OCTOBER 1998 ----------------------------In this issue------------------------------------------ Rubin's Corner a ghost story The Play's the Thing A simple twist of fate Letter from London Laurence Gibson welcomes Nicole Kidman to the London boards Enter Laughing and the halloween seance CyberTheatre Monthly This month: Dodger's Stages of Learning and The Playwrights' Listserver ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ RUBIN'S CORNER Ghosts in the Theatre Since its October, the month where ghosts seem to walk the earth, we begin to realize that the theater has its share of these creatures. When the Disney people began the renovation of the New Amsterdam on 42nd Street the actually go to meet the ghost of a young women who walked the theater almost every night. The story goes that her lover killed her in the early days of performances at this theatre. However, the most ghosts are not on Broadway, but on the London stage. I would guess that they have had a lot more time to develop ghosts. The audience settles in at the Garrick Theatre in Charing Cross Road. The manager, almost unnoticed, crosses the back of the theater with the night’s takings. He is walking towards his office door. He keeps walking toward his office doors, but actually goes through a wall. This is the spirit of Arthur Bouchier, who repeats in death the duties he did in life. The fact is that in London not only the Garrick, but The Adelphi, St.Martins, Haymarket and the Druy Lane have a ghost. The most famous ghosts in London live in the Drury Lane Theatre, home of "Ms. Saigon". There are actual four ghosts living here, which include a man in gray and an Edwardian comedian. The man in gray walks the grand circle, but only if the show is going to be a hit. When the theater was reconstructed in 1920 the workmen found a male skeleton with a knife through its ribs. This is the very sport where the gray ghost begins his walk. This theatre has a Fireman ghost with white hair. The comedian is Dan Leno who first appeared during the auditions of the "King and I", to help do the auditions. The famous eighteenth century actor J.B. Buckstone appears at the equally famous Haymarket Theatre Royal. This beautiful theatre, my favorite London venue, was originally a haymarket in the summer, when all of London left town for vacation. You can guess who was responsible for selling the hay which was placed in the theatre. It is worth a visit to the theatre and you may even get to meet Mr. Buckstone. In the Adelphi, Victorian hero William Terris can be seen late at night leaving by the old Royal entrance in Madien Lane. A rival found Terris murded as he headed toward the Strand one evening. Could have it been that rival who did Terris in at the stage door. Perhaps you can ask him the next time your in London since he recreates the murder every evening a short time after the cast of "Chicago" has left the theatre. In the next few week see if you can find the ghost in your local theatre. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE PLAY'S THE THING Hello again TRE readers! After covering so many different playwrights, foreign and domestic, I thought you all might enjoy learning something about a playwright from Spain’s Golden Age of Theatre. See, I do read something other than Shakespeare at times . . . shhhhh, don’t tell the Bard that though! Pedro Calderon De La Barca (1600 - 1681) wrote more than 200 plays, but only about 100 of them survive today. His first play, Love, Honor and Power, was performed at court in 1623 and by 1626 he gained popularity at court and with the public. Calderon’s plays, drawing from his deeply held religious beliefs, were admired for their spiritual values and lessons of faith. Philip IV loved the theatre. In 1632 he built El Beun Retiro which included a theatre equipped with an opening in the back of the stage so that the palacial gardens could be used as a backdrop for the plays. In 1636 Philip IV knighted Calderon and made him the director of court performances. Late in his life Calderon entered the priesthood. He was named chaplain to the kind in 1633 and died in retirement in 1681. Calderon become one of the most important of the Spanish playwrights and the last of the Golden Age of Spanish Theatre. The play examined this month, Life is a Dream, is considered one of his finest plays. The plot somewhat parallels Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, in which a prediction of a son’s future causes drastic action on the part of the father. Unlike the father of Oedipus, who is willing to kill his son to save himself, Basil imprisons Segismund in a cave, attended by an old courtier Clotaldo. Segismund must struggle to escape his beast-like condition with the aid of a woman, Rosaura. The article looks examines the role of Fate. From the Greeks came the notion that fate was inescapable. By the time of Calderon the role of fate, with the help of the church, becomes a force that can be dealt with and ultimately changed. Calderon shows humanity’s triumph over a doomed future, with the bright promise of hope for all who dare to challenge their fated lot in life. A Simple Twist