lho Is Hedda? Enigmatic ·Role Provides Challenge For Talented Actresses
Helena Ruotl will play Hedda In the Public Theater's new adaptation of Ibsen's classic, April 11-May 14.
Taking on the title role of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler has proved a challenge for many famous actresses ever since its first production in 1891. After all, who was this woman Hedda Gabler? Why does she marry a man she despises? What actually happened between her and her companion, Eilert? Why does she dislike Thea Elvsted? Why does she try to drive Eilert to his death? Answering these questions has produced a variety of interpretations from a multitude of actresses. No two portrayals of Hedda are ever alike, as each actress finds a different key into the heart of this enigmatic woman.
In 1898, Elizabeth Robins proved herself an adventurous spirit by being the first actress to appear in a professional American production of Hedda Gabler. At the turn of the century any company producing Ibsen was confronted with staunch resistance and strident objections on the grounds that Ibsen was immoral and possessed of a depraved mind that was only interested in corruption and disease. Actresses faced with this hostility spent a great deal of time defending Ibsen and their portrayals. To avoid controversy these actresses often edited his dialogue in an attempt to make him more palatable. Robins cut all references to Hedda's pregnancy. Minnie Maddern Fiske (stage name - Mrs. Fiske), one of the first to perform and produce Ibsen, deleted the mention of Hedda's pregnancy as well as omitting her conversation with Judge Brack in which she tells him how she got George to propose to her, thus eliminating some of Hedda's manipulativeness.
Yet Robins recognized Hedda as a woman of her time: "a bundle of unused possibilities, educated to fear life; too much opportunity to develop her weakness; no opportunity at all to use her best powers." She also praises Ibsen for his acknowledgement of the position of
Glenda Jackson as Hedda, a landmark interpretation, in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1975 production.
women in society, for he knew that "a good many women have found it possible to get through life by help of the knowledge that they have the power to end it rather than accept certain slaveries." This last quote is a chilling example of the desperation and powerlessness that many women were stil I experiencing near the turn of the century.
Despite the public's malevolent attitude toward Ibsen, productions of his works continued. Since melodrama was the theatrical staple at the time, a great many Heddas were performed at a hysterical pitch with much posturing. Mrs. Fiske portrayed her as having insatiable curiosity, a quality that eliminated much of Hedda's meanness. Alla Nazimova depicted her as a serpentine vamp. Some of these portrayals had little to do with Ibsen, yet every exploration of Hedda's character revealed her complexity and the genius of Ibsen's writing.
It wasn't until the 1920's that theater succeeded in breaking out of the melodramatic mold. Women were also destroying stereotypes, thus opening the
Continued on page 2
New Adaptation of Hedda at PPT
Obie Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Corinne Jacker, has been commissioned by the Public to create a new adaptation of this world classic specifically for Pittsburgh's premiere actress, Helena Ruoti, and for Lee Sankowich, the brilliant director of five of the Public's most successful productions.
Written in contemporary language, while retaining its 1880's. setting, the play's meaning takes on a fresh and lively quality, unencumbered by awkward period expressions and figures of speech.
August Wilson's Fences: The Most Honored Play In Broadway History Comes Home
"In 1965, when I was 20, I sat all night writing in the Hill district's bars and restaurants until they kicked me out," says August Wilson. "I'd be filling my shorthand pad with poems, drawings, parts of stories, and someone behind the counter would say, 'You got to leave. My breakfast customers are coming.' Then someone else would lay down eight, ten bucks - enough for six breakfasts - so I could keep ori writing.''
