Marlow Ferguson's Theatre Blog

2/11/2008 2:01:49 PM permanent link Has Human Nature Changed? Little Foxes From the 8th of February through the 2nd of March, 2008, the Star City Playhouse is doing Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman who may well be the finest female playwright who ever lived. I directed the play and I'm intensely proud of the company of Actors who make up the cast. This is the second time I've done this play and each time, the play calls up a question that has absorbed me all of my adult life: Has Human natured changed? I know for a fact that all of my ancestors were at least successful enough to reproduce. Obviously, if they hadn't I wouldn't be here. In fact, there has never been a time since Adam and Eve when at least two of my flesh and blood were not living on this earth. So it is not unreasonable to think that men just like me walked this earth a thousand, two thousand years ago. Were they in any essential way different than I am? The French Academy did a massive piece of research years ago on the common life in the time of Charlemane. Do you know the most common crime eleven hundred years ago in Europe? It was infanticide. The usual method was to lay the infant between parents and suffocate him overnight. If a court of the time found out about this the parents could be sentenced to seven years in prison. However, if they were drunk at the time, only three years. Desperation calls for desperate measures. One more mouth to feed might have caused starvation for the whole family. I'm not royalty. I'm descended as far as I can tell from common men. How would I have lived in such a world? How would my human nature have had to change to accommodate such urgent and terrible things? In the 1820's, a German monk discovered the amazing idea for the time that it was all right to love one's children. Amazing. Fewer than two hundred years ago, loving one's children became acceptable. The French Aristocrat Tallyrand was sent to the country to be raised shortly after his birth, and was not allowed to even see his real parents until he was seven years old and presumably interesting enough for them to tolerate him. The theme of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes is that the love of money is the root of all evil. And I believe this. But to the people of her time who knew her best, they felt that she equated the two words "humanity" and "evil". The industrial revolution had introduced a species of evil into the world that had corrupted everyone. The Little Foxes is a play also about the triumph of Evil over good, as are most of her works. She seemed to believe that to avert the inherent and inevitable Evil of humanity, the government must step in, must be all powerful in every detail of every life. The man she admired most was Stalin. (American Drama Since 1918 An Informal History). And she wasn't alone in her beliefs. H.G. Wells, the most famous of the public intellectuals in addition to being a great writer, believed that the world must first be united and second be ruled by "superior" men and women. And again, that only omnipresent governance would turn human eyes from the inherent Evil of our natures, inherent in that we were creatures of the mass organization built into the industrial revolution. But now the industrial revolution has peaked and on the down slide. And monstrous behavior besets a good deal of the non-industrial world. And the cure seems always to be the same -- more governance of the lowly by the good and wise. "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes". I'm afraid that is all of us. In her personal life, Lillian Hellman was an idealist. The purpose of idealism, according to Camus, is to find employment for murderers. Idealism always involves changing human nature by force or fraud. In the theatre, one of the rules that actors live by is that everyman justifies his own life. The murderous and vicious seek justification for their propensities by seeking ideals to which they can devote themselves and blissfully convince themselves that not only are they not evil, but they are truly heroic. Has human nature changed? Maybe. Maybe not. We hear about it quicker on television and the internet. There are more of us crowded together on the earth and moving faster. I guess that's why bullets and bombs are so much more devastating. If Bealzebub wrote a book about Hell, I'd certainly read it to find out what's going on. Lillian Hellman may well be the the finest female playwright who has ever lived. She's written a play about Evil. It's good to know what's going on.
3/13/2007 11:18:33 AM permanent link Countdown to Auditions Finally Final preps to the building are being done and barring any other surprises on our final inspection we are looking for auditions to happen sometime next month. We will be doing a short introductory season with only two shows but will be having our usual general auditions in July for next year's season. Sign up for audition notices and we'll also have them listed on the website as well as announcements in the paper. If you can't make the first audition or aren't suited for the parts required for our first two show don't be discouraged! We always keep your 8 x 10's on site for future parts. We hope you'll like our little theater and hope to see you onstage and in the audience enjoying yourselves for many years to come. Can't wait to get started!
