Movin' On

The Actors Alliance sent a bulletin announcing the staged reading of "two incendiary plays" this week. Stop Kiss by Diana Son and Oleanna by David Mamet. I attended both.

Tuesday's Stop Kiss reminded me very much (in structure) of Boy Gets Girl. The valuable difference to this piece is that in this one girl gets girl -- and neither girl is filing charges to stop it. Like Boy Gets Girl, it's told in 23 short scenes that allow for the passage of time. Unlike Boy Gets Girl, it's told in two chronologies rather than one -- the audience sees both the progression toward the girls' unexpected kiss while also seeing the progression of events after one of them is hospitalized as a result of it. It was in interesting bit of theatre, but even with the inclusion of the "big bad lesbian kiss," it was nowhere near as unsettling as Wednesday's Oleanna.

In Oleanna, Mamet gives us an about-to-be tenured published professor in his forties and his twenty-something student who doesn't get it. In the first act, the student, Carol, has questions about her grade, fears about failing, and questions about nearly every 10-dollar word or phrase the professor uses. She takes notes on everything. To comfort and perhaps inspire the student, the professor tells a story from his own youth that directly parallels the fears she has, and when Carol later becomes fiercely emotional, he puts his arm around her. In Act Two, that action and words taken out of context from the meeting become the basis of her complaint to the Tenure Committee.

His safety and security in question, about to lose a house bought on the expectation of his promotion and the promotion itself, the confounded professor questions Carol about her charges, becoming more frustrated as the miscommunication escalates. When at the end of the second act Carol attempts to leave, he grabs her arm and restrains her. In Act Three, that action is subject to criminal charges: rape. Tenure and the house are lost. The professor's job is lost. His marriage is in question. His reputation ruined.

Lamenting only the complaint to the tenure committee and its results, he refuses Carol's demands for an exchange -- the banning of his book and others for the dropping of her charges. When he discovers those charges are now criminal, he lashes out and beats her, sealing his fate.

Though I don't know, honestly, whether or not I LIKED the piece, I can honestly say that I cannot remember the last time that any theatrical work stirred me this way. I was mad. Furious. But impressed. Theatre has a unique ability to evoke response in a way that neither film nor prose can do; but rarely have I seen it utilized so well. Or, given the nature of staged reading, so sparingly.

I've never been among the throng of Mamet fans. To me, Glengarry Glen Ross was a staged drinking game -- take a shot every time they say "fuck" and get wasted! And from that, I'd taken no interest in his other works. Now I have to give the man credit. He absolutely made me think and feel.

Damn.

The Actors Alliance theme continued Thursday night with the first read-through of one of the scripts I'll be performing in the Festival. What's going to be interesting about this is that, though it's only a 10-page-play, already the director is spouting grand ideas and parallels. As she should. However, I have my own fears and doubts about taking direction. To be frank, what I have learned and am most familiar with is what I'll call "Barn fare." Working at the Barn gave me the practical equivalent of 4-year degree in theatre, but it was limited. Comedies and farces, the odd mystery, the occasional musical. Light, fun, crowd-pleasing entertainment.

In community theatre, I could use what I learned because most of these little theatres have similar seasons of light, fun, crowd-pleasing entertainment. Moving out of community theatres again without a comedy net, I question my ability to interpret text correctly or to understand and give back what the director wants. I don't have a bag of tricks for this.

Which leads me to my one and only sympathetic moment with Oleanna's Carol: "everybody's talking about 'this' all the time. And 'concepts,' and 'precepts' and, and, and, and, and, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

Comfort zone is gone, baby. Gone.