Two separate readers sent me two separate theater news items regarding Long Wharf Theatre Associate Artistic Director Eric Ting.
One is about Berkeley Rep’s elaborate new new-works development extravaganza, The Ground Floor, which will encompass 13 workshop projects in a single month. Eric Ting received one of dozens of Ground Floor residencies, and he’ll be residing near such other leading lights as Julia Cho, David Edgar, Amy Freen, Marcus Gardley, Richard Montoya, Lynn Nottage, Octavio Solvis and Rinne Groff (to name just a few, and specifically some of the artists’ whom New Haven theatergoers may recognize as having had works done at Yale Rep or Long Wharf.)
Ground Floor will take over a newly converted warehouse space in West Berkeley and let these accomplished artists run wild. Not all the projects will necessarily result in a public reading or performance.
Ting is attached to a new Meiyin Wang project, motherland/foreign relation (we all here, why you never call?) Ground Floor ground rules are here.
http://berkeleyrep.org/about/groundfloor.asp
The other Eric Ting item is more current, a review by Hilton Als in the April 16 issue of The New Yorker of a Jackie Sibblies Drury play Ting directed, We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915.
It’s a sweet review for a director to get. Als writes:
The show provides a thrilling opportunity to see both a serious new talent developing her voice and what an inspiring director can do to encourage it. … Ting is a magician who doesn’t have to pull anything out a hat; it’s all there in the script. What he’s terrific at is making stage pcitures that not only frame Drury’s big thoughts and bigger bigger imagination but ground them so that the actors can take off.
The full review is here.
We Are Proud to Present… runs at the Victory Gardens Theater. Details here.
Ting is shown discussing the play in a series of videos on the website. I’ve embedded one above.