PREMIERES… Joseph Stern and Matrix TheatreCompanyare presenting theWest Coast premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 — a dramatization of the first genocide of the 20th century, helmed by Jillian Armenante, featuring Daniel Bess, Julanne Chidi Hill, Joe Holt, Phil LaMarr, Rebecca Mozo and John Sloan, opening June 8. This is the first production under Matrix’s new mandate to produce only one play each year…Downtown LA-based Loft Ensemble is fracturing the modern fairy tale genre with the premiere of The Princes’ Charming — two princes scramble through speed dating, arranged marriages, and random encounters in the woods, hoping to avoid a mysterious curse, scripted and helmed by Mitch Rosander, opening May 25…As an entrant in Hollywood Fringe Festival 2013, Rodeo Town, a surrealistic vision of a dying way of life, scripted by Graham Bowlin, helmed by Cameron Strittmatter, premieres June 7 at East Theatre @ The Complex…Also premiering under the umbrella of Hollywood Fringe is The Ruby Besler Cabaret, wrought by Anastasia Barnes (script, music), Gere Fennelly (music, music direction), Jim Senti (additional dialogue) and Flame Cyndars (choreography), helmed by Doug Oliphant, opening June 11 at Elephant Stage…
OPEN AIR FARE… Resolving the status of its artistic leadership following the departure of former artistic director Guillermo Aviles-Rodriguez, Watts Village Theater Company is launching its annual environmentally interactive Meet Me @ Metro IV: Bringing it Home to Watts under the guidance of co-founder/artistic director/dramaturg Lynn Manning, introducing two works, May 25 & 26. Scattered Joy, helmed by Jameelah Nuriddin performs at 103rd Street Station, while Under The 105, helmed by Ryan Vincent Anderson performs at Rosa Parks Station…Fountain Theatre in Hollywood is taking its recurring Forever Flamenco series outdoors to a larger arena. Celebrating founder Deborah Lawlor’s 20-year dedication to producing, nurturing and broadening the art form in LA, Forever Flamenco!at the Ford — under the artistic direction of internationally renowned flamenco dancer Maria Bermudez, featuring an international lineup of flamenco artists — returns to Ford Amphitheater in the Cahuenga Pass, one night only, June 15…
Emma Degerstedt
AROUND TOWN…Coeurage Theatre Company is reviving Irish playwright Brian Friel’s 1980 play Translations, “about language and cultural imperialism,” helmed by Ryan Wagner, opening May 25 at Lost Studio in Hollywood…Cabrillo Music Theatreis producingthe 2007 Broadway tuner Legally Blonde: The Musical, wrought by Laurence O’Keefe & Nell Benjamin (music and lyrics) and Heather Hach (book),helmed by Tiffany Engen, starring Emma Degerstedt, at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Kavli Theatre, opening July 19…Long Beach Playhouse is closing its 2012 – 2013 mainstage season with the 1982 rock tuner perennial, Little Shop of Horrors by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, helmed by producing artistic director Andrew Vonderschmitt, opening May 25…..Finally, distilling the 37 stageworks of the Bard is the goal of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), scripted by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, helmed by Sarah Gurfield, opening June 7 at Promenade Playhouse in Santa Monica…
EXTENDING...The debut outing of Years to the Day, a dark comedy by Allen Barton, helmed by Joel Polis, is extending through June 2 at Beverly Hills Playhouse…In Santa Monica, Edgemar Center’s staging of the N. Richard Nash perennial The Rainmaker, helmed by Jack Heller, starring Tanna Frederick and Robert Standley, extends through May 26…Back in Hollywood, Actors Co-op’s production of William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, helmed by Thom Babbes, is also reaching out until May 26…Over in Burbank, Colony Theatre’s tuneful Falling For Make Believe — music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, helmed by Jim Fall – is not extending beyond May 19 but is adding a Sunday, May 12 performance at 7 pm…
Corey Allen
INSIDE LA STAGE HISTORY…Born in Cleveland , Ohio on June 29, 1934, actor/director/educator Corey Allen blossoms into an accomplished thesp when his family moves to Los Angeles in the late ’40s. A 1954 graduate of the UCLA theater department, where he wins a best actor award, Allen receives his big tinseltown break when he is cast as the arrogant but doomed teen gang leader Buzz Gunderson in Rebel Without a Cause, opposite James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Although Allen finds steady acting work in film and TV, he is drawn into directing, eventually earning an Emmy for helming an episode ofˆHill Street Blues (1984) and guiding the two-hour pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Along the way, Allen never loses contact with his first love — live theater. In 1959, Allen becomes a partner in a touring theater operation called Freeway Circuit Inc., which tours California for six seasons. LA STAGE Times editor emeritus Lee Melville recalls, “In 1961, Corey Allen’s Freeway Circuit brought its touring production of (Jerome) Lawrence and (Robert Edwin) Lee’sOnly in America into the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood. It starred Herschel Bernardi as the Jewish humorist/journalist Harry Golden. The Ivar was operated then by partners Zev Bufman and Stan Seiden. We had a successful four-month run there. It was my first Equity job as assistant stage manager and I played a small role. There were many well-known actors in the 20+ member cast. Harold Gould was Herschel’s understudy and got his Equity card from the show. I remember Lawrence & Lee did some rewrites from the original play which had flopped on Broadway.” Following Freeway Circuit, Allen co-founds a small repertory theater called Actors Theater in 1965. As the demands of his television directorial work become more time-consuming, Allen segues into teaching, which is less time-intensive than running a theater. Allen teaches stage performance, including three years at the Actors Workshop. For nine years, he conducts cold reading workshops at the Margie Haber Studio. Later, Allen is presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Columbia College-Hollywood for his work in helping to create the acting and directing curricula. Suffering from Parkinson’s disease the last 20 years of his life, Corey Allen dies on June 27, 2010 at age 75…
– The Julio Martinez produced and hosted ARTS IN REVIEW, showcasing the best in live theater and cabaret in the greater Los Angeles area, broadcasts weekly on KPFK 90.7fm, Fridays at 2 pm. On May 10, the spotlight is on actor/singer Teri Ralston, who is co-starring with Stephanie Zimbalist in the Laguna Playhouse staging of Steel Magnolias…
Ensemble of “KTCHN.” Photo by Melissa Manning/thelookpartnership.com.
Choreographer, performance artist and dancer Ryan Heffington is certainly no stranger to the melding and twisting of mediums. From the underground club scene to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Heffington has earned quite the reputation for himself as a curator of dance performance pieces that extend, break and many times completely dissolve the boundaries of Los Angeles dance culture.
With his latest installation, KTCHN (currently running through May 19 at the Mack Sennett Studios in Silver Lake), Heffington has drawn inspiration from the paintings of contemporary artist Nolan Hendrickson to create what he feels is his most “elaborate endeavor to date”.
Wanting to bring Hendrickson’s signature style of wildly colorful figures, overt sexuality, and dark humor to life in a three-dimensional setting, Heffington assembled a team of collaborators, designers, and dancers to help him realize his vision. An Indiegogo fundraising campaign was launched, through which $15,000 was donated in support of the project. Hendrickson himself joined as an artistic collaborator and flew out from New York to witness his work reinterpreted in literally living color.
Ryan Heffington
“I’m overjoyed!” exclaims Heffington, when asked about his feelings on the final product. “The whole process and working with Nolan as a collaborator was incredible. I feel like I’ve never been so prepared for a performance before. We put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into it, and I think people have really responded positively to that.”
For those unfamiliar with Ryan Heffington’s work, his hybrid style of highly-stylized dance, outrageous costumes and characters, grandiose set pieces (which in this case includes larger-than-life hanging genitalia), indie music, and pop culture commentary may come as something of a culture shock. Hendrickson himself was left dumbfounded upon his first viewing of KTCHN. “I went to all three nights of opening weekend. I think an appropriate reaction to the first time you see that show is ‘What the fuck?’ And that’s being already familiar with where they’re coming from. I’d imagine that’s even more so for someone who isn’t prepared for what they’re going to see. So that first night, I was just sort of overwhelmed, and it was all a blur. When I went back the next night, I was able to sit back and look at the details and nuances. But the first night, I was a bit delirious.”
The collaboration between Heffington and Hendrickson has been one of mutual artistic respect and creative autonomy. According to Hendrickson, it all began about a year ago in true contemporary fashion…with a Facebook message. “I got a Facebook message from [Ryan]. I didn’t know who he was at the time, I just saw that he was a cute guy. [Laughs] At that time, he was just asking me about what the title was of this one particular painting. And then this past September, I got an email from him and he said that he and a friend were going to be in New York and that he had a project in mind that he wanted to discuss. I mostly just said yes because he had really fun pictures of himself. I didn’t really have any expectations. I didn’t know what they wanted to talk about. So I met up with him and his producer Allison, and we all went on a little date here in New York and it was really fun. They proposed this project, and by then I had done a little research and I knew that he was a serious artist. I didn’t really have to think about it too much — the whole thing seemed like a lot of fun. So we kept in contact, and they kept developing on the initial idea they told me about.”
