Some Interesting (I hope) FYIs
Posted by Karen Callaway on 8/27/2007I just finished the marathon weekend of plays and post-show discussions (Friday-Sunday, August 17-19). Most interesting, those discussions. The First Look 101ers who stayed after the shows finally could talk to the actors and ask the questions we’ve been saving since the first readings, and make comments. Conversely, the actors could ask us questions, too. And then there were the non-101 audience members who stayed and asked questions and offered comments.
All in all, for me, they were three fascinating sessions. And I thought, perhaps some of the things I heard/learned also might interest the 101ers who couldn’t be at the post-show discussions and, in hindsight, also deepen their understanding and appreciation of the plays and characters, as well as the process we have studied the past three months. So, in the order in which they were presented this past weekend:
Kate Arrington (Josie 1), Lauren Katz (Josie 2) and Amy Warren (Josie 3) said there was a lot of fluidity when they were creating their characters, re who said what and did what. They constantly thought, as Amy said, “No, this line is better for you.” Or, “This seems like something more appropriate that you’d do.” Kate added: “We never heard the word ‘No.’” She then laughed and said each of them ended up playing the right character, in terms of that Josie’s personality: “So if you know us…” (Much laughter and nodding of heads from Lauren and Amy at this point.)
When the play started, it was pretty much about Josie and her journey toward growing up. By the time the play opened, this had modified: Yes, it’s still about that, but also about a sense of faith, that (as she says) everything will be OK. Amy (Josie 3) said that when they read the stories, they could see all Josie’s threads, in particular the one where she wanted to be seen, to be known, so they had to see how that would play out.
I noted that Mark now had a song and asked when it was added. Director Jonathan Berry said that when playwright Melinda Lopez decided, during the rehearsal period, there were more songs in the play, she wrote one for Mark (Brad Bukauskas), to give him more of a voice.
Referring to the musical number added to the beginning of the play during rehearsal, Judy Blue (Lenore) said, the first thing, the cast had to form a rock band: Rani Waterman (Annie) had to learn to play drums, and Brad had never played an instrument. She said this gave them great bonding. The song Lenore sings, by the way, started out as a ’50s ballad and ended up country.
Because Melinda lives in Boston and couldn’t be at the auditions, they all were taped, Jonathan said, and everyone sang, because at that point they didn’t know who was going to get to sing in the play. Rachel sang a “fierce” version of “Love Hurts” that so resonated with Melinda that she began to shape Cassie’s character from that.
Jonathan also noted that there is no villain in the play; that the characters get past the rape to understanding, to hope. So a big issue when casting Mark was to find an actor with a look of innocence, as he had to play someone who didn’t understand love.
There are two quotations in the program, which speak to our understanding of two of the play’s themes. I asked playwright Joel Drake Johnson about them. He had written one or two drafts before he found them, he said, but they have been at the beginning of the script since then. So the actors were aware of them from when they started work, and they told him they should be in the program. The second one, by William Styron, he found first: “Human beings are a hair’s breadth away from catastrophe at all times — both personally and on a larger historical level.” Then, when he found the first one, by Muriel Rukeyser, it turned him on and led to a stronger through-line in the script: “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.”
An audience member wondered if the characters’ response were generational: Sharon owns up to her problems; Mary, though, because she’s a private person, doesn’t admit there are problems. Mary Ann agreed, noting that if Mary had been played by a younger actor, the dynamic between the two characters wouldn’t have worked as well: We identify (visually) that there are two generations’ sensibilities at work.
In response to a question about creating Mary’s and Sharon’s back stories: How bad was Hank? Mary Ann said Mary was chased and pushed against the wall. She’s not well-educated, and he’s very bright. He’s cruel, and perhaps not physically abusive, probably more mental/emotional, and verbal. She said she cast someone she knows as the Hank character. Annabel created Hank as a predator: He got his best student pregnant; he’s very angry, and psychologically abusive. Neither of them got help, she added, so Sharon is where she was when Hank left, when she was 27. (Her costume, accessories and hair style certainly reflected this — a blend of what she would have looked like and worn at 27 as well as 10 years earlier, when she was in high school.)