Carnival of the Absurd

It's opening night for "Freshman Showcase: Carnival of the Absurd."

I've been working all semester with this group of students. They have written, directed, and designed 24 short plays that explore the boundaries of what theatre can be. I wrote the following Director's Note for the program (though I'm really more of a curator in this process).

Director's Note

In his 1961 book The Theatre of the Absurd, Martin Esslin described a trend exemplified by the works of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and Harold Pinter. These plays flouted realist theatrical conventions, focusing instead on characters who were waiting for something to happen, or realizing the inadequacy of language for conveying ideas and emotions. Absurdism revels in nonsense and circular logic; more accessible examples might include Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 or Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” sketch. Absurdist theatre also plays with power dynamics, malfunctioning technology, and minimalism. In envisioning a “Carnival of the Absurd,” I wanted to celebrate the optimistic side of Existentialist philosophy. In search of an absurdist hero, Albert Camus claimed Sisyphus, doomed to roll a rock uphill for all eternity, only to watch it roll down again each time he reached the summit. Thinking of Sisyphus walking back down the hill to start again, Camus encourages us to “imagine Sisyphus happy.” Every moment of failure is an opportunity to begin again. As Beckett said, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

With Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, and Pinter as our guides, students new to the Department of Theatre have created this collection of twenty-four short absurdist plays and performances. You will see ruminations on time, health, language, logic, and politics. You will see experiments with form, including an absurdist opera interlude and absurdist tap dance. Early on, the students gravitated toward an idea of “breaking the cycle” rather than simply observing cyclical structures of absurdism. While many of these short pieces focus on loneliness and isolation, they are united in expressing a desire for human connection.    

A Visit to Paisley Park

Last weekend I was in Minneapolis for the ASTR (American Society for Theatre Research) Conference, and my friend Scott suggested that we should visit Paisley Park, Prince’s home and recording studio in Chanhassen. Scott is a big Prince fan. I told him I would be happy to go. I’ve always liked Prince, but would not have considered myself a fan to the extent of undertaking a pilgrimage to his home. I was not expecting this to be a spiritual experience. I did wear purple, though.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a security guard who explained the rules: no photography; cell phones would be placed in locked cases that we would keep with us until the end of the tour, etc. He ended by saying that the most important rule was to have fun, and suggested that he would be watching us on the cameras and would pull us out of the tour if we weren’t laughing, singing, and dancing.

We waited in the foyer until our full tour group (around 30 people) had gathered. Most were from the Midwest, but there was a group from Scotland. CeeCee, our tour guide, explained some of the iconography. The walls are painted sky blue with white clouds. There is a mural with Prince’s eyes on one wall, and another mural with a rainbow on the opposite wall. Gold and platinum records hang on the walls. The most touching object in the foyer area was a letter from Barack and Michelle Obama addressed “To the Friends and Family of Prince,” expressing condolences on his death.

We then moved into an atrium that CeeCee characterized as Prince’s favorite room. His symbol appears on the floor. CeeCee noted that he started using the symbol partly because of a dispute with a record label, which I had forgotten. Purple sofas were flanked by end tables with tissues and candles. A replica of Paisley Park with Prince’s symbol in Purple on the front contains his cremains. Scott had mentioned that Prince’s ashes were part of the tour, but I didn’t expect that to be so early on the tour. I also didn’t expect to be so moved by this memorial. CeeCee invited us to pay our respects, and then said that Prince would want us all to be joyful in his memory.

Around the outskirts of this atrium are the kitchen (behind glass) and several small alcoves and rooms with guitars, costumes, and posters. One even includes hand-written lyrics in a notebook from the 1970s. An office area features a stack of books. A balcony upstairs holds a pair of birdcages.

The next stop was the recording studio. CeeCee explained that Prince didn’t like how he looked when he was singing, so he would often send sound engineers away while he recorded his vocal tracks. She also played a recording of some jazz music Prince had been working on shortly before his death.

After the recording studio we went into a hallway with a mural depicting artistic genealogy. Prince appears at the center, with artists who influenced him on the right and artists he mentored on the left. CeeCee asked us to name the ones we recognized, but I couldn’t see very well.

The Purple Rain Room was next. Clips from the film are screened above a central display featuring costumes and props from the film, including the iconic motorcycle. I noticed for the first time that the decals on the motorcycle include a symbol that combines the male and female Mars/Venus symbols, which would later be echoed in the TAFKAP symbol.

Down another hallway to a room housing a hydraulic piano, and then into the concert venue. Displays in this area again focused on costumes and guitars. It was fascinating to remember Prince as a style icon, and to notice how much some of his 1980s costumes drew on baroque and rococo silhouettes. Video of Prince playing songs invites guests to sing along and dance. Our group was a little subdued (it was 10:30 AM), but there was some swaying and clapping.

Moving into the NPG Lounge, a post-concert hangout venue, CeeCee regaled us with tales of Prince serenading Madonna in this room. Purple nightclub furniture evocative of the ‘70s contrasts with orange carpet detailing.

The tour ends with video of Prince’s 2007 Super Bowl performance. After the journey through his home/recording studio/concert venue/nightclub, this feels really inspirational and cathartic. On the opposite wall from the screen are artifacts of memorial that were taken down from the Paisley Park fence. These have all been archived and will be on rotating display. We also heard an anecdote about a sound engineer telling Prince that it was raining and asking what they should do. Apparently Prince replied, “Make it rain harder.” 

There's a small gift shop after the end of the tour, where you can buy T-shirts and posters. You can also sample foods Prince liked (Ann bought some jerk-spiced popcorn that we all tried). 

You can take pictures at the end, so I have one here of a sign about the kitchen. Our Uber driver kindly brought us to see the mural nearby in Chanhassen.

