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UNDER CONSTRUCTION
August 2009
Under Construction Cast with Director Laura Lamansky. Photo Courtesy of Daily Herald's Xai Kha.
The cast of Under Construction.
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The cast of Under Construction performing their
version of The Adams Family. Photo courtesy of Megan McCormick.
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BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA
August 2008
Joe Feltz (Phil, the Trucker) and Megan Pospychala (Phil's Girl) sip a martini. Photo Courtesy of The Wausau Daily Hearald's Corey Schjoth
The full cast dances in Earth, Wind, and Fire's September.
Joe Feltz and Cullen Sutherland play parts in a scene entitled Becker's Movie.
Entire cast in the encore, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
Kait Lamansky monologues as Bob's Mom.
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Wausau Daily Herald
"The 'Process of Construction'"
By Keith Uhlig
Wausau East Grad Uses Avant-Garde Play to Explore the World
Laura Lamansky loves the ending of the play "Under Construction."It's part of a monologue, and it's not a spoiler to quote it here:
"We are in the constant process of construction
making and remaking
from where we are and what we have.
This is what human beings do.
This is the human project
as long as we are alive."
Lamansky, 20, of Wausau will be a junior theater and film major at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles when she returns to school in the fall. She's spending the summer here producing and directing "Under Construction," an avant-garde play written by Charles L. Mee. "Under Construction" will be performed at Wausau East High School tonight, the second of a two-performance run.
It's the second time the Wausau East graduate has used a summer break to produce a play. A year ago, she formed a theater production company called Silver Sparrow, and produced another Charles Mee play, "bobrauschenbergamerica."
Mee's plays don't have traditional story lines. They are mash-ups of monologues, dialogues, dances, songs, movie clips, etc., based around a theme. Lamansky likens them to collages, and she revels in the freedom they allow her as a director. She can move things around, add things, and has a lot of latitude when it comes to set design and other details.
"Under Construction" is "about the cyclical nature of innocence and corruption," Lamansky said. It's also about how innocence and corruption intermingle.
"You have to have both sides of the coin, actually," Lamansky said.
"Under Construction" has both bitterness and bite to it, and Lamansky doesn't rein it in in any way. There are controversial aspects to the performance. It delves into politics and has references to sex.
But the ending is hopeful, she said, and that's why she loves it so much.
Maybe another reason she's drawn to the play is that she's "Under Construction" herself -- like any college junior is.
She has always been into dance and theater. Lamansky headed to USC to become an actor, but it didn't take her long to change her mind.
"I wanted more control creatively in the process," Lamansky said.
Halfway through her undergrad experience, she's feeling "more settled, even though nothing is settled," she said.
She sees herself moving in a couple of different directions. She might become a film producer, or she could become a professor. Whatever path she chooses, expect Lamansky to blur lines of film and theater form. Lamansky is interested in melding live theater with movies, and "Under Construction" reflects that interest. Pieces of film are interspersed throughout.
This play won't be the last of Lamansky's creations, but it might be a while before Wausau residents get a chance to see her work on stage. Next summer she plans to travel to England to study dramatic combat, the choreography of stage fighting.
It's all about the "constant process of construction."
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Wausau Daily Herald
"FLEDGLING COMPANY TAKES THE STAGE"
Theatre student makes directing debut with quirky production
By Keith Uhlig
A new theatre company has emerged in Wausau, making its debut with a strange and challenging piece.
Silver Sparrow Productions will bring playwright Charles L. Mee’s bobrauschenbergamerica to the stage next week in the Black Box Theatre at Wausau East High School.
The driving force behind it all is Laura Lamansky, 19, a 2007 Wausau East High School graduate. Laura will be starting her second year as a theatre major and a television and film production minor at the University of Southern California.
Lamansky has been steeped in theatre her entire life. Her parents, Carol and Greg Lamansky of Wausau are well known in Wausau-area stage circles and they helped found Wausau’s Oasis Theatre Ensemble. Laura performed in the Oasis production of Tartuffe last year and she also played roles in production such as The Tragedy of King Richard III at Wausau East and Les Miserables through Central Wisconsin Educational Theatre Alliance. She also danced in several productions of The Nutcracker, produced by Wausau Dance Theatre.
One of her dreams has been to make a project come to life and be in control of it from start to finish.
“I guess I really wanted to direct,” she said.
Silver Sparrow Productions was hatched this spring when Laura made the decision to form the company and produce bobrauschenbergamerica. She was the dance captain, an assistant to the choreographer for the USC production of Carousel. She kept talking with the director of that play about bobrauschenbergamerica, a play she saw a couple of years ago while attending a theatre workshop at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
As she discussed the play, she decided it would be fun – and a learning experience – to produce the lay this summer in Wausau with the help of her theatre friends here. She’s receiving no credit for the project, but she’ll be able to add it to her resume. She’s also hoping to establish Silver Sparrow Productions in California when she returns to Los Angeles for college.
bobrauschenbergamerica is named after the influential artist Robert Rauschenberg, who is credited for helping to usher in the pop art era.
“It’s different than anything else I’ve ever done before,” said Joe Feltz, 21, who will play “Phil the Trucker.” “It’s very random, very quirky. A lot of things happen so unexpectedly. It’s something that makes you think. I think you can relate it to your own life, or American life.”
The play won’t appeal to everybody, Feltz said, “but that’s the fun of art, you know? Some people will get it right away, some people, it takes a little while, and some people never get it. That’s the fun of art, I think.”
There’s really no plot, either.
“It’s a series of vignettes and monologues,” Lamansky said.
The play has music and singing, but it’s not a musical. It’s funny, but it’s not a comedy. It doesn’t have a story, but Lamansky sees it as an exploration of the cultural gap between generations. Her version is set in the 1950s and ‘60s, during the era of Civil Rights and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
“It’s a weird play. It’s definitely avant-garde and experimental,” she said.
Lamansky has what it takes to make the play a success, said Annaluna Karkar, executive director of Wausau Dance Theatre. Lamansky consulted with Karkar about producing bobrauchenbergamerica.
“This is a very challenging production, but if anybody can do it, she can,” Karkar said. “She really understands how to put things together, and then step back from it…I know she’s incredibly meticulous and incredibly organized. You have to see all the details, but you also have to see the big picture.” |
Center for the Visual Arts
bobrauschenbergamerica August 2008
Presented by Silver Sparrow Productions. The play's title refers to Robert Rauschenberg, an influential artist who is well known as a pop art precursor to Warhol. More a performance piece than a traditional play, the quirky show chronicles the adventures of a wide-range of characters in a variety of styles, from vignettes and scenes to melodrama and monologues. The show is rated PG-13 for language and mature themes. |
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