No stranger to the stage, John Gibson worked at Live Arts for 18 years, from 1992 to 2010. During his run as executive and artistic director, Gibson introduced youth programs and new works, advocated for under- represented playwrights, and launched pay-what-you-can performances, among other initiatives. Since moving to Atlanta in 2011, Gibson has worked as an organizer and leader, striving to build better and more resilient communities. As he returns to town to helm Live Arts’ production of The Wizard of Oz, we put the once-again director in the HotSeat.
Name: John Gibson
Age: 59
Pronouns: he/him
Hometown: Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Job(s): Writer, community organizer, once-upon-a-time theater director
What’s something about your job that people would be surprised to learn? Whether as a writer, an organizer, or a director, boredom and discomfort are your greatest allies. That microsecond where I get bored or annoyed obligates me to initiate change.
What is acting/performing to you? Theater was my daily practice from ages 8 to 44. I then set it down completely for 15 years—rarely even an audience member. I never felt burned out—I just wanted new ways to engage with the world. But curiosity got the best of me—could I still do it? Is it like riding a bicycle? The answer will be onstage from November 22 to December 15. Come judge for yourself.
Why is supporting performing arts education important? Lots of higher-order reasons, but here’s what I learned as a kid actor: Be nice, show up early, help clean up, don’t touch other people’s stuff, learn your lines, and don’t share mascara (pink eye—that’s why). Also, you can’t know when, but someday clean underwear will really matter.
Most fulfilling aspect of directing for the stage: Failing better.
Favorite city to perform/work in: Wherever those dear hearts and like minds gather. They know who they are.
Favorite venue to perform/work in: The unlikely or undiscovered one. In Charlottesville, none could ever top the coal tower.
What are you currently watching? This seems (or is) insane, but for the last few months, I’ve watched the 1939 Wizard of Oz almost every day. Hundreds of times now.
What are you currently listening to? “Follow, follow, follow, follow!”
Go-to karaoke song: “My Way”
Proudest accomplishment: Loving whole-heartedly and faithfully, twice in a lifetime. And: Building a robust community, also twice.
Celebrity crush: I had a lot of them growing up—Donnie Osmond, Robbie Benson, Scott Baio—the dark-haired, big-eyed, square-jawed types. Reader, I married him.
Who’d play you in a movie? I used to get confused for John Malkovich every once in a while.
Who is your hero? I actually keep a list. Nearly a hundred names. Thinking a lot lately about Pauli Murray, Wes Anderson, Savitri Durkee, John Lewis, and Wendell Berry.
Best/worst part of living here: The best and the worst part of living here is that I don’t live here. It forces Charlottesville into a purely nostalgic modality, which is its long-time preference.
Favorite Charlottesville venue: Various basements, leaky warehouses, overgrown gardens, and fire traps, all long since condemned or torn down, replaced with things fancier, safer, and saner.
Favorite Charlottesville landmark/attraction: Steve Tharp and Sandy McAdams.
Bodo’s order: Everything bagel with liverwurst, onion, horseradish, and mustard.
Describe a perfect day: Thursday has always been my secret favorite.
If you could be reincarnated as a person or thing, what would you be? It’s all such a miracle, from every vantage point. Glad to take the roll of the dice.
If you had three wishes, what would you wish for? The good knees, perfect eyesight, and 32-inch waist I had through my 20s, minus the arrogance.
Are there any superstitions you abide by? All of them—ladder avoiding, salt throwing, non-crack stepping. There are too many invisible forces to take any chances.
Most embarrassing moment: The amount of time I’ve spent on these interview questions is pretty far up there.
Best Halloween costume you’ve worn: When, as an 8-year-old, you get paid to dress up and scare people, you realize: Halloween is for civilians.
Do you have any pets? Projects, ideas, causes, opinions, grudges. Oh—and two dogs.
Subject that causes you to rant: So. Many. Please do not get me started on the devil’s bargain we made, trading incandescent light bulbs for survival of the species.
