Before the cancellation of La bohème at Seattle Opera, originally scheduled for May 2–19, we had the opportunity to interview soprano Angel Blue in anticipation of her performance as Mimì. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 and subsequent stay-at-home orders, Seattle audiences will not be able to see the opera singer perform in this beloved role. However, we are happy to share that Angel Blue will be performing in a special virtual event, “Songs of Summer,” hosted by Seattle Opera on May 28. More information on this event can be found at the end of the interview.
When I asked Angel Blue what it was like to fall in love with music for the first time, she shared a memory of being four years old at a concert version of Puccini’s Turandot.
“It was just spectacular,” Blue said. “Just listening to the orchestra—it was so loud. And it moved me in some way. It made me really happy. And I just remember being so fixed on the woman who was standing in the spotlight. And I didn’t know that was Turandot. I didn’t know that what she was singing was ‘In questa reggia,’ one of the most famous soprano arias. I just knew that it moved me. And that’s when I fell in love with opera.”
In February, I had the immense pleasure of speaking with Blue while she was in New York singing the role of Bess in Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera. Between helping her stepson make Valentine’s Day cards and enjoying her night off, we spoke about her upcoming role as Mimì in La bohème, her love of Seattle Opera audiences, the importance of sharing music with young people, and so much more.
Danielle Mohlman: When did you first encounter La bohème? How did this opera first come into your life?
Angel Blue: It’s kind of funny because even though my first encounter with opera was when I was four years old, I didn’t become familiar with La bohème until I was about 22 years old. And it was because I was given an aria to learn in school—“Donde lieta usci,” which Mimì sings in Act III. And I’ll be totally honest, I just wasn’t very interested in the story. I was more interested in just that aria because I was trying to get a grade.
Two years later, I was cast as Musetta at the LA Opera and that’s when I first really started to pay attention to the story. And the opera just really drew me in. I worked really hard to learn Musetta and it was very difficult for me to learn music at the time because my father had just passed away. It was my first professional stage, but it was also right after my father passed away. It has a very special place in my heart, not so much because of the story.
But it’s a personal connection.
Yeah.
And La bohème has been around for over 100 years. What is it that draws 2020 audiences in?
It’s the story. I have a friend who’s an actress and she told me that by the time we’re two years old, we’ve experienced every emotion possible. As a child, you experience your parents leaving—maybe leaving you with a babysitter. So in that respect, we experience what it feels like to have a bit of loss. And then, of course, as a child you love your parents and they are your best friends. They are your world. And I think La bohème has every aspect of humanity in it. And because of that, I think people relate to the story regardless. It starts out as joy and happiness. And then as the story progresses, you find there’s jealousy and all of these different emotions. I think that as long as humankind is on Earth, we will always relate to La bohème because we’ll always know what it feels like to fall in love—hopefully, anyway. And hopefully those loves that we have aren’t lost in death. Even though that, of course, is inevitable.
But we all experience loss on some level or another.
Yeah. And there’s also a lot of pranking that goes on with the guys in this opera—that sort of youthfulness. Everybody at some point will experience that.
Oh, for sure. You’ve performed at Seattle Opera several times over the course of your career. What keeps you coming back?
Definitely the people. I don’t think the audience realizes that they have so much to do with an artist wanting to be there. When I do get to go back, I see a lot of the same faces. It’s like that show Cheers. “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came.” And that’s kind of how I feel about Seattle because people do know my name. I can be in the Starbucks down the street from the rehearsal space and see somebody that saw La traviata three or four years ago and they say, “Oh, we’re happy to have you back.” It’s really nice to feel welcomed.
You’ll be performing in Seattle Opera’s first student matinee, which is really exciting. Does performing for young people have a different energy than performing for a more traditional audience?
It does. What I love about students is they’re uninhibited and much more open to the story. It’s the difference between watching college football and the NFL. Not to say that the NFL isn’t as exciting, because it absolutely is. It’s just that with college football, you can feel the players are really there because they love the game. They find so much joy in it. Whereas the guys in the NFL, they love the game, but it’s also their job.
When younger people come to watch opera, they’re not afraid to clap even if it’s a moment where you’re “not supposed to” clap. There’s no book that says “in opera you shouldn’t clap here.” But you know, opera people are very traditional and they want to have things a certain way. But I like the fact that students are very vocal about how they feel in a certain scene or about a certain character. They’re just more open to whatever the show is going to be.
This idea of “you sit like this” and “you clap here”—I feel like that can be intimidating for audiences who are new to opera.
I’ll be totally honest with you: it’s intimidating for me. I usually don’t go to the opera unless it’s something I really want to see or I have a friend who’s singing. And sometimes I won’t go because I’ll think I have to look a certain way. What I’ve recently started doing, especially now that I’m married, is my husband and I will go and it’ll be our date night.
We bought the same tickets as the person sitting next to us wearing Harry Winston jewels and I have as much a right to be here as that person does. And I’m not saying that people should be able to come to the opera in flip flops and board shorts. But there is something very appealing about come just as you are.
I love that. Before I let you go, what are you most looking forward to seeing while you’re in Seattle this time around?
I’m really interested in seeing the memorial to Chris Cornell because I’m a huge Soundgarden fan. That’s my all-time favorite band. I was hoping at one point in my life I would have the opportunity to shake his hand because he was an amazing singer. So seeing the memorial is high on my list of things to do.
Angel Blue will perform in Seattle Opera’s “Songs of Summer” recital with Seattle Opera Coach/Accompanist Jay Rozendaal. She will perform selections by Rachmaninov, Heggie, Charpentier and Verdi, as well as African American spirituals. You can view the recital on Seattle Opera’s website, from May 28 at 7 p.m. through June 11.
Danielle Mohlman is a Seattle-based playwright and arts journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to Encore, where she’s written about everything from the intersection of sports and theatre to the landscape of sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s work can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and on the Quirk Books blog.
When I called up musical theatre writer Justin Huertas to talk about his latest musical Lydia and the Troll, which was scheduled to receive its world premiere at Seattle Rep this month, I was curious to know how he describes the show—outside the world of marketing blurbs and elevator pitches.
“I feel like I haven’t really settled on the exact thing I want to say every time,” Huertas said. “So this is a great question because it’s going to be fun and spontaneous. Let’s see!”
What he settled on is this: Lydia and the Trollis a new musical about a singer-songwriter named Lydia who lives in Fremont, Seattle. She’s in a really exciting place in her career—on the verge of becoming the successful recording artist she’s always dreamed of. But she’s blocked, both in her writing and by the toxic and codependent relationship she’s in with her boyfriend. And in the midst of all of this, she meets a kind stranger who offers her a chance to cross over—into success and away from this relationship.
And because it’s a Justin Huertas musical, there’s a signature dash of Pacific Northwest magic.
[Editor’s Note: This interview took place in February, before Lydia was canceled due to COVID-19. Justin Huertas will be hosting a virtual event on May 13 in celebration of this musical. More information can be found at the end of the interview.]
Danielle Mohlman: A lot of your work is grounded in Pacific Northwest legend and what it means to be from Seattle. I’d love to talk about how place inspires your work.
Justin Huertas: As a patron of the arts and consumer of all kinds of media—in the movie theatre, on TV, and on my laptop—I get to see so many different kinds of stories. But I’m always so frustrated about the fact that I never see stories that are set in Seattle. I’m from here. I grew up here, and I think this place is magical. The fact that we even have a giant statue of a troll under a bridge collecting a life-size Volkswagen Beetle—I think that’s super magical. I’m someone who grew up on superheroes and comic books and fantasy/sci-fi stories. And I just want to create those kinds of stories for Seattle because I think we deserve it. When people think of Seattle, they think of Starbucks and Amazon.
