Saturday 3 – June 16th – Day 12

As Anne Cattaneo explained on Friday, the first week of the lab we examined the roles of the playwrights and directors and designers and actors in bringing a new play to the stage. We spent the first part of this week looking at the actor – director role and relationship (pretty basic and redundant for most of us) and over the weekend we are going to look at the director playwright relationship. To do this, LCT put an experienced playwright with a group of ten directors. We are collectively to write a play (of whatever we are moved to do) and present it to the whole group on Tuesday.

Our group worked with David Grimm who teaches play writing at Yale. This guy is absolutely top drawer in getting us to put pen to paper and come up with something. I selected this group because he is working on character development. We spent six hours with one short break writing and sharing with each other. We sat around on the floor. And we wrote. And we wrote.

He started us off by having us think about our favorite play. Then he gave us a half hour to write it. I picked Enchanted April. I know I can’t write it in thirty minutes so I strip it down to the essentials: Two women find the advertisement and decide to spend a month in Italy. Rose has a melt down, Frederick arrives and Lottie has a closing monologue. About fifteen minutes into he tells us we have five minutes to write the ending to the play. Then we share the work.

Next is a “Rant”. Pick something in our lives that is really pissing us off and write about it. Don’t think about what you are writing just put the words down. If we get stuck, just write the last word over and over till we start again. Then we share them. Wow!!! What writing and what problems we all have.

We kept doing writing exercises that gradually built a character and then we had a dialog with that character. When we broke for lunch with instructions to write down dialog we heard from other people. We all felt like spies. When we got back we read the snippets and David made a list of phrases we heard. Each of us then picked one and wrote some dialog that included that line. Great fun.

Then he put a lot of small objects. I picked a small highly polished stone. We then described the object then transferred those attributes to a character. We then put the character on one side of a door. The character wanted something that someone on the other side of the door had.

Anyway, the whole day went like that. It was wonderful. I couldn’t imagine a batter day. THis one day (with the promise of Sunday) was worth the cost of the entire trip. Not that it’s the only day I have felt like this.

The good news is that he told us to type it up last night so he could have a hard copy. The bad news is that I can’t share a lot of it with you. Here’s what I can tell you:

The attributes of my stone were: Smooth, sculptured, strong, sensual, warm, true, important, soothing. I won’t tell you what I named my character but it was based on a woman I know. The thing that really surprised me was that the more I wrote dialog for her, the saltier her language became – (definitely not true of the woman I named her after) – by the end of the afternoon her language would make a sailor blush. Remind you of A.I.R.E.?????

Before I move on, here is David’s sure fire recipe for writing a play:

Act 1 Get the character up a tree.
Act 2 Throw rocks at him.
Act 3 Get him down.

During the evening, we met in small groups with low and mid level playwrights to explore how the process of bringing new plays to market works. There are a lot fo issues but everyone agreed that a personal relationship between the playwright and director is the single most important factor. We struggled to find ways to get playwrights and directors together.

On one hand, most theaters have a specific type of plays they do. At most they have one new play slot a year but even then it can’t push the audiences too far outside what they expect from the theater. On the other hand, most playwrights write far broader material and it make take several theaters to produce the varying works.

There is a real feeling the if a play if done outside of New York first it is dead to New York. No one wants to produce a play that has had it’s world premier in a regional theater.

I have pages of notes from our discussion but I don’t know that I’ll ever get to type them up.

Now to the fun part: Remember the laughing thing we did in the clown class? Remember that we (not that I was actually a part of the decision) decided to do it on the plaza in front of Lincoln Center Theater? Well, some warped mind decided that we should do it in Grand Central Train Station. So thirty of us hop the subway to 42nd street, change to the Grand Central shuttle and up to the main concourse of Grand Central (which is really a very pretty place).

Two of the directors from other countries made me promise to call their embassy’s if we were arrested.

We split up and spread out around the concourse in ones and twos. I started with John the laugher from Wednesday night. We were at the bottom of an escalator. I can hear people laughing over top of the background noise level of the station. John is next to me laughing his ass off. It makes me laugh too. For some reason we start to move together into a group – it’s so much more fun to watch the others laugh. In about five minutes four VERY large soldiers show up. No guns but these guys were big enough not to need guns. They didn’t do anything – just kept an eye on us. Then someone official came out and said we were disturbing people and we had to stop. As we move back to the shuttle our military watchers kept us in sight. We tried laughing on the subway but it seemed to make people uncomfortable.

We stopped at a bar for a beer for dinner.

Then back for the evening session then home at 11 and write up my stuff for today’s play writing session.

At least we didn’t get arrested. Lincoln Center would probably not be too happy having to come down and bail us out of jail.

I hate to be two days behind on my journal. I want to write about Saturday because that is what’s at the top of my mind but I have to talk about Friday first.

