THIS - blog 2 - David Dickinson (Jean-Pierre)

WHO IS BOB?

(To see the French conversation tied to this blog entry, visit here.

One of the things I enjoy the most about being an actor is doing research on a character. It is work that forces you to delve into the lives of other people and learn about places you've never been. I've learned so much about the world around me from the characters I've had to play.

A script will give you a lot of clues about who your character is, but often will not give you many specifics about details of a character's life. You have to fill that piece in yourself as the actor. So, in this case, my character is Jean-Pierre, a French doctor who is currently working for Doctors Without Borders. The script doesn't mention anything about what he does with the organization, who he works with or where he works. However, I have to have answers to all these questions in my head to fill out my character's life. So I have decided that Jean-Pierre has been working in a IDP camp (Internally Displaced Persons) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This is a French speaking country and would most likely be staffed by doctors from the French branch of Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Civil war in the area has forced thousands of people from their homes and MSF fights not only with the casualties of the war in terms of wounded civilians and soldiers, but also malnutrition, TB, cholera and malaria that often break out in the displaced populations.

For those of you who couldn't make it to our fabulous First Rehearsal Party, the actors put up the first ten minutes of the play in which I have a phone call with a colleague at MSF. I then proceed to mention the name Bob three times. So after finishing the scene, I got the question, "Who is Bob?"

My answer at the party was slightly incorrect because I got my titles wrong. But knowing who Bob might be is really important to my story as the character even though it is trivial to the play. So I answer the question of "who is Bob" in the following way for myself.

The script mentions that an ambulance has been attacked breaking an agreement that had been put in place with the local military leader, Adou, who is also mentioned. This is a big deal and very upsetting because it puts the entire project's safety and existence at stake.

So I have decided that Bob is the Head of Mission for MSF in the DRC. Jean-Pierre is talking to the Field Coordinator at the IDP Camp in the DRC. It is important to talk to Bob because before a project can be pulled from the field, which I threaten in the speech, the Field Coordinator has to talk to the Head of Mission to make the decision. Because the jobs on a mission are so demanding a staff member's missions is usually less than 6 months in duration. The positions are continually being refilled by fresh staff members who may not know everything about the job. Because of this turnover I'm assuming that the Field Coordinator is new to his job and needs to talk to Jean-Pierre who actually has more experience on the ground as a doctor although he isn't actually in charge of the site administratively. Many of the people working at MSF do multiple missions and I'm assuming from Jean-Pierre's age (the script says late-thirties) that he has done multiple missions and is a rising star in the ranks of the organization. Every staff member at MSF gets a much needed vacation mid-mission. Jean-Pierre has chosen to use his vacation to attend a high profile conference and do fundraisers in New York City and will be returning to the field in a few days after the conclusion of the play. A large portion of money that supports the French branch of MSF comes from the United States. MSF United States is actually a subsidiary of MSF France so it would make sense that Jean-Pierre is in New York to raise money and awareness.

To set the record straight for those a the First Rehearsal Party I said that the decision to pull a project from the field was between the "Head of Project" and the "Chief Medical Officer" instead of "Head of Mission" and "Field Coordinator." So that was inaccurate! However, my source for these titles and the functions they serve is actually from page twenty-seven of the book "Six Months in Sudan" by James Maskalyk. The book chronicles a six month mission to Sudan. It is a highly entertaining book and I would recommend it to anyone. It is a fun read because of the personal nature of the storytelling about some really tough people doing a really tough job. If you need some instant gratification, he also has a blog about his time in Sudan at http://www.sixmonthsinsudan.com. Enjoy!

THIS - blog 1 - Oliver Wadsworth (Alan)

Am I in The Big Chill?!?
The play THIS has some real similarities.

They are both about a group of college friends, who are now in their 30's (40's).
For them, like me, college was a time when anything and everything happened. Now years later when they get together there is an immediate chemical thing that transports them back to that time. No matter how many children or grown up jobs or crows’ feet or love handles they have. They look at each other and Boom they are back and the same great adventure opens up. I had my 20th reunion recently on a Lake upstate and everyone was doing crazy stunts on water skis. It was the same alchemy that I am talking about and was fun until someone dislocated a hip.
A big important dynamic in THIS is that these people seem connected in this “known each other since college” way.

It is the night before the 1st rehearsal and I am nervous and excited to meet everyone so we can – in the next three weeks – develop this chemistry. Work on our relationships. The Big Chill cast supposedly spent a few weeks together as a group before shooting to develop this rapport. What can we do in THIS? Maybe I should invite everyone over to the Actor Housing to watch The Big Chill? Or maybe the more artsy prequel Return of the Secaucus Seven. No, I think the entertainment value and hysterical quippyness in THIS is more similar to The Big Chill. I’ve already decided who I am in the movie – a cross between Jeff Goldblum’s reporter who can’t get laid and Bill Hurt’s boozy/druggy soothsayer. Would we all enjoy playing this game? Will we start to bond over popcorn and the movie? Or...

