadedpeter.com.
The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photographing or sound recording is prohibited.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Lyrics adapted from Heinrich Hoffmann by Martyn Jacques
Associate Producer Christine Gettins
Sound Design Mic Pool, Andy Brooks and Roland Higham Associate Lighting Designer Phil Supple
Production and
Company Manager Jon Linstrum
Technical Stage Manager Phil (Phleds) Eddolls
Production Lx Dexter Tulett
Production Sound Roland Higham
Props and Puppet making Graeme Gilmour, Jo Pocock, Georgina Solo
and Dean Clegg
Print Design Kessels Kramer
Photography Gavin Evans and Sheila Burnett
Cultural Industry
Director
Associate Producer Project Co-ordinator
Special thanks to
Michael Morris Christine Gettins Carol Atkinson
Mark Borkowski and Sally Homer, Angela Clerkin, Rachel Feuchtwang, Martin Gent, Ruth Gladwin, Amanda Howard and Kate Haldane, Graham Johnston, Alison McGowan, Oli Maxwell, Rachel Parslew, Sophie Seashell, Lee Simpson, Sue Storr and Simon Mellor, Nick Sweeting, Rob Thirtle, Mark Tinkler, Steve Tiplady, James Ware
Pomegranate Arts
Director
Associate Director Business Manager Company Managers
Communication Coordinator
Linda Greenberg-Brumbach
Alisa E. Regas
Kaleb Kilkenny
Chrissie Dugan and Jim Woodard
Orit Greenberg
For more information on Pomegranate Arts, please visit www.pomegranatearts.com.
Shockheaded Peter (A Junk Opera)
The Struwwelpeter Overture
Augustus and the Soup
The Story Of Cruel Frederick
The Dreadful Story About Harriet and the Matches
The Story of the Man That Went Out Shooting
Snip Snip
Bully Boys
Fidgety Phil
Johnny Head-In-Air
Flying Robert
Shockheaded Peter
Pretty Stories and Funny Pictures
"...anything to me is sweeter than to see Shockheaded Peter."
s
truwwelpeter was the one book in our house that I couldn't bear to look at but the only one I really remember from the early sixties. I now know that med-
j
ical polymath Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann wrote and illustrated the poems in 1844 as a reaction to the "long tales, stupid collections of pictures, moralising stories beginning and ending with 'the good child must be truthful' or 'children must be kept clean,'
etc." of his time. Gruesome yet deli-ciously invigorating, Shockheaded Peter and his lunatic nursery of miscreants have horri?fied and fascinated generations ever since.
At home in the late nineties, I noticed that the stuff we enjoyed as a family tended to be conceived by writers and filmmakers who are also established artists in the adult world. Children's books by Roald Dahl, Philip Ridley or Russell Hoban; cartoons like The Simpsons; movies such as Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas or Nic Roeg's The Witches, itself based on a Roald Dahl story. Really funny and really scary, in equal measure. If you can laugh at your bogeymen, that's surely something to build on....
True to the spirit of Hoffmann, our Shockheaded Peter flies in the face of contem?porary music theatre, demoting hydraulics and "hi-techery" in favor of a pop-up setting to evoke the lost world of Victorian theatrical illusion, the barrel organ and the fairground side-show: an advent calendar crossed with a late nineteenth-century pop video.
I first saw Martyn Jacques and his Tiger Lillies (both called Adrian) performing in a dive just west of Waterloo, condemned shortly afterwards by Health and Safety officials. Jacques' natural blend of aggression
and vulnerability, tenderness and terror all set to the rhythm of the music hall felt just right for Struwwelpeter. I gave him the book and he sang "SNIP SNIP" down the phone a fortnight later. Phelim McDermott was a director, designer and performer who I'd known since he was a student at Middlesex in the early 1980s. His former partnership with Julia Bardsley (as Dereck Dereck) and
more recent alliance with director
. and designer Julian Crouch (Improbable Theatre) also suggested the world of Struwwelpeter. We all went to see The Tiger Lillies and Julian
and Phelim completed the cre?ative team, along with original associate producer Rachel Feuchtwang and designers Jon
Linstrum (lighting), Graeme Gilmour (set) and Kevin Pollard (costumes).
Developed in rehearsal by performers Julian Bleach, Anthony Cairns, Tamzin Griffin, Jo Pocock and Graeme Gilmour under the direction of Crouch and McDermott, Shockheaded Peter was born at the West Yorkshire Playhouse just before Christmas 1997, subsequently went on to play three seasons at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, as well as sold-out tours across Europe, America, Canada and Australia and is currently being developed as a new kind of feature film.
