Building The Walls
Posted by Lisa Dillman on 5/22/2009
Late last Sunday afternoon I was writing opening night cards for the wonderful cast and crew of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble’s production of The Walls (part of Steppenwolf’s Visiting Company Initiative). Doing so made me think back over the years of this play’s development—and the amazingly generous community of artists who have taken part in it.
In 2004, Rivendell artistic director Tara Mallen approached me about a commission. Her idea hinged on a development format that would incorporate the Rivendell ensemble, as actors and thinkers, from the earliest stages of the creative process. I was intrigued … and, at first, hesitant. For me, writing plays has always been a solitary pursuit — I tend to shut myself away with a script for a good long time before I feel ready to share, let alone collaborate. But at the time I had also been feeling constricted by the traditional new-play development process (create draft of play, short rehearsal period, public reading, audience discussion; create revised draft, another short rehearsal, another reading, more feedback, and so on).
Don’t get me wrong—lots of great plays are created using this development model, but, like the Rivendell folks, I was ready to try something new. So when Tara asked me what I would need to create a play with and for Rivendell I said, “A good idea and a whole lot of time.” We laughingly agreed that we would find the right idea and explore it together for as long as it took. Maybe even five years, ha-ha-ha.
The right idea presented itself in early 2005 when Rivendell ensemble member Jane Baxter Miller brought the company Women of the Asylum: Voices from Behind the Walls by Jeffrey L. Geller. The book featured a collection of first-person narratives by women who had been confined to mental institutions between 1840 and 1945. The stories were compelling, scary, sometimes tragic, and often laced with unexpected humor. This text gave us an initial spark for what would later become The Walls.
Before a word of the play was ever written, we embarked on a series of weekend workshops. Guided by director Megan Carney, and focusing on themes of madness and incarceration, we told stories, found and discussed research materials, and created physical interpretations of our ideas and discoveries. I can still see the pentimento of those early tableaus every time I watch The Walls.
Gradually I began to incorporate our discussions, research, and physical work into a story frame and some initial scenes, which Megan, the ensemble and other Chicago actors, and I then explored together in ongoing workshops. Finally, I went off to complete a draft. The scenes I had woven together eventually came to form the spine of the play, gaining depth and texture from the collective experience of our communal process. A second and third draft followed, each of which we continued to shape, excavate, and refine together. The five years Tara Mallen and I once joked about have now passed. We’re thrilled to be up and running at the Steppenwolf Garage, and we hope you’ll join us there as we continue to build The Walls.