Live arts, lively discussion
PREVIEW: ELEMENTAL THEATRE COLLECTIVE
When I dropped by to check out a rehearsal of Elemental Theatre Collaborative's upcoming play trilogy titled The Father, the Son and the Holy Go.Go, I must have watched the punch line of George Brandt's The Cabin at least six times.
Arriving late, Dave Rabinow, who directs The Cabin, checks out the newly revamped scene and makes the identical statement: Brandt's cuts are logical. It's the kind of group-think that makes ETC a vibrant collaborative.
And they all rehearse together, working the plays one after another on the same night. "It helps us to make an integrated evening if we're all working together," Darcy explains.
But early on in the process, the play writing is more solitary. The group gets together only for the initial assignment, often chosen out of a hat. This year, for their fourth annual Go.Go New Works Festival, they decided each playwright would get two Catholic sacraments to work into his play, and the play must be set in the same cabin. Over the month of November 2009, each playwright wrote his own first draft without consulting the others. When they returned to read each others' scripts, they were surprised to discover the similarities that cropped up. The playwrights say this happens often, one play echoes another or includes a similar plot twist. One year, two plays had "back to back Greek monologues." This time, "pregnancy comes up twice and both in really dark ways."
"That's always the really fun thing," says Rabinow, "seeing the things that overlap."
"It's striking," Platt agrees.
"Sometimes it's creepy," Rabinow adds.
One day before opening, the rehearsal was low-key. No drama among this crowd as they calculated the length of a fade, or how to strike a sword cut for a good death, or where an imaginary figment should stand in relation to the real people. As for the scene I saw over and over -- each time, Platt or Dersham brought out a slightly different facial expression, or tilt of the head, or gesture, or timing. And every time Platt says that last line, "Ours?" it's grinningly, irresistibly funny. This bodes well for ETC's upcoming evening of short plays.
| It's a brief scene between a young couple, played by Alexander Platt and D'Arcy Dersham. Just one night before ETC's first show, they were rehearsing this small scene over and over because Brandt had just finished making cuts to the play; the new version called for different body positioning or blocking or gestures. "They've all been re-writing constantly," Dersham says, referring to the trilogy's three playwrights, Brant, Platt (who wrote RedPop) and David Rabinow (who wrote Two of Us). "George is a really good playwright," Dersham adds. "His cuts are always real logical." |  [Dersham]
|
 [Rabinow] |
The program is a big shuffle of artistic roles where the writer of one play becomes the director of another play or actor in a third play. According to Rabinow, the big shuffle ensures "everybody's got a little bit of ownership in each play." |
But early on in the process, the play writing is more solitary. The group gets together only for the initial assignment, often chosen out of a hat. This year, for their fourth annual Go.Go New Works Festival, they decided each playwright would get two Catholic sacraments to work into his play, and the play must be set in the same cabin. Over the month of November 2009, each playwright wrote his own first draft without consulting the others. When they returned to read each others' scripts, they were surprised to discover the similarities that cropped up. The playwrights say this happens often, one play echoes another or includes a similar plot twist. One year, two plays had "back to back Greek monologues." This time, "pregnancy comes up twice and both in really dark ways."
"That's always the really fun thing," says Rabinow, "seeing the things that overlap."
"It's striking," Platt agrees.
"Sometimes it's creepy," Rabinow adds.
 [Platt] |
Even the way they dovetail each other's thoughts in a discussion confirms that "collaborative" is a key part of their company chemistry. All graduates of the Trinity MFA program, they've stumbled on one of those lucky synergies that makes artistic magic, and they're running with it. In the Go.Go series, the collaboration takes off on the second draft, when the group looks at the plays together with a mind to shape them for the production as a whole. "It's nice to be in a room with people who can be really honest," says Platt of this process. |
One day before opening, the rehearsal was low-key. No drama among this crowd as they calculated the length of a fade, or how to strike a sword cut for a good death, or where an imaginary figment should stand in relation to the real people. As for the scene I saw over and over -- each time, Platt or Dersham brought out a slightly different facial expression, or tilt of the head, or gesture, or timing. And every time Platt says that last line, "Ours?" it's grinningly, irresistibly funny. This bodes well for ETC's upcoming evening of short plays.
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