From the Iowa Theatre Blog:
City Circle - Sometimes things don't always go as planned in the theatre world. City Circle had planned to open The Threepenny Opera a week or so ago, but an unexpected illness in the production team forced them to switch gears. Instead, tonight Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz opens. We had a chance to talk to the director of the show, Greg Redlawsk, as well as one of the actors, Nicole Vespa.
Could you tell our readers a little bit of what the show is about?:
Greg: Well, The Baltimore Waltz is a play that revolves around a fantastical trip made by a brother and sister to Europe after the sister has been diagnosed with ATD (Acquired Toilette Disease) and their search for some sort of cure, some sort of hope.
Nicole: Right, when Anna gets diagnosed with her disease, she and her brother Carl decide to take the European vacation they have always planned. During the trip Anna decides to cut loose and live life to the fullest -- by eating out a lot and lusting after various European men. Anna is a fun character to play -- she is sweet and thoughtful, but she can also be incredibly selfish and short-sighted. She has a sense of humor about her predicament though, and I think that's what really carries her through all the things that happen to her during the play. She's a very feeling person - as she says to Carl at one point during the play, "I can remember the things I feel." Anna is really a stand-in for Paula Vogel herself, because the play is an homage to Vogel's real-life brother, Carl and the vacation they never got to take together.
Greg: It is also a thinly veiled but heartbreakingly poignant critique on how people responded to the AIDS crisis in the late 80's and early 90's.
This show was added to the season after Three Penny was canceled. Greg, can you talk a little bit about how this show came to be? Did you suggest it?
Greg: Yeah, I suggested it. I was on the City Circle Board at the time, and so I was aware of the situation as soon as it happened. The Board looked at a number of different options, but eventually decided on going with my proposal. It was at times a bit hectic, just due to the rushed nature of the whole process, typically of course seasons are laid out at least around six months in advance, giving the directors time to find their production teams and prepare for the show, but despite the limited time frame, this show's ended up coming together pretty effectively.
Greg, why did you want to direct this show?
Greg: Well, first of all, this is an extremely well written play. The text is strong and emotionally demanding but still malleable enough to stand up to a number of different conceptual ideas and directions. It is also a particularly challenging piece in that it has thirty scenes in ninety minutes, which presents a certain difficulty when it comes to matters of flow and pacing. While the subject matter of the play is highly personal to the playwright, themes of how one deals with grief and the notion of death can resonate with just about everyone. And that resonating is also a result of the specificity. Vogel didn't try to make it general to appeal to the broadest possible audience, instead she embraced the specificity of her circumstances which lead to a play that is intense and dramatic, gripping and impossible to ignore.
This show combines humor with pretty serious subject matter. How did you deal with the combination of these two elements?
Nicole:It can be hard at times! The play definitely has extremes between funny and serious, light and dark. The play is really a meditation on the loss of a loved one, so it could have gone to a really dark place. Instead, Vogel chose to make it darkly humorous throughout. I heard a quote at some point (and I'm paraphrazing here) that there is a thin line that separates pain from laughter. There are so many things in life that are like that...if you couldn't laugh about them, you'd cry. In that way I think it's a really truthful play...Vogel doesn't have the characters languishing with grief. Instead she has them celebrating life and trying to make the most out of the little time they have left together.
Greg: I think the major thing that the actors have to do in a show like this is simply embrace their given circumstances. Like in any comedy, it is only funny if the actors are truly invested and truly believe in their actions. The humor comes from the situation. So in a play like this that mixes in humor and serious subject matter in starkly vivid and surprising ways, the major thing that must be done is an adherence to this philosophy, the notion that the characters themselves are real people, respond in real ways, and it is the absurdity of the situation that causes both humor and drama to exist simultaneously. The playwright did that work, the work of making it alternately funny and serious. I also do have the habit of working with physicality, something we didn't have as much time for in this process, but an actor can never forget how much their physical body influences their emotional state. So when I say the actor needs to be committed to the given circumstances, that commitment is not only mental, not only about will, but also about the body being physically ready to respond to the demands of the script and work in harmony with intuitively internal responses as well.
And can you tell us a little bit about your actors?
Greg: We have an interesting amount of variety within this three person cast. All three have significant theatre experience, but manifested in some different ways. Kehry Lane is a regular around these parts, and is an absolute joy to work with. His experience makes him able to take on a demanding role like The Third Man (who actually plays twelve different parts) with fluidity and seeming ease. Bryant Duffy has been acting for years as well, with experience in summerstock and theatre around the region. He and Nicole Vespa have developed a great on stage sibling relationship that has gotten stronger throughout the production due to their abilities to work honestly and effectively in their characters. Nicole is currently a high school theatre teacher in Washington Iowa and brings a great freshness to the role of Anna.
Nicole, how has this show compared with others you've done in the area?
Nicole:It's been a lot of fun. I'm really excited to be acting again, and I hope to do more of it in the future. Frankly, all of my recent experiences in theatre have been very positive - I've been lucky enough to work with very talented actors and directors, on well-written plays that really has a heart. I have no complaints.
What challenges have you had to face in the rehearsal process?
Nicole: The language! During the course of the play, characters speak French, German, and Dutch. My character has relatively few lines in a foreign language, but that is a challenge! The play is a very language-rich, which is part of what makes it fun to play around with, but also a definite challenge at times. Overall this has been a really fun play to rehearse, though.
Greg: And there are always a variety of challenges when it comes to a rehearsal process. This play is particularly difficult because, as I mentioned before, it is constantly moving in and out of scenes and you have to find a way to make those changes fluid and smooth so as not to interrupt the sort of whirlwind atmosphere the show engenders. I'm a director who likes to keep tinkering until the end, I often restage scenes multiple times throughout a process, but as we had a little bit less rehearsal time for this show than has been the norm for me, I've had to adjust my style a little bit. I love physical warm ups but have abandoned them for this show, I staged the show more quickly than I may have liked, and not having a stage manager can at times be difficult. But through it all the actors have been a pleasure to work with, have helped keep the process moving forward in a smooth and efficient way, and I'm quite pleased with the end product.
What moments stand out for you in this show?
Nicole:So many! It's hard for me to narrow it down. There are so many scenes that Kehry is in that make me laugh. I am so lucky to be working with such a great cast and director...the whole process has really been a pleasure!
Greg: I mean, the major moment that sticks out for me is the final scene, which I won't talk about here so as not to spoil the surprise. I'll just say that there's a tenderness and vulnerability in those final moments that really elevates the entire production to something special. It's just an amazingly written and acted ending, and I can't wait for people other than me to see it.
