1314 Program Notes: Two Men Talking

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program

Mondavi

Photo by Judy Schiller

Two Men talking

Wednesday–saturday, february 5–8, 2014 Vanderhoef studio theatre

Two Men talking A VST Visions Event Wed–Sat • Feb 5–8 • 8PM Vanderhoef Studio Theatre Sponsored by

Individual Support Provided by Joe and Betty Tupin

Dear Audience,

I

n 2001, I sat in a cafe in Chelsea, New York City, to meet Paul Browde and Murray Nossell. They wanted advice from me about creating a piece of storytelling theatre in which they could explore the true story of their friendship live before an audience. They would tell stories, they might sing, they would talk to each other. I was tantalized by the idea, excited by all the possibilities, questioning how such a piece of theatre could be created. Eventually, at one point in the conversation I just couldn’t help myself—I blurted out ‘I want to direct this!’ When I left the cafe an hour later I left as the director of Two Men Talking and thus began one of the most stimulating and challenging creative relationships of my life.

When we started work I didn’t realize the enormous journey we were embarking on—enormous for me personally in that it has shaped much of my life since, but also because together we were creating a bold theatrical framework that was to be challenging for all of us. I was asking Paul and Murray to step onstage each night and tell their story with no script and no staging. As if telling their life story wasn’t a vulnerable enough exercise in itself, I was inviting them to tell the story afresh every night, as it occurred to them in the moment with a new audience, allowing the listening of the audience to create how the story would be told. I was also asking of myself that I find a way to prepare them for this task.

Who knew that I would learn so much about theatre from two non-actors and so much about how storytelling works from a story that is extemporized in the moment? That singular challenge remains the same to this day and the learning for all of us continues.

Everything you hear in this piece is true and happened to them. I have always been humbled by Murray and Paul’s honesty and the bravery inherent in telling their stories to an audience. These are stories of isolation, pain, fear—and they are also stories of joy, hope and life. Although the facts of our histories are fixed and immutable, the stories we tell about them change over time. So it is with the performance of Two Men Talking and I feel privileged to still be on this ever-changing and expanding journey of stories 13 years later.

So in today’s performance, as it has always been, the event of Two Men Talking will shape itself as it unfolds, and to me this offers the rare and exciting opportunity of a truly ‘live’ and communal experience with an audience.

This is what theatre at its best should always be.

Dan Milne 2014

Biographies Murray Nossel, Ph.D.

(Creator / Performer) Murray Nossel Ph.D. is an entrepreneur, Academy Award nominated filmmaker, performer and educator. Nossel is co-creator of Narativ, Inc. and The Listening & Storytelling Method™. He has designed and conducted listening and storytelling trainings throughout the world, with organizations such as the Open Society Foundations, UNICEF, Disney, Time Warner and the International Transport Workers’ Federation.

Nossel is co-writer / performer in the critically acclaimed storytelling performance Two Men Talking, which has played off-Broadway in New York, on London’s West End, and in Canada, South Africa and Australia.

Nossel’s documentary films have screened in major film festivals across the world. Why Can’t We Be A Family Again? was nominated for an Academy Award, A Brooklyn Family Tale aired on PBS and his highly acclaimed Paternal Instinct aired on HBO and the BBC. Nossel practiced as a clinical psychologist in his native South Africa. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University where he currently serves on the teaching faculty of the Department of Narrative Medicine.

PAUL BROWDE

(Creator/Performer) Paul Browde is a medical doctor and a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City, where he works using narrative approaches to treat individuals and couples. He is a member of the teaching faculty in the Department of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. He previously trained as an actor at Drama Studio London, where he graduated with distinction.

Paul is co-founder of Narativ, Inc., a personal storytelling company. The Listening & Storytelling Method™ developed by Narativ has developed out of extensive research, practice and evolution. Narativ’s commitment is to make the teaching of listening and storytelling accessible to anyone who wants to tell their personal story. Narativ has worked with Fortune 500 companies, NGOs and individuals around the world, training them to use their personal stories to improve health care and as advocacy tools.

Paul is co-creator and performer with Murray Nossel Ph.D. of Two Men Talking, an internationally acclaimed improvised storytelling performance, which has played on the West End of London and off-Broadway in New York. They have been artists in residence at the Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Maryland and at the Newman Center in Denver.

DAN MILNE (Director) Dan Milne is a director, actor and theatre maker. He trained at the Drama Studio London, following an English degree at Cambridge University. Dan has worked extensively in theatre across the UK and in London. He has toured the world with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic Theatre Company as both an actor and an associate director. Most recently he has been acting with Complicite in their latest production, Lionboy, and has just finished a run of From Morning To Midnight at the National Theatre in London.

Dan is co-artistic director of Wonderbar Productions in Los Angeles. For Wonderbar he co-directed The Cherry Orchard Project (a site-specific production in a house in Pasadena).

He was Executive Producer of their feature documentary The Longest Game (Woodstock Film Festival selection 2013, Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema—nominated Best Documentary and Best Director 2014). He is also Executive Producer of the upcoming narrative feaure You Were Never Here to be filmed in Fall 2014.

As well as his creative projects, Dan is a director of Narativ, Inc. in London. He designs and delivers storytelling programs for individuals and organizations around the world.