Hoping for a revival of dramatic theatre rethought for television, Channel 13/WNET will launch a new PBS series of contemporary and classic plays, "Stage on Screen," in the year 2000. A. R. Gurney's TV adaptation of his recent Lincoln Center Theater production "Far East," completes its taping this week at Lifetime Studios in Astoria, Queens, and is set to be the first play broadcast in the new series.
Writer-actress Anna Deavere Smith's "Twilight, Los Angeles," her one-woman, multi-character dramatization of the 1992 L.A. riots, has completed filming her scenes in a New York studio. Its new documentary California footage will be interspersed with Smith's dialogue. "Twilight" will be the second presentation of "Stage on Screen." Smith's stage play debuted at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and later had a successful run on Broadway.
Completing the first "Stage on Screen" season will be a third, as-yet-undecided, original adaptation of a contemporary play, a recent film adaptation of a play, and two golden oldies from WNET's vault of theatre-based drama stretching back as far as 1966 and the debut of "WNET Playhouse." The vintage productions under consideration include the Blythe Danner-starring "Eccentricities of a Nightingale," the Kevin Kline "Hamlet," Faye Dunaway in "Hogan's Goat," "The Colored Museum" and "Ah, Wilderness," Bill O'Connell, WNET manager of program development, told Back Stage.
Both shows already "in the can" have been "reconceived" and "re-interpreted" for television, said Jac Venza, WNET's director of culture and arts programs and executive producer of its "Great Performances" series. For example, "Far East," which on stage had one set and seven actors, will have 16 settings and more than 50 actors on television.
"Far East," a "Miss Saigon," "Madame Butterfly," and "From Here to Eternity" style tale of an American naval officer and his Japanese love, set in 1954 Japan, has been directed by Daniel Sullivan-making his television debut. Sullivan directed "Far East" at Lincoln Center and at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where it originated. Original cast members Lisa Emery, Michael Hayden, Bill Smitrovich, and Connor Trinneer are in the TV cast as well. The stage female lead, Miou, will be making her U.S. television debut in the same role.
Smith, directed by Mark Levin, has recreated all 27 roles in her "Twilight, Los Angeles," including several men, but the settings have been "opened up" by means of the new documentary footage. Previous adaptations of theatre for television, going back to the so-called Golden Age of TV Drama in the 1950s, have more often than not resembled live, filmed, or taped plays.
"Recently, the American stage has seen something of a renaissance in drama, both in new works and revivals, and we intend to tap into the wealth with "Stage and Screen,' " Venza said, "to get the largest possible audience to enjoy it."
Gurney's previous WNET theatre productions have included his own "The Dining Room" and "The Golden Fleece," and an adaptation of John Cheever's story "The Five Forty-Eight." He has also written the libretto for one of three acts of "Central Park," the new opera commissioned by Glimmerglass Opera and the New York City Opera, due to air on "Great Performances" in January.
Exact scheduling of the five "Stage and Screen" presentations in 2000 is still uncertain, O'Connell said, and is dependent on PBS's overall programming strategy.