Nolan Hendrickson’s “Supple Sometimes.” 2012.
When Hendrickson was invited to collaborate on the project, he intentionally remained at a respectful distance to allow Heffington’s vision and interpretation of the paintings to come through in the performances. “I had some ideas about how I thought the overall vibe of the space should be. I got the idea pretty early on that they had a lot of very talented people working on this, so I just really wanted to see what they would do. I mean, who am I to tell the choreographer how to move the dancers? I didn’t expect them to understand my work the same way I do. I don’t expect anyone to. It’s not something I care about. They told me what they were picking up from it, I told them things that I thought might enhance their view, but my efforts were mostly toward the environment that the show takes place in and general vibe of the thing. I kind of had a feeling that it would be something deep and strange, and that’s what I really wanted.”
To move beyond the canvas and bring Hendrickson’s figures to life, Heffington envisioned a fully-realized cast of characters — all with distinct looks, personalities and stories. “It was a process of discovering [Nolan’s] paintings and realizing that world as much as I could through those two-dimensional characters. There were so many elements that I could extract. Because it’s a painting, I felt that there were so many stories that I could develop from his characters. I had a strong feeling of mood from his work, so that came through in the choreography and how I would set these people onstage. A lot of times they were in very similar poses as his characters would be on the canvas. So that was a pretty direct parallel. But then I also created my own story and narrative.
“There are 10 characters, and each has…individual qualities. Yeah, at times they dance in a chorus, but it was more about their development and their relationship onstage to one another and to the audience, as well. So in that sense I may have moved beyond sort of what his intentions were, but I always found myself looking back at his paintings when I had any questions. This one time I called him because I didn’t know what a drag character in his world would be like or what their aesthetic would be. And he had the most brilliant answer ever! And we used it for the show.”
Ensemble members of “KTCHN”
Naturally, the drag character that Heffington was inquiring about was the one he himself ended up playing. And Hendrickson’s answer did indeed translate directly into the look and feel of that character. “I got this email [from Ryan] really late at night that said ‘Hey, if you were to do drag, what would you be?’ He didn’t give any reason as to why he was asking; it was just a blunt question. I told him ‘I would be ‘business safari’ and went on to describe what ‘business safari’ was—like a khaki pantsuit, blonde power hair, and carry and attaché case and lint roller. He didn’t really respond or anything. Turns out he forwarded that to Mindy, the costume designer, and that’s where she developed the look for Ryan that he has in the show. That just thrilled me when I saw it in the flesh!”
Though the look of the KTCHN characters was in many ways a literal interpretation of Hendrickson’s paintings, Heffington fully admits that each of his characters comes from a very personal place in his own life story. “It definitely was a little autobiographical in terms of the last year and a half of my life — relationship-oriented as well as having a taste of major exposure, being on television with RuPaul, and just how people would interact with me and their level of comfort with me. It was just this very sensitive situation for a while, of me feeling exposed and sort of not wanting to be exposed. I used that story a lot in this piece.”
When it comes to delivering a fully emotionally-realized performance using only the movement, the trust and communication between Heffington and his dancers is critical. “I look for dancers who are really comfortable with themselves and who are comfortable being vulnerable onstage. Dancers who can take direction and who can take the nuances that I give them and kind of run with it. These characters are so vulnerable that I need to know that I can trust the people that I give them to. I’ve worked with most of these people for years.
Ensemble members of “KTCHN”
“I’d rather have dancers who all have a really unique quality about them, and try to fit them into a chorus situation, than have dancers who are more comfortable blending into a chorus and then trying to draw them out of it. I think it helps that I know their history as well. I know their relationships and their lifestyles, so I think tapping into that makes it a little more real and establishes that emotion really quickly. Sometimes too real, actually! There were times where I had to remind them that ‘this is a character, it’s not you’ and having to find that performance level and make sure it was a safe place for them to go.”
One of the trademarks of Heffington’s work is the incorporation of the space and the setting into his pieces. For KTCHN, that idyllic venue for this highly-modern and experimental piece came in the form of Mack Sennett Studios — a landmark of Hollywood History. Heffington and his design team transformed the space, which is typically used for photo and commercial video shoots, into a floor-to-ceiling immersive environment where the audience is at times invited to step out onto the floor and be a part of the show.
“I wanted to present this work in a venue where the actors were on the same level as the audience. I never saw it on a proscenium stage. I needed the audience to really be in awe and care for these people, to not only look at them but really be about to reach out and touch them. From very early on, I knew I wanted it to be a very audience-participatory experience. So I needed everything to be at the same level, so the audience could go up to the characters and the characters could go out into the audience.
“When we walked into the space, we all got goosebumps. The timing was absolutely brilliant. The new owners had gotten the keys to the venue the day that we had our first production meeting. They were very receptive to how we wanted to present this piece and create a new theater. Their vision is support art in Los Angeles, and become a new art mecca for the east side. I feel like they’re going to be this new heartbeat for artists here in LA. Being in there and feeling the history of standing in the spot where all of these old films were made…it had this magic that I feel like you don’t often experience in LA from just walking into a space.“
Heffington’s desire to incorporate his surroundings rather than conforming to the typical conventions of the dance world have ultimately allowed him to carve a niche for himself. “I have just always done what I wanted to do. I feel like to find the opportunities here, you have to make them. And I feel like that’s what I’ve done. I’ve been here so long and I’ve never really worried about money. I’ve just been keeping true to my artist self and am always wanting to produce and put stuff out there. I mean, we’ve done some completely illegal performances in parks where 200 people would show up and helicopters would be circling and we’d just try not to get arrested.
Ensemble members of “KTCHN”
“Using my environment as inspiration has also really been a big help,” he continues. Rather than relying on traditional stages, Heffington feels that setting his pieces in the “gritty nightclubs of downtown LA” has afforded the opportunity to expose dance theater to audiences who may not be able to afford high-priced theater tickets. “It has allowed us to stir things up a bit and create more dance culture here in this city. I have a drive here that I think you really need, because there’s not really a niche for the kind of performance that I do. I’ve never really looked at it that way. I’ve always just said ‘I’m gonna do this and that’s it’.”
While some critics of performance art and experimental hybrids may claim the genre is too isolating and exclusive to general audiences, for Heffington, the goal of his work is the exact opposite. Hendrickson describes the experience as “something otherworldly, but still grounded in something really human.”
For Heffington and his team, it’s an emotional experience that is meant to be immersive and transporting, and ultimately unifying much like the hybridized structure of his pieces. “I hope the audience really leaves with a sense of joy. The piece is all over the place: there’s a lot of humor, it’s dark, it’s emotional, it’s a fantasy. You’re diving into a painting, and that’s so powerful to just be able to play and be free and leave with something that doesn’t exist in reality. I hope that everyone can release themselves enough to go on this journey with us. I really want to build a relationship with these people. It’s not about excluding anyone, and hopefully they can relate to what they see and we can have a long romantic journey together.”
KTCHN continues performances at Mack Sennett Studios, 1215 Bates Ave., Silver Lake. 8 pm on May 9, 14, 15, 16. Tickets: $35. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/360947.
**All KTCHN production photos by Melissa Manning/thelookpartnership.com.
The stars came out in force Wednesday night for the opening of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone directed by Phylicia Rashad at the Mark Taper Forum including Shohreh Aghdashloo, Debbie Allen, Obba Babatundé, Angela Bassett, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Yvette Nicole Brown, Henry Lennix, John Earl Jelks, Russell Hornsby, Dawnn Lewis, Garret Morris, James Pickett, Jr, Lamman Rucker, Calvin Sykes, Desean Terry, Malcom-Jamal Warner, Dondre Whitfield and Hattie Winston among others.
Joe Turner takes place in the 1911 boarding house of Seth and Bertha Holly in Pittsburgh’s Hill District made famous by playwright Wilson. It is one of the ten plays contained in his Century Cycle, each set in a different decade of the 20th century.
The cast includes Skye Barrett, Gabriel Brown, Keith David, January LaVoy, Vivian Nichole Nixon, Nathaniel James Potvin, Raynor Scheine, Erica Tazel, John Douglas Thompson, Glynn Turman and Lillias White.
To read our interview with Glynn Turman, who plays Bynum Walker and appeared in the original 1959 Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun as Travis Younger, click here.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone continues through June 9. Tickets are available in person at CTG box office, by phone (213) 972-4400 or online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
Yvette Nicole Brown poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Vivian Nixon, January LaVoy, Lillias White and Erica Tazel pose during the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Vivian Nixon and January LaVoy pose during the party for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Vivian Nixon and Debbie Allen pose during the party for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
Shohreh Aghdashloo poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Dondre Whitfield pose during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
Russell Hornsby poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
Phylicia Rashad and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. Joe Turner Opening.
