Alex Timbers hardly stands out among the Hopkins undergrads loitering in the Mattin Center. A blend of Josh Groban and Ashton Kutcher, this 26-year-old is barely out of college himself. However, Timbers, who is directing the Barnstormers' spring musical, Bat Boy, has already managed to distinguish himself in the theater world as one of the preeminent new directors on the New York theater scene.
First, in 2004, Timbers received an Obie (the Tony equivalent for off-Broadway theater) for A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, a play described by The New York Times as "the gutsiest gimmick in New York theater for 2003." Then, in February, the Times wrote a feature on Timbers, commending him for his innovation and willingness to approach quirky, unusual productions.
Timbers' love of theater blossomed at Yale, where he was part of his college theater troupe. Theater is a big part of Yale's student life - each week, there are at least a half dozen shows on campus. It was there that Timbers began mixing academia with the theater to produce heady and intellectual spoofs.
Now, four years later, Timbers is a founding member and artistic director of Les Fr???res Corbusier, a New York-based experimental theater company that directs and produces absurdist historical revisionist plays, focusing primarily on twentieth century figures and movements. A director-based company, this group generates theater as a collaborative work between the director, the actors, and the playwrights.
Timbers explained, "We try to investigate the didactic elements of [our subjects], to present the elements of academia, but in ways that are fun and interesting to younger audiences who are more excited by visceral entertainment, like rock shows."
To accomplish this end, the company has created a variety of shows on such unorthodox topics as Ben Franklin as the "coked-up, alien Anti-Christ" (The Franklin Thesis), the wild side of Warren G. Harding (President Harding is a Rock Star), and the aforementioned Pageant, in which an entirely 8 to 12-year-old cast present the visions of L. Ron Hubbard, complete with dancing brains, Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley.
"To make academia accessible, you need a mixture of high-brow and low-brow humor," says Timbers. "The work I create within the company has a very specific aesthetic - silly dance, distancing devices, dead pan, lots of video and constant sound-cueing and underscoring - you know, that's a very specific thing, and it's not necessarily for everyone. It's not for, like, white-haired old ladies who are looking for something conventional - although some of them certainly enjoy it, too."
His work is unconventional, perhaps, but certainly not unpopular. The company's latest work, Boozy: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Vilification of Le Corbusier, and, More Importantly, Robert Moses, was both written and directed by Timbers. This play, which lampoons urban planning against a punk rock score, sold out theaters in its first run, and is currently being remounted and transferred to a larger theater for a more extensive run.
Despite his recent success in New York, Timbers applied to serve as the professional director for Bat Boy at Hopkins. His reasons for becoming involved with the production are two-fold. First, he explains, "I almost exclusively direct new work in New York, so it's rare to get a chance to work on a show like Bat Boy that's already been produced before and that's enjoyed off-Broadway success."
Also, Timbers was excited about the opportunity to work with university students. His experiences at Yale with professional directors were not always positive, so he hopes he can give the cast an experience of working with a professional director who understands the limitations of an undergraduate schedule and other aspects endemic of undergraduate theater. "I'm excited about the idea of hopefully being a nice, positive person who can educate them artistically to do their best work," he said.
Bat Boy producer, junior Leigh Leiberman, said that Timbers is the perfect match for this unconventional pop rock musical about the half-bat, half-boy of tabloid fame. "We really wanted to do something edgy, something different, and Alex had some really great ideas for the show," said Leiberman.
While it would be easy to exploit the situational comedy in Bat Boy, Timbers' approach to the show has been more subtle than campy. "The material is inherently ironic, so it would be easy to make it campy," explained Timbers. "But the key is not to wink at the audience. It's much more interesting to create a show that is earnest, that focuses on the pathos more seriously, so the humor is still there but we don't shove it in your face."
Members of the cast and crew agree with Timbers' philosophy, and they noted that he has enjoyed a great camaraderie with the cast. Senior Mike Levy, who plays the title role, said, "I think he provides a sense of comfort because he's closer to our age. Ironically, I think this generates better results because we don't feel pressured to develop a final picture of what we think the director wants. It's a collaborative atmosphere rather than a hierarchical one - like we're on a journey to discover a final picture with him."
Bat Boy is showing April 8-10, 15 and 16 at 8 p.m. and April 17 at 2 p.m. in the Swirnow Theatre in the Mattin Center. Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for non-students. For reservations, visit http://www.jhubarnstormers.com.
