Fluent Summer 2014 CATF Special Edition

CATF SPECIAL EDITION

Summer 2014 | Vol 2 No 5

Contemporary American Theater Festival At Twenty-Four Inside The Voice Of The Playwright Five Interviews Lucie Tiberghien Director as Storyteller Looking Back, Turning 24 Recent Plays and People of CATF Alex Podulke About The Acting Life Growing Up With CATF The Plays The Schedule

From “North of the Boulevard” by Bruce Graham

CATF AT TWENTY-FOUR

Inside The Voice Of The Playwright Five Interviews By Sharon J. Anderson catf: What does “uncanny valley” mean?

thomas gibbons: It comes from the field of robotics.

It is the idea that people are fascinated by an artificial being that is somewhat human-like, but the closer it comes to being more truly human-like, it becomes creepy. catf: Why write a play about it?

tom: The sound of the words — uncanny valley —

really appealed to me. I didn’t have a title when I started the play, but I like to have a title as early as I can. I also liked that no one knew what it meant. I have a weakness for cryptic titles. Also, when I go to the theater, I like a certain element of mystery — not a “who-done-it,” but a certain amount of mystery where I don’t quite know what I’m in for.

Interviews reprinted with permission from catf.org. sharonjanderson.com 2 | fluent

catf: What do you want your audience to have real-

ized after seeing “Uncanny Valley?”

tom: That’s the kind of question that I really don’t

like to answer. I hope that 20 different people will walk out with 20 different things. However, one of the things I want people to think about is this: As technology blurs the line between human and mechanical, artificial or whatever word you want to use — how is that going to change our definition of humanity? catf: “Uncanny Valley” has been described as travel-

ing “to the ethical heart of humankind’s bid to outrace mortality.” What’s that about? tom: The idea for the play came from a National Geographic article that I came across in my dentist’s office a couple of years ago. The article was about the LifeNaut Group in Vermont, which is exploring the idea of downloading human consciousness into a mechanical or artificial body in order to extend our life span by hundreds of years. People in this field seriously talk about immortality. That article included a photo that I found absolutely fascinating and haunting…I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. One of the LifeNaut engineers is sitting in a chair facing a table on which is an artificial head. This head is called Bina 48, and she is probably the most advanced robot in the world right now. I’ve since found out through research that lots of other people are working on this very idea. In fact, an article in the New York Times last June entitled “This Man is Not a Cyborg, Yet” is about a Russian multi-millionaire named Dmitry Itskov who is putting a lot of money into this idea because he wants to live for a long, long time. catf: Do you want to live for a long, long time? Do

you want to be immortal? tom: No, I don’t want to be immortal, but it is hard to answer that question. What does immortality mean?

Dmitry Itskov is having a cyborg created that is basically identical to him. By the way, I had never heard the term “uncanny valley” before I read that National Geographic article. So I started to do some research.

It’s a really well-known concept in the field of robotics, artificial consciousness and the whole field of computer animation.

As I began to work on the play, the word “valley” became very important because it has many metaphysical implications: the valley between life and death, the valley between the creator and the created, the valley between parents and children. I’ve come to realize that this play is very much about parents and children.

catf: What was the first play that made an impression

on you?

tom: The year I graduated from college, I went to

England and saw a lot of plays. One play in particular called “Destiny” made a huge impression on me. It was about the rise of rightwing politics in England, and I was struck that “Destiny” was about something happening in England at that moment. I decided that I wanted to write plays that were very urgently of the moment. “Uncanny Valley” actually takes place 40 years into the future, but it’s of the moment in that it deals with research that Playwright Thomas Gibbons. is happening now and just Photo by Seth Freeman. extrapolates from that.

One of the important questions the play asks is this: Is Julian (the artificial human) conscious? Even though the field of study I’ve been researching is called “artificial intelligence,” it seems to me that what researchers are really talking about is “artificial consciousness.” They are a little bit slippery about the distinction. catf: What is the distinction?

tom: In my play, Claire (the human) says, “There are

people in my field who don’t make much of a distinction; they say that to be conscious is to know. But that’s not true. To be conscious is to know we know.”

This is the fulcrum of the play. What is consciousness?

How do we measure it? How is it signified? Can an artificial being be truly conscious?

On the face of it, the play is very simple: two characters in one room and the relationship between a neuroscientist and an artificial being, but as the play goes on, it gets deeper and deeper and deeper. catf: Do you like one character more than another?

And why is the scientist female and the artificial being male? tom: I like them both. I first wrote the play for two actors I knew and they, in fact, did the first reading u fluent | 3

of the play. But the more I worked on it, the more I realized that the scientist really needed to be a woman.

I thought the play would be too icy if it were two men.

richer — to have what I call “poetic density.” It’s not just what the characters are saying, but also what is being suggested.

catf: So a woman brings a certain warmth that you

catf: Why do you keep your eyes open like you did

tom: Exactly. And then Julian ended up being much

tom: I read the papers like a mad man every day

needed?

younger, so the two original actors were no longer right for the parts.

catf: So this is where the mother and child dynamic

comes in? tom: That is part of it, yes. Whenever you write a play, you always hope it will go in directions you didn’t plan or expect. I didn’t realize when I started it that it was so much about parents and children. My wife and I have a son who is now in his first year of college. When I started the play, I was acutely aware that he wasn’t going to be around here much longer and very much thinking about how much I was going to miss him. Those feelings worked themselves into the play…in some things revealed about Julian and in some things that Claire reveals about the past and her own daughter. The play really is about actual and metaphorical parenthood. catf: What is the best thing and the worst thing

about being a parent? tom: There are so many great things about it. The best thing is just seeing how this being that you helped to bring into the world grows and develops and changes; and how completely fascinating that is on a day-to-day level. The worst thing is realizing that you raised your child to be a separate being and there is something definitely bittersweet about that. You can raise a child and be with them constantly from the time they are born and — any parent knows this — you will be surprised by something at some point. You think you know everything about your child, but you don’t. catf: Here’s a “101” question: What percentage of the

play you originally wrote ends up being the one we see on the stage? tom: At the moment, I’m working on draft #15. The reading and research never end. I finish a draft, and then it goes away for a couple of months. Then I go back to it because I want to make the play deeper and 4 | fluent

that day in the dentist office?

because most of the ideas I have for plays have come from things that I’ve read. I know I’ve hit on a good idea when I can’t forget something I’ve read, but I deliberately don’t start writing right away. I let it sit, and if I still can’t forget it in a couple of months, it probably needs to be written. And I’d like what I’ve written not to be forgotten by the folks who see my plays.

The CATF production will be directed by Tom Dugdale.

“Uncanny Valley” is presented as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere in conjunction with San Diego Repertory Theatre and InterAct Theatre Company.

catf: You have said that you wrote “North of the

Boulevard” because “the middle class is getting totally screwed by this country.” Are you as mad as hell and not going to take it anymore? bruce graham: Oh, I’ll take it, but I wake up angry.

This play represents the difference I can make as a writer. I’m not a political activist, so this is how I’m going to make my attempt at change. Also, your audience in theater is usually upper-middle-class-to-wealthy.

Maybe I’m exposing something people never thought about before. catf: You also have said that you always want to give

the audience something or somebody to “root” for.

What are we rooting for in “North of the Boulevard?” graham: Depends on your point of view. There’s a guy named Trip in the play and he faces a real moral dilemma and question. Some people don’t see moral dilemmas and questions. They just do it. Other people say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa…you’re making a kind of Faustian bargain here. Don’t do it.” I think people in this play are rooting that these guys can get better lives, with the exception of the old guy who is probably beyond redemption. These guys haven’t gotten the breaks in life that others have. catf: A description of this play asks this question

catf: In all of your interviews as well as one-on-one,

you drop one one-liner after another. Are these oneliners a way to protect yourself ? Keep others at bay? graham: Yes, they are. I’m a private person in a public business. Writers have to be hermits. Too many writers want to talk about writing.

It’s the most boring topic in the world. I may talk about it with a couple of writer friends, but I really like my privacy. People like the oneliners because they believe they’ve heard something that sounds like insight so they walk away, which is why I like one-liners.

Playwright Bruce Graham.

Photo by Seth Freeman.

catf: You said that if you

weren’t a writer, you’d be a serial killer. graham: It’s nice work if you can get it. That would be an easier way to get out my aggressions. catf: So that’s why your plays are called “blistering”

and “gritty?”

graham: Yes, but I’ve also written a play, “Stella and

about your characters, “Are they corrupt enough to escape the corruption that’s ruining their neighborhood?” graham: Well, I have a favorite line of my own because I’m a typical American: I hate corruption until I get my piece. We all roll our eyes, but if someone slips you 30 grand do you take it or walk away? Quite frankly, I’m not sure what I’d do. I hope I would do the right thing, but we’re all on shifting sands.

