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Chaste White, Blush
Red
M: For Mature Listeners
One-man show puts love center stage
By Tony Kiss
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
published: January 20, 2006 6:00 am
ASHEVILLE - Valentine's Day is still down
the road, but love really knows no season. And so storyteller
David Novak sets the romantic stage with his oneman show "Chaste
White & Blush Red," at the cozy N.C. Stage Company theater,
a perfect place for this type of performance.
It's not a traditional play, although there
are many characters and it's told over two acts. Novak calls
it a "concert," and for about 90 minutes he spins fables
and tales of love. It's a fascinating and very effective production
and one of the more unusual theater shows we've seen lately.
Novak, who wrote the piece, can really hold
an audience's attention. He glides through his work with seeming
ease and a very conversational delivery, taking
the listener happily along through ancient fables of yore, famous
fairy tales and memories of his own childhood.
What holds it all together is love. Until
we know another, how can we know
ourselves, he asks. It's a question worth pondering.
The stage is simply dressed with red and white
flower petals scattered across
the small black floor. The only prop is a small red-dressed table
filled with
flowers and apples (which come in handy in act two).
Novak opens with the story of the sculptor
Pygmalion, cold as the stone that he carves, and how he transforms
a block of marble into the figure of a woman who eventually touches
his heart. Later we meet Snow White and Rose Red, who embrace
a great bear who comes calling to their forest home, and who
isn't what he seems. Novak recalls childhood games in which he
recovers a treasure chest containing its own surprising secrets.
Two of his best pieces are a retelling of
Cinderella, and the life of the Greek
heroine Atalanta, who becomes the world's fastest runner - but
can she outpace love itself?
Novak connects the stories and illustrates
each piece through voices, movement and sounds (clapping, stomping).
Grab someone you love - romantically, platonically,
whatever - and see this
show.
Storyteller David Novak entertains full
house at PAC
Erin Klitzke Grand Valley Lanthorn
It's not every day that you hear a
telling of "Sleeping Beauty" as a limerick. The patrons
of storyteller David Novak on Saturday night did.
David Novak is a world-renowned storyteller
who came to Grand Valley State
University at the behest of GVSU professor Karen Libman, who
teaches a new
storytelling course here at Grand Valley. Libman said she saw
him at "numerous festivals" and eventually convinced
him to come to GVSU to perform.
Novak's show, which started at 7:30 p.m. for
a standing-room only crowd at the PAC, featured retellings of
many classic tales and renditions of myth and legend.
Among the pieces Novak performed were the
tale of Snow White and Rose Red, a story from the Epic of Gilgamesh,
the story of Atalanta, a retelling of "The Little Cinder
Girl," the story of Orpheus and Euridice, and a version
of "Sleeping Beauty" in dactylic hexameter. Also included
were a story of Novak's childhood in Florida and the story of
Sterling the Salt Shaker.
Novak brought a huge stage presence and a
wonderful sense of humor to the stage for his performance. But
Novak had a message for everyone when he got on the stage. He
wanted people to think about his stories and think about all
stories. Novak created magic on the stage in the weaving of his
tales.
In addition to his recent performance at Grand Valley, Novak
has performed at the National Storytelling Festival, the Bay
Area Storytelling Festival, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt
Disney Imagineering, the Disney Institute and many other places
during his long career.
"As a storyteller," Novak said,
"I can integrate my many areas of interest and
expertise. My work has grown from explorations in mime and movement,
character, voice, and classical text to the spontaneity and intimacy
of the shared story. The theatre is my tradition and it is evident
in my style. Yet I am not interested in merely 'acting out' the
story, but in telling. Every story I tell has been through the
filter of my imagination and carries a bit of my heart."
In addition to giving his audience Saturday night a piece of
his heart, Novak gave them all a bit of wisdom - a paradox -
as his parting words: "Until we know ourselves, how can
we hope to know another, but until we know another, how can we
hope to know ourselves?"
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