HGO A Midsummer Night's Dream

Laura Claycomb (Tytania). Photo: Felix Sanchez.

Houston Grand Opera continues its stride with year two of their six-year Benjamin Britten cycle with their enchanting production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Combining Shakespeare and opera comes with a set of dilemmas, such as how to edit, add, and hopefully not mess with the Bard's impeccable sense of structure. And for all purposes, Britten managed to frame his Midsummer in a way that does the least harm to this famous play, even adding a line to make it all work. Extra credit for that.

Welsh countertenor Iestyn Davies' Oberon added an eerie and otherworldly touch as he flies about in his Wizard of Oz floating carriage, donning a spectacular feathered headress. Laura Claycomb, in a mile long blue fabric train, gave Tytania a cool and goddess like distance, tempered by her ethereal presence and soaring sound. Baritone and HGO studio alumnus Liam Bonner's Demetrius hit projected a leading man authority. British bass-baritone Matthew Rose's Bottom was a joy to behold. His intense physicality, comic timing, expert buffoonery, and robust sound dominated in a good way. His band of Rude Mechanicals, known as Rustics in Britten's world, amped up the hilarity in the third act. Tenor Norman Reinhardt delivered a convincing performance as Lysander. Marie Lenormand charmed as Hermia, and Katie van Kooten made an impressive HGO debut as Helena. Actor Jon Michael Hill's Puck grounded the proceedings in Shakespeare's delicate prose and delivered a lively performance.

Neil Armfield directed with eye for the dominance of the fairyland and for the more subtle ways a Britten opera plays out. The pacing of the first two acts felt a tad tedious, but the action and fun picked up in the final act. Dale Ferguson's sets and costumes conjured a pastoral dreamscape, and a stern geometric Athenian world, visually balancing logic vs. nature. Ferguson frames his enchanted forest under a flowing, breathing sea green cloth, evoking a fluid and watery mood---a good reminder that we have left the world of law and logic. The HGO children's chorus, under the director of Karen Reeves, added wonder and whimsy. Patrick Summers and the HGO Orchestra brought Britten to life with a crisp and subtle performance. Even Buddy, a sheepdog making his HGO debut, managed to bark on cue and on pitch. How's that for magic?

Reprinted from CultureVulture.

Review: Triple Focus at the JCC

Chris Gamez Mario Jaramillo of Urgeworks

Dancing vs. ideas. As part of the Jewish Community Center's Dance Month Triple Focus' threesome, Revolve Dance Company, Uptown Dance Company, and Urgeworks, all grappled with this delicate balance with varying degrees of success.

Colors, choreographed by Revolve's Amy Cain and Dawn Dippel, showed the most connection between moving bodies and moving minds. The troupe, looking tighter than ever, danced with such effortless grace, it's almost impossible not to get lost in the dancing. Cain and Dippel capture a gentle in-between world where structured dance steps merge with natural human gestures. Dancers scoot across the stage and then turn on the breaks in a sudden stop. Walks, runs, and turns morph into nuanced choreography that subtly suggests a social gathering of friends coming together to listen and respond to melancholic tunes by Amos Lee and Rachael Yamagata. They sweep, saunter, and swagger, reminding us that they are still people. Matt Dippel's silky style proved especially potent in his duet with his sister. Apprentice and newbie Wesley Cordova has got the mellow Revolve style down. Swan Song, also by Dippel and Cain, offered more in the way of dreamy dancing but less in the way of strong choreographic ideas. The piece, still in the sketch stage, lacked focus. As good as Cain and Dippel are at mining movement from catchy tunes, I wish they would push themselves out of the limited dancing to favorite songs mode.

The relatively new kid on the dance block, Uptown Dance Company, had some trouble getting started. Although former Houston Ballet principal Andrew Murphy elegantly danced Beth Gulledge-Brown's Awa Y-Okeyi, the end result felt overly melodramatic and failed to make an emotional connection. Murphy was again underutilized in Gulledge-Brown's duet Intrigue. Ray Dones' Now it's Gone showed off some competent dancing, but never left the jazz dance class zone.

