Voices From Chornobyl - Performance Blog

A fascinating conversation when Joanna O. who volunteered to translate the play into Polish, asked me about this line:
ANNA
The first fear came out of the blue, over water—

Joanna asked:

what blue? the mood? or literally? sometimes these lines come all of the sudden, out of context, that i feel slightly confused

and my answer:

sure, it can be confusing,  they come out of context so that it feels like these different characters all experienced the confusion at the same time.  sometimes they understand it, sometimes they don’t, but they are all feeling the same kind of limbo.

in the case of “blue” , however, it can translate to “out of nowhere” — out of the blue is an expression shortened from “out of the clear blue sky” meaning that it came suddenly.  is there another expression in polish that has a stronger meaning than just came suddenly?  it doesn’t have to translate literally in this case.

This interpretation came up with our Deaf West co-production, too, especially since ASL uses fewer words than we do and the repetition that I use as a device in the play doesn’t work the same way in ASL.

I remember that we had an entire conversation about a line that the Nurse says to a woman whose husband is about to die from acute radiation poisoning: “You are sitting next to a reactor.”  To a hearing audience, that means (in the context of the play) ‘You might as well just sit next to the Chernobyl reactor as sit next to your husband; he is just as radioactive and contagious.”

For the ASL audience, our Voice said the line as is but Catherine, our deaf actress, signed “He is very contagious.”

That kept reminding me of a line I heard in Eastern Europe: “All wars are due to bad translation.”

That’s really what made me want to learn ASL.  Once I mentioned that to my cast, half of them immediately signed up, along with Amy Hendrickson, the understudy, and two of our audience members!  Caitie Hannon, my assistant director for the whole festival, hooked us up with Sonya Wilson, who is a fabulous instructor in ASL.  We learn deaf culture as well as signing.  It is more fun and eye-opening and TIRING than most things I have tried so far.

I also learned another valuable lesson: when collaborating so that your project can reach a deaf audience, add closed captioning into everything.  It seems obvious, but it isn’t something we think about because WE don’t have to.  By simply adding closed captioning, you can reach even more people, and hopefully earn their respect as well.  Enci, who is heavily involved with Chornobyl but who also is filming a short film this summer (Rebel Without a Car Productions), has insisted on the closed captioning for not only her film, but also for the documentaries leading up to the filming.

Just fascinating new ways of looking at the world.

So all of a sudden, in the middle of the prep for our Inaugural Anniversary Reading—more news to come—I find myself in Indianapolis, with a group of dancers, a composer/musician, actors, directors, and singers.  We are the 2nd annual Indy Convergence, a collection of artists who conduct workshops for each other & the community, work together on an Umbrella Project and workshop side projects as well.

My side project is twofold: turning the 10-character version of VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL into a 6-character version, in order to create more accesibility for smaller groups to participate in the reading; as well as reimagine the script for a special co-production with Deaf West Theater in North Hollywood.  We will integrate ASL (American Sign Language) and hearing-impaired actors into our ensemble for a special performance.

Considering how lucky I’ve been to have many of the same actors workshop this script with me over the years, I’m pretty intrigued by the thought of hearing the script with new voices and introducing the project to a whole new set of ears.

I am blogging about the entire experience here http://cindymariejenkins.wordpress.com and will focus on the Chornobyl process in this blog.

I already worked out which of the ten characters can be absorbed into each other, and actually found many places where the script gets repetitive.  I’m hoping to truly work out the kinks over these next two weeks!

The challenge after that—-turning it into a 2-person, tour-able piece for schools.

Until tomorrow,

Cindy

From the UMass Amherst Spring 2008 Magazine for Alumni & Friends

“I’ve played an 80-year-old, the romantic lead, the best friend, the good guy, the villain . . . I can do all that, but in film it’s about looks first, then acting.”