Obba BabatundÈ poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
Nathaniel James Potvin backstage after the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Nathaniel James Potvin, Glynn Turman and Skye Barrett pose backstage after the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Artistic Director Michael Ritchie and Erica Tazel pose backstage after the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Pamela Warner pose during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
Lamman Rucker poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Keith David and John Douglas Thompson pose backstage after the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
John Earl Jelks pose sduring the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
James Pickens, Jr. poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, James Pickens, Jr. and John Douglas Thompson pose during the party for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Hattie Winston and Harold Wheeler pose during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Garrett Morris and Angela Bassett pose during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
Desean Terry poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Dawnn Lewis and Harry Lennix pose during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
Calvin Sykes poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Angela Bassett and Raynor Scheine pose backstage after the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Angela Bassett and Glynn Turman hug backstage after the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Angela Bassett and Glynn Turman pose backstage after the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
From left, Alan and Marilyn Bergman pose during the arrivals for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" Mark Taper Forum Op
Clockwise from front, Gabriel Brown, Skye Barrett, Vivian Nixon, January LaVoy, Lillias White and Erica Tazel pose during the party for the opening night performance of August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at CTG/Mark Taper Forum on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Garrett Davis/Capture Imaging)
Shirley MacLaine – that Oscar-winning actress, dancer, singer, author and self-realization guru — admits to having little down time in her life. But she considers her solo outing An Evening With Shirley MacLaine – with two performances scheduled for May 18 at La Mirada Theatre — to be one of her more relaxed performance endeavors.
Speaking from her home, she says that “I’ve been doing this for a while now. It’s a fairly simple evening. I talk to the audience. I show them films. I have it all on remote control so I can stop the video at any time to tell an anecdote or a story behind the particular scene they’re watching.
“It is all very interactive between the audience and myself. At times, I’ll be telling a story and somehow it leads to a completely different story. That’s because there is a story behind almost every scene, not just every film. I tell them about the Rat Pack because I worked so often with Frank [Sinatra] and Dean [Martin]. I talk about all the men stars and the women stars. I tell the audience whatever occurs to me, and sometimes I am not sure which way the story is going until I’ve told it.”
Shirley MacLaine on the cover of Time Magazine in 1984.
MacLaine certainly has a lot of material from which to pull anecdotes. Having starred in more than 50 films plus myriad television and stage projects during her nearly 60-year career, she realizes it would be impossible to cover all aspects of her life in show business in a given evening, so she leaves herself open to performing variations on the theme.
“I change the format around a lot. So, from performance to performance, the evenings can be quite different from one another. What does stay the same is the way I finish the performance. I throw the whole thing open to questions and answers at the end and they can ask me anything they want. It is very much like being in my living room having a conversation about life.”
Seeing an opening, this interviewer asks about the very real-looking knockabout she has with Anne Bancroft in Turning Point(1977). “The fight scene between Anne and I in Turning Point wasn’t choreographed at all. You can’t organize something like that. We just went into it and started fighting, both of us in elegant evening gowns and high heels. I was afraid of hurting her because she seemed so fragile and thin, but I was wrong. Anne could really pack a punch. And all of that was improvised. And that is what I do in my stage performance. I’ll run a scene like that from the film. Then I’ll tell them what happened and how we got to it. This is stuff they would never hear about off screen. I am not shy.”
It is also safe to assume MacLaine could handle herself quite well in a round of fisticuffs. Born in 1934, Shirley MacLean Beatty (Warren Beatty is her brother) was raised in Arlington, Virginia. She displayed so much physical prowess that she played baseball on an otherwise all-boys team, earning the nickname Powerhouse after setting the record for hitting the most home runs.
The young athlete’s interest was drawn to dancing, which began at age three when her mother enrolled her in ballet in order to strengthen Shirley’s weak ankles. She decided rather early that dancing and acting were what she wanted to pursue, and she headed for Broadway right after high school graduation. Within a year, she was understudying legendary Broadway hoofer Carol Haney in the Tony-winning 1954 Broadway musical Pajama Game, also starring Janis Paige and Eddie Foy, Jr.
Shirley MacLaine and John Forsythe in “The Trouble with Harry.”
In what sounds like a clichéd plot point taken from 42nd Street, Haney broke her ankle during the run and MacLaine replaced her. It just so happened that film producer Hal B. Wallis saw one of MacLaine’s performances and signed her to a contract at Paramount Pictures. Within a year, MacLaine was starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry (1955) and the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis comedy, Artists and Models (1955). MacLaine chuckles, “I guess I had a fairly short Broadway career.”
Actually, if Edwin Lester, the creator/producing director of Los Angeles Civic Light Opera had his way, MacLaine would have been right on stage at the old Philharmonic Auditorium when Pajama Game had its West Coast premiere in 1955. I was a callow 16-year-old theater usher, and a few hours before opening night I was treated to a Lester tirade about how he had petitioned the powers-that-be at Paramount to give Shirley MacLaine time off to do the show but was turned down. Having already been tabbed as a tinseltown up-and-comer, MacLaine was considered too valuable a property who was needed to promote the upcoming blockbuster, Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), co-starring David Niven and Mexican comedian Cantinflas.
“I knew nothing of this,” utters MacLaine. “I guess it makes sense, though. I started working pretty non-stop from then on.” Within a year, MacLaine was cast opposite Sinatra and Martin for the first time in the acclaimed James Jones post-WWII drama, Some Came Running (1958), which garnered MacLaine her first Oscar nom. The steady film output has continued, highlighted by MacLaine’s Oscar-winning performance in Terms of Endearment (1983).
Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson pose with the Oscars they won for “Terms of Endearment.” Photo by Rex Features.
Although MacLaine never returned to musical theater, she certainly found other areas of interests. In 1983, she authored Out on a Limb, chronicling herjourney through New Age spirituality and reincarnation, subsequently adapted into a five-hour ABC mini-series (1986). “During all this time, I was also involved in live seminars and workshops,” says MacLaine. “I still do past life seminars now but they last about six days. I have past life facilitators and they work with clients and we do former life investigations which is quite helpful to understand what is going on in your life today.
“My seminars now would naturally be different from what I was doing, say, 20 years ago. I don’t think I repeat much of anything.” She lets out a chuckle. “Maybe it’s because I can’t remember what I did. But I do have another book coming out. I am re-editing it now. It will be out in the fall. I am always taking notes, so I guess I will always be writing a book or planning to write a book.”
As far as her film work goes, MacLaine happily admits she is as busy as ever. “I start shooting the next season of Downton Abbey in July. I’ll be in England for about two and a half weeks. They use me to either close out the series every year or open in it. I am not sure. I haven’t read the script yet. But I am pretty sure I won’t be there any longer than that two-to-three week time. Upcoming, I have The Secret Life With Walter Mitty, which I did with Ben Stiller. That is coming out in December. Before that, Christopher Plummer and I did a mature love story called Elsa and Fred [a remake of a 2005 Argentine-Spanish romantic comedy]. It is very good and that will probably be out in the fall.”
When asked if her show at La Mirada will include any new film clips and anecdotes, she lets out a hearty, “Sure it will. I am now including clips from Downton Abbey. I do get questions, a lot of questions about shooting with Maggie Smith. People also ask me how it is shooting scenes in all that English weather; how it is to shoot in the rain and pretend it is not there.
Shirley MacLaine in “Downton Abbey.”
“I am fortunate enough to be able to do An Evening With whenever I feel like it. They just need time to plan and advertise. I am booked into 2014. By then I’ll be changing it all around again. I have over 50 films to choose from as far as clips. Up to now, I have picked the ones that got awarded. I had no other way to decide what to leave out. Next time around, I’ll pick some films that maybe weren’t awarded but might be more fun to talk about.
“I love doing my shows because I can make it different every night. It is a wonderful joy to be that spontaneous with the audience. That’s what I’m enjoying. I can’t dance anymore or sing anymore, any of that. I am glad that there is an album of my performing at the Palace way back when. But now, I like to talk, feeling the audience, being one with them.
“And audiences can be so different, from locale to locale. This is a very diverse country we live in. That’s what I’m learning when I go out with this show. It is very entertaining for me. There are no tough audiences. They all have a great time. I think everybody wants to know the real behind-the-scenes truth about pictures I’ve been in. They really want to know what the stars were like. They want to know if I had a love affair with this or that man. And I tell them the truth. They want to know about Dean, Frank, the Rat Pack and the mob. They want to know what I personally thought and felt and liked and didn’t like, and I enjoy like hell telling them all about it.”
An Evening With Shirley MacLaine, La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd, La Mirada, 90638. Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 2 pm and 8 pm. Tickets: $50-85. www.lamiradatheatre.com. 562-944-9801 or 714-994-6310. Print
Barbara Goodson, Mari Marks, L.B. Zimmerman, Laura Julian and Barbara Turino in “My Mother’s Keeper.” Photo by Chris Farina Photography.
I wrote My Mother’s Keeper as a vehicle for actresses in their 50s and 60s.
The cast of My Mother’s Keeper consists of seven women in that age group and an 11-year-old girl. I grew up in the 1950s watching Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Sada Thompson, Glenda Jackson, Shirley Booth, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Maureen Stapleton, Kim Hunter, Dame Judith Anderson…great actresses playing immensely interesting roles. When women reach this age, they come into their own. Yet today, when actresses reach this age, they disappear.