But at least I can give you a teaser about Saturday – actually two: First Saturday by itself was worth the whole trip. Of course this is not the first time this has happened but I have to tell you about it. Second, do you remember the “laugh in” we were going to have on the plaza? Well it happened but not like you might think. But those stories are for tomorrow. (Or hopefully later today so I can get back on schedule.)

Friday was a slow day. We had three sessions but still finished at 5 and got the evening off. There was a party at a house up in Harlem but it didn’t start until 11 pm and we had a full day on Saturday so I didn’t go. I guess some of those who went didn’t get home till 4 am. Too late for me.

The first session today was about devised works. Devised works are plays that are developed during the rehearsal process. There are a wide range of ways to make this happen but in general, each participant brings an object or text or something that is important to them or that they think should be in the play. Then during the rehearsal process the group makes decisions as to which objects will be incorporated and which will not. Then a script is jointly developed and the rehearsal process continues as usual.

It didn’t excite me but I was surprised how many people are doing it.

After that Anne Cattaneo who is the Director of the Lab did a Q & A. We talked mostly about her various roles at LCT. She was the dramaturg on The Coast of Utopia – she started with the principal actors six weeks before rehearsals began to educate them on the historical environment of the play. This is something that I need to be more aware of – Enchanted April would have benefited greatly to have had a resource like this available to us.

She said that she doubted that The Coast of Utopia would ever be remounted again. It cost $7 million to do – far more than most theaters are willing to risk. The play ran nine hours – actually three shows that were three hour each.

Her “main” job at LCT is to read plays, work with playwrights to find a venue appropriate for the play and in general serve as the creative advocate of the Playwright.

A few statistics: LCT has 46, 000 members with a three year waiting list to join. There are two theaters at LCT: the 1,200 seat Beaumont theater and the 300 seat Newhouse. They plan to build a third theater of 100 seats for smaller works but are having problems finding a place to build it. The Newhouse does three plays a year – usually a 4 ½ week rehearsal period plus a 16 week run. The larger Beaumont does 2 or 3 shows a year.

She said: Those in the field have a bad disconnect with academia. Academia is serving their own needs without knowledge or care of what is happening in the real world.

A final thought from her: Directing a play is like climbing Mt Everest: It takes a lot of support and help to make it happen.

In the afternoon, we had directors in our group from other countries tell us about theater in their countries. An interesting session.

An interesting statistic: On Broadway, the minimum wage for an actor in a minor (chorus) role in a musical is $1,800 a week. In England it is $671. Tickets to musicals in England are $130 – on a par with Broadway.

Some theaters in England have “Scratch Nights” where people can present a ten minute segment from their shows for free. They can be seen and picked up by the fringe theaters and ultimately by a major house.

An interesting day but not earthshaking.

Do you realize I’ll be home in less than two weeks? Good and bad.

Thursday 3 – June 14th Day 10

I was too tired to write this last night.

One thing I missed telling you about on Wednesday was one of the games during the “clown” session. He got five people to sit on the floor in a row. The first person was to get the second person laughing and the second person was to pass it on to the third and so on until it got to the fifth person who was to hit a ten on a 1 to 10 scale of laughing. Sound dumb? That’s being a clown. Anyway, the first group got everyone in the group laughing. I mean really laughing. I mean like pee in your pants laughing. And they kept laughing and kept on laughing and kept on laughing for minute after minute after minute. Every time the laughing slowed down, someone would start up again and in a second everyone was back laughing at full volume. This kept on and on. While they were doing this we were laughing too – it was just so funny watching the laughing start to quiet down then take off again. After several minutes the instructor pointed to three more to join them and then we had eight people laughing their asses off. In less than a minute he had the entire group sitting on the floor laughing. On my right was John – a director from NYC, on my left was Pia a director from London. They were both laughers. Just listening to them kept me laughing. After several minutes the laughing was slowing down except for the ones on either side of me. They were trying not to laugh but that made me laugh so off we were again – the whole group laughing . I don’t know how long it lasted but it was a long time.

Now there are a few misguided directors who have put together a plan for the whole group to do this on the plaza in front of the theater.

On Thursday we had the second days of the same three people we had on Wednesday.

Master Teacher Ron van Lieu.

As directors, we use adjectives as shorthand to communicate with our actors: Be funnier, sexier, bigger, softer. This puts the actors concentration on how to do that rather than what they are on stage to do. If the actors finds it themselves, they will own it and it will be more real to the audience.

When he was directing the actors in the scene from Streetcar Named Desire, he asked the actress playing Stella to describe the apartment after the party the night before. She described it in unbelievable detail right down to the way the room smelled (stale beer and man sweat). I was blown away by how much detail and how much work she had put into a room that was just a table and three chairs. Beware the next time I direct you in a scene!!!!