Favorite curse word? Or favorite word: I swear like a sailor. To choose a favorite curse word would be like choosing a favorite child. I love them all for different reasons. My most overused word is “tedious.”
Most used app on your phone: Questions about “your phone” are tedious.
Hottest take/most unpopular opinion: Everything is going to be okay.
What have you forgotten today? Almost all of yesterday.
David Cross performs at The Jefferson Theater on November 20. Supplied photo.
Comedian, actor, and writer David Cross is a recognizable face thanks to still-fresh classics like ’90s HBO sketch show “Mr. Show” and the sitcom “Arrested Development,” as well as more recent roles such as that of Sy Grossman on Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy.” Decades ago, Cross earned a core of devoted Gen X fans, and has since cultivated a lengthy list of critical praise, as well as multiple Grammy Award nominations for Best Comedy Album. His many successes elsewhere (animated blockbuster voiceovers, British TV) haven’t prevented him from continually revisiting his stand-up roots, though, and his The End of the Beginning of the End tour brings his singular disarming wit back to town. We spoke to him by phone to find out why, after more than 40 years, he’s still drawn to cracking wise for crowds.
C-VILLE Weekly: I always thought stand-up seemed like the most difficult thing anybody in the performing arts could choose to do. So why do you keep doing it?
David Cross: I like difficult things. I like the challenge. But it’s not difficult anymore; I’ve been doing it for, geez, two-thirds of my life now. The shortest answer is I really enjoy it. I don’t have to do it. I choose to do it.
Is there a specific aspect you like most that keeps you coming back to it?
I’m having fun. And being out on the road is another aspect I like; I love traveling across the world. And that hour and 20 minutes or so that I’m on stage is really fun. So whatever kind of shitty day I’ve had or shitty news I’ve gotten, I know that that will be a good hour-plus time spent that day.
You mentioned that you’ve been doing it for so long. Besides your early years where you were still figuring things out, how has your approach changed?
For the last five tours or so I’ve been repeating a process and I’ve got it down to a science. When I’m ready to start working again, I will do these shows called “Shooting the Shit, Seeing What Sticks” in Brooklyn, where I live. I’ll have a couple of special guests and I literally am starting from scratch, with notes and papers.
I record everything because I do all my writing on stage, basically. I’ll do it in a tiny 99-seat basement theater for a couple of months—probably eight to 10 of those things, then I’ll move to a slightly bigger venue for six shows. It’s about a five-month process to write a new hour. And when I go out on tour, the set will change fairly significantly from the first show I do to the 70th show.
In addition to that, I saw that you’re also doing a podcast every week [“Senses Working Overtime with David Cross”], and I have to confess that I haven’t listened to it—but I saw some clips on Instagram. When the hell are people supposed to listen to podcasts? Do you listen to podcasts?
I don’t. My wife does. As far as when you’re supposed to listen to it, that’s a question that only you can answer, my friend.
How would you describe your act for people who haven’t seen you?
I’ve been doing it for a long, long time. I know what I’m doing. I’m not a clean comic. I’m a little edgy. I’m not for everyone. And if you’re not familiar, check it out. You may like it or you may hate it. (pauses) I don’t know who you are.
The United Nations of Comedy returns with the hottest standups seen on stages and screens from coast to coast. Founded to promote diversity through laughter, the show’s current lineup features an eclectic mix of performers with styles that span the gamut of humor, including New York City-based Anthony DeVito, Jordan Rock (the youngest brother of Chris), Washington, D.C.’s Paris Sashay, and BET “Comic View All-Star” Funnyman Skiba, making his 15th appearance in Charlottesville.
Saturday 11/16. $39.50–49.50, 8pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
Now in its 50th season, the Charlottesville Symphony continues to explore the boundaries of what orchestral music can be. Photo by Alisa Foytik.
When the schedule for this year’s 50th-anniversary season of the Charlottesville Symphony hits the desk of Elizabeth Roberts, the orchestra’s principal bassoonist eyes the first piece in the first show. It’s Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, and she’s played it many, many times.