The regulars who saved his seat at Eddie's Restaurant, and the B & Mon lower Centre Avenue, are vital connections to Wilson's writing today. His lifelong friends are among those he met while "standing, for 13 years, on the corner of Centre and Kirkpatrick," or at the Halfway Art Gallery_~_n<:l Afro-Americ,an_Institute. "These were the friends who raised me and sanctioned the idea of myself as a worthwhile person_"
In 1978, when Wilson began to write plays - Black Bart And The Sacred Hills, Jitney, Fullerton Street- " I was hearing for the f i rst t i me the voices of people1 I had spent my entire life around." In his first play to reach Broadway, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 1984, he was hearing the voices and the music, too, from nights at the Hurricane, the Florentine lounge and Crawford Grill. "I used to listen to Kenny Fisher on sax. And Jake Million-es (former president of the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education, now a City Council candidate). Jake was playing bass then. I haven't put my friends in my plays. But what I wrote about in Ma Rainey- black musicians being exploited by a white recording company - was important information by way of a song_"
In 1987, August Wilson's play Fences, which will have its Pittsburgh premiere at the Public Theater on May 23, won the Pulitzer Prize, four Tony Awards, including Best Drama, and virtually every award a playwright can receive.
Set in 1950's Pittsburgh, in the backyard of a house on the Hill, Fences centers on a proud, embittered patriarch, Troy Maxson, and his teenage son, Cory. Their immediate conflict is kindled when Cory is recruited to play college football. Troy, once a Homestead Grays baseball star barred from the segregated big leagues, demands that his son turn down the scholarship because he cannot believe times have really changed. Troy Maxson's yams and raps In his backyard ("I hit seven home runs off of Satchel Paige. You can't get no better than that!'i were some of the tales told at Pat's Place, a cigar store and billiards parlor on Wylie Avenue, where Bill "Bojangles" Robinson used to shoot a "good game," and where August Wilson heard stories. Josh Gibson from the North Side (who, like Troy Maxson, was never able to play in the Major Leagues) was a hot item: 800 lifetime home runs for the Homestead Grays - 84 in one season. And there was always talk of Satchel Paige ("He threw
Pittsburgh's August Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Fences, at the Public May 23-July 2. nothing but aspirin tablets - fast balls!'i who played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the sandlot team that Gus Greenlee, the Hill's "numbers" mogul, turned into Negro National League champions in 1935. Greenlee also ran the Crawford Grill, where, in Fences, Troy Maxson's older son, Lyons, sits in with the band.
Wilson spent considerable time in Pat's Place, listening to the old men of the community. 'When someone mentioned a friend who had just died, I wanted to know all about him. When every d~y had to be negotiated, I wanted to know how it was that these men had lived so long."
"On Centre Avenue, I was learning how to be a man," says Wilson. "If I'm in trouble, I got to know what to do. Like Troy Maxson in Fences, we have to teach kids harsh realities, prepare them to face the world. Black men have always been interested, more interested in parenting than others. I can't tell you how many men are in the pen because they decided 'My kid's gonna have that for Christmas!' There's a great willingness to risk, to die, for that"
Since his own father "very rarely came around," August Wilson's "parenting" came from his mother, Daisy, who traveled from North Carolina to Pittsburgh in 1937. "It was a time when people carrying bibles and guitars arrived with their S()ng their only weapon. She settled at 1727 Bedford Avenue in the Hill, and lived and worked and died for her children and grandchildren - for the world she would leave to my daughter." (Sakina Ansari, Wilson's daughter by his first marriage, Is an 18 year old student at Morgan State University in Baltimore.) "My mother taught me how to read, and at five I had my first card from the Wylie Avenue branch of the Carnegie Library. When I was 12, we moved to Hazelwood, where Continued on page 4
lo You Recognize These People?
Hedda Cast Brings Back Public Theater Favorites
Lee Sankowich
If you've been with us for a season or two, you're likely to have seen past performances by each of the cast members in this season's classic Ibsen drama, Hedda Gabler. And if you've enjoyed one of these great productions: Edith Stein, Serenading Louie, The Real Thing, The Normal Heart, Vikings, or Becoming Memories you'll be delighted to know that Hedda is in the capable hands of returning director Lee Sankowich.
Michael J. Hume
There's irony, too, in Michael Hume's return as George Tesman, although it's of an entirely different sort. Michael has played several roles at the Public and is probably remembered best as the evil Jane Twisden in The Mystery of Irma Vep, which was written by Charles Ludlam, the man who last played Hedda Gabler in Pittsburgh. (Yes, you read that right.) The roles Michael played were all a part of Ludlam's campy Penny Dreadful in which some were men, some were women and some were, well, other-worldly. Oh, and speaking of other-worldly, Charles Ludlam did in fact play Hedda in the Ibsen Theatre's 1984 production.
