Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
October 29, 2009
Erik Hellman on his “daily grind”
ERIK HELLMAN, one of the two actors for Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep, took a moment to wax philosophical about professional acting, cross-dressing, and rocking out on the dulcimer.
“The supreme theatre is intuitive. The artists of this theatre…are spontaneous and lucky. Their secret is that of the ancient Chinese marksmen whose every arrow was found in the dead center of a chalk circle. They shoot their arrows first and draw the circle afterward.”
-From Seven Levels of the Theatre by Charles Ludlam
Recently I was asked to participate in a workshop at Court Theatre. The idea was to share a model of collaboration with another sector of the professional world, to suggest that there was something in the way theatre artists solve problems of interpretation and creation that would help administrators solve the problems they face. Ever since then I have been thinking about how my job is different from other people. The surprising answer is that it is not. Fellow actor Chris Sullivan and I climb into my Honda Civic and crawl down Lake Shore Drive each morning like so many other commuters. We arrive at work and exchange pleasantries around the coffee machine with our colleagues. We unpack our briefcases and put on dresses (a necessity of our job that, though perhaps unconventional for many males, still puts us in line with nearly half of America’s workforce), Assistant Director Eric Hoff prepares his legal pad (for notes), Assistant Stage Manager Sara “Damage” Gammage prepares her withering look (our barometer of comedic quality) and we go to work. Only instead of making washing machines or sorting census data we are working on creating a piece of theatre, ideally, a piece of “Supreme Theatre,” the highest circle of Ludlam’s metaphysical universe.
Erik Hellman as Valentine in Court Theatre’s Arcadia, with Mary Beth Fisher
Just out of school, working for off-off-Loop houses for little more than camaraderie and beer money, the young actor longs for the clout and resource of professional theatre. Later, spear-carrying for uninspired productions that pay the rent, he remembers when his investment in the play itself was payment enough. Actors balance these desires all the time: want vs. resource, remuneration vs. inspiration. Every now and then one gets both. Here is a list of problems that I have been paid to solve this week:
-What is the funniest mispronunciation of the word “wolf “in the singular and plural form?
-While holding a feather duster upside down, what is the best hand with which to hit a fellow actor in the crotch?
-How does a woman sniff her own armpit?
-What classic rock riffs are easily adaptable to a dulcimer?
I don’t claim that we have managed to solve all these problems to everyone’s satisfaction, but I can say that the way we have gone about trying to solve them would serve as a model for any organization. The actors propose solutions and the director filters them though his experience as an outside eye; the director proposes solutions and the actors filter them through the experience of performance. It is a conversation that builds to an answer larger than any one collaborator could have come to on their own. We shoot arrows, we draw circles and at the end of the day we have a testament to our accuracy as marksmen, even if the targets were the last thing in place. In a now much quoted rehearsal report Stage Manager Ellen Hay wrote, “…we all concluded that we did, in fact, get something done during rehearsal.” In other words: we drew the circle where the arrow fell.”
It is hard to be consistently spontaneous and lucky. Not every day is successful, sometimes we erase circles we’ve drawn, sometimes someone gets an arrow in the face, but despite the occasional failure or puncture wound, it is the only way we know to work. At the end of the day Chris and I climb into the Civic for the long crawl north. As we join the blue and white collar crowds inching towards home we talk about the day and the strains and glories of working in the creative arts, of being the kind of archers that aim for spontaneity, the kind of archers that make their own luck, of our unique position in America’s great, dress wearing, workforce.
—Erik Hellman
The Mystery of Irma Vep opens November 12.
October 27, 2009
An Incomplete History of Comedy in Hyde Park
Did you miss this lecture on the Hyde Park Day of the Chicago Humanities Festival? So did I. But now you can watch a video of it on the CHF’s website! Take a look:
“An Incomplete History of Comedy in Hyde Park”
Featuring Anne Libera and Sheldon Patinkin
October 22, 2009
Mystery Allusion #3 - BUT WHERE ARE THE SNOWS OF YESTERYEAR?
