Tag Archive for: WHITE PEOPLE

ADDED PERFORMANCES

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We have added four additional performances of WHITE PEOPLE by J.T. Rogers. This is great news! So check-out the new schedule on the CATF Web-site www.catf.org . I recommend that you make your ticket reservations now if you want to experience this powerful new play by J.T. Rogers.

“What is wrong with self-preservation? Where’s the sin there? Yes, I live in a community of people who look like me. I choose to live where my children will be privileged, where they’ll find opportunity. For thousands of years people all over the world have grouped with their own. But now we decide–What?–this is a bad thing? All of a sudden, we should throw comfort–protection–out the window? All of a sudden, I’m supposed to look around at the world and feel shame?”            Martin in WHITE PEOPLE

WHY YOU SHOULD SEE WHITE PEOPLE:

 The theater is a democracy. It pushes–expands our notion of who the “we” is. It creates a live, dynamic transaction between the performer and the audience. And this transaction is often controversial. I believe it is vital that our Theater Festival is a flash-pot in today’s turbulent world.The theater is a place where we can have a community dialogue about topics and issues that make us uncomfortable. I hope that our production of WHITE PEOPLE will prompt a fruitful dialogue about race and language in our culture.

“I mean, look around here. Everything’s different now. People are coming here on boat, foot, camel. Bringing their religion, food, talk…and I understand! I mean, the rest of the world is burning down. Even people like Dr. Singh are crawling over each other to get here. So I say good! Fine! But there’s just one thing everyone needs to remember: we were here first. You understand? Now that means something. All these people–black, brown, yellow–they need to see us, get behind us, and wait their turn. That’s what you call fair and that’s what you call just. Because me and Earl: We were here first.”     Mara Lynn in WHITE PEOPLE

Producing contemporary theater, especially in this moment, is a form of social activism. It is a statement of belief in the power of community, in the power of sharing the most private feelings in the most public of spaces–the theater. Contemporary theater is a messy business…it thrives on risks…This state of risk-taking can sometimes produce a collision of values between the audience and the risk-hungry artist.

I look forward to reading your comments. Lets’ talk…

Ed Herendeen

WHITE PEOPLE AT THE FESTIVAL

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What does it mean to be a white American? What does it mean for any American to live in a country that is not the one you were promised? WHITE PEOPLE is a controversial and darkly funny play about the lives of three ordinary Americans placed under the spotlight: Martin a Brooklyn-born high powered attorney from a white-shoe law firm in St. Louis, MO; Mara Lynn, a  housewife and former homecoming queen in Fayetteville, NC; and Alan, a professor struggling to find his way in New York City. Through heart-wrenching confessions, they wrestle with guilt, prejudice, and the price they and their children must pay for their actions. WHITE PEOPLE, a new play by J.T. Rogers is a candid, brutally honest meditation on race and language in our culture.

J.T. Rogers (THE OVERWHELMING CATF 2008) returns to Shepherdstown with a sobering, unsettling but deeply rewarding look at a combustible issue many of us prefer to sidestep…WHITE PEOPLE will not be easy to sit through. It will raise questions as it challenges our assumptions about race. So…be a part of the conversation and join us in the intimate Performance Space in the Center For Contemporary Art at the 2010 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL. I am looking forward to having a lively conversation with you about this controversial new work.

WHITE PEOPLE CAST:

Lee Sellarsplays Alan, a Manhattan professor who admires the determination of New York’s Dutch colonizers even as he acknowledges their persecution of Jews and Quakers. At the same time he is exhilarated, almost smitten, by Felicia, a black student.

Lee Sellars: Alan in WHITE PEOPLE

Margot White creates the role of Mara Lynn, a mother in Fayetteville, NC., who wrestles with memories of her cheerleader past; the faded athletic glories of her husband, Earl, now a delivery-truck driver; and the struggles of her young, epileptic son. Frustrated, she vents her wrath on an Indian physician. 

Margot White: Mara Lynn in WHITE PEOPLE

Kurt Zischke plays Martin, a driven St. Louis lawyer who bemoans what he sees as the decline of the English language and popular music. His disdain for his black secretary…and black culture in general…is pronounced.

Kurt Zischke: Martin in WHITE PEOPLE

Ticket Alert!    Several performances of WHITE PEOPLE are sold-out. Make your plans now to see this remarkable new work.

Ed Herendeen

2010 ACTING COMPANY

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I am thrilled to announce the 2010 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL ACTING COMPANY:

Kurt Zischke: Mr. Shine and Mr. Rumple in THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW; and Martin in WHITE PEOPLE.

