CHARLES NEWELL - Turning 25 at Court Theatre

It will come as no surprise that Charles Newell, the long-serving Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director of Court Theatre, cites others for the award-winning theater’s unparalleled success translating and adapting classic texts for contemporary audiences.

Newell’s career at Court began in 1993 when he was hired by founding director Nicholas Rudall, a move that turned out to be the opportunity of a lifetime. Right out of the gate, Rudall enlisted Newell to direct and cast his wife, actor Kate Collins in The Triumph of Love which earned the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Production. “That first year was transformative in so many ways,” Newell told me.

In 1994, Newell was appointed artistic director and in the years since has directed over 50 productions at Court and throughout his career at other prominent theaters including Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, the California and Alabama Shakespeare Festivals, Julliard and New York University. Newell has served on the board of TCG and was honored in 2012 by the League of Chicago Theatres with its Artistic Achievement Award. Court Theatre was recognized for its outstanding service to the theatre community with a special Jeff Award in 2018.

Newell credits director Ron OJ Parsons for his contributions in broadening Court’s relevancy with their audience with his critically acclaimed productions of August Wilson’s Century Cycle among many others. And he notes the dedication of the late Stephen J. Albert whose leadership and strategic planning expertise allowed Court to expand into the community and beyond with innovative programs and partnerships.

Under Newell’s artistic leadership, Court’s national reputation has flourished as a leader in new work development and as a proving ground for emerging playwrights, artists, directors and companies. The unique intersection of top artistic talent with the resources of world-class scholarship available at the University of Chicago all make Court Theatre one of the most successful regional theater’s in the nation.  

Next up for the 2019-2020 season: the beginning of what Newell says is his “life project,” the Oedipus Trilogy which opens November 7 with Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, translated by Nicholas Rudall and starring Tim Kane followed in May 2020 with The Gospel at Colonus and Antigone next season. It all sounds like exactly where Charles Newell wants to be—another season of taking risks and stepping out of a comfort zone to create an emotional experience for actors and audience alike that is second to none. PODCAST

Court Theatre… “I love the space. I'll never forget walking in there for the first time. I think there was a production starring Jacqueline Williams as Electra. I just love both intimacy of the room and the scale of the stage house and the combination of those two things, that relationship, there is no other theater in the country like that.”

University of Chicago… “Unequivocally, Court, as part of the University of Chicago, could not be what it is if it weren't part of the University of Chicago. We made what may seem like a small change, but I think it was critical. We no longer think of ourselves as the professional theater at the University, but rather, the professional theater of the University of Chicago. And, specifically, the fact that we, in our making of the art, can collaborate and partner with this incredible research university and the scholars, not just humanities and theater, but across all disciplines can collaborate with scholars who are interested in the making of knowledge and the making of art… In the last ten years, we have recognized the uniqueness of “And here we are on the South Side,” a predominantly African-American community and the combination of those three things: a professional theater, a research university, and the most incredibly creative South Side African-American community that we reside in and how those three things now inform and fuel each other.”

Ron OJ Parson … “10 years or more ago, despite my efforts to cast Allen Gilmore as Cyrano, a young black actor in Barber of Seville, Eugene Perry as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, which I thought would, by having artists of color take on what had traditionally cast with Caucasians, might attract not only more artists of color, but an audience of color. I learned that that was not enough. And so after an extensive, self-examination of the organization, we decided that we were going to do what seems now just obvious, which was there are classics from the African-American cannon writ large that we wanted to put on our stage and celebrate. So, we commissioned adaptations of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Native Son and other projects as well. And then I wanted to get a leader of color as part of the Court Theatre artistic staff. And that's when Ron OJ Parson joined the team. … We had quite a year with his first production of August Wilson Fences. That same season, we did Eugene Perry as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. I think for the first time in Chicago theater history, a single theater won best production Jeff Awards for both play and musical. And that was a conspicuous start to Ron's residency as our resident artist. And as you know, with King Hedley, we are now on our eighth of the 10 play August Wilson Century Cycle and Ron has directed 15 or 16 productions over the last 10 years.”

