Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
September 29, 2009
The Real Chicago Blues
John Grazian’s book Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs takes a look at what remains of Chicago’s blues joints, and at how the essence and even the “blackness” of the blues has become a commodity in Chicago’s tourism industry. It made me think of how “Sweet Home Chicago” is piped in and played ad nauseum in the Midway Airport baggage claim. Here’s a selection from an interview with Grazian:
GRAZIAN: The blues fell out of favor with middle-class blacks in the late 1950s and early 1960s because it was considered “gutbucket,” “low-class” music that recalled the countrified terrain of Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, and other southern spaces that their families had left behind. Also, since the blues has always been characterized as the music of poor people, it therefore did not resonate with upwardly mobile black audiences the way that more contemporary urban soul, rhythm and blues, and jazz music could.
Meanwhile, the blues grew in popularity among white audiences during this same period of time for several reasons: the blues was the progenitor of early rock ‘n’ roll; white artists such as Elvis Presley had gained prominence singing old blues songs like “That’s All Right,” “Reconsider Baby,” and “Hound Dog”; and young white music fans craved the authenticity represented by black blues singers like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
Today the Chicago blues audience continues to be mostly white, whereas many black consumers prefer hip-hop and rap, reggae, jazz, and dance music. (At the same time, one should also bear in mind that the black community is hardly monolithic; it is constituted by a diverse array of individuals with varying musical tastes.) But in spite of the relative homogeneity of the audiences, blues clubs still represent some of the most racially integrated public spaces in the city.
Question: The Chicago Blues Festival is now in its twentieth year. How does the city of Chicago use the blues—and authenticity—to promote itself?
GRAZIAN: It’s funny; while the city’s designation as the “Home of the Blues” seems rather self-evident, Chicago largely ignored the cultural resources of its segregated black neighborhoods during the now-celebrated “heyday” of the Chicago blues in the 1950s. In fact, the city only began incorporating its blues legacy into its presentation of itself after its blues clubs began attracting white audiences. Today, the city relies on the blues to attract tourists from all over the world and promotes the blues in its promotional brochures, hotels, music festivals, and local neighborhood tours of the city. In fact, a few years back the Department of Environment used the city’s blues heritage to promote its landfill conservation and waste management strategies, drawing on its inflated reputation as the “Home of the Blues” to advertise its blue-bag recycling campaign on the sides of public city buses. When Robert Johnson penned his well-known ode to the city, “Sweet Home Chicago,” it is unclear whether this is quite what he had in mind.
You can read the full interview with David Grazian here, courtesy of the University of Chicago Press.
September 28, 2009
Opening Weekend
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is up and running! The cast and crew are taking a very well-deserved day off today after two weeks of previews, rehearsals, late-night technical sessions, high school matinees, and opening parties. As I’ve said in our preview talkbacks, everyone at the theater has a pretty serious love-crush on the show, and it’s been a delight to show off the production to the very first audiences.
I’ve seen the whole show from start to finish more than a couple of times now, but I keep dropping in to watch a few select moments. I always make sure I get to watch Greta Oglesby as Ma sing “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (Greta’s got lungs and it’s a treasure to hear her sing—it’s too bad that Minneapolis has her full-time). I always make sure to watch James T. Alfred do his monologue as Levee where he curses God. Not only because James finds a new rhythm every night, but because the audience’s reaction is always so erratic—some are absolutely horrified by the speech, and some are laughing out loud, almost in spite of themselves. Finally, I always make sure to watch the very end of the show. It’s been changing night to night as Ron and the actors tinker with it, and it’s probably the one scene that’s been most debated among us, the staff.
Also, a bit of advice to those of you who haven’t seen the show yet: be sure to order your tickets soon, because seats are only going to get scarcer. I’m not just peddling a line from marketing, either, it’s what I’m telling all my personal friends, too. See you there!
September 24, 2009
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Photos and Video posted
A couple of video clips and quite a few photos of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom are now available here. Chicago theatre photographer Michael Brosilow joined us for a dress rehearsal last week and shot over 800 photos.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Brosilow).
September 15, 2009
Ron OJ: Chill but Passionate
Ron is a chill guy, and so the rehearsal room that he directs is a very laid-back space where everyone knows and feels comfortable with each other. This, I feel, is especially important for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, as almost all of the characters have been touring together for a long time and know each other’s strengths, weaknesses, quirks, and history (as Slow Drag says to Cutler, “We done sucked on the same titty together”). While a month in the rehearsal room certainly doesn’t add up to years, Ron’s vibe and the family feeling of Court Theater quickly put everyone at ease. He also seems to have a tremendous amount of confidence in his actors, in their imaginations and expressive qualities. He’ll often ask them for their opinion on what a certain line means or how their character feels about a scene, but stops them before they give an answer. He probes and questions, but rarely commands, and the result is sincerely felt and effective. Felt, and not acted.
My favorite moments in the rehearsal room are when, after a long day when everyone is tired, Ron delivers a speech that picks everyone back up and re-ignites the energy in the room. He’s teared up a few times remembering his experiences with August Wilson, and has become impassioned remembering instances of racial exploitation. Sometimes he not only refers to his own experiences, but channels the passion of others beliefs. When Levee has the nerve to profess his sympathies to the devil and challenge God, Ron stood up, got angry, and made even me (a staunch agnostic) feel just how blasphemous that was. Ron has talked with the cast about the spirituality of August’s plays, and though there is no overt spirituality in Ma Rainey, the blues are derived from the gospels and there is an innate spirituality, an “ancestral connection,” as Ron put it, in each of the characters and their struggles with the white man and the status quo. In moments when August’s text loses this spirituality because of fatigue and repetition, Ron is able to inject it back in.
September 13, 2009
Thoughts on the Set
Thursday was our first day rehearsing inside the theater, and everyone is very excited about working on the newly completed set. The variety of different textures and levels fits the mish-mashed feeling of the play: a sequence of comical or disturbing stories, a group of people from different walks of life brought together for an afternoon. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom doesn’t simply develop a main plot and a subplot; Levee’s frustrated attempts at success form the basic arc of the play, but for me it’s meat consists of the stories told in the bandroom that go back to the post Civil War South, that reflect the experiences of so many African-Americans of that period. Combined with Ma’s personality and music, the play seems to me more like a fibrous web that stretches over fifty years of history from Georgia on up to Chicago than a simple plotline. The different textures—wood (old barn wood from Wisconsin for the band room, polished oak for the church), brick, and linoleum—,the four levels, twisting backstage pathway to the bandroom, and slanting angles give the set a cobbled, organic feel that not only provides a tremendous aesthetic for the actors to work in front of, but also reflects the feeling of August’s writing.
The cast and crew have been working on tech all this weekend, and we go into previews this Thursday! I can’t believe how quickly it has passed.