Will the experience of spending 8 hours a day in the rehearsal room exploring the play with Ron (May) and April (Smith) be enough? Will repeating the inventive and witty things we say, the issues we argue about, the jokes we make, the mid life crises we grapple with, the extraordinary loving and hurtful and funny things we do to one another be all we need to experience our Big Chill moment???????????

Keep you posted.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL blog 6: Sally Jo Bannow (Ghost of Christmas Past)

David Barker is a funny man – no – he is a comedy stylist – a humor artiste extraordinaire! David has perfected a number of ‘comedy routines’ that he regales us with each and every year, EACH and EVERY time as if we have never seen them before. Either he is an amazing master of discovery, acting as if each time is the first, or we’re seeing the early onset of dementia… The cast has even banned one of the characters David brought out annually. It really was best for everyone!
Thankfully, there is always at least one new cast member to try these ‘comedy morsels’ on as we begin rehearsals. As David approaches the new member of the cast, we, the Christmas Carol veterans, look on with a silent grin, knowing exactly what’s coming. We all enjoy the laughs, and the groans, from the new cast members. But even more than that, we delight in the joy on David’s face EACH and EVERY time. I will miss the antics of one Mr. David Barker when this production closes.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL blog 5: Natalie Charle Ellis (Nurse)

WARNING!!!!! SAPPY BLOG!!!!!!!

A Christmas Carol has been a huge part of my life and my career since I was only 17 years old. The whole CC team has become like my second family and I can’t imagine Christmas without it. I remember watching it from the audience when I was just a kid and saying to myself that I was going to be up there one day...and I did it. Performing with some of the most amazingly talented actors and incredible people as well, I have been truly blessed. This will be my sixth year (I took off a couple years to perform on cruise ships and Tokyo Disney and they excepted me right back!) and I can’t believe how fast time has flown.

I’ll be honest...because I now live in New York, it's a gamble leaving to do a show out of town because you hate to miss any opportunities in the city. I was debating on coming back, but as soon as I heard this was the final year, it broke my heart a little bit and I knew I had to come back. I am going to miss these crazy loons so much. These relationships and experiences have helped make me the woman and performer I am today and I will cherish them always!

But, we are definitely making the most of our final rehearsals and we are making this last year even more special. Lets just say, were gonna go out with a bang!!!!!!

A CHRISTMAS CAROL blog 4: David Rogers (Miner)

This is my second year in the part of the Miner in Alan Ruch’s haunting musical montage and trio entitled “Travels.” In years of my youth I performed in other versions of A Christmas Carol. As a teen I played Peter, and as a young man, I played Bob Cratchet beside my father’s Scrooge. I have seen many versions of A Christmas Carol, both plays, films, and musicals – some wonderful, some not. And I have more than once read the short book. Yet when Matthew Wiener called me last year and offered me the part of the “Miner,” my response was “for what show?” “The Miner? Where is he in the story?”

Even today, when friends ask me what part I play, they always look confused when I answer “the Miner.” And then I inevitably explain that in Dickens’ book, during Stave III, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge a brief scene of miners in the North who, despite awful living conditions, still found joy in the Christmas season. But until The Actors Theatre’s version, so far as I know, the “miners” scene was never depicted in any film or stage version of the story. I suppose at first blush the scene was just too brief or too unimportant to use. That is, until Michael Grady, Matthew Wiener, and Alan Ruch thought about it more carefully – perhaps understanding how important this brief scene really was to Dickens’ social message and Christmas lesson. I’m so glad they gave it a second look.

This year, as I reprise the role, it has more meaning for me. The entire world watched and cheered at the miracle of the 33 Chilean Miners, who after 69 days jubilantly emerged one-by-one from the half-mile-deep mine – a place we were convinced would be their tomb. This past month we learned of the tragedy of 29 New Zealand Miners killed in a massive underground explosion. We shudder when we try to imagine the dark claustrophobic horror those miners endured.

Yet dangerous as mining seems today, mining was far more dangerous when Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. In all of Dickens’ books, readers discover repeated themes of poverty, suffering, greed, and social responsibility. Dickens exposed the victims of the industrial revolution – those that the greed inherent in the system had displaced and driven into poverty. Perhaps none of Dickens’ books more directly argued that the wealthy members of that society were obligated to provide for the poor and destitute than does A Christmas Carol. And though the book is set in London, still Dickens didn’t forget about the miners of the north when he flew Scrooge up there for a brief look.