Aaron Lyons ’99
Actor
Aaron Lyons has been an office temp, a landscaper, and a cook; he has worked as a massage therapist, cared for children, and tended elephants. Elephants? “I was raised in the circus,” he admits. “Ringling Brothers. Both my parents worked there.”
Lyons has also directed plays and led acting workshops. His record as a working actor is impressive—parts in some 76 plays since 1989—but he estimates, “Sixty percent of the work I do is to make ends meet, mostly backstage gigs.”
There’s a bright side to that work, aside from the paychecks. “If a character works at a coffee shop or on a horse ranch, I can say, ‘Okay, I’ve done that, I know how that works.’ It’s one less thing I need to research,” says Lyons. “The foundation of any character I portray, though, comes from my need to know why people do what they do. Exploring the reasons is what I love most.”
For Lyons, an acting career was never a question. “It was the first thing I did that didn’t bore me. It’s something that you can constantly be improving on. When I worked in an office?”—his voice and an eyebrow go up—“there was one way to do things. But acting … there are hundreds of ways.”
Last fall, in the theater piece Voices from Chornobyl, Lyons played Arkady Fillin, a survivor of the nuclear plant explosion and meltdown in the Ukraine 21 years ago. As Fillin, Lyons described the aftermath: “We were handed shovels. We buried houses, wells, trees. We buried earth. We buried the forest.”
“The stakes were immediately high,” Lyons says of the part, “partly because of the subject matter, but also because it’s a biographical role. And there’s the question of how to respect the seriousness but also the storytelling aspect of the piece.”
But before you can play the part, you have to get the part. Lyons knows the drill. “You have to be businesslike about it, go to auditions all the time. And you can’t let rejection get to you.”
For the past year and a half, he’s been going after film work in Los Angeles, where he lives. Moving from the stage to the screen requires an agent, a manager, and a different mindset.
“Onstage I’ve played an 80-year-old, the romantic lead, the best friend, the good guy, the villain… I can do all that, but in film it’s about looks first, then acting,” Lyons explains. “If they want someone who’s a foot taller and has blue eyes, I won’t get the part, no matter what my experience is.”
The hazel-eyed actor figures his best shot at film or TV work is bad-guy roles. “If I relax my face,” he says, letting his mouth sag and pulling his eyebrows down, “I look angry.” (He does.) “When I do that, people look at me and say, ‘Aaron’s pissed,’ even if I’m not; I’m just thinking.”
To help his chances, Lyons is doing his homework, talking to directors and going on sets. One example: “I had a bit part in West Wing. After I was done, I asked if I could hang around and watch.”
Says Lyons, “Film is an intimate medium. You’re much more exposed. With theater you’re more aware of your surroundings, your shoelace being untied, the lighting, can you be heard? If you screw up onstage, you have to fix it right there. In film, it’s a lot about you and your scene partner. When you’re making a film, they tell you, ‘Don’t be so big.’ It’s more focused work.”
Last fall, a friend’s wedding brought him back to the East Coast, and he came to campus to talk to theater students. Before the workshop he was asked, What will you say to these aspiring actors?
“You’re screwed!” he said with a big laugh. “Get out now! Learn computers; we’re all going to be replaced by cartoons!” When the time came, though, he showed how much he believes in his vocation, staying an extra hour or so to answer questions. Even if acting doesn’t always put food on the table, he says, “No other job can feed me like acting does.”

On the 8th we had a rehearsal at one of the “new” cast’s house and it turns out that she is not so new.  Kristin Mochnick is one of the original casts of “Voices” and it turns out that I met her already a few times.

I met a few other people whose names I’m afraid I forgot, but I will have plenty of time to practice their real names as well as their new adopted Russian names during rehearsals and during the shoot.

The cast is pretty big this time and I think this new draft will be amazing.   After the read through we watched a short scene of the movie “Blood Wedding.”  Cindy is finding inspiration from this film for our documentary.

Since I don’t have any money to spend on video rentals, I’m hoping to snag this copy from Cindy for a couple days before we shoot, so I can see the entire film.

Todays rehearsal was so much fun! I think I laughed some tears

I wish I could see the production as an audience member. I got goosebumps a few times during the run-through.

Cindy said that she got emotionally involved when she watched the rehearsal. Cindy read the book a million times, she knows some of the lines by heart and if she still gets moved, that says a lot.

I’m looking forward to performing tomorrow night. I’m nervous but I’m also very excited!

This cast is pretty amazing. I feel completely safe with everyone. I felt safe just crying my eyes out yesterday. I was crying from exhaustion. I felt safe today falling asleep while we were running lines.

That’s all we did today at rehearsal. Running lines. We ran them italian style, which is the speed read. We ran off book and on book. We red a few scenes separately and we also red the entire play from beginning to end stuttering, trying to remember our cues and our lines. It was great!