Urgeworks, in a rare concert dance offering, offered nothing short of spectacular dancing. In Mechanics, the movement was the message as Le'Andre Douglas, Chris Gamez, Mario Jaramillo, and Chris Thomas transform themselves into those mechanical mannequins you see at the amusement park. Movement stops abruptly, then wobbles like a rusty machine. It's just enough of an idea to carry the piece. Good vs. Evil was more a demonstration of the troupe's diverse dance styles then a treatise on ethics. Jaramillio, all in white, charmed the crowd with his smoother than butter gestations while Gamez thrilled with his acrobatics. Thomas was all about his isolations with his chest thumping. Urgeworks' offerings reminded me that hip hop at its best is a rigorous investigation of the endless possibilities inherent in the shape and quality of human movement. There's a marvelous attention to detail in their work. That said, the structure of both these dances could use some tidying up and a good push beyond creating super inventive moves. I am left with a question: Do we really need ideas when the dancing is this good?

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston.

Quick Chat with Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus

photo by Mike Dvorak

Pianist Ethan Iversion, former musical director for Mark Morris Dance Group, is coming to Houston, along with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer David King of the famed category-defying jazz trio The Bad Plus. Known for their novel covers of such iconic songs as Tears for Fears' hit “Everyone Wants to Rule the World” and Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the trio also produces an impressive body of original music. Iverson popped in via email for a fast chat before his Da Camera February 7th show at Cullen.

Dance Source Houston: Thanks for visiting with the Houston dance community. Can you give us a flash history of how you went from being Mark Morris' musical director to being a jazz rock star in The Bad Plus?

Ethan Iverson: Reid and Dave played music together in high school, and I met Reid when he was first-year college and I was still a junior in high school. This band goes back 20 years now! However, we didn't really play a gig until 2001, when it felt really great. I had always planned to leave Mark and pursue jazz full-time, and the two jobs overlapped smoothly.

DSH: How does your time with Morris inform the work you do now?

EI: Mark showed me a magnificent blend of high and low; I think The Bad Plus is in that tradition too. I always say: I didn't get to play with John Coltane, Charles Mingus or Miles Davis, but I did get to play for Mark Morris.

DSH: And how cool is that? Let's talk about covers. As dance people we know covers. We will be covering Giselle until eternity. I am continually amazed at the available space between a piece of choreography and the dancer who re-enacts it. As musicians do you see covering a song as a spacious event as well?

EI: Sure. I cover covers in detail in this blog post.

http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2007/09/just-the-facts.html

DSH: You are all composers as well. What's the creative farming process like over there?

EI: We all write separately and bring the pieces to be fed through the machine of the three of us.

DSH: Can you talk about the Houston show at Cullen?

EI: We are thrilled to be playing in an area we don't get to often enough.

DSH: Talk about your new release For All I Care with Wendy Lewis.

EI: Wendy is a Minnesota indie rock cult hero, and she was the perfect choice for our first collaboration. We believe in the power of song, and working with the human voice was just so logical!

DSH: What gives with the typewriter and will it be coming to Houston?

EI: Hah. I think we all have analog nostalgia these days. Sorry, just the laptops will be with us (but not on stage).

Da Camera of Houston presents The Bad Plus on Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 8:00 PM in the Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center. Call 713-524-5050 visit www.dacamera.com.

Batsheva Watching

Batsheva Dance Company

I can hardly contain my excitement at Batsheva Dance Company's first performance in Houston tomorrow. Just in case some of you want to do some pre-Batsheva homework, I have a few reading suggestions. Start with Molly Glentzer's Houston Chronicle preview. Proceed directly to Susan Yung's interview with Ohad Naharin in The Brooklyn Rail.

I saw Decadance two summers ago with the Cedar Lake Ballet, and even got dragged on stage during the audience participation part. Tip: Don't try to look invisible. Also enjoy Deborah Jowitt's review in The Village Voice.

