{"id":33550,"date":"2019-11-18T09:42:04","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T14:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=33550"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:13:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:13:09","slug":"researching-the-limelight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=33550","title":{"rendered":"Researching the Limelight"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the actors of PlayMakers Repertory Company step onto the stage, they become someone new. Taking on a character is a science all its own \u2014 one that requires art, imagination, and research to accomplish. And it doesn\u2019t hurt to have a dramaturg handy, either.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"PlayMakers
“Native Son,” which premiered at PlayMakers in September, tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a young black man living in Chicago in the 1930s- amid systemic racism and poverty. (photo by Megan May)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAre you sure this is your room?\u201d Bigger asks. \u201cI suppose it\u2019s Mr. and Mrs. Dalton\u2019s room.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He opens an imaginary door and struggles to guide Mary through it. He rubs his hip nervously. She laughs at his discomfort.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Dalton, I\u2019m going to have to tighten my arms around you,\u201d Bigger says. <\/em><\/p>\n

As he picks Mary up, she tries to kiss him. Bigger moves his face away from hers as quickly as he can. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he demands. Mary laughs and falls to the ground. \u201cStand up,\u201d Bigger asks. He walks behind her and hesitates to touch her. Eventually, he awkwardly grabs Mary\u2019s elbows, helping lift her to her feet. <\/em><\/p>\n

In September, PlayMakers Repertory Company<\/a> premiered the second play of its 2019-20 mainstage season, \u201cNative Son,\u201d which follows the story of Bigger Thomas, a black man trying to survive in 1930s Chicago. After taking on a job as a chauffeur for a wealthy white family, he finds himself trying to help their 20-something daughter, Mary, after she stumbles home drunk one night. While he gets her in bed, Mary\u2019s blind mother, Mrs. Dalton, comes into her room. To stifle Mary\u2019s mumbling, Bigger places a pillow over her face \u2014 and when Mrs. Dalton finally leaves, he discovers he\u2019s suffocated her daughter.<\/p>\n

How does a modern actor channel this type of persona, one removed by nearly 90 years of time and a slew of cultural stigmas? They must try to understand that character\u2019s world, life, thoughts, and motivations. It\u2019s a feat that requires research, truth, and imagination, according to Julia Gibson<\/a>, head of UNC\u2019s Professional Actor Training Program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe definition of the word acting is the process of doing,\u201d Gibson says. \u201cIt\u2019s active. You do it with your body, with yourself. You are the instrument, tool, canvas, whatever you want to call it. It\u2019s the marrying of the self with the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

But every role demands a different approach, Gibson says, such as consulting a dialect coach or conducting independent research. In the Professional Actor Training Program, students and instructors work both professionally, as members of PlayMakers, and academically, in classes like Gibson\u2019s to delve deeper into their craft.<\/p>\n

Stealing the show<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do actors know how to contextualize their characters? Enter the dramaturg \u2014 a theater company\u2019s literary editor, tasked with consulting the writers, research, and archives for productions. They tend to wear a lot of hats: analyst, librarian, and community outreach coordinator, to name a few. Adam Vers\u00e9nyi<\/a>, PlayMakers\u2019 resident dramaturg, wears them all.<\/p>\n

\u201cA dramaturg, for me, is somebody who has a great deal of knowledge about the history, theory, and practice of the theatre, who is part of a creative team,\u201d Vers\u00e9nyi says.<\/p>\n

For the play \u201cNative Son,\u201d Vers\u00e9nyi studied the history around the original 1940 Richard Wright novel of the same name. The book was adapted for the stage by Wright and Paul Green in the summer of 1941, right here on UNC\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey spent the summer working in Bynum Hall writing their adaptation,\u201d Vers\u00e9nyi says. \u201cAlthough the only place that they could find for Wright to live was in Carrboro, in a rooming house in the African American section of town.\u201d<\/p>\n

PlayMakers decided to use a new adaptation of the play by author Nambi E. Kelley, which is quite different, Vers\u00e9nyi says, but honors the original work. Vers\u00e9nyi also studied the Chicago Renaissance, which was in full swing during the play\u2019s 1930s setting.<\/p>\n

As dramaturg, Versenyi gives a presentation on the world of the play when rehearsals begin and provides the cast with packets of compiled articles and visual material. For \u201cNative Son,\u201d he included three documentaries the cast could stream through University Libraries.<\/p>\n