Lou,” now playing in Chicago with Rhea Perlman, which is the sweetest, nicest PG-rated thing in the world. One of my most popular plays — perhaps my most popular — is called “Moon Over the Brewery,” and it’s about a little girl and her imaginary friend. I change from play to play. I get really bored writing the same thing.

catf: How was being a stand-up comedian the best

more relevant to the human condition than tragedy. graham: Comedy comments constantly on the human condition. I just saw “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” which had a dour ending to it and a lot of profanity for a Neil Simon play. People were shocked. Comedy will always comment on the human condition and not always in a nice way. Historically, any time dictators come to power, the first thing they want to do is to get rid of the clowns and the comics because ridicule has so much power. Nothing can make you look more ridiculous than being the butt of a joke. u

training you ever had as a writer?

graham: Comedy is immediate reaction. Your audi-

ence either laughs or they don’t, and if they don’t laugh, you’re back delivering pizzas. In the 1970s I worked in a couple of clubs with a partner, and I hated doing the same jokes twice. I had to write new material every week. If the sketch didn’t work during the first show, I’d be at the corner of Fourth Avenue leaning against a dumpster doing a rewrite for the second show. They don’t teach you that at Yale.

catf: Coleridge said that comedy was more useable and

fluent | 5

catf: Joni Mitchell’s album “Court and Spark” in-

cludes this line: “Laughin’, cryin’ — it’s all the same release.” graham: I love that album. And yes, it is the same release. Our shoulders hunch, we get short of breath — physically, they are one degree apart from each other. catf: You teach your students that a play must have a

story and that must have “universality.” What’s universal about “North of the Boulevard”? graham: What’s universal about it with the exception of a very, very, very few people — we’ve all had to struggle at some time. It can be an emotional struggle or an economic struggle, but three of the characters in this play want a better life for their kids. I know my parents certainly did. I think that’s important to people even if you are in the upper income bracket.

The characters are struggling and when they make you laugh, you suddenly care a little bit more about them. catf: Does that happen when a character makes us

cry?

graham: Oh, no…my students are forbidden to write

anything in which a character cries. It’s a cheap way to get emotion. If the character is on the verge of tears, that’s okay, but crying, no way. A character has to earn the right to cry.

catf: Do characters have to earn the right to make us

laugh?

graham: No! Because laughing is fun! I personally

don’t like displays of emotion, so I don’t put them in my plays too often unless it’s anger. My most heinous characters make you laugh before you find out that they’re evil. My play “Coyote on a Fence” [CATF, 1999] is about death row and it’s somber for the first five minutes, but then the character is funny and the audience is laughing and then they find out what the prisoner did and they say, “Oh, my god.” So I’ve yanked their emotions back and forth. They don’t know how to think about this guy. The audience can’t get comfortable with the character because they don’t know how they feel about him. catf: The masks that symbolize theater — the comic

mask and the tragic mask — both look like grimaces.

6 | fluent

The grimace of comedy resembles the grimace of tragedy. The masks seem to have the same distortion. graham: I’ve always thought that. They freak me out.

When I was a little kid, they scared me. But back to your point. If I slip on a banana peel, it’s comedy, but if you slip on a banana peel, it’s tragedy. catf: Coleridge said that comedy is a more pervasive

human condition; that “the problems raised in the great tragedies are solved in the great comedies.” graham: That’s interesting. You look at “Macbeth” and you see that Shakespeare stuck some comedy in there, like the porter or the grave digger in “Hamlet.”

My play “Desperate Affection” features a hit man and the woman who falls for him. I approach his profession as a bad habit. That’s comedy. If I approached it as him really killing people, that’s tragedy. catf: You have said, “there’s a lot of anger brewing

out there.” graham: I’m not hip to “the meek shall inherit the earth.” I go to church once a year with my actor friends and this Easter, heard a great sermon that featured a story about how a priest in a country experiencing revolution was appealing to people to forgive and move on. “I burned your house and killed your husband, but now I ask for forgiveness.” No way I would do that. I admire people who do that, but not me. catf: When your audience walks out of “North of the Boulevard,” what do you want us to be thinking? graham: I want you to be thinking, “Why are these guys in this position?” I also want you to be thinking, “Okay, what happens the next day?” Or, “That’s not my life. How can I be more empathetic to people who have that life?”

“North of the Boulevard” made its world premiere in 2013 at Theatre Exile, Philadelphia, PA, Joe Canuso, Producing Artistic Director.

[COYOTE ON A FENCE by Bruce Graham was a 1999 CATF production.]

catf: What convinced you to give a voice to women

catf: What was the most important thing the military

taught you?

charles fuller: I enlisted in 1959 and was there until

1962. While there, I had the opportunity to read all the great works in English. I had an opportunity, in a sense, to finish college. I had left Villanova my junior year because I wasn’t happy. My father had two jobs to keep me in college, and I thought that was a waste of his money, so I left. In those days, you couldn’t sit around your parents’ house; the next best thing to do was to join the military, so I joined the Army.

catf: Your experience in the military was essentially a

good one? fuller: Yes, but it is profoundly disturbing to see the kinds of things that are happening in the military at the moment — these extraordinary charges of sexual assault. This was probably going on when I was in the military, but at the time there was no large female population.

who have been sexually assaulted? fuller: This may sound naïve, but sexual assault is simply wrong. You can’t keep brushing things under the rug and believe they will suddenly disappear. You can’t keep maintaining that all the male soldiers who came home were heroes when last year the estimate of sexual assaults was 26,000.

I didn’t start writing to tell happy little stories.

I started writing to make some impact on the world in which I live. If you don’t want to say anything about sexual assault, that’s your business, but I want to Playwright Charles Fuller. say something about it. I Photo by Seth Freeman. think it is absolutely and unequivocally wrong. We have no right because we are in the military to rape fellow soldiers who just happen to be females. A lot of victims are male as well. In the Army I was in, the life of the person next to you was as valuable as your own. You would never do anything to hurt your comrade. Your life depended on him, and in the case of Iraq, those gentlemen’s lives depended on the women they were raping. It’s horrifying. catf: Why is war hell?

fuller: Because it’s justifiable murder. The idea that

the only way we can change things or convince people or defend religions or overthrow governments — whatever those reasons for starting wars — the idea that the only way we can do that is to kill one another is horrible. It’s horrible because there’s a kind of acceptance; a kind of behavior that maintains that during certain operations we can and must kill one another in order to succeed. That’s absolutely insane. catf: Does war corrupt the military?

fuller: I’m not sure about that. What happens is

this: When we come to believe that the only way to make change is to murder one another, the idea of “the other” makes less valuable the human life it u fluent | 7

possesses. As a consequence, we can kill the “other” and not feel guilty. Unfortunately, human beings spend too much time rationalizing that war is right under certain circumstances; that it’s okay to threaten and kill other human beings. catf: You have said, “Plays are about language.” The

military today trains soldiers to “neutralize” and not to “kill.” Does the military dehumanize people? fuller: I don’t think so, but over time the language of war has changed. When I joined the Army in 1959, we learned how to “kill” the enemy. When I was a kid, a person was “homeless” and a guy without a job was called a “bum.” When is the last time you heard that term used in current language? Language has changed over the years, and that’s reasonable. To be concerned about another person’s feelings despite what they are or what they are involved in is okay.

wrapped her neck with the power cord of her pink laptop and sexually assaulted her until she was dead.

Should this ex-Marine be executed? fuller: I don’t believe in the death penalty. People should be isolated from other human beings. That’s enough punishment — isolated for the rest of their lives.

“One Night” was commissioned, developed and produced by Cherry Lane Theatre (Angelina Fiordellisi, Artistic Director), in conjunction with Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre.

catf: You have said, “sexual assault in the military is

now academic.” fuller: It is something that is accepted. What I find very strange is that we haven’t worked out a way to do very much about it. The bill that was going through Congress at one time was not passed because it would take some power away from commanding officers. To solve this problem, we have to bring people who are accused of sexual assault into civilian counts. catf: What do you think about the recent increase in

rape scenes on TV? fuller: I don’t know what the heck is going on with that. Most of those scenes are extremely poorly done and seem done only so viewers have something to talk about at work the next day. If you’re not serious about doing something about rape, you shouldn’t even think about writing about it. After a rape scene, you have to see that someone is punished; that they are made, in some way, responsible for what happened. It is not something to laugh about, it is not something to dismiss. That kind of behavior is not entertaining. It dehumanizes women. It’s horrible.

catf: Thirty minutes before this interview began, the

Washington Post published an article entitled, “Jurors to weigh whether ex-Marine should be executed.” The convicted Marine attacked a soldier — at random — 8 | fluent

catf: Whenever you describe the play “Dead and Breathing” you say, “It’s a comedy. Swear.” What’s funny about being in a hospice for two years dying of cancer? chisa hutchinson: Exactly. There’s really nothing funny about it. Whenever I tell people what the play is about, it always sounds so heavy and bleak. If you’re

living in hospice or a hospice worker, you cannot be in that space all the time. It would be exhausting. Hospice workers have to have a sense of humor, otherwise they would scratch their eyes out and never come out into the light of day.

Comedy is a defense mechanism. It’s the way we survive. If people who are suffering just dwelt on the suffering, it would be totally exhausting and unpleasant.

If you plan on living, you’ve got to have a sense of humor. catf: One of the characters

in “Dead and Breathing” is based on your favorite aunt. chisa : When I finished Playwright Chisa Hutchinson. this play, I was so excited to Photo by Seth Freeman. send it to my aunt to get her stamp of approval. She loves it and has shared it with everybody. She’s a nurse who has seen a lot of suffering, yet she is probably one of the funniest women I know.