Celebrating with Fire & Ice: A visit with HYPA founder Heather Pray

Opera Vista at HYPA Gala 2008

I first met Heather Pray of Houston Young People for the Arts (HYPA) while working on a story for Artshouston. Instead of whining about why young people don't attend more arts events, she decided to take action, organize, and get her peers coming out in numbers for the arts. Pray fills us in on her life at the HYPA center and their upcoming Gala: Fire & Ice.

Nancy Wozny: I have a memory of being 17 at a performance of Turandot at The Metropolitan Opera. During intermission I looked around and realized that I was the only young person in the entire theater. The experience stayed with me, but I did not go on to found HYPA. You did. I wonder if you had a turning point experience that led to the formation of HYPA.

Heather Pray: I have always been an entrepreneur at heart, whether it was my friendship bracelet/t-shirt business as a child to an international fan club for an English rock band as a teen. Granted they were never created to make money; however, I have been fortunate to take my passions and create something around it to allow other people to enjoy too. My first real memory is the Pompeii show and then the children’s Halloween and Christmas parties at MFAH and being in the Caroline Wiess Law building. I just love that building; it feels magical and full of history.

NW: HYPA has gone from a casual group of friends having art experiences to a more formal, full-blooded organization as part of Houston Downtown Alliance. Give us a flash history.

HP: Kathleen Galvan and I started HYPA in June of 2004 when we invited our friends over to introduce them to the Trey McIntyre Project (TMP). Although they are now based in Boise, TMP was scouting locations for a home base and Houston was one of them. We asked for a suggested $5 donation, had wine and hors d’oeuvres. The money we raised that night went to TMP and was enough to pay for a pair of dancer’s shoes.

Then, as we became even more serious about it, I remember being home on a Saturday night and interested in meeting other people but not wanting to have to go to a bar to do it. We were both recent UT college grads and even though we grew up in Houston, we still didn’t know what the city had to offer us. I did some research that evening to see what existed for people our age and told Kathleen to meet me over brunch. We had visited some art galleries in the past and had a genuine interest in learning more. The next morning, over mimosas, HYPA was formed.

NW: Well good news for you all. SPA is bringing the Trey MCIntyre Project back next season, and they have grown up considerably as a company. Any growing pains in your process?

HP: Of course, anything worthwhile is never easy. Luckily, Kathleen’s sister is an attorney, so she helped us with all of the paperwork and getting our 501(c)(3) status (HYPA was its own non-profit before joining Houston Downtown Alliance). For the first couple of months, Kathleen and I were the only members. One of our first events was with Houston Grand Opera and we were able to get a good group together but it also included our family members – not typically our demographic, but we still didn’t know that many people yet in Houston. We also went out every night (not exaggerating) for practically three years to try to meet as many people as we could and culminate interest our cause. Granted, that doesn’t sound like a pain and it was so much fun. I think I am still recovering.

NW: I was born to art loving parents and they just dragged me around to museums, opera, and ballet. I grew up thinking of art as a food group. We don't all have the privilege of art-centered upbringings and people can discover art at anytime in their lives. Why do you think your 20s and 30s is an ideal time to get involved in the arts?

HP: In your 20s and 30s, you start to have your own discretionary income and have the freedom to use it however you choose. I think it is also a point in our lives when we may not have as many responsibilities that we may choose to have as we get older. We also have the free time to discover what is out there.

NW: I am told (once by you) that Gen Y prefers a Mojito with their Mozart. What's the strategy behind combining social and art experiences?

HP: First of all, we are all strapped for time. This is a way to combine the traditional happy hour with some more depth. So, not only are you socializing and networking, but you are also learning a bit more than you usually would at your standard happy hour. People also enjoy being with other people. It makes new experiences more comfortable.

NW: Tell us about your blog Houston Arts, and any other savvy ways people can find out what to do.

HP: Houstonarts is a tool HYPA uses to let people know about things we aren’t able to include into the free, bi-weekly newsletter. We also try to do a summary of things going on during the weekend, so if you’re home and bored, you can just look at it and see what is going on. We also try to focus on free or inexpensive events. It also has a snazzy new look to it thanks to a partnership with the folks at Caroline Collective. Other places to find out what’s going on include Artshound, Glasstire, Fresh Arts, Spacetaker, and Twitter.

