{"id":3299,"date":"2014-04-02T06:09:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T06:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/?p=3299"},"modified":"2014-04-02T06:20:46","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T06:20:46","slug":"atwater-village-development-projectsounds-of-riddance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/atwater-village-development-projectsounds-of-riddance\/","title":{"rendered":"Atwater Village Development Project"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gates<\/a>
Gates McFadden (Photo by Bill Raden)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Atwater Village Development Project<\/h1>\n

Why Gates McFadden Runs a Small Theater Next to the Train Tracks<\/span><\/p>\n

BY DEBORAH KLUGMAN<\/span><\/p>\n

Gates McFadden is the artistic director of Ensemble Studio Theatre\/L.A. In 2011 McFadden directed <\/i>House of Gold by Gregory Moss, which was inspired by the <\/i>JonBen\u00e9t Ramsey<\/i> tragedy and reflects on the phenomenon of child beauty pageants and its pernicious impact on unknowing and acquiescent children.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0McFadden is currently developing a play about Cuba by Vancouver-based Timothy Perez, one of her former students she met while teaching at Tisch School of the Arts. McFadden directed a workshop presentation of Perez\u2019 play last week at her own theater. <\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0She also directed the company\u2019s recent, highly acclaimed production of <\/i>The Ugly One by German playwright Marius Von Mayenburg, (There are uncertain but hopeful plans for a future mounting). It\u2019s a dark, funny, disturbing tale about a brilliant inventor who, midlife, learns that his boss refuses to let him represent his own invention at a convention, because he is regarded as ugly by everyone around him \u2013 something he never before realized. When he undergoes cosmetic surgery and acquires a stunningly handsome new face, he becomes universally admired \u2013 until others undergo the same procedure and he devolves into one among many.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0STAGE RAW: What first hit you about <\/i><\/b>The Ugly One?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0GATES McFADDEN<\/b>: What first hit me was the concept of trying to be so special. I think it was one of the last lines. \u201cStop trying to be so different.\u201d It was an interesting thing because I [found myself thinking]: Oh, I<\/i> want to be seen as special.\u00a0 How do I do that?\u00a0 Am I trying to be special by having fewer wrinkles than the next person, or because I\u2019m trying to do this really interesting work?\u00a0 Is it a mixture of a lot of things? . . . I feel that there is a huge amount of narcissism [in our culture]. I am certainly involved in it . . . Falling in love with [myself.] That\u2019s why the play was very funny to me and very frightening, and viciously cruel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not vicious for the sake of being vicious. It\u2019s like: This is how we hurt each other all the time and we\u2019re not even aware of it.\u00a0 We say things that deeply wound people.\u00a0 We want them to change and be our image of who we want them to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0What about your relationship as director to the audience? <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I like the discovery of what the audience brings. I remember when I was doing Cloud Nine<\/i> [Caryl Churchill\u2019s play bifurcated into an act set in Victorian England, and another Act set in 1979 London] about and I was getting a great audience response and then someone said, can\u2019t remember who: \u201cNo, no, it\u2019s becoming too sentimental.\u00a0 Pull back.\u201d\u00a0 And they were right \u2013 because I needed to let [the audience] respond, and by my responding too much I was telling them what to do and I do not like that.\u00a0 I do not like indicating.\u00a0 I do not like all that stuff.\u00a0 You can get up on the stage and pick your nose and get a laugh.\u00a0 It\u2019s not hard.\u00a0 Or you can do something and get people to cry.\u00a0 It\u2019s about what you are trying to say<\/i>.\u00a0 What is the event?\u00a0 What\u2019s going on here? What do we want the audience to take away?\u00a0 And I like to set a fairly high standard of having people keep the experience in their mind, even if they hated the experience \u2013 to at least think about why they did. Because I\u2019m going to be thinking: Why did they hate it?\u00a0 Or what did they love about it? \u00a0That\u2019s kind of why you do it.<\/p>\n

People saw House of Gold<\/i>, and found it such hard material . . .<\/p>\n

This is Gregory Moss\u2019 play about children and sexual abuse? <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Right. No child was harmed because [the child] was played by an adult actor.\u00a0 On the other hand there was all this intensity because people would project and imagine what was going on. And that\u2019s one of the things that I was actually exploring with the audience: How voyeuristic are we as a public?\u00a0 We don\u2019t like [exploiting\/abusing children] but then there\u2019s a part of us that wants to see it. And some people use that [voyeurism] to bad effect.\u00a0 With all the technology there is sometimes a loss of innocence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I remember that I was very taken with it but the person I went with was totally freaked out about it: \u201cI don\u2019t like this play. I don\u2019t want to be here. I don\u2019t know why they are dealing with it.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

About three years ago, there was this \u201cHoney Boo Boo\u201d [pageant shows with kids] on TV. I couldn\u2019t believe how many people were watching it, going \u201cOh yeah it\u2019s horrible, it shouldn\u2019t be happening\u201d.\u00a0 But no one was saying you can\u2019t put that on TV<\/i>. The attitude was, it\u2019s fine if the parents want to do that.<\/p>\n