Vera Lockwood
Now, if Vera Lockwood's picture isn't ringing any bells it's probably because she preferred that we use one that wasn't "so Italian." Yes, that's right, the glamourpuss in this picture is the very same littleold-Italian-Grandmother (Cabrina) who brought down the house in Princess Grace And The Fazzaris. She's returning to play Aunt Julia in this, her second of what we hope will be many, Public productions.
Continued from page 1
Who Is Hedda?
door for a greater tolerance and understanding of the women in Ibsen. In 1927, Eva Le Gallienne began her long and productive association with Hedda, playing her repeatedly, translating the script, and directing it. In her 1927 production she updated the play to the twenties, attempting to bring it closer to the audience. Le Gallienne found, however, that the lurid romanticism of the 1890's was crucial to the feel of the work, and later admitted that updating the play was a mistake. She saw Hedda as a "portrait play" of a woman who "is the incarnation of ennui. Her tragedy is not that she fails to achieve her mission, but that she has no mission to achieve."
Testifying to the difficulty of the role, Le Gallienne said, "It took me a long time to play Hedda. I didn't really play Hedda until I'd played it for maybe ten years. I think most people make the mistake of not giving her enough charm. It was a mistake I fell into terribly in the beginning. I played it absolutely literallywithout guile There's a great deal of comedy in Hedda which I didn't get then." Pioneers like Mrs. Fiske and Le Gallrenne paved the way for the recognition of Ibsen as a genius.
Today Hedda is a cherished role inspiring a variety of interpretations. In a 1975 production for television, Janet Suzman, wife of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Artistic Director Trevor Nunn, played the title role. For her Hedda acts as she does "because she feels trapped. Everything aggravates her situation Her weakness as an ordinary mortal and her struggle as an extraordinary one give her her tragic stature, and make of her an enigmatic, awesome creature."
Helena Ruoti
Helena Ruoti (Hedda Gabler) began her association with the Public when she appeared in Arthur Giron's Becoming Memories. Since then she has appeared in Lanford Wilson's shocking Serenading Louie and the two most successful dramas in the theater's history, The Real Thing and the unforgettable Edith Stein. Helena's performances here and at the City Theatre have earned her consistent critical acclaim and the honor of becoming known as Pittsburgh's finest actress.
Jim Abele
Jim Abele (Eilert Lovborg), a returning actor who has earned similar local acclaim, comes back to the Public in this production for his fourth role in two seasons. Cast originally as the ape in The Hairy Ape, Jim returned twice last season. First, to play opposite Helena Ruoti in Edith Stein and then as Felix in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart. His role in Hedda, again opposite Helena, promises to provide an ironic twist in that Eilert possesses none of the power of Karl Heinz, and Hedda, shall we say, exerts just a little more influence over her illfated lover than did Edith Stein. Look for the same sexual tension and dramatic intensity, however, between these two talented actors.
William Rhys
Will Rhys (Judge Brack) came to us from Cleveland where he served as Artistic Director of the Cleveland Playhouse. He played Ned Weeks opposite Jim Abele's Felix Turner in last season's The Normal Heart, the tragic account of the earlyyearsoftheAIDSepidemic in New York City. Both he and Jim have been busy since their last appearance here, but they did manage to team up recently atthe Indiana Repertory Theater where they played two of The Three Musketeers under the direction of former PPT Artistic Director, Larry Arrick.
Nann Mogg
Nann Mogg (Bertha), a Pittsburgh actress who's been seen at tlie Public in Juno And The Paycock and Edith Stein, returns in Hedda Gabler. Nann tells us that this is likely to be a farewell performance, for she's taking off for Hollywood soon afterward. We wish her well and hope that one day we'll be hosting her Pi ttsburgh comeback. 1
It's a top notch cast assembled from among the best who have appeared here in the last several seasons. It's a company of truly fine people, too, whose combined good will and creative energy will fill the theater to the rafters in this, the Public's first Ibsen presentation, Hedda Gabler.