And they think of rain and, you know, the stereotypical things.
Yes, yes. Yep.
And I feel like I do see TV shows that try to set themselves in Seattle and then you see palm trees in the background and you’re like, “Oh, they didn’t even shoot it here.” It’s so frustrating.
Oh, absolutely. I was really excited about the film Chronicle with Michael B. Jordan. It was a found footage kind of superhero movie where these teenagers gained superpowers. And I was so excited about it because I saw the trailer and there was the Space Needle in the background and there’s shipping yards and I was like, “Oh, this is going to really feel like Seattle.” And then straight up the first thing in the movie is the two main characters carpooling together to go to school. And they pass a sign that says “Entering King County.” And I’m thinking, “You drive across county lines to go to high school? This is ridiculous.” And that’s the moment they lost me.
You’re like, “That’s not how the school system works here.”
Yeah. I mean, I applaud the effort. Thank you for trying things, for putting the Space Needle in your movie. But I want real Seattle. That’s why I’m so eager to put all kinds of Seattle landmarks in my shows.
I know you’ve been pretty open on social media about the fact that Lydia and the Troll was supposed to be in the 2018-19 season at Seattle Rep, but was delayed to keep the team together. Can you talk more about the value of that extra time—and the value of being able to continue to work as a team with your director and co-creator Ameenah Kaplan?
Yeah, definitely. At the tail end of our first workshop, Ameenah was offered the position of resident director on The Lion King national tour. And our hands were tied, she had to take that job. But Ameenah didn’t want to leave our project behind. What we were making started off as this kind of bare bones story about transformation and this singer-songwriter who’s trying to find her inner voice. And in this particular workshop, I had cast my friend Sarah Russell, who is a Black woman. And over the course of that workshop, Ameenah, who is also a Black woman, pulled me aside and said, “You’re writing this story for anyone and you’re having this amazing actress play this character. But what happens when you write specifically for a Black actress to play this role?”
And through that encouragement and collaboration, the story took a completely different turn and became about Lydia understanding herself not only as a singer-songwriter, but as a Black American in the music industry, in this interracial relationship that she’s in. And Ameenah is credited as my co-creator as well as my director because so much of what the story became is because of her.
What is the driving force behind your writing? What motivates you to work on—or daydream about—your musicals every day?
For a while, I thought I was writing for my inner child. I’m looking at my own bookshelf right now and there’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Howl’s Moving Castle, X-Men and Steven Universe, all on this shelf. And for a while, I wanted to create all the superhero stories I wish I had growing up—stories about people of color, queer people, Filipino people. The Last WorldOctopus Wrestling Champion was a huge thing for me because I got to write a Filipino single mother. My own mother was a single mom for a little while. And that was really important to me, to normalize all the things that I never get to see in any kind of media or on stage. Hearing Tagalog on stage—hearing a Filipino mom ask, “Did you eat?”—already that’s enough for me. There are so many things about my own identity that I feel could stand to be way more normalized. Which is why I’m excited that my first couple of musicals had queer relationships in them.
I want to write stories that young people can connect with. We can all, in some way, identify with people of different cultures—or people of different sexualities and genders—and be able to find the universality in those things while still really respecting and loving the specificity. If it’s a Filipino mother constantly feeding her daughter spam and eggs, that might not be something that everyone can identify with. But I’m sure we can identify with a parent or guardian who is that enthusiastic about feeding their kids. I’m excited about putting these complex identities on stage—and putting them in hero positions for young people to see.
Join Justin Huertas here or on Seattle Rep’s YouTube channel as he shares songs, stories, and more on what would have been the opening night of Lydia and the Troll. Watch the full concert on May 13 at 5 p.m. PDT.
Danielle Mohlman is a Seattle-based playwright and arts journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to Encore, where she’s written about everything from the intersection of sports and theatre to the landscape of sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s work can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and on the Quirk Books blog.
No matter the profession, becoming a parent is a significant
life moment—one that inevitably requires more time, money, and creative problem
solving than expected. The state of Washington is taking a major step this year
by providing up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave annually. It’s a
significant milestone, but one that butts itself up against a hard reality:
this new policy is restricted to full-time employees, a category that many
working artists do not fall under.
I had the opportunity to speak with a variety of artists—a stage
manager, an actor, a scenic designer, a playwright, and a pair of ballet
dancers—about their own experiences as parent-artists, and how they’ve made
things work at all phases of their children’s lives. Whether they’re on stage
or behind the scenes, raising newborns or tweens, these artists are working to
make their own lives a little more parent-artist friendly.
Freelance stage manager Pamela Campi Spee is the chief
representative of the newly formed Seattle chapter of the Parent Artist
Advocacy League (PAAL). She’s raising her three-year-old daughter with her
husband, an actor. Spee first gravitated toward PAAL after speaking with other
parent-artists in her community about the challenges of the industry—juggling
changing rehearsal schedules and a lack of affordable childcare chief among
them.
“It seemed like such a great idea to have more people out there
who are focused on doing this work, to advocate for parent-artists and help
them get what they need from a theatre or a contract,” Spee said. PAAL is based
in New York, but their reach is national. “I really wanted to make sure that
the voices of the Seattle parent-artists were heard—and that the needs that we
have in Seattle are being worked on.”
Spee has only been the chief representative of Seattle since
October 2019, but she has big plans for the future of Seattle theatre, starting
with childcare at auditions. PAAL has successfully partnered with theatres and
childcare providers in other cities in order to make this dream a reality. And
as Seattle’s spring audition season approaches, it’s the number one thing on
Spee’s mind.
“The other big thing I’m working on is just really
understanding the needs of parents as far as the rehearsal and performance
process is concerned,” Spee said. “I know there are some theatres that have
become more open about having their artists bring their children to work with
them as needed. And it makes those conversations just a little bit easier to
have. ‘Hey, my childcare fell through so I’m going to bring them to rehearsal.’
Or, ‘I have to leave rehearsal for half an hour to go pick my child up from
school because their ride fell through.’ You know, just basic needs like that.”
It’s a role she takes very personally, reflecting back on
her own place in the parent-artist community. Spee knows that if she’s not
happy and fulfilled on a human level, through her work as a stage manager, she
won’t be able to be the best parent she can be. She adds that many artists
she’s worked with opt to remain in the industry after becoming parents, despite
the juggling necessary.
“It can only enrich the art that we’re seeing because you’re
getting that wider scope of human experience,” Spee said. “You know, as your
children are growing up, you’re seeing what’s going on in the world through
that lens as well. There are also all the wonderful playwrights who are writing
about the parent experience. And for those stories to be told truthfully, to
have parents involved in that, is so important. Even as an audience member,
these actors that you’ve watched grow through these roles get to continue to
grow instead of disappearing or taking a break from acting. It’s going to be so
wonderful for audiences to see those people being built up and fostered in that
way.”
When Pacific Northwest Ballet dancer Lindsi Dec found out she was going to have her second baby, the timing worked out perfectly with a nine-month contract that her husband, retired PNB dancer Karel Cruz, had with the University of Oklahoma. Her boss, PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal, was supportive of Dec taking that time away from the company, encouraging her to spend time with her young family and return to Seattle the following season, giving her time to get back into ballet shape. When we spoke, Dec and Cruz were parents of one child, a four-year-old son. But I reminded them that by the time this article published, they’d have a newborn as well.
“Oh Lord,” Dec exclaimed, clearly excited about the new
addition and caught off guard by the timing. We were five weeks from her due
date.
Dec and Cruz had been talking about becoming parents for
some time, starting around 2014, the season they were both promoted to
principal dancer. But Dec felt like she still needed to dance and wasn’t ready
to take a break, however brief.