Jane Press at Electric Lodge.
Either we are tricked out to play younger, or (in the case of one of my favorites, Jessica Lange), made up to play genuinely old ladies. Almost always, we are portrayed as mothers or grandmothers — fine. However, these portrayals are most often caricatures — trivialized stereotypes.
I have portrayed in My Mother’s Keeper the most memorable women I knew: my Grandma Ida, a beloved Brooklyn comedienne; her mah-jongg pals; and my mother, a stage actress in New York and L.A. Looking through the lens of the mother-daughter dynamic, the play examines our matriarchal inheritance with all its inherent and inherited blessings and curses. It is the story of four generations of women in the same show business family.
I learned through the process of writing My Mother’s Keeper the value of sharing far beyond one’s comfort zone. In breaking through to new areas of emotional vulnerability, one can create the opportunity for others to access the part of their hearts where understanding and, perhaps, forgiveness is possible. If we can forgive our mothers, we can forgive almost anyone…even ourselves.
My Mother’s Keeper is by no means for women only. We all have or had a mother. What theme could be more universal? Is there any relationship more fraught, even in the best of circumstances? It was a conscious choice to examine the mother-child relationship through the mother-daughter dynamic, for it’s just as specific a dynamic as that of father-son. Mother and child is, arguably, the most primary relationship.
MMK opens up channels of memory and emotions that are generally tucked up neatly, once we become adults. I designed it to be produced in conjunction with Mother’s Day every year, as Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologuesis produced every year on Valentine’s Day.
L.B. Zimmerman and Susan Giosa.
Last year, in its first incarnation in Carmel-by-the-Sea, the Mother’s Day performances were packed with mothers and daughters of all ages. I was gratifyingly reminded of when I took my five-year-old (now 28 and a mom herself) daughter to the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco to see the staged version of The Secret Garden. How moving it was to see the mothers and daughters, grandmothers and, in some cases great-grandmothers in attendance. Our Mother’s Day audiences (we do both a matinee and an evening performance) included two families with four generations attending together! My Mother’s Keeper is the perfect Mother’s Day play (although I do not recommend it for children under nine years of age).
This year we open with a benefit performance on May 9 and run through Father’s Day, June 16. I hope you will grab those who are near and dear to you and join us for this very special experience. I am profoundly grateful to have the opportunity to share it with you.
My Mother’s Keeper, Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Ave., Venice 90291. Opens May 10. Plays Fri-Sat 8 pm; Sun 3 pm. (Sunday, May 12 3 pm and 8 pm). Tickets: $28. brownpapertickets.com. 310-306-1854.
**All My Mother’s Keeper production photos by Chris Farina Photography.
Jane Press has been appearing onstage since 1962. She comes from a show business family in New York and LA.
Keith David and Glynn Turman in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” Photo by Craig Schwartz.
He has a body of work that many an actor would envy, which makes the words coming out of his mouth unfathomable.
Here he is sitting in his dressing room at the Mark Taper Forum, waiting for rehearsal to begin for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. He’s dressed casually in a black and white kufi, green slacks, green suede shoes and floral shirt and chomping heartily on some pizza when, in between bites, he utters something quite peculiar.
“My career didn’t go as planned,” he says. “I didn’t become a star. On my way to stardom, I became a legend.”
The “legend” status is understandable. It began when he played Preach in Eric Monte’s 1975 coming-of-age film, Cooley High. It’s a role for which Turman has been continuously applauded and lauded.
Glynn Turman (front) and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (rear) in the 1975 film “Cooley High.”
“Cooley High is my favorite movie because of what it means to us as black people,” explains Turman, who is also a writer and director. “It’s one we share with our culture and the world. I’m proud to be a contributor to that movie.”
Being a legend isn’t too shabby. But, looking at his list of credits, one could argue that Turman is wrong in his career assessment. He is, indeed, a star — just ask his fellow actor and friend of 37 years, Art Evans (A Soldier’s Story).
“What he’s saying is that he sets his goals very high,” says Evans. “He is a star. His interpretation of what star means to him is perhaps different from what a lot of people would recognize. He’s not good, he’s consummate. As far as I’m concerned the brother is a star and has been a star for a long time.”
If Turman needs more convincing he can just ask his House of Lies(Showtime) son, Don Cheadle, who, Turman says, personally asked him to play his father on the show.
“Glynn Turman is the motherfucking man,” says Cheadle. “He is held in the highest regard on the set and I have had the best time working with him and getting to know and learn from someone who literally laid the stones for the path I get to walk everyday. If I didn’t already have the best dad in the world, I’d bribe Glynn and press him into service.”
In the play, the second installment of August Wilson’s decade-by-decade chronicle of the African-American experience in the 20th century, Turman plays a character named Bynum, a freed slave from the south.
“Bynum is a man who is looking for a certain amount, as they all are, of affirmation,” explains Turman. “He’s looking to fulfill a certain prophecy that was handed down to him by his daddy.”
When it came to character development, Turman said it was already in the text.
Glynn Turman during the first rehearsal of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”
“Everything you need to know about any character in an August Wilson play is there,” says Turman. “Your job is to be a detective and find those truths in yourself that can latch on to the characters he writes about so that when you’re making the music it rings true to August’s score.”
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone centers on the daily routine of the residents of a boarding house in Pittsburgh in 1911. A couple of the tenants, of African descent, are former slaves only 50 years out of bondage, whose goals include finding lost family members and starting life anew in the North. Some are searching for something, anything — but for what, they’re not quite sure.
The play went through a workshop in 1984 at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn., and it opened in 1986 at Yale Repertory Theatre. It played Broadway in 1988, directed by Lloyd Richards and starring Delroy Lindo and Angela Bassett. In its 1989 LA premiere at Los Angeles Theatre Center, Roscoe Lee Browne played Bynum.
“Phylicia Rashad, Phylicia Rashad, Phylicia Rashad,” echoes the award-winning actor, who hails from New York, but lives in Los Angeles. “She is the reason I’m doing this show. For years we would see each other on the red carpet and we would whisper in each other’s ear how much we wanted to work together. We just never found the right project, until now. It finally happened.”
Turman, whose fresh smile, boyish charm and youthful spirit bely his 66 years, remembers getting the call from Rashad that she was directing the play. According to Turman, she gave him first dibs on whatever role he wanted to play.
“She called and said, ‘How would you like to do Joe Turner’s Come and Gone? I’m directing,’” remembers Turman. “I said, ‘Where and when?’ She said, ‘Mark Taper. Who do you want to play?’ I said, ‘Let me read it and I’ll get back to you.’ I called her back and asked, ‘Who do you see me playing’? She said, ‘Bynum.’ I said, ‘I’m your Bynum.’”
Get smart
This will mark Turman’s second stint in an August Wilson play. The first was Two Trains Running for the Ebony Repertory Theatre in 2008, for which he won anOvation Award.
Ellis E. Williams and Glynn Turman in Ebony Repertory Theatre’s inaugural 2008 production of “Two Trains Running.” Photo by Craig Schwartz.
“I wish I could say I have always been a Wilson disciple, but I haven’t,” admits Turman. “I didn’t think I was bright enough to contribute to Wilson’s pieces. He’s extremely dense and complex. The sense of August’s pieces can be lost in the verbiage. If you’re not bright enough to detect what he’s talking about, it will go right over your head as an audience and as a performer. For me, I think I’m just becoming smart enough to interpret an honest interpretation of August. Now I think me and Bynum are simpatico.”
Turman may think he’s only recently become “smart enough,” but his friends and his colleagues don’t mince words when they talk about his talent.
Take, for instance, Turman’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone co-star, Keith David (The Bible, Belle’s).
“That man is someone I feel like I have wanted to act with all of my life,” says David. “He’s a wonderful actor. And I have been watching him, if not all of my life, then most of my life. Even before I knew him, I’ve always wanted an opportunity to work with him. So this is a blessing and a great opportunity, and I relish this because it’s wonderful.”
Turman co-signs the thought.
“He’s fantastic,” said Turman about David. “I’m a big fan and have been for years. He’s a talented, talented man. On stage we’re bringing the fun we have as buddies and mischievous partners. We’re having a great time.”
“Glynn Turman?” asks actor Earl Billings, best known for his AFLAC commercials. “I used to know an okay actor by that name. Is he still working? That would be nice. I never saw anyone who worked so hard to get to the middle.”
“Billings and Art Evans are both cheating scoundrels,” jokes Turman, who plays golf with the two and several other friends on a weekly basis when he’s not working. “They owe me money to this day from bets they won’t pay.”
Glynn Turman and Gabriel Brown in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”
Both Billings and Evans laugh and brush off Turman’s allegations.
“That’s what all losers say if you think about it,” says Billings. “When you lose you gotta find some kind of basis. You can’t say you’re not good at golf.”
“He is a rascal and you can’t trust him with chicken feed,” says Evans of Turman. “He’s one of my dearest friends. We’ve been insulting each other for years. We’re tied. He comes up with some good ones.”
Billings, Evans and Turman all worked on a 1977 CBS movie, Minstrel Man.