D. Trevor O'Donnell
IBSEN SYMPOSIUM
Presented By CARNEGIFIF! 1ON DIIAMAAND PITTSBURGH PUBUCTHEATER SatwdayandSundlrw, Aprtl 22 and 23
Location: Breed Hall, on the first floor of Margaret Morrison Hall, CMU campus ...._,Aprll22
1:00Walc DIM Remarks-Akram Midani, Dean, College of Fine Arts W'Na Rolf Fjelde, Ibsen scholar
'lbdaJ-
Panel: Ibsen scholars Leon Kalz, Brian Johnston, Dennis Kennedy; No,wegian actress Juni Daht Moderator: Rick Davis, Baltimore Center Stage 3=30111Hn's"Atxl~lhe,,....,-
Panel: Rolf Fjelde; Christopher Rawson, theater crttic; Charles MaroNilz, playwright; Michael Lupu , dramaturg, Guthrie Theatre. Moderator: Michael Zelenak, Yale School of Drama Sunday, Aprll 23
In the same year, Glenda Jackson in a stage production by the RSC created a landmark interpretation of Hedda. She perceived Hedda as "victimized and painfully confused by everybody else's view of what is acceptable behavior. She is desperate to control and yet she has a terrible streak of not wishing to conform." Viewing Hedda as a victim put an entirely different light on supporting characters Judge Brack, George Tesman, Aunt Julia, and Thea Elvsted who Jackson describes as "very violent people, ruthless, predators. They're out for blood."
While Susannah York, who performed Hedda in 1981 in New York, also saw Hedda as a victim, she was more intrigued by the complexity of her personality. "It's the level, the constantly changing level of Hedda that is going to be so slippery, so hard to gauge and control, to maintain." For York, Hedda is still a woman for our time for in her nature are the seeds of Romantic aspiration, which York believes everyone possesses: "In everyone a potential Hedda; in anyone seamed with a sense of 'something more beautiful,' beyond what is offered in their daily lives, and who yearns to touch it."
For Helena Ruoti, in rehearsals for the Pittsburgh Public Theater's production of Hedda Gabler, opening April 11, learning who Hedda is becomes a matter of working from the ground up. Uncovering the motivations and meanings of this woman will be an exploratory process founded in Ms. Ruoti's own perceptions, combined with the vision of the director, and the chemistry of the company. "I'm only looking at previous interpretations of Hedda with one eye open. Once I've established who she is in my own mind, I'll bounce off other people's ideas to see what makes sense to me." Audiences who have seen Ruoti's work in Edith Stein, Serenading Louie, Becoming Memories, ar:id The Real Thing can look forward to a challenging Hedda Gabler that will stand proudly with the interpretations of her predecessors.
Kellee Van Aken
Catherine Butterfield
Catherine Butterfield (Thea Elvsted) began her association with the Public along side Helena Ruoti in Arthur Giron's Becoming Memories. She returned the following season to work with Helena in Serenading Louie. While it's been several seasons since Catherine last visited, her picture in the lobby has been somewhat provocatively keeping her fresh in our memories.
12:00 .,. Panel: Lee SankoNich (Hedda Gabler), Yossi Yzraely (fleer Gynt); Chal1es MaroNilz, playwrigtt; Slan Wodjewodski. artistic director. Baltimore Cen!er Stage Moderalor: William T. Gardner. producing director, Pittsbuigh Public Theater Publlr'.-..IAlonwllh IIIMlbenandpatlclpma. Akram Midani Information: 268-2392
ORDER YOUR 15TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON TICKETS NOWI
YOU'LL SEE THESE 3 GREAT PLAYS ...
Season Opener in September!
