The holidays are over, January has set in and so have the depths of winter. This is a time when many theaters on the East End go into self-imposed hibernation and audiences presumably hunker down at home or go off to some exotic destination to escape the cold.
But for Michael Disher, there is no hiatus.
With the new year, Disher, director of Center Stage at the Southampton Cultural Center, has made something of a resolution to change theatrical habits by branching. Beginning tonight, Disher, his crew and a cast of 28 embark on a marathon production schedule — presenting not one, but three different plays over the course of five weeks in what is billed as “Triple Play 2010.” These are not readings, but full fledged productions and by Disher’s own admission, it’s quite an undertaking — a grand experiment that he believes in the end will either prove that he’s actually on to something or absolutely crazy.
“This is my form of self flagellation,” jokes Disher when asked why he’s doing it. “I think we need to devise new ideas and new ways to approach theater. I’m not sure what those ways are, clearly, but I think it’s a combination of presenting a variety of plays and presenting different opportunities for actors.”
The three plays are not just stylistically distinct from one another, but evocative of different eras as well. The first, which opens tonight, is Noël Coward’s 1930 comedy “Private Lives,” to be followed by Reginald Rose’s “Twelve Angry Men,” a 1954 drama about a jury’s deliberation on the fate of a murder suspect, and finally, “The Laramie Project,” a theatrical piece created by the Tectonic Theater Project based on the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming.
Disher’s motivation with this trio of plays began on a small scale and was initially driven by the availability of his actors, many of whom have day jobs and are simply unable to sign on to full-fledged productions.
“So many of the actors that I would like to work with and whom I’m in contact with all share the same dilemma,” says Disher. “They just can’t commit to that much rehearsal time. A show generally rehearses six to seven weeks, then there’s a three week run. In order to get a someone to do a show, you’re asking them to donate two months of their life.”
To remove that stress from the equation, Disher’s concept for the three plays was bare bones — a black box format and a cast that was off book, but performing without a set.
“The idea was we would present each one for one weekend,” says Disher. “I knew I could get more people to audition that way. But then people were saying, ‘Why do all this work for one weekend?’”
So Disher and his actors agreed to expand the run of each play. To speed things up, Disher got scripts to actors early, so they could memorize the play before rehearsals began.
“It was so rehearsals would at least be developed to a point where they were beneficial or much more direct,” says Disher. “Did it work? No. Procrastination is rampant. Some actors are spot on from the get go. Others are floundering. The whole recipe kept redeveloping itself and generally the person who had to adjust more often than anyone else was me.”
While each of the cast members agreed to two nights a week for rehearsals, with three plays, that means Disher has been working a six night schedule. Luckily, he’s getting something out of it too — a chance to do plays he’s never tackled before, starting with “Private Lives.”
Coward’s comedy chronicles the lives of Elliot and Amanda, a couple who were once married and now divorced. The former lovers meet again while both are on honeymoons with new spouses. For Disher, the beauty of Coward’s script is the fact that, despite being 80 years old, the play remains contemporary and relevant.
“It’s being presented as a ‘30s period piece, but nothing much has changed,” confides Disher. “These love/hate relationships where they can’t live with each other but can’t live without them either.”
“To me, good comedy is simply that,” he adds. “It doesn’t necessarily become dated as long as its still pointed and witty. Wit is never dated. It’s done with such an elegance and attention to the verbiage that how can you go wrong?”
In “Private Lives” Disher also sees an opportunity for audiences to escape a less than rosy economic reality — for a couple hours anyway — just as theater goers did during the Great Depression and Coward’s time.
“Entertainment has always thrived during tense times,” he says. “People might want to escape the realism of what’s happening for the moment and go see something very funny.”
That’s another reason Disher feels he’s on to something with this trio of plays. He believes there might be a population here eager for affordable entertainment in the off-season.
“Theater is such an unquantifiable animal, all you can do is put things out there,” he says. “Part of the thought behind this trio of productions is that no one can look at me and say, ‘There’s nothing to do in January.’ You can come see three very different plays for not much more than what films cost — it’s live theater and very good scripts that, to the best of my knowledge, have not been presented here recently or ever.”
The drama “Twelve Angry Men” opens January 21 and is a very different offering — one that reflects the world of the 1950s. It follows 12 jurors, all men — typical in the era — who argue over the fate of a young defendant. A lone juror is instrumental in turning first impressions around. A deceptively simple premise, Disher notes with complexities that challenge actors.
