Everyman Theatre Blog

by:Naomi Greenberg-Slovin

Reading Noel Coward’s diaries is like reading a chronicle of every famous person of the time.  In connection with productions of his plays, he was constantly moving around the world and wherever he went, he was the prime attraction.

Boston:  Diary entry -1961

Well, the show [Bitter Sweet] opened and is a sell-out for the entire time we are here…….

Lynn and Alfred (Lunt) have been here since Saturday and attended gleefully every performance.

Judy (Garland), the Richard Rodgers, Dorothy Hammerstein, etc. all came and were highly enthusiastic.

Noel Coward & Judy Garland 

Mrs. Roosevelt came on Tuesday night. I dined with her and took her to the theatre. She was absolutely charming as usual.

Eleanor Roosevelt

On Sunday, the Mellons sent their private jet plane and we were whisked to Cape Cod, an exquisite house, where we had lunch with the President and Mrs. Kennedy, both of whom were charming. I was impressed with him. Although the burden of the Western world is on his shoulders, he resolutely insists on relaxing completely every weekend.

They arrived in the presidential motor cruiser. Secret Service gentlemen were festooned from every tree. She was pretty, cheerful and full of star quality. In fact, they both are. She is also, to her everlasting credit, a Coward fan

London 1964- after ten hectic days in London where he spent time with his good friend, Lawrence Olivier and met The Beatles. 

Noel Coward & Lawrence Olivier  


 
The Beatles

He finished his visit this way:

I lunched with the dear Queen Mother at Clarence House. She was more enchanting than ever.

We have uploaded new construction photos of our new home.

 

Click here to view them

Noel Coward and Art Deco 
Made for Each Other
by: Naomi Greenberg-Slovin

Private Lives is a comedy that entertains from beginning to end But it’s also a play in which the set and costume designs are as crucial to the mood and effectiveness of the production as the antics of the actors. And Everyman’s set designer, Daniel Ettinger and costume designer, David Burdick, have created a feast for the eye.

Each scene abounds in the glamour and opulence of a very special time in the history of design; it was the heyday of Art Deco (1920’s-1940). The name originated with the 1925 Paris "Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels et Modernes.

It was a celebration of the “Machine Age.” Technology and mass production joined forces with the decorative arts and transformed everything from fashion to furniture to architecture- and more. But for all its modernity, it was also based on classical forms of art from the Native American, ancient Egyptian and the Aztec.

Art Deco’s clean, sharp lines, geometric symmetry and intense use of color have left a unique footprint that will endure for all time.

Noel Coward reveled in its sophistication. And if we can compare an art form to the personality of a man, Art Deco and Noel Coward complemented each other like a set of matched pearls.

As one art historian described it,  Art Deco was identified with modern [wealthy] society in which

tastes and styles were becoming international, shared as much by the F. Scott Fitzgeralds  of the Roaring Twenties as by Indian maharajahs and the gentry of Old Europe.

These pictures will give you an idea of the way in which elegant Art Deco designs were used.

 
Fashion   

Carpet and Furniture  

Jewelry

Notes from the Dramaturg
by Naomi Greenberg-Slovin

A rare opportunity to interview a Baltimorean, Dr. Burton D’Lugoff who knew Lorraine Hansberry well.

He was the best man at her wedding!

When I went to speak with Dr. D’Lugoff about his warm friendship with the young Lorraine Hansberry and her husband, Robert Nemiroff, his closest friend, the story of his own life that unfolded was so fascinating, I felt I would like to share all the highlights with you.

 

Naomi Greenberg-Slovin:   Lets start at the beginning. Tell me about you.

BurtonD’Lugoff:  I am a New Yorker, born in Harlem and raised in Brooklyn. I am 83 years old.

My brother and I went to a remarkable school that had Judaic studies as well as spectacular secular studies. And then I went to Brooklyn Technical High School.

When WWII broke out I enlisted in the Army and served for about 3 years. It was a great decision for me because I broke out of the parochial background of Brooklyn. I saw so many of the things that were to be seen in the US and I got the GI bill to go to college which was wonderful.

I went to NYU and there I met someone who became a very dear friend, a college buddy, Bob Nemiroff.

 

NGS   How interesting. That was the man who married Lorraine Hansberry.

 

B’DL- Yes, but that came later. After graduation there were a lot of things happening. I loved to sing and I joined a group called The Good Neighbor Chorus and it was led by Pete Seegar. There I met a lot of people. I worked as a reporter for a while and then I made the decision to go into medicine. I was admitted into the NYU Medical School.

