Arthur Giron: A Man Of Many Lives
Arthur Giron. Arthur's play, Becoming Memories, will run from April 16 to May 19 at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.
Writing an article about Arthur Giron is a very frustrating task because Giron is a fascinating man who has, in his own words, "lived many lives." For the last month, I have driven Giron from his Oakland apartment to the theater so that he could do preparatory work on Becoming Memories. During these drives I have renewed an acquaintance with Giron that began when I was an off off-Broadway producer in New York.
Giron was born in New York City where his father was serving as Consul General of Guatemala in the U.S. Traditionally, Guatemalans devote part of their careers to public service and that is why Giron's father, a dentist, was in New York when Arthur was born. Later, the family moved to California where Giron's father had studied. He became a staff dentist for MGM during the 1940's. The Giron family lived in the Wilshire District next to the house that was used in the film Sunset Boulevard.
" I was an actor in California and at the age 20-21 I felt that it was important to go out and live in the world. I also wanted to do what I felt would be significant work. I feel the problem of hunger and nutrition is a.very big one in our time. The World Health Organization was doing important work in Guatemala at the time so I took a job working for them as a writer/editor. It coincided with my trying to find my roots. I always felt a little bit different growing up in Hollywood and when I was in Guatemala, I felt less different. I grew up in this country, but there were certain mannerisms and certain ways of thinking that I had picked up from my mother and father."
When one of the foundations that funded the World Health Organization invited Giron to come to New York and work for them, he decided to return to the United States in 1964. He arrived with the idea for his first play, Edith Stein. "I had a young family by that time so I worked in the foundation world by day and wrote plays at night." Giron's work took him to several different foundations including
the Chase Manhattan Bank Foundation where he wrote some speeches and correspondence for David Rockefeller, its Chairman. During this time, Giron worked to get both state and corporate funding for the arts. He also helped found the Arts and Business Council of New York and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council among others. It was during this time he met Bill Gardner.
"I've known Bill Gardner for many, many, many years. My first play, Edith Stein, was done at the Arena Stage and was cast by T.C.G. where I met Bill, who worked there at that time. The way we actually got reacquainted was that - you know Bill is a very good playwright. He doesn't like to talk about that. I was very active in the funding of social action programs. Bill was working for a very wonderful organization called the College for Human Services. This was during the pre-feminist movement. They were trying to help women become professionals. I wanted to get them some money from Chase Manhattan and I did get them a $25,000 award. But they didn't give me the materials I needed to present to my committee. The deadline was five o'clock. I called the College for Human Services and told them, 'If you don't get down here with a proposal by five o'clock, you can't get the money.' At five minutes to five this man rushes into the office, hands me the papers and says, 'Are you Arthur Giron, the author of Edith Stein?' He sits down and says, 'My name is Bill Gardner.' So we talked, and from that time Bill began, as he does with many people, a life-long observation of my work.''
Giron continued writing at night and working in the foundation world by day. "There came a moment when my body would not allow me to live two lives. Because of my having to support my family - I supported my family from when I was very young because my father died when I was thirteen. I automatically did that. But I got to the point where I had had three or four productions and my
body - it's a funny thing - but my body just would not allow me to do it. My son at this point was about thirteen years old when I said to my wife: 'My body is in pain. I have to write full time.' She said, 'Now I will support us.' It was a very big adjustment in our marriage. She became the primary bread-winner at that point. She is doing well working in New York for the last ten years in a pioneering job for Spanish television and as a real pioneer in Spanish cable. By helping me, she took a step out in the world. Luckily it's worked out."
Giron and I talked about the plays he has already written and the ideas he has for future ones. The ideas flowed smoothly. Mixed in were stories about the ideas and experiences that led to earlier plays like Edith Stein and Dirty Jokes. "I have a ten-year-plan. I want to write two cycles of plays. I'm very, very interested in finding out what's happened to the American spirit. I want to go back in time in terms of certain American values that are within us still."