of Fate Since the dawn of theatre, playwrights have wrestled with the perplexing concepts of the universe. Love, hate, war, and death have all been subjects of one play or another as people try to grasp an understanding of how these intangible notions fit into an orderly world. Fate has also been a subject of many plays, as in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, the story of a man fated to kill his father and marry his mother. In Life Is A Dream by Pedro Calderon de la Barca, fate is a major theme. At some point in the play nearly every character discusses how fate, a seemingly immutable force, directly affects them. Through the voices of his characters, Calderon de la Barca, presents a changing world of fate in the lives of humanity. The classical view of fate, that man could not escape fate or was doomed to play out the role fate had in store, gave way to a new, neoclassical view of fate. In the emerging movement to empower people, fate could now be changed, controlled, and forced to conform to the will of the fated subject. Doom could be escaped and futures could be changed. Fate, rather than controlling lives, becomes the strings that hold up the puppet. People are the puppermasters controlling those strings. Three characters present Calderon de la Barca’s view of the changing role of fate. Fate has affected each of the characters either directly or indirectly. Yet each of them desires to break free from the fate that traps them. Most affected at the hands of fate is Segismund, the beastlike son of Basil, who has been imprisoned for life due to a prophecy surrounding his birth. Fate decided the lot of Segismund man early on. Basil recounts the birth of Segismund whose birth caused all of nature to rage against the child with darkened skies, earthquakes, hail, and rivers of blood. His mother dies giving birth to, "The human viper of this century," (I. 490). Basil states that the life of Segismund would lead to chaos in the kingdom and, much like the predictions of an early doomed king named Oedipus, "He, risen in fury, amidst crimes and horrors, was born to trample me," (I. 519-522). Like the father of Oedipus, Basil decides to believe the prophecy and bend the will of fate if possible when he says, "So I, believing in the Fates, and in the havoc that their prophecies predestined, determined to cage up this newborn tiger to see if on the stars we sages have some power," (I. 526-530). This is a direct challenge to the power of fate. Where the father of Oedipus thought to escape fate by ordering his son killed, which fate intervened to prevent, Basil confronts fate, challenging it to see to what extend his own power can bend it. He gives credence to the possibility of the predictions being correct but warns against blind belief: Now here is the third and last point I would speak of, Namely, how great an error it has been To give too much belief to things predicted, Because, even if his inclination should Dictate some headlong, rash precipitancies, They may perhaps not conquer him entirely, For the most accused destiny, the most Violent inclination, the most impious Planet -- all can influence, not force The free will which man holds direct from God. (I. 559-568) Basil is not alone in his estimation that fate can be conformed or changed. Clotaldo, entrusted with the imprisonment and education of Segismund, voices his own belief when Segismund is brought to the palace for a test. He states, "But trusting that you’ll prudently defeat your own malignant stars (since they can be controlled by magnanimity) you’ve been brought to this palace from the tower you knew," (II. 192-195). The shift in power from fate controlling destiny, to nobility, controlled by God, having the power to control fate, is stated again by Clotaldo. Toward the end of the play Clotaldo’s speech sums up the new emerging view of the role of fate in the lives of people: Though Fate, my lord, knows every path, and finds Him who it seeks, even in the midst of crags And thickets, it is not a Christian judgment To say there is no refuge from its fury. A prudent man can conquer Fate itself. Though you are not exempt from misfortune Take action to escape it while you can! (III. 616-623) Yet all is not as simple as taking action to escape. Even Basil has to doubt if this fate can be overcome. Basil’s reluctance to completely trust the fated prophecy is tested when, having revoked Segismund’s confinement for a night, his son throws a servant from a window. He tells Segismund, "It grieves me, Prince, that, when I hoped to see you forewarned, and overriding Fate, in triumph over your stars, the first thing I should see should be such rigour -- that your first deed here should be a grievous homicide," (II. 302-306). At the play’s conclusion, Basil’s dashed hopes are restored as he sees his son finally vanquish the doomed fate. Yet for all these voices of the play, it is the voice of Segismund, the one in the grips of fate, that shows the passage of man’s view of fate from being set in stone, to being pliable in the hands of a wise man. Segismund still doubts if he can overcome what has been determined to