Last night was McCarter’s “Live at the Library” on A Seagull in the Hamptons at the Princeton Public Library. Here’s the first of several YouTube clips of the event—Emily Mann discussing the design of the production. Enjoy, and post your comments by clicking on the “comments” button at the bottom of the post!
Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.
And you thought we were done with Edward Albee… How foolish of you.
I just stumbled onto this Downstage Center podcast on the website of the American Theatre Wing. Why does nobody tell me about these things? Anyway, he talks about McCarter so I feel like it’s sorta relevant to the blog. I have to say that it is a really great interview with Albee—he’s got a good zinger for every question. He’s a cagey fellow, that Albee. Anyway, thought you might enjoy it as a blog bonus.
Original air date - February 8, 2008
Running Time - 58:17
Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.
This is the sixth and final segment of our interview with Yehuda Hyman, writer and performer of IN-Festival Spotlight Production The Mad 7. Read the fifth segment here. The play is based on “The Seven Beggars,” a story by Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and follows a character named Elliott as he encounters six storytellers from various regions of the world. Each one shares a mystical story through music and dance, propelling Elliott on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.In the following section, Yehuda discusses the play’s ending and its implications.
Well, we’ve been speaking for a long time and I don’t want to keep you, but I would love to address one final point, which is the fact that we don’t hear the final story—that it doesn’t end, that it’s not told. So, what is your take on that? What is the significance of that fact; what are we waiting for?
Well, there’s a couple of things. First of all, Rabbi Nachman was dying when he told this story. He died, what, three weeks after? It’s the last story he told. So he was definitely looking at his own death. And his work in this world, in this realm, what he was trying to accomplish. Maybe he felt that he wasn’t going to be able to accomplish it, in this realm. But I think he did have a—I mean I don’t think, I know, because he said it—he said that his teachings, his spirit, would grow stronger and stronger and stronger after his death.
That’s why it’s so important not to strangle these stories. “You tell a story simply.” We prepare, we do our best, we do everything we can. But then when it comes to it we just tell it. Because the real finish to the story happens through the listener. It’s what they do with it.
And so in “The Seven Beggars,” it’s like story, story, story, story, story. But the real finish, the real end to the story is yet to happen. It’s something alchemical that will hopefully take place in the future. And hopefully what is being created in the theater that night is the possibility of something happening in the future. That’s what I really believe.
Posted by Elizabeth Edwards, Literary Intern at McCarter Theatre.
This is the fifth segment of a six-part interview with Yehuda Hyman, writer and performer of IN-Festival Spotlight Production The Mad 7. Read segment IV here. The play is based on “The Seven Beggars,” a story by Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and follows a character named Elliott as he encounters seven storytellers from various regions of the world. Each one shares a mystical story through music and dance, propelling Elliott on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.In the following section, Yehuda discusses the various approaches one can take to the story, and the many levels upon which it can be experienced.
The play consists of seven individual stories told by seven different storytellers. Is there an overarching theme, or something that ties each of the individual stories together, in this piece?
That’s a tough question because I don’t want people to come in with a lot of preconceived explaining of what this is or isn’t about. Because it’s going to be completely different for every person.
It’s open to many, many interpretations. Through the process of this, I’ve come at each story from a different angle several times. It’s fluid; it’s like water. It’s always changing for me. One day it means something, another day it means something else a little bit. And I think it needs to be that—whenever it gets stuck, it’s dead. You know?For instance, there are seven beggars. There are seven days of the week. There are seven days of creation in the Torah, the Hebrew scripture. So that’s one way of looking at it—what happened on each of those seven days, what was created, what came into being. That’s one way of encountering the story.
But then the second story, for me, is also connected to the Sephardic experience. The story talks about this magnificent city. Well, in Sephardic culture, there’s the idea of a Golden Age, which was when they lived in Spain before the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. That was a peak, beautiful time, where Jews and Christians and Muslims all lived together and got along. And the Jewish population was in a very good situation. And it was lost—they were expelled, they were all forced to leave or convert. Just like the magnificent city in the story is lost. So, that’s another way of encountering the stories—on a historical level.
This is the fourth segment of a six-part interview with Yehuda Hyman, writer and performer of IN-Festival Spotlight Production The Mad 7. Read segment III here. The play is based on “The Seven Beggars,” a story by Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and follows a character named Elliott as he encounters seven storytellers from various regions of the world. Each one shares a mystical story through music and dance, propelling Elliott on a spiritual journey of self-discovery. In the following section, Yehuda discusses his artistic influences.
Are there any specific artistic influences that you’ve had, from other dancers or writers…?
In this particular piece?
Mm-hm.
Peter Brook
God, there’s so many. From a very early age the person that most excited me about theater was Peter Brook. I remember I saw a piece of his in Germany, in an armory. It was an African folktale called The Bone, with a multi-national troupe. They did the piece in French mostly, which I’m not fluent in, and some German, a little bit of English—so basically I couldn’t understand what was being said. They did it on a bare stage; I think it was six actors and a percussionist. And it was—I’ll never forget it—it was one of the most enjoyable, funny, powerful pieces I’ve ever seen.And it was very much integrated with the audience. So that idea of that, and the simplicity of a folktale—because that piece was about hunger, it was about a village that was hungry. So it just tapped something, in all of us. All of us can relate to that. So his work was really, really an influence to me.