 

NGS-Did your friendship with Bob Nemiroff continue?

BD’L-  Oh, yes. Bob Nemiroff was a unique and incredible human being. He was a wonderful, very good-looking brilliant guy and in the course of his life he met Lorraine Hansberry who had come from Chicago from a wealthy family- It’s important to site that because people think, ‘Oh well. She’s poor and that’s how she knows the people in Raisin in the Sun’. But that wasn’t so. Much of what she saw, she had observed and was in her own writing. 

Lorraine Hansberry

I was the best man at their wedding in Chicago and met the whole Hansberry family.

 It was a wonderfully exciting time. I was in medical school and then Bob and I got to know a wonderful man, Phil Rose, who established a small record company, featuring blues music that, at the time. appealed mostly to a black audience. It was called Glory Records.  Bob began to work for him in his small publishing company

It was then that I really got to know Lorraine. She came to NYC and began to work in Harlem for a publication run by Paul Robeson and worked with James Baldwin. And then she came down to Greenwich Village.

James Baldwin

NGS- How would you describe her?

BD’L - She was an incredibly perky, beautiful, funny girl- just living and understanding and loving New York and all that it had- and we were just having a ball.  I had no idea that she was a creative writer.

I knew that she could write for magazines and was totally involved in the politics of the time.

She was writing for a paper Paul Robeson was putting out.

It so happened that my brother, as an impresario, put on concert productions,  and we presented Paul Robeson at Carnegie Hall at a critical time in his life.

He had been denied a passport and since he couldn’t go abroad, we just presented him here as the concert artist he was. It became an enormously successful political and musical event. We had two concerts beautifully reviewed in the New York Times and he got his passport.

Paul Robeson

 

NGS- And what were Lorraine and Bob doing during these times?

BD’L-   At one point, Bob and Lorraine were living on Beeker Street above a candy store and they invited   me and Bob Rose, the publisher he worked for, to listen Lorraine read Raisin in the Sun!

It was unbelievable! After a moment Bob Rose said, “I’m going to produce this!” And that was the story. It was a hard, difficult time- not easy to raise money for an unknown young woman. I was an investor and we went to many different areas to raise money. It was hard but we did it.

And it was a remarkable wonderful success.

But I have always felt that because she died at an early age of 33, no matter how many kudos she got, she has not received the full respect she deserved. Her plays were prescient. They were full of the realization of what black Americans could be doing. They looked into the African Liberation.

She wrote a play called “Les Blancs” which is a spectacularly wonderful play and she discusses all the nuances of what was happening in places like Zimbawe.

She was not a glib popularizer-she understood what black liberation was all about. She would have contributed enormously if she had lived.

It always left me feeling frustrated that there were people who would say initially, “Oh sure, she’s a talented young lady”- but they didn’t give her the kind of credit she deserved. Of course, my begrudging it doesn’t do any good.

 

NGS- Of course, but what you are telling is wonderful. You really knew her.

BD’L-  Yes. And to know her was so delightful- so bright and cheery and chirpy...and frank.

When she became prominent, she was strong. She took the responsibility to speak truth to power.

At one point there was an assemblage of black leaders at Edward Kennedy’s apartment in Central Park South. The Kennedy delegation was furious that the blacks were not supporting John Kennedy’s presidential campaign enough. Among those invited were Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Lorraine and   others. Edward Kennedy wanted to read them the riot act. But they were not intimidated. [This group of artists] knew the Kennedy contingent was working hand-in-glove with the Southern Democrats and expected these blacks to go right along. But instead, the Kennedy group got an earful and they must have been shocked.

When Lorraine and her friends came out, they said they felt they had helped to educate them a little bit.

It was a romantic, wonderful, exciting, thrilling time.

Lorraine Hansberry, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte

NGS- This is an amazing story.

 

BD’L-Indeed, then after that, my brother and I founded the famous nightclub in Greenwich Village called the Village Gate and ran it for 40 years and we played every famous jazz artist in that 450 –seat theatre. And all the well-known comedians got their start there. Woody Allen was a very funny man but he wasn’t happy starting out. He always thought he should start at the top—But it was all a wonderful life.

NGS- Thank you so much.

