Wife

"SELLON SOARS IN VERMONT STAGE'S I AM MY OWN WIFE"
-- The Burlington Free Press

INTERVIEW EXCERPTS FROM THE VERMONT STAGE COMPANY SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTER AND VERMONTWOMAN.COM
© March/April 2007

Interview From the Vermont Stage Company Subscriber Newsletter:

VSC: Why did you want to do this play?

AS: Gosh, lots of answers to this one. I think any actor would say that in part, like the Matterhorn, because it’s there. A solo, multi-character piece like this is an exhilarating challenge for any performer – the kind of gift that just doesn’t come along very often. On a more personal level, as a gay man, I’ve faced my own share of the world’s challenges to my identity over the years -- some of them violent. But as with Doug, the gay playwright/narrator of the piece, my experiences pale in comparison to what Charlotte survived. I wanted to get in there, inside Charlotte’s being to the best of my ability, to learn from her strength and understand her choices as much as I could. As Doug says to her at one point, “You are teaching me a history I never knew I had.” That resonates deeply for me, and it’s the main reason I was determined to do this play. And to be able to do it at VSC makes it that much more perfect.

Tante Louise, Charlotte's Lesbian/Transvestite Aunt

Charlotte Receives a Visit from the Stasi

VSC: In the play, we learn that Charlotte is perhaps not all that she seems to be. What do you make of her apparent duplicity?

AS: In the course of the piece, I play Charlotte, her friends and also her detractors. So I have to understand and embody not just Charlotte herself, but also those conflicting perspectives. I think the playwright’s great (and rather daring) accomplishment is to leave it to the audience to decide what to make of Charlotte’s story. I will say that while I admired the Broadway production, I will be making some different choices for Charlotte. Sara, the director, and I are finding our own answers, our own Charlotte, and the text is sophisticated enough to allow for that. I’m excited to see how the VSC audience will respond to our version.

VSC: It's early in the rehearsal process, but what are the challenges and rewards you've faced so far?

AS: First challenge: getting into the dress. Literally. For scheduling reasons, the first fitting took place at my gym in mid-town Manhattan. Luckily, most members there are performers and pretty much unfazed by anything, but there was a surreal moment when I found myself standing in front of the mirrors in the men’s locker room wearing just my slacks, and struggling helplessly to pull that skinny black floral-print dress over my head & shoulders without drawing attention to myself. I finally had to go out to the lobby and ask the costume designer how a woman does it! But it was a very informative identity experience, trying to don that new skin literally. Second, the dialects have been a fun challenge; and I’m so grateful that VSC arranged for coaching with expert Gillian Lane-Plescia, she was fantastically helpful. I’ve always loved dialects, and this play is a festival of them. Third, I’m playing 35 different people. Now that’s a challenge. But you know what? The challenges are the rewards. This is my Olympics, and I’m competing in every event.

The Russian Stasi Official

Young Lothar Dons a Dress and Becomes Charlotte

VSC: Can you make any comparisons between the life Charlotte led and the life one leads as an actor?

AS: Hmm. Well, I suppose the average person looking at the real Charlotte in her housefrau dress and practical shoes probably thought “Oh, there’s a crazy guy in a costume.” But to Charlotte, transvestism was the norm. She did occasionally get dolled up in more stereotypical “drag” for a particular party or event, but that was unusual for her. She put on everyday women’s clothing to become who she instinctively believed she really was. While it’s true that as an actor I put on a costume to become someone else, I believe in and am in part defined by the physical exterior I adopt, just like Charlotte. So I’d say in that sense, we’re kindred spirits.

VSC: You've done a one man show before, based on the life of Lewis Carroll. How does this compare?

AS: For my solo Lewis Carroll play, because I did all the research, all the drafts and redrafts, when it came time to memorize the final version for performance, and voice all the different characters, it was a lot easier because I’d been breathing it day & night for months and months. For I Am My Own Wife, playwright Doug Wright had that “birthing” experience. Granted, working on an existing script written by someone else is the typical process for an actor. But given the richness and complexity of this piece, I’m glad I’ve had a few months to work on absorbing it.

Ziggy Greets His Adoring TV Audience

Charlotte Must Choose Between Alfred and Her Museum

VSC: What have you learned about yourself as an actor and as a person in the process of working on this show?