NW: Does HYPA ever collaborate with the other programs designed for young professionals like Houston Grand Opera's Opening Night or Society for the Performing Arts' NiteSPA?

HP: Glad you asked. We working with NiteSPA for a Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo afterparty at Meteor. HYPA is all about giving people a taste of what is out there and that involves collaborating with other organizations and giving our audience the option to see if that particular art form or organization is more of a fit for them. For instance, we have done events with Houston Grand Opera Opening Nights, MFAH Art Crowd, Young Professionals Backstage at the Houston Symphony and DiverseWorks 3D. When partnering with other organizations, we try to give our members the experience of being a member of their group, so that if they do want to participate more, then they know what it's like to be a part of that organization.

NW: There's a lot to see here. Do you curate the listings based on what would interest your group?

HP: The listings and events we participate in are curated on what we think our psychographic enjoys. We also try to include events that are free, inexpensive, or unique to Houston. There was once an article published saying that Houston was not conducive to young professionals. Ever since I read that, it has been my goal to disprove that statement. Nowadays, there may be too much to do, but I think that's an excellent problem to have.

NW: Let's get to some shameless promotion. What's the big deal on your upcoming gala?

HP: This is our 3rd annual gala, celebrating all things art in Houston and our first opportunity to showcase the newest downtown hot spot and destination, Houston Pavilions. The arts scene has been figuring out ways to bring in business partners to support our endeavors and from the very beginning Houston Pavilions has been an amazing and supportive partner for Houston Downtown Alliance.

The evening will be full of many elements and surprises. The venue is partially outdoors so, depending on the Houston weather, you will either want to bundle up in your best winter outerwear or edit your outfit accordingly. The event will be situated around one of the skyrings and includes an exquisite backdrop of the downtown skyline. Advantage BMW Midtown will show off their hottest line of BMWs around Houston Pavilions. We will have projections of fire & ice by Microcinema International, fire pits, hot and cold food stations, ice sculptures and more.

The evening also features delicious food from restaurants at Houston Pavilions (McCormick & Schmick’s and House of Blues), Stockholm Krystal Vodka, Saint Arnold’s Brewing Company and much more. Also, LD Systems is the best in town when it comes to sound and lighting ; they always know how to add that extra touch to my events.

NW: How about art?

HP: Every year we have had performances at the gala, and this year we are stepping it up a notch. We are featuring all local artists including Luminosity fire dance troupe, DJ Ceeplus Bad Knives and local indie electronic band, Glasnost.

NW: Fire dancers? Sounds dangerous.

HP: The idea for fire dancers came to me when I was in Mexico this past summer. When I want something, I will find a way to have it. The fire dancers come with fire safety partners and are absolute professionals. I’m not worried and this is not their first rodeo, either. There will be four of them and they choreograph all of their own dance routines and create their own costumes.

NW: What's next for HYPA?

HP: We have an exciting 2009 season planned and have recently incorporated a steering committee that is led by Blakeley McCracken (NASA), and also includes Lauren Lovell (TUTS), Carey Kirkpatrick (Houston Symphony), April Beasley (Houston Texans), Brian Thorp (Invesco AIM), Liz Gorman (City of Houston Cultural Affairs), Cynthia Conner (NASA) and Kathryn Lott (SPA). I am looking to them to take the reins, share their interests, and create some exciting events for the next season to take us into 2010.

I also want to focus not only on the arts scene but our future artists. The arts scene definitely needs financial support and an audience to exist, but we also need to make sure we are nurturing our future artists, including young students. Getting them involved at a young age is so important. I know we need more arts education in the schools. I would really like HYPA to start an initiative to give back in some way to the arts through our really young people.

NW: Maybe someday I will be at another opera performance and realize that I am the only 50ish person there. Maybe this time I won't be so passive and will start Oldsters for the arts. What will happen when you (heavens forbid) turn 40?

HP: I am already looking at 30 as a big deal – not in terms of getting older but in terms of where I am supposed to be personally and professionally. I definitely want to give other people opportunities in finding the unique and cool things in Houston and letting other people know and enjoy them too. I already see a transformation in my interests and what I do in my free time and it’s changing. Either way, between now, 30 and 40 to 100, I will always promote the Houston arts scene in some way. It’s too fantastic to not.