For professional players like Roberts, seeing Beethoven 5 on the setlist is like hearing an audience member request “Free Bird” at a Lynyrd Skynyrd show. The band has played it so often, it’s tough to muster up much enthusiasm.
But this is a 50th-anniversary program. Roberts and the other professionals in the Charlottesville Symphony’s principal seats know what Music Director Ben Rous is thinking. The celebratory season is a time not only to show off the nontraditional work they’ve been doing, but also an opportunity to call back to the masters who’ve come before them.
Plus, Charlottesville’s orchestra has a cheat code when it comes to playing the standards with passion: students.
“What we have are a lot of super-smart kids who are passionate and accomplished and really dedicated to improving,” Roberts says. “They are going to play with a level of energy when you put Beethoven 5 in front of them that the audience is going to sense. They’ve been waiting their whole life to play it.”
The Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia is made up of not only professionals and students, but also community members. It’s a unique construction that’s shared only by two or three other orchestras in the United States. And the local ensemble has been doing it that way for a long time—half a century to be exact.
Tracing back
Even before the Charlottesville Symphony’s official founding in 1974, seeds had been planted in the form of a faculty group.
“We don’t know a lot about it, like the early conductors’ names,” says Janet Kaltenbach, executive director of the Charlottesville Symphony Society, a community nonprofit supporting the organization. “But the narrative of the earliest symphonic music at the university is even older than the symphony itself.”
Four music directors have led the Charlottesville Symphony over its 50 official years: Douglas Hargrave from 1974 to 1991, Carl Roskott from 1991 to 2006, Kate Tamarkin from 2006 to 2017, and Rous, who took the job in 2017.
When Ben Rous took over as Music Director, he brought his own sensibilities to the role, which former director Kate Tamarkin says is welcome and expected. “[Each new conductor adds] something else very important, which is their temperament,” Tamarkin says. Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian.
Each director has also served as the orchestra’s primary conductor, a job that requires more than simply dancing a baton in front of the musicians. The directors oversee the roster, select the music for each season, and bring their own style and energy to the way classical music is translated for the audience.
“Orchestral music is a re-creative art,” Tamarkin says. “The composer needs a partner, an interpreter. Every conductor adds their understanding of the composer and the time when it was written. And they add something else very important, which is their temperament.”
When Hargrave took the lead in 1974, he directed a group of 50 musicians. The orchestra began its subscription series in 1975. Roskott brought with him an impressive resume and bolstered the orchestra’s reputation. At the time, the symphony included six professional musicians as principals. When Tamarkin took over in 2006, 16 principals were on the roster.
Tamarkin again raised the bar in terms of experience as a director and conductor, leading the organization for a decade. In May 2017, Rous uprooted from Norfolk as resident conductor at the Virginia Symphony to move to Charlottesville.
Today, the Charlottesville Symphony is one of the primary public-facing arts organizations at the University of Virginia, according to Jody Kielbasa, UVA vice provost for the arts. “Along with the two museums, the Virginia Film Festival and the theater festival, these organizations have a long history with the university, but more broadly with the Charlottesville community,” he says. “They serve as a bridge to the community.”
A modernist turn
When Rous took the conductor’s baton from Tamarkin, he says he came into a healthy organization. His experience with other national orchestras had taught him that professional groups all share at least one flaw. Professionals, he says, treat playing orchestral music as a job by definition.
Rous immediately felt that the Charlottesville Symphony, with its focus on teaching students to play as well as professionals, had a different air, a more contented air than he’d ever experienced. “We had a great performance culture and a really committed, loyal audience,” he says.
Still, Rous wanted to take the symphony in a new direction. According to Tamarkin, that was expected. As part of the search team seeking her replacement, she wanted someone who would be as different from her as possible.
Rous’ intensity and willingness to experiment with new forms, to take orchestral music to the edge of what people think it can be, fit the playbill. “I decided I could trust this community to be curious along with me, and I made a little bit of a leap of faith that I could be my honest, curious self when choosing what music to program,” he says.