“And then we had the opportunity to do Don Quixote by Alexei Ratmansky,” Dec said. “And Karel and I were
partnered together. It’s kind of a full story for us because when we were back
in the corps [de ballet] when we were 19 or 20, we would go to the back of the
studios and we would practice doing pas de deux so that we could get
better. And Don Q was the first pas
de deux that we started, you know, us both being Hispanic, of course. And
then a billion years later to have the opportunity to dance together on stage at
McCaw Hall and do Don Q as the
principal couple—I just remember thinking ‘Oh gosh, nothing will ever get
better than this. I am ready to start a family.’”
Two months later, Dec was pregnant. She says that there’s
never any pressure to come back to work right away and that some dancers take
three months of parental leave while others take longer. Dec returned to PNB
five months after having her first child.
“It was really hard for me to come back,” Dec said. “Just
physically it was hard—and, of course, emotionally. But my muscles and tendons
and joints and ligaments were very, very weak after I had my son. And they were
just—it was always very supportive, which I really appreciate.”
But even with that support, it did take some creative
problem solving for them to both return to PNB full-time. Cruz’s mother, who
lives in Cuba, came to live with the couple for two years to help raise their
son while Dec and Cruz were at work. But it’s all worth it for them.
“This is the best present life can give you,” Cruz said.
“Having a child is the best thing in the world. When you come home from work
and they run into your arms, and you see their smile. They’re basically the
reason for us to be here.”
And Dec agrees. One of her favorite things to do is to bring
their son to the ballet.
“He just falls in love with it,” Dec said. “And for us to be
able to share that with him—something that we love so much. And now we see him
so musical. To be able to share all that magic when you’re so little, to
provide kind of a behind the scenes view, it’s really special.”
When Dedra Woods decided to become a parent, she wasn’t
doing very much acting yet. Woods raises her nine-year-old son with her
husband.
“I’ve always wanted to be a parent,” Woods said. “And it
felt like the right time, so we just dove into it. And it’s interesting because
I do have friends now who are pursuing their careers as artists and saying ‘Oh
I don’t know. We’re thinking about having children. We’re just trying to figure
it out.’ Because the schedule is so grueling, and it’s not very family
friendly. It’s definitely not a decision to be taken lightly, but I feel like
if it’s something you want to do, you just gotta make it work. Because there’s
never going to be a perfect scenario or perfect situation. You also have to
teach your children to be adaptable.”
For Woods, making it work means having a support system
around her who can step up and be there. We spoke over her son’s winter break,
right in the middle of the rehearsal process of The Revolutionists at ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery. Her son was
on his way to a play date at a close friend’s house. Woods also has family
members who occasionally come into town, particularly when she’s in technical
rehearsals.
“I’ve never come into contact with a theatre that wasn’t supportive of my time and my commitment to my family,” Woods said. “I feel like Seattle Children’s Theatre was a great example of this—and probably the theatre I’ve worked with that’s been the most supportive when I bring my son with me to the theatre when I have a show and he’s out of school. I had to leave town for an emergency and I knew the theatre was very supportive right from the get go. I had an understudy and I was able to attend to my family’s needs without worrying if I was going to lose my job, or if there was some penalty that was going to happen because I have to take care of my family.”
Most of the plays Woods performs in are too mature for her son to watch, but she has a vivid memory of the first time he was able to see her in a play: A Civil War Christmasat Taproot Theatre.
“He saw me and the look on his face was just—he said,
‘Mommy, you’re so good!’” Woods said. “And he’ll say things to me like ‘Mom,
I’m so glad you’re an actor’ and tell me that he loves what I do. But then on
the flip side, he doesn’t like my schedule. He said ‘Mom, you’re only off one
day’ or ‘How come you can never do things with me and Daddy? You’re always
away.’ And that hurts. That’s probably one of the most difficult challenges,
feeling like ‘Am I missing out on everything?’ But I’m also helping to build
and raise a human who will be resilient and see his mom as someone who is
passionate about her work, which I think is very important.”
Scenic designer Matthew Smucker doesn’t remember there being
much of a debate when he and his late wife Andrea Allen decided to have
children. They wanted to establish their careers before having children, making
a deliberate choice to wait until Smucker had finished graduate school at the
University of Washington.
“There were enough challenges that we ultimately relied on
science,” Smucker said. “It wasn’t just happenstance. And we were both theatre
artists—as is my current partner—so there was always the sense of ‘How do we
combine these things together in an effective way?’ There were certainly some
of our friends who had kids, but many of our peers in the theatre community
chose to forego that aspect, which I still have complete respect for. But we
knew that this was a deliberate choice and that we would have to make it work.”
Smucker’s twins are now 12 years old and he values the
flexibility he has as a designer. Most of the time, he doesn’t have to be in
rehearsals. And he’s not performing in the show six nights a week.
“As a parent, even with older kids, it still feels like some
of the design work happens in the margins,” Smucker said. “You know, like
between nine and midnight at night as opposed to fully during the day,
particularly because I’m a full-time associate professor at Cornish College of
the Arts. And so there’s that balance as well. When you carve out a pocket
here, you have to figure out where to make it up someplace else. It’s a
juggling game.”
When Smucker’s children were born, he very intentionally
carved out time when he was not working—his equivalent of freelance parental
leave. And once he did return to scenic design, he relied on the twins’
grandparents coming in from out of town, especially during technical rehearsals
leading up to opening night.
“Even with the kids being a little older, it’s still a need,” Smucker said. “This next two-week period, I’ll be going into technical rehearsals at Village Theatre for She Loves Meand my wife Carol Roscoe is starting rehearsals as a director for Book-It for Turn of the Screw. And there’s enough challenges between those two things—enough of that after school period or that evening period—that somebody has to be there. So, Carol’s mom is coming into town for a couple of weeks to help with that.”
Smucker says his children feel very at home in the theatre, and that he remembers pulling props from the Seattle Rep warehouse with them when they were three or four years old.
“The theatres I work with regularly in Seattle are all very
much aware of my status as a parent,” Smucker said. “And they’re often
interested and excited to see my kids when they happen to come in with me to
work. The fact that my kids might be in the theatre watching part of a
rehearsal or run through, or sitting in during tech for certain periods of
time, has not been a problem. I haven’t felt like I have to keep those aspects
of my life separate.”
For playwright Holly Arsenault, becoming a parent and coming
into her own as an artist happened at the same time.
“When I was first deciding to become a parent, I didn’t know
I was a playwright yet,” Arsenault said. “I was applying to grad school for
dramaturgy and praying that secretly I would get pregnant and not have to go to
graduate school. I think it’s because I knew somewhere deep down that
dramaturgy wasn’t really it, but I was too afraid to write plays.”
Arsenault’s son, who she raises with her husband, is now
eight years old. And she knew that if she wanted to teach him to be brave, she
would have to be brave herself. Arsenault wrote her first full-length play when
her son was an infant, in addition to working full time.
“I went back to work at my day job when he was four months
old, but I was writing when he was really tiny,” Arsenault said. “He didn’t
sleep at all and so I did a lot of writing in the literal middle of the night,
which was a little crazy but actually helped me. I think actually being sleep
deprived helped me suspend my judgment on what I was writing and just write.
Sometimes I would write something at four in the morning and think ‘Oh my god
this is incredible.’ And then I would wake up in the morning and be like ‘What
the hell? This makes no sense.’ It was like I was writing in an altered state.”
Because Arsenault began her playwriting career with so
little writing time, she values the time she does have in front of her
computer, whether her time is compressed by parenthood or her full-time job.
“A lot of my writing is walking around and thinking about
it, not sitting in front of a computer,” Arsenault said. “And then when I
finally sit down to write, I can get a lot done in 45 minutes because I’ve sort
of conditioned myself that way. Even though there are times when I feel like
I’ve missed out on 10 or 15 years when I should’ve been writing, I feel a bit
lucky that I forged my writing style on the fire of being a brand-new parent. I
didn’t have to deal with completely changing my system because I never knew any
other way.”
