by Stephen Weitz, member of the CSF Resident Acting Company

PHASE 2: TWO FOOLS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE

One of the great joys of working in a repertory style theatre is the opportunity to explore multiple plays and characters at the same time. Since we are presenting 5 productions at CSF this summer, every actor is working on at least two (often three!) shows simultaneously. People often ask, “Doesn’t it get confusing?” The answer is, “Yes it does!” While it can be a challenge to keep it all straight in your head, it is far outweighed by the fun of getting to play multiple, and often wildly divergent characters.

This summer has presented a new repertory challenge for me personally, as I am playing clown/fool characters in both LEAR and MEASURE. While Lear’s Fool and Pompey in MEASURE are written with some strong differences, it is important to me to find very varied portrayals. As we dive into MEASURE, I’ll be looking for how Pompey serves a different function in this play, as well as working on strong vocal and physical choices to make them distinctive.

This season also allows me the great opportunity to work both indoors and out on the Mary Rippon stage. Both stages are part of wonderful venues, but they do present different opportunities and challenges. Being under the stars on the Rippon is one of the most beautiful places you could ever want to perform, but the vocal demands do require a certain size of acting. The University Theatre does offer a greater level of intimacy, but I do miss those evening breezes! One of the most exciting developments of this year is that we will be playing in-the-round on the University Theatre stage. This new configuration is sure to add a whole new dynamic level for both performers and audience members.

More to come as we draw near Opening Night!

Catch Stephen performing this summer playing The Fool in KING LEAR and Pompey in MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Get your tickets now!

Tuesday, July 6th

by Stephen Weitz, member of the CSF Resident Acting Company

KING LEAR

PHASE 1: FOOLS RUSH IN
 

Starting rehearsal on any new project is always an exciting time for me as an actor. Exploring the play and building a character in collaboration with my Director and fellow actors is the most exhilarating part of the creative process, especially when given the opportunity to dig into a character like the Fool in a rich play such as KING LEAR.

Our Director, Lynne Collins, has opted to place our production of Lear in the 1890’s American West. For me, this means finding out how a classical figure such as the Fool fits into this particular conceptual world. In our preliminary discussions, Lynne and I talked about exploring the character as a kind of Vaudevillian performer. Hopefully, this will allow us to maintain the Fool’s function as a performer and commentator, while supporting and informing the updated conceptual location of the play. This also means that, in addition to my usual preparation of text work and research, I’ve also spent a lot of time watching old comedians and listening to traditional Vaudeville music!

Catch Stephen performing this summer playing The Fool in KING LEAR and Pompey in MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Get your tickets now!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

John Hutton explains what it is like playing one of the most difficult and dynamic characters in Shakespeare's repertoire.

OFF-BOOK: King Lear is believed to be one of the more difficult Shakespearean works to both read and perform, how are you preparing for the role of King Lear?

JH: The tricky part about playing Lear, well, one of the tricky parts in a long list of tricky parts, but the one I'm negotiating in rehearsals now----and I may have a different idea about this after a few performances---but while we are doing run throughs in the studio, I think the tricky part is scaling the emotional highs and lows so that there is a steady crescendo towards the storm scene where Lear is having a very heated chat with the weather, and then scaling down from there to the end. This is sort of a stamina and vocal strength issue, but an emotional stamina issue as well. Lynne Collins, our director, helps me feel this out ---tells me- a bit more here, a bit less there and remarkably when we get it right it seems easier to perform. Each scene builds on the one before it and I just get swept along. It’s early days though and I’m sure I’ll learn a lot in the next week or so. The other thing I did in preparation----which I've never done before---was to learn all my lines before starting rehearsals. I knew, given our time constraints, that my middle-aged brain wouldn’t be able to learn them and rehearse at the same time and I wanted that part of it, which to me is terrible drudgery, to be behind me. It was a very wise decision and has helped me tremendously.

OFF-BOOK: Does the language that Shakespeare use pose any road blocks for you, or is it something that you are accustomed to?

JH: In fact the language is the way in. We say that in Shakespeare the acting takes place “on the line”---the word is the action and the action is the word---sort of a paraphrase of Hamlet's famous advice to the players---which also includes a warning about excessive hand waving. All the information you need is in the text and before long this iambic pentameter verse form and the occasional prose sections become the most obvious and efficient way of communicating.

OFF-BOOK: Acting in the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre is a task in itself. How are you preparing for the challenges of the outdoor theatre?

JH: Yeah, the man eating Mary Rippon. A terrific space with tremendous history, but difficult to work in. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that my experience, training, and instincts will win the day. [The Mary Rippon Theatre] does separate the men from the boys and I hope I’m one of the men. My colleagues in Lear who have extensive experience on that stage will help me out and show me where the sweet spots are. The really big help is that Shakespeare, in his wisdom, gives Lear lots of open sounds in the text when the emotion or situation is most extreme. As an actor himself he understood the demands of live performance with only the naked human voice to tell his stories and [Shakespeare] wrote the scenes to maximize an actors vocal abilities. Still, I'm a little anxious.

