Meeting the Spiderwoman.

Saturday March 26th, we finally got to meet THE SPIDERWOMAN. A spectator captured it on video with her digital camera... looks to be thrilling, no?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Emily Kate Hardy is the Spiderwoman.

Rehearsal Pictures from Kiss of the Spiderwoman

Marta, Michelle Foard and Keith J. Warren as Valentin


Chorus Member Ian Lewis and Spiderwoman Emily Kate Hardy

Rehearsal Pictures from Kiss of the Spiderwoman

INSIDE ADLR with CARL RAMSEY

Inside Artes de la Rosa’s
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
with Carl E. Ramsey, Jr.

Today we go Inside ADLR's KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN, with singer, dancer, and all around great guy, Carl E. Ramsey Jr.

• Born & Raised: Colorado City, TX/Greenville, SC
• Education: A.A. Western Texas College, B.A. Texas Wesleyan University
• Zodiac Sign: Libra
• Audition Song: Beethoven Day (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown).
• Audition Monologue: Giovanni from We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!
• First Play/Musical You Ever Saw: The Wizard of Oz
• Must See TV Show: True Blood
• Why you work in theatre: To change and inspire people the way theatre has changed and inspired me.
• First Role: the cow who jumped over the moon (a preschool play).
• Favorite Play: Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac
• Pop Culture Guilty Pleasure: Watching the Bravo channel.
• First Stage Kiss: A scene from Chekhov’s The Seagull.
• Pre Show Rituals: Breathing and praying.
• Special Skills: Playing piano and sewing.
• Any Theatre Superstitions: I always try to be on my best behavior, lest karma has her way during a performance.
• Worst Costume Ever: A bed sheet.
• Favorite Post Show Meal: Carbohydrates! Pizza, pasta, doughnuts…you name it!
• Best thing about Fort Worth & the North Side: Rose Marine Theatre!
• If you could go back in time and catch any Broadway show, what would it be? I would love to watch any show starring Bernadette Peters.
• Broadway or screen star of the past you would most love to have performed with: Joan Crawford, please.
• Some favorite plays/musicals: Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Shakespeare’s Henry 1V (parts 1 and 2), Into the Woods, Company, and Wicked.
• The one performance – attended - that you will never forget: The original cast of Wicked on Broadway.
• Music that makes you cry, any genre: some forms of vintage country.
• Most played song on your iPod: Another Winter in a Summer Town (Grey Gardens)
• MAC or PC?: PC for now, but I’m bound to convert soon!
• Most-visited websites: Facebook.
• Last book you read: Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt
• Last good show you saw: Pillowman, by Martin McDonagh
• Performer you would drop everything to go see: Did I mention Bernadette already?
• First CD/Tape/LP you owned: Reba McEntire cassette tape.
• Worst job you ever had: moving washing machines and dryers for minimum wage.
• Who would play you in the movie? Ryan Phillippe, or so I’ve been told.
• Leading man role you've been dying to play: Corny Collins, from Hairspray
• Leading lady role you wish you could play: Mama Rose, from Gypsy
• Three things you can't live without: My loved ones, my faith, and the honey butter chicken biscuit from Whataburger.
• Something about you that surprises people: People are surprised at how sociable I am once they get to know me. I usually come off as shy in the beginning.
• Career you would want if not a performer: Research biologist, or science teacher.
• "I'll never understand why…" ... I’ll never understand why there is intolerance in the world. We must all strive to walk in our neighbors shoes; that way, when we are tempted to become intolerant, we will only be mocking ourselves.

Creating The Spider's Web...A Look Into Scenic Design

Today Artes de la Rosa takes a few minutes to blog with Scenic Designer Oliver Luke. You may remember Oliver’s STUNNING work from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and for Kiss of the Spiderwoman he is pulling out all the stops. Oliver, Lighting Designer Matt Wasson, and Costume Designer Justin Kailer, promise to bring you a visual world that is more then just escapism, it is a full on sensory overload! This is what Oliver has to say about his scenic creation...while sharing a couple early sketches with us...