You (the actor) need to have your own opinions about statements made by the other actors. For example, In Streetcar, Blanch tells Stella that she went to Florida over Christmas. Do you believe her? Do you believe what she said she did in Florida?

To an actor: Before you do it for real, you have to throw it out there – over do it – make it over the top, so you can pull it back inside you and make it right. (Note: This is very different than the people I direct who keep taking baby steps and may never be big enough or over the top.)

There is a danger in complimenting an actor:
It puts an obligation on the actor to do it again
It makes the actor self conscious of it.

Compliment in general and correct specifically. (Don’t know if I can do this!!!)

“Lets do it one time badly.” Gives the actor permission to experiment and try things and do things that are clearly not right.

The actors who did Death of a Salesman on Wednesday were not available on Thursday so he invited another pair of actors. They did a scene from Ibsen’s Doll House. The guy in the scene was nothing to write home about. I was very under impressed with his first read through. Then Ron worked with them and they did it again. The guy was much better. I could see and so could Ron, that the actor wanted to do things but he was afraid to try. Ron gave him permission and they did the scene again. This guy blew my socks off. What a change just giving him permission!!! (Which is exactly what I would have done in that situation.)

In the afternoon we did more Clown stuff. I finally got up and worked but it just isn’t my thing. He kept saying “Commit to the stupid stuff”. Well, I’m sorry, I’m just not into stupid. I tried but I really didn’t enjoy it.

In the evening we did more vocal stuff. I learned one big thing. Telling an actor to be louder (ever heard me call “volume”?) doesn’t accomplish anything. It means that the actor doesn’t have enough support from the diaphragm and just trying to be louder with a chest voice just strains the vocal chords. Actors need to learn to speak from the diaphragm.

Wednesday 3 – June 13th Day 9

Walked to Lincoln center again. A few observations:

Everyone who lives in NYC must have been issued an Ipod. If you see someone without one, they’re probably a tourist.

The food in NYC is good, if expensive. But a Subway sub is not as good as in Washington.

Since I don’t have an Ipod, I spend my time thinking as I stroll along. It would much easier to do this blog if I could just record my thoughts. They would be very jumbled because I never seem to finish one thought before another pushes it aside.

Which reminds me – Someone over the last two weeks told us about speaking lines to the audience or some imaginary person in a play. The bottom line is that when you are thinking to yourself, whether out loud or not, you are always talking to a very specific person. I’ve been testing myself as I walk along. Sometimes I am describing things as if I were writing them in this blog, sometimes I am sharing my thoughts with someone at Lincoln Center (always a specific person) and sometimes I am telling a friend. Interesting to think about who you are thinking to. . . .

Today and tomorrow we have three hour sessions with “Master Teacher Ron van Lieu”. That’s what people call him. He directed two scenes with two professional actors. The first pair of actors memorized the second scene of Death of A Salesman. The second did a scene from Streetcar Named Desire. Ron directed them for the first time today. Here are some comments:

Rehearsal is a time for discovery, not reaching a predetermined goal.

What is the event in the scene that the playwright had in mind?

Rehearsal is a process of trial and error with the actor and director finding their way collaboratively using the play as a guide.

When talking with actors about a role or a scene, start with what they know not with what they don’t know.

The ending of the play is inevitable – it has already been written. Each scene must feed directly to that ending.

Find thoughts that the actor can move from his head to his body.

Characters move their lives forward moment by moment by moment until they reach the end.

“I don’t see any difference between you and Willie.”

Never let an actor act a negative such as “Don’t be crazy.”

Stella is the center of the play (Stella = star) with the two warring planets circling around her.

Make sure all relationships are multifaceted: Stella loves Blanch but she also thinks she is a pain in the ass.

Actors work so hard to get th epart “right” that they don’t find the joy in the part.

From and actor: I worship at the alter of self doubt.

For him, directing and teaching are the same process and he can’t separate them.

He doesn’t do blocking – he lets the actors find it. According to him, blocking is just making the actor be in the right place to do what is required of them to do what they need to do at that moment and the actors will find it themselves.

This afternoon we had three hours with on releasing our inner clown. A lot of fun and at least we weren’t sitting the whole time. I actually got a couple of good games for rehearsals.

Here are the things I wrote down: Actors have to LOVE the gift they have made for the audience. If they think it is cute or nice or funny, the audience won’t enjoy the gift.

It’s not about the thing you have made, it’s about your relationship with it.

This evening was a session with a voice coach. Good but no notes to write down.

All this reminds me of something Roy Thinnes told me. “Don’t ask me why I’m entering or how my day was or where I came from. I’m an actor and it’s my job to do my homework and you need to assume I have done it.”

Another note: The young woman playing Blanch in Streetcar talked so fast that she made Alyssa seem like a slowpoke. He didn’t have much luck getting her to slow down.

One last note: When he was directing the scene I picked up on a lot of the notes he gave the actors too.

