The Past in the Present: “THE PAVILION” Returns
A couple of times a year, your friendly neighborhood artistic director gets to shed the "director" part of his title and become just, and simply, artistic. I'm gearing up to reprise a role I first played in 2001 at Stages: the Narrator in Craig Wright's romantic play, THE PAVILION.
We start rehearsals next week, so I'm finishing up learning (or re-learning) the lines, and anticipating the rehearsal process.
And I'm here to tell you that I feel lucky and grateful.
A lot of my days as artistic director involve meetings and spreadsheets (to name but two of my everyday tasks that weren't covered in the curriculum at Juilliard.) What a joy, then, to know that I'm heading into an environment that I was trained to be in, and which I've spent much of my professional life in.
I've been thinking about that first production at Stages (directed by Rob Bundy, one of the finest directors I've worked with in my professional life.) I was thirty-eight years old then - the age of the characters who appear in the play at their 20-year high school reunion - and now I'm twenty-two years older!
I remember having our first rehearsal cancelled because the date of that rehearsal was September 11, 2001.
I remember wondering if the show would happen at all, in lieu of those tragic events.
I remember astonishing work from Anne Quackenbush and Brian Byrnes in the roles which will be played by Jennifer Dean and Luis Galindo in our upcoming show.
I remember being new to town - still living in College Station, actually - and meeting a group of people who would become friends and colleagues.
I remember Debs Ramser, the stage manager of that production, insisting that I audition for it, after we had met the summer before at Houston Shakespeare Festival (my first appearance in Houston.)
I remember adoring audiences and lots of nice words being written (in actual paper newspapers!) about our work.
THE PAVILION is, in the words of the Narrator, a play about time. It's about the fact that time only goes in one direction, meaning that "we have to say yes to time." The world goes on, and we either go with it, or hold on to it and get "torn to shreds."
But remembering is allowed, as long as we don't hold on to the memories too tightly, and I find that the sweet memories I have of that original production (and one other! I was also involved in a production in my hometown, Des Moines, IA, with a whole other bunch of wonderful artists and friends) -- I find that all of those memories will be welcome and useful as I revisit this role, and as we revisit this play.
I hope you'll buy a ticket, and come see it.
On another note:
I've been watching my Facebook feed blow up with an article first published in the Washington Post, by Monica Byrne, entitled: "Why theater (in its current form) does not deserve to be saved"
Here's a link to the article, which I highly recommend:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/09/how-to-save-american-theater/?fbclid=IwAR1CroRzOejkGHYmxXbxE3a5WN4iMhKnFepfE7H1Gu5mlKXnXBlE9DEkGew
Ms. Byrne makes some good points and has engendered a lot of both cheering and fury on social media. I hope you'll read it and think about how what she says applies (or doesn't) to 4th Wall.
Until next time,
Philip