When a kid is that age and a minor, of course they\u2019re going to want to please their parents. It\u2019s where this whole cycle starts that ends up with The Ugly One<\/i>.\u00a0 Is it about the talent or is it about all the accoutrements? If you\u2019ve gotten to the Olympics you know it\u2019s because of your skill.\u00a0 But if you win a beauty pageant I\u2019m not sure what that means.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You don\u2019t have to do anything for people to think you are beautiful. If you\u2019re an athlete you have to prove something, or if you are a writer \u2013 but if you are considered beautiful all you have to do is stand there<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Right, except then<\/i> what starts to happen? And this is why I thought The Ugly One<\/i> was so great: What if you could make yourself to be that<\/i> beautiful? What if it\u2019s something like a commodity that everyone can buy?\u00a0 And then it doesn\u2019t become so special.\u00a0 And then, who\u2019s face is it?\u00a0 If the surgeon makes it, is it yours? What if that face is everywhere else?\u00a0 I think that\u2019s funny and interesting, because you go on the Internet and you see how many products there are about how to become more beautiful.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s more than that.\u00a0 It\u2019s how people see you.\u00a0 If you\u2019re told [you have] the most beautiful face, how people react to you will start to change you. How can we maintain our identity and be ourselves, and old, and not look like 16? How does it affect us if we think we\u2019re ugly? How does it affect us if we have no idea that we\u2019re ugly, which is the way the play starts. It\u2019s not like [the lead character] has been living with this burden.\u00a0 He has not noticed that even his own wife is not looking at him with both eyes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Would you say you are visual in your approach to your projects?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I use a lot of images.\u00a0 I think in movement and rhythm.\u00a0 I am definitely very visually oriented when I direct.\u00a0 I am a big collector of old magazines and art books.\u00a0 I love film, I love opera, I love all of the arts.\u00a0 It comes from my background.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Which is?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Very early I got to study with Jacques Lecoq.\u00a0 From him I got the notion that as an actor you\u00a0 have a responsibility to work with other artists.\u00a0 You work with musicians.\u00a0 You work with architects.\u00a0 We had a whole thing about architecture with Lecoq. For example, what\u2019s the relationship of the performer in that space?\u00a0 What\u2019s the relationship of the set in that space?\u00a0 Is it an environment?\u00a0 What\u2019s the relationship between the spectator and the performer?[In the theater], anything can go wrong.\u00a0 And in one performance [of The Ugly One<\/i>], somebody passed out.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know if it was serious or not.\u00a0 We had to stop the performance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0How long is the rehearsal process usually?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This one was very short and so it was intense.\u00a0 It was hard on the actors.\u00a0 I was quite a taskmaster.\u00a0 We only had four weeks and then we were into tech, and tech was complicated. But the plus was, it was not a three-hour show. It felt like more sometimes because it\u2019s so dense but actually it was only an hour and five minutes, so that\u2019s a short process.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What are some of the difficulties of your job as artistic director?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

One frustrating thing in a non-profit theater when you are as small as we are is that you have these incredible artists and writers but there\u2019s no money for anyone.\u00a0 And so you can\u2019t get people to commit to a rehearsal process the way I would like to do.\u00a0 You can\u2019t have those rehearsals of eight-hours for six-months because you\u2019re a company and you\u2019re developing it.\u00a0 And I do feel the best work comes out of that particular process. The theater that I love the most comes from companies that have grants that allow them to work on something and redo it.\u00a0 That would be my ideal. And from my short experience as an artistic director, I can\u2019t do that. That\u2019s been very frustrating for me.\u00a0 I wish there was some way that I could have a magic wand and I could work on something, and then, when it\u2019s ready, open it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What about casting? Do you cast from within the company?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Our productions are always at least 50% from the company, if not all.\u00a0\u00a0 We have another play coming up.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful story written by Stephen Dierkes.\u00a0 He is in our playwright\u2019s unit. It\u2019s a simple story, it\u2019s beautiful.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Are you directing it?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to direct.\u00a0 I’m going to give other people a chance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I know you have a play-reading series but do you also have a writers\u2019 workshop where people give feedback.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, we have that, and we have several playwrights who have their own playwrights\u2019 group. Our own playwrights unit, headed up by Tom Baum, does meet and they do give each other feedback.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What about marketing?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I’m certainly not an expert in that field. Sometimes you can have a gem that\u2019s been done and nobody told anyone how brilliant it is and it\u2019s one night only. You can just go to a reading and if it\u2019s done well you can have a cathartic experience, depending on the subject matter.<\/p>\n

Other projects in the works?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/b>There was a three-minute sci-fi writing contest \u2013\u00a0 short story — a page and a half of writing. How much can you tell in three minutes.\u00a0 It\u2019s to be done on the radio, and I\u2019m going to direct some of our actors.\u00a0 We just got them, the three winners. Apparently they have just hundreds of these from all over the country. You can get a lot in, in three minutes. My mind just kept going after the end line.<\/p>\n

I love that.\u00a0 Where I\u2019m taken<\/i>. \u00a0I mean, that\u2019s why we have the arts.\u00a0 I can be taken by a painting.\u00a0 I can be taken by a good piece of pie.\u00a0 The idea \u2013 where you are so engaged in something and it\u2019s opening up this whole other experience.\u00a0 And that\u2019s really why you do it, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY DEBORAH KLUGMAN<\/p>\n

“The theater that I love the most comes from companies that have grants that allow them to work on something and redo it. That would be my ideal.” — Gates McFadden, artistic director of Ensemble Studio Theatre\/LA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_custom_body_class":"","_custom_post_class":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-column","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3299"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3309,"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299\/revisions\/3309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}