“Ever since then we’ve been friends,” says Billings. “We share the same since of humor. We take the work seriously, but not the business. It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. He’s a real grounded person. He’s one of the great actors. He has this style — it’s inside-out kind of work. We did Two Trains Running at Ebony. He does his homework at home and then brings it to rehearsal.”
“He’s a dear person,” says Evans. “He’s a consummate actor with incredible abilities. He cracks me up. He’s a magnanimous person.”
Billings has enjoyed watching his friend grow as an actor.
“When you work with someone like Glynn, you have total trust,” says Billings, whose credits include television, film, theater and commercials. “I don’t have to think about what he’s doing. It’s true and real and honest. He works hard. He brings truth to everything. I like all the things he’s done. Cooley High is one of those things you do and you’re famous the rest of your life.”
Getting started
When Turman talks about the stage, his broad, signature smile, framed by his salt and pepper moustache and beard, envelops his face. He says he doesn’t like to spend more than two years away from the stage because it keeps him grounded in his craft.
“The stage is work,” says Turman. “It’s such a joyful process in which the outcome is in your hands. The first thing I do when I step on stage is thank the stage for allowing me to step on it. Then we go from there.”
Turman first stepped on a professional stage at the age of 13. He was starring on Broadway in 1959, opposite Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands, Claudia McNeil and Ruby Dee in Lorraine Hansberry’s acclaimed A Raisin In The Sun. In the dramaTurman playedPoitier’s son,Travis Younger.
Glynn Turman and Don Cheadle in Showtime’s “House of Lies.” Photo by Randy Tepper.
“I didn’t want to be an actor as a result of that experience,” says Turman. “Doing Raisin was just something to do. I had no idea. It was just fun. I had to audition. I didn’t even know what an audition was. When I got the part, the fun part was going on the road and meeting people and staying up late. I quit the play after a year because I was tired and bored.”
In junior high, Turman’s teacher, Mr. Wilson, suggested he audition for High School For The Performing Arts.
“I was a poor student, but the first time I received an A was in acting class,” says Turman. “I ran home and showed my mother. I saw her face light up. That’s when I said, ‘I’m going to be an actor.’”
Just your average Glynn
It’s easy to understand why Turman is a consistent working actor and why he is so highly respected and well liked. He’s warm, engaging, present, personable and funny. His hugs are genuine. He looks you in the eye and doesn’t rush the conversation.
When he talks about his life, he admits there were a few bumps along the road before his career shifted into gear.
“I raised kids from the time I was 18,” says Turman, who has three children and has been married to his wife, Jo-An, for 24 years. “I was a young daddy.”
Before he made a living as an actor, Turman says he was a delivery guy in the diamond district in New York. He worked in the mailroom at United Artists, was a cashier, a stock clerk and a truck driver for a moving company.
“I had babies to feed.”
But it wasn’t long before television came calling.
The television roles began in the 1960s with Peyton Place, Julia and Mod Squad. His more recent standouts include A Different World, Thornwell, HBO’s The Wire, In Treatment (for which he won an Emmy in 2008) and House of Lies. Besides Cooley High, Turman’s film credits include John Dies at the End, Super 8, Burlesque, Takers, Sahara, Men of Honor and Gremlins.
Giving credit
Raynor Scheine, Lillias White and Glynn Turman in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”
Among his LA theatrical credits, besides Two Trains Running, are What the Wine Sellers Buy at the Mark Taper Forum (and also at Lincoln Center); Eyes of the American at LATC and Deadwood Dick (Image Award) at Inner City Cultural Center. Elsewhere his theatrical credits include Do Lord Remember Me (American Place Theatre), national tours of Movin’ Man (autobiographical) and I’m Not Rappaport, Athol Fugard’s My Children! My Africa! and Good Boys (Guthrie).
When he’s not acting or playing golf, Turman is a cowboy at heart who has participated in the Bill Pickett Rodeo and was inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. He runs the IX Winds Ranch Foundation, a 501c3 organization he and his wife founded in 1992. It boasts a western-style summer camp program called Camp Gid-D-Up that hosts disenfranchised inner-city and at-risk youth on the Turmans’ 20-acre ranch just north of Los Angeles.
Running Camp Gid D Up is more satisfying than any role he’s ever played, Turman says.
“I’m more happy about the kids who have smiles at Camp Gid D Up than I am with anything I’ve done,” says Turman. “It’s so great to see and have kids come back years later as grown people and say they remember the camp. That blows my mind.”
Good night
Whether he acknowledges his star status or not, there’s no getting around the fact that Turman has had a satisfying career and an even better life.
“I’m doing what I want to do,” he says. “I’m working with Phylicia Rashad, I’m on stage with one of my best friends, doing one of the best plays ever written, in a prestigious house. I’m on a hit show (House of Lies) working with Don Cheadle and some other wonderful people. I have a beautiful wife and great kids. I’m picking in high cotton. It doesn’t get much better than that. I’ve been blessed.”
Opening night is fast approaching and Turman is ready to take the stage.
“Opening night holds its own fascination, its own energy and its own dangers, all of which make it exciting,” says Turman. “It’s like a beautiful woman with a lot of rouge on.” He laughs heartily. “You want to kiss her, but you know you’re going to get something on you.”
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., LA 90012. Opens May 8. Tue-Fri 8 pm, Sat. 2:30 pm and 8 pm, Sun. 1 pm and 6:30 pm; no public performances May 21-24 (student matinees only). Through June 9. Tickets: $20-$70. www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/2013/Joe-Turners-Come-and-Gone/. 213-628-2772.
**All Joe Turner’s Come and Gone production photos by Craig Schwartz.
Gloria Baraquio, Kimiko Broder, Yayoi Hara, Christina Sanchez, Ova Saopeng, Amy Shu, Oakland Bautista and Cayetano Juarez in “Delicious Reality.” Photo by Ed Krieger.
Nothing tastes better than good food made by skilled hands. No argument there. But what if the cooks are actors, and what if the cuisine is a devised theater work based on inspired material from restaurant workers and Southeast Asian youth?
In my mind as an actor, I am thinking how is this all going to work? Is it doable? Yes. Is it ambitious? Yes. Is it important? Most certainly!
Ova Saopeng
I have come from a background of creating and working with theater that highlights the issues and themes pertinent to specific communities that have not had the limelight on the American stage. Throughout my acting life I’ve continued to search for work that speaks to me — that speaks to the voices that show the human condition relevant to my community, often based on stories from communities of color.
My journey in the American theater started in Hawaii with a simple concept of the bare stage. T-Shirt Theatre, a company that empowered me as a youth to tell my stories about my experiences, set the foundation for my path. I have been able to hold the torch and uphold theater that speaks to my life as a youth growing up in Honolulu, as a Lao American, and now, with TeAda, as an Asian American actor struggling to find my piece of the pie in the Los Angeles theater scene. TeAda is more than a company. It’s a home, a community where I am nurtured and developed and where I grow as a performance artist.
I found my family in life in the theater. My wife, Leilani Chan, is the artistic director of TeAda Productions. We met in Los Angeles working in common to empower our communities. We are both from Hawaii, so we created theater that explored the complexities of people from Hawaii living in Los Angeles. Living in LA, we explored the diverse community that makes up Los Angeles in a play entitled Native Immigrant, and most recently co-created Refugee Nation, a critically acclaimed production based on the Lao American refugee experience that toured nationally, ending in Los Angeles at LATC. Through the creations and performances we continue to add new voices and stories, expanding the library of work being produced in American theater.
So here I am an actor in Los Angeles working as part of this ensemble, creating work that pushes the boundary of voices longing to be heard. Delicious Reality is a fun romp, a team effort, a family of actors from different ethnic communities sharing stories and scenarios that brighten the landscape of Los Angeles. It’s devised by its ensemble: Gloria Baraquio, Oakland Bautista, Kimiko Broder, Yayoi Hara, Cayetano Juarez, Christina Sanchez, Amy Shu and me, and it’s directed by Corky Dominguez.
Yayoi Hara, Kimiko Broder, Christina Sanchez, Gloria Baraquoi, Ova Saopeng, Oakland Batista, Cayetano Juarez and Amy Shu.
The process has been challenging because there are mixed level of performers, and rehearsals have been exciting because sometimes we don’t know what will come out of our playing. Most important for me is that it supports work for and by people of color.
We rehearse in a small studio or conference room, wherever we can find space, in hopes that our collective energies will be fruitful for audiences to taste. So come on down and have some rice or break some bread and be ready for what we dish out — a little taste of reality.
Delicious Reality, Miles Memorial Playhouse, 1130 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90403. May 10-19. Fri-Sat 8 pm, 2 pm matinees on Saturday, May 11 and Sunday, May 19. www.teada.org. 310-988-8765.
**All Delicious Reality production photos by Ed Krieger.
Ova Saopeng is an actor, teaching artist and associate producer with TeAda Productions. He was born in Laos, raised in Hawaii and is a theater graduate of the University of Southern California.