Arsenault describes her plays as “pretty adult,” but says
her son is starting to become interested in theatre.
“Now he’s starting to ask me
about my plays,” Arsenault said, “and he’ll say ‘What’s it about?’ And then
I’ll try to explain the play to him in a way that’s not too scary. He
definitely identifies me as a playwright when people ask what I do. He doesn’t
say ‘My mom works at the School of Drama at UW,’ although he does know that I
work here. But he says that I’m a playwright, so that feels nice.”
Arsenault says that while there
are a lot of logistics involved with raising a child as a theatre artist, what
she most wants prospective and current parent-artists to walk away with is
this: the theatre is poorer without your voices.
“I think that a lot of what our
culture, especially our artist culture, tells us is that the qualities that
make a good artist and the qualities that make a good parent are really
opposite one another,” Arsenault said. “I want parent-artists to stop thinking
that that’s true—and to realize that there is so much potential in the journey
of parenting that can make your art better. Those are stories that deserve to
be told, that belong on stage.”
I couldn’t agree more.
For more information about the Seattle chapter of the Parent Artist Advocacy League, visit paaltheatre.com/seattle.
Danielle Mohlman is a Seattle-based playwright and arts journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to Encore, where she’s written about everything from the intersection of sports and theatre to the landscape of sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s work can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and on the Quirk Books blog. dan
It’s hard not to
think about The Plastics when you read the full title of Jocelyn Bioh’s
bitingly funny School Girls; Or, The
African Mean Girls Play. It sets the tone immediately, both a joke and a
visceral reaction. So, when I called director Awoye Timpo, I was curious to get
her take on the unusually familiar title.
“I haven’t seen that movie in a number of years,” Timpo said, “but it feels emblematic of high school in America in a really tragic and hilarious way. At the end of the day, that’s the beauty of School Girls as well. At this high school in the mountains of Ghana, these girls are finding their own place. It’s that very human desire to figure out where you fit and figure out what the hierarchy of the environment is.”
Before Timpo flew out to Berkeley to start rehearsals, we talked
about pageants, standards of beauty, and why School Girls feels like an artistic family.
[Editor’s note: We are choosing to publish this Dialogue, even after the production’s run has been canceled due to COVID-19, because we would like to share the work and creativity that the artists, creative team and staff of Berkeley Repertory Theatre have put into this production. We’d also like to encourage readers to purchase a ticket to access a live performance of the show through the BroadwayHD streaming platform. Tickets must be purchased by March 20 at 5 p.m. Purchase tickets here.]
Danielle Mohlman: How
did School Girls come into your life?
What drew you to the play initially?
Awoye Timpo: I’ve known Jocelyn [Bioh] for a number of years
and had been following the progress of another play she’s been writing called Nollywood Dreams. And I knew of Jocelyn
because we’re both first-generation artists in New York—our parents are from
Ghana—so we’ve always been kind of connected. So, my first connection with School Girls was the greatness of
Jocelyn. It’s so rare to see someone who’s writing comedies for the theatre,
but the fact that this is a play that takes place in the country where our
parents are from—it’s just so exciting. It’s been amazing to follow the
progress of the play over the years.
What are you most
looking forward to about bringing this play to Berkeley Rep?
Jocelyn is an artist that Johanna [Pfaelzer] has been
invested in for quite a bit of time. So it was really exciting that in her
first season as artistic director, she put this play in there. Because the two
of them have such a beautiful history together. And I also worked at New York
Stage and Film on another play when Johanna was there. This is my first time
working at Berkeley Rep, so it feels very new, but it also feels very familiar
because we get to do it with artistic family, which is great.
And in terms of the play itself, the play is dealing with
issues of identity, it’s dealing with issues of hierarchy. It’s dealing with
issues of “Who is the person that we all want to be in the world?” And I feel
like that’s a very pressing question for this moment, as we’re in the midst of
a robust election season and really trying to figure out what’s the way
forward, beyond the moment we can see. This play is set in a cafeteria in a
high school, about young women who are trying to figure out “What’s my place in
the world? Where do I fit? What’s my purpose here? How do I achieve all the
things that I want to achieve? And what are the things standing in the way of
my achievement?” It feels like a very pressing theme for our moment and time.
And I think the beauty of what Jocelyn has constructed is to
take some quite large sociological issues and put them in a comedy. She’s also
celebrating the life of these young women. She’s celebrating the joyousness and
absurdities of our existence and the way we go about chasing the things that we
desire. It’s so brilliantly constructed and so gorgeously takes the audience on
a beautiful ride.
I’m so glad you
mentioned the cafeteria because when I think about the movie Mean Girls, the first thing that comes
to mind is the lunch tables. And all the categories.
Oh my gosh. Totally. It’s like a microcosm of a society, especially
in a boarding school where people are with each other for really extended
periods of time. There’s always gonna be the outgoing one, there’s always going
to be the shy one. This play is also dealing with the standard of beauty and
how young women are trying to define themselves according to what the standard
is. The complexity of that is present here in America inside of our school
systems, given the images that we all see on screen and what we imagine
different standards of beauty to be.
This play takes place in the 1980s. If I think back to the
representation, especially of Black women on screen and in magazines, it was
quite limited outside of our own publications. The standard of beauty that has
kind of infiltrated everybody’s mind since 1619 in America is very heavily
weighted against us. And these young women on another continent, in another
country have their own battles that echo that same conversation that we have
here on a daily basis.
There’s so much about
beauty pageants in this play. Did you have any particular feelings about beauty
pageants before diving into this play?
I think that there’s something interesting in learning about
people and learning about the things that excite them—and then learning about
how we learn and aspire to different things in the world. For me, growing up,
my relationship with beauty pageants was kind of minimal. It was never
something that I would aspire to, but I certainly think it’s a big image that
young girls see in terms of what is the standard of beauty and what are the
different ways that we are all represented by those people on that stage. My
feelings haven’t changed, but I would love to revisit that question as we
continue to get deeper into our rehearsal process.
Is there a particular
moment or relationship you’re looking forward to exploring in rehearsal?
You know what’s so great? Jocelyn has crafted so many
different kinds of characters in this play. I’m excited about how every single
one of those relationships plays up against one another. There are at least
five different relationships between just the girls themselves. And then
there’s the relationship between the girls and the headmaster. There’s the
relationship between the headmaster and the former student who’s running the pageant
search this year. It almost feels [like] lines that connect constellations. I’m
really excited about his community of women and the fact that there’s both a
younger generation community and an older generation community. Looking at how
all of these people influence each other in different moments, and how each
person gets to grow and change over the course of the play. It’s just so
exciting and fascinating.
Danielle Mohlman
is a Seattle-based playwright and arts journalist. She’s a frequent contributor
to Encore, where she’s written about everything from the intersection of sports
and theatre to the landscape of sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s work
can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and on the Quirk Books
blog.
When actor Keith Randolph Smith got
on the phone to talk to me about his upcoming performance in Jitney at Seattle Rep, the first thing
he wanted to talk about was how much he loves Seattle.
“I’m really excited to get there,”
Smith said. “It’s one of my favorite cities in this country.”
The day we spoke also happened to be the day before Smith left New York for theJitneytour. He was gracious enough to take time out of an errand-filled afternoon to talk about his love of August Wilson, making history on Broadway, and what it means to perform Jitney at Seattle Rep twice—nearly 20 years apart.
Danielle Mohlman: August Wilson is the first playwright whose work I
truly fell in love with. I remember reading Gem
of the Ocean in college and that was it for me.
