Digging into Chekhov

By Neena Arndt, Literary Associate and Dramaturg for The Seagull

It’s easy to put on a Chekhov play. Lots of people do it. What’s hard is doing a Chekhov play well.

We who work in the theater know that. We know that Chekhov’s characters can seem out-of-date, that their meandering dialogue and inactivity can have a soporific effect on even the most avid playgoer. We have been put to sleep by Chekhov plays ourselves. We also know that the problem with most Chekhov productions is not Chekhov’s writing. The problem is that his writing is so subtle and nuanced that it is difficult for theater artists—especially those living in a culture and time period wholly different from Chekhov’s—to interpret. Even for those with talent and skill, Chekhov is hard. We who explore Chekhov are like ’49ers. (I mean the gold-seeking ones, not the football team, but feel free to invent your own Chekhov-is-like-football metaphor.) The ’49ers knew there was gold under the ground. They armed themselves with the best tools they could find. They worked hard. Some became dazzlingly rich; most did not. In Chekhov’s text, gold gleams underground. But it takes a skilled digger, and maybe a little luck, to shovel it up.

For those reasons, The Seagull is a brave and daunting choice. With our exceptional cast, led by intrepid director Robert Falls, it seemed from the beginning that we had a fighting chance at putting up a good Seagull. But not without a lot of work.

Over an extended rehearsal process, we dug deep. We explored character, we analyzed text, we used research to understand the society that the characters inhabit. We had a dance consultant, Béa Rashid, teach us Russian folk dances. Seasoned actors explored the play in ways they had never explored any play before. Some days, the exploration seemed to be going nowhere. Other days, we surged ahead, pulling shimmering nuggets from the ground one after another.

On stage, you will see the results of those weeks of hard work. We lay our gold before you.

The First Rehearsal

By Megan Delaney, Fan and Belinda Cratchit in A Christmas Carol

Today was my first day at A Christmas Carol practice. I got to see and meet all the cast members. I was amazed at how all of them were so funny and nice. Three of the Cratchit kids have red hair, just like the actress who plays our mom Mrs. Cratchit.

The first practice is when you read through your lines. Everyone sat around a table and did their part. It was amazing to see how all of the actors could read their lines sitting down but actually sound like they were on stage. They were perfect! Can you believe that the reading of the play only took 31 minutes, but the play is actually two hours long? That means we will use up another 90 minutes with action. The other thing we learned about today was the set. Alden the stage manager walked us through the set design using a miniature mock-up. It is a little dark box that is only 18 inches long and wide but it looks just like the real set. I felt like I was playing with a doll house. The detail was perfect. They had all the back drops and props. It was amazing.

We also heard from the director Mr. Brown about the meaning of A Christmas Carol. He told us the writer, Mr. Dickens, was so brilliant because even though he wrote the story in 1860, it still is true today. Do you know that England was at war with Afghanistan back in 1860? And there were coal miners then, too. I learned A Christmas Carol is about the fact that there is bad in the world but there is also good. There is hope. Bad people can turn good.

Today was my favorite day ever. I can't wait until my next rehearsal because we get to dance!

The Year Before I Was Selected

Posted by Megan Delaney, Fan and Belinda Cratchit in A Christmas Carol

It's early November, and rehearsals for the Goodman's annual production of A Christmas Carol are in full swing! Young performer Megan Delaney (left, with young performer supervisor Meg Grgurich) tells us about her journey onto the Albert stage.

Just one year ago I decided to audition for A Christmas Carol. After the audition I wrote a speech for school about my experience. The speech went like this:

“It was my first audition and a big one at that. I have always wanted to be in A Christmas Carol at the Goodman and so I begged and begged for my mom to let me audition. She finally said YES!

I was so excited and prepared very hard for my monologue and solo. I did a monologue from the book Chrysanthemum and sang the Christmas carol “Jolly Old St. Nicholas.” I thought the audition went well because one of the men said “Bravo! Bravo!” I found out later that the man who said this was the big director.

I was excited to hear they called me back for the part of Fan where I had to learn the Queen’s English in two days. It was so fun. There were three people at my callback including the director, assistant director and casting director. I had to act with a boy trying out for Young Ebenezer Scrooge. Afterward, the director asked me to change one part so I did. I felt really good about the audition because the people were all so nice and positive. The assistant director even hugged me before I left and the director told me “good job.”

