entire contents copyright © 1995 - 2011 The Theater Mirror.
All Rights Reserved
Somewhere, not long ago, I heard that someone, perhaps the ancient Greeks, believed that no one truly died until the last time someone mentioned their name. And since I have never seen convincing evidence that there is anything "immortal" (except perhaps biologically) in the human make-up, I like this idea that remembering someone confers immortality, and I would like to remember David Wheeler. In truth, I never knew him as his actors and fellow theater-makers did --- but I knew his work; and in a sense writing and thinking about the plays he made helped create me.
Shortly after I came here to Boston I saw a play called "The Caretaker" done in an odd space in, I think, some hotel in Boston's Theatre District. The old man in that show was actually played by someone in his twenties that no one noticed until he was cast as "The Graduate" and became Dustin Hoffman.
In that same space I saw a peculiar Samuel Beckett play: three people were buried up to their necks in what looked like urns. They talked for a bit in unison, then each launched into a different monologue, stopping in mid-sentence then plunging on again as though uninterrupted. I realize now that each of the three was buried in ego, and hadn't even an awareness of anyone outside himself.
There was a little comedy in which a couple met for a brief assignation, but the woman could not stop talking; I remember his hands unbuttoning her mackintosh but as his hands worked downward her hands rebuttoned the coat behind them. It was brief, and British.
Then, in a first golden age, The Theatre Company of Boston established a space in the basement of the Hotel Touraine at 62 Boylston Street; I think it was at the end of a bar down there. Anyway it was a company, with actors who stayed and worked an entire season, and for a time Federal arts grants let them flourish. And they did many memorable plays.
I remember "Armstrong's Last Goodnight" where Larry Bryggman played a brigand chieftan on the border of Scotland when James The First became king of England, and came to visit. "Johnny," an old retainer advised him, "when the king comes in there'll be only one man wearin' a hat; Johnny, it'll no be you!" The show started with everyone speaking a brogue so thick as to be incomprehensable, but gradually, it seemed, familiarity made it easier. I think the director subtly smoothed away the Scottishness to let us think we were learning the language! Anyway, the king arrived saying simply "well, let's get on with this," and they proceeded to hang Johnny Armstrong --- who grabbed the noose in both hands and, while his strength lasted, sang his last "goodnight" and died. I'll never forget it.
And I remember Paul Benedict in "Yes Is for A Very Young Man" --- a play by Gertrude Stein about the coming of the Nazi occupation of Paris. He had a long, looping, repetative monologue describing the people, in the rain, coming up and, saying nothing, reading an edict about the occupation. The prases looped in on themselves, yet Benedict read the lines with such variety that every repetition carried a fresh feeling.
Benedict and Bryggman did "Tiny Alice" in that space, with a man named Ralph Waite and an innocent ingenue named Ellen Coulton, and a woman named Olive Deering (whose measurements I was told were 38-38-38).
In those days, whenever an off-Broadway play closed in New York, TCB was ready to pounce and get the rights to do it here in Boston.
With the grants drying up, TCB nonetheless did "Marat/Sade"; I remember when a woman whipped deSade, she did it with her long hair.
I remember a set of one-acts that included a series of monologues called "Icarus's Mother" with people on a beach all seeing and speculating on an airplane with smoke coming from it --- either crashing or skywriting --- ending with fourth-of-july fireworks. That was by Sam Shepard.
Another was a satire in which Paul Benedict played "Dink Stover at Yale" who admonished Larry Briggman's haughty villain saying "You're not really a man who wears a bowler hat, smokes cigars, and plays golf, deep down you're still A Yale Man!" That was by TCB's playwright-in-residence named A.R.Gurney. They did a sort of satiric docu-drama of his called "William Jennings Bryan" in which someone finally burst out "During the past twenty years that you have been its leader, the Democratic Party hasn't held power for even one hour!"
TCB was always on the move, fitting itself into new spaces like a hermit-crab. The next one I remember was a huge old movie-house that The Berklee School eventually renovated and turned into a music space. The big space let TCB do big shows --- like "Benito Cereno" an adaptation to the stage of a story by Herman Melville written by Robert Lowell. The play told of a slave-ship taken over by its "cargo" and TCB combined with The New African Company to bring it to the stage.
TCB never did easy ones. I remember an image from a plotless, poetical play: I think it was Stockard (still Susan then) Channing, in a brief bikini, standing at the tip of a diving-board doing a monologue holding a lovely snail-shell in her hand.
And they did "After The Fall" --- Arthur Miller's play about his wife Marilyn Monroe. It was a "popular" play designed to make money, but hardly anyone came and TCB was scrambling for a new home soon after.
When David Wheeler was with A.R.T. they let him do Shaw --- but on big, expensive sets that tended to dwarf the human dramas he loved to do. Then he did a new play by that same Sam Shepard whose "Icarus's Mother" I still remember, and reacquainted himself with Harold Pinter. He never stopped directing.
Someone once defined for me David Wheeler's directing style, describing a rehearsal session in which, after a scene run-through Wheeler said to Bronia Steffan "Uh, Bronia, could you... I mean I think..." And she said "Right, David, let's take it again," and they did and it was better!
No, I never really knew David Wheeler. But I knew the plays he made. And they were --- they are --- unforgettable.