Raisin in the Sun

Finding the playwright between the lines
by Naomi Greenberg-Slovin

When Lorraine Hansberry wrote “Raisin in the Sun”, it was more than a beautiful drama. It was- and still is- a heart -wrenching historical testimonial to the on-going struggle of a people laying claim to their universal right to dignity and equality.

I was led by the passion of the playwright, to explore more deeply into her early years.

How was she raised and what experiences did she have that would foster such a depth of compassion and understanding? And did any of her own experiences parallel situations written into her play? The answer is ‘yes’.

One of the most crucial events in her  own life was very similar to the defining incident in the play where the family is determined to move into a white neighborhood. Lorraine had experienced that when she was eight years old

She was born and raised in a vast ghetto on the South Side of Chicago that black families from every income group called home.

 The Hansberry family was among the wealthier ones. Lorraine’s parents were educated intellectuals who spent their life and fortune fighting segregation along with other independent black activists. Her father was a brilliant, charismatic man who, she said “…..carried his head in such a way that I was quite certain that there was nothing he was afraid of.” And that courage was soon to be put to the test.

 Carl Hansberry worked with NAACP attorneys to get rid of what were called ‘restrictive covenants’ that gave neighborhoods the right to exclude those they were prejudiced against.

As Lorraine recalled it:  “That fight also required that our family occupy the disputed property in a hellishly hostile  “white neighborhood in which, literally, howling mobs surrounded our house. One of their missiles almost took [my life]. My memories of this ‘correct’ way of fighting white supremacy in America include being spat at, cursed and pummeled in the daily trek to and from school…”

 

It didn’t take too long before the  Neighborhood  Improvement Association filed an  injunction ordering the family to vacate their home- which was, as expected, upheld by the Circuit Court and the Illinois Supreme Court. But that didn’t stop Hansberry. He challenged the ruling and went to the highest authority in the land. There the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in the case of Hansberry vs Lee (1940). In a unanimous vote the court rejected the restrictive covenant. But unfortunately, the ruling applied specifically and exclusively to the Hansberry family without ruling on the constitutionality of the restrictive covenants in general. It was a more bitter than sweet victory.

A second parallel in the play that gives voice to the playwright’s fervent advocacy for womens’ rights, was a prophetic one. Nothing was more important to Hansberry than changing the concept of black women among blacks as well as whites. And the part of the daughter, Beneatha, who aspires to be a doctor, is considered to be the character that Hansberry most identified with. The focus of most of the people around her was understandably centered on the practical issues of breaking down segregation in housing, work and access to public places. But for Lorraine it extended to breaking through the barriers to the mind. Why shouldn’t a black woman be a doctor, a lawyer or any other calling she desired, including those that involved higher educational pursuits? 

Finally, a third parallel reflects Lorraine’s fervent search for her own identity. And it was by creating the character of Joseph Asagai, the African student from Nigeria, that she introduced the ongoing question.

In recalling his first meeting with Beneatha, Asagai says: Do you remember the first time we met at school-? You came up to me and said, and I thought you were the most serious little thing I had ever seen- You said, Mr. Asagai- I want very much to talk to you. About  Africa. You see, Mr. Asagai, I am looking for my identity!” Asagai could be amused by Beneatha’s  intensity because he had not descended from generations of a people living in a land that did not acknowledge them as part of it. Asagai did not question his own identity. He was Nigerian.  

Many things had changed by the time Lorraine Hansberry wrote “Raisin in the Sun” and she knew that although she as a black woman had come a long way toward achieving her dream of equality, she wasn’t there yet.

While she was in college she expressed her feelings through a story she wrote (in third person) about a young student telling her thoughts about Africa and her origins: “She had spent hours of her younger years pouring over maps of the African continent, postulating and fantasizing. Ibo,  Mandigo, Hausa, Yoruba, Ashanti. Who, who were they! In her emotions she was sprung from the Southern Zulu and the Central Pygmy, the Eastern Watusi and the treacherous slave-trading Ashanti themselves. She was Kikuyu and Masai, ancient cousins of hers had made the exquisite forged sculpture at Benin, while surely even more ancient relatives sat upon the throne at Abu Simbel watching over the Nile

One thing was certain: she was at one, texture, blood, follicles of hair, nerve ends, all with the sound of a mighty Congo drum. She had never heard African music that had not set her mad with the romance of her people, never. At the first rich basso boom, her heart rose in her bosom, her teeth set, her eyes widened, and Africa claimed her….”