Keith Randolph Smith: I love that
play too.
Oh my god. It’s so good! Do you have a favorite August Wilson play?
Oh man, it’s so hard. Like you, I
loved Gem of the Ocean. It’s such a
spiritual journey—and a beautiful journey of self-realization and discovery.
But I also love Jitney, which I’m
working on now. I usually say whichever one I’m working on at the moment is my
favorite. But they all have a special place in my heart.
Jitney
deals with community. It deals with a time where I was actually alive—in
1977—versus, say, Gem of the Ocean which
is set in 1904. But I was actually alive and conscious in 1977. And so, I
relate to the time period. Seventies music, 70s fashion, what was going on in
the world. It reminds me of people I’ve met in my journey of life along the
way, whether they’re relatives or not. I’ve had so many people come up to me
after Jitney and go “You remind me of
my uncle!” And the people who tell me this are not African American. They
relate to the characters and how they’re dealing with the situations they’re
in. It’s really a beautiful experience.
It’s one of the few August Wilson plays I’ve never seen.
Man, I can’t wait for you to see
it! You sit there and go, “How can he make all of these different people out of
nowhere?” And we remember them and we care about them and we get mad at them.
It’s like you actually get to know them by the end of the play. What a
masterful job he did.
I didn’t even realize—until this week—that until the Manhattan Theatre
Club production in 2017, Jitney had
never been on Broadway. Did it feel like a historic moment when you were
working on it?
Philosophically speaking, when history is being made, it definitely feels historic. But you also have a feeling about whether what you’re doing fulfills some sort of creative urge in you. We knew that it was the last of his 10 plays to be on Broadway, so we were very aware of that. But it wasn’t something that we discussed all the time. We just went about our work like artists practicing our craft.
Yeah. Focusing on the present moment instead of what it means.
Yeah. And that’s only looking back
at Broadway in hindsight. But that information doesn’t necessarily feed the
creative process. What feeds the creative process are verbs, actions.
What were some verbs that were fueling that experience for you?
Oh, to be honest, to be open, to be
authentic, to find the truth, to be present, to listen, to go after what it is
your character needs as though it was life and death. What makes something
imminently watchable is when we see a character going after what she wants in a
very determined way. She needs something, and so we can get on board with that.
And where we get bored is when a character doesn’t need anything.
Yeah, that drive—that urgency—is so important. Because it dictates why
we’re here watching this story being told.
True. It engages you. It pulls you
in. It welcomes you. And it can make you upset and angry and frustrated. You go
through some emotions, but you’re engaged.
I feel like when I get angry in a theatre, at a character, that’s a
success of the production, of the playwright, of the actor. You know, that I’m
so emotionally invested that I feel anger for someone that isn’t real.
Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. How many
times have I seen shows where it’s just “I don’t like you! Why are you like
that? Leave her alone!” And I have to say “Keith, you know that’s a fictional
character in a make-believe situation.” They pulled me into their lives and
their stories and I care about them.
I’d love to talk to you about your character Doub. How did you prepare
for this role? What draws you to him?
At the very beginning, I listened
to a lot of music: Curtis Mayfield, Al Green, Marvin Gaye. This is music I grew
up on; I graduated high school in 1974. I grew up on funk and Sly and the
Family Stone and Chicago and The Doobie Brothers, and War and Power. And I also
did three years in the Army. My character is a Korean War vet. I wasn’t old
enough to be in the Korean War and I wasn’t old enough to be in the Vietnam
War. But there’s that aspect of the military that affects a person and how they
see the world.
I came to Seattle Rep to do Jitney in 2002. I was playing Booster,
who is the son that gets out of prison. And almost 20 years later, I’m playing
a different role.
What is that like to revisit the same play in a completely different
character’s body?
The biggest difference that I
noticed was when I was Booster, the jitney station was a place I hadn’t been
to. You know the first time you go to a new school—if your family moves. That
first time you walk in the building, it’s kind of like “Okay, this layout is
different. They don’t have enough light in the hallways.” Or when you go to
somebody’s church and you notice they’re all a little different. You feel a
little outside. It’s welcoming, but you’re still a little outside. But as Doub,
who works at the jitney station, I feel very at home in that space.
What does Seattle mean to you? What are you most looking forward to
about this experience?
The fresh
air! The air is so clean in Seattle. The fish market! The Sound! Going to the
movies downtown! We’re coming in March, so football season will be over, but I
would love to see the Seahawks play a game. I always try to see sports whenever
I go to a new city. I have friends I’m looking forward to seeing—Cheryl West,
Tim Bond, Valerie Curtis Newton. I’ve always said if I retire, I could move to
Seattle. I’ve always loved that city.
Danielle Mohlman is a Seattle-based playwright and arts journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to Encore, where she’s written about everything from the intersection of sports and theatre to the landscape of sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s work can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and on the Quirk Books blog.
Rachel Atkins has a long and wonderful history with Book-It
Repertory Theatre. She spent several years as a teaching artist in the
education department before writing her first play for the company, an
adaptation of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier,
in 2005. Fifteen years later, almost to the day, Atkins will open The Turn of the Screw, an adaptation
she’s been periodically pitching Book-It for years.
“The
Turn of the Screwhas been on my list for a long time,” Atkins said.
“And I think it’s been on their list for a long time too. I’m certain I’m not
the only adaptor to suggest that The Turn
of the Screw would be a good Book-It
style production. And things just fell into place.”
After simmering on the idea for several years, Atkins has
found a way to make this Henry James novel wholly her own.
Danielle Mohlman:
What drew you to The Turn of the Screw initially?
Rachel Atkins: There is something about this story where you
read the whole thing and you never really know what’s going on. And everybody
thinks something different is happening. I’ve talked to Carol Roscoe, who’s
directing it, about how much her experience with this book has changed. She
remembered what she thought was the truth of the story when she first read it
in high school. And then reading it years later as an adult, she now thinks
something completely different. And I think there’s just something really
interesting about a story that leaves so much open for readers and audiences.
Even in the structure of his narrative—the frequency with
which he uses pronouns but doesn’t identify who he’s talking about. What “he”
does he mean in this sentence? It could
be anybody. And the challenge is: how do you take that and turn it into a play
that people are still going to be able to understand and follow, but still
leave some essence of that mystery?
And having to make
some decisions, I’m sure, about who those pronouns belong to.
Yeah, absolutely.
We’re speaking before
the start of rehearsals. Is there a moment or character relationship that
you’re looking forward to exploring in rehearsals?
There is, but I sort of don’t want to tell you because it’s
part of the mystery of the story.
You don’t have to
tell me.
I will say that one of the things that I had a lot of fun
with was bringing in some other materials into the story. I mean, it’s a
novella. It’s short. This may be the shortest mainstage Book-It production ever,
just because it’s really tightened up. One thing I did was pull in other
materials of songs and poems and things that the children would be reading or
reciting or studying. I’ve tried to use that stuff to draw out more of the
mysterious, weird creepiness of the story and what might be happening with
these children.
That sounds so
incredible and creepy.
I hope so. That’s what I’m going for.
Because some of those
nursery rhymes from back in the day…
I got some creepy stuff in there, so we’ll see.
What excites you
about working with this cast of Pacific Northwest actors?
I’m really excited that we’re telling this story with an
all-female cast. That’s something that Carol [and I] are both really excited
about. I mean, we’re really excited about this cast. We’ve got this really
strong group of actors. And the idea of this particular story—about a young
woman who takes her first job as a governess and is sent way out to this
isolated situation, way beyond her depth. And the idea of telling that story
only through female bodies feels really right.
I love that. And I
loved seeing that echoed in the reading of This
is Not (Y)Our History at Seattle Public Theater, where you had an
all-female and non-binary cast playing both male and female roles.