All of this comes as a genuine surprise to those of us who have been involved-and continue to remain involved--from the ground up. But wherever it has played, Shockheaded Peter has had the capacity to bring people of all ages together from a wide range of diverse backgrounds. It serves to remind us that theatre would do well to preserve that which is uniquely theatrical, rather than aping and competing with the parallel worlds of film and television. Far from signaling the death of theatre, they could prove to be its liberation.
--Michael Morris
"How I came to write Struwwelpeter"
T
owards Christmas in the year 1844, when my eldest son was three-years-old, I went to town with the intention to buy as a pre-sent for him a picture-book, which should be adapted to the little fellow's powers of comprehension. But what did I find Long tales, stupid sto?ries, beginning and ending with admonitions like 'the good child must be truthful' or 'children must keep clean,' etc. But I lost all patience when I found a folio volume, where a bench, a chair, a jug, and many other things were drawn and under each picture neatly written: "half, a third, or a tenth of the natural size." A child, for whose amusement you are painting a bench, will think that a real bench; he has not and need not have an idea of the full size of a real bench. The child does not reason abstractedly.
That evening I nevertheless brought home a book, and handing it over to my wife, said, "There is what you wished for the little one." She took it, calling out rather amazed "Well, that is a note?book with blank leaves." I replied, "Just so but we are going to make a book out of it." And it happened thus: I was then obliged to practice in town where I was often
brought into contact with children. Now it certainly is a difficult thing for a Doctor to make their little ones from three to five years feel at their ease with him, because when they are in good health, the medical man and the chimney?sweep are very often made bug-bears of. 'My dear, if you are naughty the chimney?sweep will carry you off,' or 'Child, if you eat too much, the Doctor will come with his nasty medicine.' The conse?quence is, that the little angel when ill, begins to cry violently and to struggle as soon as the physician enters the room. On such occasions a slip of paper and a pencil generally came to my assistance. A story, invented on the spur of the moment, illustrated with a few touches of the pencil and humorously related, will calm the little antagonist, dry his tears, and allow the medical man to do his duty.
In this manner most of Struwwelpeter's absurd scenes originated. Some of them were later inventions, sketched in the same impulsive manner, without the least intention on my part of literary fame. The book was bound, put under the Christmas tree, and the effect on the boy was just what I expected.
--Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann
Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott have col?laborated on many productions in recent years, creating live performance from unusual materials and blurring the boundaries between director and designer to produce an inventiveness rare in current theatre practice. Their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for the English Shakespeare Company won the BarclaysTMA award for best production, and toured the UK in 1997 and abroad. Earlier collaborations include A Servant of Two Masters, The Government Inspector and The Hunchback of Notre Dame for West Yorkshire Playhouse, and Dr. Faustus and Improbable Tales for Nottingham Playhouse. Their collaboration on Cultural Industry's Shockheaded Peter has won them the TMA "Best Director" Award and Critics Circle "Best Design" Award. They recently collaborated on a German version, at the Schauspielhaus, Hamburg, Der Struwwwelpeter, and are currently working on a film version.
Along with Lee Simpson, Phelim and Julian formed their own company, Improbable Theatre. Their productions of Ammo, 70 Hill Lane, Lifegame, Coma, and Angela Carter's Cinderella have gained far-reaching national and interna?tional recognition, winning several major awards. Their latest production, Spirit has just returned from an American tour and is currently touring the UK. For more information on Improbable please visit http:www.improbable.co.uk.
While also a regular with the Comedy Store Players, Phelim McDermott has made varied contributions as an actor to radio, film, and TV; from Too Clever By Half and A Flea in Her Ear (Old Vic Theatre, London), to the feature films Robin Hood and Peter Greenaway's The Baby of Macon. Phelim recently choreographed Autotelic, a solo for Ben Wright of Ricochet Dance Company.
As a designerart director or specialist maker, Julian Crouch's work ranges from films by Ken Russell and Steven Spielberg to cult TV shows and pop videos. Site-specific work includes projects with Trickster and Welfare State International. Last year he collaborated with Balinese puppeteers and musicians in The Theft ofSita for the Adelaide Festival, which is due to appear in London as part of LIFT. He is currently leading the Improbable creative team in the creation of Sticky, their ever-developing site-specific production.
Julian Bleach trained at LAMDA. His previous work with Julian and Phelim includes their pro?duction of A Midsummer Night's Dream, (English Shakespeare Company) and The Government Inspector (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Other the?atre work includes Gormenghast (David Glass New Mime Ensemble), Extremities (Derby Playhouse), The Great Pretenders (Gate, Notting Hill) and the title role in Macbeth (Cheltenham Everyman). TV and film work includes Head Over Heels, Joy To The World, Beg! and Mike Leigh's Topsy Turvy.