She’s got such a wry sense of humor and is relentless with her comedy. She is a joy to be around, and I hope that the audience will find her as enthralling as I do. catf: Did you follow her around with a tape recorder

or a pad and pencil? How much of this play comprises her actual words? chisa: It’s more that the characters are inspired by her. It’s more like I’m asking, “What would my aunt do if she were in this position?” Yes, I’m transplanting her into this fictitious situation, but the character is very real with my aunt’s attitude, her humor and her quickness. catf: What would your aunt say was your greatest

strength, and what would she say was your greatest weakness? chisa: She would say that my greatest strength is loving and my greatest weakness is loving. catf: You have said that your plays are about three

things: race, sexuality and gender. Is this true about “Dead and Breathing?”

chisa: I always have an agenda, but I don’t like to beat

people over the head with it. Whenever you have to give your pet a pill for medication, they won’t swallow it. But if you stick the pill in a piece of cheese or wrap a piece of chicken around it, they’ll eat it. I feel that way with plays that have messages. If you wrap the message in something else — like a narrative about mortality and morality, faith and forgiveness — it makes a message about race or gender easier to swallow. catf: Is the play more about the relationship between

the two women or about death and assisted suicide? chisa: The relationship is the vehicle that carries the message. How can men in your audience come to care about women? How can you make them give a shit about gender issues? They won’t if you don’t give them something broader to relate to. How can I write a play about race that people who do not identify as people of color can relate to? The trick is to focus on the human relationships and present another angle to sneak the message in. catf: For being so young [34 years old], you seem like

an old soul. chisa: I hear that a lot.

catf: Why is someone as young as you dealing with

assisted suicide? chisa: I have multiple sclerosis, and I wonder some times — and this is kind of morbid — when I’m going to die. I have fears and concerns about how MS will affect my breathing or my heart or some other function that I really need. Right now it’s just in my legs. I wonder if it ever got to the point where I was unable to function, if I would decide, “Wow, this is not really the quality of life I want. I really would rather not go on like this.” I wonder if I would decide that, but I don’t think I have the courage. catf: Here’s an excerpt from a short story called “Go

Like This” by Lorrie Moore. The story is about Elizabeth, a married writer with one child who has been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and announces to her friends and family that she has decided to end her life: “I tell them the cancer is poisoning at least three lives and that I refuse to be its accomplice. This is not a deranged act, I explain. Most of them have known u fluent | 9

for quite a while my belief that intelligent suicide is almost always preferable to the stupid lingering of a graceless death.” What do you think of that description? chisa: Wow. Wow. That is the best articulation of that I have ever heard. This applies directly to “Death and Breathing” because it is the struggle between this nurse whose job is to nurture life and the patient who asks her to end it. It goes against what the nurse believes. Her function is to tease out the difference between intelligence — as in intelligent suicide — and ingratitude for life. The nurse feels like this woman who has been in hospice for two years has had two years of life. The nurse can’t shake the feeling that this woman is totally ungrateful and has wasted two years’ worth of life.

This play is a question: Is there a difference between that intelligence and that ingratitude? Between rationally wanting to end your life and being ungrateful for the life you’ve been given? catf: In his book The Savage God (written after the

suicide of his good friend, poet Sylvia Plath), A. Alvarez describes suicide as “…a closed world with its own irresistible logic.” Is “Dead and Breathing” a closed world with its own irresistible logic? chisa: Yes, I think so because it departs from conventional ideas of morality. It’s not necessarily about what’s right and what’s wrong, but rather what’s beneficial and what’s not. I think it’s definitely a world of its own, but one that I hope is still intriguing for folks to visit for an hour and a half. catf: I read that one of the things that inspired you

to write plays was a debate you heard between August Wilson and Robert Brustein about color-blind casting.

I once saw a scene from the play “Night, Mother” by Marsha Norman — about a daughter announcing to her mother that she plans to commit suicide — with two white actresses, and then saw the same scene with two black actresses. The two scenes felt very different to me. chisa: They should feel different! The black actresses add a whole other dimension. I felt that way when I saw, “A Streetcar Named Desire” on Broadway with multi-racial casting. When the sisters are talking about their struggles and struggling in the South, it takes on a whole other meaning. When you cast a black actor 10 | fluent

in a role that is traditionally white, of course it’s going to “color” it differently just because of our cultural baggage which can, actually, heighten the dramatic narrative. It can certainly refresh it.

I also think, though, that it can hurt the actor.

Having been in the position of playing a white character, it’s hard to fully commit to a role that you know wasn’t really meant for you. You’re constantly thinking, “I wonder how the audience is feeling about this? Are they taking this differently than the way it was intended?” Black actors should have the option of getting their own narratives out there; to play a role that was actually intended for a black actor; otherwise it’s going to be intellectual acrobatics throughout the audience. That is, people will be focused on figuring out what statement the director is trying to make by casting a black chick in this role. I think it does a disservice. catf: Would it do a disservice to “Dead and Breathing”

if it featured two white actresses? chisa: To an extent, yes. There are elements in the play that are distinctly African-American, and I think that they would either be lost entirely or take on a whole different meaning if they were performed by non-black actresses. Not that I’m not open to that, but it is a different interpretation. As a playwright, you have to accept that people are going to take liberties.

You try your best to make the blueprint as clear as possible, but people may have trouble casting the eight black people and the one white person; they’ll have to use a couch instead of a bed, and so forth.

catf: You have said that you write plays to “make yourself and others like you more visible.” Why do you need to make yourself more visible? chisa: Why the hell not? If I see one more damn play about a white chick who is restless in her marriage… please, just get a divorce and be done with it so I can go home.

African-American culture? It doesn’t get more dramatic than our experience. It just doesn’t. If you want to put something electric on stage, put black people on stage. First, we have very interesting experiences that go beyond self-indulgent fluff that I really can’t get into.

Enough already with the whining. If you want a play that’s about something bigger, a play about people who

struggled mightily with something beyond themselves, put black people on stage. Second, I think about audiences. I’ve had former students email me out of the blue to thank me for the race-appropriate monologue they performed in my theater class; how it inspired them. There’s something motivating, too, about seeing yourself on stage, about seeing yourself in art. It’s incredibly validating. It’s not just a fluffy, fun experience.

When you feel important enough for someone to make art about you, you are motivated to go out and achieve something and contribute to the world. catf: Is that the singular, peculiar, unique thing about

art?

chisa: I think so. People for whom going to the the-

ater is a regular Sunday afternoon and who regularly see themselves on stage — those people begin to take this art for granted. For others it is a relatively new thing, “What? There are black people on stage? There are Asian theater companies out there?” For people for whom this type of theater is different…they can feel it and appreciate it in a way that may be lost on others who’ve been able to take it for granted.

Some people are going to be shocked and scandalized by the ending to “Dead and Breathing,” but I was not shocked, and I did not write the ending to scandalize anyone. Perhaps I am taking the dramatic narrative for granted. catf: Why even take the risk of scandalizing an

audience? chisa: Again, I honestly did not set out to scandalize the audience. I just didn’t. For me, it is what it is.

That’s all I can say about it. catf: Alice Walker said that “Life is better than death

because it’s a lot less boring and it has fresh peaches in it.” chisa: I would have said mangoes.

A World Premiere by Chisa Hutchinson. Directed by Kristin Horton.

catf: How did you find the story of Gait City?

christina anderson: I found the story of Gait City

when I created it. Gait City is the story of a fictitious place that was inspired by research I did about Oregon and Seattle and the stories of what happened, particularly to people of color, and more specifically — black people — in the Pacific Northwest region.

In the last couple of years, I’ve been constructing cities and narratives from scratch. Often those cities are created from actual events that happened from different time periods. catf: What inspired you to combine exclusionary laws

and cult behavior in “The Ashes Under Gait City?” christina: I’ve always been interested in cults. When I was in fifth grade, I remember watching a Jonestown biography on TV that totally freaked me out. I was only 10 years old and got such an eerie feeling whenever I heard the voice of Jim Jones hovering over this group of people. I never lost the essence of that u fluent | 11

feeling, so I’ve always wanted to write about cults in some capacity.

I also remember that cult in California [http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven’s_Gate_(religious_ group] where members committed suicide and were found with sheets over their heads, all wearing sneakers. If I remember correctly, the members were mostly white people with one person of color and one black person. The conversation, at least in my immediate community, was about, “Who was this black woman?” “Why are black people joining these cults?” So I started doing research on cults and blacks.

When I started writing “Gait City,” I thought it would be interesting to have a black woman — an Internet guru, Simone the Believer — find out that the history of Gait City once included black people and then want to go to Oregon to create a black community. Over the course of the play, this community slowly takes on the essence or eeriness of a cult, however, at the beginning of the play, Simone the Believer is not a cult leader. catf: Why is she called, “Simone the Believer?”

christina: She is someone who people hire to believe

in them because she has this essence and this aura about her. She gives off this essence of taking care of people and instilling in them the confidence to take on different parts of their lives and redefining those parts.

She believes in people and their capabilities and gifts.

catf: Is she patterned after Oprah Winfrey?

christina: She’s patterned after Iyanla Vanzant and a

little bit of Erykah Badu. Iyanla is a motivational speaker and has her own show on the OWN network. She puts out books and teachings on how to redefine yourself.