We have the same three people tomorrow.

That’s it for today.

Tuesday 3 – June 12th – Day 8

Can you believe I’ve been here over two weeks? I’m half way done.

My legs were killing me when I got up this morning. Took a long hot shower then walked to Lincoln Center to stretch them out.

I left the script I’m working on in the room so I went back to pick it up at lunch. I took the subway back to the hotel then had lunch and walked back to Lincoln Center.

I had a pastrami on rye. There is no question NYC has the best pastrami. Really good.

I learned something today. Lets say that I didn’t learn it – I just came to believe it. Mazz had told me this before I left and I think someone else did too. Lincoln Center has been holding these labs for over 15 years. Each year they have around 60 directors so about 900 people have attended them.

The people that attended years ago were like most of the people who are attending this year except that they have moved up in theater. They are now the artistic directors of regional theaters. In a few years they will be the artistic directors at the big national theaters – Mark Taper in LA, the Rep in Seattle, the Goodman in Chicago, Kennedy Center in DC and possibly Lincoln Center itself. When these people start to look for directors they will be the people that have also attended the Labs. For those looking to make their careers in professional theater this Lab is an important career step.

Today was a butt day – spent all day sitting on our butts.

One of the things I like best about LCT is that things start on time. Time is so limited that each minute counts so we start on the minute each time. My kind of place.

First up was Bernard Gersten – Executive Producer of LCT. REALLY interesting speaker. He talked informally with us for an hour and half and it seemed like 20 minutes.

Here are several points he made:

The LCT Board “urges us on in our follies.”

To pursue success is beneath an artist but popularity is not but they both are measured the same way: Butts in seats.

“Profitability occurs from time to time despite our best efforts.”

What is American Theater going to be in 5 – 10 -15 years? It is going to be you (us) and what you (we) bring.

There is an economic penalty to being in the theater. People in the theater rarely make a living although they can make a killing (ie, big hit).

Success in the For Profit market is about 20%. 80% of shows lose money, 20% break even or make money. There are no figures for non profits (we’re not supposed to make a profit. Remember?) But they are probably the same.

The annual budget of LCT is $25 to $30 million. 68% comes from ticket sales and 32% from donations.

He compared the theater to the trapeze in the circus. There are flyers (artists) and catchers (producers). The flyers put their lives in the hands of the catchers. If they trust their catchers they will attempt far more risky things and will succeed.

LCT charges $50 a year for a membership and members get their tickets for half price.

Of the 160,000 people who saw The Coast of Utopia, 30,000 members bought 55,000 tickets.

You might know more about it than I do but Utopia set a record for the number of Tony’s. It consists of three plays that take a total of NINE hours to see. The staff told the LCT Board a year ago that they expected to lose $4 million on the show. Instead they will make money on it.

In response to a question about Government subsidies, he said that the biggest subsidy is the tax donation donors got for their donations. Without that, none of us (Non profit theaters) would be here.

The second speaker was Richard Eyre – past Director of the Royal National Theater in England.

Another wonderful speaker.

He started as an actor but as he said: “As an actor, it was cruel to take out my inadequacies on an audience.”

“When I started directing, I thought I had to know everything and have it all figured out before rehearsals started. Then I figured I could do it all in my head. Then I finally realized that I need to lead and provide structure but now I let the actors figure things out. Listen and watch and comment on what the actors do.”

“Blocking can be done very late in the rehearsal process after the actor has inhabited the character (love that phrase). It works better because of this. If done too early, the actors are trapped in blocking that might not work for the character they develop.

He co-wrote and directed Judy Densch in the film IRIS. That might not mean much to most of you but it was my singing debut in Steven Anderson’s class at the old SOAR program at Camp Orkila before it moved to Seabeck as AIRE. Remember, Patty?

There is a built in conflict between the playwrights vision of the character and seeing his character through the actor.

“Only a garden can teach gardening.”

And finally:

A successful play is a massive accumulation of minor incidents.

I couldn’t have said all this better myself – I felt like I wrote his words.

Here is an interesting aside:

There are more jobs for actors as a percentage of those seeking work than there are for directors looking for work. Except that Directors can make work for themselves which an actor can’t do.

By the time we got to the final two speakers (7 to 10 pm), I was tired so I didn’t take as many notes. We had Michael Miller head of the Actors Center (training actors) and Daniel Swee, the Casting Director at LCT.

Two things prompted me to write them down:

The Casting Director never casts. The role is to narrow down the number of actors for the Director to audition.

Molly’s and Ted’s stuff on Auditions is spot on. There are three parts of the audition: (1) The entry, (2) the work and (3) the exit. (Sound familiar?) Number 1 and number 3 must be there for your work to be seen.

Make sure your audition reader is talented and can work off what the auditioner is giving him/her and can give the auditioner something to work off of.

Full Day – time for bed.