Houston Young People for the Arts (HYPA) presents the 3rd annual HYPA Gala: Fire & Ice on Saturday, January 24, 2009 from 8 p.m. to 12 midnight at the Houston Pavilions. For more information, call 713-658-8938 or visit http://www.downtownhouston.org or HYPA's blog at http://www.houstonarts.org.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston.

Friends in Rhythm at the JCC

Derick K. Grant
Photo by Joanne Chan

My tap education continues, tonight at the JCC with Acia Gray, Derick K. Grant and Acia Gray in Friends in Rhythm. You can read my Houston Chronicle Preview here.
Get the details on the show here.

Dancehunter Interviews Herself, Year 3

What gives with interviewing yourself once a year?

It all stems from something my father said to me after reading one of my interviews. “Why do you let the other person talk so much?” It's my version of the year end wrap and round up. I have probably interviewed a good number of artists this year, it's my turn. It feels like a timely juncture to look back, around and ahead.

Ahead to what?

More change, a new president, more slippery days in the writing biz, and the best, more art to write about. No matter what happens in the media, artists still keep making work. I don't know of a better sign of hope than that.

Blognews?

Well, I have company, and fine company at that. Cassandra Shaffer's witty observations can be found at Notes from Upstage Left. Shaffer, still dancing herself, gives an inside look at the swirl of her dancing life. Nichelle Strzepek at Dance Advantage where she links teachers, students and dancers.

Molly Glentzer of The Houston Chronicle shares a blog with the other arts writers at Arts in Houston. Dance fan Toby Atkinson discusses his dance watching adventures at Out in the World.

Elsewhere?

My colleague Susan Yung keeps me informed of all things dance in New York at Sunday Arts Blog. Arts Journal dance blogs, Foot in Mouth and Seeing Things are good places to park as well. Get danceblog informed at Voice of Dance, Greatdance.com and Explore Dance.

The death of newspapers?

Old news, it's happening, accept it and move forward. Some will survive. Look at The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast as the new models.

Big learning?

Listening to Doug McLennan of Arts Journal tell a group of critics at the Institute of Dance Criticism at ADF this summer that we were like a survivalist camp. According to McLennan, we are caught in the transition between paradigms. He suggests to wait out the drought. What will come next will be better. I'll buy that.

Big dance moments?

Listening to Sophiline Cheam Shapiro of Khmer Arts tell me about Khmer Rouge guerrillas watching her perform in 1979. She speaks about the near extinction of Classical Cambodian Dance as a loss much larger than just for Cambodians. I got it, finally, all dance belongs to everybody.

Dianne McIntyre's acceptance speech for the The Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecki Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching.award where she spoke about seeing her students as light.

Filling in the blanks about American modern dance, cultural trends, (and politics) to three Columbian Journalists at ADF this summer. After my fill-in on the culture wars, Jesse Helms died, on cue.

Watching Paul Taylor's masterwork Promethean Fire on the fourth of July while the skies broke out in a tremendous lightening storm.

Watching a room full of dancers who moved to Buffalo to dance with Jon Lehrer.

Finally getting in the rhythm of Maguy Marin's work just as a third of the audience bailed during Umvelt.

My ongoing conversations with Ad Deum Dance Company's Randall Flinn about faith and dance.

There should be more, no?

There should be, but there isn't. Not a great year for dance watching.

Less dance to see, or did you actually see less dance?

Both.

Big losses?

Clive Barnes. The letting go of staff critics all over the country.

Houston dance?

Becky Valls' Memoirs of a Sistahood stayed with me. Stanton Welch's Cinderella took me by surprise. It's dark around the edges, just as a fairy tale should be. Houston dance is all about the people, strong, colorful, and energetic characters.

What are you grappling with?

