When the Magic Happens

Posted by Christina Nieves (Novice in The Sins of Sor Juana)

I am playing the Novice in The Sins of Sor Juana. I love this play because Juana's journey reminds me that the road of an artist is sometimes tedious and lonely, but it is also joyful and necessary.

We have spent the last three weeks exploring this beautiful play, and tech is almost here. Tech is the most exciting time of the process for me because it’s when the magic happens.

My favorite moments are sitting in the dark theater watching the actors discover the space, watching the set come together and the lights focus, watching the paint dry—watching it all come together. I am always humbled by this collaboration.

Tech is especially exciting this time because I can’t wait to put on my nun costume. Sister Act is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I won't be able to resist the urge to break out in song: Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no river wide enough...

Whoopi Goldberg, I'm comin for ya!

See you in the theater,

Christina

Why The Sins of Sor Juana?

Posted by Artistic Director Robert Falls

Although she is relatively unknown to non-Spanish-speaking readers, Juana Inés de la Cruz is one of the most compelling figures in all of Spanish literature, and one of the most revered authors in the development of Mexican culture. A self-taught Latin scholar, and a talented writer and musician, Juana was sent at a young age from the small village of San Miguel Nepantla to Mexico City, where her intellectual prowess (and her reputed beauty) attracted the patronage of the wife of the viceroy Antonio Sebastián de Toledo.

Although Juana thrived at the palace, the conventions of her time forced her to enter a religious order to further pursue her intellectual interests. She took the name Sor Juana and spent an uncomfortable time with the ascetic Carmelites, then joined the more welcoming Hieronymites, with whom she flourished. Sor Juana wrote poetry and treatises which eloquently defended the study of science and the education of women. Though these compositions are now considered to be among the most important in the Golden Age of Spanish literature, her work offended the church hierarchy. Abandoned by her powerful mentors, she ultimately withdrew from her literary pursuits, sequestered herself in an isolated room in the convent and took to writing religious vows in her own blood, signing them “Juana, the worst of all.” At the age of 46, she perished in a cholera epidemic, her work largely ignored by her contemporaries.

The story of this remarkable woman has spawned an equally remarkable play, Karen Zacarías’ The Sins of Sor Juana. Far from a standard docudrama, Zacarías has reimagined the life and work of Sor Juana in a soaring dramatic celebration, filled with the passion, wit, romance and rigorous intellect that has made Sor Juana a true legend. Guiding this production will be Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez, a longtime champion of this play, who memorably directed the Goodman world premiere of Zacarías’ Mariela in the Desert. Henry has chosen The Sins of Sor Juana to be the centerpiece of our 5th Latino Theatre Festival, which commemorates the bicentennial of Mexican Independence and the centennial of the Mexican Revolution with a series of readings, presentations by local Latino theater companies and special events at Millennium Park as well as at the Goodman. This festival will feature another landmark event: the U.S. premiere of Cuba’s celebrated Teatro Buendía, which has received praise around the world for its disciplined, highly physical theatrical style.

The Sins of Sor Juana and the Latino Theatre Festival provide a multifaceted ending to a Goodman season that is notable, I think, for its range and variety—from the delights of Animal Crackers to the searing insights of Eugene O’Neill and Samuel Beckett, and featuring distinguished new plays by Dael Orlandersmith, Brett C. Leonard and Rebecca Gilman. As with all of our work at Goodman Theatre, I hope that you have found productions that have challenged you, provoked you and entertained you. As always, we thank you for your support and patronage—and we look forward to seeing you next season.

Robert Falls
Artistic Director

We hope you are as excited as we are about The Sins of Sor Juana! Please share your questions and comments with us, below.

An Equation for a Great Show

Posted by Austin Savage, Observer for the Society of Directors & Choreographers for The Good Negro

Hello Goodman blog followers! The Good Negro has just completed its tech week and we are ready to start fine-tuning the show for our May 10th opening. Since the beginning of my participation in the show, I have observed a few interesting things that feel compelled to share with you:

1. Ever since the first day of rehearsal, director Chuck Smith has yet to remove what he calls his “working cap.” This ever-present cap has become integral to my image of Chuck. The equation is essentially: Thoughtful Director + Hat = Chuck Smith.

2. Tracey Scott Wilson is SUPER-photogenic. Her headshot on page 8 of the Goodman’s OnStage magazine is pretty cool. She writes even better than she photographs.

3. I find that I am able to identify with the vices of my heroes much more easily than I identify with their virtues. Their vices give me confidence that my virtues are as attainable to me as their virtues were to them. That gives me hope for not only for myself, but for humanity on a larger scale.

4. This cast can act. As my friend Russo would say, “They got some chops.”

5. The biggest difference between my previous theatrical experiences and this one is the amount of care that has been involved in this production. Every person I have encountered in this production cares. This is the first project in my burgeoning career in which the amount of sincerity and genuine passion for the piece is apparent in every aspect of the show, from the soles of the shoes to the powerful performances on stage. I hope you can all make it out to the show.

Hoping to one day see the top of Chuck’s head in person,
Austin Savage

“Partna” or “Partner”

Posted by Terrence Mosley (Assistant Director of The Good Negro)

Intimacy among men has always been a hot-button issue. Most don’t usually want to admit that we need each other. Most of us don’t want to admit that we need help—period.

“I don’t need directions…I know exactly where I’m going”…Right.

I’ve been thinking about this issue during The Good Negro rehearsal process. We were sitting around the table working on a scene that dealt with the deep relationship between two male characters, when our director Chuck Smith stopped the actors and proclaimed, “When I was growing up, I had Partna! He was the guy that had my back no matter what.”

I retorted, “Nowadays, people have partners.” The table laughed at my wit (at least that’s how I remember it), but Chuck’s comment got me thinking.

It seems that that the bond between men was more evident—and maybe even stronger—50 years ago. What has changed in the span of 50 years to make intimacy between men considered negative? I'm not saying that men ran around hugging each other. Maybe men did not put their feelings on display or express them publicly all the time, but when you look at the photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, you could see true intimacy and trust between them. These men had a deep rapport…they were “partnas,” as Chuck Smith would say. They held each other up. They weren’t afraid to touch, to pray, to celebrate, to cry, to be with each other and to show the full extent of their friendship in public.

Now, men are forced to hide their intimacy in order to keep social order, sometimes even in their own lives. As more GBLT Americans come to the forefront and become part of the fabric of our everyday lives, straight men seem to be becoming more fearful of expressing intimacy—physical or otherwise.

I ask: “So what if two male friends hug? Does their hug mean anything other than that these two men have a strong bond? Does it mean that they are more than friends? And if they are more than friends, why does it matter if they’re partnas or partners?

I think The Good Negro does an excellent job of showing intimate moments between men…something we all need to become more comfortable with.

The Life-Changing Minute

Posted by Austin Savage, Observer for the Society of Directors & Choreographers for The Good Negro

I was sitting at home in El Paso, Texas, when a mysterious phone number flashed across my cell phone. I normally choose to avoid answering unknown numbers due to the fact that they tend to be solicitous calls for magazine subscriptions or automated voices relating to student loan payments. However, the prefix listed it as a Chicago number, and I decided to answer in the hope that it may have something to do with the fact that I had recently applied to be an Observer for the Society of Directors & Choreographers for the Goodman Theatre production of The Good Negro. The call went like this:

ME: (Shakily) Hello?

KINDLY VOICE: Hello? Is this Austin Savage?

ME: (Equally frightened/hopeful) Yes.

KINDLY VOICE: This is Chuck Smith.

ME: (Trying to play it cool after immediately recognizing the name thanks to online research leading up to my application essay, including this clip.) How are you doing, sir?

KINDLY VOICE: I’m doing fine. I was calling to see if you were still interested in working on The Good Negro. Are you still interested?

ME: (Scrooge-on-Christmas-morning-giddy) Yes, sir! Absolutely! Yes, very much, most interested. Definitely interested, sir. Uh...yes. Thank you, sir.

KINDLY VOICE: You don’t have to call me “sir.” Just call me Chuck.

ME: (Afraid of already blowing it) Sorry, sir...Chuck! Sorry Chuck.

KINDLY VOICE: Alright, I’ll let them know and we’ll get all the arrangements taken care of. You should get your contract soon and I look forward to meeting to you.

ME: (Officially catatonic) Me too.

KINDLY VOICE: Take care.

ME: Me too.

That was it. In less than one minute I was going to be working at the Goodman. (I had actually interviewed for an internship at the Goodman this past fall. I got the call about the interview while working at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and I flew back home, then hopped into a rental car with my girlfriend the next day to make the 24-hour drive to the Goodman for the interview. I didn’t get that gig, but karma and work ethic eventually get you where you want to go!)

