Whatever Experience You Bring to Arcadia, It Illuminates

We are all Thomasina Coverly, in our own way.    

In her innocence and youth, she embodies the persistence of curiosity, the puzzled determination in finding answers, and the explosive excitement of wanting to be the first to have ever thought a specific thought.  Arcadia’s budding intellectual, played so delightfully by apprentice Alex Wiles, (whose blogs on the process of creating her character have been in this space over the last month) brings wonder to all that unfolds in front of her. Though we may be older than 13, we remember Thomasina and carry her with us.  

Thomasina’s tutor, Septimus Hodge inspires plenty of laughs, and in his eyes one easily sees the ebbing of youth: he is challenged and provoked by his younger pupil.  We laugh because we experience ourselves, as parents or teachers or older siblings, within him.  

The rigorous and independent scholar in Arcadia, (Hannah Jarvis), strongly played by Jennie Meharg, evades introspection and delightfully misses her primary subject: herself.  The splashy rock-star scholar, brought to life by Adrian Rieder, makes glaring errors in his research that we find funny----his gut-reactions blind him to the facts.  

And on and on.  We find parts of ourselves in each of the characters.  

Director Foster Solomon and his company of actors, crew, and designers have created a beautifully haunting, delicious romp between two time periods.  Becky Cairns is designing in her favorite period, and it shows.  The costumes reflect her brilliance and excitement.  Brian Barker (Sound of Music, others) has crafted an elegant set---designing each piece to fit through a barely-six-foot-wide door into the Gottwald.  Some are as high as 16’ and complete an arc across that expanse, but in sections. No mean feat. Gregg Hillmar’s lights include sunrises and sunsets, echoes of fireworks, chandeliers and wall lamps that flicker so believably you’d swear they were gas.  Our volunteers gave time, effort, and (sometimes back-breaking) work.  I want to say thank you to all of them.  I have been (and am) thrilled with the work of every single artist on Arcadia, and proud to be associated with them.

Light, love, life and energy flow out of all their work, (and Stoppard’s) in which

“…the unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is.  It’s how nature creates itself, on every scale, the snowflake and the snowstorm.”

…And human beings.  “It’s wanting to know that makes us matter.”

It’s for this reason that Richmond Shakespeare is performing Arcadia. It’s why I selected the play, and why our artists, staff, board and volunteers struggled to bring it to you---to our audiences.  It’s the closest to Shakespeare we’re likely to find for many years to come.   Daniel Hannan from the London Telegraph gives his thoughts on Shakespeare and Stoppard:

“I’ve made this observation before about the greatest writer of them all – whom Stoppard rather sweetly refers to as “The Champ”. Not many authors in the intervening 400 years achieve the same effect – which is perhaps the highest compliment I can offer our chief living playwright.”

 Hannan describes:

“I recalled, in particular, staggering out of a performance of Arcadia 15 years ago, convinced that it was the supreme theatrical work of our era. Whatever experience you bring to it, it illuminates your experience more than your experience illuminates it.” [emphasis mine]

Watching Arcadia, we see how elements combine, how time periods intertwine, how people and aspects of human nature interact.  Sometimes they are quiet and clear, sometimes producing tension or explosions.  This play is music and gunfire.  It contains Byron’s poetry, Newton’s science, sex, travel, nature, and religion.  These are not what this play is about, but merely elements used to demonstrate Stoppard’s reaching out to teach the Thomasina in each of us.

“When we have found all the mysteries, and lost all the meaning, we will be alone, on an empty shore.”

Come see this play.  Bring your experiences.  Find yourself surrounded in childlike wonder at finding the meaning within.  

Grant Mudge
October 27, 2010

The Rehearsal Process: Arcadia (Installment 3)

Alex Wiles as Thomasina Coverly

 

 

When your rehearsal schedule says “one-on-one,” that’s both exhilarating and a little intimidating.  It means you’re going to sit down with the director, who’s going to ask you to bare the deep dark secrets of your character’s soul (okay, not always dark)--things that you may not have explicitly told anyone yet.  

Luckily, we actors tend to be a pretty extroverted bunch and sharing is a big part of what we do.

When your rehearsal schedule says “two-on-one,” somehow it seems twice as exhilarating (and almost twice as intimidating).  You’re sharing with the director, yes, but you’re also sharing with one of your primary scene partners - in this case, Jonathan Conyers as Septimus.  It somehow feels like the stakes are higher--the implications of your character decisions on those of the other actor are thrown in to starker relief.  It’s almost like a first date: do your ideas and decision jive with those of the other person?  --and in this case, two other people?  

Now, it’s not that everyone has to agree--in fact, some of the most interesting moments we’ve found were instances in which the characters are on two entirely different wavelengths.

Septimus and Thomasina have a pretty significant relationship arc throughout the course of the play (I won’t ruin it for those who don’t know it), so that was a major topic of conversation.  I’d expected that.  How long has Septimus been Thomasina’s tutor?  What does Thomasina think of Septimus intellectually and as a person--and what does he think of her?  All of these were exciting questions I’d anticipated going into this meeting.