Dancing, always dancing, more so than choreography. Tap is still a mystery to me. Tried lessons, and I was amazed the relationship with the ground one needs to cultivate. Need and want to learn more. Doing that right now. Dance audiences always intrigue me. One day I would like to do exit interviews, and find out exactly why each person came. I have an endless fascination with cheerleading, dance teams, and other forms of Americana mostly around football.

And football?

The movement is superb, the violence, not so much.

The year in theater?

A good one. Meaty, lots to see, with many choices.

Big theater moments?

Sitting in the audience for Lane Nishikawa and Victor Talmadge's The Gate of Heaven, presented by The Asian/Pacific American Heritage Association and Nova Arts Project on December 7^th (Pearl Harbor day) among Holocaust survivors and WWII veterans with my husband, whose father left Pearl Harbor days 2 days before the attack. The Gate of Heaven follows the friendship between a Japanese American soldier and a Jewish prisoner. I believe there were members of the famed 442^nd Infantry Regiment in the audience as well. As a daughter of a WWII veteran it was monumentally intense. The interment of Japanese Americans, a sub-theme of the play, is another shameful event in our history, and one that I have a bit of borrowed guilt about. Italy declared war against the Unites States, but no Italian Americans were ever interned. Jerome Vielman and Bobby Haworth delivered fine and moving performances.

Taking my son and husband to see The Catastrophic Theatre's production of Mickle Maher's The Strangerer two days after Barack Obama was elected president. It's was a joyous, crisp, and hilarious performance by Sean Patrick Judge, Troy Schulze, and Paul Locklear of a wonderfully surreal and soulful play.

My head hurt after Maher's Tempest-ian talkathon Spirits to Enforce, but it was a good kind of hurt.

John Harvey's Rot, a collaboration between Bobbindoctrin and Mildred's Umbrella, was deeply original, twisted, and full of mouthwatering weirdness. I left feeling immensely satisfied.

Jeffrey Bean's performance as Cyrano de Bergerac at the Alley.

Seeing August: Osage County with my son Phil. I didn't love the play but I treasured the experience of watching it with him.

Politics?

I am a heavy user. And it's not just me, the nation quit caring about celebrities and woke up to the crumbling world around them.

Music?

I am interested listening as a theatrical and embodied event. My opera habit continues....

Advice for arts writers?

Get handy with a camera and video. A day job is always a good idea.

Advice for artists?

Be aggressive with PR. Ask for more. Follow-up. You are a prized citizen as a culture maker. It's the person's job at the other end of the phone to take your call. Have great pictures, and always send with a caption and a photo credit. Know that if and when you get that feature, there will probably be something in it that makes you unhappy.

Advice for audiences?

Keep going, look for bargains, don't bail on your board positions. Don't quit giving even if you have to give less. Bring friends to a show. Send an email to your art going buds if you have seen a good show. There are lots of ways to support the arts that are not financial.

Surviving without reviews?

Whole countries do it. If you make work to get reviewed you will not survive.

Do blog reviews count?

Sure they do. Invite bloggers to your show, give them tickets in exchange for a post.

Print vs.web?

Get over it. Print costs more on every level.

Will the government ever bail out print media?

Unlikely.

You have become a Facebook monster.

I prefer the term Monsterette. I am a nosy person. I really want to know what complete strangers are doing. I love the “people you might know” thing. I never know those people. Plus, I am a sentence lover. Rarely, do people need more than a sentence to re-connect.

Twitter in your future?

It's just a matter of time. Although, Phil says he will leave for college early if I do.

Art writing in Houston?

It comes and goes. Look for coverage in unusual places. Write about your own stuff. Craft your own message. Just because no one will pay an arts writer to write about your work is no reason for pens to stop spilling the news.

Words that need to die?

Hot, buzzy, maverick, uber, mega, and we need a new word for “edgy.”

What drives you nuts?

Forced pith, undue snark, bad photos, and sentences that begin. “I am thrilled.”

Looking forward?

To writing more health pieces, more soma-investigations, plays that baffle me, and my bike life.

Signs of hope?

I am hopeless melancholic, but if you must. Houston Young People for the Arts, Dance Source Houston, Dance Houston, the ever growing theater scene, Spacetaker, Artshound, Glasstire, and the tremendous amount of arts activity happening in Houston.

