Originally published Friday, November 21, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Comments (0)
E-mail article
Print view
Director seeks essence of Willa Cather's "My Ántonia" for Book-It staging
Seattle's Book-It Repertory Theatre presents a new adaptation of "My Ántonia," the classic Willa Cather novel of 19th-century immigrant life on the Nebraska prairie.
Seattle Times theater critic
"My Ántonia"
By Willa Cather, previews Tuesday, Wednesday and next Friday, opens Nov. 29 and plays Wednesdays-Sundays through Dec. 21, Book-It Repertory Theatre at Center House Theatre, Seattle Center; $15-$40 (206-216-0833 or www.book-it.org).Every time Book-It Repertory Theatre takes on a classic American novel, the company is treading on literary ground that's sacred to many readers.
But the necessity of reshaping prose to make it viable on stage is much on the mind of Susanna Burney.
The Seattle director is staging the debut of Book-It's new adaptation of "My Ántonia," the third book in Willa Cather's trilogy of novels set on the Nebraska prairie.
"A novel form is not a theatrical or dramatic form," Burney says. "And this novel is a sweeping series of stories that moves around all over the place. So we had to find that fine line between how true we are to the book, and how we keep moving the drama forward."
Burney has plenty of help in that task. She is working closely with Annie Lareau, who plays the title character, and who also wrote the show's script (after penning shorter scripts, based on excerpts from the novel, for Book-It's touring program, Book-It All Over).
On a spare, prairielike set, 15 performers (including two musicians) will re-enact the story of the Bohemia-born Ántonia and her family, who come as immigrants to make a new life in the Nebraska Territory ("the loneliest of countries," wrote Nebraska native Cather), in the late 19th century.
Lareau, who has cherished "My Ántonia" since reading it as a youth, has condensed the book's five parts into two succinct acts. Burney notes that the script, like the novel, unfolds from the perspective of Jim Burden (played by Seattle Shakespeare Company's George Mount), who forges a childhood bond with Ántonia and later observes her during her turbulent young adulthood, her struggles as an unwed mother and her happier later life as the matriarch of a farm family.
Live dance and music (mainly Eastern European and American folk tunes) also figure in the show.
But Burney's main task, she says, is to sensitively translate the prose of "My Ántonia" into a live event.
"I just keep going back to the essence of the book," she explains, "and if we can bring that essence to the stage, we're doing what Book-It always strives for."
Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
E-mail article
Print view Share:
Digg
Newsvine
![]()
Best bets for summer arts events
Obituary: Mary Henry, 96, Northwest painter
Buy one, get one free tickets at Imagine Children's Museum on the Fourth of July
Art and conversation flow from hands and heart of artist Mandy Greer
Rising N.Y. director brings her 'Othello' to Seattle

2009 fireworks time lapse
With strict parking rules enforced at this year's July 4th celebration on Wallingford Ave North, less cars and more spectators filled the streets.
Entertainment | Top Video | World | Offbeat Video | Sci-Tech
shopping

events for Monday, Jul. 6th
- Posh on Main Semiannual Sale
- REI Summer Sale and Clearance
- Pink Ginger First Anniversary Sale
- Kibbn Storewide Summer Sale
editors' picks
More shopping guides- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Shooting unveils very different sides of McNair
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
- Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
- Former NFL MVP McNair killed
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
- Confessions of an Idol Addict | "American Idols" on tour: Live coverage from opening date
- Quincy Jones remembers "the biggest entertainer on the planet": Michael Jackson
- Seattle Mariners at Boston Red Sox: 07/05 game thread
247 - Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
185 - Hatred for the NBA runs deep, but don't take it out on the players
138 - Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
130 - Former NFL MVP McNair killed
113 - Property taxes: Appeals shoot up is King, Snohomish Counties
109 - Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
107 - Anti-tax rally in Olympia attracts about 1,500
69 - Mariners did their part, now they need help
48 - What Mariners learned on this road trip
38
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- The People's Pharmacy | Estrogen mimicker found in sunscreen
- Researchers stunned by inmates' success raising endangered frogs
- Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
- Toyota's Toyoda scolds execs for emulating U.S. car companies' mistakes
- Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise



