\t\t\t\t\t\t[aesop_gallery pslightbox=”on” transition=”crossfade” caption=”Photos by Robert Wood” galleryType=”grid” id=”1057″]\n
\u201c\u2018RANDALL DUK KIM\u2019S \u2018MEMORABLE DRAMA\u2019 KICKS OFF APT DRIVE\u2019 Two things were immediately obvious: first, that in Randall Duk Kim APT has found an artistic director of awesome talent;\u2026Kim, an actor of uncommon skill and intense appeal, was here being featured in \u2018What Should Such Fellows As I Do\u2019 an original, one-man show\u2026The play is very much a statement of purpose, a Magma Carta in which Kim and director Anne Occhiogrosso have outlined the meaning and purpose of classical drama on the American stage. At the same time, recognizing that our appreciation of the classics has often been shunted by the unimaginative rituals of formal education, the play sets out to research its audience the inherent beauty of great dramatic art. Kim and Occhiogrosso have structured the script around three playwrights (Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Euripides) representative of APT\u2019s first five-year production schedule\u2026.What APT is offering is a chance to truly enjoy the classics, to see them performed with clarity, imagination and skill. For that reason, one sensed that Friday evening\u2019s performance marked the beginning of a new era of American theatre.\u201d
\u2014Rob Fixmer, THE CAPITAL TIMES (6\/16\/1979)
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\u201c\u2018THEATER PROJECT\u2019S ACT 1 HOLDS PROMISE\u2019 Kim begins in full elderly makeup as a henpecked schoolmaster about tot deliver a lecture \u2018On the Harmfulness of Tobacco.\u2019 But Chekhov\u2019s mono drama slyly passes tobacco by to explore the domestic weeds that have strangled the schoolmaster\u2019s life. Kim has captured the role physically, and understands Chekhov\u2019s dry humor, but the balance between laughter and pathos has not yet been fully realized. Then Kim removes his makeup before us, inviting questions from the audience. For the rest of the evening, it is his own boyish face that will be transformed, without makeup, for a number of tributes to the art of acting and the great actors of the past.\u2026Julia Marlowe\u201419th Century America\u2019s most acclaimed Juliet\u2026\u2018The Trojan Women\u2019\u2014\u2026Hamlet through the ages\u2014\u2026Kim also becomes a Richard II\u2026Kim\u2019s constant companion\u2014his dog, Kate\u2014joins him onstage for a sequence more cute than clownish: disgruntled Launce\u2019s comic discussion of the dog\u2019s life of a dog owner in \u2018Two Gentlemen of Verona.\u2019 The evening closes with two of Shakespeare\u2019s most famous partings\u2014Prospero\u2019s speech from \u2018The Tempest\u2019 and Puck\u2019s farewell from \u2018A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream.\u2019\u2026I unhesitatingly recommend \u2018Fellows\u2019 to you when it comes near your territory\u2026At best, it is a convincing demonstration of what the American Players Theater hopes to be about\u2014and why it deserves the chance.\u201d<\/span> \u201c\u2018DUK KIM\u2019S WIT TRANSFORMS CHEKHOV\u2019 He walked out on the stage of the Gard theatre in Spring Green, a rumpled , unkempt old man with a sour expression on his face, shaggy eyebrows about eyes and bags under his deep-set eyes, untrained sideburns framing his face, French-cuffed shirt over-shooting even the too-long sleeves of a moth-eaten formal coat, and placed himself resolutely behind a small lectern. The humorous, wittily-bitter and compassionate language that poured forth belonged to playwright Anton Chekhov, from his \u2018On the Harmfulness of Tobacco,\u2019 but the pathetic, clenched teeth, ruffled-and-resigned delivery was patented by Randall Duk Kim, a young actor recently of the Guthrie Theatre who is something special as an actor, something very special.\u2026Kim is a pleasure to listen to, whether telling an anecdote, shouting desperate words of revenge, whispering the strained tones of the ghost in \u2018Hamlet\u2019 or the sweet promises of \u2018Romeo and Juliet.\u2019 And he becomes truly impressive when this well modulated, liquid voice rises and falls in the poetic nuances of Shakespeare\u2019s lines.\u201d \u201c\u2018ACTOR KIM\u2019S ONE-MAN SHOW PORTRAYS THEATER AT ITS BEST\u2019 Randall Duk Kim presented a two-hour lesson on what acting\u2014and the theater\u2014is all about,\u2026And if students could grade the teacher, he would get an A+. He gets that high mark not only because of his virtuoso performance, but also because of his fascinating choice of material and the imaginative way in which he presented his tribute to some of the great actors of the past.\u201d \u201c\u2018KIM BRINGS DREAM OF FLEDGLING THEATER IN ONE-MAN SHOW\u2019 It is a good show that demonstrates what anybody who saw Kim at the Guthrie last year already knows\u2014Randy Kim is an immensely talented actor who possesses breadth and sensitivity in equal measures.\u201d \u201c\u2018KIM COVERS GAMUT FROM COMEDY TO TRAGEDY IN SHOW\u2019 The University of Wisconsin Center\u2019s Lecture and Concert Series for 1979-80 had an auspicious beginning Wednesday night in the person of Randall Duk Kim, who presented his one-man show, \u2018What Should Such Fellows As I Do?\u2019 to a near capacity audience.\u2026\u2018What Should Such Fellows As I Do?\u2019 Is a forthright advertisement and benefit for the American Players Theater, and given the quality of performance and production (with Anne Occhiogrosso as director and Steven Helmke as production manager), it cannot help but weigh the scales toward the success of the ambitious projects\u2026.Given Kim\u2019s talent and commitment, one can only hope that one day he will be celebrated as he celebrated others last night. He is a consummate actor, possessed of a fine vocal instrument coupled with intellectual and emotional acuity. And he has a particular gift for commanding attention with a minimum of movement or gesture. I am reminded of another American actor, Fredric March, who, without the crutch of assistance (depending upon one\u2019s attitude_ of personal idiosyncrasy, gifted us wit ha lifetime of acting which served as a probe into the human condition. I wish Kim equal status. Meanwhile, I will find my way to Spring Green.\u201d [aesop_gallery pslightbox=”on” transition=”crossfade” caption=”Photos by Robert Wood” galleryType=”grid” id=”1057″] Review Excerpts \u201c\u2018RANDALL DUK KIM\u2019S \u2018MEMORABLE DRAMA\u2019 KICKS OFF APT DRIVE\u2019 Two things were immediately obvious: first, that in Randall Duk Kim APT has found an artistic director of awesome talent;\u2026Kim, an actor of uncommon skill and intense appeal, was here being featured in \u2018What Should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-performances"],"metadata":{"_wp_old_date":["2021-12-03"]},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\u2014Dominique Paul Noth, THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL (6\/17\/1979)<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2014Donald K. Davies, THE WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL (6\/18\/1979)<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2014Gerald Peters, THE SHEBOYGAN PRESS (7\/7\/1979)
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\u2014Peter Vaughan, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR (7\/27\/1979)<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2014W.B. Johnson, MARSHFIELD NEWS-HERALD (9\/6\/1979)<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"