Charles Ludlam’s knowledge of literature was formidable, and he peppered The Mystery of Irma Vep with canny allusions. We’re featuring several of those allusions every week until the opening of The Mystery of Irma Vep. Today’s selection is:
BALLAD OF THE LADIES OF BYGONE TIMES
(Ballade des dames du temps jadis)
BACKGROUND: This medieval French poem was composed by François Villon for his greatest work, The Grand Testament. Born in 1431, the French poet Villon was also known as a vagabond, a thief, and a murderer.
THE ALLUSION: Jane (Erik Hellman) utters the line, “But where are the snows of yesteryear?” (In the play, she’s musing about the disappearance of werewolf footprints.) It is a famous English translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti of the line “Mais où sont les neiges d’antan?”
Here’s Rossetti’s translation of the poem in full. (French translation is here.)
TELL me now in what hidden way is
Lady Flora the lovely Roman?
Where’s Hipparchia, and where is Thais,
Neither of them the fairer woman?
Where is Echo, beheld of no man,
Only heard on river and mere,—
She whose beauty was more than human? . . .
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Where’s Héloise, the learned nun,
For whose sake Abeillard, I ween,
Lost manhood and put priesthood on?
(From Love he won such dule and teen!)
And where, I pray you, is the Queen
Who willed that Buridan should steer
Sewed in a sack’s mouth down the Seine? . . .
But where are the snows of yester-year?
White Queen Blanche, like a queen of lilies,
With a voice like any mermaiden,—
Bertha Broadfoot, Beatrice, Alice,
And Ermengarde the lady of Maine,—
And that good Joan whom Englishmen
At Rouen doomed and burned her there,—
Mother of God, where are they then? . . .
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Nay, never ask this week, fair lord,
Where they are gone, nor yet this year,
Save with this much for an overword,—
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Check this blog again for a brand new Ludlam literary trick!
October 21, 2009
Mystery Allusion #2 - THE MUMMY
Charles Ludlam’s knowledge of literature was formidable, and he peppered The Mystery of Irma Vep with canny allusions. We’re featuring several of those allusions every week until the opening of The Mystery of Irma Vep. Today’s selection is:
THE MUMMY
BACKGROUND: Karl Freund’s 1932 film The Mummy invented a new role for horror star Boris Karloff, who had starred as the monster in Frankenstein the previous year. (Jack Pierce did Karloff’s makeup for both Frankenstein and The Mummy.) Inspired by the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, the film tells the story of Imhotep, an ancient Egyptian priest mummified alive who is accidentally resurrected by archaeologists in modern times. Disguising himself as a modern Egyptian named Ardath Bey, Imhotep uses the Scroll of Toth to help him resurrect the soul of his ancient lover, Princess Ankh-es-en-amon.
THE ALLUSION: Lord Edgar (Erik Hellman) is not only landed gentry but an accomplished Egyptologist and sarcophologist. Accompanied by Alcazar, a suspicious guide, he goes to Cairo to unearth the tomb of Egyptian princess Pev Amri.
The trailer for The Mummy:
Check this blog again for a brand new Ludlam literary trick!
October 20, 2009
Mystery Allusion #1
Charles Ludlam’s knowledge of literature was formidable, and he peppered The Mystery of Irma Vep with canny allusions. Starting today, we’re going to feature several of those allusions every week until the opening of The Mystery of Irma Vep. Today’s selection is:
GHOSTS: a play by Henrik Ibsen
BACKGROUND: First performed in 1882, Ghosts is Henrik Ibsen’s commentary on nineteenth-century morality, full of buried secrets, hereditary philandering, and syphilitic madness.
THE ALLUSION: Remarkably, Ludlam begins Irma Vep by paraphrasing the first three lines of Ghosts. Observe the comparison:
| THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP | GHOSTS |
| Jane: Watch what you’re doing! You’re soaking wet! Don’t track mud in here! | Regina: What do you want? Stay where you are, you’re dripping wet! |
| Nicodemus: It’s God’s good rain, my girl! | Engstrand: It’s God’s good rain, my girl. |
| Jane: It’s the devil’s rain, that’s what it is! | Regina: It’s the devil’s rain, that’s what it is! |