“Raisin in the Sun” is certainly not autobiographical; it’s message is more universal than personal. But Lorraine Hansberry once made it very clear that she felt it is a story that could only be told by a black woman.

Everyman Resident Company Member Deborah Hazlett stars as Kate Keller in All My Sons, her 20th role with the company.  Recently, fellow Resident Company Member Bruce Nelson sat down with Deborah for a one-on-one conversation about her experiences at Everyman, working as a professional actor, and her favorite roles and productions.  Thank you to Deborah and Bruce for taking the time to do this!

Bruce:  20^th anniversary…20^th show for you…Do you have a thought about that?

Deborah:  You know I didn’t even realize until I transferred my bio – I was typing out my bio to send to David and I thought, do I have everything?  Let me count.  And then I saw, wow 20 shows at Everyman?  I told Vinny the next day at rehearsal and he said, this is our 20^th anniversary!  I didn’t think of it. 

B:  To have that kind of history in one place is unique for an actor.

D:  I think even more so now since companies don’t happen so much any more.  It’s a little surreal to me, I couldn’t believe there were 20 when I counted them, but there they were!  And then that made me think back to my first show there. 

B: Which was?

D:  My first show here was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 

B:  And was it shortly after that when you became a company member?

D:  Yes.  A year later, I think. 

B:  Does the first show at Everyman count as your favorite?

D:  It was an interesting show and I really loved working on that show but…I have favorites but all of them at Everyman have been very special and very meaningful. 

B:  They’re like children, how can one be better than another? 

D:  It’s true.  I have had some pretty profound experiences.  Road to Mecca was such a special one.  Watch on the Rhine was special and powerful, with what was going on in the world then.  Frankie and Johnny, Hedda, Sideman and then doing our first Chekhov – Uncle Vanya. 

B:  So, one of the questions was, being a part of the company and Vinny directing you – is he the director you have worked the most with at any theatre?

D:  Yes!  I have worked with many directors more than once, but I’ve never done 20 with one. 

B:  Can you talk about the family feel of working with someone who knows you like this?  They really know you! 

D:  Vinny knows me as an actor, and as a person…he knows me like anyone who has known you for 13 years.  It is such a gift that it is hard to put into words.  Because of Vinny and his faith in me and our belief in each other, I have the gift to be able to do dream work.  A woman I was working with recently told me, you’ve done so many interesting roles, and you know what?  That’s Vinny.  That’s Vinny saying, What are you thinking about?  I think this would be good for you – even if I haven’t heard of it.  Sideman, for example. 

B:  So does that mean that you aren’t the kind of actor who has a bucket list and goes to Vinny and says “let’s do this.”?

D:  I wish I were better at it!  That’s a business part I’m not very good at.  During a production I saw of The Cherry Orchard, an environmental, outside production, I was calling Vinny at intermission going, “He’s chopping down a tree, a real tree!  And he’s chopping it down!”  Vinny got these messages and had no idea what I was talking about.  He didn’t know I was at a production of The Cherry Orchard!  I came to him and said, can we please do this show?  And eventually we did get to do The Cherry Orchard.  It took a while of course, and there’s so much that goes into season planning.

B:  He’s like a scientist in his lab.

D:  It’s all about the business and what makes everything work.  But we did eventually get to do it.  And I think Vinny is very open to his company coming to him with ideas and saying whatever it is you want to do.  Whether we get to or not is a whole other thing.  I think he is very interested in what we’re passionate about.  I’m so glad we have done our first Shakespeare, and I want to do more, especially in the new space.  The challenges are that you’re with people who know you so well.  We develop a short hand as a company.  People coming in might find that unexpected.  There’s a loop that they’re outside of.   So that has its blessings and challenges.  What I want to try to do is to be careful to enjoy the freedom of that communication and of being a colleague and not a cog in a wheel and also to enjoy and be respectful of everyone else’s process. 

B:  It’s good to know that you have a healthy give and take with the fellow company members. 

D:  Yes.  You have to love each other and respect each other enough to know that if there is a point of contention, it will be worked out.  There’s not damage that is done. 

B:  Is Kate Keller(her current role in All My Sons) in profound denial?  Is she unstable?  Does it matter that either of these gets answered?