Erykah is a singer-songwriter, activist and actress. catf: Does Simone unwittingly become a cult leader?

christina: When I set out to write this play, I knew I didn’t want anyone to say or think the word, “cult.”

I set out to write a play where people come together and when they unify, it has the essence of a cult, but no character ever says the word “cult” or believes that a cult is what they are a part of. When you get swept up into something like this, you don’t think it’s a cult.

You just want to be around people who make you feel like a member of a community. I don’t think Simone considers herself a cult leader or wants to have a cult

12 | fluent

around her. Simone wants to go to Gait City because she discovered this story of black people being pushed out. She considered it an historical injustice and she wants to correct the injustice by starting a black community. She does not set out to be a cult leader. catf: Jim Jones, the leader of the People’s Temple in

Jonestown, said that he moved his church to Guyana because it was “a place in a black country where our black members could live in peace.” Is this what “Gait City” is about? christina: Yes. Simone wants to go to Gait City to honor black people who were displaced. She is specifically targeting a community of people who feel like they have never had a home they can settle into. catf: Jim Jones’ son said this about the People’s Temple:

“It allowed me as a black man to hold my head up high.” christina: You feel empowered when you can exist in a space that not only allows you to be your most authentic self, but also encourages you to be your most authentic self. catf: By the end of this play, are the characters more

authentically themselves? christina: That can be the argument, right? As the writer, I don’t say that these characters are in danger or the situation they are in is troubling. I don’t think any of them think they are in danger, and I don’t think Simone thinks she’s putting them in danger. You aren’t sure what Simone is doing to these people. You aren’t sure who gets roped in when. Hopefully by the end of the play, you don’t know if they’re going to make it, you don’t know if they’re going to implode, but you do know they have committed to this thing and the length of time they can sustain it will be questionable. catf: This play reminded me of Shirley Jackson’s short

story “The Lottery,” which has been described as “a chilling tale gone mad.” Is this a chilling play gone mad? christina: Interesting. The story that comes to mind for me is Ursula K Le Guin’s, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” about a utopian city whose good fortune requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness and misery. This child somehow keeps the town unified. Is my play a “chilling tale gone mad”? I don’t know. I wrote the play because

I was interested in delving into cities and who has the right to claim property and territory and who has the right to live in that space and create community. catf: The cover story in

the June 2014 Atlantic, entitled “The Case for Reparations,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates includes these quotes: “The essence of American racism is disrespect” and, “Liberals today view racism not as an active, distinct evil but as a relative of white poverty and inequality.” christina: In the play, Simone talks about disregard.

When I write about BlackAmerican culture in the 21st Playwright Christina Anderson. century, I realize that the Photo by Seth Freeman. “isms” of the 70’s and 80’s are now more nuanced. “Micro-aggression” is a new term that’s circulating. It isn’t outright aggression or blatant racism that a black person is confronted with daily. It’s little reminders, little jabs like, “otherness” and “repression.” That’s how all the “isms” function today. Very rarely do we use seriously blatant racist language or derogatory slurs. We just say that the person is “on the fringe” or “speaks freely.” These are very subtle, nuanced ways to express disrespect and disregard.

catf: Tocqueville in Democracy in America made this

observation in the early 19th century: “Race prejudice seems stronger in those states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists, and nowhere is it more intolerant than in those states where slavery is never known.” christina: That’s why I write the plays that I write.

We think as a nation we’re over racism or we have progressed or we’re now in this enlightened state, but that is not the case. As a nation, we have greatly sinned over the past 200 years, and while racism may not be as aggressive but more nuanced, it still exists. Those are the plays I am interested in writing. catf: Doesn’t Toni Morrison in Beloved make the

case that leaving the past may be a necessity and that redemption is to be found not in remembering, but in forgetting? Morrison says that her characters are caught between “was and must be.” Are your characters caught between “was and must be?” christina: The narrative of “Gait City” is that it has a history of excluding black people and displacing them. Simone the Believer is twofold: She feels like the presence of a black population in this city will serve as the ultimate memorial about what the city did to that original black population, but she also wants to create this new community of black people. So the past, the present and the future exist simultaneously. Yes, the characters are caught between “was and must be,” and I would add that they also caught in the “could be.”

catf: As a white person, was I born racist?

catf: So the ending of this play is the “could be?”

no one is. We all have to live in a society where things are presented or marketed to us — we aren’t born to hate. It is what we learn and the different ways we learn it. We all grow up in different ways in different parts of the country and experience different things. I don’t believe that anyone is born racist any more than anyone is born to be angered by racism. There are undoubtedly tons of essays that agree or disagree with me, but I’m more interested as a writer to see how societal practices and influences can affect our lives or the way we talk about certain things or the way we ignore certain things. I’m not so interested in the origins of racism as much as I’m interested in how it affects us whether we know it or not.

community they are creating is a “could be.” Simone creates the community and invites others to come and make it what it “could be.” I can’t predict if the audience will think this is a “could be.”

christina: I would like to believe in my heart that

christina: The characters in this play think the

catf: There’s a lot of social media in this play — YouTube,

texting, Facebook. You once advised the students you teach to “Be present…let the experience, the memory live in your muscles, your limbs, not on Facebook.” christina: Simone created a community online, but can she create it in the real world? At the end of the play, she starts to create that community, but by that point, characters are shutting down or deactivating their social media profiles. When Simone first puts out u fluent | 13

her invitation via YouTube to join her in Gait City, she doesn’t get any replies. She realizes that she’s asking a lot for someone to join a community using that method.

It’s like what we’re doing with hashtags. We say, “#activist” but are not part of the action on the ground. It’s all talk, like “#bringbackourgirls.” The play wrestles with the question, “Can you create the same community that you create online?” Some people may even argue that because we have the freedom to create a community online, we don’t necessarily need to be in the same space together to create change.

By the end of the play, Simone has created a community, but is it the right kind of community? Is it a faith community? A cult? I hope all of these questions come up. catf: About plays, you have said, “I love that it is a

world in which adults are still able to pretend.” How old were you when you started to pretend and what were you pretending to be? christina: The first story I tried to pen when I was in first grade was about red balls flying instead of bouncing; red balls that bounced, grew wings in the air and took off. I was a kid like any kid — I wanted to play with possibilities. That’s so glorious! As kids we have questions and we set out to experiment, to find out, “Is this possible?” Sometimes it results in broken arms, but mostly it results in a good time. Theater is one of the few genres where we can go back and take those kinds of journeys and ask those kinds of questions. Hopefully in that experimentation, a conversation will arise and people can talk about different ideas and issues.

In “The Ashes Under Gait City,” I’m dealing with the issues of race and class and Black American culture, landscape, history — but I try not to be didactic or on the nose or aggressive about it. Hopefully the essence of the play will bring up these questions. Those questions come with pretending and imagining and going along for the ride of this Internet guru who finds out about this city I made up with characters I made up — it all goes back to pretending. catf: Would Simone have a tattoo of a women’s sym-

bol and a Black Power fist on the back of her neck? christina: No, that would be me. I got it when I was around 22 years old. I always wanted a tattoo, and I knew I needed something I could stand behind for 14 | fluent

the rest of my days. I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to stop being a black woman so I figured it was a safe tattoo to get. It’s still empowering and it’s still bad ass for me. catf: You said, “If you keep doing things that will

make you happy, everything else will fall into place.” christina: For me personally, that has been my narrative. I found playwriting when I was 15 years old. I had no idea how to live off it, how to make a career out of it and when I just focus on the writing and telling the story, I connect with people. Somehow I get into Brown University, am able to study under Paula Vogel and be with people who have made me a better writer.

For me, I have to trust in the pen and the paper even when it’s dark and I’m asking myself, “Am I the only person interested in writing about this?” When I focus on the story and my characters, everything else does seem to fall into place. catf: You have a play in San Francisco and you have

a play in London and Shepherdstown is smack in the middle. What’s it like doing a play in a small town rather than a large city? christina: It’s awesome. Ed Herendeen was interested in “The Ashes Under Gait City” when it was still in progress and even now, I’m doing rewrites after rehearsals with the actors. That is the biggest gift a playwright can get — everyone being open to making your play clearer, stronger and better. I can work on this play and it’s a safe space, very few distractions. Plus, I’ll be seeing this play for the first time with all of its video screens, etc. It’s a great gift to see your play produced. catf: Maya Angelou said, “There is no greater agony

than bearing an untold story inside you.” christina: A personal story, a thought, an idea, a question — it’s so important to get it out on paper; to get it out in some creative and artistic art form. It’s hard to create a world from scratch, and it’s a lot of work to teach the audience about this world in an active way. But it’s a million times more painful to keep it inside. Or to write a play that’s safer or easier for an audience to grasp…it hurts more. I must always stay true to the things I’m curious about and the ways I want to tell the story.

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Summer Exhibit 2014 • Through August 3 • Featuring paintings by Seth Hill, Jacob Stilley, Diana Suttenfield. Paintings & sculpture by Gavin Gardner.

8566 Shepherdstown Pike, Shepherdstown WV 25443 • 304.876.2300 Fine Art, Ceramics, Photography & Custom Framing

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fluent | 15

CATF AT TWENTY-FOUR

Lucie Tiberghien Director as Storyteller When a director says, “Theater is almost a political act for me,” my instinctive reaction is to run away quickly.

