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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels March 20, 2004 Director believed in 'Topdog' By Steve Zimmerman Ashland Daily Tidings "To find something that really touches me as a human, always makes me feel filled up with something life affirming, instead of hopeless," "Topdog/Underdog" director Tim Bond said. "I don't think this is a hopeless play, I think it is life affirming." Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Libby Appel was not convinced the festival should present the gritty, Pulitzer-Prize winning, "Topdog/Underdog." But the passion of director Tim Bond brought her over to the other side and the gripping story of two inner city brothers is now running at the festival. "I remember first reading the play two years ago for an AT&T panel when it was first granted an award to be produced at the public theater in New York," Bond said. "On the page it is difficult to understand the power of the play, the humor that is in the play, the humanity that is in the play, how the repetition of the card throws changes and evolves throughout the piece, the emotional impact of the play and the symbolic elements and how they resonate as you watch the play. It is difficult to get that when you are reading her play and I think that is why Libby was reticent about it - it wasn't touching her." Bond had the advantage of both reading the play and seeing the play. "Having seen the play several years ago and having read it several times since then that this was a play that had Shakespearean power in its language," he explained. "It is also a play that would present a challenge to two of our actors that would give our audience a chance to experience something urban, and specifically African-American. But, as all good plays should be, reaching a human element that would strike some deep chords inside of our audience." Bond also spoke to the theatrical elements of the play. "The theatricality is something that, beyond its humanity and depth of personal issues, I find absolutely intoxicating," he said. "To know there is vaudevillian elements and there is the sense of theater with throwing of the cards, all that attracted me. I thought it would be entertaining and a very powerful experience for the audience." Bond said "Topdog/Underdog" is a play that is attractive to young audiences, while appealing to the mature audience members as well. "For a young audience, this play with its use of language and the style of language it uses, it feels like the characters are very young characters as they are constantly talking about their younger days," he said. "And yet, they are historical in name, Lincoln (G. Valmont Thomas) and Booth (Kevin Kenerly). And I think the sort of hip-hopness to the language of Booth and the jazz riffs of Lincoln, just in the rhythms of it, will really grab a young audience's ears and give them instant access to the characters." And, Bond added, you really care about these guys. He noted that every teenager feels abandoned by their parents at one time, just like Lincoln and Booth. "And, I think for the older audience who really understand the Lincoln-Booth historical circumstances, and who have an understanding of the human condition, I think this play hits across a lot of different age groups," Bond added. And, despite and anger and pain of both Lincoln and Booth, the play is quite humorous. "The humorous aspects, I am really pleased with," Bond said. "I think Suzan-Lori Parks is a neo-absurdist, that is the only term I can think of to name her plays. I have seen and/or read all of them. "I always found them to be surprisingly funny, absurd in the way of a Beckett or Pinter with a particular satirical edge around issues of the African-American community. But they are done in a way that always lifts characters that seem to be way on the edge of society up to sort of mythic heights." Kenerly and Thomas get special credit from Bond for their work in the play. "G. Val and Kevin are both terrific classical actors and terrific American realistic actors," he explained. "They do not get a chance to do American realism that often or plays that allow them to be African-American men today. "I found working with them an extraordinary experience. Their care and willingness to put all their personal history on the line with each other, the play and all of us at rehearsal was an extraordinary experience." Bond said he and the cast had a ball and will be friends for life after this experience. He said Thomas is built perfectly for Lincoln because of his ability to both have weight as an actor, in terms of being a dramatic actor and his comic abilities. "For Kevin, to see the boy inside of the man is something he has not had the opportunity to do here," Bond added. "And there is a huge well of emotion inside of this man and a beautiful spirit. So you care about him. It would be easy to write Booth off, he is a bad guy and he steals. "But I just feel so deeply for this character. I just think he is a lost little boy, a little brother who is looking to give him a hand. And it is a tragedy, it is tragic what happens to these brothers." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams