Artistic Interpretation

Shirley here.

We do a fair amount of Artistic Interpretation here at the J: turning history and biography into theater; adapting literary work for the stage; or simply bringing to life the stories our playwrights create. But what happens when someone else Artistically Interprets us?

In May, Director of Community Outreach and New Media Becky Peters asked local comic artists to respond to THE HISTORY OF INVULNERABILITY through their art.  We received submissions from established and beginning artists alike, and all three were new to Theater J. We couldn’t have been more thrilled with these thoughtful, perceptive takes on the story.

From Carolyn Belefski of Curls Studio:

Carolyn displays a new Curls comic strip every Monday and Thursday and offends and/or entertains with her improv podcast, The Carolyn and Joe Show, each Tuesday. She collaborates with writer Joe Carabeo on the comic books Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales and The Legettes.

Enjoy her blog, visit the Curls Studio store, and listen to her podcasts at curls-studio.com.

From Raymond H. Allard:

Raymond writes: I began my artistic career after graduating with a BFA in Fine Art by working in the advertising department of a great metropolitan newspaper.  Naturally I pursued the art of making comic books.  Later, I joined the Foreign-Service wife as we traveled overseas for twenty years, and I learned to teach academic writing.  In my life I have experimented with almost every known form of artistic expression except expressive dance. (I cannot dance.)  So I am an artist, print-maker, poet, playwright, author, cartoonist, essayist, musician, actor, teacher, comedian and gardener.

And finally, from Andrew Cohen:

And, while I reported on our disappointing techFail in recording some of our final panels of last season, I was pleased to discover that our panel with Local Comic Artists was recorded, produced, and posted on Carolyn’s blog–so have a listen! This subject relates not only to this production, but to our overall Locally Grown initiative mission–in which we aim to shine a light on artists living and working in the DC-area. So seek out these artists, and if you’re intrigued–buy their books!

Wrapping Up as We Start Anew

As we prepare for the first read and design presentations of BODY AWARENESS, our official start to the 2012-2013 season, I realize that I’ve been remiss in tying up some loose ends.

July was a hot month, and also a hotbed of activity–here at Theater J, and beyond (as evidenced by the CapFringe update below). During the final two weeks of THE HISTORY OF INVULNERABILITY, we welcomed to the stage several important members of the Washington, DC comic community for panel discussions.

On Sunday, July 1 at 5:15pm we hosted the conversation: Why Comics Matter: The Social Relevance of Comic Books with

• Matt Dembicki (editor and contributing writer/artist to District Comics; co-founder of the D.C. Conspiracy, a comics creators collective)
• Ulysses E. Campbell (Producer: The Comic, Science Fiction & Fantasy fan’s FANTASTIC FORUM)
• Andy Hershberger (Associate Curator/Registrar at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, Baltimore, MD)
• Esther Kim (District of Geeks blogger)
• Jared Smith (Owner, Big Planet Comics in Vienna)

We were so pleased to have this group, and while I am sorry to say we had a big technology fail in which none of our video clips came out with actual sound, I want to thank them all for being enthusiastic but not exclusive in their sharing of this world with us. Comics can feel pretty insider to those on the outside, but this was a welcoming and personable bunch, fielding questions about the way gender is portrayed in comics; the evolution of story-telling throughout the history of comic books; the ways in which technology has changed the industry; and their hopes for the future of comics.

Please follow each of their respective links. They’re all involved in awesome projects and work with excellent organizations.

On Sunday, July 8 we discussed Comics in the District: A Discussion with Local Creators; a big thank you to Matt Dembicki, who both participated in, and curated this panel. The group included:

• Moderated by Mike Rhode (Coauthor of Comics Research Bibliography, Editor of Exhibition and Media Reviews of the International Journal of Comic Art, and a contributing writer for Hogan’s Alley and for the Comics Journal)
• Carolyn Belefski (Founder of Curls Studio which creates and self-publishes original comics, designs and illustrations; including the comic strip Curls)
• Steve Conley (Award-winning designer, illustrator and cartoonist; writer and artist of Bloop Comic)
• Evan Keeling (Illustrator, Designer & Comic Book Artist, co-founder of the DC Conspiracy)
• Andrew Cohen (a small-press comic-book creator; www.howzitfunnies.blogspot.com)
• Matt Dembicki (editor and contributing writer/artist to DC Comics; co-founder of the D.C. Conspiracy, a comics creators collective)

The Inaudible Man

Grace here. This movie poster terrifies me:

In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream

And I’m not alone. It’s one of the most effective tag lines ever used, because it taps into a very basic human fear: not being heard.

Who hasn’t had the nightmare of screaming without any sound coming out? Who hasn’t felt invisible at some point in their life? We’ve been grappling with the fear of being unheard since we first found comfort in God: The ultimate all-seeing ,all-comprehending, all-forgiving audience.

Deb Margolin kicked off the Theater J season by saying, “I have always felt that the kindest… most committed and generous thing we do for each other, is the bearing of witness” On Monday night, David Deblinger (who is closing our season with the fabulous History of Invulnerability) noted, “The act of listening is generous.” Plus, I’ve heard enough bad-date stories to know that the easiest way to infuriate someone is refusing to let them get a word in edgewise.

But it goes even deeper than that.

There’s a man experiencing homelessness who has taken to asking for change on the streets. As you can imagine, he encounters a pretty vast array of responses. But the one that cuts deepest is total lack of acknowledgment: no money, no words, no eye contact. “That’s what scares me,” he says, “I would rather people cuss at me, would rather they spit in my face; because then at least I would know that they see me. Enough people don’t look at you, you start to get scared that maybe you don’t exist.”

Before this year, I hadn’t put a lot of thought into the population of people experiencing homelessness. I had a very fixed idea in my head of what a ‘homeless person’ was like. However, when I started volunteering at Miriam’s Kitchen, that idea shattered like cheap glass. The guests that I have met are brilliant, accomplished people, wonderful people.  They are professors and Fulbright scholars, artists and musicians, government employees and immigrants.

They are also people who share my passion for theater. So Theater J started inviting Miriam’s Kitchen guests to see the productions in the 2011-2012 season. As another facet of the partnership, Miriam’s graciously invited Theater J artists to come hang out in their Studio Series. So fantastic performers like Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey, David Emerson Toney, Rick Foucheux, Tim Getman and more have spent afternoons trading stories with the Miriam’s guests.

I’ve traded a few stories too. For the past four Monday mornings, the guests and staff of Miriam’s has welcomed me in with warmth, enthusiasm, and coffee. We’ve sat at the round table, and shared stories of triumph and loss; of youthful indiscretions and of future aspirations.  Some of the guests allowed me to transcribe their stories.

So on Tuesday night, the guests of Miriam’s came once again to Theater J, this time to see a play that they had written. Some of the actors who have gone to Miriam’s over the 2011-2012 season came together to perform a reading called “Stories from the Kitchen: Monologues Written by the Guests of Miriam’s Kitchen.”

It was a very simple reading. Bare stage. No costumes. Just people telling stories. People listening to each other, and bearing witness. But it reminded me why I love theatre.

I think there’s a shortage of listeners in the world. We’re lucky at Theater J, because we’ve got audiences who listen with their whole hearts. But they’re probably in the minority, because if everyone had a listener like that at home, you probably wouldn’t find so many people desperate to tell their stories online, right?

The instant you sign on, you’re barraged with people bursting to tell their stories: Tweeting, blogging, publishing their diary to Kindle and getting way too personal on Facebook.

Even with this post, I’m joining the chatter, flinging my own two-cent tale into the pile of stories that nobody asked for. So I’ll stop in just a moment, but before I do, I’ve got to ask a favor of you, Mr./Ms. Anonymous, (possibly nonexistent) reader. It’s an eccentric favor that most people probably won’t do, but it’s worth a shot.

Would you please find someone who is usually invisible to you, and ask them to tell you their story?  I’ll do the same, and you and I can sit (in our respective locations) and listen as the invisible becomes immediate.

I promise you, it’s the best ticket in the town.

 

Fact Fused With Fiction

I’ve found it difficult to write about THE HISTORY OF INVULNERABILITY at the risk of spoilers. But when I came across this article, I just had to share.

OKAY–IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE PLAY, THEN STOP READING. NOW.

I’ve had a few people ask whether playwright David Bar Katz based the idea of comic books making it into a concentration camp on historical fact. It was a question that–for all the research we’ve done on this play–I didn’t have an answer for. We know that in the warehouses of personal items collected and organized by the Nazis and the sonderkommando from incoming prisoners, there were surely piles and piles of books, just as there were piles of eyeglasses, and other personal belongings.

This image comes from a comic explaining the Marvel character Magneto’s origin story (born Max Eisenhardt) and his time in a concentration camp. Here he comes face-to-face with the iconic pile of eyeglasses.

So–in those piles and piles of books, doesn’t it seem possible that there was at least a comic book or two? We know that American comics had made it to Europe, so the premise seems altogether plausible.

Or even more than plausible when considering this article, which describes a makeshift comic book that actually came out of a prisoner camp in the holocaust.

From the article:

Recently…the internet has unearthed…forged in the flames of genocide itself – Horst Rosenthal’s “Mickey Mouse in Gurs.”In 1940, Camp Gurs, an internment and refugee camp situated near the Pyrenees in Southwestern France, had been converted into a concentration camp for Jews of any nationality other than French – part of an armistice between Nazi occupiers and the Vichy government. Among those “undesirables” interned there were several artists, writers, and musicians.

Despite the deplorable conditions and nature of the imprisonment, they were afforded, as in other French camps, a certain amount of artistic freedom and cultural activity. Concerts and plays were performed; watercolorists allowed exhibitions. As a result, there remains a large amount of material created in and inspired by the realities of Gurs. Among those remaining works is the twelve-page cartoon booklet by Rosenthal, “Mickey au Camp de Gurs” – “Mickey Mouse in the Gurs Internment Camp – Published without Walt Disney’s Permission.”

