By Kevin Zimmerman
Titan Theatre Co. has driven its reputation on cutting-edge adaptations of William Shakespeare’s works, but this season is putting the Bard in the backseat.
For its second full year as the Queens Theatre’s resident acting company, Titan is turning to Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens to round out its calendar.
“We need to offer things to the community to broaden our programming,” Lenny Banovez, Titan’s artistic director, said. “Every season we will have Shakespeare on the docket, but we need to do something more for people who are not Shakespeare people.”
Audiences yearning for a laugh can check out Wilde’s comedic romp “The Importance of Being Earnest” in October.
For Banovez, Wilde’s play is “arguably the best comedy ever written,” and it is a piece that works for Titan’s core company of 12 actors.
Although he usually helms the productions as director, Banovez is stepping into one of the lead roles and handing directing duties over to company member Terry Layman.
“Titan has made a name for itself with its unconventional stagings of classical plays. But now it tackles the conventional,” Layman said. “‘In The Importance of Being Earnest,’ Titan will be in league with Mr. Oscar Wilde — depicting the conventional behavior and mores of Victorian England, while hilariously digging at them with a sharp spade.”
Then when Shakespeare does make his appearance next spring in the guise of “Julius Caesar,” it will be Houston Shakespeare Festival’s artistic director Jack Young overseeing the show.
This version, which Banovez called “‘300’ meets ‘The Matrix,’” incorporates Tadashi Suzuki’s acting technique that emphasizes the movement of the arms and legs in an actor’s performance.
Young, who runs his festival out of the University of Houston, is considered to be one of the best, most sought-after directors and actor trainers in the country, said Banovez. He added Titan is lucky to have him coming to Queens.
“The goal is to bring in more guest directors,” Banovez said. “We want to offer other opinions and visions. Other directors offer our loyal audience base different points of view.”
Things will also be different backstage this year as Titan plans on bringing in new set decorators, costumers, lighting and sound designers for both Earnest and Caesar.
But not everything will be completely new this season.
In December Titan will remount its holiday show, “A Christmas Carol,” from last year.
A commercial and critical success in 2014, the play with music will be produced solely by Titan and run in its smaller theater space downstairs from the main stage for its second outing.
“That is our gift,” Banovez said. “We want this to be something the Queens community embraces.”
For more information on Titan Theatre Co., check its website at www.titan
Reach News Editor Kevin Zimmerman by e-mail at kzimm