1/31/2007 9:10:02 AM permanent link ROUGH IN INSPECTION PASSED Now there is six weeks of hard work to close walls and do all the finish work. The next inspection should be our final. ONCE that is done, then we can set dates for auditions. We hope you have been reading Marlow's blog so that you'll come prepared. We will only be doing two shows this season as an introduction to the community. Don't be discouraged if you're not chosen for the first shows. We WILL have auditions in July again to set the full season starting next Fall. We know it's been a long time coming but we don't have armies of elves and loads of "people" to do our bidding. 90% of what you will see at the playhouse has been done personally by Marlow. We're looking forward to meeting you and hope to enjoy seeing and discovering your talent. It takes guts to show up and perform in front of strangers. It's NOT American Idol where you'll be dismissed for trying. After forty-five years in the theater WE know what it's like to be standing in front of that audience and you'll find a terrific place to learn your craft without going to NYC. After construction Marlow will be found here again offering advice on the life of an actor/director. Stay tuned. thanks for all the encouragement karon sue
1/1/2007 8:32:44 AM permanent link Theater Update: We're waiting for a rough in inspection. Then we can close the walls and do the finish work for the final inspection and get our C. of O. so we can bring the public in for auditions. WE know its been forever but we are operating with no staff and only hired workers for the coded work required by Roanoke. Marlow fell off a ladder and that too has slowed us down a bit. Please read the rest of his blog for requirements for auditions. We have serveral apartments coming open too so IF you want to live in a new exciting development where your rent goes to support a theater give us a call. It's going to be a fun place to live where you can walk around the corner and see plays! Every apartment is completely renovated. We're looking forward to getting started and meeting our new company. Extra questions? Call the theater: 540 366-0060
12/7/2006 10:46:54 AM permanent link At Last PERMITS in hand The heating, plumbing and electrian elves can now finish what we started LOW those many months ago. We're now working on dressing rooms and the backstage area. Will we open by New Years? Nah. But we're closer to setting auditions and an introductory season of two plays. Silver Cord by Howard Adaptation of Dorothy Parker's Laments. If you are an actor ... read the work above (Parker's work will be listed as short stories not a script) then read below as to how we work and what to expect. The dates will be listed on the front page when we line them up. Please be prepared. If you are a patron stay tuned. Have a great holiday season and we'll see you for sure in early 2007!!! Marlow & Karon
9/3/2006 10:56:42 AM permanent link As of Sept. 1st we still have no permits. Which means we've not been able to work on the theater since May. We're VERY discouraged. We've lost our summer auditions, rehearsal time and unfortunately our Sept. opening. I wish I had better news.
7/17/2006 9:35:16 AM permanent link Expectations Here's some of the plays under consideration for our first season: The Silver Cord by Sydney Howard On Trial by Elmer Rice Arms & the Man by George Bernard Shaw Bus Stop by William Inge End of Summer by S.N. Behrman Separate Tables by Terrance Rattigan (Also under consideration Williams, Checkov, O'Neill or Ibsen) Because we match the season to the talent we'll decide the final shows after auditions. ***Definite for the season is Karon Sue's Laments by Dorothy Parker. The NAACP owns the rights to Parker's work so until the rehearsal scripts can't be handed out. BUT if you get a copy of Laments* from the library or a bookstore, the three adaptations are: The Wonderful Old Gentleman, The Lady with the Lamp, and The Big Blonde. You'll find the stories close to the play. The two bedrocks of good acting are listening and surrender. Do not memorize your script before the first rehearsal. Read it. Many times. find out what it means. Find out the subtext of what you are saying and hearing. Then go onstage and listen and let yourself react to what you hear. Decide what you want, as the character. Then the script will spill from your lips effortlessly. Surrender. That doesn't mean passivity. It means you detach your own ego and let the character take you over. Surrender to the character who is somewhere inside of you. Our rehearsals are generally about six weeks, three or four evenings a week and Sunday afternoons. Rehearsals are generally from 7:30 to 10:30 weekdays, 2:00 - 5:00 on Sundays. If you are not doing your scenes, you will be excused from rehearsal. I will not waste your time calling you into a rehearsal where you sit around and do nothing. And I don't allow people to sit around whispering to distract those working onstage. I don't do tech rehearsals, those exhausting, frustrating set the lights marathons that wear everyone out. Tech will be done unobtrusively during the rehearsal process. We are a small family run business which means I'm the only director. Karon Sue and I have forty five years of experience (Equity/ NY) and we design and build the sets ourselves. My wife is the producer, costumer, set decorator and generally mother hen. But, more importantly to me, she is our Playwright in Residence. From the Hollins Fiction Prize, through Columbia's Dramatic Writing program and learning costuming from Patton Campbell at 890 Broadway,she keeps every aspect of the Playhouse running smoothly and loves to pamper her actors. From PR to keeping the website up to date, she's the heart of this labor of love. We never rent out the theater. We will have an in house ensemble resident company. This will be an theatrical home. Actors are free to work other places and come back year after year to keep their resumes current. It's not often where an actor can list the classics on their work records. We have our unique vision as every artist does, we're not interested in how other groups operate and aren't