Yeah, and for a totally different reason. With that piece,
which is about the suffrage movement, it just feels like a women’s story. And I
felt really strongly that not only would there be no men on stage, there would
be no men involved in the production.
Of course, the women’s suffrage movement is a big topic
right now as we approach the centennial. And I keep hearing about other
projects that people are working on across the country. And every time, it’s
either that men are writing it or men are in major artistic positions and I’m
like “Come on, people. Let them tell their story!”
Danielle Mohlman is
a Seattle-based playwright and arts journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to
Encore, where she’s written about everything from the intersection of sports
and theatre to the landscape of sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s
work can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and
on the Quirk Books blog.
When the curtain rises on Classical (Re)Vision at the San Francisco Ballet this week, the
evening might feel a little familiar. The program is made up of pieces of
contemporary dance—the ballet is playfully describing it as a “tasting
flight”—all originally choreographed for and premiered at SF Ballet. Some of
the dances are recent creations, like Bespoke,
which Stanton Welch choreographed for the 2018 Unbound Festival, while
others premiered decades ago, like Sandpaper
Ballet, choreographed by Mark Morris in 1999. No matter their history, one
thing is certain: these performances are beloved.
For soloist Lonnie Weeks, Classical
(Re)Visionis a homecoming of sorts. Weeks is dancing in two of the
program’s pieces: Sandpaper Ballet and
a reprisal of Bespoke in a role he
originated.
“I am the O.G.,” Weeks said. “I guess if it goes to
different places or is performed in the future, maybe my role will always be
known as the Lonnie role.”
Weeks originated the role at the Unbound
Festival in 2018. And because there’s no expectation to be better than the
person before him, his performance has felt freer somehow.
“There’s less nerves,” Weeks said. “You’ve already kind of
worked out the tips and tricks and the musicality of things and where you need
to conserve energy—where you need to push through and when you can breathe.
You’ve already navigated the mine field before, so this time around you can
enjoy yourself a little bit more. You’ve already baked the cake, now you can
add some cool toppings—the frosting and the candied flowers. Now you can play
with it.”
As part of his greater ballet practice, in his world outside of Classical (Re)Vision, Weeks is studying how other artists deal with the pressure of performance.
“I go through phases where things seem to make me more
nervous,” Weeks said. “And these phases can be like year-long phases. I’ve been
doing some reading to try and help me with nerves and stage fright. And it
turns out the most famous performers in the world, like [Luciano] Pavarotti and
Renée Fleming—you know, these superstars—they get terrified as well. So, I’m
learning that the nerves aren’t going to go anywhere. But what a smart,
experienced performer does is he uses these nerves for his benefit. Because
they can be detrimental, but they can also give you the edge that you need to
stand out.”
Because Bespoke relies
on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach—specifically his Violin Concerto in E Major and Violin Concerto in A Minor, the two surviving violin concertos
in Bach’s canon—I was curious to know how this music affected Weeks’s
performance.
“His music makes me feel like I should be wearing a powdered
wig,” Weeks said, “and some sort of fabulous Baroque outfit in Versailles. And
that I should be eating petit fours. I feel very prim and proper. And
self-indulgent.”
For Weeks, one of the joys of Bespoke is the balance of tender and cheeky moments in the
choreography.
“There’s this moment where we all come on stage and we’re
going through our port de bras with our arms,” Weeks said. “We’re going
through first and second—but we’re doing it mechanically. We call it the
ticking section. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. We kind of look like music
box dancers. And we kind of bobble our head from side to side, like something
you would see in Indian dancing. It’s almost a lesson on how to do ballet port
de bras positions.”
And from the sound of it, it’s also a lesson in how to not
take yourself too seriously.
“You still have to devote just as much intention as you
would with more serious parts,” Weeks said. “Otherwise, it’ll look like you’re
just messing around. So, you commit to the cheeky moments just as much as the
serious moments.”
For corps de ballet dancer Gabriela Gonzalez, Classical (Re)Vision is an opportunity
to dance a piece of choreography she’s never performed before: Sandpaper Ballet.
“It’s just fun,” Gonzalez said, describing her relationship
to the choreography. “You’re not stressing about the steps. It’s just pure fun.
And really, the whole piece is about joy and comradery. We’re dancing all
together and then we break into small groups and then we do silly stuff that
makes us laugh. Sometimes in rehearsal, we’re doing this seriously silly stuff
and I’m just laughing with the dancer beside me. It’s a fun piece.”
But just like in Bespoke,
there is discipline and form in the lightness. Sandpaper Ballet relies heavily on a formation that the dancers
call “the grid,” a precise, almost militaristic square that serves as tension
before the silly release.
“You have to be very cautious of the formations and the
details of the steps because it’s important for the choreographer to say what
he wants to say,” Gonzalez said. “Perfection doesn’t exist, so there’s always
something that the ballet master will catch that can make it better, that we
weren’t aware we were doing wrong. He’s trying to make us all look like one.
We’re trying to look the same, even though we are all individuals. And in
ballet, that practice is never ending. There is always something to correct.”
Gonzalez says that she’s looking forward to Mark Morris
seeing Sandpaper Ballet in
performance, and that she’s hoping his visit comes with an opportunity to
improve her performance.
“When someone else teaches you the choreography, we try as
best as possible to keep the original idea from the choreographer,” Gonzalez
said. “But when the choreographer gets to come, it’s the best because he
created it, he’s the source, and he’s telling you exactly what he wants. It’s
easier to stay true to the work. He gives you all the details and that’s how
you stay true to the work: the details.”
Gonzalez says that she is enjoying this opportunity to dance
a piece of choreography that was created specifically for SF Ballet.
“A creative process involves everybody,” Gonzalez said.
“Some choreographers come and they know exactly what they want. They have their
idea and that’s what they’ll do. Some choreographers come in and it’s like a
conversation. There’s that energy from the dancers and what he feels from the
music. I like to imagine that Sandpaper
Ballet is so joyful and about comradery because of the San Francisco
Ballet, because of the company of dancers.”
I asked Gonzalez if that joy she imagines in the 1999
rehearsal room carries through to her experience today. Her answer was a
resounding yes.
“Sometimes we’re joking around with each other and just
having fun,” Gonzalez said. “And that is exactly what these rehearsals have
been like, just fun and joyful. And I like to think that’s the way this company
has always been.”
Weeks and Gonzalez were both slated to dance in Hummingbird, a role Weeks was eagerly anticipating revisiting after a 2014 injury barred him from dancing in the premiere as planned. But in light of choreographer Liam Scarlett’s suspension from The Royal Ballet in London and a current investigation underway over allegations of sexual misconduct, SF Ballet made the decision to pull Hummingbird from the Classical (Re)Vision program. Executive Director Kelly Tweeddale made the programming decision “out of respect for the ongoing inquiry in London, the dance community at large, patrons of SF Ballet, families of the SF Ballet School, and artists of the Company.”
Queensland Ballet in Australia,
where Scarlett is artistic associate, has also suspended their
relationship with the
choreographer. This action, a conscious effort on the part of SF
Ballet, The Royal Ballet, and Queensland Ballet to distance themselves from
Scarlett, comes on the heels of another high-profile case of sexual assault in
ballet. In New York, court proceedings for ballet dancer Alexandra Waterbury’s
lawsuit against New York City Ballet, current NYCB principal dancer Amar
Ramasar, former NYCB principal dancers Chase Finlay and Zachary Catazaro, NYCB
donor Jared Longhitano, and the School of American Ballet are currently
underway.
Last week, protestors gathered
outside the Broadway Theatre, where Ramasar is currently playing Bernardo in
Ivo Van Hove’s production of West Side
Story. One sign read “Talent
cannot justify abuse.”