Then Foster (Solomon) turns to me and asks me to explain the arc of Thomasina’s mathematic and scientific interests throughout the course of the play.

Cue the chirping cricket, please.

Now, I’d done my research about the concepts Thomasina explores--an effort very much bolstered by the work of our dramaturg, Twyla Kitts.  Deterministic chaos theory?  Yup.  The second law of thermodynamics?  Got it.  Fractals?  Sure thing.

But how on earth does it all fit together?

We batted the question around a bit, looking at both Thomasina’s and Septimus’ lines for clues, noting the way she responds to Septimus’ teaching about the accepted knowledge of the time, trying to draw from that some through-line from one theory to the next.  We decided that it was her own effort to develop the Grand Unified Theory (which gets hung up on the issue of gravity, if memory serves), but somehow it didn’t quite feel satisfying.  I couldn’t figure out why.

Rehearsal continued with the first unification of the 1993 and the 1809 casts in the last scene of the play, full of waltzing, dress-up, and as Chloe (played by the talented and effervescent Liz Blake White) says “a lot of sexual energy!”  Needless to say my mind was directed away from math and science for awhile.

The epiphany, if you will, occurred the next morning in the shower, which was probably the least convenient time or place for such a realization to occur.  I had no pencil, no paper, nothing to write down all that hit me in a matter about 60 seconds.

Fortunately it stuck with me long enough to get to that pencil and paper, and 20 minutes later I had my diagram.

It’s a mess, but it works.

The problem with our initial approach, it seemed, was that we were trying to cram all of these concepts under one umbrella, while it seems now that they’re connected like links of a chain.  With that, I humbly submit “The Diagram.” (You can click on the image for a better view.)

For all I know, these scribblings are as convoluted to everyone else as the mysterious hermit character’s tens of thousands of “cabalistic proofs.”  The important thing in the grand scheme of this production is that they help make sense of a critical aspect of one character’s arc throughout the production.  

The idea is not that this is all explicitly stated in performance.  The idea is not that the audience has to understand the fine points of complex equations or theories of physics.  The idea is that if we as artists and performers are doing our job well, and turn this thought process into something actable, you as the audience member will be able to come along on--and enjoy--the journey.

After all, while it’s great fun as an actor--or just someone with a wide variety of interests--to gambol through this play and discover all the brilliant little Easter eggs that Tom Stoppard has dropped for us along the way, I don’t think that’s what attracts people to Arcadia.  Every character in this play cares passionately about something; they take something incredibly intellectual and infuse it with an energy that somehow makes it deeply emotional--and makes us feel something about it, not just think something about it.  In expressing that passion, these characters bare some deep, dark part of their souls to us--exposing the vulnerabilities and desires that they all--that we all--often try so hard to hide.

It’s exhilarating to stand at the brink of knowledge looking out into a vast field of feeling.  That’s where Stoppard leaves us: teetering on the edge, leaving us to decide how to balance the two.  

As Valentine (played by Andrew P. Ballard) tells Hannah (played by Jen Meharg) with almost breathless excitement: 

“it’s the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew was wrong.” 

Also, the jokes are just plain fun.  More soon!

Now Playing: "A Christmas Carol for Two Actors"

In case you didn't know, the Richmond Shakespeare Theatre is now presenting A Christmas Carol for Two Actors.

Check out the beautiful poster design by Jamin Hoyle, who has done all of the poster art for the Richmond Shakespeare Theatre since Fall 2006.

The script is from Dickens' novel, adapted by Grant Mudge and Cynde Liffick and performed by Grant and the amazing Julie Phillips. Grant, of course, is our Artistic Director, and Julie has held several positions with the company, as Master of Verse for Doctor Faustus and The Tempest, box office manager last year, and multiple roles in Richard II.

It's a really special show, as full of warmth and spirit as all your memories of A Christmas Carol are, and wonderfully acted by Grant (Scrooge) and Julie (pretty much everyone else). If you think you've seen this show before, think again. This is Julie's first year playing the parts, and she's a very different presence than the previous (wonderful) performances from Cynde, Molly Hood, and Jennie Meharg. I'm especially fond of her facial expressions as the Ghost of Christmas Past listens to Scrooge's vacillations in the bedroom, and her character voice work is spectacular. I've known Julie for a few years now, and she's one of my favorite theatre artists in the world, absolutely one of Richmond's best. Grant is pretty darn fantastic, as usual, as well.

The show plays Thursday through Friday nights at 8:00 and Sunday afternoons (except December 9) at 2:30. We perform in the chapel at Second Presbyterian Church, 5 N. 5th Street, just down the block from Penny Lane Pub. (Mmmm, Penny Lane Pub!)

Come early on Friday and Saturday nights and join the Christmas carol sing-along beginning at 7:40, led by yours truly (Andrew).

Tickets are available at http://www.richmondshakespeare.com/ or by calling 1-866-BARD-TIX (1-866-227-3849). $24 for adults and $13 for students and seniors.