"I'm researching as part of my American cycle, Hawthorne and Melville and the conditions around the year 1850. Melville brought out Moby Dick that year and Hawthorne brought out The Scarlet Let ter and The House of Seven Gables. And three years later, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. Then I want to do a musical on the Wright brothers. They chose never to leave their family home; what was the family environment in that house that fostered that genius? Why don't we have that today? I'll end that cycle with an exploration of James Forrestal.''
"That dovetails with the other cycle that begins with the Mexican-American War and continues with an exploration of the United Fruit Company. People don't realize that Americans have been in Central America for hundreds of years. I'm very interested in the cultural differences and how one culture affects another culture. There are three cultures at work: the Indian culture, the Spanish culture and the North American culture. Then in the middle of this ten-year-plan, I had a very personal play come out which draws on my Hollywood background, Charlie Bacon and His Family. It recently had a workshop production in New York and now a well-known Broadway producer is negotiating for an option on the play. I didn't even know I had that play in me; it just came out. So I have my personal plays and my big pretentious plays.''
"I am also beginning to become fascinated with Pittsburgh. When I drive to the airport, I see these little towns and I know that they hold mysteries that are just waiting to be uncovered. There is such a wonderful sense of history here as well. I'm beginning to suspect that with all the problems and changes going on here, I should just go out and start collecting information. The Mexican War streets on the Northside will fit into my big cycle Who knows? There may be wonderfu I gold nuggets here in Pittsburgh just waiting to be discovered.''
Stephen Berwind
Public Renewal Campaign Begins
The Pittsburgh Public Theater began its 1984-1985 subscription campaign with the mailing of renewal forms on February 20th to all of our Season 10 subscribers. Bill Gardner, the Public Theater's Producing Director, explains the importance of the subscription campaign.
BILL, OCCASIONALLY A SUBSCRIBER WILL ASK WHY WE ARE BEGINNING OUR SUBSCRIPTION CAMPAIGN FOR THE NEXT SEASON BEFORE COMPLETING THE CURRENT ONE.
Producing an entire theatrical season takes months of advance planning. Before the first show opens in the fall, eight months of work have occurred. We start with what is called a "laundry list": plays that we are interested in bringing to Pittsburgh audiences. Each play under consideration has different requirements to bring it to the stage. What directors, set, lighting and costume designers are necessary to produce each play to its maximum potential? What actors are necessary to bring the characters to life?
Good people are very much in demand, and we have to be able to make some commitments in advance to guarantee we will have the talent necessary to mount a first-rate production, the kind of production Public Theater subscribers deserve and have come to expect.
SO THE CAST, DIRECTOR AND DE· SIGNERS MAKE A DIFFl;:RENCE WHEN YOU ARE BEGINNING TO PUT TOGETHER A SEASON?
Yes, certainly. Try to imagine 'night, Mother without Sylvia Sidney's Thelma; Misalliance without Ford Rainey's Tarleton, Robert Moberly's Gunner, the set by John Wright Stevens; Strange Snow without Matthew Cowles' Megs; Room Service without Ursula Belden's Hotel White Way or Larry Arrick's direction.
I UNDERSTAND WHY THE CAMPAIGN BEGINS IN FEBRUARY, SO YOU HAVE THE TIME TO PLAN THE NEW SEASON, BUT HOW DO SUBSCRIP· TIONS AFFECT YOUR PLANNING?
Subscriptions play a major role in determining what kind of productions the Public Theater can produce. Subscribers are the backbone of the Public. By renewing their subscriptions, they are ordering another year of professional theater in Pittsburgh. The number of our subscribers who commit to renewing directly affects the kind of productions we are able to do, and the caliber of actors, actresses, designers and directors we can in turn make commitments to. In many ways, the Public Theater is no different than any other business: what is produced is linked to what is ordered. Subscriptions are important to regional theaters, and there does seem to be "a method to their madness" in starting their renewal campaigns when they do. Support another great year of professional regional theater. Renew or subscribe to our 1985-86 season today.
