A Few Odd Phone Calls
Posted by Daria Davis on 10/20/2008Recently I’ve found myself making a few odd phone calls at work. Last month I called West Point Military Academy and the State Department. I also had a hugely informative chat with the conservation department at the Newberry Library, called a handful of Japanese cultural organizations and exchanged emails with an analyst about dreams. In each instance I was fulfilling some of my dramaturgical duties as the Literary Apprentice by trying to answer questions.
A unique and exciting part of my apprenticeship is researching questions raised in the rehearsal room, questions that when properly answered provide details that deepen the experience of the play for actors and for the audience. This is how I’ve come to know the protocol for an Army officer in World War II who wants to remove his hat and place it on the table. Or how an archivist treats and stores manuscripts, or how many numbers are in a phone number when one person with a Tokyo based cell phone calls another person in Tokyo. I collected these bits and pieces for the fine folks involved with Kafka on the Shore, and in pursuit of the answers I did some slightly odd things like tracking down an older service member at the State Department who needed some real convincing I wasn’t a member of the media. I guess they don’t get many calls from our country’s theater community!
The other significant portion of my dramaturgical duties is helping to compile the research packets for our shows, an amazing document stuffed with every possible piece of information that would be relevant and useful to the cast and production staff of a play.
The research packet serves many functions. It is a glossary of terms that may be unfamiliar in the script or unique to the world of the play, in the case of our next two shows this includes a host of Irish colloquialisms and place names. It also provides the historical and geographical information that creates the world of the play, provides biographical history on the playwright and notes the production history of the play. These elements combine with what I consider to be the most exciting part, the research of all the idiosyncratic details that establish the play and the characters.
In the case of The Seafarer I’ve recently been learning the ins and outs of poker. I’ve found myself reading manuals on poker’s many many permutations as well as studying charts of all the different ways certain cards win or lose out against others. Not being a poker player this has been quite an education, and a risk free one at that!
I’ll continue this week to compile as many answers to questions as I can conceive of before the start of The Seafarer’s rehearsals. Though once the cast and production staff begin their journey with the play there’s no telling who I might be picking up the phone to call or what time zone they’ll be in.