Indian Dance
I also remember, on my first trip to Israel, there was an international theater festival. I don’t know who this woman was, I wish I did, but she was from India, and she was on this tiny postage stamp stage, and it was just her, and she told stories and danced them. And I thought—this is it, this is the whole experience. She was so highly skilled. She really brought everything to life, and she did it with her body and her voice, and so… Whoever that woman is, I don’t know, but… It’s the kind of thing I’m attempting. (more…)
The Shakespeare Theatre Company (our co-producer on Argonautika) really rocks my socks when it comes to creating exciting, multi-media digital content to talk about their productions. I’m super-inspired by all that they’ve done, and you can expect some similar stuff from McCarter in the very near future (oooh, exciting!). Below, see one of their YouTube vids of Mary Zimmerman, telling the story of Jason and the Argonauts.SPOILER ALERT: In case you didn’t understand that last sentence, if you watch this video, you will learn part of the story of Argonautika.
Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.
As always, the folks from Princeton News Network have come out to McCarter for a quick video interview with one of our artists. Today’s interview features Yehuda Hyman, playwright, performer and choreographer of The Mad 7, which is the spotlight production of this year’s IN-Festival. Enjoy!Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.
This is the third segment of a six-part interview with Yehuda Hyman, writer and performer of IN-Festival Spotlight Production The Mad 7. Read the second segment here. The play is based on “The Seven Beggars,” a story by Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and follows a character named Elliott as he encounters seven storytellers from various regions of the world. Each one shares a mystical story through music and dance, propelling Elliott on a spiritual journey of self-discovery. The piece will be directed by Mara Isaacs, Producing Director at McCarter Theatre.In the following section, Yehuda discusses the history of past projects which have contributed to the development of this current piece, and the experience of performing the story as a one-man show.
Brian Sostek and others in a production of The Mad Dancers at Mixed Blood Theatre
What has the developmental process of this piece been like since you first became inspired to explore Jewish cultures and spiritual awakening through the “Seven Beggars” story?
Well, I feel like this is a fresh start, this piece. [I have explored the story in several different forms and from several different angles, but] I don’t feel like, “Oh God, I’m hauling this thing out again.” Because it actually is really new for me.
[When I first started working with this material,] I was living in San Francisco. I had given up my career as a choreographer and become a temp, and was writing, and creating performance pieces in little clubs around San Francisco.
At first I was just working ten-minute increments on nights where you could go up and try stuff out. I did that for about a year, and eventually it became a forty-five minute piece—just the first story [out of the seven]. And it seemed clear that there was something of interest to an audience. So that was the beginning.
Then at a certain point I didn’t want to be in it, because it was too big, and I felt that I needed to be outside of it so that I could look. And that impulse eventually culminated in a play for seven actors [called The Mad Dancers]. And that is that play, and that’s a different entity. And I feel good about it.
So, one of the projects I have assigned myself over the past several months of Edward Albee’s residence here at McCarter has been to collect the best from among the many gems of wit and wisdom that have been tripping dryly out of his mouth since his “better bring a shovel” comment on the first day of rehearsal. I have been keeping a list, and here, now that the show has opened and Mr. Albee has returned into the mythical mists of Great-American-Playwright-hood from whence he emerged, are my favorites, published on the blog for your reading pleasure.
From the Dialogue on Drama at McCarter Theatre:
“I get so bored of plays where the curtain goes up and we’re supposed to be spies. Having to sit there and pretend you’re not there, and the actors having to pretend they’re not acting to you, just gets in the way.”
“A play is a set of parentheses around the lives of some characters. The secret of playwriting is in properly placing the parentheses.”
“You try to write a play in a way that makes it very difficult to screw it up.”
“Theater should engage you in thinking about social, political, philosophical and moral questions and get you involved with people who are dealing with them responsibly and seriously. Plays can also be funny doing that, I’m not suggesting they should be humorless. You’ve got to entertain but people have to be willing to be entertained in the way you want to entertain them. Entertainment is not escapism.”
Carol Rocamora: How many drafts of the play did you write?
Edward Albee: “What do you mean “drafts”? I don’t write drafts. A draft could give someone a cold. No, I think you should write the entire play down the first time, and then fix it with a few touches here and there. You shouldn’t write it down until you think you have the whole play. Playwrights get in terrible trouble when they write a play too soon, and then hope that it finds its shape. Writing is a far longer process than you know. A play begins as an idea translated from the unconscious to the conscious. You’ve been thinking about it a long time and creating it a long time before you’re even aware of it. The longer you wait, the less likely you’ll discover that you have written a “first draft.” Wait as long as you can.”
And my personal favorite, one more from the Dialogue on Drama:
Michael Cadden: “I know you don’t set out to write didactic plays with a specific message, but after you’ve written a play, when you’re watching it, do you ever look at it and think, that playwright had blank on his mind…?”
Edward Albee: “Blank? I hope I had more than that!”
Posted by Elizabeth Edwards, Literary Intern at McCarter Theatre.
And you thought we were done with Edward Albee… How foolish of you.