WHAT IS THE DIRECTOR'S JOB?
lighting Design: An Interview With Kirk Bookman
a sense of progress to the show, indicate the time of day, make the space larger or smaller, and focus the audience's attention?
LIGHTING IS THE LAST DESIGN ELEMENT TO BE ADDED TO A SHOW. WHAT PROBLEMS DOES THIS CAUSE?
Kirk Bookman, lighting des i gner for 'night, Mother and Becoming Memories.
Kirk Bookman returns to the Pittsburgh Public Theater to design his second show of the season, Becoming Memories. The first show thaf he designed for the Public was the highly successful production of 'night, Mother starring Sylvia Sidney that inaugurated the renovated facility and marked the beginning of the Tenth Season.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A SCRIPT BEFORE YOU ACCEPT THE TASK OF DESIGNING A SHOW?
I try to get a sense of how I can be useful to the production. I'll tell you whyI have a difficult time reading scripts. You or Bill Gardner can read a script from top to bottom and it's clear to you. I take a long time. My task in life is to make it easier for someone to see and understand a show. For Becoming Memories - with all these characters - I want to make it easier for the audience to see how the characters and scenes relate to each other.
HOW DOES LIGHTING BECOMING MEMORIES DIFFER FROM LIGHTING 'NIGHT, MOTHER?
'night, Mother, let's see - once the aesthetics of the production were set up by the director, the scenic designer, and myself, my main task was to show that it was an interior location and that the play occurred over a passage of time at night.
With Becoming Memories, the whole range of time, emotions, and passions needs to work. There also needs to be a clear sense of shifting locales.
DESCRIBE THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING LIGHTING FOR A PLAY.
First of all, I need to figure out how I'm going to help the audience understand the show. Next, I need to work with the director and the scenic designer to set up the aesthetics, the rules that will dictate the style of the production. It is necessary for us to work as a trio aiming for the same goal. If indeed this trio isn't formed from the beginning, I'm not the lighting designer, I'm the illuminating engineer. Let me explain: if a scenic designer designs a lot of architecture, a director moves actors around the architecture, and a lighting person lights the actors so they can be seen on the architecture, all you have is architecture, movement, and basic illumination. Theater is more than that. A playwright writes more than dialogue for people to say, a playwright writes a world.
Theater is supposed to bring something to an audience, to be exciting, to be special. You are bringing people out of their homes; you need to engage their thoughts and their emotions.
Once the style of a show is chosen, it becomes important to understand the technical considerations: the actor/audience relationship, the space for which you are designing, the equipment you are usin_g. My task as a designer is to overcome problems by being creative and technically knowledgeable. When I first speak with a director, I don't let any limitations stop my thinking. The sky is the limit. WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU NEED FROM A DIRECTOR TO START THE DESIGN PROCESS?
I need to know his ideas about the look of the show. Is it to be colorful or stark or busy or clean? What kind of acting areas are to be used? How far will the director let me stretch my color palette? Most of all, what can I do to help the director give
If you've set up the trio of working people (director, scenic designer, lighting designer), there should be few problems. Because you've worked closely from the beginning and have been constantly consulting, you are all moving toward the same goal. However, the minute that any member of the trio changes his mind about something without conferring with the others, you have to start fishing for solutions to problems you haven't been working on. If we get in the theater and things don't quite work out, I need to put every gear in motion - equipment and crew - to make it match our intention. My basic rule is to hang enough of the theater to cover everything except someone doing a scene in the middle of the audience.
If communication is left open, there's no trouble adding lighting at the last moment. It's just another piece of the puzzle. If you're not communicating, it's a piece of the puzzle that will never fit.
