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| Some beauties never fade |
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| Playwright Christy Hall |
Hall's Yours, Isabel had its premiere at the Actor's Co-op earlier this year. A small theatre company commissioned her to write a topical piece, so it didn't really feel entirely hers. Even though To Quiet the Quiet is officially the second full-length play she ever wrote, it feels like her first play, because it organically came from her "own brain and guts." Bain found Quiet sifting through a litany of scripts via the Blank Theatre's The Living Room series (she's also involved in the Young Playwrights Festival) that is "active in developing new material" and bringing diversity in voice to the theatrical world. Bain was first taken by its astuteness. She mentions classics such as Long Day's Journey into Night and Beckett's Happy Days, as being plays that you don't even need to mount. "You can stay home and read this thing. It reads well." Bain believes Hall has a "really rich understanding of people." She adored Hall's script so much she gathered actors Richards, Mendillo, and Friedman for a staged reading. There was just something extraordinary and special about Hall's story, Richards explains, that Bain, "chose this one to do a reading of." When discussing how young Hall is considering the complexity of her output thus far, Mendillo warmly chimes in, "amazingly mature." Richards found "so much to bite into," as well as having a great sense of humor. Friedman commends the script for how poetic the language is. They were all so blown away by the results of the sit-down, the play was optioned last Fall and the decision has turned into, as Bain puts, and the others would agree, a "marvelous journey." That's part of why he thought Quiet was so powerful, "it just pushes right through to the end, boom, it's over," like Fool for Love. Hall's intent was to make the play "feel universal and accessible," and she was definitely reached everyone in the room.
So, then, for Bain, the play became a question of "What more are we going to bring to it? ... That's the excitement, our job," she notes. Hall is thrilled and excited about the premiere. The life the production is bringing to Hall gives her the sense of discovery. The playwright's testament to the actors: "I know the play like the back of my hand, but I know they're doing excellent work when I get surprised by my own words. I think, is that on the page?, a couple times. I check and realize that it certainly is. But, they make it sound brand new. It sounded like they didn't get it right, but they got it word-for-word. That's exciting for me: helping me discover my play all over again." "It's scary as a new writer to hand over your work, because it's the sensibility of what you're trying to accomplish." "From day one, everyone believed in and understood the play, the tone of it. "[Bain] directs in these snapshots of what the story is, creating visuals." "I feel so grateful for these studio actors." "Most of what I write, I demand every actor to be excellent." "The first time out of the gate, I so appreciate these performers are masters of their craft." "As a writer, a lot of what you write just sits on your desktop for years and you wonder if anyone will ever see it." And, she can't think of Quiet being in any better hands than it is.
"We haven't changed a word,"says Bain, "with the exception of Bain's cryptic allusion to adding the name "Kathy" (which was enough of a nugget to get me obsessing over who was Kathy--Richards' character?--and how will this mention of her name figure into the play) which she only proceeded to add with the playwright's permission. There may have also been a half of a sentence omitted. Mendillo approvingly points out how there isn't one profanity in the whole script, marveling at its eloquence.
"How much can you talk about the story without giving too much away?" I ask. She responds, "It's tough." Bain succinctly describes the psychological mystery being about "A woman reexamining her life and taking control of it as she has always wanted to. And the two men most important to her [pointing to each of the two male actors], enter stage left, enter stage right. She gets the chance to do with them as she has wanted to her whole life." Mendillo then poses the question to Hall, "Is it a love story?" Hall believes that "everything's a love story at its core." Bain agrees, "It's a curious love story ... It's not linear. There are a lot of levels of discovery which continue throughout the play." Bain gesticulates a spiral with her finger, "It keeps going around and around, picking up pieces from the last thing you just heard, but then add up to something you just heard again. And, then you hear it a little differently. And, then, finally, explodes" and leads to "discovery." Mendillo compares it to a mobious strip and Richards thinks the surprises in the script will keep the audience on their toes. Hall alluded to how mysteries used to be one of the main draws of theatre with such classics as The Mousetrap, The Woman in Black, Gaslight, Deathtrap, Dial M for Murder (she mentions how many of Alfred Hitchcock's films originated as plays). "It's a genre that has been ignored for a long time and I wanted to take a stab at something that a modern audience could appreciate." Bain is certain the plot isn't so complex that the audience will be lost. I asked about the meaning of the title To Quiet the Quiet. While Hall was ready to elaborate, Bain was protective of not revealing too much information, insisting the audience experience the story from fresh eyes and know as little as possible. "Forgive me," she asks Hall. I can't blame her. She notices me smiling. "That's one of the reasons to come: to find out." I whine about how I was the only one in the room who doesn't now the story. "You haven't put in three weeks, yet," Bain references the length of the rehearsal process thus far (a "week each" for every cast-member she jokes) that have taken place in preparation. So, I ask about the setting. Bain gives a great answer, "Anytime, any place, central to a home and a woman's life: a kitchen." Richards points out Joel David's intriguing odd-shaped ends at the top of the set. "The script is a puzzle to fit together," she adds reflectively.
