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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us April 16, 2005 A meeting of the geniuses By Richard Moeschl Ashland Daily Tidings The story goes that Ashland Community Theatre’s artistic director Michael Meyer was enjoying a coffee drink one afternoon when suddenly he realized that the Downtowne Coffeehouse in Talent would make a perfect setting for Steve Martin’s humorous and thought-provoking play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.” Picasso , right, played by Jackson Campbell, expresses his feelings about art to Sogot, played by Dayvin Turchiano, right, at the Downtown Coffeehouse, 200 Talent Ave. in Talent. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings The restaurant owners agreed, and ACT’s production of “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” will open at 8 p.m. Friday, April 22, and run Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. through May 7 at the Downtowne Coffeehouse, 200 Talent Ave., Talent. The play premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolfe Theatre Co. in 1993. It is set in the Paris of 1904 at the popular Lapin Agile bar where artists, philosophers, writers, and a great many minds came together to exchange unconventional ideas. The play imagines a meeting between the 25-year old Albert Einstein and 23 year-old Pablo Picasso. The two geniuses are on the verge of making their marks on the equally young 20th century. A year later, Einstein will publish his “Special Theory of Relativity.” Three years later, Picasso will paint “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” Upon meeting one another, the two raise broad questions about the meaning of art, science, fate and the future. “We’re creating a whole new way of looking at the world,” Picasso says in the play. According to Martin, “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” “addresses art in terms of science, and the point of the play is that the creative process — at the highest end of making art and making science — is the same. There are creative leaps that are taken (in both).” The Lapin Agile cabaret was more than 20 years old in 1875 when the artist Andre Gill painted a sign for it. The sign depicted a rabbit jumping into a pot. People started referring to the place as “Le Lapin à Gill” (“Gill's rabbit”). Eventually the name turned into “Lapin Agile,” or Nimble Rabbit. The Lapin Agile is still there, in the Montmartre section of Paris. At the turn of the 20th century, this was the heart of the Paris art scene and the Lapin Agile was a favorite spot for struggling artists and writers, including Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire and Utrillo. It was also a popular hang-out for pimps, eccentrics, those down on their luck, students from the Latin Quarter, local anarchists, and occasionally a few well-off bourgeois looking for an evening’s diversion. In 1905, Picasso painted “At the Lapin Agile” and in 1936 Maurice Utrillo painted his own version. It wasn’t long before the place became world famous as “the” place to be. Long before his comedy career took off, Martin majored in philosophy at California State University, Long Beach. “It changed what I believe and what I think about,” Martin is quoted as saying on a Web site. “Something about non sequiturs appealed to me. In philosophy, I started studying logic, and they were talking about cause and effect, and you start to realize, ‘Hey, there is no cause and effect! There is no logic! There is no anything!’” Kevin Berg will direct the Ashland Community Theatre production. Featured in the cast are Andy Greeley, Jennifer Brown, Jackson Campbell, Mike Stanfill, Dayvin Turchiano, Brian Wallace, Collette Olsson, Michael Meyer, Jack Montagne, and Kristen Martz. Tickets are $15 for general admission, and $13 for students and senior citizens. For information about this and other Ashland Community Theatre productions email [email protected] or call 858-4330. Ashland Community Theatre continues to offer Monday Night Play Readings at Nuwandart Gallery. Ideas and suggestions for plays are welcome. Send them to [email protected] or call 858-4330. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams