Looking Within: M.F.A. Third-Year Actors Present Personal Anthems

By Taylor Steinbeck

For A.C.T.’s Master of Fine Arts Class of 2018, this is the moment of truth. After over two years of intensive training, they have reached their final year as acting students. In light of their impending departure, the actors have been challenged to dig deep for their upcoming musical revue, Now. Here. Us., which runs this weekend only. “The actors are performing songs to which they feel a personal connection,” says director Milissa Carey, “Each song celebrates their individual artistry and style.” We spoke with four of these actors to find out what their song means to them.

A.C.T.'s M.F.A. Class of 2018 in their 2016 musical revue, Sing, Sing, Sing. Photo by Alessandra Mello.

Beatriz Miranda on “My House” (from Matilda): One of the biggest discoveries I have made during this time is how grateful I am for my home. The farther away I travel from my family, my childhood room, my apartment in Puerto Rico, and everything that has shaped me until now, the easier it is to feel disconnected from it all. But being a nomad has taught me how to understand the value of the small moments happening around me. Even if I’m far away, I’m always connected to that which I truly love; these memories make up my home. Right now, this piece speaks to me louder than ever. Every time I hear “My House,” I’m always brought back home.

M.F.A. actor Beatriz Miranda. Photo by Alessandra Mello.

Leonard A. Thomas on “Feeling Good” (based on Nina Simone’s cover of the song from The Roar of the Greasepaint—The Smell of the Crowd): Nina Simone is one of my biggest inspirations—she wasn’t just an artist, but an activist who had a stake in the issues of social justice and equality of her day. To me, this song represents a struggle or fight to find joy, peace, freedom, and happiness. Simone grappled with those concepts her whole life and I've grappled with similar battles. I'm singing this song to honor her, her fight, and the fight that I've picked up because of her generation.

M.F.A. actors Adrianna Mitchell and Leonard A. Thomas. Photo by Alessandra Mello.

Adrianna Mitchell on “I Know Where I’ve Been” (from Hairspray): The lyrics of this song urge me to take ownership of my journey as a Black woman and artist. I wanted to sing a song connected to the truth of facing the horrors of today's America but also one that acknowledges how far my ancestors and I have come and my hope for where we all can go. 

Peter Fanone on “Waving Through a Window” (from Dear Evan Hansen): As a kid growing up with chronic anxiety (as too many do these days), this song spoke to me about what it feels like to hide your problems from the world, for fear of failure, and to fall short of your true self because of that fear. It connects to my belief that everyone really wants to be loved and it’s only in refusing to accept love that we spread hate and fear to ourselves and others. This is a song about a troubled kid fighting for hope, dreaming of something greater despite the failures of the past.

 

M.F.A. actor Peter Fanone joined by Jennifer Apple, Rivka Borek, and Beatriz Miranda. 
Photo by Alessandra Mello.

Now. Here. Us. runs October 19–21 in The Garret at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater. Click here to purchase tickets through our website.

Double Identity: Hamlet's Avenging Sons

By Elspeth Sweatman

In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses doubling—the mirroring of characters, situations, plot points, themes, and rhetorical devices—to make his characters and the world of Elsinore more intriguing and explore the themes of identity, power, and truth at the heart of the play. One of the more noticeable uses of this device is that there isn’t just one man in the play avenging his father’s death; there are three.

Hamlet (John Douglas Thompson) presents a play about murder to the court. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all lose their fathers: Hamlet at the hands of his uncle Claudius, Laertes at the hands of Hamlet, and Fortinbras at the hands of Hamlet’s father. Although all three vow to avenge their fathers’ deaths, they go about accomplishing this task in completely different ways. Hamlet gathers evidence of his uncle’s guilt before acting. Laertes returns from France immediately and demands to know who killed his father; he is only stalled in his quest for vengeance by his grief at his sister’s death and Claudius’s urgings to wait for an opportune moment. And Fortinbras raises an army to reconquer the territory his father lost to Hamlet’s father before the start of the play. 