D:  Those are really good questions.  I do not believe she is in profound denial.  I believe Joe is.  And I do not think that Kate is unstable.  Vinny and I have had so many conversations about this.  Vinny the other day said, I think she is living with three and a half years of the weight of Joe’s transgression.  I think she is symptomatic of a bad system, so she is the noise-y one so she looks unstable.  I agree that she looks a little off to people who don’t understand what she’s dealing with, but as an actor I can never think about whether my charatcre is crazy or not.  It’s a rare thing to find a true crazy person who actually thinks they are crazy.  If you’re able to self reflect like that, you’re probably better off than you think you are.  Someone during Hedda yelled onstage at me “you’re a psycho!” when I took the script and burned it, people did not like that.  In playing unlikeable characters, I have learned to really embrace not being concerned with what the audience thinks about me.  My only concern is do they understand what is happening which is very different than do they like me.  And I often play unlikeable characters.  Early on in my work I think I cared if people liked me as a character.  As Claire in Proof, people would come up to me and say “I so loved Claire, I totally understand her, I have a younger sister who is irresponsible.  And then the next person would say “I can’t believe what a bitch Claire is.  I have a controlling older sister.”  It’s so wonderful how cathartic a character can be.  It’s about the projection of the audience’s life experience on the character, we always do the same thing.  I love that a character can bring so much out of an audience member based on their life experience

B:  You have your Masters, MFA in Acting from University of South Carolina.  Under their core principles on the website it says that they have insatiable artistic curiosity.  Would that apply to you?

D:  I graduated in 1995.  I just met the new chair there.  He was directing Henry VIII at Folger when I was doing Hamlet there and I realized it was him.  Such a small theatre world.  Insatiable artistic curiosity…I think I have that.  I want to know what every moment is and I don’t want to leave one moment out.  We were just working on 10 lines today in rehearsal and a lot happens in those 10 lines.  Why do I say “Chris! Chris!”  Why do I say “Go to the street, Joe.”  Each of those are separate actions, it’s not a blur of an idea.  And when I get something that I feel connects, I swear I have a little bell that goes off, a little “ding!”.  I haven’t had a lot of those bells quite yet for Kate.  When that happens though, it’s astounding, I know I’m right.  And what I’m most curious about is how it happens because it does not feel that I make a plan.  It feels literally like something just drops into my body or something just happens and then the character starts to speak.  Very mystical process for me.  It sometimes happens earlier, sometimes later.  I feel her come on.  My body changes, my voices changes, characteristics I am not choosing to develop. 

B:  There are books out there about the idea of “flow.”  Especially with athletes in a “zone.”  Things are happening and you don’t know where they are coming from or what they mean. 

D:  I think you have to allow as well, you can’t block it as an actor. 

B:  So given the women you have played and given what you have learned over the years, do you have a style?  Does defining it even matter?

D:  You know, somebody might externally tell you I have a style.  If I do, I’m not aware of it.  I do find myself very lucky to play Agnus in BUG, a crack cocaine addicted, smoking, down on her luck woman living in a trailer and to play Hedda.  To play Frankie and to play Candida.  I have been very lucky with the range I have played.  I just played something completely different for me.  Completely physically different than me.  She came on every night, and then she left.  I didn’t have much control.  I don’t know where she came from. 

B:  A director told me I was very angular in style.  I know that I probably skew to the sentimental, the soft and wistful, the what might-have-been plays.  But I also love the craziness of other plays. 

D:  And you’re really good at both of them!  The only thing I can think about is to go after every moment until I understand it, stay open to whatever happens on stage.  Rehearsal is not the most fun for me – it’s hard, it’s challenging it’s stressful, it’s upsetting often.  But performance, once you have done the work, then you just step out on stage and allow whatever happens on that night.  Open yourself up.  That is my favorite part. 

B:  When I read about your Best of Baltimore award, they referenced Claire, your Arcadia role and your understated comic ability.  Would you agree that when it comes to comedy, you play an understated angle?

D:  It depends..sometimes I think I should carry a sign around saying, I’m funny!  Can I please do some comedies!  I love comedy.  I think have some ability there.  I think I’m really interested in character driven comedy.  Just when it so happens to be funny because of what the character is doing and I think that is where my ability lies. 

B:  Carrie in the Pavilion talks about the “what might have been” theme.  What are your “what might have been’s”?  Is there a play that might speak to that?  It’s so hard to separate the character and Bruce.

D:  I think that’s why you’re such a brilliant actor!  I was moved in Irma Vep!  Laughs.  I think you’re brilliant.

B:  Thank you, I appreciate that. 