JOE TURNER' S COME AND GONE
By August WIison
We are in 1911 Pittsburgh, a bustling boarding house on Federal Street. There is a warming atmosphere to the place permeated by the fragrance of fresh-baked biscuits and the feisty gab of men and women. The mood is smashed by the arrival of a stranger (with his young daughter), Herald Loomis, a dark man whose blackness threatens to swallow up the universe. JOE TURNER is the exhilarating story of these people's lives and their search, lead by Herald Loomis, for a place in a new promised land. Frank Rich of the NeN York Times called JOE TURNER "haunting, profound, and indescribably moving."
George S. Kaufman Centenn ial Celebration!
GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPTHERE
By Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman Newton Fuller was a natural nature-lover. He hated city life and loathed town apartments. His one ambition was to have a real home in the country, and when he came upon an abandoned place down Bucks County way he up and bought it without even consulting Mrs. Fuller. No water, no road, no bath, cows in the kitchen, leaks in the roof, and locusts in the trees - not quite Mrs. Fuller's rural rhapsody. Everything here is twice the price but worth every cent. Kaufman and Hart wrote this romp about their own country estate purchases and established a comedic tradition beloved by audiences everywhere.
PLUS 3 MORE FROM THIS EXCITING LINE UP:
1988 Tony Winner!
BREAKING THE CODE
By Hugh Whitemore
An extraordinary drama about the genius who turned the tide of World War II by breaking the Nazi Enigma code, and who became the Father of the modern computer:. Praised for his genius, he was condemned for breaking the moral code of his time.
Modern Masterpiece!
RULES OF THE GAME
By Luigi Pirandello
Nobel Prize-winning Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello turns his incisive comic eye on the power struggle of marriage. It's a fascinating foray into the complex psychology between a brilliantly manipulative man and his paranoid and adulterous wife.
Broadway Sizzler!
BURNTHIS
By Lanford WIison
This Broadway smash by Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Lanford Wilson explodes with passion and electrifying energy. A dazzling love story that combines the ferociously funny with the heartwrenchingly tragic.
Inside Hollywood! SPEED-THE-PLOW
By David Mamet
A scathingly funny examination of the Hollywood studio system by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. A recent Broadway hit that brought Madonna to the stage, SPEED.:rHE-PLOW dishes up the inside dirt on the powerful, manipulative world behind the glamorous image of movie producing. "David Mamet makes language sound like spoken jazz " Village Voice
Chilling Revival!
CHILDREN OF DARKNESS
By Edwin Justus Mayer
Peppered with acrid wit and cool irony, this rollicking comedy plunges into the lurid world of an 18th century London prison where brilliantly wicked villains compete in the arts of betrayal, extortion and seduction.
Recent Off Broadway Comedy Sensation!
RECKLESS
By Craig Lucas
Rachel lies in bed listening to Christmas songs, crooning to her husband about their children. Abruptly he leaps from her side, explains that he has hired a hit man to kill her and regrets the action, but that it is too late for her to do anything except flee. We enter the absurd recklessness of Rachel's world where everyone is anything but what he seems. It isaJar-out, unbelievable adventure-tantaHz'inglyfun. RECKLESS is dazzling and mystifying, an excursion into a world that's as dangerous as Eve's apple.
Romantic Comedy! ITALIAN AMERICAN RECONCILIATION
By John Patrick Shanley
Love in Little Italy, as told by John Patrick Shanley, the Academy Award-winning author of MOONSTRUCK. ITALIAN AMERICAN RECONCILIATION tells the story of a lovelorn, young divorced man who needs to regain the passion he lost in leaving his beautiful but dangerous wife. Warm and light hearted, Shanley combines the flair of Italian comic opera with the sparkle of contemporary comedy.
PUBLIC PREMIERE!
We are considering several new plays. First on the list is ELEANOR, an inspiring and humorous dramatic musical about the wonderfully romantic early years of Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eleanor is a vibrant story of fortitude, perseverance and triumph.
Joe Turner's Come And Gone by Fences author, August Wilson, won the 1988 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play
Ann Sheridan and Jack Benny in the 1942 film version of the comedy classic, George washington Slept Here.
Reckless: outrageous and funny, the talk of New York's 1988-89 season. Pictured: Robin Bartlett, John Dossett and Welker White at Circle Rep
Box Office Hours
Mondays 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Tuesdays thru 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturdays Sundays 12 noon to 6:30 p.m.
