building and construction

Charles Mee and Under Construction - An Overview
2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays
Charles Mee, Anne Bogart and the SITI Company meld together to find America Under Construction at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays.
   
Playwright Charles Mee’s Under Construction is the third in his series of four plays inspired by American artists. While Norman Rockwell and Jason Rhoades do not appear as characters in Under Construction their influences on the play are omnipresent. The play's form and style reflects Rockwell’s idealist view of America contrasted with Rhoades’ chaotic, absurdist view. Under Construction presents the idea American society is a constant process of changing, inventing, and constructing itself.

Presented at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays the set and staging in addition to the powerful, engaging performances by the SITI Company invoke a literal and metaphorical construction site. A line from the Under Construction reveals its tone, “I try to make a music which I don't understand and which will be difficult for other people to understand, too.” Yet in many ways the play celebrates the creative process and “the bringing of new things into being.”

Charles Mee
Charles Mee describes his plays in part as “broken, jagged, filled with sharp edges, filled with things that take sudden turns, careen(ing) into each other.” Because he believes that “there is no such thing as an original play,” he posts his plays on his website encouraging other writers to download them and remake them into something else. Mee frequently incorporates dance and multimedia forms into his plays.

A prolific playwright, Mee has ssen his plays performed all over the world from Berlin to Istanbul, and in the United States at Lincoln Center Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, to name a few. Under Construction is the 5th play of Mee’s chosen to be presented at the Humana Festival. Mee's other Humana plays are Big Love (2000), bobrauschenbergamerica (2001), Limonade Tous Les Jours (2002), Hotel Cassiopeia (2006).

A historian Mee has written several books on world history. His memoir, A Nearly Normal Life, examines surviving polio. For many years the Illinois-born playwright has been supported by the patronage of Richard B. Fisher and Jeanne Donovan Fisher. As part of the SITI Company, Mee remains SITI’s only resident playwright.

Anne Bogart and The SITI Company
Acclaimed director Anne Bogart has won two Obies. At one time Bogart served as President of the Theatre Communications Group (1990-92), and as Artistic Director for one season at Trinity Repertory Theatre in Rhode Island. Bogart has written two books, A Director Prepares, And Then, You Act, and co-authored, with Tina Landau, The Viewpoints Book. Currently Bogart teaches in the graduate program of Columbia University’s theatre department. She also is the Artistic Director of the SITI Company.

Originally known as the Saratoga International Theatre Institute, Bogart co-founded the SITI Company in 1992. Her co-founder Tadashi Suzuki created the Suzuki Method of Acting. Both the Suzuki Method and Viewpoints are taught at SITI. On the SITI website, Viewpoints is described as “a technique of improvisation that grew out of the postmodern dance world.” An ensemble theatre company located in Saratoga Springs, New York, SITI Company’s “three ongoing components are the creation of new work, the training of young theater artists, and a commitment to international collaboration.”