D:  I think if you’re being honest as an actor, the only way is to use yourself.  If people are not willing to do that, then they are not willing to be vulnerable.  If I onstage were to play Carrie right now, that is a question that opens such a soft, round pink place in my soul that I would have to treat it very tenderly so I don’t fall into a mush of what might have been.  The might-have-beens at 47 are numerous.  The what is and what ares are glorious!  So the mix of the two of these powerful gifts is something that at 20 I would have never expected.  I honor and treasure and value the might-have-beens as much as the what ares in my life now. 

B:  Since you can’t play on stage what-might-have-been, what gets played?

B: Do you know that Hedda has been referred to, in general, as the female Hamlet?  Had you heard that before?  How do you think that applies?

D:  I had not heard that.  I think the playing of Hedda can take out of you what the playing of Hamlet does.  Playing Hedda was VERY very challenging.  It’s not the most challenging, that would be Agnus in Bug, both  physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Becca in Rabbit Hole nearly took me under.  It’s hard to recover from, I would feel her in my life.  Really feeling Becca made me feel lost all the time – and for personal reasons also.  Hedda is rigorous.  It’s period, it’s style, she’s brilliant.  She’s lost and alone and fighting against that all the time. 

B:  Candida has a theme of what a woman desires and looks for in a husband.  What are those things and do you find those to be true in your leading men?  How does this theme come into your real life?

D:  I don’t want to tell the story of Candida, but yes that is the question in Candida.  This woman of a certain age is drawn to this poet because he thinks she is the most miraculous and perfect woman he’s ever met.…the husband is so revered, unavailable and controlled.  Opening that up and seeing what happens when these three people come together in this perfect storm.  I believe that finding a partner who doesn’t think you’re scary and is open to your heart and soul and gifts and foibles, thinks you’re funny sometimes, or can laugh in the perfect moment of tension, where there’s either going to be a fight or both people are going to burst our laughing.  I believe that I have been lucky enough to stumble into a pretty extraordinary connection that I’m grateful for every day.  What I want in a leading man is a kind person, a REALLY skilled actor who has got some big acting chops, who is not afraid of me or anything else in the rehearsal room, whatever happens happens, and someone who can play with whatever happens on stage that night, you hear it, you see it

B:  I just told my improv students that if you want your partner to be a genius on stage, treat them like one!  Don’t think that you have all the answers and they have none and you don’t have to listen to them. 

D:  Such a good lesson.  I think one of the great things about Everyman and the company is that not only do you work there, but you work other places.  And to me it’s so important to go out and work at other places and see what’s happening in that rehearsal hall with that director and those actors which hopefully makes me a stronger company member since those work ethics are different, the process is different, you can bring some of that home (I think Everyman is home) and contribute, I hope!

B:  I’m going to name an Everyman show, will you give the first word that pops into your head?  Ones that you have been in. 

D:  Oh sure, I’ll try!

B:    Much Ado?

D:  You know, this is going to be challenging for me not to edit myself!  A lot of fun!

B:  Pavilion?

D:  Heart-breaking

B:  Candida

D:  Challenging

B:  Hedda

D:  I loved her

B:  Road to Mecca

D:  It’s very hard to find a word or a thought but…probably the most extraordinary experience I have ever had onstage

B:  Frankie and Johnnie

D:  Wowww…that was a wild ride!

B:  Rabbit Hole

D:  Be very careful of the roles you say you want to play!  Laughs

B:  Sight Unseen

D:  Oh!  A ping pong match!

B:  Delicate Balance

D:  Unfinished

B:  Voir Dire

D:  I was so green…

B:  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

D:  (long pause) a surprise

B:  Cherry Orchard

D:  A word doesn’t come, but strong feelings come for this one.  Gretia, the name of the son, is what comes to mind. 

B:  Betrayal

D:  That was a wicked, wicked play! 

B:  Vanya

D:  Mitchell Herbert’s face

B :  Crucible

D:  laughs – a sneeze!  I come on stage and we’re all so dramatical, the witches are moaning and dying…I come in and Giles tells the story of the pig and everyone loves Giles.  Then later John, Kyle Prue, is in the cell and I go to him and I say “Giles is” and Kyle sneezes, “dead.”  Laughs hysterically.  I know that no one knows what I just said and Kyle just looks at me, the whole audience didn’t hear what I said, Kyle turns to me, gives me a look, and I say “dead” again.  Somehow we got through it.  I think of that moment! 