Holiday and summer hours may vary.
Curtain Times
Tuesday thru Saturday evenings
Sunday evenings Matinees
Single Ticket Prices
Thurs , Sat. & Sun. matinees
Preview Fri.-Sat. eve. $22.00
Preview Sun. matinee $17.00
Student and senior citizen ½ prize discounts are available 30 minutes before curtain time (if the performance is not sold-out) with valid identification.
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, Allegheny Square, Pittsburgh, PA 15212-5362.
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.
Can't Make it? Too Late to Exchange? Take a Tax Deduction! If you find you are unable to attend a performance and cannot exchange your tickets, you may take a tax deduction for the amount paid for each ticket not used. Just release your tickets for resale by calling the Tax Deduction Line (412) 321-9807 as soon as possible, but as late as curtain time on the day of performance, and give your
name and seat location. Your seats can then be sold to someone else. The result? A tax deduction for you, a full house for us, and no turnaways at the box office.
('
Continued from page 1
August Wilson
I later read all the books in the Negro section at the Chatsworth Street branch: Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps and others."
When Wilson was 14, he enrolled in Central Catholic High School, but left in the spring of his first year. "My mother envisioned me going to some Catholic college and becoming a lawyer." The next year he went to Connelley Trade School to become an auto mechanic, "but I ended up in sheet metal. While making a tin cup, I was physically assaulted by my teacher for hammering in a thumb tack with a T-square." At Gladstone High School in Hazelwood, Wilson was accused by his history teacher of plagiarizing a paper on Napoleon. "I told him 'yes' I had written it, all my research was footnoted. He gave me an 'E', I tore the paper up, put it in his wastebasket, and never went back." Wilson, then 15, felt "free and unrestricted" spending the next five years in the library. "Then in 1965, I left my mother's house and went to the Hill, into the community of blacks, to learn what they had to teach me."
In the mid'60's, August Wilson and his poet friends Rob Penny, Nick Flournoy and Charley P. Williams formed the Centre Avenue Poets Theater Workshop. Several years later, Wilson and Rob Penny, now a playwright and teacher in the University of Pittsburgh's Black Studies Department, created the Black Horizon Theatre. Another friend, Claude Purdy, who will direct the Public Theater's production of Fences, appeared at Black Horizon in Recycle, a play written and directed by Wilson. Listening one night to Wilson reading his Black Bart series, Purdy was struck by the poetic fusion of African and western imagery and urged Wilson to develop it into a play. Black Bart And The Sacred Hills was eventually presented at the Penumbra Theater in St. Paul, where Purdy is a resident director.
Wilson also now lives in St. Paul with his second wife. Judy Oliver, introduced to him by Purdy's wife. Jacqui.
Claude Purdy will also direct Joe Turner's Come and Gone at the Public In September. Set in a 1911 Pittsburgh boarding house. Joe Turner was called "spellbinding, haunting, Indescribably moving " by Frank Rich in the New York Times when it opened on Broadway last March.
Purdy has directed Joe Turner and Ma Rainey at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Fences at GeVa Theatre in Rochester, New York, and, most recently, Ma Rainey at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Purdy calls August Wilson "a first class poet. Almost anything he writes becomes poetic because he ihfuses it with
so much honesty and emotion. He Is a word magician - able to charge words and fill them with meaning."
It's been 12 years since August Wilson's first experience with professional theater: seeing Pittsburgh Public Theater's production of Sizwe Bansi Is Dead by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. looking forward now to the Public's Fences and Joe Turner's Come And Gone, and to completing his cycle of plays - one for each dec.ade of the black experience in America - Wilson says, "I enjoy the collaborative aspects of theater: the various visions working together to form the single. I'm trying to get the society to function and work that way at the same time."
Rosali_nd Ruch
Set in 1950's Pittsburgh, FENCES is apassionate drama about the thwarted dreams of ablack garbage collector Once aNegro League baseball star, Troy Maxson's failure to cross the color barrier into the major leagues threatens to shatter his only refuge, his family.
