The Week That Was

Last week I was sick with the flu. It knocked me out of commission for five days. Bleck. It was pretty awful. But it's been going around and living in New York City means sharing everyone else's germs. But this week I was back on my feet, and what a week it was!

On Monday, I had my interview for the Graduate Directing program at Brooklyn College. I met with Professor Thomas Bullard, and we spoke for nearly 40 minutes. Tom is a warm man, with a gentle demeanor and a keen intellect. I could've spoken with him for hours, but I know he had other things to attend to. The theater department at Brooklyn has been growing rapidly in these past few years. There is a plan now for a brand new performing arts center, replacing the outdated Gershwin Theater that is now home to the college's productions. Even those facilities, however, are respectable. The approach to teaching directing at Brooklyn is very much based in Stanislavsky. It is a writer's theater, and unlike other "director's theater" programs, here the goal is to fulfill the vision of the playwright, and erase any traces of the directing rather than calling attention to them. I love this approach. It's where I feel most at home, and its in line with my own views on theater. We'll see if I get into the program, but irregardless, it was a day well-spent.

Wednesday evening was the final session of the Winter Workshop, the class I have been conducting along with Eva Burgess. I learned a great deal throughout the class. Eva taught me so much about how to by-pass our judgmental think-brain and how to access the place of impulse. Her exercises are fun, physical, and charged. I was focusing on voice work, specifically the kind of work that has been laid down by the great Cicely Berry. We all found a newly-awakened sense of language moving through several of Berry's exercises and techniques. Each class was also an opportunity for participants to do some scene work. Students worked on Shakespeare, Beckett, Albee, Shaw, Stoppard, Chekhov, and Tony Kushner. Congratulations to all of our workshop members: Jason Blaine, Elizabeth Bell, Rebecca Yaggi, Carl Mayer, Robin Sorenson, Melanie Armer, Samantha Desz, Erick Kever Ryle, Jon Okabayashi, Laura Gaona, and Guen Donohue.

I ended my week with an audition at Lincoln Center Theater for the National Tour of Frost/Nixon. I was delighted to have a chance to read for casting director Daniel Swee. The role I went in for is Jack Brennan, Nixon's chief of staff and the major antagonist of the play. It's a great part, and Kevin Bacon will be playing the role in the upcoming feature film. So, fingers crossed.

I also worked several caiter-waiter jobs this week. That's the un-glamorous part of my life. It leave me exhausted. But times are tough, and we all gotta pay the piper. All I can say is "thank God its Friday"!

W.

Thinking of Janet Ward

"That's how it is on this bitch of an earth." Samuel Beckett

Two weeks ago I was given the news that my dear friend and colleague Janet Ward has been diagnosed with lung cancer. I was told the cancer was quite advanced (stage 4) and metastasized. The news left me stunned. How could this be possible? She's fine. I saw her not too long ago. We were planning to have a martini!

Janet is one of the most extraordinary human beings I've known. I met her when she came into the Joseph Chaikin Workshop back in '99. She has the radiant features of a woman half her age - and a body better than most women of any age - a bristling intelligence, an unquenchable curiosity for life, and the soul of an angel. Joe knew that about Janet too. Higher beings sense one another right away.

To me, Janet is an actor and a poet, a trusted colleague. But she is also a mother, a grandmother, a working professional, and a life force for so many friends and acquaintances across the country. Whenever I think of Janet I think of Samuel Beckett. Working with Joe Chaikin, she couldn't get enough of the Irish playwright. She worked on Rockabye, Endgame, and Footfalls. She was stellar in her role of Miss Fit in the Caliuga Arts production of All That Fall at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Most recently, Janet has been working on Winnie from Happy Days with director Miriam Eusebio, which is slated to go up in the 2009 season.

I really bonded with Janet, however, in the summer of 2004. The Republican National Convention was being held here in New York. A mutual friend of ours had written a play - somewhat of a protest piece - and was putting it up at the American Place Theatre's new space on 8th Avenue & 36th Street. Practically across the street from the convention. Our "friend" (who shall remain nameless) asked me to direct the show, and we invited Janet to come on board as our producer. Janet worked her ass off like always. She throws herself head-first into everything she does. And together we had done a pretty good job of pulling off a show with absolutely no backing or resources. We were betrayed by our "friend" however, when on the opening performance (with the New York Times in the house) he decided to throw away all of the direction and guidance and go onstage holding a script. It was a disaster. Things got even worse when his crazy wife came into the mix, shooting accusatory glares at both Janet and me. I guess we had been scapegoated for her husband's lack of professionalism. Anyway, we left the theater feeling like we had been mugged by a member of our own family. A few scotches later though, we knew we would be ok, and probably the stronger for our experience.

I'm so angry that such a lovely and talented person should be struck by a cruel disease. She has so much more to offer us - her words, her words, her gorgeous inspiring words! In 2003 Janet's poem Change was the winner in the adult category of the Poetry Society of America's Poetry In Motion 10th Anniversary Contest. It was put up in subway cars across thee city. You cannot imagine how proud I was, sitting on the F train, looking up at Janet's words, thinking "she's my friend". Thousands of people drew inspiration from this one poem everyday: (click on it to read it) So, may the love and inspiration that you gave to so many find its way back to you now, Janet. May it give you the strength you need as you heal and recover. With love and admiration....
w.

Viola Spolin on Emotion

I've been re-reading Viola Spolin's seminal book Improvisation for the Theater. The entire book is amazing, but I found this to be particularly illuminating. I hope you do too.

From the beginning student to the performing artist, great argument ensues as to how to get emotion or feeling for a particular scene. The problem of clarifying what is meant by emotion is far from simple, but if emotion is to be handled as a direct acting problem in the training, a position must be formulated. One thing is certain. We must not use personal and/or subjective (what we use in daily living) emotion for the stage. It is a private matter (like feeling and believing) and not for public viewing. At best "real" emotion put on stage can be classified as psycho-drama no matter how skillfully it is written or played, and it does not constitute a theatrical communication.

And later she writes:

When psycho-drama is confused with a play or scene, is in fact considered to be the scene, it leads the actor to exploit himself (his emotions) instead of experiencing total organic motion. What can psycho-drama do but abstract the tears that should come out of our personal grief alone, thus making artistic detachment impossible? Emotion newly generated on stage, however, remains detached because it is usableonly within the structure of agreed reality.

Viola Spolin, Improvisation for the Theatre, Chapter XI, p. 237 - 238. 1963 Northwestern University Press