Monday, September 29, 1997
Lacking props and 22 actors, group succeeds at ‘Henry V’
THEATER: Play uses small pool of resources to leave room for the
imagination
By Kristi Nakamura
Daily Bruin Contributor
Amid civil unrest and war, a young king leads his troops into
battle. The odds are stacked five to one against him, but he is
willing to risk everything to do what he believes is best for his
kingdom. He stands by what he believes is right, whether that
decision is popular or not, because it is all part of what it means
to be king.
All part of what King Henry V and Lost Dog Productions, an
offshoot of the
UCLA Shakespeare Reading and Performance Group, believe it
means, that is. After all, if anyone understands the struggle of
Henry V, it must be Lost Dog Productions.
In the midst of financial difficulty and battles with the phone
company to reinstate its ticket-information number, Lost Dog
Productions finally is able to reveal the product of its hard work
and ambition.
For the next two weekends, Lost Dog Productions will perform
William Shakespeare’s "Henry V" at the Rose Theater.
"The chorus gives an appeal to the audience five times during
the course of the play to use their imagination because what we
have on stage isn’t good enough to represent the story," director
Arthur Miliken says.
The parallels between the plea of the chorus and the actual
plight of Lost Dog Productions ironically reminds the audience how
certain aspects of life have not changed all that much since the
time Shakespeare wrote.
"We’re just starting out, we don’t have a lot of financial
backing, we have very limited resources, and the play is very much
about trying to create something gigantic out of a very small pool
of resources," Miliken says. "It’s exactly where I am in theater
right now. I’m small and just getting started and you know, I wish
I had more – and the play is about that."
Lost Dog Productions was born out of former UCLA Shakespeare
Group members’ desire to remain active in theater and current
members’ desire to stage a more professional production.
Although Lost Dog Productions has not yet established a name
within the theater community, its ambition is lofty. There are over
30 roles in "Henry V," with only eight actors playing them.
While having to play multiple roles is challenging for the
actors, the larger challenge is that the characters never leave the
stage; they are always visible to the audience.
"When we exit a scene as one character, we don’t get to go off
stage and kind of prep before coming on as another character,"
actor Wendy Hunter says. "We have to realize that everyone’s still
looking at us and we have to just kind of transform into another
character right then and there. So that makes it more difficult,
but its definitely been a growing experience as an actor."
Lost Dog Productions has set its version of "Henry V" within the
context of another play. The eight actors play a group of people
who all wander into a park and begin to perform "Henry V." They
steal costumes from backyard clotheslines and dig props out of
garbage cans.
Even though the story of "Henry V" is set in England, the
audience never really leaves the park setting, except through the
imaginary world created by the eight people putting on this
impromptu show in the park.
"It’s a really dynamic play," Hunter says. "We worked really
hard to break down a lot of the barriers that people experience
when watching Shakespeare. We tried to make it really human."
Lost Dog Productions aims to share some of Shakespeare’s work
with people who might not otherwise be exposed to it.
They attempt a comedic approach to help the audience relate to
the plot better. The many different subplots illustrate the variety
of issues that are still relevant today: love, friendship,
difficult decisions and war.
"It’s not your run-of-the-mill Shakespeare production," Hunter
says.
THEATER: "Henry V" runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through
Oct. 12 at the Rose Theater in Venice. For information, call
310-208-0645.