OFF-BOOK: You recently played the character Iago in the DCTC production of Othello. How do the two roles compare? Contrast?

JH: Lear is a man who thinks he knows himself, but doesn’t and Iago is a man who knows himself utterly. Of course Lear learns about himself in the course of the play and I think Iago doesn’t learn anything. Similarities exist I think--both men are seeking re-affirmation of their potency--not necessarily sexually, but potency as identity. Iago is filled with sexual jealousy and insecurity and projects all that onto his wife, Othello's wife, and especially on Othello himself. If he can bring them all down--and he does-- he raises himself up. Lear, like most men in positions of power has begun to believe what people tell him. He says in his “mad scene”, “They told me I was everything. “T'is a lie. I am not ague proof.” The play begins with Lear dividing up his kingdom and giving it to his daughters, entirely confident that his generosity will be appreciated. The plan goes horribly awry because he’s a very poor judge of character for all his power and confidence. Iago never recovers his potency and Lear comes to understand that his notions of potency are irrelevant. He learns how to truly love. Iago is incapable of love.

OFF-BOOK: What excites you most about playing the role of King Lear?

JH: I love this play and the role of Lear is a great challenge. I’m very familiar with the play, having been in three other productions. I played Edmund twice with Hal Holbrook as Lear in Cleveland and NYC, and I played Kent with Phil Pleasants as Lear in the production at the Denver Center Theatre Co. Over the years I’ve come to deeply appreciate the story Shakespeare tells and the rather outrageous way he tells it. Im thinking of Gloucester and Edgar's experience at Dover, the trial of Regan and Goneril, Lear's mad scene, ---a sort of highly theatrical, anglo-saxon magical realism. But, I'd have to say that what is most pleasurable about playing Lear is saying the great things I get to say as this old man and the journey from ignorance to wisdom that he takes.

OFF-BOOK: Many directors have their own vision for Shakespeare’s plays. In order to fulfill her own vision for the work, Director Lynne Collins has, in fact, created a setting for Lear reminiscent of the Rocky Mountains with a western theme. How has the King changed in order to accommodate this setting, if at all?

JH: I don’t think it’s changed much at all really----we haven’t moved the play to the
Rocky Mtn. West---we still go to Dover, Cordelia marries France, the Duke of Burgundy is still upset that she doesn’t come with a substantial dowery, but the audience will recognize the costumes, props, and scenery from Colorado’s past.

OFF-BOOK: Given your past acting career, what role did you enjoy taking on the most? Is there a role that you fantasize about playing at some point in your acting career?

JH: I played Tom Guthrie in the production of Plainsong at the DCTC and then again, more recently in Eventide. Playing Tom was just such an involving experience for me--I came to respect and admire his style and point of view--his honest, simple, taciturn way in the world. I think I understood him completely from day one. And Plainsong was so successful because I think we all found a way of letting Kent Haruf's novel guide us. The whole experience really, from the first reading, to rehearsing and then performing it, working with the Kents--Kent Haruf and Kent Thompson, our director, the whole process was so easy and oddly un-dramatic given the monumental task of taking that novel and putting it on the stage. So, yeah, Tom Guthrie is certainly one of my favorites.

The role I’ve fantasized about playing is King Lear---I just figured it was a little further out ahead of me. It’s one of those things that you want, but are afraid of, one of those things that when it comes to you, you say be careful what you wish for. And so here we are about to open the play and I’m very happy to be doing it with this company and at this time in my life.

OFF-BOOK: Can you empathize with King Lear in any way? Is there anything about this character that hits home with you?

JH: I think any middle-aged man begins to recognize that his powers are diminishing and there’s something about Lear that is simply about getting old, but not wanting to be treated as such. It’s not as cliche as a middle age crisis--he has much more at stake than can be solved by going out and buying a Harley Davidson and of course that doesn’t solve anything anyway. So, when I receive the unsolicited mail from AARP I refuse to respond to it because, dammit, I’m not in that age group. Certainly not retired. And there is this issue of self-perception. I’ve come to believe that the way we perceive ourselves is almost always wrong. Lear comes up against this hard in the course of the play--one of his great frustrations is thinking of himself in a particular way--a mighty King, for example, and being treated as though he were invisible. He is happy and powerful again when he can shed all that. There is a great lesson in King Lear for everyone--not just old men--not sure what it is—maybe it’s ‘don’t worry be happy”, but it’s interesting that as Lear sheds parts of his life, kingdom, clothing, friends, he gains confidence, wisdom, and happiness and he gets back what he needs and loves the most--his daughter, Cordelia.

OFF-BOOK: Is it easy to leave a part like Lear behind on stage or is there a part of him that you take with you after the curtain call?