“This entire group of men will just shake their heads and say, ‘If ever I thought this easy theater, I was so wrong,’” says Disher. “For them realizing that this as an ensemble piece goes far past anything they had known as an ensemble piece before. It’s so interlocked, that every action results in reaction. If they don’t have what leads to the next line, verbally or physically, they don’t get there. When at their best, they’re a forged chain link, and no one expected that. They thought this would be an easy piece.”
Disher also finds that, because the play features all men, it creates a situation for them to bond in a unique way.
“There’s something genetic within men that when they are put into some sort of same scenario, they rise collectively to achieve something,” says Disher. “These men have clearly risen to that occasion. It’s like the theatrical equivalent of the Kiwanis and Elks Club.”
“The Laramie Project,” the final play of the trio, is a contemporary piece, and something Disher has always wanted to tackle. It explores the reactions to Matthew Shepard’s murder at the hands of two men who drove him to a rural area, tied him to a fence, beat him and left him to die because he was gay.
“I think it’s the greatest sociological experiment ever presented on stage,” says Disher. “It’s so brilliantly woven together and comes verbatim from residents in Laramie who were interviewed after the Matthew Shepard incident. It’s not so much about the crime, but how this happened in a small town in Wyoming with 26,000 people. What happened to produce hatred of this magnitude? It was completely unprecedented and unpredictable.”
Disher explains that the play came about when Moisés Kaufman, founder of Tectonic Theater Project, took a company of seven actors to Laramie where they conducted interviews with 200 people over the course of a year and half. The play relies on small monologues offered by those who either reflect on their experiences with Matthew while he was alive, or their take on his murder after his death.
“Everything is so hinged and connected to Matthew through one or two degrees of separation,” says Disher. “One of the most devastating moments was finding Matthew. A young man on a bike ride sees this figure tied on a buck fence that he thought was a scarecrow. If he was not on his bike, he wouldn’t have been noticed for weeks.”
Other people who tell of their experience with Matthew include the EMT who administered initial life saving efforts and the emergency room doctor who treated him. There are also monologues by those, including church leaders, who cast aspersions on people like Matthew who embrace the gay lifestyle.
While actors often benefit from off-stage discussions with directors about the material they are dealing with, for this piece, Disher felt it was important to not analyze the issues surrounding Shepard’s murder with the cast.
“We chose not to talk about it as a strategy,” explains Disher. “So much of what they do in ‘Laramie’ defies what they’ve learned theatrically. There’s no school of acting to apply here. It has to be completely honest, real and narrative as if they are being interviewed for first time.”
“To deconstruct it might give them too much time to think about it,” adds Disher. “When it will impact them will probably be when they do this in front of an audience. That’s the one piece of the puzzle I can’t give them. To have their personal moment when they’re looking at one person and telling them what they have to tell them. I didn’t want them to prepare for anything predictable because it’s not predictable.”
Also not predictable is how local audiences will react to a trio of plays in the quietest months of winter. Disher hopes that when all three have completed their run, he will have a clearer picture of the future of off-season theater on the East End.
“I wanted to do something that was kind of like repertoire, yet kind of an experiment,” says Disher. “I don’t know if it will work. But theatrically speaking, if we don’t try different things I’m very afraid for the fate of theater. For the month of January, we don’t know where audiences are, but there is an opportunity for them to come see a comedy, a drama and a tragedy. All we can do is continue to try and reinvent the wheel.”
So is Disher making a resolution now to do this again in January 2011?
“Ask me after it’s over,” he laughs.
“Triple Play 2010” opens Thursday, January 7 with “Private Lives” at 8 p.m. The play runs for six performances through January 17. “Twelve Angry Men” runs January 21 through 24 and February 6 and 7. “The Laramie Project” runs January 28 to 31 and February 4 and 5. Shows are Thursdays to Saturdays at 8 p.m. Sundays at 2:30 p.m. at Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane, Southampton Village. Admission is $22 ($10 students). Call 287-4377 to reserve.
Top: Michael Disher's casts for “Triple Play 2010” includes: Logan Kingston, Mark Anderson, Laura Ahrens, Michael Contino, Agnieszka Patak, Robert Beodeker, V.J. Chiaramonte, Paul Consiglio, Vay David, Bethany Dellapolla, Allison-Rose DeTemple, Adam Fronc, Randall Krongard, James Macaluso, Deborah Marshall, Mary Ellen Roche, Matthew Ruggiero, Ken Rowland, Daniel Yaiullo, James Yaiullo, Rich Gardini, Matthew O’Connor, Billy Paterson, Christopher Tyrkko, Joe Pallister, Ted Lapides, Stephan Scheck, Dan Becker.
