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Mercury Rising |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / REVIEWS |
| Author: Dave DeChristopher |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/2004 |
| Size: 1,952 Words, 12,143 Characters |
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ME AND ORSON WELLES
Robert Kaplow
San Francisco: MacAdam/Cage, 2003
270 pp., $18.50
In August 1937, theater wunderkind Orson Welles announced the formation of a new theater for the common man. The Mercury Theatre, inspired in name and spirit by H.L. Mencken's audacious (and popular) American Mercury magazine, promised to serve "people on a voyage of discovery in the theatre ... people who had either never been to the theatre at all or who, for one reason or another, had ignored it for many seasons." This was four years before Welles made his indelible mark on Hollywood with the classic film Citizen Kane.
Though he was only twenty-two, Welles had already directed and starred in a handful of hugely popular radio dramas. He had impressed New York critics and audiences with his stage productions of, among others, Doctor Faustus (playing the title role as well as directing), Horse Eats Hat (a musical based on Eugene Labiche and Marc Michel's An Italian Straw Hat), and especially Macbeth (presented at a Harlem theater with an all-black cast). Welles not only directed all these productions but adapted the texts as well, with the intent of making them more accessible and vital to general audien...
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...mall man.
Richard also gains a greater understanding of his place in this home world he has heretofore taken for granted. As opening night nears, he has a very dramatic and enlightening confrontation with Welles, the details of which are best left to the reader to discover and enjoy. This consequential encounter leads to a genuine coming-of-age and also, a bit sadly, the death of innocence.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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