Word: wildebeest
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...birth that a wildebeest reaches...
Taymor's imaginative ideas seem limitless. Actors wear masks atop their heads and manipulate life-size puppets, in bold defiance of conventional stage literalism. Dance numbers brim with vibrant, African-carnival colors; the big action sequences, like a wildebeest stampede conveyed by wheels and masks, dazzle with their allusive originality. Some of the most striking images are the simplest. Women with grass headdresses stand in a row and sway to manifest wind in the African savanna. When the lionesses grieve over the death of their King, Mufasa, they pull ribbons of fabric from their eyes to suggest tears...
...Minneapolis, Taymor had to have emergency gallbladder surgery. Then, she faced a host of technical problems, from malfunctioning props to elaborate scene changes that couldn't be made quickly enough. For the first few preview performances, the show was forced to insert a pause just before the big wildebeest stampede to give the crew time to change the set. (Taymor has since inserted a new scene to bridge...
...grass came in," she told stage manager Jeff Lee one afternoon, referring to the women wearing grass headdresses to represent the African savanna. A burst of unexpected applause from the audience covered up a key musical passage. Timon wasn't lighted properly in the waterfall scene. The wildebeest costumes were shedding...