B:  And didn’t I, as Hale, always call you “Mister”?  It was one of my early shows there, I was so nervous! 

D:  I was playing Elizabeth and you called me “Mister” a few times as I recall! Laughs

B:  Let’s talk about narrating the books versus acting on stage and also the Baltimore versus New York theatre scene. 

D:  Narrating takes enormous concentration and focus.  You’re usually in a tiny booth for 6 hours.  You’ve been talking for 6 hours so the quality of your voice changes.  The microphone picks up vocal tension.  Your concentration just goes.  And really you’re just cold reading!  No matter how much you prepare.  It’s a 400 page novel.  The acting of it is very delightful but very cinematic, your voice is very transparent.  It’s not stage acting, it’s film acting for books.  What’s so fascinating is making the characters is so much fun!  I know exactly what they look like in my mind.  I pick a color for each of them.   I will put a little colored dot next to their name, then I knew who was speaking and the color would trigger for me everything about that character – what they would sound like and look like and how they moved.  I had a lot of fun with that. 

I spent a year in LA, so glad I did it but would never want to do it again.  Now I never have to wonder what it would be like in LA.  I spent 6 years on and off in New York.  I have a wonderful agent who I adore.  It is a very different ball game in NY than in Baltimore/DC.  Everything is changing though, a lot of people are coming from New York.  I know the market is changing a lot.  In NY you might go to work  4 times a year in a different theatre where no one knows you, you get a new start every time you go in.  You don’t bring baggage.  That can be so empowering and you learn so much about yourself.  The downside of that is you don’t get to bring your little bag of goodies with you and work with everyone you love and care about!  We as actors need to protect ourselves and our business.  We need to be respected as business people.  We are making our lives and financial lives work. 

B:  Everyman is such a home for you.  It’s a safe cushion for you.

D:  I don’t know if I would be doing what I’m doing if it weren’t for Everyman.  I get re-inspired there.  I remember the love that theatre is about – very corny but true.  I remember why I knew in third grade that this is what I was going to do.  I went to see Godspell at Ford’s Theatre when I was very young and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.  And bless my parents for putting me into summer workshops and I knew it. 

B:  Brilliant.  Thank you, Deb. 

Our guest blogger today is Tim Boucher, Assistant Stage Manager of "Our Town" at Everyman Theatre. For more, visit www.timboucher.com.

Written in 1937, Thornton Wilder's epic American classic, "Our Town," draws on then-contemporary theatrical conventions with which modern theatre-goers are likely to be unfamiliar. Chief among them is the role of the near-omniscient figure of the Stage Manager, played by Everyman Theatre resident actor Wil Love. Love, reprising his debut role in theatre after some 250 shows since then, first played the Stage Manager in Wichita East High School's 1959 production of "Our Town," at the tender age of sixteen.

Wilder's Stage Manager is at once participant and commentator- actor and narrator- of the events onstage representing typical small-town New England life at the turn of the 20th century. Atypical of modern theatre's insistence on an invisible "fourth wall" separating actor from audience, Love's Stage Manager addresses the house directly: acting as tour guide or concierge, orienting visitors new to Grover's Corners, New Hampshire; introducing the town's residents, their troubles and triumphs; setting up and commenting on the action of the play; and even jumping in and out of scenes with mercurial ease.

While such a figure appears onstage with less frequency in theatre of the 2000s, to the Vaudeville houses and variety halls of the 1930s and earlier, his presence was much more familiar. In today's theatre, the stage manager generally sits hidden in a booth behind the audience during performances and 'calls the show': coordinating action onstage and off with lights, sound and other essential timing cues. In old-time theatres- like the historic Town Theatre into which Everyman is slated to move in 2011- often trod the boards, appearing in front of the audience. As Douglas Gilbert wrote in his 1940 book, American Vaudeville: Its Life and Times, the stage manager of a variety or vaudeville house often "...acted as interlocutor in the minstrels (a feature in many bills), played 'straight' in the afterpieces, and sometimes took on important roles in the dramas and sketches."

In other words, old-time theatre demanded that a stage manager play the same role onstage as they do backstage: host and master of ceremonies. In addition to calling the show and coordinating the stage crew ('grips' in Vaudeville slang), the stage manager- since the mid-1800s- has been responsible for scheduling and running rehearsals. Like the interlocutor or "middle-man" of the minstrel shows, the stage manager acts as go-between and facilitator for artists, the director, production staff, and everyone else involved in the mounting and running of a show. In the case of Everyman's production of "Our Town," this is over forty people- all overseen by the watchful eye of Resident Stage Manager, Mandy Hall, and two assistant or deputy stage managers.