In the end I didn’t get the part but I still was so excited and loved being a part of the audition. I told myself that next year my goal was to play Fan. Dreams come true with hard work. That is why I am here so I can grow as an actor. Thank you.”

Wow, dreams do come true because this year I did go back to audition again and I got the part! I am so excited to play Fan and Belinda in this year’s A Christmas Carol. I learned from this experience that this business requires a lot of auditions to get your dream part. Don’t give up. Believe and keep trying!

Sherpas, Space and the Social Scene

By Clayton Smith, Audience Development Coordinator

Sherpas, rejoice—3G cell phone coverage is now available on Mt. Everest! That’s right. Next time you scale the world’s tallest peak, make sure to bring your iPhone, because even though the air may be too thin to breathe, you’ll still be able to tweet. Mt. Everest FTW!

Can you believe it? Cell service at the top of Mt. Everest. And even that’s not so impressive when you consider the fact that last month someone checked into Foursquare from outer space. With all this in mind, I think it’s safe to say that social technology is officially everywhere.

Everywhere, that is, except The Melting Pot on Dearborn. Cozily ensconced in a trendy, subterranean setting, not even Sprint’s widely-touted 4G network can penetrate this wonderful fondue hot spot. I learned this the hard way at last week’s Scene subscriber preshow reception, when I tried to check into Foursquare from The Melting Pot’s chocolate fountain.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Goodman’s Scene subscription, it’s a subscription series package designed for young professionals that includes three Owen Theatre performances preceded by three swanky pre-performance receptions at local restaurants. The reception at The Melting Pot was the first of the season, where the cheese flowed like wine and the wine flowed like…well, like even more wine (much to the delight of the theater-loving subscribers).

A few weeks ago, I overheard (and by “overheard” I mean “awkwardly eavesdropped on”) an interesting conversation about the current state of the performing arts. The general gist of the discussion was that unless live theater as a whole comes around to working social technologies into its very fabric, the art form is doomed, destined to a dismal decline on some darkened shelf labeled “passé.” As the new audience development coordinator at the Goodman, one of my responsibilities is to work with our social media outlets to develop a strong social community network around our organization.

If popular studies are to be believed then an amazingly high percentage of our friends at The Melting Pot were in the right age bracket so as to be incredibly tech-savvy individuals. After The Melting Pot dinner and drinks soiree, they continued the evening at our production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, a three-hour nineteenth-century Russian classic that—in this production—barely utilizes props, much less any sort of social media technology. The evening began in an underground space and transferred into an intimate 350-seat theater, and over the course of the evening, not a single one of the 100 cell phones, 97 Facebook accounts, 72 Twitter feeds, and 38 Foursquare accounts were accessible. More importantly, not a single person seemed to care.

Social technology is terribly exciting to me (I get downright giddy at the knowledge that I could check in at the North Pole). But even so, last week’s Scene reception was a great reminder that no matter how far we go with social media, nothing will replace the vivacity of socializing in person, making new connections over cheese fondue or experiencing a full-blooded live-action drama up close and personal.

Besides, you can always tweet about it later.

The Seagull Takes Flight

After 10 preview performances, The Seagull officially opened last night. So far, audience reaction to Robert Falls’ powerful new production of the artistically-demanding classic has been overwhelmingly positive. How can it not be? Chekhov’s unforgivingly honest characters are brought to life by a stellar cast of some of Chicago’s best actors, whose complete embodiment of the varying shades of humanity pervade the intimate Owen Theatre, in a chaotic and engrossing theatrical experience—one that has already raised eyebrows at the Chicago Sun-Times, Time Out Chicago and the Chicago Tribune.

Have you seen The Seagull? Did you have a favorite scene? Tell us about your experience.

What I bet you didn't know about Mary Zimmerman

Posted by Lauren Molina, Cunegonde in Candide

Mary Zimmerman is amazing for many reasons. She is a certified, lauded genius. Her imagery onstage is creative and breathtaking. She is articulate, and knows more about theatre, history and art than anyone I know. When she speaks, a room goes hush, and all eyes and ears are like laser beams on her every word.

What the world doesn’t know, is that Mary Zimmerman loves to watch “The Jersey Shore”, saying in rehearsal “it’s just so sad, because Sammy really loves him” and referencing the “shirt before the shirt”. When she spoke about genuinely caring about the characters, my mouth was agape. It was both shocking and brilliant.