Janet Kaltenbach is the executive director of Charlottesville Symphony Society, a nonprofit that supports the Charlottesville Symphony. Photo by Alisa Foytik.
The result is an orchestra that, in addition to the standards, features music by unfamiliar composers, arrangements listeners have never heard before, and collaborations with novel artists. Last spring, Rous invited drummer, percussionist, and composer JoVia Armstrong to join the Charlottesville Symphony on her cajon drumset. Armstrong, whose own music draws on techno, future soul, hip-hop, and chamber jazz, was a hit. After the performance, concertgoers and players alike told Rous the symphony should feature Armstrong in every show.
Under Rous, the Charlottesville Symphony has also featured an afro-futurist improv jazz flutist, a standard jazz quintet, and music produced from the sound of melting glaciers.
This season, the line-up will include rapper A.D. Carson during the March 22-23 shows which feature & metaphors commissioned from him for the anniversary season, Mozart’s Requiem and Barber’s Adagio for Strings.
“The overarching goal I have is to expand on what people can get out of an orchestral concert—not just what sounds we are making, but what ideas we can represent, what societal issues we can confront,” Rous says.
Looking to the future
Taylor Ledbetter, like so many middle-class American kids, grew up taking piano lessons. In sixth grade, when many students are first introduced to band instruments—some influenced by programs like the Charlottesville Symphony’s own youth outreach efforts—Ledbetter began playing the flute. She took to it and joined her high-school symphony orchestra in Fort Worth, Texas.
When Ledbetter looked at colleges, she knew she wanted to continue playing music while not compromising her education. The University of Virginia was the perfect fit, in no small part because of the Charlottesville Symphony.
Ledbetter has since taken up the piccolo, with help from UVA professor and Charlottesville Symphony principal flute player Kelly Sulick, and joined the orchestra on the smaller instrument for the spring show last season. This year, she’ll play in the February show featuring Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.
Ledbetter’s story isn’t unique among the hard-charging, intellectually minded students who make up the youngest portion of the Charlottesville Symphony. But symphonic music isn’t for everyone, especially those who’ve never seen it live before. According to Tamarkin, most folks who see it even once come to love it.
UVA student Taylor Ledbetter will play piccolo with the orchestra in February’s performance of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Supplied photo.
If the Charlottesville Symphony wants to keep playing for another 50 years, it has to continue to put people in the seats. One way it does that is through education, from the organization’s youth programs up through the students who learn to play pieces like Beethoven’s 5th alongside professional musicians and community members.
According to Concertmaster Dan Sender, the educational structure of Charlottesville Symphony rehearsals is unlike any other experience for young players. While Sender admits “first rehearsals are the worst” as the students sit down in front of a new piece of challenging music, the opportunity to play alongside professionals and accomplished community members in their section brings the students along quickly.
“We develop a language to coach and critique our section play,” Sender says. “Could you imagine how good a student’s essay would be if the teacher was sitting next to them and helping them with each sentence? The final product would be outstanding.”
The Charlottesville Symphony’s efforts are paying off. After five decades of continuous operation and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, the local audience remains strong.
“It has become a real challenge for many orchestras,” says community member and clarinetist Rick Kessel, who’s played in multiple national orchestras over the past 20 years. “The fact that this community comes out to support us is just amazing, and we see a lot of young faces in the audience. That is why Charlottesville is so unique. They pack the house.”
Symphonic riches
The Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia is the longest-running classical music organization in the city (by a margin of five years), but it’s not the only place to get your orchestra on.
Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra, the 2021 American Prize winner for Best Community Orchestra Performance and 2024 recipient of the Shenandoah Valley’s Circle of Excellence in the Arts Award, plays an extensive season of classical music at the First Presbyterian churches in Waynesboro and Staunton.
Albemarle Symphony Orchestra Formerly the Crozet Community Orchestra, the Albemarle Symphony Orchestra typically has around 70 players on the roster. Launched in October 2013 by co-founders Denise Murray and Philip Clark, the orchestra plays two to four shows per season at churches and schools in Crozet and Charlottesville.