Steve Albert… “He brought extraordinary experience across the country as a producer, and building theaters capacity, both artistic and financial and that paralleled a strategic planning process that the Board and the University went on in which this notion that Court theatre was now becoming a center for classic theater here on the South side. That elevated our ambition, the national artists that we were then able to attract, the kind of funding we were able to attract, and suddenly, thanks to Steve's leadership, our capacity grew quite a lot. Even as we were finding success in attracting an audience of color over an eight-year period, we've gone from less than 5% audience of color to now close to over 30%. That jump, while I feel like is only the beginning in the national theatre conversation, Court is used as a model about how do you remain true to your core mission and expand the definition of who you are and expand the audience and artists of color so that the whole organization can grow together.”

Developing New Works… “We have begun a fairly rigorous and consistent commissioning program here at Court Theatre. We are a classic-based company presenting world premieres. That's an unusual combination of things. This past year we did David Auburn's world premiere of The Adventures of Augie March. We also co-produced with Manual Cinema, Frankenstein, which then went on to national and international touring. We have three or four projects in the works that are new commissions, which we are very much hoping will appear on our stages, one based on a personal family connection and passion for who is the man, Stokely Carmichael that people perhaps are not aware of as much as they should be. We have commissioned Nambi E. Kelly who did the adaptation of Native Sun on that project. Those are some of the ambitions we are moving forward in terms of new work, but you're absolutely right. How do we balance both serving our core–the Canon of classics, both traditional and African American—as well as produce new work that's been commissioned often based in some classic texts, but not always. Man in the Ring is a good example. We commissioned Michael Christopher for the world premiere of that play. It's going on to Huntington and now it looks like there will be a Broadway production. It was a transformative experience for us. And one of the examples of our collaboration with the University. What other theater can call up the medical school at the University of Chicago and have an expert come over who can talk to us about boxing dementia that occurred to the central character in the play and how to portray that and what that would be like for that man to experience? At the same time we brought a gentleman who has a boxing ring on the West side to come and teach our actors how to box. So again, this combination of where we are and our core communities that we work gives us the kind of opportunity to do the work that we do.”

Oedipus Trilogy… “Back in 1983-84, I went to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and saw The Gospel at Colonus and went back three more times and then found out that they were going to be touring to Arena Stage in Washington DC, my hometown theater. So, I then was a directing intern on that original production. I was in the room with Morgan Freeman and Clarence Fountaine and the five blind boys and the Soul Stirrers and always thought, ‘Would my life ever lead me to a place where I could direct a production of that piece?’ In thinking about a 25th Anniversary season, Angel (Ysaguirre, Court Executive Director) was like, “Charlie, what's the most ambitious, outrageous project you would love to do?” And I immediately said, The Gospel at Colonus because it's a very large cast and it's a very ambitious piece. But then we went further, which was how might we best bring an audience to The Gospel at Colonus. Well, why don't we tell the story of Oedipus prior to his journey to Colonus for redemption, which, of course, is the most classic of all classic texts, Oedipus Rex or King Oedipus. So, we're going to do this trilogy that, frankly, Sophocles never intended as a trilogy, but we have now linked them together as if they're one long family story of Oedipus Rex, The Gospel at Colonus and next year to the daughter of Oedipus, Antigone.”

Why not repertory?... “I did that for the first six or seven years when I first came to Chicago … honestly the thing that we learned is that as much as an audience says they love to see repertory, unless you are a destination theater like Stratford, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, other places, we—at least in Chicago at Court Theatre—found it difficult to get an audience to want to come and see two shows that were thematically, or even narratively connected on the same day. I mean, I love it and if I had my druthers, we would do rotating repertory all the time. … So I'm hopeful that with this kind of modified form of repertory, namely you'll see Oedipus Rex this fall, you'll see The Gospel at Colonus next spring and then you'll see Antigone a year from now, an audience will have the pleasure of that kind of repertory. …We have cast one actor to play Creon through all three, Tim Kane. We have cast one actor, Ariel Williams, to play Antigone through all three. Kelvin Roston is playing Oedipus Rex as a vibrant live King and he then is the blind destitute Oedipus in The Gospel at Colonus. By connecting you to the artists, we're hoping that there will be that sense of repertory as well.”

Comments have been edited for length and clarity.
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PHOTO CREDIT:
Photograph 51 , Augie March, King Hedley II |Michael Brosilow
Oedipus Rex | Joe Mazza Brave Lux

Court Theatre was honored with five 2019 Joseph Jefferson Awards on October 21, 2019.

COURT THEATRE
presents
OEDIPUS REX
November 7 though December 8, 2019
5535 S Ellis Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
(773) 753-4472

PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts, Libsyn, Stitcher, IHeartRadio and Radio.com App
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