Hmm, this sounded interesting — The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later at Chance Theater. Surely the sequel to a production as momentous as The Laramie Project should be seen, but as far as I know, the only professional reading of this particular sequel in Greater LA was at a one-night benefit at Broad Stage in 2009.
Yet as I considered making the trip to the far eastern reaches of Anaheim, I realized that I didn’t actually remember the details of The Laramie Project itself well enough to see the sequel without refreshing my memory about the original.
David McCormick and James McHale in “The Laramie Project.”
Normally, in a situation like this, I might try to read or at least sample the script of the original or watch the HBO movie, or — if I don’t have the time for those — at least find and read an online synopsis. But Chance made my choices easier — and its own task twice as challenging.
Chance is producing the original along with the sequel in repertory. Fortunately for Los Angelenos who might not want to face weekday traffic to Anaheim, the company scheduled performances of the original on Saturday afternoons and performances of the sequel on Saturday evenings.
So I devoted about 10 hours on Saturday to Chance’s Laramie productions (including travel time and the break between shows). I don’t regret a single minute of it.
First, at the matinee, I was astonished by the continuing power of the original Laramie Project. When I first saw it in 2002 at the Colony Theatre, I was moved, but I certainly didn’t expect that I would be even more moved by it 11 years later.
As you probably know, The Laramie Project is an example of documentary theater — it is drawn from the research Tectonic Theater Project did in Laramie, Wyoming in the aftermath of the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. Like other forms of journalism, you might assume that examples of documentary theater would, in time, feel like “yesterday’s news”. But that hasn’t happened yet with The Laramie Project.
The most obvious reason for this is that the struggle for gay rights in the United States is still very much with us. We might even be on the verge of its biggest breakthrough moment, depending on what the Supreme Court decides soon in two different cases.
But a less obvious reason is that a revival of documentary theater, unlike a reading of an old magazine or newspaper article, is being actively re-created, not simply reproduced, in front of our eyes at each new performance — and in this case, by a company of actors who had no role in the show’s original creation.
The eight actors on the Chance stage bring remarkable attention and conviction to their dozens of roles, guided by director Oanh Nguyen. Not for a moment does this production have a been-there-done-that feeling.
At the end of the nearly-three-hour original (including two intermissions), I was burning with curiosity about what happened next to the people whose real words I had just heard. I often feel this way after encounters with fictional characters, but seldom do I have the opportunity to slake my curiosity two hours later by watching the same actors perform many of the same roles in the sequel.
Karen Webster, David McCormick, Robert Foran, Erika C. Miller and Jocelyn A. Brown in “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.”
It’s possible to see the two parts in reverse order — the sequel on Friday night, the original on Saturday afternoon, for example. Unless you’re already very familiar with the original, I would discourage this reverse sequence because of the factor I just mentioned — most of us want to find out happened later after we find out what happened earlier. Also, the sequel is shorter by about 45 minutes, which you might appreciate at the end of your experience more that you would halfway through it.
At the same time, it’s undeniable that the original contains the climax of the saga, in terms of emotional impact. If you want to save your tears for the last part of your overall experience, you’re likelier to shed them in the original than you are in the sequel, and therefore the reverse schedule might have some appeal to a few veterans of seeing (or being in) previous Laramie productions.
But no one should interpret that last comment to mean that the sequel is dry or uninvolving. When the Tectonic interviewers/actors returned to Laramie in 2008, they found indications that the passage of time had begun to chip away at the conclusion — based on the statements by the killers — that homophobia was the most significant motivation for the crime against Matthew Shepard. People who had come of age in recent years had only hazy notions of what had happened, and a much disputed 2004 episode of 20/20 had reinforced the interpretation that the crime was more about a robbery and drugs than about bigotry against homosexuals.
20/20 had conducted jailhouse interviews of the killers to buttress its report. So the Tectonics arranged their own jailhouse interviews of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, and excerpts from these interviews — although they weren’t conducted in Laramie — make up the climax of the sequel.
These interviews return the focus to the killers’ homophobia, but they also serve to amplify the differences between the two men to an extent that was felt only in a limited way in the original Laramie Project. The Tectonics and their leader Moisés Kaufman deserve credit for striving to illuminate the killers and their motivations, along with Henderson’s grandmother and a priest who had remained a spiritual advisor to McKinney. These explorations solidly remove Laramie Project from suspicions of being a simplistic piece of agitprop.
Karen Webster, Brandon Sean Pearson and Karen O’Hanlon in “The Laramie Project.”
In Chance’s production, Brandon Sean Pearson as McKinney and James McHale as Henderson (and also as McKinney’s interrogator Greg Pierotti) provide persuasive, fascinating glimpses of the killers and their contrasting personalities and feelings of remorse (Henderson has a lot of it, McKinney not so much).
The sequel also illustrates at least one surprisingly encouraging piece of post-Matthew Shepard news from Wyoming, in the form of an unexpected vote in the state legislature in neighboring Cheyenne.
Those who haven’t seen either Laramie Project should understand that although it might be known in shorthand as “the Matthew Shepard play,” it really isn’t about Matthew Shepard. He isn’t one of the many characters who’s directly depicted in it.
Instead, the project is a depiction of communities — primarily the community of Laramie but secondarily the community of the Tectonic actors themselves — and how they deal with the crisis of Shepard’s murder. This mission requires a lot more complexity than a play about Shepard himself, and a lot more time. This wide-angle viewpoint, which is beautifully enhanced by Joe Holbrook’s video, Fred Kinney’s set and KC Wilkerson’s lights, is well worth spending most of a day in Anaheim Hills.
**All The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later photos by Casey Long.
The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. The Laramie Project: Thu 8 pm, Sat 3 pm, Sun 2 pm. The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later: Fri 8 pm, Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm. Through May 19. www.chancetheater.com. 714-777-3033.
The night before I saw the two Laramies, I caught one of the final performances of Rattlestick Theatre’s production of Slipping, by Daniel Talbott, at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood. It’s another play that examines a young gay man’s experience in mid-America – but in this case, it’s Iowa, not Wyoming, and the character is a recent arrival there, in the wake of a move prompted by his father’s death in San Francisco and his mother’s decision to take a teaching job in Iowa.
Unexpectedly, Talbott makes the young man’s experience in Iowa look more sustainable than his experience in the Bay Area, where some of the scenes are set in this chronologically fractured play. The contrast is most apparent in the difference between this high school’s student’s sexual partners.
MacLeod Andrews in “Slipping.” Photo by Graham John Bell.
In California, he’s involved in a depressing affair with a big and potentially violent kid who’s deeply ashamed of his homosexual feelings, while in Iowa, he attracts the attention of a previously straight but curious, open-minded and non-threatening classmate. This difference is refreshingly unpredictable but also occasionally implausible.
But then this character’s problems go far beyond the temperaments of the guys he beds. They also extend to his resentment of the unseen guys his mother is now bedding, as well as his generally unresolved grief over his father’s death. The play sometimes feels like a psychological case study told in an unnecessarily confusing style. But the ending isn’t as grim as you might expect and almost serves as an illustration of the “it gets better” slogan — or, at least, “it might get better.”
By the way, after much attention to the casting of the recent Broadway sensation Seth Numrich in the central role, he ended up leaving the cast after only a week in order to take a job in London. It certainly looks as if he and the producers must have known about this in advance. Numrich’s exit was announced only four days after the play opened on April 13 and his replacement Wyatt Fenner took over the role on April 21.
Fenner certainly appeared to be well-versed in the role by the time I saw him last Friday. On one level I’m glad I saw Fenner, who ended up performing the role more times than Numrich had, but in another sense I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows over what looked like an example of bait and switch.
Don’t let my discussion of The Laramie Project and Slipping give the impression that theater these days invariably tends to depict gay characters as victims of violence and abuse.
Michael Yavnieli and Jeff LeBeau in “Years to the Day.” Photo by Ed Krieger.
In Beau Willimon’s just-closed The Parisian Woman at South Coast Repertory, knowledge of a same-sex affair is used as a weapon in the brass-knuckled politics of contemporary Washington. But the people (who would possibly be called bisexual, as opposed to gay) who are involved in this affair do not appear to suffer much from its use as a tactic. In fact, one of them in this case is the one who wields the weapon and therefore gains a desired result.
In Allen Barton’s Years to the Day, at Beverly Hills Playhouse, one of two men who meet for coffee comes out as gay to his longtime straight friend. But there is no competition here as to which character comes off as more neurotically tied up in knots — it’s the straight guy.
The play also includes cryptic references to a third friend, but the script leaves hanging questions of what happened to him and what caused it. It sounded as to me as if Barton plans on writing a sequel. Years to the Day is no Laramie Project, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel to it, too. It wouldn’t take nearly as much time for me to drive to Beverly Hills as it would for me to drive to Anaheim Hills.
Years to the Day, Beverly Hills Playhouse, 254 S. Robertson Ave., Beverly Hills. Fri-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm. Through June 2. www.skylighttheatrecompany.com. 702-582-8587.