But when, during our conversation, Lucie Tiberghien said those words, my flight instinct was disarmed, first by her slight embarrassment at uttering a cliché that she knew sometimes signals polemic masquerading as drama — plays in which what the characters say matters more than why they say it. More than that, I was disarmed by her simple love of telling stories with the plays she directs.

Tiberghien, who studied history and political science in her native France before gravitating to the arts, knows stories can be highly persuasive in a way that Director Lucie Tiberghien...

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political slogans cannot. Slogans merely tell, but stories enable us to empathically share the struggles of characters who are often new to us and whose unique situations cause us to see things as we never have before.

That’s what she hopes will happen with her production of Christina Anderson’s new play, “The Ashes Under Gait City,” which will have its world premiere as part of this year’s Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown.

CATF’s website describes “The Ashes Under Gait City” this way: “When a devastating fire burned Gait City to the ground, the community decided to rebuild, an enduring and noble and gesture, but with

BY SEAN O’LEARY one crucial oversight — they forgot the black people.

An Internet guru, Simone The Believer, launches a campaign amongst her followers to encourage black Americans to migrate to this town and reclaim their roots.”

That a play about the aspirations and struggles of a hard-bitten group of black characters should have its premiere in West Virginia, demographically America’s “whitest” state and one that is sometimes accused of being unusually racist, will test the capacity of all — the playwright, the actors, the audience and of course, Tiberghien — to create a story that resonates with an audience whose personal experiences may

be quite different than those of the characters with whom they must identify. Tiberghien knows that the primary responsibility for making that happen is hers.

In a premiere production of a play, nothing is a given, not even the script, which as Tiberghien points out is subject to revision right up until the first preview before a live audience. That fact, she explains, creates special challenges that simply don’t arise during the production of established plays.

“The actors must be able to believe in their characters,” says Tiberghien. But, how can they when characters’ words and actions may change in the span of hours, practically up until the moment the actors u

at the first rehearsal of “The Ashes Under Gait City,” CATF 2014.

Photos by Seth Freeman.

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must appear before a live audience? And what of the playwright who has her own sense of the story and the characters? Will she accept concerns and questions from Tiberghien and the cast members as opportunities to improve the play or will she see them as threats to the integrity and meaning of what she has created?

The answer to all of these questions is that the actors, the playwright and the director must be able to have faith in each other’s unique perspective, which, as Tiberghien observes, is easier when all concerned know one another and have worked together previously That is not the case with this production. This is the first time Tiberghien is directing a play by Christine Anderson and her first time directing the actors who make up the CATF cast. So, why should they trust Tiberghien?

Perhaps more reassuring to actors and playwrights than Lucie Tiberghien’s credits is the special perspective she brings to the task of midwifing new plays.

First, there is Tiberghien’s considerable résumé.

She has directed plays, many of them world premieres, on some of America’s most prominent stages — Arena Stage in Washington, La Jolla Playhouse in California, the George Street Theater in New Jersey, and the MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theater, The Rattlestick Theater and the Cherry Lane Theater, all in New York.

This will also be the sixth occasion on which Tiberghien will direct a play at CATF, which makes 18 | fluent

sense because Tiberghien, like the festival itself, focuses almost entirely on contemporary plays. As a result she has worked with many of America’s hottest playwrights, some of whom achieved that standing with Tiberghien’s help. Among the names that will be familiar to CATF audiences are Stephen Belber, Craig Wright, Lee Blessing, Richard Dresser, Tracy Thorne and Deborah Laufer.

Perhaps more reassuring to actors and playwrights than Lucie Tiberghien’s credits is the special perspective she brings to the task of midwifing new plays.

Tiberghien is as much an immigrant to theater as she is to the United States. She had established herself as a dancer and choreographer in France before coming to the United States in 1995. But, as she put it, “The productions I was working on seemed to consist of more and more words and less movement.”

So, she decided to go all in and joined the 42nd Street Collective in New York, formerly Playwrights Horizons theater school, where she studied directing.

It was simultaneous immersion in American society and in American artistic culture. The transition would have been more wrenching were it not

Looking Back Turning 24 2013 HEARTLESS

SCOTT AND HEM IN THE GARDEN OF ALLAH MODERN TERRORISM H2O A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD 2012 BARCELONA CAPTORS

for the fact that Tiberghien’s mother is American by birth. Young Lucie grew up in a bilingual if not an altogether bicultural household.

Still, like her English, Tiberghien’s perspective on America is slightly accented or, described more accurately, somewhat detached. That’s why she probably has fewer axes to grind than most of us and, as much by personal inclination as by accident of birth, seems willing to accept Americans and all people with all of their frailties as human beings.

It’s that kind of sympathetic nature that actors must bring to their work and that playwrights hope directors will bring to theirs. And, if they were real, the characters in plays, who are almost always deeply troubled, would wish for this sensibility because they would know it will allow them to be seen as threedimensional human beings rather than as types.

Tiberghien’s nature is an even greater gift to audience members who must try to make the empathic leap to identify with characters whose lives are otherwise unfamiliar — a challenge that will undoubtedly be true for many who view “The Ashes Under Gait City.”

The CATF website goes on to say that “…this play delves into ownership, identity and the power of belief. It dramatically captures the influence of cult behavior, through technology’s lens, while tackling the continued and complicated nature of race in our contemporary world.”

It takes a director of Tiberghien’s unique skills and sensibilities to guide us all — playwright, actors and audience members — on a trailblazing journey into these remote reaches. fluent

THE EXCEPTIONALS GIDION’S KNOT IN A FOREST, DARK AND DEEP 2011 RACE

THE INSURGENTS

FROM PRAGUE

AGES OF THE MOON

WE ARE HERE 2010 LIDLESS

WHITE PEOPLE

INANA THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW

BREADCRUMBS 2009 YANKEE TAVERN

FIFTY WORDS

THE HISTORY OF LIGHT

FARRAGUT NORTH

DEAR SARA JANE 2008 THE OVERWHELMING

THE VIEW FROM THE HARBOR

WRECKS

STICK FLY

PIG FARM BY GREG KOTIS

LONESOME HOLLOW

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

2007 1001

MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE 2006 SEX, DEATH AND THE BEACH BABY

JAZZLAND

MR. MARMALADE

AUGUSTA 2005 SONIA FLEW

THE GOD OF HELL

AMERICAN TET

FATHER JOY

ON THE VERGE

JAZZLAND (STAGED READING)

AUGUSTA (STAGED READING) 2004 FLAG DAY

ROUNDING THIRD

HOMELAND SECURITY

THE ROSE OF CORAZON

FATHER JOY (STAGED READING)

AMAZING 2003 WHORES

THE LAST SCHWARTZ

BRIGHT IDEAS

WILDER

THE CLANDESTINE CROSSING (READING)

FLAG DAY (STAGED READING)

2002 MELISSA ARCTIC (STAGED READING) ROUNDING THIRD (STAGED READING)

ORANGE FLOWER WATER THIEF RIVER SILENCE OF GOD THE LATE HENRY MOSS 2001 THE ECSTASY OF SAINT THERESA TAPE THE OCCUPATION THE PAVILION ORANGE FLOWER WATER (STAGED READING) SILENCE OF GOD (STAGED READING) CAROL MULRONEY (STAGED READING) 2000 MARY AND MYRA HUNGER MISS GOLDEN DREAMS, A PLAY CYCLE SOMETHING IN THE AIR 1999 COMPLEAT FEMALE STAGE BEAUTY COYOTE ON A FENCE FLO’S HO’S THE WATER CHILDREN TATJANA IN COLOR 1998 BAFO INTERESTING TIMES CARRY THE TIGER TO THE MOUNTAIN GUN-SHY 1997 DEMONOLOGY BELOW THE BELT LIGHTING UP THE TWO YEAR OLD CATF DANCE ENSEMBLE 1996 BAD GIRLS OCTOPUS THE NINA VARIATIONS TOUGH CHOICES FOR THE NEW CENTURY THE NOSE 1995 BETTY THE YETI VOIR DIRE MAGGIE’S RIFF PSYCHE WAS HERE 1994 FORGIVING TYPHOID MARY SHOOTING SIMONE SPIKE HEELS WHAT ARE TUESDAYS LIKE? 1993 A CONTEMPORARY MASQUE ALABAMA RAIN BLACK DREAM HOUSE 1992 THE SWAN STILL WATERS STATIC THE BABY DANCE 1991 ACCELERANDO WELCOME TO THE MOON

u

Recent Accolades catf 2011–2014

2014

Actor Andy Bean (2011, “From Prague”) has a ROLE in the new show “Power” on STARZ (pulls fifth spot in the opening credits).

CATF sound designer Eric Shimelonis (2013 & 2014) wins Helen Hayes Award “OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN” for the play “Never the Sinner” at 1st Stage.

Johanna Day (2012, “In a Forest, Dark and Deep”) wins PERFORMANCE OBIE for “Appropriate.”

Former CATF director Liesl Tommy receives DIRECTING OBIE for “Appropriate.”