Youth Orchestras of Central Virginia In addition to the area’s award-winning high school orchestras, the Youth Orchestras of Central Virginia, founded 45 years ago, play a full season of classical concerts. The orchestras, headquartered in Charlottesville, feature players from elementary, middle, and high schools around central Virginia. The two full symphony orchestras, string orchestra, and chamber music club draw public, private, and homeschool students from the surrounding counties to participate in their annual programs.
Youth Orchestra of Central Virginia. Photo by Caleb Davis and Abe Granger.
Other organizations Still haven’t reached your cap on classical? The Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival held its 25th annual show in September and shows no signs of stopping heading into next year. Charlottesville Classical, a service of WTJU and available for streaming at charlottesvilleclassical.org, plays the full classical repertoire, from medieval chants to modern compositions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Tuesday Evening Concert Series, founded in 1948, features shows on semi-monthly Tuesdays in Old Cabell Hall. And go off the orchestral path with Three Notch’d Road—The Virginia Baroque Ensemble’s performances of historical repertoires offered in a subscription series, or the Cville Band, one of the oldest amateur community bands in the nation, which performs locally several times a year.
The UVA Drama season wanders open with Love is the Greater Labyrinth, a retelling of the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The show features a new translation of the final work written by revolutionary 17th-century Mexican playwright Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Guest director Anna Rebek draws a mixture of comedy, tragedy, adventure, and romance from a cast of student actors. Conquering the Minotaur is just the beginning for the character of Tesio, as he navigates a maze of mistaken identities, dueling affections, and the wrath of King Minos.
It’s a mad dash to the finish line of dramatic excellence with the 20th annual Adrenaline Film Project. In just 72 hours, groups of three will write, film, edit, and screen original stories with the aid of industry experts. Teams can draw from a professional actor database, or cast friends, family, and neighbors as the stars of their three- to five-minute short films. The entire process takes place at Light House Studio, including screenings of the final cuts, where cash prizes are offered for the Judges Choice, Mentor Selection, Audience, and Actors awards.
Sunday 11/10. $15, 7pm. Light House Studio at Vinegar Hill Theatre, 220 W. Market St. lighthousestudio.org
From his first film, Baby It’s You, directed by John Sayles, to his recent role as Dr. Martin “Papa” Brenner in Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and a star turn in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Matthew Modine’s accomplishments in film, television, and on stage define the range of his talent. In addition to Sayles, the Golden Globe Award-winning actor has also worked with directors Oliver Stone, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, Spike Lee, and Jonathan Demme, to name a few. He’s been directing since the ’90s, and is the co-founder of the production company Cinco Dedos Peliculas. At the Virginia Film Festival, Modine will participate in discussions following the screening of 1984’s Birdy, and the documentary I Hope This Helps!. He answered a few questions for us by email ahead of his appearances.—TK
C-VILLE Weekly: What attracted you to produce the documentary I Hope This Helps!?
Matthew Modine: My producing partner at Cinco Dedos Peliculas, Adam Rackoff, knows that I am curious about consciousness. What is it? When did we become conscious of our consciousness? When did humans become self-aware of our existence?
These are impossible questions to answer and a fascinating subject to delve through. I believe human consciousness has slowly evolved over millions of years. By contrast, artificial intelligence is pretty much brand new, and something that is evolving way, way, way too fast. If we get this wrong—if we don’t have guardrails in place—we will not be able to put this horse back in the barn.
If you have concerns about the consolidation of power, the distribution of news and current events, ‘deepfakes,’ the freedom of movement, you should watch this movement closely.
There’s no way to know what countries the U.S. is continually suspicious of—aren’t already way ahead of the west in this space. “Artificial General Intelligence” is already happening. For sure. This means AI is now able to improve itself—with no human intervention. That should concern all of us. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to sound the bell of caution. I Hope This Helps! humorously illustrates where we are, and where this AI shop is headed.
