Tag Archives: Joe Graves

31 Days of Arkansas Rep: THE ELEPHANT MAN in 2009

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Thirty years after it opened on Broadway, Arkansas Rep presented The Elephant Man.  Due to anticipated renovations at the Rep’s main stage, it was performed at Wildwood Park in the Cabe Festival Theatre.

Rep founder Cliff Fannin Baker directed this production which starred Rep veteran Steve Wilkerson in the title role. Wilkerson, who had previously shown his skill and versatility in such varied roles as Peter Pan and Prior Walter, displayed his talents and physicality in portraying the deformed John Merrick.

Another Rep veteran, Joe Graves, played the doctor who befriended Merrick.  Others in the cast were Matt Walker, Nathan Klau, Val Landrum, Alanna Hammill Newton, and Wesley Mann.

The creative team included Mike Nichols (scenery), Marianne Custer (costumes), Matthew Webb (lighting), M. Jason Pruzin (sound), and Lynda J. Kwallek (props). The original score was composed by Buddy Habig, a Little Rock musician who died in December 2008.

AN ILIAD takes stage at Arkansas Rep in Black Box

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Rep IliadAudience favorite Joe Graves returns to The Rep for Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s production, An Iliad. This one-man production adapts Homer’s Trojan War epic into a compelling monologue that captures both the heroism and horror of warfare, and answers the question: “What has really changed since the Trojan War?”

Performances are February 24 through March 5. Showtimes are 7pm Wednesdays through Sundays with 2pm matinees on Sundays.

This production makes the western world’s oldest extant work of literature not only intelligible, but immediate, relevant and eerily fascinating—as if a storyteller were telling the oldest story in the book and making you believe it is being told for the very first time. Gods and goddesses, weak-tendoned heroes and the face that launched a thousand ships…it’s all just another (incredibly engrossing) yarn in O’Hare* and Peterson’s one-man adaptation, developed at the Sundance Theatre Institute.

Willamette Week calls Graves’ performance one “that can honestly be described as spellbinding.”

Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, An Iliad will include Arkansas Stories of War, a series of six talkbacks featuring local service members and their families who will share their personal stories of war.

RED at Rep

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John Logan’s Tony winning play Red opens at the Arkansas Rep tonight for a run that goes through November 10.

 While the name Rothko may not have been a part of your consciousness, his works surely have. Rothko’s canvases feature layers of emotion with each brush stroke: Bold reds, geometric shapes and streaks of color literally bleeding one into the other.

Rothko specially designed his paint to be fast drying so he could layer quickly and work in the moment. Groundbreaking in its day, Rothko’s masterpieces fetch in the millions of dollars and the influence of his work is still being felt.

In partnership with the Arkansas Arts Center’s exhibit “Mark Rothko in the 1940’s: The Decisive Decade,” The Rep is thrilled to stage the revealing Rothko drama Red. Rep Producing Artistic Director Robert Hupp will direct Red, which will star Rep favorite Joe Graves (Othello, The Tempest, Of Mice and Men, Moonlight and Magnolias) as the abstract artist Mark Rothko.

Written by John Logan (whose Hollywood screenplays include Hugo, Gladiator and Skyfall) and set in Rothko’s studio on the Bowery, Red drops you squarely inside the world of the painter and sets your heart pounding, chronicling the tormented artist’s two-year struggle to complete a lucrative set of murals for Manhattan’s exclusive Four Seasons restaurant.

This production provides a rare glimpse of an artist through the lens of his relationship with his naïve young assistant, who must choose between appeasing his mentor—and changing the course of art history. When his assistant challenges his artistic integrity, Rothko must confront his own demons or be crushed by the ever-changing art world he helped create.

The Rep’s first-time partnership with the Arkansas Arts Center provides a depth of artistic exploration never before offered to Little Rock audiences. Amid the swiftly changing cultural tide of the late 1950s, Red is a startling snapshot of a brilliant artist at the height of his fame, providing Arkansans a unique opportunity to witness both the artists’ life and work, all within a five mile radius.

Joining Graves in the cast is Chris Wendleken plays the young protege.  The design team includes Mike Nichols (set), Shawn Sturdevant (costumes), Justin A. Partier (lighting), Allan Branson (sound) and Lynda J. Kwallek (props).