Anthony Cairns first came into contact with Julian Crouch while performing on board The Fitzcarraldo en route to Ayr, with Gulliver's Travels for Walk The Plank, marine theatre con?tractors. He has appeared often at the Contact Theatre, Manchester and Nottingham Playhouse, and on radio and TV for the BBC and Granada. He played Busy Bee in Hanif Kureishi's feature film London Kills Me for Working Title Pictures.
Graeme Gilmour is a designer, maker and performerpuppeteer. Graeme works in a variety of areas including theatre, TV, site-specific work, street theatre and outdoor spectacles. He has worked with Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott on a number of projects for Improbable Theatre as an Associate Artist (Animo, Coma, Sticky, Cinderella and most recently, Spirit) and independently (including A Midsummer Night's Dream, English Shakespeare Company). He has also worked with UZ events on a number of outdoor spectacles, Contact Theatre, Scarlet Theatre, Welfare State International, Walk the Plank, and is working on the next Spymonkey project. His international work includes projects with Dogtroep and Collective Organum, touring extensively with Shockheaded Peter. Graeme also collaborated on the Hamburg version, Der Struwwwelpeter, with Julian, Phelim and Kevin Pollard, currently running at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus.
Tamzin Griffin's work as an actordeviser has seen exciting collaborations with artists and companies such as Forced Entertainment, Semblance and The Handsome Foundation (both Barclays New Stages Award winners at the Royal Court Theatre), Industrial & Domestic Theatre Contractors and Bobby Baker amongst others. She has recently enjoyed voice over work for
animations such as Bob & Margaret and Rolf's Animal Hairdressers and can currently be seen in Channel 4's Emmy award winning all-girl sketch show, Smack The Pony. To toddlers she is best known for her character The Funny Lady, a regu?lar feature of BBC's Teletubbies.
Ewan Hunter, a prize-winning graduate of Glasgow School of Art's influential Environmental Art Department, is now a designer maker and performer. Working diversely and internationally, he has close working relationships with UZ Productions, the NVA Organization, Improbable Theatre and the BBC, while maintaining a base in Glasgow with the multi-disciplined Scott Associates Sculpture and Design, which he co-founded in 1998.
Jon I inst ruin collaborates regularly with Phelim and Julian and Improbable Theatre. He lit their recent Cinderella at the Lyric Hammersmith, London, while other shows have included A Midsummer Night's Dream, Dr. Faustus and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. As Production Manager he works on Improbable's outdoor site-specific show Sticky, which has been seen in Glasgow and Zurich. Other recent lighting designs have included Bewilderness (the right size, Lyric Hammersmith and tour), the recent hit Thunderbirds FAB (The Playhouse), 1984 and A Clockwork Orange (Northern Stage national tours), And Nothing But The Truth (V-Tol Dance Company international tour), Ben Elton's Popcorn (Apollo) and Blast From The Past (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Jon has had a long associa?tion with Stratford East for whom he has lit numerous shows, including Mike Leigh's It's A Great Big Shame, Party Girls, Throwaway and their most recent panto, Dick Whittington. Jon's recent work as Production Manager includes Brighton New Years Eve 2000, Oxford Millennium Festival, Streets of Brighton 2001 and Brighton Music Live.
Jo Pocock's work ranges from sculptural musical instrument-making to design and puppetry. Companies she has worked with include Welfare State International, Horse and Bamboo, Walk The Plank, U.S.I, Parole Productions, UZ Ltd. and Merseyside Dance Initiative on outdoor site-spe?cific events, installations, theatre, dance and film. She was profiled in Celebration!, a Granada TV production about women artists working in the
North West of England, and was on the design team for Phelim and Julian's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, for The English Shakespeare Company. She has recently received an award to travel to Mali to research and docu?ment the blacksmithing work of the Dogons.
Kevin Pollard started his theatrical career work?ing in set and costume design with Theatre-in-Education companies. His work includes Pere Ubu at Contact Theatre Manchester (co-design with Richard Foxton), Out in the City and Tom Sawyer (co-design with Simon Banam) all for Contact Theatre. He first met and worked with Julian and Phelim on their production of The Government Inspector, which led to a later collab?oration on A Midsummer Night's Dream for the English Shakespeare Company.
In a twenty-four year career in theatre sound, Mic Pool has been resident at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, the Royal Court Theatre, Tyne Theatre Company and toured internationally with Ballet Rambert. He has designed the sound for two hundred productions including more than one hundred for the West Yorkshire Playhouse where he is currently Director of Creative Technology. Recent productions include sound design for The Seagull, Victoria, The Rivals, Romeo and Juliet (Royal Shakespeare Company), Another Country, Art (West End), Hijra (Bush), The Unexpected Man (Broadway), and Blithe Spirit (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Mic has designed video for Singin' in the Rain (West Yorkshire Playhouse and RNT), The Turk In Italy (ENO), Das Rheingold (Tokyo National Theatre), Smoking with Lulu and Haifa Sixpence (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Television credits include sound design for How Wide Is Your Sky (Real Life Productions for Channel 4).