interested people who want to spend time putting down other artists or theaters. The point of the Playhouse is JOY. FOR AUDITIONS: Bring resume'/ picture. (If this is your first time just bring a photo from your computer printer) You will sign in and get a script to study for ten or fifteen minutes. (It may not be the ideal part for which you are eventually cast. Or you may get a call back for the part you auditioned for). Don't worry about getting every line correct or paraphrasing. I know you're seeing something for the first time. What I'm looking for you to know what the lines mean and how do you listen and relate to the other actors on stage. We're NOT American Idol where you can argue you're "right" for a part. It's a business. If we don't have a part for you the first year there might be in the second or third etc. Don't be discouraged. We know how hard it is to stand up in front of strangers and show your heart. THERE'S BEEN OVER 11,000 HITS on the site so we're not sure how many actors will show up for auditions. We'll announce the dates on site and through online notices when we have dates. We will do extra dates IF we need to... you will get a chance to audition. Please don't call us with extra days for auditions. Just be patient. Beloved Actors, you are the stuff of the theatre. you tell the stories of life. You live, not on tape or film and the audience sees life's greatest passions, victories and defeats and sorrows happening right before their eyes. We can't wait to meet you. STAY tuned and thanks for all the kind words and encouragements you've sent to us. Marlow & Karon Sue
7/16/2006 9:16:53 AM permanent link *Latest* You won't find my pokenose here very often. I enjoy being backstage and the lady behind the curtain as it were. We are trying so hard to get open. We don't have a point or click staff or crews or budget of the new art museum. It's just Marlow (at age 70) working away trying to get everything done according to City codes etc. And that's very difficult to do when the 1930 warehouse was so neglected and we're literally starting from scratch. There's been a huge backlog of city projects trying to get permits, so we're in a very long line. Without these permits all work has stopped dead. You can't close up walls or complete electric, plumbing etc. until permits are in hand and basic inspections are done. Every week we hope this is the week things will clear up and we can finish. We're very disappointed at the delays which has now forced us to wait on a date for auditions and opening. This will be one less show this year because of the wait. In the meantime, we're busy getting walls ready for painting etc. All the architectural plans were submitted in May so you see how frustrating the situation is. We do believe we'll get this solved and everyone working with us is trying their best to get these dominos in line. We are so grateful for the over 13,000 hits we've had on our site and we look forward to meeting you. We're not exactly like any other theater in the Valley. We cast to talent not type and even if you don't get a part the first time out we keep resumes and you might get a call in our next season. So stayed tuned. Karon Sue
12/19/2005 12:51:27 PM permanent link Dec.2005 Progress: We are at a point in constuction of the Star City Playhouse where I can lay out a bit more of a schedule. We will certainly be opening in 2007. Auditions will take place the last two weekends of May. Due to our construction slowdowns I'm hoping for an introductory season of two plays. I've narrowed down the plays to 200 of the best written in the last hundred years. Factored into my decision will be the talent which shows up for auditions. The secret of my success as a director is no secret at all. I hire the most talented people, and I almost never cast to type. How many times have you seen plays where someone looked perfect for the part and yet you find yourself bored with his performance in ten minutes? a good actor makes the audience believe he is the type. I know this Valley is filled with talented actors. And yet, I've found that all you talented, sensitive, complex intelligent people must continuously be reminded of the simple things. To wit, an actor must always know what he is really saying. I don't mean the words, I mean what the craft calls subtext. And not only must the actor know the subtext, they must translate it into a verb. An active verb. The Art is called "acting" not "passiving". Do you want to kick somebody or kiss them? Grab them or escape them? Always an active verb. At an audition you must always make a lightening decision as to what the real meaning, the subtext of the line is. A good director looks for these decisions. A good director never wants to hear an actor say: Well, I'm afraid here, or I'm sad or I'm disappointed. These are intellectual reflections on a character, not acting it out from the inside. Better, I will not show fear or I will cower until he turns his back and then stab him, or I am showing sadness until I get you into my clutches or I spit on what disappoints me. Active choices, never passive reflections. For my auditions or any other audition you ever go on, this principle holds true. And when you eventually get the script in your hand, you must know what every line means, every line you say and every line you hear. There is no such thing as dialouge anywhere that doesn't have subtext (except perhaps in badly written plays). Many of the younger actors with whom I have worked with in my almost forty years of professional theatre, have dreams of going to New York and wowing them there. Good for you. Go for it: But just imagine that when you take your pretty self down to Broadway for an audition (on or off Broadway) that right behind you are a thousand other actors, as pretty, as handsome, as bright and talented as you are going for the same part. The best and brightest from every small town and city in America. What is going to make you stand out? I'll tell you what: it's that you know what you're doing. You know how to make choices. You know what a subtext is and what you are really saying, not just words. Break a leg everyone.