Mary also loves “Project Runway”. She is an incredible cook, and bakes the most delicious peach and blueberry pies. She giggles in an adorable high pitched tone. She always has her old shepherd mixed dog, Beary, by her side. He even follows her up onstage during tech. She is sweet, generous, goofy and is tickled by cheesiness.

Last day before tech, Geoff Packard and I were working on the final reunion moment with Mary. It is a very tender and sad scene. For the first time, Candide is expressing to her and to himself that his consistent optimistic philosophy is not realistic, and his ideal of Cunegonde and the world is basically shattered.

This led to an intense discussion of the delivery of the lines and the moral/message of the entire play. I mentioned to Mary that I missed a big speech of Candide’s about optimism that had been cut a few days before.

She replied modestly, saying something to the effect of “I won’t deny that it was well written, but at this stage you have to keep cutting with a vengeance. You need to trim the bush until it's almost dead, before it can bloom.” This was quickly one of my favorite Mary Zimmerman quotes.

Another favorite quote of mine was from the first day of rehearsal when discussing the period of the play. She said she didn’t want to restrict it to one period exactly, but it’s “period-lite or period flavored.” Hilarious.

In a nutshell, I love Mary Zimmerman and I will travel anywhere to work under her direction again.

See my pictures from rehearsals!

From “We’re Not Gonna Take It” to “Glitter and Be Gay”

Posted by Lauren Molina, Cunegonde in Candide

For the last 2 years, I have been performing in the hilarious 80s rock musical ROCK OF AGES on Broadway and Off-Broadway playing a hippie activist named Regina.

It was a highly comedic role, and my big solo moments were belting out such tunes as “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” by Pat Benetar, “We Built This City” by Jefferson Starship, and “The Final Countdown” by Europe. It was so much fun, and the rambunctious enthusiastic audiences would sing along and often get drunk during the show.

It was an amazing turn when I found out I booked CANDIDE, and to play opposite Geoff Packard, a castmate from ROCK OF AGES! At my last performance, before leaving for Chicago, Geoff went on for the lead role of Drew. It was a great way to share our last experience of ROCK together.

As one might imagine, it was a huge vocal gearshift from 80s rock belting to legit lyrical soprano singing. I knew I must take time to warm-up thoroughly before each rehearsal, steam my vocal chords, drink throat coat tea, and take caution when talking late night.

Cunegunde’s big number, “Glitter and Be Gay” is a beast of an aria for a coloratura soprano. It is tremendously challenging. The song sits in a very high tessitura, gsoaring to a high Eb, with fast articulations in each “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha”, and utilizes tricky counterpoint between vocal line and the musical accompaniment. It is not a song that one can roll out of bed and sing, even for opera singers.

Mary Zimmerman’s staging of “Glitter and Be Gay” is brilliant, in that it is not just a ‘stand and sing’ number. I don’t want to give too much away, but I enter on a lift, in a very unexpected way! I begin the song, and proceed to get dressed in period costumes; corset, bloomers, petticoat, dress, jewels. The activity actually helps sing each phrase, and relaxes me somehow, distracting me from the difficulty of the song. I’m not just thinking about my singing because I have tasks to complete.

Doug Peck has been very supportive in making this song my own. He even encouraged me to sing a high F, instead of one of the high runs that only pops up to a high Eb. 

During the rehearsal process in general, Mary has given me various notes in getting rid of my habits that I’ve formed from ROCK OF AGES such as “don’t always play the for the joke” or “not every line has to be funny”. When you play the truth, the comedy will come naturally without forcing it or planning it. The comedy in “Glitter and Be Gay” is found in the fact that Cunegunde is finding the silver lining, the optimism in the sad life she’s being forced to live as a mistress in a “gilded cage”.

Cunegunde is not mere ingénue. She is a more complex character than one might expect. She is one of the few characters in the show that changes from start of the play to middle and then again at the end of the play. She begins as an pretty, optimistic, young, naïve, girl, then suffers the brutality of rape, abuse, and violence by Bulgar soldiers, then she is forced into being a mistress to a Banker, Inquisitor, Lord Governor, thus losing her optimism. Finally, she is sold into slavery, where she does laundry and has lost all her beauty and hope. When she is reunited with Candide in the end, she knows she is not what he imagined she would be, but clings to him as her savior. It is tragic and sad, but at least they have found each other.

Mary reminded me that in discovering the character, “when you feel lost, always ground one foot in truth”.

Check out me and the cast singing the National Anthem at the Cubs game.