be his path. Questioning all that has happened to himself, he states, "Fate should not be coerced by man’s injustice -- this rouses more resentment," (III. 685-686). Segismund sees that though his life of imprisonment was forced on him unjustly, he must not think as the rash beast he was, but as the emerging prudent man he will become. Yet he has to ponder if he can completely tame the beast that fate has determined he will become, telling his father, Basil, that, "he who seeks to tame his fortune must resort to moderation and to measure. He who foresees an evil cannot conquer it this in advance, for though humility can overcome it, this is can do only when the occasion’s there, for there’s no way to dodge one’s fate and thus evade the issue," (III. 687-693). Segismund’s words reflect not only his own doubts as to whether he can escape his predetermined course, but his admonition to Basil for trying to escape it as well. Segismund asks his father, "Can I, younger in age, less brave, and less in science that the king, conquer that fate?" (III. 702-703). Segismund is at the crossroads. He can follow his fate and live out the prophecy to destroy his father for the evil thrust upon him, or he can choose to defeat the fate laid before him. One can imagine the entire court waiting for the outcome when Segismund turns to his father saying, "Sire, rise, give me your hand, now that the heavens have shown you that you erred as tot he method to vanquish them. Humbly I kneel before you and offer my neck to tread upon," (III. 704-707). Overcome with the wisdom and mercy of his son, Basil that his "great and noble act" has restored son and father, and Segismund is worthy of praise, "For you have conquered," (III. 708-711). Through determination and nobility of character, Segismund is able to rise above the oppressive weight of fate and find a way to escape it. He is transformed by fate instead of crushed by it. Segismund could have easily followed the path fate put him on, but with a simple twist, he chose to change. He chose to remove the millstone placed about his neck. He was empowered by rational thought to determine his own course. Fate is no longer the controlling taskmaster. It is the slave of will and self-determination. Works Cited Calderon de la Barca, Pedro. Life Is A Dream. The Harcourt Brace Anthology of Drama. Ed. W. B. Worthen. Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996. 407-429. --- Caprice Woosley is currently pursuing her BFA in theater (directing and playwriting), after 25 years working in and around the theater. She is a produced playwright, actress, and amateur dramaturg who enjoys researching plays. She is a host in the Writing Forum where she co-hosts a Writing Discussion Group. She also hosted "Shakespeare Unplugged" and "Murder and Mayhem" in the Theatre Forum. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ENTER LAUGHING Strange but True Halloween Hijinx George Carlin once observed that comics no longer tell jokes in the Bob Hope sense, they remind you of stuff you already knew but forgot to laugh at the first time. In that spirit, this humor column is simply an uneditorialized reminder of a weird true trend in All Soul's Eve Entertainment - cause when you think DEATH, you think 2 on the aisle and please have some chardonnay and a slice of that yummy cheesecake at our table at intermission. Last year, Goodspeed Opera House choose to celebrate Halloween by raising the ghost of Harry Houdini. Harry obliged for once, hopping into the body of medium Elaine Kuzmeskus in order to clap the actor playing him on the shoulder and congratulate him on a fine job. - that's the actor playing him in Goodspeed's short-lived musical. He made no mention of Ragtime or any of the other 4 Houdini-musicals being developed at that time, but hey, Harry was a professional showman and you wouldn't expect him to embarass his hosts by promoting the competition. 'Course as he was such a showman, you'd think he might have opened up his old hand-cuffs, which are brought to the seance each year, and he wasn't able to answer any questions about his personal life. Ah well, better luck this year. Speaking of this year - Shakespeare Festival/L.A. has a seance to contact William Shakespeare (who else). Unlike Houdini, Shakespeare didn't have any kind of anti-afterlife leanings, so perhaps he'll be more forthcoming. Actually he did write a play about a ghost wanting revenge. Considering some of the massacres his work has suffered, raising this particular spirit might not be such a hot idea. Of course Bill, too, was a son of showbiz, so he may take it in stride --so long as the royalty check doesn't bounce. And of course Bill will be happy to know that he's one of the two most successful dead screenwriters of the decade. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LETTER FROM LONDON He who Dares This month Nicole Kidman took to London’s fringe theatre, becoming the latest in a string of Hollywood stars to chance their reputations for the sake of live theatre. They are not in it for the money (oh no, Nicole is on equity minimum. Honest.) so what is it that actually persuades our stars of the silver-screen to take the gamble? Ms.Kidman may have been a hit as a star-struck, tunnel-visioned, weather girl in the recent blockbuster To Die For, but can she really act? Indeed, our Nicole faced her toughest challenge yet when the curtain was lifted at the Donmar Warehouse, Covent Garden. Playing oppostie Iain Glenn in David Hare’s The Blue Room, an erotic chain of sexual encounters loosely based on La Ronde, the stage had been set to expose any flaws in her acting technique. Nicole Kidman has not been nurtured and trained by the Royal Academy, or had a traditional Shakespearian upbringing and, furthermore, is currently wed to the heart-throb, lead role of Top Gun. Critics can be harsh, and the firing squad were poised, but in this instance she escaped their wrath. But such pleasant treatment has not greeted all of the movie stars after taking the acid test. Kevin Stacey’s Hickey in The Iceman Cometh was brilliant, but Lee Marvin failed to translate star presence into a weighty performance of the same role in an American Film Theatre version. A firing squad member wrote of him: "a snub nose and a long upper lip may be what you attract backers with, but it surley is not all you need to play O’Neill." Bang bang, dead. Kevin Kline’s New York Hamlet was a huge success, largely because he had the traditional vocal training, whereas Keanu Reeves’s recent Toronto version was a complete disaster, simply because he lacked any real technique. Actors who have grafted at their trade and worked hard for their stage craft can reap the rewards in later life. While Hollywood’s biggest stars are vying to work for peanuts on the UK stage, the irony is that our best, home-grown actors are hot property on screen. Dame Judi Dench, Ian Holm and Sir Derek Jacobi are clawing in cinema work, almost as just reward for their life in theatre. Anthony Hopkins is everywhere and Ralph has now got a fight on his hands for the role of ‘most famous of the Fiennes’s’ with his brother Joseph breathing down his neck. Dame Judi is about to embark on her third outing as ‘M’ in a Bond film. Oringinally, Dench trained at the Central School of Drama and got her first big break as Ophelia in a 1957 production of Hamlet. Since then, her range can take her from Shakespeare to Checkov , via Queen Victoria in the film Mrs Brown and even to a series of TV sitcoms like As Time Goes By. There is no question that the stage brings kudos to screen actors. Perhaps that is the only reason why the mega stars are flocking to London. But I suspect there are other more genuinely artistic reasons why actors feel a need to tread the boards. Firstly, most movie scripts have as much gravitas as the proverbial feather, and have to be delivered against a barrage of special effects. Then there is the satisfaction of holding a live audience in your palm, as oppose to regurgitating line after line into a camera. Who wouldn’t rather play Checkov or O’Neill over some tedious dialogue delivered into a 44mm lens? Despite some obvious examples, there is a deep-rooted problem with the American system. Britain, although far from being perfect, at least offers decent opportunities for Drama School training which are generally good. Indeed, if the British troupe are being praised for their screen work it is a direct result of the strength of our theatre. The UK circuit has coughed up a number of actors who have since realised their screen potential. As Michael Billington understands, "Hopkins learnt his craft in the tiny Phoenix theatre in Leicester. Alan Rickman and Jonathon Pryce, not to metion the knighted figures of Ian McKellan and Derek Jacobi, are likewise graduates of regional theatre." And if Judi Dench and Emma Thompson are worthy of nomination for Hollywood Oscars then it is simply because they have been able to distill and transfer their experience of classical theatre. Nicole, we welcome your appearance on the boards of London. But the Royal Court, Stratford and all the regional stages that surround us are the real source of our very own cinematic triumphs. Letter from London is a new feature by Laurence Gibson. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stages for Learning Dodgers Study Guides Check out dynamite online study guides for Titanic, 1776, and Footloose from the producer that was bringing young people back to the theatre when Beauty and the Beast and Lion King were still a glint in Mickey Mouse's eye. What this website lacks in color sense it makes up for in content: Under Titanic, we progress from the simplest performing arts introduction: "What is a Musical" to the science of the the wireless, the sociology of a floating city, and the thematic considerations of myth, progress, and fate. Playwrights' Listserve e-mail: theatwbd@showme.missouri.edu Out of the University of Missouri, this list was setup to facilitate communications among playwrights and screenwriters "some of whom are working in fairly severe isolation (even in big movie studios). This is a private list, so you'll need to e-mail the listmaster to join. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1998, Mersinger Theatrical Services