Chicago Dramatists New Page Conference Critics Panel

At the beginning of this month (on Saturday, October 1) I attended Chicago Dramatists' New Page Conference, an event intended to launch Chicago Dramatists as a new play development center (rather than a producing organization). It was a very enjoyable day, and I meant to type up these notes much earlier and post them. I attended several great sessions throughout the day, including a discussion on incorporating Designers into New Play Development; a workshop on Directing Staged Readings; and a conversation with Lydia R. Diamond. But I took extensive notes on the critics panel and wanted to share those here.

The morning began with a roundtable discussion featuring several Chicago theatre critics: Chris Jones, Jonathan Abarbanel, Kerry Reid, and Kelly Kleiman. Meghan Beals moderated this discussion and asked helpful questions that led to interesting answers. She asked each of the speakers to describe their entry into theatre criticism. Jonathan Abarbanel referred to his work on the college newspaper as an undergraduate at Tufts University; he covered Broadway tryouts in Boston as the Arts editor. Kerry Reid was a journalism major in college who came to theatre criticism after seeing Judi Dench as Mother Courage. Chris Jones completed a PhD at Ohio State University before moving to Chicago. And Kelly Kleiman got into theatre after law school, inspired by Lifeline's production of Vanity Fair (1994).

Beals asked the panel about the role/duty of the critic with regard to new plays. Abarbanel made a distinction between the critic and the reviewer, suggesting that the shortened length of reviews in most platforms has turned many critics into reviewers. Reid worries about plagiarizing herself, but tends to ask the overarching question, "What are playwrights writing about now?" Jones claims that seeing lots of musicals gives him a sense of the trajectory of the American musical. He noted that critics tend to see change as incremental, where people who go to theatre less often might see change as radical. His goal in writing is to get the reader's attention. Disagreeing with some others on the panel, Jones acknowledged that readers trust him not to send them to a bad show, and said he thinks of this as saving them from the humiliation of bringing a date to a bad play. Kleiman said that her role varies from day to day, platform to platform. At the Reader she wanted to write something that would be interesting to read even if you didn't see the show. She would like to speak in a useful way to people who make theatre, and does not believe in saying nice things about dumb playwrights. Abarbanel noted that he finds it important to be an investigative reporter and an arts business reporter, and lamented the number of obituaries Chris Jones has had to write in recent years. Claudia Cassidy's review of The Glass Menagerie was cited as an example of the influence of theatre critics on the development of new work.

This discussion led Beals to ask about critical influence on the life of a new play. According to Kleiman, things that impede the development of a new play are so multifaceted and so nefarious, "I am the least of your problems." Abarbanel jokingly cited a maxim: "Greater than the need for food or sex is the desire to rewrite someone else's play." There was a discussion about the difficulty of getting a second production due to limited slots, and structural/financial concerns. The significance of a Trib review to building audiences at smaller companies was also raised. Jones indicated that being read in New York is important to him. He stated that nothing is achieved by liking everything. He tries to look at every play freshly and does not intentionally construct narratives about individual artists. Reid noted that some artists have suggested that she see plays twice (no time for this) or attend rehearsals (not the critic's role). Kleiman said she does lose sleep over the fact that all the critics on this panel look alike; even when she and Abarbanel disagree: "We are middle-aged Jewish people distinguished by the fact that I'm Ashkenazi and he's Sephardic." Kleiman and Reid praised the Goodman's Cindy Bandle young women's critics program that has existed since 2007.  Abarbanel noted that ATCA has changed rules about who can join in an effort to recruit critics of color. Jones suggested that he spends half of every day deciding what to see and that sometimes he makes wrong choices. His philosophy is that critics should always be on the side of creative freedom.

Beals asked the panelists to circle back to access: what are we doing to support new voices in theatre criticism? Reid mentioned supporting writers who aren't necessarily theatre writers. Jones pointed out that critics are now competing with PR because everyone is their own media representative. He cited Ike Holter's piece on The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window as the best piece of theatre criticism in Chicago he has read this year. Kleiman pointed out that increasingly journalism requires patronage, and said that if we want criticism to be more than a hobby, people need to get paid. Criticism will never be the same profession it was when there were many more daily newspapers than there are now. 

Pride and Prejudice Director's Note

This production celebrates the journey of reading, of opening a book and entering a world of the imagination. Our imaginations as readers can incorporate personal connections to a text. My personal experience of the early-nineteenth century is limited to books I have read, films I have seen, and historic homes I have toured. When I read Jane Austen, I don’t usually imagine the characters as having British accents. But certain moments from representations of Pride and Prejudice in popular culture are inescapable. I do picture Dame Judi Dench as Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.  (I also have trouble separating the marriage market of Jane Austen’s world from contemporary reality TV dating shows such as The Bachelor.)

In approaching Pride and Prejudice as a script, I pictured a young woman reading the novel in a coffee shop and being drawn into the story, imagining herself as Elizabeth Bennet. Though the novel offers narration in the third person, Austen’s use of free indirect discourse connects the reader primarily with Elizabeth. Because Elizabeth is a keen observer with a wry wit, as a reader it is a pleasure to experience the world of the novel from her perspective.

Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan offer a stage adaptation that includes some word-for-word passages from the novel, but pares down the number of characters and emphasizes the theatrical potential of this story. The play is characterized by rapid changes of location, and includes moments when characters inhabit multiple locations at once. Many of the supporting characters are painted as comic types in the script; our actors have endeavored to combine contemporary insight with period style to play their roles with some nuance. In many ways the production mimics the mental processes of reading. By attempting to access the past through the present, we acknowledge that what Austen teaches us about love, marriage, and families transcends her time.