The Royale, Marco Ramirez’ play about the first black heavyweight champion, premiered Sunday night at Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. Directed by Daniel Aukin, the turn of the century drama stars David St. Louis as boxer Jack Johnson alongside fellow cast members Robert Gossett, Diarra Oni Kilpatrick, Keith Szarabajka and Desean Terry.
Read our interview with playwright Ramirez (Sons of Anarchy, DaVinci’s Demons) by clicking here.
The Royale continues through June 2. Tickets are available in person at CTG box office, by phone (213) 972-4400 or online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.
From left, cast members Robert Gossett and Keith Szarabajka pose during the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
From left, Playwright Marco Ramirez and actor J. August Richards pose during the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
From left, Michael Barnard and actor Barry Shabaka Henley pose during the arrivals for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
From left, Director Daniel Aukin, Playwright Marco Ramirez and CTG Producing Director Douglas C. Baker pose during the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
From left, Director Daniel Aukin and cast members Diarra Oni Kilpatrick and Desean Terry pose during the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
David St. Louis, Desean Terry, Robert Gossett, Keith Szarabajka
From left, cast members David St. Louis, Desean Terry, Robert Gossett and Keith Szarabajka pose during the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
From left, cast members David St. Louis and Diarra Oni Kilpatrick pose during the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
From left, cast member David St. Louis and CTG Artistic Director Michael Ritchie greet each other at the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
Miles Benickes, Michael Ritchie, Daniel Aukin, Joni Benickes
From left, CTG donor Miles Benickes, CTG Artistic Director Michael Ritchie, Director Daniel Aukin and CTG donor Joni Benickes pose during the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
Actor Barry Shabaka Henley poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
Barry Shabaka Henley, Michael Barnard, J. August Richards
From left, actor Barry Shabaka Henley, Michael Barnard and actor J. August Richards pose during the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
From left, actor Barry Shabaka Henley and cast member Robert Gossett pose during the party for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
From left, actors Kristofer Gordon and J. August Richards pose during the arrivals for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
Actor J. August Richards plays with a punching bag before the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
Actor Calvin Sykes poses during the arrivals for the opening night performance of "The Royale" at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Culver City, Calif. (Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging)
Heather Alyse Becker and Maria Kress in “The Women.” Photo by Thomas Mikusz.
“No dear, a man has only one escape from his old self: to see a different self — in the mirror of some woman’s eyes.”
These words are spoken by Mrs. Morehead in The Women, by Clare Boothe Luce, written in 1936. As I stand in rehearsal directing the very same play in 2013, this line haunts me, rattles me and keeps me on course.
When I first thought of directing The Women at Theatre West, I hesitated to take on a play with such an anti-feminist reputation – with its furs, gossip, shallow obsessions with fashion, booze, and the ever-present tip of a burning cigarette in every scene. That’s what I recall from the film. I thought it was a reinforcement of every negative female stereotype. After all, I’m a modern woman, from the empowered “have-it-all” generation of the ’70s. How could I betray the sisterhood and stage such a sexist dinosaur?
Arden Theresa Louis
Curling up with Ms. Boothe’s tattered old copy of the script, which we found in the Los Angeles Library downtown, is a journey into one of the raciest decades of the 20th century. Through her words, I discovered a intricate world of rich versus poor, good versus evil, men versus women, presented in the most witty, acerbic and heartbreaking way.
Ms. Boothe knew the women of Manhattan well. In her own life she went from understudying child actress Mary Pickford on Broadway to serving in Congress to receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She knew poverty and luxury and divorce quite well. Her “women” are portrayed as nakedly as a reality show might, in their scramble for power, money and marriage in the midst of the Great Depression. The script is sexy as hell! Forget the ’70s — the sexual freedom of the ’30s took me and much of my cast by complete surprise.
So that was it! That was my hook, my way in to a revival of this play that would relate to younger audiences who have no memory of Rosalind Russell or Joan Crawford or the 1939 movie, but who are fascinated with class struggles presented by the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan in reality show after reality show. “The Real Housewives of 1936” became our show’s motto.
Theme and motifs securely in place, I next tackled the sheer size of the play. Forty characters. Seven different environments. One hundred fifteen props. Dozens of period costumes. And the text — every other line required a Google search. I cross-referenced the revised version and the original. I reduced 40 characters to 17 and placed many of the servants in the backgroun,d supporting the pampered world of the leading characters. We discovered the 1930s obsession with nail polish, lipstick, and peroxide hair treatments. In a time of great poverty, a little lipstick and polish went a long way. I pored through magazines and Walter Winchell news clippings. It was fun, it was funny, and we laughed our heads off at every rehearsal.
Anne Leyden and Leona Britton.
But now I stand five days before opening and Mrs. Morehead’s line still haunts me. A husband’s infidelity is not something he needs to grow, it’s something he chooses. I’ve chosen to make this play not about a woman acquiescing to a man’s needs, but to her own. It’s not about his growth, but hers. Ultimately, true love can age and become a nurturing thing that sustains a family through richer and poorer. I smile at this thought as I watch the lead character Mary Haines put on her ball gown, sharpen her claws and prepare to save her marriage from “another woman’s eyes”.
The Women, Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, in Los Angeles, 90068. May 10- June 9. Fri. & Sat. at 8, Sun. at 2. www.theatrewest.org. 323-851-7977.
**All The Women production photos by Thomas Mikusz.
Arden Teresa Lewis is playwright, director, educator and actor who has been published in two theater anthologies with Heinemann Press, (available on Amazon). She is a graduate of UCLA and a longtime member of Theatre West.
Jenny Soo, David LM McIntyre, Blaire Chandler, Eric Neil Guiterrez, Crystal Diaz and David Guerra in “HOT CAT.” Photo by Darrett Sanders.
Theatre of NOTE has dedicated itself to providing “a stimulating environment for new playwrights” in Los Angeles since 1981, according to its own online written history. But while there is no “P” for “playwrights” in the company’s original NOTE acronym, there is an “E” for “ensemble” — NOTE originally stood for “New One-Act Theatre Ensemble.”
This season, NOTE returns to the company’s ensemble roots by developing Hot Cat — an original work inspired by Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — under the guidance of Theatre Movement Bazaar’s Tina Kronis (director/choreographer) and Richard Alger (writer).
NOTE first built itself though an annual one-act play festival. The one-acts and late-night productions quickly led to an active ensemble looking for a home to create more work. Full-length plays and seasons of shows followed.
Functioning without an artistic director, NOTE has created an artistic and management committee served by five company members and one alternate who select final projects from a slate voted on by the membership. This rotating body of leadership changes every two years to give the company new voices driving the artistic vision.
Justin Okin, Crystal Diaz, David Guerra and David LM McIntyre.
Four members of Hot Cat’s six-person cast (and two swings) — Crystal Diaz, David Guerra, David LM McIntyre and Justin Okin — offer some insight into the TMB creative process as NOTE returns to more ensemble-driven productions.
As a member of the artistic and management committee, McIntyre first proposed the possible collaboration after working with TMB on its recent production of Track 3(which is heading to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer). McIntyre knew there might be challenges working with TMB, but he was banking on the thrills those challenges can lead to.
“One of the things [Kronis] emphasizes in performance is restrained presence,” says McIntyre. “There are all these things happening — emotions — but they are bubbling under the surface. There’s a potentiality that something’s going to happen, and [she] knows how gripping that can be.”
Okin, who covers the challenging position of male swing, chimes in on the TMB process that creates completely new, complicated movement and text performance within the pressure cooker of a finite rehearsal process.
“They kinda give themselves an uphill battle,” he says. “Forget everything that you were taught about making choices and being an actor. In some ways you’re patting your head and rubbing your stomach; and it’s actually quite a lot harder than it sounds.”
The first week of rehearsals involved such activities as performing for each other, attempting physical challenges and experimenting with gestures. There was no script used in rehearsal for almost a week. The actors describe Kronis as leading the ensemble in not just exploring movement but themselves.
“They set a very level playing field in the beginning for us to get to know each other,” says Guerra. “It opens up that vulnerability so we can really examine ourselves and see ourselves as people.”
Eric Neil Gutierrez and David Guerra.
The physical work continued even with the introduction of script pages, in some ways intensifying the process as text was added to detailed movement sequences. The actors came to realize that many of the things done during the first week that seemed rudimentary were actually building the story and relationships — even without their full awareness of it. This organic process of discovery gives Crystal Diaz, who plays the role of Maggie, even more appreciation for the TMB process as well as her role in it.
“I feel like I have a great deal of ownership of my part,” says Diaz. “[Kronis will] extract or simplify things but it’s all based off our creation. That’s part of what really excited me when we talked about bringing them to work with us. It feels curated by our company and for our company. We were all very much involved in creating these movements.”
Very little time was spent on what a traditional process might call “table work.” The actors recall one actual table read, but every subsequent discussion and dissection of text and character motivation happened on their feet, drawing solutions and inspiration from what the actors would naturally try to do through their bodies.
The trademark specificity of TMB’s staging also creates specific challenges for the busy actors outside of rehearsals, such as the necessity to simply stay healthy by eating well and getting enough sleep. The actors find themselves needing more time than usual to prepare both mentally and physically before rehearsal starts. There are specific movement notes as well as textual notes to process each day. And the pressure is on if an actor doesn’t get it right, because it’s not about letting down a director or yourself — it’s about letting down the entire ensemble.