Love,
===Anon.
( a k a larry stark)
One night a group that had called itself the Taxpayers'Association invited up from Missouri a gentleman who was running for President and seeking to put himself on the ballot in a few more states. My memory is hazy but after he spoke for a few minutes he got down to his solution for the ills of the country: "Let's bring back Gold Money!"
Now I know that a Greenback is worth a dollar because, eventually, it might be exchanged for an equivalent sliver of silver from Fort Knox. But this man wasn't advocating changing from a Silver to a Gold Standard --- he meant minting Gold Dollar Coins.
The Association respectfully listened, asked a few questions, and then he left and a discussion of him followed in the midst of which a member turned up late and, seeing he had an audience, proceeded to tell at lugubrious length the raunchiest "Ollie & Lena" joke I had ever endured, after which the Alamakee farmers all went home.
Well, it's caucus season again, and the Alamakee County Taxpayers' Association is hosting a whole passel of to my mind Gold Dollar Yahoos all chanting the same idiocies --- while their counterparts in Congress are deliberately making matters worse in every way possible. What this country needs isn't another Republican President, but a thorough House-cleaning to get the Teaparty Amateurs out and some sincere sanity in.
Now I'm an admitted "Yella Dawg" Democrat; I actually voted for a Republican once, but I'll never make that stupid mistake again! But every time I see or hear election news, from WBUR and the BBC, or AlJazeera and Amy Goodman's Democracy Now" I feel embarrassed that my country cannot field a single opponent worthy of even a moment's consideration. I look at the entire Republican party and three things spring to mind:
First, when Frank Lloyd Wright was asked what he'd do to improve New York City he said "Burn It Down!"
Second, a big-name science-fiction fan used to proclaim "The more I see of people the more I like dogs."
And, lastly (please read this carefully; it took me Years to understand it) another of his quotes:
"You can fool some of the people SOME of the time, And you can fool SOME of the people Some of the time, But you Can't fool SOME of The People SOME of the time!"
If I could, I'd vote for the OWS candidate in a minute...
And that's all I'd better say about the matter.
Love,
30 GLOBES Hath September
Hairspray! For information call 781-871-2787
The Company
Theatre
Well, I just published:
Larry Stark,
125 Amory Street #501,
Roxbury, MA 02119
Love,
===Anon.
A note of pure obstinant pedantry: If you'd like to tell us what you think about The
Theater Mirror, My name is
Larry Stark my e-mail address is
larrystark@theatermirror.com
Design, Fabrication, Upkeep and Systems Engineering
larry@theatermirror.com You are visitor
===Anon.
( a k a That Fat Old Man with The Cane )
="="="="="="=
PLAYS
UP AND RUNNING
This is a list, as complete as I can make it,
of everything on the boards in Massachusetts this week.
["Permanent productions ("Shear Madness" etc.) are at the END of this list. Scroll down.]"
Friday - Monday, 23 December, 2011 - 2 January, 2012
Click Here
CLICK BELOW TO GET TO:
Quick Takes
New Reviews
THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS
Cricket's Notebook
MERE Opinions
EMERGENCIES
New Greenroom Mail
Stories by Larry
The Horton PODCASTS
The HORTON Connection
Bargains
New Websites
Theater Mirror Resources
Cabaret Page
July 29 - August 21
“Everything is bigger in Hairspray
– the dreams, the voices and, of course, the hair!”
30 Accord Park Dr.
Norwell, MA 02061
(781) 871-2787 (ARTS)
I wrote a book!
Yes I, Larry Stark, wrote a book* --- a little novel called
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
And
you CAN buy copies of that book
--- but Only At:
THE HARVARD BOOK STORE
1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Harvard Square, Cambridge
1(617) 661-1515
What you do is go to the bookstore, pay them $20.00, and then........
Watch while their "expresso-books machine"
Prints a copy before your astonished eyes in only four minutes!
(Honest!)
It will be a "perfect-bound" paperback
slightly warm to the touch
and will fit in your pocket.
You can talk to your friends about it
You can talk to MY friends about it!
Be The First On Your Block To.....
The same information you once found in The Theater Mirror
--- but with some exciting new twists that will make finding what you need easier and faster ---
is shared by
NEW ENGLAND THEATER 411.
Pay special attention to these pages:
Actor Calls
Production Team Calls
Special Announcements
Emergencies
Bargains
Coming Attractions
Attractions Now Playing
And if you have information to submit, here's how:
Submit Info
Give it a try!!!
Guess how many THEATRES there are in BOSTON
N I N E?
N I N E T E E N?
T H I R T Y - N I N E?
That's Just In BOSTON, now. Eliminate Cambridge, Newton, Waltham, etc.
Your best guess is what?
A
Theater-Lovers' Guideto the
N I N E T Y
Theatres In Boston
You don't believe me?
Send me ten bucks (about a dime a theatre)
And I'll mail you a copy.
Or ask me next time we're in the same theatre together.
Join the Blue Ribbon
Online Free Speech Campaign!
THEATER is an art.
It is practiced in THEATRES.
Counter kindly provided by
as a courtesy to the
Theater Mirror.
Advertising Opportunities - Please respond to AccountManager@TheaterMirror.com