A Look Back at Up…
Posted by Alex Torra on 7/09/2009
Alex Torra was the assistant director for Up.
I was lucky enough to be a part of the Up rehearsal process and see this remarkable play and the Steppenwolf audience encounter each other throughout previews and at opening. I’ve now returned to Philadelphia, where I am based, and I wanted to take a quick moment to share with you a particular part of my experience working on this show.
I thought my time in Chicago would be most deeply marked by watching and participating in the rehearsal of a show under the leadership of ensemble member Anna Shapiro and with a cast that included fellow ensemble members Ian Barford and Artistic Director Martha Lavey. What I didn’t expect was I was going to have the opportunity to watch audiences be confronted with issues that divided them and pushed on some incredibly sensitive emotional buttons.
I got to witness this in the post-show discussions, some of which I was asked to lead (for those of you out there who don’t know, Steppenwolf has a discussion with audience members after each performance). There were often some incredibly intelligent comments and observations of the themes of the play, but I was particularly struck by how moved, and occasionally incensed, audience members became after watching Up. Without spoiling the experience the play, I will say that I had audiences heatedly debate the play’s intention, and even its purpose. Audience members would share how the issues presented by the play crop up in their lives, in their careers, and even in some individuals’ roles as parents. Some reflected on the difficulties of raising their children: do we tell them to dream or to keep their feet planted solidly to the ground? Or both? Maybe somewhere in between.
It is a great moment, as a theatre artist, to see audiences come together and personally and intelligently debate a play. For me, this is what the theater is all about - a temporary, and yet very real, community coming together to witness and experience the human condition - and not just be watching silently from the darkness of the house, but also through a face-to-face encounter with each other.