Unfortunately, there was no one around to immediately share the good news with, so I just jumped around the room like Tommy Lasorda after Gibby’s homer in ’88 (for those of you who don’t know or have forgotten, check out the 9:15 mark).

We are nearly two weeks in to our rehearsal process, but that abundant enthusiasm has still not left me—I’m at one of the greatest theaters in the world with an incredible director, talented cast and incredibly talented playwright! As required by the SD&C I am “observing this process in order to further develop myself as an emerging young professional.” So far, Goodman Theatre has held true to its claim that it is “what great theater should be.” It’s hard not to be continually excited when you find yourself surrounded by intelligence, inspiration and artistic sincerity on a daily basis, and it is my hope that I can take these lessons learned here and apply them to my own start up theater company back home.

I am thankful for the opportunity provided to me through The Good Negro and I hope to share the journey with you in further posts.

Take care!
Austin Savage

The Echoes of Our Past

Posted by Terrence Mosley (Assistant Director of The Good Negro)

I was Chuck Smith's Assistant Director on a play called First Words by Aaron Carter at MPAACT, and I was honored when he asked me to be his assistant for this important and relevant play by Tracey Scott Wilson.

We have been in rehearsal for about a week now, and it has been an incredible experience. It's pure electricity in the room, and all of the actors in the cast are bringing their A-game to Tracey’s amazing and challenging piece.

The strides that King and his contemporaries made in the 1960s have allowed me, as an African American, many basic freedoms. His work has made the playing ground more equal for all.

King's dreams echo in the dreams of President Barack Obama, whose bipartisanship and innovative ideas are reminiscent of King’s. I don't think President Obama's openness would be possible without leaders like King who, at the risk of losing a whole people's shot at equality and dignity, had to constantly be the "Good Negro.” Leaders like King were just men, however. They were not saints or saviors; they were just men with thoughts, fears and faults.

The Good Negro reminds me how much of our past echoes in our present, and I hope that people will remember what it took to get here, and decide to continue to press forward.

Why The Good Negro?

Posted by Artistic Director Robert Falls

For many of us, the great civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s lives in our minds through indelible images: the solemn faces of black children being taunted by white picketers as they enter a newly integrated school; silent masses of sit-down strikers at a Woolworth’s lunch counter; the ruins of a bombed-out church, a tomb for four innocent girls; the unforgettable face of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he addresses tens of thousands on the Washington National Mall. These snapshots (and scores of others like them) captured the tumultuous battles of the civil rights movement and transmitted them to the world, battles which have taken on the mythology of legend in the half-century since they were fought.

But what is the truth behind this mythology? In her fascinating new play The Good Negro, Tracey Scott Wilson explores the challenges facing the leaders of one potentially virulent battle in the civil rights war in an unnamed city in Alabama in the watershed year of 1962. Though the incidents in The Good Negro are fictionalized, the obstacles faced by the characters are based in reality: the difficulties in mobilizing a populace cowed by centuries of oppression, the in-fighting among the movement’s organizers about the best ways in which to wage the battle, the constant surveillance of the group’s activities by an FBI team determined to quash the unrest. And there are other, thornier obstacles: the tensions between the needs of the movement itself and the needs, both personal and political, of the people propelling the movement. With unflinching honesty and unerring theatricality, Wilson shows us a part of the movement that is not revealed by those iconic photographs: the private torments the organizers endured to create the public face—the face of what would be considered a “good” leader in the civil rights movement.

First produced last season in a collaboration between the Dallas Theater Center and the Public Theater in New York, The Good Negro highlights the enormous complexities that are inevitably part of every political struggle. As in her previous play The Story (produced at the Goodman in 2005 in a powerful rendering by Resident Director Chuck Smith, who is staging The Good Negro), Wilson honors the drive for racial equality in America without avoiding the difficult questions that confront that drive, the unavoidable clash between private ethics and public good. The Good Negro is an insightful, eloquent and at times painfully human view of what is inarguably the most important social and political movement of our country’s history. It is a view that demands to be seen—and one that I know you will find compelling.

Robert Falls
Artistic Director

We hope you are as excited as we are about The Good Negro! Please share your questions and comments with us, below.