Former CATF staffer (2011) Abigail Vega is named LATINA/O THEATRE COMMONS PRODUCER. “Mr. Marmalade” (2006) returns to the region with PERFORMANCES in Baltimore.

“Gidion’s Knot” (2012) acting edition is PUBLISHED by Dramatist Play Service.

Jane Martin’s “H2O”(2013) is a finalist for the STEINBERG/ATCA NEW PLAY AWARD. That’s a finalist two years in a row—and four plays in four years considered—for CATF. Former CATF assistant director Lily Wolff DIRECTS “Gidion’s Knot” in Austin, TX (produced 14 additional venues nation-wide, making it a top-five produced play during the ’13–’14 season.

2013

“Arlington,” the musical adaptation of Victor Lodato’s “Dear Sara Jane” (2009) PREMIERES at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre.

Margot White, on stage at CATF in “Heartless” (2013)—she stepped in at the last minute due to an actor’s injury and read the play for the first time the day before opening to a sold-out audience with only a few hours of rehearsal—is STARRING in “A Dish for the Gods,” playing in NYC.

20 | fluent

CATF Alum Laura Kepley (2010, “Breadcrumbs”) is named the new ARTISTIC DIRECTOR at Cleveland Play House.

A new DOCUMENTARY about CATF favorite Sam Shepard is released in select locales.

Lear Debessonet (2011, director of “The Insurgents”) wins the DIRECTING OBIE for “The Good Person of Szechuan.”

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) holds ANNUAL MEETING at CATF. ATCA gives special commendation to director Lear Debessonet (2011) for her WORK in expanding the boundaries of conventional theater.

Eisa Davis (2009, playwright of “The History of Light”) receives the SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE OBIE AWARD. Playwright Beau Willamon (2009, “Farragut North” and later the movie “The Ides of March”) creates more political intrigue with the Netflix series “HOUSE OF CARDS” starring Kevin Spacey.

Rebecca Harris (2012, actor in “The Exceptionals”) won the BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IRNE AWARD for her performance in “Mrs. Whitney” at Merrimack Repertory.

Joey Parsons (2009 and 2012) wins the SF BAY AREA THEATRE CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD for Best Prinncipal Actress for her performance in “God of Carnage” at San Jose Rep. “Gidion’s Knot” (2012) is a CITATION WINNNER of the ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award.

Eisa Davis (2009, playwright of “The History of Light”) and Crystal A. Dickinson (2011, actor in “We Are Here” and “Race”) to STAR in new play at Playwrights Horizon.

Playwright Melinda Lopez (2005, “Sonia Flew”) receives a MELLON-FUNDED THREE-YEAR RESIDENCY.

Shepherd University President Suzanne Shipley ANNOUNCES THE OFFICIAL NAME of the 180-seat theater inside the Center for Contemporary Arts is the Stanley C. and Shirley A. Marinoff Theater.

2012

The full script of “Gidion’s Knot” by Johnna Adams is PUBLISHED in American Theatre magazine and features photos from the CATF World Premiere production (2012).

Eric Coble (2003, playwright “Bright Ideas”) to make his BROADWAY DEBUT in spring 2013 with “The Velocity of Autumn” directed by Arena Stage’s Molly Smith.

CATF playwright Kyle Bradstreet (“From Prague”) is ONE OF TWO STAFF WRITERS for “Copper,” an original series produced by Barry Levinson.

Playwright J.T. Rogers (2008, “The Overwhelming” and 2010, “White People”) is a 2012 GUGGENHEIM FELLOW.

CATF and Shepherd University acting alum Chris Boykin (2008, “The Overwhelming”) to APPEAR in an episode of “BOSS” (starring Kelsey Grammer) on STARZ. CATF Playwright Jennifer Haley (2010, “Breadcrumbs”) WINS the 2012 SUSANSMITH BLACKBURN PRIZE. Beau Willamon receives OSCAR NOMINATION FOR BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (with George Clooney and Grant Heslow) for “The Ides of March,” based on his play “Farragut North” (CATF 2009).

Playwright Lydia Diamond’s “Stick Fly” (2008) GOES TO BROADWAY.

2011

“Lidless” (2010) by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig is a FINALIST in the 2011 SUSAN SMITH BLACKBURN PRIZE. “Lidless” and “Breadcrumbs” NOMINATED for the ATCA/ STEINBERG NEW PLAY AWARD.

fluent | 21

CATF AT TWENTY-FOUR

Alex Podulke About The Acting Life If you missed seeing Alex Podulke in the riveting performance of “H2O” at last year’s CATF, you have the opportunity to see him at this year’s festival, in “Uncanny Valley.” It’s not the first time he’s played an other-human.

In a conversation with FLUENT, he talks about acting, Shepherdstown, neuroscience, androids and more.

fluent: What first brought you to CATF?

podulke: I came to CATF not because of the audi-

tion but because of my relationship with Jon (Jon Jory, director of “H2O”). In slow motion, he’s trying to get as many “Jane Austen’s” to stage as he can, and the last three years he’s used me a lot.

We were doing “Sense & Sensibility” in St. Louis, Diane Mair (his co-star in “H2O”) was playing Ms Lucy Steele and I was playing Colonel Brandon. John asked us to do the first reading of “H2O,” and that’s how it started.

fluent: How long have you been acting, and what brought you to it? podulke: My life. Since about the age of seven. My mother was involved in the very early days of the Minneapolis Children’s Theater, before it was the Children’s Theater, so it was sort of always an option for me. And I enjoyed it when I first did it. My first play was called “Becky the Half Witch.” I played the wizard.

I think I was nine when I first worked outside of my elementary school…at sixteen I was in a theater company in St. Paul, Minnesota, where I grew up. I

Diane Mair and Alex Podulke co-starred in Jane Martin’s “H2O” during CATF’s Season 23. ALL PHOTOS BY SETH FREEMAN.

INTERVIEW BY NANCY MCKEITHEN knew already that I was going to be an actor for life. I had an agent by the time I was 18, I think. She’s the reason I don’t have any tattoos or piercings. And she made me cut my hair, which was long at the time. She told me that anything like that would limit the kind of role I could get.

Many years later I was doing a show at the Guthrie with a very heavily tattooed actor. We got in the dressing room and he took a can of something out of his bag, and pzzzz, covered them up. Aw, man! fluent: You could get a tattoo now.

podulke: Yes, but I no longer want one! fluent: Tell me about the play.

podulke: First, I want to say how much I love

Shepherdstown and how intensely welcomed I was last year. I was very moved by it. People, shop owners would come here every week and bring me things. I mentioned offhand to one guy — Lucien Lewin, a longdistance bicycle rider — that there’s a glass company that I love so much in West Virginia that’s very famous for vases. When I was 9, my father took me to see a solar eclipse in Atlanta; we drove from Minnesota and on the way we stopped by this glass place — Blenko — and as a result of that really magical trip, I’ve always been very interested in glass. I make stained glass windows, and I’ve recently blown my first vase. I mentioned all this to Lucien, and two weeks into the run he brought a vase here.

It seems to me that this town has an artistic bent and a curiosity about things, and I like that very u

Barbara Kingsley and Alex Podulke in Thomas Gibbons’ “Uncanny Valley” this season at CATF.

much. It’s cool to see a mix of down-home sensibility, humility and modesty mixed with artistic sensibility.

What Ed Herendeen and Peggy McKowen and James McNeel are doing down here is really special. It’s a rare treat to develop new work without the added pressures of doing it in a big city. And they offer a remarkable level of support and respect for the artists they bring down here. I can’t say enough good about them, and I can’t thank them enough. fluent: So, “Uncanny Valley”….

podulke: The play is about this android—I’m

the android—and about this thing called singularity [Wikipedia: a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement, or brain-computer interfaces will have progressed to the point of a greater-thanhuman intelligence], which technorobot computational neuroscience people say we’ll have about 2050.

What I love about this play is the subject matter.

It’s been a blast to be able to sink my teeth into the research aspect of this. It’s mind-blowing.

It’s another two-person play, like “H2O.” The first few scenes are very fast. The further the play gets,

24 | fluent

the slower. There are eight scenes in the play, and the eighth one is the last half of the play. fluent: Tell me about your character.

podulke: This android, Julian, is being taught to be

a human. The play starts with his eyes first opening, and the scientist he’s working with is a computational neuroscientist named Claire Hillis. All of his technical stuff has been done and now he just has to turn on, learn how to talk and learn how to move, and she has to teach him how to be like a person.

I start off as just the head and shoulders, then as the play progresses I am built on stage — one arm then another arm. Jules needs something to do while Claire’s not in the office because he doesn’t sleep. So she gives him a flute. [Podulke is in his 14th week of flute lessons.] Once he gets legs, the first thing he does is a soft-shoe and a cartwheel. After he’s up and walking around, more elements are introduced into the play: What ethics might be like in a world where androids have consciousness, what a relationship might be like when you’re having a real emotional conversation with a machine…there’s so many fascinating issues.

It’s fun to play around with how robot-y am I. Another fun thing is all they’re doing to help make me a little more robotic — making me a kind of diving suit that constricts me so that I’m always aware of my body.