The roots of stage management as a theatrical discipline are intextricably intertwined with that of the stage director. In ancient Greek drama, the playwright was responsible for producing and directing his own shows. Termed the didaskolos or 'teacher,' it was his duty to train the actors and chorus, compose the music, and coordinate all elements of a performance. Religious mystery plays of the Middle Ages and the secular morality plays which they envolved into were overseen by a pageant master, who was tasked with coordinating rehearsals for the town-wide spectacles associated with feast days, and who was able to levy fines for bad acting and forgetfulness of lines.

From the strolling players and Renaissance Commedia dell'Arte troupes onward to the 19th century, it was typically the lead actor of a troupe who acted as actor-manager, choosing plays to produce, taking a lead role in them and handling finances and business on behalf of the company. As the internal organization of theatre became both more complex and standardized in the 19th and 20th centuries, these duties are now distributed across multiple individuals with unique talents and specializations: from the director and stage manager to the production manager and company manager.

Wilder's "Our Town," therefore, both memorializes and highlights dramatically a much under-appreciated figure central to the experience of theatrical production and its vast history: the stage manager.

"Our decision was that to some degree, this was Lainie's impression of what he would look like."

Everyone behind the scenes at Everyman has had the pleasure of enjoying Associate Production Manager Mandy Hall's baking, from cakes for birthday celebrations to fruit crumble just because she had fresh-picked blueberries.

But for this season's opening production of Rabbit Hole, Mandy is stepping outside of her usual role. She will spend the next five weeks as Everyman's Resident Chef, baking all of the items that appear on stage.

Rabbit Hole follows the journey of a family grieving the death of their young son. Food is featured in many scenes, and the eating isn't something that happens coincidentally in the background as the actors deliver their lines. It's an important part of the scenery, enhancing the warm and homey environment.

The preparation of the food also serves as a coping mechanism for Becca, a stay-at-home mom who suddenly finds herself with a lot of time on her hands. For her, the baking is both a distraction and an integral part of the healing process, a way to focus her energy and keep up appearances as her family drifts further apart.

For the Baltimore premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Everyman's designers have created the kind of comfortable, modern kitchen you'd expect to see in any well-to-do home in the suburbs. There are stainless steel appliances purchased from Sears, running water and a refrigerator that will actually keep all of the food fresh throughout the show's run. Which is a good thing, because if it wasn't hidden in the on-set refrigerator, it would likely be eaten by Everyman's staff and production crew before it could reach the actors' lips!

With a script that focuses so heavily on the consumption of specific types of food, and given Everyman's intimate performance space, the artistic team knew that using fake food or substitutes just wouldn't do. As a self-described "foodie," Everyman Artistic Director (and director of Rabbit Hole) Vincent Lancisi wanted to make sure that the food was made with as much detail as any other piece of scenery or prop. With the nearest audience member just a few feet from the Corbetts' kitchen, Vinny didn't want anyone to be distracted by food that didn't look real.

The prospect of buying enough fresh baked goods to sustain the cast through eight shows a week was too expensive, so Mandy volunteered to do the baking. It's been one of her favorite things to do since she was a teenager, she said. Once she tried it, she realized she had a natural talent for it- and that there was nothing more rewarding than the compliments she received after baking something everyone loved.

For the duration of Rabbit Hole, Mandy must keep the refrigerator stocked with creme caramel fresh enough to ooze onto the plate when Becca serves it. She's also preparing apple tortes, lemon squares, zucchini bread, chocolate chip cookies and birthday cake. To save money and make the experience as delicious as possible for all of the cast members, she's baking everything from scratch: peeling and slicing the apples for the tortes and rolling out fresh pie crusts. Everything she has to prepare for the show takes over an hour to bake in the oven.

It's just one of the many strange things she's had to do during her fifteen years with Everyman Theatre. She recalls one particular experience, during Everyman's production of Lonely Planet in the 1997-98 season, when she had to drag 180 chairs off the stage every night and restack them for each performance. At the end of each night, she was covered in bruises, Mandy said.

Her role in Rabbit Hole should prove to be a lot more enjoyable- both for Mandy and for the lucky actors who get to reap the rewards eight times a week.