Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
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.
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