In approaching this design I wanted to go outside of my norms of creating just a realistic world. I wanted to draw the audience in to this gritty, dirty, and dangerous world of the prisoners. The goal is to make the audience truly see the filth of these prisons and the life in them but also show how their true escape comes from the prisoners mind. The whole process started with lots of research into the show, into antiquated prisons and methods of torture. Looking at other interpretations of the show and prison life in movies and television shows (ie: movie version of Kiss of the Spiderwoman, The Shawshank Redemption, Oz, etc.)
After I had a firm idea of the path I wanted to take, I started with sketching ideas of how I would like the walls to feel and look of the prison.
Dilapidated, dirty, crumbling, great stress and neglect…this would act as a parallel to how the prisoners lives are lived as well. Once I had the ideas on paper, I then started thinking in another direction, about how our unlikely Molina viewed his world and how he escaped into his mind.
My interpretation was all about the character of the Spiderwoman herself and how she is Molina's escape and torment, so how could I work that into the design? His world becomes a fantasy so I needed to make the audience feel this as well. So I had the idea that as the prison crumbles around them it would break away into the fantasy of Aurora's world of the spider.
This is where I think my designs truly differ from other productions of Kiss of the Spiderwoman, most interpretations seem to be of a more literal world, I wanted it to be more than just that. I also wanted it to be visually stunning - a true feast for the eyes. Everywhere the audience looks they will see that Molina/Aurora's world starts to surround them.
The colors used in the set are lots of grays, some moldy greens, and rusty reds…again, very gritty and dirty broken bricks and concrete. As the walls crumble into fantasy we'll see blacks, purples, and shimmering heavily saturated light colors. The goal being the complete emersion into a surreal feeling for the audience with the juxtaposition of the two worlds…and the question remains the one Molina has already answered for himself, “Which world are you more comfortable in?”

Interviews with the Stars of Kiss of the Spiderwoman

Art & Heart: Finding Valentin

Today, Artes de la Rosa sits down with actor/singer and leading man, Keith J. Warren to discuss the very personal journey he's taking starring as Valentin in our production of Kander and Ebb's KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN.

As an actor, it’s been my personal experience that several pieces have stuck with me for a long time. I think Kiss of the Spider Woman has been one of those stories where I’ve seen many different sides of the spectrum in terms of love, life, relationships, and self awareness.


I first became familiar with the story after seeing the 1985 film starring William Hurt and Raul Julia. Both of which are actors whom I admire a great deal for their versatile abilities. The film was indeed a favorite of mine and upon my discovery of the musical version, I was very intrigued at how the piece was lavishly reborn in musical form. Even before I had seen the show actually produced on stage, I was able to see the story colorfully brought to life in my mind through the musical album, as performed by its original stars, Chita Rivera, Brent Carver, and Anthony Crivello.

The story itself is a love story a lot like that of the classic French faerie tale, Beauty and the Beast, where we have Valentin, a man who seems trapped inside himself with a deeper and tenderer soul than Molina experiences in the beginning of their relationship. The two of them discover, not only the unseen beauty within each other, but even more so within themselves, which they eventually embrace and, in turn, grow closer together as men, friends, and lovers.

Valentin has faced a lot of hardship in his life, but I think what makes his character the most interesting is that his heart is more open than the story lets on to begin with. This is a quality that I feel a lot of male actors tend to discard when playing similar roles, such as Billy Bigelow in Carousel. Another role I’ve portrayed and have come to love for a great deal of the same reasons. These are men who are given the guises of bellowing, arrogant jerks who seem to find pleasure in grunting about as the “alpha leading man”, as it were. But these men, particularly Valentin, have so much heart and endearment to them that just cannot be ignored. And very well shouldn’t be, otherwise they’re very shallow men, to say the least.

I think Valentin’s passion for his political cause, as well as his personal relationships, give his story an inspirational turn that most people don’t expect at first. The music constantly stirs me emotionally and even in the darker numbers, there are glimmers of hope, which leaves me wondering where Valentine and Molina’s story will go from there.

I feel that this show is not only a beautiful piece, but a great artistic challenge that allows you to bring a great story to life. What these men learn about each other and themselves, I feel, will really open people’s eyes in many ways. This is definitely not a show for those that have trouble with open minded ideals or willingness of acceptance. So, perhaps we can tell a story that will open some eyes and leave people with broadened perspectives of ideals that may not always be easy to embrace, but will have a positive outcome in the end.

Kiss of the Spiderwoman

FIRST LOOK AT KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN

Here's your first look at KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN The Musical that opens March 31st at the Rose Marine Theater. Tickets now on Sale!


FEEL HER KISS - This Spring at the Rose Marine Theater
Kiss of the Spiderwoman: (Left tor Right; Emily Kate Hardy (The Spiderwoman), Keith J. Warren (Valentin), Jason Robert Villarreal (Molina).

Directed by Adam Adolfo
Photo by Shannon Atkinson