A Beckett Full of Wine or Albee Alright in the Morning

Two nights ago, I had the honor of attending the New York Innovative Theatre Awards which celebrates Off-Off-Broadway theatre. The Blue Man Group performed, Lisa Kron hosted, and presenters included Olympia Dukakis, Tina Howe, Bill Irwin, and Edward Albee. Judith Malina, co-founder of The Living Theatre, received an honorary award as did nytheatre.com.

The event was very fancy, exciting and brought legitimacy to Indie theatre. Albee said “There are two types of theatre. Commercial theatre and the theatre that matters. This is the theatre that matters.”

The celebration was extra special because it celebrated the 50th anniversary of Off-Off-Broadway theatre. I kept hearing one name over and over again that I had never heard before. I’ve done some research into it now, and I’d like to share it with you. The name is Café Cino.

In 1958, a man named Joseph Cino opened a coffee shop on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village with the intention of presenting poetry, art, and folk music. By December of that year, plays were being performed. Cino introduced every act by saying, “It’s magic time!” This was the birth of Off-Off-Broadway theatre (and gay theatre). Along with performing plays by Tennessee Williams and Jean Giraudoux, there were a number of new playwrights that found a home and at Café Cino. These included John Guare, Sam Shepherd, Jean-Claude Van Itallie, Lanford Wilson, and Doric Wilson (who Mitch and I had the honor of meeting at the NYIT Awards – he laughed when we told him we were starting a company, telling us in colorful metaphors how difficult it is to do such a thing).

When Café Cino started, there wasn’t even a stage. And when Joe Cino finally put one in, it was only 8’ by 8’ and made of milk crates. This is the legacy and challenge that Cino and Off-Off-Broadway have given us. How can we create theatre with no resources?

No. 11 Productions is an Indie theatre company. We have no money and we have no venue. But we do have perhaps five of the most valuable assets: time, creativity, energy, talent, and passion. So, armed with these, all that’s left to say is “It’s magic time!”

Written by Julie Congress

A Beckett Full of Wine or Albee Alright in the Morning

There are many different schools of acting. Be it Hagan, Artaud or Stan the Man (née Stanislavksy), it seems that everyone has their own acting guru. Everyone in No. 11 Productions has there own: Samantha is Stella Adler all the way, Anne Bogart is Ryan’s lady, and Mitch, well…Mitch just seems to be obsessed with Nietzsche. Today, I would like to introduce you to mine.

Michael Chekhov was born in 1891 in St. Petersburg, Russia and died in 1955 in Los Angeles. He was the nephew of playwright Anton Chekhov and a star pupil of Stanislavsky. He was the best (or one of the two best, if you are a Meyerholdian) actors at the Moscow Art Theatre. In the late 1920s, Michael Chekhov emigrated to the United States and worked on Broadway and in Hollywood (you can see him in Hitchcock’s Spellbound). His students included Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, Gregory Peck, and Anthony Quinn.

One of his most distinctive ideas is that of the Psychological Gesture (PG) and the idea that our bodies are linked to our minds and emotions. The PG of a character is a physical representation of how the character feels inside. Every character also has a specific body part they lead from and identifying this body part is a really great way, I have found, to start discovering the physicality (or “plastics” as the Russians say). You can read much more about PGs in Michael Chekhov’s book To the Actor.

Why I like Misha Chekhov:

• His emphasis on GAMES. An atmosphere must be playful and free to produce the best, most creative work.
• The importance of IMAGINATION. Stanislavksy believes that every part you play comes out of who you are as a human. M.C. puts more weight on the power of imagination.
• My Michael Chekhov teacher in Moscow was one of the warmest, most encouraging, playful, lovely human beings ever.

Some quotes from To the Actor:

• “Although creative images are independent and changeable…they will require your active collaboration…You must ask questions of these images, as you would ask questions of a friend.”
• “The real task of the creative artist is not merely to copy the outer appearance of life but to interpret life in all its facets and profoundness, to show what is behind the phenomena of life, to let the spectator look beyond life’s surfaces and meanings.”
• “There is no human being who is obvious and easy to comprehend.”
• “It will be a good starting point for an actor, in order to grasp the initial idea about the character, to ask himself: ‘What is the difference between myself and the character?’”
• “The audience is an active co-creator of the performance.”
• “For acting should ever be a joyous art and never enforced labor.”

So thank you, Michael Chekhov, for showing me how my art can be "a joyous art".

Written by Julie Congress