Vers\u00e9nyi has already begun collaborating with the PlayMakers production team on the upcoming production of \u201cJulius Caesar,\u201d for which rehearsals begin in mid-February. From day one, he asks questions like, what\u2019s the rhythm of this play? How is it structured? Are there scenes we want to cut or rearrange?<\/em> He also brings the history of the play into the current production and digs into critiques of past adaptations \u2014 observing what worked, what to avoid, and what to reuse. \u201cBecause all good artists steal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A dramaturg is always looking for the most effective way to deliver a play to an audience. Vers\u00e9nyi wants to find the material that makes the show \u201cas theatrically rich an experience as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating a character<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to researching a character, this kind of analysis by Vers\u00e9nyi can aid the actors in accomplishing specificity \u2013 an essential part of character adaptation, according to Gibson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy these particular words? What do they mean?\u201d Gibson asks her students. \u201cWhy did you do that? Is this the first time you\u2019ve ever said \u2018I love you\u2019 to this person, or is it the 80th time? Those are two very different I love yous.\u201d<\/p>\n

To practice this, Gibson\u2019s class will review slightly different translations of the same play, showing them how minor deviations have big implications for how the actors approach their characters.<\/p>\n

Another goal is authenticity. \u201cWe want to be able to expand our truth,\u201d Gibson says. \u201cYou want to have a real person who\u2019s fully there, a three-dimensional person who talks in a different accent, has a different ethical belief, or a whole different set of experiences than you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, a student asked how to bring honesty to a character he didn\u2019t relate to. Gibson\u2019s answer? Honest belief. The audience should feel as though they are seeing something happen for the first time ever, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen little kids play make believe, they\u2019re great actors,\u201d Gibson says. \u201cThey start to believe it a little bit, so they can go to these places. And that\u2019s what we have to do. We have to believe in these circumstances \u2014 and yet allow ourselves to be present.\u201d<\/p>\n

This ties into Gibson\u2019s third tenant: playfulness. While it may sound simple, it can be the hardest for actors to achieve.<\/p>\n

Setting the scene<\/strong><\/p>\n

For every production, Vers\u00e9nyi tirelessly searches for music and visual material that will inspire this playfulness in the cast and crew, to \u201cfeed creative juices.\u201d The materials he collects draw both the players and the audience into the world of the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about figuring out what\u2019s going to be the most effective way of sparking the imagination,\u201d Vers\u00e9nyi says.<\/p>\n

But how does a dramaturg keep productions feeling fresh? Vers\u00e9nyi, who has worked on plays like \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d and \u201cAs You Like It\u201d twice as dramaturg, has a positive perspective. \u201cEvery single play that you work on, even if it\u2019s one that you\u2019ve done before, is always a totally new experience. You\u2019re constantly learning,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Vers\u00e9nyi finds this one of the most rewarding aspects of his job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely dreadful at math and science, and yet I\u2019ve worked on plays, like \u2018Proof\u2019 and \u2018Copenhagen,\u2019 where you\u2019re learning about math and the history of the nuclear bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every project needs solutions, and the dramaturg facilitates those processes. This comes in handy when helping out directors, who have a lot to worry about, Vers\u00e9nyi says, from \u201cIs that ashtray the right period?\u201d to \u201cWhat am I going to do with that actor having a nervous breakdown in the corner?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI function as a kind of third eye for the director,\u201d Vers\u00e9nyi says. \u201cIn the process, it\u2019s very easy to lose sight of what it was that you want to do with the play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dramaturgy is threaded throughout the production process. For Versenyi, it\u2019s hard to point to any particular thing and say, \u201cI did that as dramaturg.\u201d He says the most visible aspect of his work is in what the audience sees. The dramaturg includes program notes in the playbill and hosts the pre-show and post-show discussions. He also is responsible for community engagement, so he often visits book clubs and retirement homes to talk about the current play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am blessed to have a job where I\u2019m constantly learning, because every production is different,\u201d Vers\u00e9nyi says. \u201cThere\u2019s always something that I haven\u2019t considered or dug deeply into before. And dramaturgs are people who love to do research and go down multiple rabbit holes in the course of preparing a production. So you become kind of a walking encyclopedia of often trivial, and sometimes consequential, information.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Julia Gibson is the head of the Professional Actor Training Program, a professor in the Department of Dramatic Art, and an actor with PlayMakers Repertory Company.<\/em><\/p>\n

Adam Versenyi is chair of and professor within the Department of Dramatic Art and dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

By Emily Davis, Endeavors<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the actors of PlayMakers Repertory Company step onto the stage, they become someone new. Taking on a character is a science all its own \u2014 one that requires art, imagination, and research to accomplish. 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