JH: Most of the time I want to leave it all behind, but I think playing Lear will be so pleasurable and satisfying that I’ll want to hang on to that feeling as long as I can. You play a role and even though you know what will happen to you, you learn something about life and love and the human condition in the playing of it. Lear is such a great guy that being in his skin can only improve me--broaden my outlook on life, make me appreciate what I have and help me more clearly understand the difference between want and need. His fate is to be ignorant, suffer incredibly, and then come to enlightenment and happiness. His journey is the measure of him as a man.

Catch John Hutton as he performs in King Lear! Opening night is Friday, July 2. Get your tickets now!
 

Theatre in the Round, a Uniquely Engaging Experience

This year, CSF directors Sands Hall (The Fantasticks) and Scott Williams (Measure for Measure) have transformed the University Theatre by placing audience seating onstage. This new and unique view on the events that unfold onstage will give audience members an experience that they have never before witnessed at the University Theatre. In this interview, they explain their excitement and the perks of this new style of seating.

OFF BOOK: How will this seating arrangement be useful to the production of both The Fantasticks and Measure for Measure?

Hall: As Scott and I began to think about the approach we would each take to our productions, we spent a lot of time tossing about ways we might make the experience for CSF audiences intriguing, while also augmenting specific aspects of our plays. The idea of playing to an audience “in the round” grew organically out of these talks. [Our designer,] Bruce Bergner, joined our discussion, and created two very different ways for our ideas to manifest. He even found a way to honor our hope that some of the action might be staged more or less in the midst of the audience, who can choose to be seated in what might be considered a “usual” place for an audience in a theater (which won’t be usual at all, as you will see as soon as you enter the auditorium), or who can choose to sit onstage. Wherever you are, the view and the experience will be beguiling.

Williams: Because we are sharing the theatre, making any radical change in the layout of the space would need to be agreed by both directors, and we spent a fair amount of time talking through our options. What has emerged from that discussion is, I think, a thrilling space in which to create our two theatrical worlds.

OFF BOOK: What should audiences be looking forward to when watching these performances in the round?

Williams: First, modern day audiences are powerfully influenced by television viewing and moviegoing. One of the most powerful tools in those media is the close-up, isolating the expression and emotion of the actor. The film director can show the audience where to look, what’s important in the moment. A theatre director has to use other means to create the same effect, to encourage the audience to look where we wish. Theatre in the round means that every moment is a close-up, because you’re always in an ‘over the shoulder’ relationship to the action, much closer to the film experience. Second, theatre is a metaphorical experience. When you watch a movie, you’re expecting a particular ‘reality,’ and it’s the rare movie which interrupts that expectation; even “Jurassic Park” succeeded by creating ‘real’ dinosaurs. But when you go to the theatre, a standing microphone can become a huge political rally, a café table becomes an entire restaurant, a world emerges from a trunk. This space we’ve created encourages our audiences’ imagination to engage in the metaphor of the event. The space becomes uniquely theatrical.

Hall: Theatre done in a proscenium theatre, no matter how inventive the staging, usually means that actors are speaking (and, in the case of The Fantasticks, singing) more or less in profile to another character or directly to the audience. With theatre in the round, however, the “profile” moves all the time; the audience receives a full and different and shifting view of the action. In addition, there’s a marvelous sense of connection not only with the play, but—in part because you can see them, in addition to feeling them around you—with the rest of the audience. Unlike celluloid, which is captured forever in time, the magical, some would even say mystical alchemy of audience and actors is never exactly the same. Theatre in the round only emphasizes this cherished aspect of the theatrical experience.

OFF BOOK: Are you concerned about intimidating the audience or about the audience becoming a distraction to the performers or other audience members?

Williams: Actually, yes. Part of my instruction to our actors will be to respect the audience’s experience and not force them from their comfort zone. I personally don’t like to be dragged into a performance unexpectedly – it robs me of my aesthetic distance. [As for the audience becoming a distraction to other audience members, I’m not worried at all.] They’re witnesses to the event, validating what you’re seeing. If you look across the street at someone looking up, you look up to see what they’re seeing. The presence of the audience is one of the great pleasures of the theatre. Even in our cyber-dominated world, we hunger for community and contact, and theatre in the round reinforces and nourishes that need.

OFF BOOK: Any last remarks on this amazing experience?

Hall: As I work on staging [The Fantasticks]—with the assistance of choreographer Peter Davison, who comprehends both the amusing and touching sides of the play, as well as the thrilling and often very funny stage violence contributed by fight director Geoffrey Kent—I can’t help but think that while watching The Fantasticks from a seat in the house will be delightful, some of our audience may well return to see the play from another, perhaps a closer side of things. I suggest that if you have an opportunity to see either or both of these two plays just once, opt for a seat on the stage. It promises to be unique experience.

Williams: We’re staging [Measure for Measure] to bring the entire audience forward, so we hope that there isn’t one seat better than another. But if I were booking, I’d get a seat on the stage. I don’t know when a CSF audience will again get that experience, and why not grab it while it’s there?