In the 1800’s, mining was the lifeblood of Britain’s world-dominating manufacturing industry. Black coal powered the industrial revolution. At the peak years of production, the coal miners of Wales and England hauled over 200 millions of tons of the fuel annually from the dark depths of that cold hard northern earth. Mining conditions have been noted as the worst of all working conditions of Victorian England. Many writers, such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning in her poem The Cry of the Children, wrote horror stories of children -- as young as 4 years old -- working 16 to 20-hour days in the dark-black underground coal mines. They often worked for barely enough money to afford food. Many wrote of the horrid conditions these children were forced to endure. Browning’s shocking poem describes the mine as a dark, ruthless place that robbed children of their innocence and their soul – making them yearn for early death as an escape. In the 1840’s, many reformers tried to expose the awful mining conditions and the mine owners’ exploitation of children. Browning’s poem includes a powerful plea for change: "How long, O cruel nation, / will you stand to move the world, on a child’s heart" (Browning 153). This plea was echoed by other social reformers, including Dicken’s brief portrayal of his Christmas miners in Stave III.

My thoughts of mining this year led me to do a bit of research into my own family’s history with mining. I have known that my ancestors were miners, and that some of my ancestors spent time in English and Welsh mines in the 1800’s. So for this blog, I did a bit of research for something more specific. (Actually, the research was easy, I just asked my Mom). Here is what I learned: John Kirton, my paternal great-great grandfather (b. 1863), was born in Westmore, Northumberland, England, worked in a coal mine in Scofield, Carbon, Utah, and was killed in an underground mining explosion exactly one-hundred and ten years ago. Thomas John Rees, my maternal great-great-great grandfather (yeah, that’s THREE greats) (b. 1816), grew up in Wales, Great Britain, and mined coal in both Great Britain and in Wales, Utah after immigrating as part of the Mormon migration west. Thomas Benjamin Davis, also my maternal great-great-great grandfather (1822-1889) was also born in Wales, Great Britain, and mined coal there. In 1856 he worked for a year in the coalfields in Scranton Pennsylvania so that he could earn funds to move his family to Utah. He then worked in a Wales, Utah coal mine most of his later life. And my great grandfather, Leon Ray Brown (1885-1929), a mine foreman in the Bingham Utah copper mine, died in the mine when he was younger than I am now. His daughter, my grandmother was born in that mining town of Bingham, Utah, and told me stories of her mining-influenced childhood there. I guess I am a miner in more ways that one.

So this year, I will step out on stage to sing the part of the Miner – Dickens' Miner, Micheal Grady’s Miner, Matthew Wiener’s Miner, Alan Ruch’s Miner – and my family’s many miners. When I do, my thoughts will be of them, and of the miners in Chile, in New Zealand, and of the children of Browning’s poem. When Scrooge points at me with my axe, coat and lantern props, and asks Christmas Past “who’s that,” I will know far better what the real answer is: I am playing the part of a miner. It is a part of my family’s history and a part of Dickens’ profound desire to change his world for the better, and his belief that Scrooge and others -- who had caused these atrocities -- could change. And I will play the part of David Rodgers – a third-generation college graduate who has never once been inside a mine – and who owes much of that to my mining ancestor’s hard work and belief that they could build a better world for their children. And I will owe it to Browning’s and Dickens’ and other good-hearted people’s social movement that changed the world, and proved that humans could repent, abandon greed, and lift the lives of others.

So Merry Christmas to you from the Miner and his family. And this year may God bless us, everyone. But especially the miners.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL blog 3: Mike Lawler (Marley's Ghost)

I was in Christmas Carol the first year Matthew directed it at Actors Theatre in ’95 (the old version). This is the final year of Christmas Carol and I get to be in it again and I’m thinking how I love this story. This is a story about guy who gets a second chance, who is self-centered with twisted ideas about the world and the people in it. A guy who has never made right anything he’s made wrong. And he wakes up and has the chance to make things right. I love it. Hey, I can relate.

I love rehearsal and this thing is rehearsal on steroids. We open at the end of our 3rd week together so we move fast. And we have the right directors to do it. Alan’s music is fabulous and when he directs he’s always looking out for us. We sound really good. It’s always a pleasure to work with Matthew. He’s a terrific director and storyteller and I love being a part of any story that he’s telling. Robbie is a great choreographer (have you seen Hairspray?) and so much fun to work with. And our cast rocks this show! I’m really excited about where we are in rehearsal now and we still have time! So onward and upward! I’m really grateful to be a part of this last production. Oh, yeah and my bald head has never had so much hair. Eddie Todd is going to go crazy with the Marley hair this year. :)

A CHRISTMAS CAROL blog 2: Ben Tyler (Fezziwig)

THE RULE OF 4: DO IT LIKE THAT!

Matthew has adopted a new system this year in rehearsing Christmas Carol. We always have new people in the cast every year, and they are placed in the unenviable position of picking up and learning very quickly the stuff that the rest of the cast are just refreshing their memories about. This new system has been dubbed: The Rule of 4. This means we run a scene four times. The first time through we know it’s going to be all screwed up. The second time through we remember all the stuff we forgot the first time. The third time we get it right, and the fourth time we cement it in place. This has been remarkably consistent throughout the rehearsal process. The highest praise Matthew bestows is his oft repeated expression: “Do it like that!” When he says that, we know we’ve got it. We are very fortunate this year to have new cast members who are quick learners. We’ve been hearing “Do it like that!” a lot. This is a good thing.
~ Ben