Play Structure, Technology & the Theatre TodayThe conversation turns to play structure and length. Bain recalled forgetting that plays such as Look Back in Anger were three acts, having seen it years ago. "You had to have a really good second-act, a climax, and then a denouement. That was it, that was the structure. That has all changed." She observes that paring down shows these days has to do mostly with attentional-span and production costs. Richards was shocked when Hall mentions a southern-set production of Mourning Becomes Electra she saw in London's West End. "He's a Union soldier, coming back from the war!" Putting on a southern drawl, "Did they talk like this?"
Despite the advances in technology creeping into modern theatre (Hall: "Right now, it's a new frontier, like the wild, wild West"), "this is definitely a listening play, character-driven." She's a fan of "no intermission, I just want to hold you there, keep it going." The 70-minute Doubt at the Ahmanson "just grabbed me by the throat, didn't let me go. When the curtain went down, I said, "What just happened on stage, that was gorgeous.' There is something really special of training audiences to live in the world and releasing them." Hall confesses that she likes the "storytelling aspect of 'come into my world' and then leave," which is why Quiet is less than 90 minutes long without an intermission.
Discussing of recent productions we've seen incorporating video projection and the such included Hall having seen a version of Brief Encounter on Broadway utilizing interaction with a prerecorded medium. "It was neat and gorgeous," but Hall bides by an Arthur Miller axiom: "'All you need are actors that are elevated and you need to be able to hear them. Theatre needs no machinery.' At the end of the day, I'm a believer in that. We can press things forward and have fun, but at the core, [it needs to be an unencumbered story that can stand on its own two feet]. You can add it, but you shouldn't depend on it." With the advent of an influx of technological experimenting, Hall reflects on how organic, old-school theatre touches something within theatre goers looking for something old-fashioned, unadorned with bells and whistles in a story that is updated for our times and relevant to our lives. "I like things to feel like they could be anytime, anyplace. It makes it feel more accessible to everybody no matter what generation you're from." Bain quotes Tony Shaffer: "'All you need since the beginning of time is somebody to say, I want to tell you a story.' And everybody gathered around a fire. We still need that." Bain emphasizes the tangibility of live theatre. "Peopledom," she summarizes.
The ActorsMendillo was part of the original run of Fool for Love as Martin, the gentleman caller, directed by Sam Shepard in the early 1980s. Richards speaks proudly of her husband, "People stop him on the street and they say it was the funniest thing they've ever seen in their lives." When I bring up a question related to working with a spouse, Richards playfully tries to pawn it off on Bain (who was married to Martin Landau for 36 years), but the divorcee lobs the ball back into Richards' court. She met Mendillo during a production of Eve Ensler Lemonade at Texas' Alley Theatre in 1999. "We were just friends. And we liked each other." Since then, they've done at least five or six plays together, from the heartland to Arkansas to New England all the way to Hollywood, including Good Bobby, Bad Hurt on Cedar Street, and a couple more productions of Lemonade. "We usually play people who are angry at each other," which contrasts their relationship in Quiet. "Don't forget your favorite, One Flea Spare," Mendillo jokes, before adding, "We've had a lot of fun working together." A little cheeky herself, Richards remarks, "We like working together. I mean, mostly ... " she takes a dramatic pause eliciting laughter. "I can do almost anything and Steve will accept it"; that freedom gives her immense joy. She feels the same way about Friedman, now having worked with him on Quiet. Filled with nothing but reverence, he responds likewise, "I've been acting since I was seventeen years old and I've never worked with anybody even close to [Richards'] caliber. It's easy. This is like a master class for me, in all aspects [the writing, directing, acting.] All I do is call up my friends everyday and tell them who I'm working with." Not missing a beat, Bain continues his thought joking, "And they say, 'Get out, get out! Now!'"
Bain mentions "there's a wonderful exchange and availability in everybody to respond to it. To respond to it right then in a visceral way, on the stage, is what we're trying to do. And they're doing it, with ease, and joy ... You've walked into a very happy room here today, in case you haven't noticed." And, I did, which makes the hopes one could have for this premiere all the more promising. Find out more information by clicking on the Plays 411 box to the left.
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