By pulling Hummingbird from Classical
(Re)Vision, it looks like SF Ballet agrees.
Danielle Mohlman is
a Seattle-based playwright and arts journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to
Encore, where she’s written about everything from the intersection of sports
and theatre to the landscape of sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s
work can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and
on the Quirk Books blog.
When director Eric
Ting and I hopped on the phone during his lunch break, we immediately started
comparing Branden Jacob-Jenkins trivia. I was coming into the conversation as a
fan, watching his work from the audience as I moved from city to city, fortunate
to find Jacob-Jenkins’s work in each new hometown. And while I’m a fan, Ting is
a friend and a close collaborator.
“Basically, I’m
always going to say yes to an opportunity to direct his plays,” Ting said.
“He’s an extraordinary writer. And for me personally, any time I have an
opportunity to work on his plays, I come out of it a better person.”
Ting spent years
developing Appropriate with
Jacob-Jenkins, going on to direct that play at the Mark Taper Forum in 2015 and
An Octoroon at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2017. Our conversation was in the middle
of the Gloriarehearsal process, a time of great discovery
for Ting and the cast.
Danielle Mohlman: What excites you about
working on Gloria now? What makes it
right for these 2020 Bay Area audiences?
Eric Ting: What
this play offers is a kind of examination of the sort of depersonalization of
our society—the conditions with which we dehumanize each other and disconnect
from each other and miss each other’s pain. And [Jacob-Jenkins] contains it all
in an office comedy. It’s largely—on its surface—a comedy about office culture.
But he’s just an incisive observer of human behavior. And so the joy and
pleasure of working on a play like this is identifying all of the very complex,
contradictory subtext that unfolds in these plays. The conditions of living
today are conditions that are often contradictions of itself. And I think
that’s something you find in all of Branden’s characters and plays. These are
people that are living with intense anguish and pain and also intense love.
Yeah, and one thing that I’m fascinated by
is the fact that this is at its core satire, but dealing with very real issues.
And I’m not going to spoil what those real issues are. But how are you
navigating that juxtaposition between the reality of tragedy and the satirical,
comedic elements?
Can I ask you what
you mean when you say “satire”? We were literally having this conversation in
rehearsal the other day about that word. What is your definition?
I think that my definition is probably not
the right definition.
No, no. I mean,
neither is mine.
When I think of satire, I think of that
biting reality that’s not necessarily laughing with you, but laughing at you.
Which is probably not how Merriam-Webster would describe it.
Totally. And
there’s a big difference between marketers and directors.
And maybe we should be talking about that
instead.
Well, this is an
interesting play because that central trauma around which the play pivots. The
social commentary really kicks in in the second half of the play because it’s
so unexpected. And Branden is so smart and how he wrestles with it is through
the eye of someone who has a deep understanding of why it happened. And that’s
partly what makes it so funny, you know, is that what’s unfolding on stage is
so familiar.
And even though
there’s all sorts of layers of complexity in Gloria—it’s not just what does office culture include? It includes
conversations around privilege and class. It includes conversations around
generational differences. It includes conversations around aesthetic and who is
deciding the value and worth of a thing.
We were talking the
other day about this notion of the assistant editors. They’re these three
people who spend all their days tearing things apart. And what does it mean to
exist in a world where your primary action is surgical? Your whole thing is
about the dissection of art and culture. For me, Gloria is a person who just
wants to see good in the world and she keeps being confronted with these people
who want to tear it apart.
On some level, one
of the things that we keep reminding ourselves is this need to really come at
these characters with immense compassion and generosity. We need to understand
why they do what they do, and not simply leave them on stage as a symbol of a
corrupt culture, or of a society in decline.
And here we are in
the Bay Area—the tech capital of the world. And when we talk about the things
that have the potential to contribute to the depersonalization and the
dehumanization of our world, it’s not hard to look around and be confronted by
those impulses, to disconnect from what you’re seeing, to disengage from it as
a coping mechanism or survival instinct.
I want to talk a little about your role as artistic
director at Cal
Shakes if that’s okay.
Sure!
This is going to sound like a silly
question, but when you Google your name and Cal Shakes, the first thing that
comes up is the tree that was planted to commemorate your arrival in 2015. So
I’m wondering: how is the tree doing?
The tree is good
and healthy. It’s grown—it gets bigger every year. You know, just before I got
here, the Bay Area was in the midst of a drought. And then I arrived and all of
the sudden it started raining. Cal Shakes is a beautiful space. Part of what
it’s known for is the vista of rolling golden hills in the backdrop, which we
use as part of the visual experience of the plays. Every so often, we work with
somebody who hasn’t been back to Cal Shakes in a while and they come and
they’re like “What happened? The trees got so tall. Can you cut them down?” And
we’re like, “We can’t. It’s not really our property.”
And plus, you want the trees to thrive!
Right, exactly! It was a really amazing moment. We have an extraordinary volunteer corps called Will’s Weeder’s and they come out every year at the beginning of the season to prepare the ground for the public. And they take care of the gardens around the theatre. It was a gesture of welcoming to plant that tree in my honor. And it’s definitely something that I think about. I’ll sit up there on the hill and read plays, or take phone calls there from time to time.
And it feels like it’s your tree.
I guess so. You’re
the first person to ever ask me a question about that tree!
Well, I feel honored.
Revised on February 11, 2020: A previous version misnamed the organization “Will’s Weeder’s.” It was stated as “Will Leaders.”
Danielle Mohlman is a
Seattle-based playwright and arts journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to
Encore, where she’s written about everything from the intersection of sports
and theatre to the landscape of sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s
work can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and
on the Quirk Books blog.
When American Conservatory Theater Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon called Anne Kauffman to ask if she would direct Wakey, Wakey by Will Eno, she was thrilled. She not only had a long friendship and working relationship with MacKinnon, but also a deep desire to work on one of Eno’s plays. She describes herself as “a big fan” of his work—high praise from a director who regularly works with Amy Herzog, Jordan Harrison and The Bengsons.
“I was very, very interested in how this is like an
anti-play,” Kauffman said. “Will Eno is sort of a non-cynical Samuel Beckett.
He has a way of really putting a microscope up to humanity and looking at all
of its flaws, but also its huge capacity for joy. And I think that this
combination is crucial at this moment.”
We had the opportunity to talk right before the holidays,
while Kauffman was at Berkeley
Repertory Theatre directing Becky Nurse of Salem, Sarah Ruhl’s latest play. We covered
everything from death and dying, to what it’s like to work with Tony Hale.
Danielle Mohlman: I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Wakey, Wakeydeals pretty explicitly with death and what happens—or doesn’t happen—after we die. How do you tap into that as you prepare to go into rehearsals with this play?
Anne Kauffman: I’m middle-aged and I’ve dealt with the death
of one parent. And the death of that parent had a significant impact on the
choices I made in terms of work in the ensuing years. As my little sister said
about losing my mom, “I feel like I’m forever changed.” And I’ll never be able
to go back and look at the world in the same way. Not that it’s always sadness,
but there’s a fundamental change. And I also think when you deal with sick
parents—and you deal with death around you—that you start to realize that this
country is very unwilling to look death in the eye. We sort of sweep it under
the rug. And, in fact, it needs to be taken out and examined and celebrated,
the way we celebrate birth in this country. So for me, Wakey, Wakey feels like a step in the direction of opening that
conversation up.
Oh, for sure. And I
don’t know if this is an explicit link in your work, but I fell in love with Hundred Days about a year ago and that
play also deals with death and the fears surrounding it.
Yeah, and I feel like in both pieces we deal with the
inevitability. The idea of resisting it or fearing it—there’s something about
the inevitability of death that forces you to shift your perspective on it.