I never knew my maternal grandparents. Unhappily married, my grandparents divorced when my motther and my Aunt Betty were quite young. My grandmother died suddenly shortly before she was to marry a man known to me only as Tom. Tom took my grandfather to court and won custody of my mother and my aunt by proving that the children's mother had intended that Tom would be their guardian. This has always amazed me since it took place in 1920. For my mother, Tom has always represented the pinnacle of manhood - strong, generous, loving. He was much older than my grandmother and unfortunately survived her by only a few years. Miss Coope, the headmistress of my mother's boarding school, was the next guardian and the Hewlett School became her home.
My Berwind grandparents had a very different story. I have a vague remembrance of my paternal grandmother Berwind coming out of the kitchen to greet us with a kiss when we came to visit. She died when I was two. The only other way I know her is through the family story that "grandma died because she wouldn't take her medicine." Emigrating in order to avoid further service in the Prussian Army, grandfather Berwind arrived in this country with few material possessions. But through hard work and a family network, he was able to operate general stores in Brooklyn and later in Fort Lee, New Jersey. He alternated this with farming on Long Island and even gave one farm to his less successful brother. I can show you the gas station that is now on the site of the farmhouse where my father was born. Theirs was a happy marriage that my parents seem to have inherited.
Why am I telling you about my family history in an article about Becoming Memories? The reason is simple. The play was created by Giron with members of the Illusion Theater Company using the family histories of company members as the raw material. Giron took their memories, combined them as suited his purpose, added some of his own, and created a rough-draft. He then went back and worked with the actors using improvisation to create the final script.
A SET DESIGNER CAN SHOW A SKETCH AND A MODEL TO A DIRECTOR. LIGHTING, HOWEVER, IS MORE ABSTRACT. YOU CAN'T SHOW A DIRECTOR A MODEL OF THE LIGHTS. HOW DO YOU COMPENSATE FOR THAT?
By being able to talk about the play and develop a rapport so that a director can understand that I know the play wel I enough to make the lights express the play. If I can understand where a director is going with a play, I can make my lights reflect that. In some cases, I need to surrender myself to the director's ideas, to match my sense of aesthetics to his.
Theater is not an exact science. Things change. I'm never married to one particular idea. If I need to drop one and go on to the next one, I can. Designers need to remain flexible.
Mary Guaraldi
lemory Is The Diary
This morning the fortune on my Salada tea bag said, "Memory is the diary we all carry with us." So I knew today was the day that I had to sit down to write this article on Arthur Giro n's play, Becoming Memories. Based on authentic family histories which have been reinterpreted by Giron, Becoming Memories is about the development of families over generations and how children look back on their grandparents. The reaction I've had is to begin to explore my own memories. When I think about my memories in relationship to the play, I think of one line from the play in particular. In this scene, a widower proposes to the sister of his dead wife. Hopeful of achieving a happy life, she tells him: "It's important to be happy. Once happiness gets started in a family, it keeps rolling along, from generation to generation, like a child's ball."
I talked with Arthur Giron about writing this article and I told him that my reaction to the play was to tell my own family history. "That's exactly what I wanted to happen," he said. "The audience response to earlier productions has been fantastic. At the curtain, people would mill around and want to share thei f experiences. I want the actor's experience to be the audience's experience."
Stephen Berwind
The Way It Works Best: An Interview With Lee Sankowich
Lee Sankowich, the director of Becoming Memories, is the producing director of the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles. In 1976, he directed the world premiere of Arthur Giron's Dirty Jokes starring Matthew Cowles and Michael Moriarty for the Academy Festival Theatre in Chicago. His San Francisco production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was transferred to New York City where it ran for over three years.
First of all, casting and casting with a concept in mind. If you cast people who are good, a big part of your job is done. For some plays the casting makes all the difference in the world: even though you've got to guide the cast and guide what goes on on stage, even though you have to make final decisions on acting choices and designs, good actors give you a lot to work with and can make a director look very, very good.