You’ve worked with an impressive list of directors. Who stands out?
Many of the directors I’ve had the pleasure of working with are still living. So I wouldn’t want to pick favorites. Suffice it to say, I’ve learned something useful from each of them.
What role has had the most personal effect on you?
Maybe Louden Swain, from Vision Quest. It’s a coming-of-age story about a high-school wrestler. I learned from the experience how important it is to maintain focus and that whatever it is we hope to accomplish demands effort and self-determination. Some folks are gifted with natural genius and athletic abilities. But even those who are blessed have to put in the effort to master a craft.
How did you prepare to play Dr. Martin Brenner in “Stranger Things”?
First off, I do not enjoy playing “bad” guys. I get no pleasure from it. The Duffer Brothers, Ross and Matt, wrote terrific scripts and gave me space to create a person that is a conundrum. Someone the audience would be confused by. His look, clothing, hair, speech pattern, that was good fun to pull together with the show’s creative team.
In 1985, New York magazine noted that you and Matthew Broderick were fine actors, but not part of the Brat Pack. Did the Brat Pack label have any effect on your roles or social engagements at the time?
Matthew and I, simply by living in NYC, would have been 3,000 miles away from that silliness. Matthew is a very talented and disciplined theater actor. If he was going out in those days, I’d bet it was with legends from the theater world. I was busy going from film project to film project, two years in England with Stanley Kubrick, during the height of the Brat Pack era. There wasn’t any time in our lives for being in a club.
You are known for your work as an environmental activist. What is your current focus?
Being an environmentalist isn’t a hobby. It’s a demanding commitment to protecting the entirety of nature. The world is like a spider’s web and what we do to a single thread has an impact upon the entire web.
An oil tanker sinking doesn’t just affect the place it sunk and spilled its millions of gallons. The repercussions are far-reaching. The nuclear disaster at Fukushima is an example of how a nuclear explosion in a considerably small location can affect the entire Pacific Ocean and all the creatures within it.
So my focus is global. We have searched the universe looking for “Goldilocks” planets—places that resemble our home—and so far found none. This should magnify our responsibility to protecting all life on the earth and the soil, air, and water, and demanding peaceful resolution through diplomacy to or momentary differences.
What was your reaction when you discovered that the Trump campaign used clips of you from the movie Full Metal Jacket in an online post?
I think my statement on the subject covers how I felt.
[In his statement published in Entertainment Weekly, Modine said, “… Trump has twisted and profoundly distorted Kubrick’s powerful anti-war film into a perverse, homophobic, and manipulative tool of propaganda.”]
With such an accomplished career, what would you change?
We cannot change the past. So it’s a total waste of time to live in regret. I’m here. I’m here now. Believe it or not, 99 percent of life is trying to accomplish something so that we are appreciated, maybe even loved, for what we happily give to others. That means for me, joyfully and gleefully doing for others.
Drac is back in a sexy and sarcastic off-Broadway production making a regional debut that’s bound to be A-positive. Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors takes Bram Stoker’s titular Count and turns up the camp with gender-bending, nonstop antics that’ll have you screaming with laughter. This riotous reimagining follows the basic beats of the Gothic novel and parodies the prose with pop-culture references sharper than a wooden stake. Due to strong sexual content, adult humor, and simulated sex scenes, this performance is recommended for patrons aged 14 to undying.
Through Sunday 11/24. Times and ticket prices vary. Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 S. Market St., Staunton. americanshakespearecenter.com
Electronic music and intermedia art collide at the annual TechnoSonics Festival. With the theme of immersion, the 2024 iteration explores aspects of the world that envelop minds, bodies, and spirits. Sounds that surround, and environments that encapsulate, are all fair game at events on UVA Grounds and at Visible Records. The featured work in electronic music, intermedia, and sound art comes out of UVA’s composition and computer technologies program. Special guest artist Rohan Chander—aka BAKUDI SCREAM—offers a presentation covering his creative process on Friday afternoon, followed by performances on Friday and Saturday nights.