You’ve said before
that you’re really drawn to plays that mess around with language. Is that
something you’ve latched onto with Wakey,
Wakey as well?
Oh yeah. For sure. I think that Will Eno is one of the best
language playwrights we have. And I think what’s so incredible about him is the
mundanity of his poetry. He doesn’t put together words to aspire to something
lyrical. He actually takes words and puts them together in certain chains to
open up new meaning—like pedestrian discovery. His poetry has these
instantaneous and ephemeral flights of beauty that land right back in the
mundane pieces that he’s put together.
I don’t know how else to say it. It’s like this inspiration
in the pedestrian. Or finding the profound in this certain combination of
images that he puts together. And it makes me feel like “Oh. I can do this.”
Not that I can write this, but that this duty is within my grasp. I own this
duty too—and it’s made of me.
Oh, I love that. How
did you come to the decision to cast Tony Hale? I imagine you don’t approach
directing any differently when someone is a household name, but do you think at
all about how fans of his work might be surprised by this play?
I think what’s so extraordinary about Tony is that he’s a
Beckett clown for the 21st century. And it’s a perfect match because of that.
The greatest comedians have a really deep understanding of pain and the
profound. It feels completely and utterly matched. It seems extraordinary that
Will [Eno] didn’t write it for him.
I don’t know Tony that well. We were able to meet up a few
months ago in New York for breakfast. And I felt a real kinship, a real
affinity with him. I feel like, you know, we’re of a certain age. I keep saying
that, but Will is too, and there is something very profound about middle age.
And I feel really connected to the way Tony talks about the play, the way Tony
talks about his life. It feels like a conversation, rather than a making of a
theatre piece. And that’s the thing I’m so looking forward to in terms of this
one person show.
To be honest, it’s not normally a thing I gravitate towards,
but it does have an extraordinarily different feel because it’s basically you
and the actor having a conversation with the playwright and with the themes.
And then we bring that conversation in front of an audience. It’s very
intimate.
I know your work
takes you all over the country. What are you most looking forward to about
being at A.C.T.?
I’m friends with Pam [MacKinnon] and I adore her—I think the
world of her. And I’ve always loved A.C.T. I actually went there. In 1988, I
was in their summer training congress, when I wanted to be an actor. So I’ve
trained there, I went to undergrad at Stanford, and I have lots of friends and
family in the area. This is really a homecoming of sorts. My mom is from San
Francisco, my dad is from the peninsula. It just holds a lot of meaning. And I
have a really strong connection to it, from my childhood through college. It
really is a second home for me.
Danielle Mohlman is
a Seattle-based playwright and arts journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to
Encore, where she’s written about everything from the intersection of sports
and theatre to the landscape of sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s
work can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and
on the Quirk Books blog.
To
say that Karen Lund is easy to talk to would be a gross understatement. Lund,
who has served as associate artistic director of Taproot Theatre Company since
1993, is making her Village Theatre directorial debut this month with She Loves Me, and the joy she’s bringing
to the pre-production process is contagious.
Within
minutes, we’d talked about everything from the 1940 movie The Shop Around the Corner—which serves as the musical’s source
material—to our shared love of
Laura Benanti, who played Amalia when the musical was last on Broadway. “I love
her so much,” Lund said, matching my energy for the 2016 Broadway cast album.
“Have you seen her on [The Late Show with
Stephen] Colbert?”
It’s
clear that She
Loves Meis a deeply personal story for Lund, one that’s been part of
her life for over 20 years—from her first viewing of The Shop Around the Corner to You’ve Got Mail and beyond. And after
directing three to four shows a year at Taproot
Theatre for the last several seasons, Lund is ready to work away from her
artistic home base.
“The
thing is, I’ve been raising kids,” Lund said. “And I just haven’t wanted to be
away from home that much—especially when they were younger. I’ve really had a
lot of artistic fulfillment at Taproot, so I haven’t necessarily gone
searching. But now’s the time.”
Danielle Mohlman: Why this
musical now? What makes it right for 2020 audiences?
Karen
Lund: I found myself sitting across from [Village Theatre
artistic director] Jerry Dixon, talking about how they chose this season. And
what he was really looking for was a season that would bring joy to his
audience. He had a list of plays and he would rate them based on how joyful
they were—and She Loves Me kept
rising to the top. And I have to applaud him. Right now, I think we all need an
antidote to some of the toxic stuff that we’re hearing in the news. These
characters are very earnest and very simple. No one is trying to be the next
best great this or that. Their idea of happiness is a great love. And a steady
income and a family. It’s really simple for them.
And,
of course, this takes place in a really turbulent time. It’s 1930s Europe where
the Depression was as rough there as it was here. And to have a job and a
steady income was difficult—so you valued it so much more. I think in a lot of
ways the play asks us to value the simple things, like your connections with
your family and your connections with your friends, and know that those have worth.
And it’s so sweet and so simple. And yet it’s so difficult for us to do that
right now.
And we see these characters in
this sweet pocket, even though it might not feel like that on the inside,
because World War II is going to be worse. And they just don’t know what will
happen.
Right.
But what we do know is they’re going to have each other. And it’s not just
about the romantic relationships. It’s about this family of perfumery workers
who go through a difficult time and actually become closer. The support they give
each other to be better people is just wonderful.
It’s way closer than
coworkers. There are real, deep friendships there.
Yeah.
You know they’re going to last. You know they’re going to support each other
during the war. That’s how I see it, at least.
Is there a particular moment
or song you’re excited to explore in rehearsals?
I’m
really interested in the relationship between Georg and Amalia. They are really
intellectual equals, which doesn’t typically happen in stories from that era.
They read the same books, they have the same philosophy of life. They have
razor-sharp wit. There’s a lot of sparring that happens between them and I’m
really excited about creating those moments. I think their battles are going to
be outstanding; they’re going to be super fun to watch.
Oh, that’s so exciting! I do
want to pivot a bit and talk about arts administration—and your role as
associate artistic director of Taproot Theatre. How does arts administration
inform the way you direct?
Oh
wow. You know what it is? I’m always very mindful of the audience. I have to
be, because of my work as an arts administrator. But I also feel like it’s my
pleasure to be. At Taproot, we’re in an ongoing conversation with our audience—about
the world around us, about truth, about beauty, and about how one person can
make an impact on the world. When I was offered the opportunity to direct She Loves Me, one of the first things I
said was, “Tell me about your audience. Tell me what they’re looking for.”
And
I want to be clear: I’m not talking about pandering to an audience. I’m talking
about knowing them and meeting them where they are, so I know how best to
challenge them. I have this theory that if you can make somebody laugh, you can
actually tell them some pretty hard truths. So, I need to get you comfortable.
You feel like you’re in your home, you’re laughing, your heart is open. And
then I can tell you a hard truth that might change the way you think or the way
you behave.
One thing that I love about
Taproot is that there’s consciously a dramaturg attached to each play, which
feels like a rarity, especially in Seattle. Can you talk a little about the
value of dramaturgy in Taproot’s artistry?
I
just find dramaturgy to be so important to the work that we’re doing. I don’t
care what the play is: dramaturgy can add so much to the depth and breadth of
the actors’ work on stage. Any little thing that you learn can spark your
creativity in ways that you couldn’t ever imagine. And it’s not just for the
actors. Dramaturgy can inform props, the set, costume design. It helps me as a
director. I always think, if I wasn’t a director, I might be a dramaturg.
Because I love it so much.
Danielle Mohlman is a Seattle-based playwright and arts
journalist. She’s a frequent contributor to Encore, where she’s written about
everything from the intersection of sports and theatre to the landscape of
sensory-friendly performances. Danielle’s work can also be found in American Theatre, The Dramatist and on the Quirk Books blog.