What keeps you in the game?

The muck of perception, the push and pull of attention, the carrying of place, defining the operative forces of any work of art, trying to figure out what makes a dancer distinct, and all the craftiness artists put forth to keep going.

Breaking the Broadway Rules: Spring Awakening Comes to Houston

Photo by Paul Kolnik

Who would have thought that 1891 Frank Wedekind play Spring Awakening, which focuses on the sexual and intellectual coming of age of teens in Germany and their uptight teachers and parents, would make a smash hit musical? “It would have topped the list of worst ideas for a musical,” quips Tom Hulce, Spring Awakening's producer. “But then again, many successful musicals contained odd stories, consider Sweeny Todd and Cabaret.” Finally, Houston audiences will get a chance to see what all the hoopla has been about when this much talked about show lands on the Hobby stage this January.

Hulce made his Broadway debut in Peter Shafer's Equus, and is best known for playing the young and troublemaker Mozart in the film Amadeus. With a career characterized by risk-taking and thinking out of the black box. Hulce found a match in Spring Awakening and a chance to make his mark on the sometimes bereft of new ideas Broadway world.

Nothing in this break-all-the-rules show plays out like a traditional musical theater. The themes, religious and intellectual freedom, suicide, teen pregnancy, sexual awakening, and parental cluelessness, are hardly ideas that make one want to bust out in song and dance. The music, by indie singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik, ushers in a whole new sound. There's no set to speak of, outside of a few chairs and tables. Two adults play all the grown up roles while the youngsters rule the stage. When they break out into song, they also whip out microphones, which is both a funny and clever device for amplifying the character's inner thoughts. Some audience members are seated on stage and a handful of them join the singers for certain numbers. (Oh, and there's a little on-stage action in case you thought this show wasn't racy enough.) But the big post modern dance coup of the year was Bill T. Jones' stirring choreography.

Hulce remembers the dilemma in considering how dance would fit into the larger picture. “We knew that the conventional show biz stuff would not work here,” recalls Hulce, about the search for the right choreographer. Jones' work was already on Hulce's radar, but when he attended a company rehearsal he was completely convinced that Jones was the man for the job. “I remember watching how Bill relates to his dancers as real people; there's this breathtaking visceral quality to his work.” It didn't hurt that Jones had ample experience working with non-dancers. “I didn't think he would say yes,” recalls Hulce about that first meeting. Hulce lucked out and Jones jumped aboard the project with gusto. Turns out, Jones' signature gestural language felt completely at home on the Spring Awakening stage. Using a classic post-modern strategy, Jones created a flexible phrase he manipulates throughout the course of the show. Body wrapping and caressing gestures speak to the struggle of these curious adolescents coming into ownership of their bodies and minds. Sped up, the movement reflects the tremendous turmoil that confronts them as the show's central theme plays out. By the end, Jones' sensual phrase becomes a type of kinetic prayer. Jones' foot stamping romp in “The Bitch of Living” contrasts these more tender passages. Like the music, Jones' brand of minimalistic choreography stands out as a completely distinct element while being gracefully folded into the whole. As they say, the rest is history. In a historic move for post-modern dance, Jones won the 2007 Tony for Best Choreography, one of Spring Awakening's 8 Tonys, which also included Best Musical.

Hulce's savvy shows through in every aspect of the production. He had no interest in replicated the iconic stage presences of the now-famous original cast, who had been with the project from the get-go. “We wanted strong, distinct characters,” states Hulce. Now with a new cast, the show is being performed all over the world and touring the U.S. “The show travels remarkably well,” he states. For this actor turned producer, it's been one while ride. “Who knew,” Hulce jokes. “The fact that we ended up where we are has been an unexpected adventure.”

January 6-18, 2009 – Cadillac Broadway Across America - Houston presents Spring Awakening at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby. Performances are Tuesday – Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. For tickets, call (713) 629-3700 or online at www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com. Groups of 20 or more, call (888) 451-5986 or e-mail Jenna.Storey@BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com

Read more about Bill T. Jones' approach to Spring Awakening here.