It’s kind of like a man corset that covers my ribcage that I wear in rehearsals. The director is a little on the fence about it because he doesn’t want me to be bulky. And they just got me brown contacts [his eyes are very blue] because they are trying to make me “off ” in very subtle ways. They may do something to my hair to make it not quite human. And then there’s going to be some kind of makeup on my face and wherever my skin is exposed to give it a little bit of “off-ness.” I think they’re going for “indistinguishably off.” fluent: The play asks a lot of questions.

podulke: Yes, and one of the biggest questions

involves childhood. The scientist has an estranged daughter, and in a way this robot that she’s teaching to be a person is another child for her, so that conflict between relationships is happening. And she has a husband who has some degenerative brain disease, like Alzheimer’s. And so there’s a question that is yet unexplored: If to know that you know is part of what makes us human, is an android gaining consciousness more human than a person with early stage Alzheimer’s?

Asuming that it’s an android that has memories—the memories of a real person. fluent: And your co-star?

podulke: My phenomenal co-star, Barbara Kings-

ley, plays Claire Hillis, the scientist, who’s retiring.

She’s 70. We know each other. We’re both from Minneapolis, and I grew up admiring this incredible actor.

Unbeknownst to me or anybody, she just randomly auditioned for Ed and she got this role. So I get to work with her again. The last time I did a play with her it was “Romeo and Juliet”; I think that was 2004.

Ed called up and said, “Wait till you meet this actress we got for Claire, she’s gonna knock your socks off!

Her name is Barbara Kingsley.” fluent: She’s having fun with this one?

podulke: Omigod, yeah. She’s so great. I feel really bad for her actually. You know what they say, never work with dogs and children, cause they never do what they’re supposed to do. She has the same problem with me, because I’m a fuckin’ robot, just doing stupid, stupid stuff. She’s the one doing the real acting. Not until the second half of the play do I get to really flex my muscles at all, aside from the real physical demand and specificity of not doing anything — which turns u

out is hard. But I feel like I don’t really get to do acting until the second half. fluent: You’ve been acting for a very long time….

podulke: I suspect it’s a handicap. One of the things

I admire most about other actors I work with is that they’re able to have full ownership of the thing that they’re doing. I think that when you’re a child actor learning how to act, what you’re trying to do is please the teacher, the director. In this game, if that’s really the thing that you’re doing, then it’s easy to just be a hack. It’s easy to not fully invest yourself but just try to do it right. So I think that my biggest obstacle in my career was to forget all the lessons I learned in the first fifteen years that I was doing this and learn how to flex my own muscles and let other people deal with the consequences, that it was okay for us to fight about that or disagree. In the end, generally, the director is always right unless you’ve got an incompetent director.

But it’s important that you have total ownership of what you’re doing. With actors as well as with nonactors, when you’re trying to do it right you’re not ever doing it well. And when you’re just doing it off the cuff in your own way — the way that you like it — it’s always better. It’s the same thing for every artform and form of expression. fluent: Some people are just better actors than oth-

ers. Is that a matter of choice and hard work, or does it require sensibilities that not everyone has? podulke: I believe that once you get a few years past being in school or whatever your training, if you’re not a good actor by that time you would have become a banker or whatever. We go around the country and dedicate our lives to poverty so people can see a play and like it or not like it. It’s this dedication to doing something perfectly and beautifully, and if you’re not good at it, it’s a miracle if you get through school let alone through the first few years after school. It’s my opinion that every actor is a good actor. If you’re at the place [in your career] that you’re coming here [to CATF], there’s no such thing as not a good actor. I think bad acting happens so infrequently that it’s an outlier. Most of the time, it’s great actors trying to do something great with something they’ve been cast in.

26 | fluent

I personally wrangle against the idea that there are bad actors in professional theater, as much as I fight against the idea that there are giants among us. I’ve worked with some great actors and I went to a good school, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Some legendary actors were brought in to talk with us there, and they’re just as confused and human as we are. Because that’s what we do, really, try to be human, and that’s muddy. And messy. fluent: How hard is acting?

podulke: It’s hard. To be a stage actor you have to

be smart; you have to be interested in history; have knowledge about the Irish Civil War of 1917 and all of the Elizabethan era and half of the Restoration era, the Jacobean era, artificial intelligence — everything you do. You have to get familiar with everything about the play, as much as you can. fluent: What does the research you do mean to an audience watching you in a performance? podulke: That’s a great question because it’s so fundamental I don’t know how to answer it. Once everybody does the research everybody’s on the same page about what it is we’re talking about. That’s the only conversation really we have for the next three weeks.

So it influences everything. It’s the springboard off which everything else follows, I think. We are lucky to have a phenomenal dramaturg in this one — Adrienne Sowers. She’s fantastic. fluent: Without the research, would you sort of feel

like an actor with no clothes on stage? podulke: Absolutely. Also, contrary to public opinion, whether or not you feel a thing on stage doesn’t ever translate to the audience feeling it. So you can go around emoting all you want, but way more important than that is that you know whereof you speak. Only then can you have ideas for a different way to do a thing in a way that might communicate thoughts that the playwright has written down better than the way you were trying to. If you don’t have six or seven of those for every single line done on stage, then the director will have nothing to direct, the play won’t have any place to grow.

So, how much work it is to be an actor? Even when you don’t have a role, when you’re just auditioning for a role, say, in NY, if I’m lucky I’ll have three

auditions a week. For each of those auditions, they’ll send me a minimum of six pages and a maximum of fifteen to prepare for the audition. I memorize them, many people don’t. I don’t work well if I don’t. So imagine 45 pages a week, and then also you’re doing construction jobs or whatever. [Podulke runs a handyman service in NY.] And you also have to watch your figure. I do 200 sit-ups and 100 push-ups every day.

And the auditions, that’s the free stuff…like you’re volunteering that time. Then you’re cast in the role, and you do all your preparatory work. Many people like to be as offbook as possible before they start re-

hearsals. You do your research, and your nose is in the script a lot. Actors as a bunch are avaricious readers. fluent: So you had committed this play to memory

before you arrived? podulke: Much of it.

fluent: What if there’s rewriting?

podulke: Whenever the playwright is here, there’s

massive rewriting. It’s harder to forget something than to memorize it. Our playwright has been very generous with us. If a moment doesn’t work, he’s u

Growing Up With CATF_________ “You’re the only person I know who knows their state’s birthday.” On June 20th of every year, I seem to hear this.

Although my driver’s license has read “State of New York” since 2007, I will always consider myself a West Virginian. I grew up in Charles Town, with new American theater growing up in my own backyard, and I hoped to one day be a part of the magic that happens every summer in Shepherdstown at CATF. That hope became reality when I came to work at CATF as Festival Coordinator for the 2008 season, having completed my first year of graduate study in dramaturgy. My experience working at CATF that summer, coupled with my education and training, gave me the confidence to dive into the exciting, competitive theater scene in New York as I continued my graduate career.

Dramaturg Adrienne Sowers with director Tom Dugdale during a rehearsal of the world premiere of “Uncanny Valley.”

After receiving my MFA, I returned to WV and soon after received a call from Peggy McKowen, Associate Producing Director, inviting me to join the staff of Shepherd University as an adjunct professor in theater. That summer at CATF, I was fortunate to collaborate with Ed Herendeen as his assistant director for the mainstage production of “Bad Dates.” Soon we were discussing my possible return to CATF the following season as dramaturg.

In June 2011, I was back at CATF, this time as dramaturg and assistant director for Kyle Bradstreet’s “From Prague.” I had never before gotten to develop a script with a playwright in the room as we prepared a play for its world premiere.

That summer, everything burned with an incandescent energy.

Fueled by the positivity of the summer, I relocated to NYC, and with a recommendation from Kyle, I began working as Writer’s Assistant for the BBC America series “Copper,” for which Kyle was writing. Working closely with the writers and actors, I grew to understand not only the television industry, but also my own strengths, skills and passion for creating compelling entertainment.

The series’ end signaled a new beginning in my life, and I decided to return to Shepherdstown for another wonderful summer before moving west to explore opportunities in LA. I am deeply honored to spend this season as dramaturg and assistant director for “Uncanny Valley” by Thomas Gibbons ….and to delve into this deliciously complex piece. The play is a collaborative effort, and to me, it exemplifies the spirit and passion that CATF has unwaveringly created for 24 seasons. It seems that home is where the art is.

— Adrienne Sowers fluent | 27

pretty quick to say, “Well, you don’t have to say it that way, you can say it another way.” Although he’s very particular, very specific as a playwright…always very conscious how he crafts it.

As an actor, you’re always in a situation where you’re with other actors talking about acting. Somebody said to me this week here on campus, that if the actor doesn’t remember it three times, it’s not the actor’s fault, it’s the playwright’s fault.

Because we’re all good at memorizing stuff — that part of our brain is used to it — if we can’t pick it up, there’s something chunky in it. Then the question is whether the director is willing to give that up. Tom Gibbons — I’ve never worked with him before, but I’m astonished at what a light touch he has. He’s so not heavy-handed with his work. It’s my favorite thing about him. His play is ripe with opportunities to make a point and he doesn’t ever do it. He just lets it be what it is and he doesn’t hit you over the head with a single thing. fluent: Acting sometimes entails a pretty itinerant

lifestyle. Is that true for you, and what tradeoffs does it require? podulke: Children. You don’t get to see your partner much, if you have a partner. When you travel, they 28 | fluent

forget about you in New York. It’s kind of a catch-22.