Thursday 10/17–Saturday 10/19. Free, times and locations vary. music.virginia.edu/technosonics-2024
Live Arts kicks off its season with two thought-provoking shows, "What the Constitution Means to Me" and "An Iliad," in repertory through October 28. Details at livearts.org. Supplied photo.
We humans are social animals, which is one reason why theater endures as a way for people to share space and feel something together. In a time when our nation feels quite divided (ahem: understatement), any opportunity to learn from history and engage with challenging subjects in thought-provoking ways is a good opportunity. The current Live Arts shows have us covered on that front with back-to-back chances to dig in to the depth of the human experience from two distinct yet resonant perspectives.
As Live Arts’ 2024/2025 Voyages season picks up steam, What the Constitution Means to Me and An Iliad share the Founders Theater and alternate performances. The choice of presenting the plays in repertory makes sense, because they are very much in conversation. Both shows feature powerful performances enhanced by the black box theater’s intimate staging conditions. Audience members feel essential to the storytelling.
In What the Constitution Means to Me, we find ourselves in an American Legion hall represented by a minimalist patriotic set. Enter Heidi, a character based on playwright/original lead Heidi Schreck, who takes us to a scholarship speech contest about the U.S. Constitution that she competed in as a teen. Heidi, portrayed by Tovah Close the night I attended, invites the audience to play the cigar-smoking men who filled the American Legion halls of her youth. We were a predominantly female audience, and the first thing many did when invited to embody men was to take up more space, which resonates with the play’s central theme.
Through Heidi’s personal stories, and those of her grandmothers and mother, we come to understand how preposterous it is for Heidi to be speechifying about the personal relevance of a document that first explicitly mentions women in the 19th amendment, passed in 1919, that granted women the right to vote. As a woman, I found the play to be validating and emotionally challenging. Heidi’s statistics about rape and domestic partner violence against women landed pointedly. Just as the weight of the traumas became overwhelming, there was an intermission. Let me tell you: We hit the bar hard.
Fortunately, the play’s second act offers a respite from heartstring plucking (mostly) by featuring a debate between Heidi and an actual debater (Aafreen Aamir). The topic is whether we should keep or abolish the U.S. Constitution. Honestly, it never occurred to me that we could abolish our Constitution and institute a new one—one that protects the rights of Native Americans, people of color, queer folks, women, and other minorities with the same vehemence as in protecting the rights of white men like our founding fathers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a proud American, which is probably why the idea of abolishing the Constitution never occurred to me. I’m also a disheartened American, an American who sees that some things need to change as our country continues to evolve, just as the founding fathers envisioned it would.
The following night, I saw An Iliad, which blends sections of Robert Fagles’ translation of Homer’s epic poem with moments of modern contextualization. Two nameless, timeless poets—an elder and a younger—arrive and investigate the sparse set. For several minutes, the audience watches as the elder, portrayed by David Minton (also the director), and the younger by Jesse Timmons, set the stage before beginning the tale. I love that live theater has the power to get me to care about watching a man adjust the placement of a milk crate—and I did care!
The Iliad is a familiar tale to many, with ancient heroes Achilles and Hector leading armies during the Trojan War. The added context breathes life into this show. The Younger Poet likens (spoilers) ill-fated Patroclus’ bloodlust in battle to our modern experience of road rage. He begins by expressing a degree of anger relatable to anyone who’s been cut off in traffic. However, Timmons then takes his performance to an extreme that fills the room with discomfort, graphically describing physical violence, inappropriate as a reaction for a roadway mishap. The Elder Poet touches the younger, to snap him out of his fiery passion, and the younger apologizes, saying something like, “That’s not me. It’s not me.” Reckless uncontrollable rage does not define the man, or at least The Younger Poet doesn’t want it to. One of the play’s most affecting aspects is the tension created by the tenderness between the two characters juxtaposed against the horrors of the Trojan War and all the wars after, including those that are raging even now.