The artist, Horst Rosenthal was executed in Auschwitz in 1942. But his art lives on to tell his story.

Program Big, Program Often

Shirley here. Firstly, I think an apology is in order. We let the blog sit unattended for a full month. That’s a pretty big breach on our side of the blogger bargain.

As you see from our last few entries–we’re getting our interns into the game, and glad to have their fresh and vital reflections to share.

We’ve got updates on conferences, convenings, and collaborations to come–but in the meantime I was too excited about our upcoming panel discussions not to share. We’ve had several great discussions involving art, story-telling, and comic books already–which we’ll be reporting on–but do take note of the following Sunday panel discussions!

This Sunday, June 24 at 5:15pm we’ll be hosting the discussion Being Superman: A Psychological and Legal Look in partnership with the Washington Psychoanalytic Society. Moderated by Marc S. Levine, M.D. the chat will feature Mark S. Zaid, Esquire, otherwise known as”The Comic Book Lawyer”. You can read about Mark here; and about his “Superheroes in Court” exhibit here. We’re so pleased to have both Marc/k’s as our special guests.

On Sunday, July 1 at 5:15pm we’ll present Why Comics Matter: The Social Relevance of Comic Books. Getting a “Yes! I’d love to join your panel!” response is one of the little joys in my day, and the last couple of days have been filled with many of these joys as we’ve assembled a varied and diverse panel of folks to whom comics matter. I’ve never been to Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, but after watching this video–I think it’s high time for a visit. What a cool field trip that would have been for the cast and crew of INVULNERABILITY. Instead–I say: visit the museum, come see the show, and then stay for the discussion afterwards. And now…Go!

Glad also to have the inimitable Big Planet Comics represented.

In pulling one-line bios for guests today I came across this awesome blog post from artist Mark Burrier about creating a comic for a Big Planet Shop ad. Not only is the final product charming and effective–but the step-by-step through the process is a great pre-show primer for the play. Just think, at the very start Joe Shuster was doing the drawing, lettering, inking and coloring on his own (no photoshop either). It’s clear why, as demand quickly increased, Shuster turned inking and detail work over to a crew of assistants.

On Spectacle and Storytelling

Lauren Alexander is a senior at American University working towards a BA in Public Communication and Theater. She’s loving working on social media, marketing, and outreach efforts as an intern at Theater J this summer.

Hello readers! I’m excited to finally meet you all (electronically, at least)–I’m Lauren, one of the Theater J interns for the summer. This week, I had the pleasure of attending the opening night performance of The History of Invulnerability, the show which wraps up the 2011-2012 season. After reading a few of the critics’ reviews, it’s clear to see that:

1. they mostly loved the production, as much as I do

2. they think David Deblinger as Jerry Siegel is hysterical, as do I, and

3. they adored the set design, as much as I do.

In both set design and acting classes which I have taken over the years, I have learned the importance of the spectacle. A spectacle is that magic moment where you say “oooh, ahhh.”  Like when the Phantom of the Opera flies over the audience, or Mary Poppins pulls a hundred objects out of her purse. An amazing special effects moment happens, and you question “how did that actually happen, ON STAGE?”

The History of Invulnerability takes no exception to the spectacle rule – it’s chock full of special effects! The entire set lends itself perfectly to creating a spectacle throughout the entire performance. As soon as the projections start changing, and Superman begins to punch projections away with anger (and sound, too) we are transported into the comic book world of the play, which is truly a magical place.

What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, And The American Way?

by Stephen Spotswood (Dramaturg on THE HISTORY OF INVULNERABILITY; playwright, journalist, and member of Bright Alchemy Theatre Company)

Old fashioned. Lame. The Big Blue Boy Scout. All words that have been, and still are, used to describe Superman—the most classic of comic book superheroes. For comic book readers (guilty!), it’s an inevitable discussion: What’s the appeal of a nigh-invulnerable superhero whose moral compass was created, and is still mostly fixed, in the 1940s? Where’s the danger? Where’s the risk?

It even came up in rehearsal for History of Invulnerability. Is Superman anyone’s favorite superhero? Why read about the adventures of Superman when you’ve got heroes who have much more human frailties (the Hulk and his rage, Iron Man and his ego, Spider-Man and his everyman problems)? At least Batman is all dark and Kevlar-clad and, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson, he has all those wonderful toys.

But what does Superman have to offer except a spit-curl and his underwear on the outside (not anymore thanks to a recent reboot/fashion redesign)?

Some readers see Superman as a sort of messiah figure. A demigod whose purpose is to save humanity from itself (and the occasional alien invasion). Others have called Superman the pinnacle of humanity—something we can all strive to become.

Grant Morrison, who has written a number of modern Superman tales, including the most recent issues of Action Comics, said, “Since we live by imitation, does it not make sense that we might choose to imitate the angels, the gods, the very highest form of being that we can imagine? Instead of indulging the most brutish, vicious, greedy and ignorant aspects of the human experience, we can, with a little applied effort, elevate the better part of our natures and work to express those elements through our behavior. To do so would probably make us all feel a whole lot better too.”