Video: Director Norman Blumensaadt Talks about MAGIC FIRE, Different Stages at Trinity Street Players, January 11 - February 2, 2019

(video interview via Different Stages)

 

The title "The Magic Fire" refers to the circle of fire that the Norse god Wotan erects to shield and entrap Brunnhilde, in Wagner's "Ring" cycle. Otto, patriarch of the Berg-Guarneri family--a clan of Austrian and Italian immigrants living in Peronist Argentina--tells the ring of fire story to his young daughter. Wotan's strategy serves as metaphor for the father's efforts to protectively surround his family in a world of literature, culture and, most of all, opera, sheltering them from the ugly political realities just outside their door. Inevitably, the external world intrudes, primarily in the person of a next-door neighbor who shares the family's love of culture but is also an officer in the oppressive regime.

 

"This is a full-bodied drama, not minimalist or spare. The characters are flamboyant, the scenes are old fashioned and fully realized…It is delicious theatre…" —CurtainUp. "…considerable and wrenching power…" —Washington Post. "…a real tour de force…absolutely worth seeing…" —Philadelphia CityPaper.

 

Different Stages continues its 2018- 2019 season with The Magic Fire by Lillian Groag. The Magic Fire is a wonderfully warm and amusing play about a young woman growing up in a family of European immigrants who surround themselves with a “magic fire” of art to fend off the unpleasant realities of Juan Peron’s Argentina in the years after World War II. Argentinean-American playwright Lillian Groag explores the connections among memory, history, and art through the eyes of a child, revisited from the perspective of adulthood. By turns funny, loving, and politically alarming, The Magic Fire weaves a spell of tango and opera, treasured memories and hidden truths.

Directed by Norman Blumensaadt (When We Are Married), features Natalie Garcia (Significant Other) and Lucky Cantu (Aladdin) as the playwright at different times of her life. Playing the extended family, friends, and servants are Jennifer Underwood (Terminus), Rick Felkins (Side Show), Giselle Marie Munoz (There and Back), Eva McQuade (Real Women Have Curves), Greg Ginther (Yankee Tavern), Beth Burroughs (If I Forget), Katherine Schroeder (The Book of Liz), Karen Jambon (For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again), Beau Paul (Great Expectations) and Michael Costilla (Great Expectations).

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The Magic Fire
by Lillian Groag
Different Stages

 

Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3:00 p.m.  Tickets are pick your price: $15, $20 or $25 Thursday, and $20, $25 or $30 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. NOTE: please be on time, since latecomers will not be able to access the building during evening hours.

The 7:30 p.m. performance ends at approximately 9:50 p.m.

For tickets go to https://www.differentstagestheatre.org

For Information call 512-926-6747