“And what amazes me is that [Kronis] is incredibly efficient,” says Guerra. “She knows exactly how to make those four hours count. She’s listening to us as well as looking at the movement.”
Once a dues-paying membership company, NOTE abandoned that policy years ago and replaced monetary dues with required work hours for members. All casting for shows occurs from within the company, unless a role demands a particular type that the company cannot fulfill. Colorblind casting is common and supports the ensemble dynamic of Cat.
McIntyre is particularly excited that 2013 presents a slate of NOTE shows that lean heavily toward the ensemble side of the casting spectrum. Cat is followed immediately by Avery Crozier’s Eat the Runt and later in the year by Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls by Naomi Iizuka.
David LM McIntyre and David Guerra.
With the script for Cat set and movement tweaks still happening since the first preview, the actors feel it’s still evolving. And, although they all recognize the shared qualities with Williams’ original script, working with Alger’s deconstructed text has exposed new insights into the sexual tension and familial power-plays of the family drama.
“The characters we’re doing are definitely not the characters I thought,” says Guerra, who plays Brick. “But they’re still identifiable.”
Okin is particularly struck at how minor characters from the original, like Gooper and May, can have such detailed and interesting arcs in this version.
“In this play they’re just so colorful and funny,” says Okin. “It’s just a different life for those characters.”
NOTE boasts a true black box theater with painted brick walls pressing in on a simple striped back wall. Various props along the perimeter suggest the possible character of a room while sparse furniture elements leave most of the stage empty with plenty of room for play. According to Okin, the theater itself also inspired Alger to shape the mood of the script, creating it for the physical space as well as the cast.
”I think for me, working in our space like this…no raked stage, no flats,” says Guerra, arms stretched out in the openness. “It’s pretty awesome to be in Theatre of NOTE’s space and use it like this.”
The team knows the experience with TMB will likely reverberate into future productions and non-TMB processes.
“I can’t even think of something that resembles working like this…that integrates so much of the story into the physical aspect. It’s a style, not a dance,” says Diaz. “I think this [experience] will help me use my body more…accepting a character into my body and not just the intellectual side of learning lines and thinking about character.”
As final rehearsals keep whittling away at the marble stone holding the final piece captive, the actors begin to fidget as the rehearsal hour approaches. They need to start preparing.
“It requires that all of us trust that if we make our contribution, the piece as a whole will be told,” says McIntyre. “[Kronis] talks a lot about how you tune up the orchestra, but the violin doesn’t play the entire piece. The violin plays its piece and that’s how you get the full piece.”
“And then you don’t even necessarily hear the violin specifically,” adds Okin. “What you’re hearing is the whole ensemble.”
Hot Cat, Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood 90028. Opens Friday. Thu – Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm and 7 pm. Through June 1. Tickets: $25/$20. www.theatreofnote.com. 323-856-8611.
**All Hot Cat production photos by Darrett Sanders.
Joanna Strapp, Stephanie Zimbalist, Alyson Lindsay, Elyse Mirto,Teri Ralston and Von Rae Wood in “Steel Magnolias.”
‘All of life is an audition,” according to actor/director/singer Teri Ralston.
For Ralston, who started her career at 12 in a play called Ghost in the Green Gown at the old Laguna Playhouse, auditions have been the central focus of her life. That and her Maltese dog, Lizzie, who died recently at the age of 13.
But when we meet at an outdoor café, she introduces me to Cali, her new Maltese who, was born the same day Lizzie died.
“I took that as a sign,” she said as she cuddled this adorable little ball of fluff. “I have to have a little dog because I fly a lot, and in her carrier she just fits under the seat.”
Teri Ralston and her Maltese puppy, Cali. Photo by Cynthia Citron.
Ralston, who lives in New York, has flown back to her old stomping grounds in Laguna to play Ouiser in Laguna Playhouse’s production of Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias. “Ouiser is a tough cookie, always angry,” she explains. Known as the town curmudgeon, Ouiser says things like “I’m not crazy; I’ve just been in a bad mood for 40 years,” and “Don’t try to get on my good side; I no longer have one.”
Steel Magnolias deals with the ups and downs of a group of six women who get together each week at a beauty salon in the fictional Chinquapin Parish, in northwest Louisiana, to share gossip, advice, humor, and friendship.
First produced in New York in 1987, the comedy-drama covers the relationships between the women over a three-year span of time and the death of a character based on the playwright’s sister. These are women whom he depicts as “delicate as magnolias but as tough as steel.”
The play was made into a movie in 1989 with an all-star cast that included Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, and Julia Roberts.
In addition to Teri Ralston, the current production features Elyse Mirto, Alyson Lindsay, Joanna Strapp, Von Rae Wood, and Stephanie Zimbalist.
It’s directed by Jenny Sullivan, whose recent credits include Geffen Playhouse’s Love, Loss and What I Wore!, Beautified at the Skylight Theatre, and Nazi Hunter — SimonWiesenthal at Theatre 40 and Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre, where Sullivan has also staged Our Town, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Rainmaker, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and others.
Teri Ralston and Von Rae Wood.
Sullivan directed Wood and Zimbalist in Steel Magnolias in 2011 at the Rubicon. Zimbalist also has a long history with Ralston, having appeared with her in 2007 in A Little Night Music at South Coast Repertory, where “she played my daughter,” Ralston says with a rueful smile.
She notes that her friend Bonnie Franklin played Ouiser in the Rubicon production of Magnolias and that she (Ralston) is honored to be playing it in Laguna and is dedicating the show to Franklin.
Ralston created the role of Jenny, “the pot-smoking wife” in Stephen Sondheim’s Company on Broadway in 1970 and again in 1993 in a reunion concert. She appeared in the show’s US national tour in1971 andin its run on London’s West End in 1972. She also was in the original cast of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, playing Mrs. Nordstrom.
She toured for eight months in Stephen Schwartz’s musical The Baker’s Wife, which, sadly, closed on the road. But she notes that Schwartz had written the song “Chanson” for her in her role as Denise, the cabaret owner.
Her involvement with Sondheim and his music has continued over the years as she has appeared in, or directed, Side by Side by Sondheim, Into the Woods, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Sunday in the Park with George. She has played Sally in Follies in three productions.
As a musical actor and cabaret singer, she appears regularly in clubs and she is included in seven original cast albums. Her first CD was titled I’ve Gotta Get Back to New York, and she accomplished the goal expressed in that title some six years ago. Nevertheless, she considers Laguna Beach, where she grew up and attended high school, her second home.
Chanson (from 'The Baker's Wife'), sung by Teri Ralston
“I’m thrilled to be back in Laguna,” she says, “it’s such a supportive community for the arts.” She credits her high school drama teacher, Joan Lee Woehler, for encouraging her to “follow her dreams,” and notes that Woehler “influenced lots of people in very personal ways.”
Which may help to explain why Ralston became a teacher as well. Having graduated from San Francisco State (along with Jenny Sullivan and “all of the people at South Coast Rep,” she laughs), she finds teaching “as rewarding as performing.”
She has taught musical theater and dramatic arts at UC Irvine and teaches voice privately now in New York in her apartment on the Upper East Side. “It keeps my voice in good shape,” she says, “and I really love it.” She also believes that “students have ‘that magical thing’“ and “the more you keep studying and growing, the better off you’ll be.”
And flexibility is also important. She cites a production called Lunch that she played first in Beverly, Massachusetts, in a theater in the round, and then in Pittsburgh in a theater with a proscenium arch. “Everything was in a mess,” she says, “and we had no time for tech.”
So when she came out for her “big 11 o’clock number,” the moving set didn’t stop, but kept right on going, offstage right. Undeterred, she followed the scenery until it came to a stop and sang her number from there.
She also tells of a set that was late in arriving and slammed into her on its way onstage, which resulted in her continuing her performance with two broken ribs.
Larry Kent, George Coe and Teri Ralston in the 1970 Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.”
And then there was the performance of Company in Boston that was interrupted by a bomb scare. “The whole audience and the cast were herded out onto the street together,” she says, leaving the listener to imagine what that did for the “magic” of the musical.
As Ouiser, however, she delivers a cranky speech that couldn’t be more out of tune with her own sentiments about her profession.
“I don’t see plays because I can nap at home for free,” Ouiser says. “I don’t see movies because they’re all trash and full of naked people.
And I don’t read books because if they’re any good they’ll be made into a mini-series.”
Having happily covered every aspect of show business in her long career, Teri Ralston could not disagree more vehemently with that statement.
Steel Magnolias, Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach 92626. Opens May 4 at 7:30 pm. Tue-Fri 8 pm, Sat 2 and 8 pm, Sun 2 pm. thru May 26. Additional performances Sun May 5 and 12 at 7 pm and May 16 and 23 at 2. Tickets $35 -$65. www.lagunaplayhouse.com. 949.497-2787.
***All Steel Magnolias production photos by Ed Krieger.