By surrounding Hamlet with other sons avenging their fathers’ deaths, Shakespeare intensifies the latter half of Hamlet, as the audience wonders which avenging son will accomplish his mission first. Will it be Fortinbras with his assembled masses marching on Elsinore? Will it be Hamlet, who has arguably had the most time and opportunity to exact his revenge? Or will it be Laertes, whose anger is profoundly mixed with grief? 

Hamlet (John Douglas Thompson) considers murdering
a praying Claudius (Steven Anthony Jones). Photo by Kevin Berne.

The addition of Laertes and Fortinbras also makes Shakespeare’s protagonist more multifaceted and emphasizes one important theme in the play: identity. Hamlet is Hamlet because of the choices he makes when confronted with the news of his father’s murder. Hamlet is a charismatic, dynamic prince; he could have raised an army, as Fortinbras does, and deposed his uncle through force and rhetoric. But Hamlet is not just driven by a desire to right a wrong, but by a desire for the truth. He wants to be certain that Claudius did in fact kill his father. Only then will he act. This choice—to seek the truth rather than take immediate action—sets him apart from the other two avenging sons and makes him a much more complex and nuanced character than the heroes of other seventeenth-century revenge tragedies. 

A.C.T.’s production of Hamlet ends this Sunday, October 15, at The Geary Theater. Click here to purchase tickets through our website. To read more about doubling in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, order a copy of Words on Plays, A.C.T.'s in-depth performance guide series.

Observing Silence: An Interview with Small Mouth Sounds Playwright Bess Wohl

By Simon Hodgson

Small Mouth Sounds started life at a silent retreat, though playwright Bess Wohl didn’t know that at the time. She only showed up at the retreat to spend time with a friend. “I didn’t even realize that we were going to be in silence,” she says. But the experience triggered her storytelling instincts. By the end of the first day, the playwright was secretly making notes. “All I knew,” says Wohl, “was that I wanted the play to begin with a speech that ended with the words, ‘We shall now observe silence.’ I liked setting myself that challenge, but didn’t know where I’d go from there.” The play began to take shape after finding a home in Ars Nova, a New York–based incubator of new work. Small Mouth Sounds soon became an Off-Broadway hit. As the production’s national tour arrives on the West Coast, we caught up with Wohl to talk about bringing silence to The Strand.

Playwright Bess Wohl. Photo by Ben Arons.

What were the storytelling challenges (and opportunities) of silence?

Part of my interest in working with silence was to see how audiences fill in the gaps with their own ideas and assumptions. Of course, we all do that every day when we see people we don’t know, whether on the subway, in an elevator, or in a doctor’s waiting room. We write little stories in our minds and infuse details with meaning. My hope, in writing a play that holds back so much information about its characters, was to shine a light on that process of projection and to get people to see when and how those assumptions operate, for better and for worse.

Which characters in Small Mouth Sounds are you particularly drawn to?

When I began the play, I most identified with the character of Alicia, a young “hot mess,” and a former actress, going through a bad break-up. Like Alicia, I never arrived at a retreat without bringing copious snacks, and I had a lot of trouble being in silence. As I’ve worked on the play, however, I find myself identifying with each of the characters in different ways. The biggest breakthrough in writing this came when I realized that the character I identified with most is actually the unseen teacher, or guru. In many ways, the Teacher is the voice of the playwright, never seen onstage but continuously leading the experience. The Teacher tries to set rules, just as a playwright does. He hopes that his audience will observe silence. But, most of all, he prays that they will be changed by the experience he’s presented to them, in spite of knowing what a very tall order—almost preposterously arrogant—that is.

Why do you think Small Mouth Sounds has resonated so clearly with audiences today?

A friend and colleague of mine noted that every time an audience goes to a play, whatever the play, they’re expected to sit and be quiet—essentially, they’re on a silent retreat. My hope is that the play creates a sense of community for the audience and that they’ve participated in an active experience together. On another level, that same sense of participation is also embedded in the way audiences are encouraged to watch this play: you have to sit forward and become a detective, actively engaging with the storytelling, or else you could miss something. It’s been a joy to see audiences sit forward and take pleasure in that element of the experience.

Small Mouth Sounds begins performances October 11 at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater. Click here to purchase tickets through our website. To read more of our interview with playwright Bess Wohl, order a copy of Words on Plays, A.C.T.'s in-depth performance guide series.