Rebekah Wild has worked in theatre for many years in New Zealand and the UK, as a pup?peteer, puppet maker, deviser and stilt performer. Companies include the New Zealand Puppet Theatre, Pantheatre Poneke, Little Angel Theatre, Movingstage Marionette Theatre and the Walt Disney Theatrical. She has been involved in devising site-specific, community and street the?atre, and her stilt theatre show Contortion was included in the Best of the Fringe in Wellington 1997. Most recently she performed in Tsar Saltan for the Little Angel Theatre.
The Tiger Lillies defy any singular description and operate within their own eccentric defini?tions. Formed in 1989 they have spent much of the last ten years living as itinerant musicians traveling from town to town around Europe. Their songs (once described as 'surrealist pornography') are captured on numerous albums including Brothel to the Cemetery, Farmyard Filth, Ad Nauseam, Births Marriages and Deaths, and Circus Songs, on Misery Guts Music. The album of Shockheaded Peter marks their major label debut on Warner ClassicsNVC Arts. The band's activities can be monitored on http:www.tigerlillies.com.
Martyn Jacques (vocalsaccordion) is the founder of The Tiger Lillies and spent much of his early years living above a brothel in London's Soho. His songs describe (in lurid detail) pimps, prosti?tutes, drug addicts, losers, and other unsavory characters. He wrote the music for Shockheaded Peter and his adaptation of the text has been published as a book, The Ultimate Shockheaded Peter.
Adrian Huge (drums) has worked in butchers, pie shops, banks, motorcycle shops, and as a ham-fisted-but-cheap car mechanic, before co-founding in 1982 Dover's only surreal theatrical jazzpunkcalypso comedy ensemble, Uncle Lumpy and the Fish Doctors. The group floun?dered shortly after arriving in London in 1989 with their unique brand of Dover soul, this coin?cided with the formation of The Tiger Lillies, and the start of his bashing ever smaller recycled drums, toys and kitchenware.
Adrian Stout (double bass) has played country, blues, jazz et al., with various known and lesser-known bands throughout the UK, Europe and as far afield as India. Co-opted by The Tiger Lillies for 1995's Edinburgh Festival, this once serious musician has found himself dancing in lederhosen, making love to inflatable sheep, and dressing as a prostitute. He also designed and maintains the Shockheaded Peter and the Tiger Lillies websites.
Cultural Industry, Ltd. (Producer) is an inde?pendent, international production company, based in London, that produces new work across a complete spectrum of the performing arts. Established in 1987 by Michael Morris, Cultural Industry has been responsible for the on-going presentation of work in the UK by Robert Lepage, Pina Bausch, La La La Human Steps and the pro?duction of special projects by Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, Jan Fabre, Heiner Goebbels and Robert Wilson, in a range of leading venues throughout the UK. During the 1990s, Cultural Industry produced and presented Now You See It in three editions at the South Bank Centre, London, fea?turing international collaborations and one-off music and dance projects between a range of leading international artists. Michael Morris is also, with James Lingwood, Co-Director of Artangel, which commissions and produces new work by exceptional artists in unusual locations. Recent commissions include John Berger and Simon McBurney's The Vertical Line at the Aldwych tube station, Tony Oursler's The Influence Machine in Soho Square, Michael Landy's Breakdown at the C&A building on Oxford Street, Alain Platel's Because I Sing at the Roundhouse, and Jeremy Deller's The Battle ofOrgreave.
Pomegranate Arts (U.S. Touring Producer), founded by Linda Greenberg-Brumbach in 1998, is an independent production company based in New York City dedicated to the development of international contemporary performing arts pro?jects. Pomegranate Arts produced the worldwide tour of Dracula: The Music and Film with Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet, and is the American producer of Shockheaded Peter, a music theater work based on the Struwwelpeter Tales by Heinrich Hoffman, directed by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch and featuring the music of Martyn Jacques and The Tiger Lillies. Other international projects include the North American 19992000 launch of Brazilian vocalist Virginia Rodrigues and The Screens, a concert featuring Philip Glass and West African griot Foday Musa Suso. Current projects include Philip on Film, a twenty-five year retrospective of Philip Glass' work for film fea?turing newly commissioned film shorts by Atom Egoyan, Peter Greenaway, Shirin Neshat, Michal Rovner and Godfrey Reggio; the first internation?al tour of Charlie Victor Romeo; and a new work by Laurie Anderson.