I think it’s possible to get rusty, but I think it’s also important to take breaks. It’s interesting that you can work and do the best work you’ve ever done in your life and then go back to a city where…“oh, yeah, who were you again?” fluent: What would you be if you weren’t an actor?

podulke: I have a lot of irons in the fire because I have a rich other life. I have a brick sculpture thing that I do. I do stained glass. I do carpentry. I like to make stuff, like furniture. I used to identify as a writer.

I have a one-man show — “DNA and the Dancing Fool” — that I wrote and did around the country for a while, about a corporate drone who quits his job to become a homeless interpretive dancer. It won the Stephen Klein Award for best new play of the year, presented in conjunction with The Playwrights Center, at the Minnesota Fringe Festival 14 years ago.

I think it’s really important to do as many things as you can and to keep your life as full as possible.

Partly because that informs the acting later. I definitely don’t want to be the kind of actor who doesn’t know the world, who doesn’t participate in life. I want to stub my toes as often as I can, I want to get in trouble and I want to fall down. fluent

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fluent | 29

UNCANNY VALLEY A National New Play

Network Rolling World Premiere by Thomas Gibbons | Directed by Tom Dugdale

The relationship between the creator and the created unfolds in the phenomenon known as the uncanny valley where Claire, a neuroscientist, works with Julian, an artificial being, on becoming human. Drawing on current research and the not-so-distant future, this spellbinding and deeply satisfying new play travels to the ethical heart of humankind’s bid to outrace mortality. How far are we willing to go to forget, while insisting on never being forgotten?

NORTH OF THE BOULEVARD By Bruce

Graham | Directed by Ed Herendeen

Business is falling apart, and so are the walls in this crumbling auto-repair shop on the wrong side of the Boulevard. Three childhood friends and one crusty old man sift through the merits of their floundering lives while confronting the vanishing middle-class around them. But just when the last road to prosperity seems at its deadend, a questionable opportunity unfolds before them: Are they corrupt enough to escape the corruption that’s ruining their neighborhood? This blistering, workingclass comedy aims for the gut and takes no prisoners.

ONE NIGHT By Charles Fuller | Directed by Ed Herendeen

Down on their luck, two Iraq war veterans mysteriously arrive at a seedy motel, looking for a place to hide and start over. They are burdened with secrets from their time in the sandbox and desperate to make sense of life in the here and now. As the trauma of the past blends unflinchingly into the present, this one 30 | fluent

night finds a soldier simmering in her patriotic duty for justice and freedom — her own. Raging against the searing subject of sexual abuse in the armed services, this suspenseful and provocative play asks: “Why am I a hero if I die, and a nuisance if I live?”

DEAD AND BREATHING A World Premiere by

Chisa Hutchinson | Directed by Kristin Horton

Carolyn is a cranky old broad who just wants to die already! She’s gone through almost as many nurses as she has treatments, but just can’t seem to kick the bucket.

With her new — profane but God-fearing — hospice caregiver all up in her “lady parts,” she sets about convincing Veronika to help her to just get it over with. Full of surprises, this hilarious exploration into mortality and morality tests the boundaries of faith and forgiveness, prejudice and pridefulness, when the stakes are nothing short of life…and death.

THE ASHES UNDER GAIT CITY A World Premiere by Christina Anderson | Directed by Lucie Tiberghien

When a devastating fire burned Gait City to the ground, the community decided to rebuild. An enduring and noble gesture, but with one crucial oversight: They forgot the black people. A popular internet guru, Simone The Believer, launches a campaign amongst her followers to encourage black Americans to migrate to this town and reclaim their roots. Inspired by the 19th Century exclusionary laws, this play delves into ownership, identity and the power of belief. It dramatically captures the influence of cult behavior, through technology’s lens, while tackling the continued and complicated nature of race in our contemporary world. fluent

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN

WEEK ONE

PREVIEWS: JUL 6-10 ONE NIGHT SUN, 7/6 7PM • WED, 7/9 8PM

** Opening Night, followed by the OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION ^^ These performances will be followed by a POST-SHOW DISCUSSION

THE ASHES UNDER GAIT CITY

by Christina Anderson

MARINOFF THEATER CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS II 62 WEST CAMPUS DRIVE RUN TIME: 100 MINUTES

SAT 7/12

SUN 7/13

10:00 am

CONTEXT

BREAKFAST

12:00 pm

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

ONE NIGHT

BOULEVARD

12:30 pm

DEAD AND BREATHING SUN, 7/6 7:30PM • WED, 7/9 8:30PM NORTH OF THE BOULEVARD TUE, 7/8 8PM • THUR 7/10 8PM

2:30 pm

DEAD

ASHES

THE ASHES UNDER GAIT CITY TUE, 7/8 8:30PM • THUR, 7/10 8:30PM

4:30 pm

LECTURE

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

ONE NIGHT

UNCANNY VALLEY TUE, 7/8 6PM • WED, 7/9 6PM • THUR, 7/10 6PM BOX OFFICE OPENS ONE HOUR PRIOR TO CURTAIN. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE.

WEEK TWO

TUES 7/15

WED 7/16

6:00 pm

ONE NIGHT**

BOULEVARD**

8:30 pm

DEAD**

ASHES**

THUR 7/17

FRI 7/18

SAT 7/19

SUN 7/20

CONTEXT

BREAKFAST

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

BOULEVARD

ONE NIGHT

12:00 pm

UNCANNY

12:30 pm

LUNCH & ART

UNCANNY VALLEY by Thomas Gibbons

2:00 pm

BOULEVARD

ONE NIGHT

STUDIO 112 • CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS I 92 WEST CAMPUS DRIVE RUN TIME: 90 MINUTES

2:30 pm

ASHES

DEAD

4:30 pm

DEAD AND BREATHING

by Chisa Hutchinson

MARINOFF THEATER CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS II 62 WEST CAMPUS DRIVE RUN TIME: 80 MINUTES

DEAD

8:00 pm

10:00 am

FRANK CENTER STAGE • 260 UNIVERSITY DRIVE RUN TIME: 100 MINUTES

UNCANNY**

6:30 pm

FRANK CENTER STAGE • 260 UNIVERSITY DRIVE RUN TIME: 100 MINUTES

by Bruce Graham

LUNCH & ART

2:00 pm

ONE NIGHT by Charles Fuller

NORTH OF THE BOULEVARD

FRI 7/11

BREAKFAST

6:00 pm

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

LUNCH & ART

UNCANNY

ASHES

DEAD

LECTURE

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

BOULEVARD

6:30 pm 7:00 pm

ASHES READING

8:00 pm

BOULEVARDˆˆ

ONE NIGHTˆˆ

BOULEVARD

8:30 pm

ASHES

DEAD

ASHES

10:30 pm WEEK THREE

ONE NIGHT DEAD SALON

TUES 7/22

WED 7/23

THUR 7/24

FRI 7/25

SAT 7/26

SUN 7/27

10:00 am

BREAKFAST

CONTEXT

BREAKFAST

LUNCH & ART

12:00 pm

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS II 62 WEST CAMPUS DRIVE ($30)

12:30 pm

ONE NIGHT

BOULEVARD

BREAKFAST WITH ED CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS II 62 WEST CAMPUS DRIVE ($25)

PRESENTED FREE OF CHARGE thanks to the West Virginia Humanities Council: LECTURE Distinguished guest speakers discuss issues raised in the plays at the popular Talk Theater Lecture Series at Reynolds Hall, 109 North King Street

LUNCH & ART

2:00 pm

ONE NIGHT

2:30 pm

DEAD

ASHES

4:30 pm 6:00 pm

UNCANNYˆˆ

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

DEAD

ASHES

LECTURE

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

ONE NIGHT

6:30 pm 7:00 pm

DEAD READING

8:00 pm

ONE NIGHT

BOULEVARD

ONE NIGHT

8:30 pm

DEADˆˆ

ASHESˆˆ

DEAD

10:30 pm

BOULEVARD ASHES SALON

READING Join the CATF company for Stage Readings of new plays in the Marinoff Theater, 62 West Campus Drive

SALON Enjoy a late-night drink, lite fare, and discussion with CATF staff at domestic, 117 E. German Street.

WEEK FOUR

TUES 7/29

WED 7/30

THUR 7/31

12:00 pm

UNCANNY

12:30 pm

CATF IN CONTEXT

2:00 pm

BOULEVARD

2:30 pm

ASHES

DEAD

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

4:30 pm 6:00 pm

304.876.3473 800.999.CATF (2283) www.catf.org

SAT 8/2

SUN 8/3

CONTEXT

BREAKFAST

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

BOULEVARD

ONE NIGHT

ASHES

DEAD

LUNCH & ART

A scholarly approach to the CATF repertory.

Free but requires reservation.

CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS II

BOX OFFICE

FRI 8/1

10:00 am

UNCANNY

LECTURE

UNCANNY

UNCANNY

BOULEVARD

6:30 pm 7:00 pm

ASHES READING

8:00 pm

BOULEVARD

ONE NIGHT

BOULEVARD

ONE NIGHT

8:30 pm

ASHES

DEAD

ASHES

DEAD

10:30 pm

SALON