Tonight was very casual. No acting. Just rehearsing lines. And I felt very comfortable with everyone. It was a great rehearsal. And I got a shut-eye as well

Yesterday I had no time to work on Chornobyl.  I’ve rehearsed for another play, that will open in October, then I had to do some VO work for that other play.  After that, I ran to vote at my Neighborhood Council election and then I was off to a Women In Theatre Quarterly Mixer that I was hosting.  I didn’t get home until 11 pm. Dead tired!

I didn’t read the book, I didn’t pick up the script, I didn’t practice my lines. Nothing. The only thing I did was find in the morning a pair of thick knitting needles and some thick yarn. And I knitted three rows in the “library.”

I liked the idea of knitting during Anna’s interview.  Cindy loved it so much, she asked me if I could knit something 10 feet long. Ha! She said that it’s not necessary but she loves the visual of Anna knitting an endless scarf.

I love the idea as well and even though Cindy said it’s not important, for me it is. I want to make the directors vision true. It’s her play and I love to be directed. Not bossed around. But directed. And Cindy does it well. So I’m going to try to knit an endless scarf for Sundays performance.

So much to do! I hope I’ll know my lines tonight at rehearsal. I’m really nervous. Only 4 days left. And I’m worried about my cues. I’m worried about remembering my lines. I’m just a nervous wreck today. Aaaarrrrggghhh!!!

A very influential Directing Teacher of mine said that if it doesn’t scare you then it isn’t worth doing.

Or maybe that was Google’s Quote of the Day.

Anyway—–

I sure hope that’s true, because I get scared a lot.

I get scared every day before rehearsal that I don’t have what it takes. Why am I continually working on Chornobyl? Why is the subject matter fitting for a play form? Why on earth do all of these people come along to rehearsal with me? Why are so many people dedicated to the project? That is really the force that drives me - the ensemble drive me every day to persevere. They believe in the project and believe that I will come through.

I struggle every day to make it to rehearsal.

Every rehearsal is exhilarating. The deep understanding that the ensemble has of what it takes to do this show and to alter the genre we have created, it’s fantastic and rids me of anyfright as soon as I hear their laughter from the rehearsal room. You don’t laugh unless you’re incredibly uncomfortable or incredibly happy. If you could see their faces, then you would know immediately that they are incredibly happy to be there. Yet they’re able to leap into the serious tone and the disturbing images.

I still get scared, but it’s a good scared. Directing is really carving out a piece of your brain, of how you see the world and hear the world and smell the world and your point of view or some pov on the world. Trying to express and filter your brain so that it makes sense for actors and designers and so that you tell a compelling story to the audience. Your brain, your ideas, your thoughts and your hopes and dreams, all onstage for everyone to see and to have an opinion. I like reviews not because I want praise or that I enjoy criticism, but because I love hearing what the audience thinks. I want to know if we succeeded and what you thought.

After you see the show, tell us what you thought: Bookshoptheatre@gmail.com

Tell me what you think of our brainchild!

I came up with verbage for the way I like to direct.  Goals vs. Results.  I walk into every rehearsal with goals but I don’t set a limit or know exactly what I want to see.  I just know, “OK, by the end of today I want these actors to understand what their characters value.  How their character looks at life.  The way we worked yesterday accomplished that.  Even though we only “worked” on their first few lines, I believe that they know understand how to approach most of their lines.  And if they know the right approach and the rules of their world, then everything else will fall into place.

Today was the first time that we got to rehearse at the Empty Stage Theatre.  I was nervous. Don’t know why. I got there at 10 am today and we jumped into the rehearsal pretty fast.

Cindy asked us to take our places anywhere we like and to make ourselves comfortable. She asked us to imagine the place where our characters were interviewed in 1996 and to imagine the interviewee, Svetlana Alexievich. Then the work began.

First we did some relaxation work.  Then we worked on some key words and on our “most important” paragraph, and on intention. We concluded by working opposite another actor, telling him/her our story.

It was incredible!  I learned so much about my character. More then I learned on my own at home. I learned a lot about the other characters as well. I also found some importance in some of the words that didn’t seem to matter to me before the rehearsal.

It was great. I left exhausted but excited about the new knowledge, the new find about my character Anna Petrovna Badaeva. I’m looking forward to the next rehearsal!