Jobsite Theater offers a welcome change of pace this holiday season with its most recent production, The Serpent, an avant-garde work that came as the result of a collaboration between playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie and NYC's alternative Open Theater.
Van Itallie joined the ensemble workshop near its inception in 1963. His job was to study the ensemble's "post-method" acting exercises — which emphasized the physical transformation of the actor via sound and movement — and from them, craft works that could be performed coherently for audiences. In 1968, Van Itallie and Open Theater produced The Serpent, a piece exploring parables in the Book of Genesis and how they relate to the modern experience. Marked by sparse dialogue, choreographed and improvised movement, pantomime, human sounds and music, The Serpent communicates its ideas with a nonlinear storyline that hops back and forth between ancient and contemporary times, and a sparse-to-nonexistent set that has its performers using their bodies as props. The Jobsite revival is directed by Chris Holcom.
The Serpent, 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., Dec. 8-17, with added performances occurring 8 p.m. Thu., Dec. 14, and 4 p.m. Sat., Dec. 16, Shimberg Playhouse-Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa, $15.50, 813-229-7827, jobsitetheater.org.
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2006.