The word concept may need to be defined. The best way for people to understand concept is to think of it like looking at paintings. People usually don't think of theater in terms of other art forms, but a painting can be very photographic in nature - very natural, very real - or it can be very abstract. The same is true of a play; it may be stylized or it may be very naturalistic or it may make unusual demands as does Becoming Memories where each actor plays more than one role. For a heavy concept play like Becoming Memories, developing the concept is a big part of the director's job.
HOW DOES THE DIRECTOR'S JOB DIFFER WHEN WORKING ON A NEW PLAY?
When you're getting into a new play, you need actors who enjoy working on new plays and who understand that process. If you work with actors who get locked into something and you take it away from them or you give them something new, they may say, "Wait, I've been working on this for three weeks, you can't do this to me." You get that and it could be very disruptive to the rehearsal process. The fact is that, when working on a new play, actors have to get used to new things and do become a big part of the process. Arthur Giron writes for his actors a lot. So, in that sense, the cast again is very important. He'll watch these actors and see where their strengths are and the rewrites will take that into consideration.
IS IT HARD TO HAVE THE PLAYWRIGHT IN THE REHEARSAL HALL WHEN YOU'RE WORKING ON A SHOW?
Yes, it is hard for me. Although Arthur and I have worked together now twice before and really didn't have any problems. I always sit there thinking he (the writer) has an idea of the way this should be. When he wrote these people he had a picture of them and there's no way I can have the same picture I always ask a writer to take me to the side during a break and let me know what he is thinking. The director has to be careful, the writer has to be careful not to confuse the actors by giving them a dual message. If a writer has a different idea about a scene, he should speak to me. There's nothing worse than an actor's having heard two different things - one from the director, one from the playwrightand not knowing which to do. This has never happened with Arthur.
HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOU FIRST READ BECOMING MEMORIES?
I read it soon after the first production was done in Minneapolis. I was taken aback by the romantic innocence that Arthur wrote into it, the seeming simplicity of it which I found refreshing. Arthur calls it a pre-Freudian play- the characters aren't so confused that they are saying three contradictory things at once.
WHY DO YOU THINK THIS PLAY WOULD BE INTERESTING TO OUR AUDIENCES?
First of all, it's about families - five different families through three generations - so it explores what our grandparents were and how we are connected to all of that. We're all a product of what came down through the years, good and bad, and Becoming Memories deals with both. It deals with the romance and the love that was passed down from generation to generation as well as with the heartbreak and the trauma. By exploring five different families, we see how we're all universally connected in certain ways and different in others. Each group of people has its own story to tell: you get five for the price of one. They're all very entertaining stories both in a humorous and a serious vein.
Mary Guaraldi
Lee Sankowich, director of Becoming Memories.
AN OUTSTANDING 1985-86 SEASON AWA"5! THE FOLLOWING PLAYS ARE NOW BEING CONSIDERED FOR PRODUCTIJN.
The longest-running play in Broadway history, this delightful • family comedy promises to be a holiday treat for your entire family.
.THE CALMS OF CAPRICORN
by Eugene O'Neill
The world premiere of a masterpiece by America's greatest dramatist, left unfinished at his death and recently completed for the stage.
THE HAIRY APE
by Eugene O'Neill
11te Pittsburgh professional premiere of O'Neilrs expressionistic drama ofthe sea,refleding the class consciousness of American society.
SERENADING LOUIE
By Lanford Wilson
The Pittsburgh premiere of one of the greatest plays of the past decade-a vivid portrayal of contemporary marriage by the author of Hot I Baltimore and the P"itzer Prize-winner, Talley's Folly.
RULES OF THE GAME
by Luigi Pirandello
A brilliant, witty 20th century play by one of Italy's greatest men of the theater, Nobel Prizewinning Pirandello.
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST
byDarioFo
Italy's modern master of farce makes politics the root of comedy in this hilarious Pittsburgh premiere.
TRANSLATIONS
by Bri~n Friel
Amoving partrayalof J.9thcentury Ireland by that country's most important living playwright.