12/19/2005 11:57:18 AM permanent link December 19th, 2005 How I pick my plays: I want you to imagine that you have a soulmate-- that perfect friend, that perfect buddy, that person who sees life as you do, who loves you as you love yourself and whom you love the same way. A soulmate, all that implies. Now I want you to imagine that your soulmate was born in Russia 200 years ago, or England 500 years ago, or China,3,000 years or southern France 25,000 years ago. He sees nothing as you do. Cars and Ipods are as foreign to him as Mars is to an ant. He likely speaks a language you cannot speak or understand. His dress, his habits, his family are all hopelessly foreign and strange to to you. He might die young of a disease that was cured decades ago. And yet, he is your soulmate. If your positions were reversed, if you lived in his China of 3,000 years ago and he today lived your life, neither of you would be different in any way. He would see life as you do, make all the choices you make and you, in his life and time would live his life exactly as he did live it so many years ago. Now I want you to imagine that your soulmate knows you are out there somewhere and he wants to communicate with you, as want to communicate with him. If he were born 25,000 years ago in a cave in France, how does he talk to you in 21st century America? He does it through Art. For Art is the only thing that lasts. And yet, the Arts, drawing, painting, music, writing must be done by each individual for the people who share the world with him when he is alive. One cannot write for the dead. One does not know those who will come after him and cannot draw or paint for them. He must tell the truth in his own world in such a way that those he will never know will carry it on, generation after generation, language to language, continent to continent until now, during your life, in your country, in the privacy of your own home, or the darkness of a theater in your town, or the lights of an art gallery, he will finally be able to speak to you. How does he do this? How does a person who drew on the cave wall in southern France 25,000 years ago, the Chinese who sharpened his drawing quills by hand in ancient China, the Englishman in the squalor of 15th century London, and the writer, lost in the vast steppes of Russia's central Asian plains talk to his soulmate --- for he knows you're out there, and he seeks you just as urgently as you seek him. I believe he does it by telling the truth. I believe that there is no other way and never will be. And by truth, I do not mean what appeared in today's newspapers, or yesterday's rumors and fears. He tears himself open and tells the truth of the human heart. For to him, that is the least he can do for you and most he demands of himself. To tear oneself open, to face the truth of life beneath the clamor and noise of everyday existence--this is what your soulmate does so that he can tell you he is out there and understands. This ain't easy! To send laughter and tears down through the ages, it's not easy. First he must take his natural skills and hone them to a fine point. His Russian novel, his English play, his Chinese drawings etc. take a lifetime devotion and learning, development and devotion to craft. Then everything he creates must be on several levels. He must please his contemporaries who have read the newspaper and read the rumors, he must develop his following who will keep what he has created alive after he has died, much as the medieval monks kept alive the written wisdom of former ages, and lastly he must impart to his work the essential view of life, the ultimate truth of the human heart that is meant just for you. His Art must inspire translators and collectors in an unimaginable future and trust them to carry on until you get his message. So how do I choose plays? I pick plays from the last hundred years or so which were written by people of my time and place, which were written by my flesh and blood, contemporaries of myself, my Father, my grandfather and so on which, in my limited vision have told the truth about life. And here is where a torturous paradox intrudes. Namely, that those plays which continue to delight us and are most thoroughly intergraded in their time and place. God is in the details. Those plays which carry on with reams of philosophy and "great thoughts" are usually terrible, dull, and uninteresting and those plays with meticulous attention to what contempories thought were the trivia of life turn out to be the most truthful and the most fun. I cannot tell you which plays will still be done a hundred years from now--not to mention a thousand years from now. That knowledge is so vast and complex that only God can comprehend it. What I can do, what I am, what I live on this earth to achieve is to be that translator, that collector, that receiver of joy written for the stage in the past decades and keep it alive, pass it on, create delight in the human heart, help those more complex than myself find, in the privacy of their own being, the soulmates for who they look.
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