Clare Schmidt: Meredith in THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW.

James Rana: Abdel-Hakim Taliq in INANA.

Margot White: Esme in THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW ; and Mara Lynn in WHITE PEOPLE.

Helen Jean Arthur: Mrs. Worthington in THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW; and Alida in BREADCRUMBS.

Lee Sellars: Ignatz in THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW; and Alan in WHITE PEOPLE.

Jonathan Raviv: Mohammed Zara/Messenger in INANA; and James in THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW.

Eva Kaminsky: Alice in LIDLESS; and Beth in BREADCRUMBS.

Barzin Akhaven: Yasin Shalid in INANA; and Bashir in LIDLESS

Zabryna Guevara: Shali Shalid in INANA; and Riva in LIDLESS.

Michael Goodfriend: Waiter/Dominc in INANA; and Lucas in LIDLESS

Reema Zaman: Mena/Hama Shalid in INANA; and Rhiannon in LIDLESS

Gregor Paslawsky: Emad AL-Bayit in INANA.

Ed Herendeen

WORKING WITH PLAYWRIGHTS

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One of the things that I love about my job is the opportunity to collaborate with the living playwright. My passion for directing new plays began in Graduate School. Directing a new play is risky because new plays are produced without a safety net of tradition…there is no production history to fall back on. Everything involved in doing a new play is done from scratch. The success of a new play is invariably founded on the successful collaboration of the artists involved. This is what we do at the Contemporary American Theater Festival…we develop and produce new work with the playwright. And this experience really turns me on.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with Michele Lowe (INANA) and Max Baker(EELWAX JESUS) while I was in New York. We looked at preliminary set designs and discussed production concepts etc. Hearing their ideas and feedback was incredibly important. It is exciting to collaborate with these writers during this important pre-production period.

I have been in constant communication with J.T.Rogers RE: WHITE PEOPLE and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig (LIDLESS) and I have been trading emails RE: my directors concept for her play. Frances is in China doing research and J.T. is in Afghanistan working on his latest play BLOOD AND GIFTS. Our conversations have been stimulating and productive.

All five of our 2010 playwrights will be in residence in Shepherdstown at various time throughout the rehearsal and performance process. They are an important  part of the creative process. They play a vital role in developing their plays at our Theater Festival. We are a playwright inspired theater and we listen to our playwrights. We encourage and welcome their ideas and suggestions. We involve them in every step of the creative process. For example: Yesterday… Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig and I were  discussing the Sound Design for LIDLESS. I emailed her my idea to create a percussion soundscape of “cell doors/cage doors/locking doors opening and closing.” I also suggested using “birds” in the soundscape. Here is her response:

“I really love this bird idea, and it makes me think about nature soundscapes as a whole–and using sound as an element that provides different information from what you see visually. For example, since the grays, the chain-link fence, is already suggesting the entrapment, the getting stuck/being in a cage is already expressed visually, I wonder if the soundscape would be effective focused around things like birds, ocean, wind, static, etc. It is interesting to me that the ocean is something that can always be heard at Gitmo, and that white noise is used to disorient, and that white noise often sounds very much like the ocean, played at a different pace…And then of course Bashir talks about how he always found ways to change terrible things(i.e. moans and screams) into wind whistling through trees, etc…So that could suggest something too that any noise that sounds ominous has a transition point to a nature sound, etc…So maybe since visually we are getting the chain link fences, the harshness, the metal, that an organic soundscape could open things.”

I asked Frances if she heard any specific music in her play. She offered this intuitive suggestion for me to consider in the Sound Design:

“If there is any kind of music/tonality, I imagine that perhaps it is used during Bashir’s hallucinations, and when he talks to his daughter…perhaps the acapella voice of a woman singing a Pakistani ballad/lullaby. Without instrumental accompaniment. We never feel the presence of Bashir’s ethnic heritage in language, etc…so maybe there is a subtle way to integrate it into the soundscape. This could also be used to add a haunting element, as Bashir is haunted by the past he left and  that is gone forever to him…(his dead wife, his young daughter.)”

As you can imagine…this is terrific feedback from the writer. Her intuitive ideas are something that I can really run with. I can integrate her suggestions into my concept for the production. It gives me a starting point as I begin my collaboration with the Sound Designer.

This is one example of the kinds of conversations that I have with our writers. I am interested in hearing your reaction to this playwright/director conversation. Please share your comments on this blog.

Ed Herendeen