A love story amidst Britain's brutal attempt to Anglicize Irish names and places.
DANDY DICK
by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero
A riotous farce of the Victorian era, set in motion when a staid English cleric comes into possession of the racehorse, Dandy Dick.
THE LOWER DEPTHS
by Ma1dm Gorky
One of the great successes of the Moscow Art Theatre, this searing drama of the poor in Czarist Russia is startlingly relevant to modern urban society
PASSION PLAY
by Peter Nichols
The Pittsburgh premiere of a major Landan success of the 'BOs. Hailed by New York critics for its virtuoso writing- "a savage comedy about love and infidelity."
Important!
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How to Obtain Single Tickets
1. In person at the Box Office.
2. By mail. Enclose payment, note performance desired, include name, address, telephone number and a stamped self-addressed envelope Mail to: Pittsburgh Public Theater Box Office, One Al· legheny Square, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.
3. By telephone. You may charge single tickets to your American Express, MasterCard, or Visa accounts by calling the Box Office at (412) 321 -9800. Single Ticket Prices
Opening (Wed. eve.)
Tues.-Wed -Thurs.-Sun. eve.
Fri.-Sat. eve.
Thurs.-Sat.-Sun. matinee
Preview Tues.-Wed.·
Thurs.-Sun eve
$17.50 15.50
Preview Fri.-Sat. eve. 15 50
Preview Sun matinee 11.00
Student and senior citizen ½ price discounts are available 30 minutes before curtain time (if the performance is not sold-out) with valid ideritification Group Rates
Special discounts of up to 50% off regular ticket prices are available for groups of 20 or more. Contact Pat Hart at (412) 323-8200 for more information and assistance in planning your group outing.
FM Amplification System Installed
The Pittsburgh Public Theater is pleased to announce it has installed an FM amplification system with three Wil· Iiams Sound Personal PA's. With the help of a Williams Sound Personal PA System, hard of hearing people can enjoy a performance at the Public Theater uninterrupted by the annoying sounds of shuffling feet, the rustle of paper and the murmur of voices. Since the play is broadcast directly from the microphone to the listener, only the sounds which are in· tended to be heard reach the listener's ears.
Patrons can obtain one of the three personal PA's by checking with the House Manager at the Public Theater's
bar prior to the performance. The amp Ii· tier should be returned to the House Manager after the performance. The Williams Sound Personal PA's were donated to the Public Theater by the Ed Simon & Co.
Patrons who wish to purchase their own amplifiers may obtain further information from the House Manager.
Becoming Memories: A Chance For Discuss ion
Ap ril 18, 1985
Joi n us for a question-and-answer session with Arthur Giron, the playwright, and lee Sankowich, th e dire ctor, after the Thursday night preview.
May 19, 1985
Production Forum after the matinee performance featuring members of the company and production staff of Becoming Memories.
Coming Up Next
Spectacular Finale To Be Selected
An exciting production of a world classic, or a colorful musical, or a new American play. We're talking to some of America's finest actors, directors and playwrights in order to present the best possible choice for our Tenth Anniversary Finale.
June 4-July 7
Becoming Memories Photo Exhibit
Becoming Memories, Arthur Giron 's play of family remembrance, moves you to think of your own family, of the relationships between grandparents, parents, and children In attics, drawers, boxes, and photo albums are pictures of our grandparents. These photographs contain a trove of stories - stories about struggles ordinary and extraordinary, about people who left everything behind them to start over in a strange country in an era when life was often hard and short.
The Pittsburgh Public Theater, in-
spired by Giron's Becoming Memories, wants to preserve some of this rich and varied heritage. We are asking you to send us a photograph (copy only) with a one paragraph explanation of the people in the picture. The photographs will be used in an exhibit to hang in the Public Thea t er during the run of Becoming Memories.
After the play is over, the exhibit will travel to other sites in the city so many can share in the heritage and the memories.
Susan Larkin