AS: I’m still learning from Charlotte, Doug and the other characters about making tough choices, and accepting the consequences of where they lead. We all create and live our own stories every day; like Charlotte, sometimes we’re forced to make painful compromises, and perhaps in order to live with them, we may end up making our own truths. I think it’s how we get through the day. This play is also making me think a lot about redefining bravery. Whatever conclusions the individual members of the audience draw about Charlotte at the end of the performance, I hope they’ll share my admiration for one of the most unique and extraordinary survivors the world has ever known. And I have learned something else: A loose-fitting housedress hides love handles quite nicely. Charlotte was no dummy.

From an Interview for VermontWoman.Com

Sellon took a break from rehearsal to answer some questions from Vermont Woman:

VW: You said that while you admired the Broadway production, you will be making some different choices for Charlotte. Can you elaborate on this, and give some specific examples of the differences you will bring?

AS: Anytime an actor plays a character, he or she is "channeling" that character through [his/her] own personal experience, and unique physicality and voice. So we are not trying to copy the Charlotte of the Broadway production, and I am not trying to mimic the voices of the real Charlotte or Doug. I did read Charlotte's autobiography, and also watched her autobiographical film to see and hear her in action, but more to find jumping off points through which I can interpret her. After seeing film footage of the real Charlotte, Sara and I agreed that we wanted to capture more of her puckish charm, and not make her overtly a cipher on the surface. We think the heightened difference between the genuinely charming surface and the darkness underneath is part of what gives our production an extra depth, and we feel that our interpretation of Charlotte is very much in the service of the character that Doug Wright has written.

Charlotte Reveals Her Museum's Greatest Secret: the Mulack Ritze

Charlotte Strikes Back

VW: Although this play is mainly about Charlotte, it is still Charlotte as presented by Doug Wright. Have you approached this role by trying to find (even create) your own Charlotte, or are you proceeding by acting the part of a fictional character named Charlotte created by the playwright Doug Wright?

AS: Everything the director and I do is always in service of the script. Other than that, I will only say that this play is definitely not just about Charlotte. It is also about the unexpected personal journey the playwright character Doug takes while trying to capture Charlotte's essence.

VW: You said one line in the play, spoken by the character of Doug, resonates deeply for you - "You are teaching me a history I never knew I had" - and is the main reason you were determined to do this play. Would you elaborate about that shared history?

AS: I'm a gay man, and over the years I have at times had to verbally and/or physically defend my right to be who I am. Frankly, some of my own experiences are still too painful for me to speak about easily. So to hear Charlotte's amazing stories about her struggles and triumphs as a gay transvestite, surviving not just the Nazis but the Communists as well, reminds me that I too am part of ongoing gay history, part of the ongoing struggle for equality and acceptance. I hope that by extension everyone who sees this play -- even those with differing beliefs -- will see something of themselves in Charlotte's desire to be accepted exactly "as is". What other parts of Charlotte's history I may share, I will leave to the audience's imagination!

VW: I love what you say about this being "your Olympics and that you are competing in all the events." What could we call the flying triple axel moment of the play - in other words, what moment in the play is the most difficult to negotiate - what series of character interactions?

AS: Some moments in the play are technically challenging, for instance a conversation between two or more people. Others are challenging in the emotional depths they plumb. There's a lot of humor in this play, but also a lot of passion. Charlotte led an extraordinary life no matter how you look at it. I don't want to spoil any surprises for those who have not seen the play, and I'd rather not have people come to the play looking for specific "acting" moments, so I'll just say "come and see the whole story unfold!" It's about the story, after all -- and this is a great one.

Alfred Tells Charlotte His Daring Black-Market Plan

Charlotte is Interrogated by the Stasi

VW: What are ways you have prepared for this play - and/or specific characters - that go beyond studying dialects and committing lines to memory?

AS: Every actor goes about the preparation process differently. And, of course, preparation is just to give you a launching pad for those moments of impulse and insight that can only be found in on-your-feet rehearsal and live performance. I generally pull bits of inspiration from all sorts of places when I work on a role -- the script is first, of course, plus other texts, visual images, objects, music, clothing -- you name it. It's all grist for the mill, and I just surround myself with it all to see what generates impulses and opens windows, and then I go from there with the director and the designers. In addition to absorbing Charlotte's book and film, I did some research into the time periods and politics involved, looked at pictures of old furniture, and listened to a lot of period recordings that Charlotte would have played on her beloved phonographs. The director and I went on a "field trip" to an exhibit of Weimar-era portraits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I also watched a lovely, bittersweet film called "Coming Out" that was the first gay-themed film to make it out of Eastern Berlin, in the 80's, which gave a real feel for the challenges of being gay in that time and place. Charlotte actually appears briefly in that film as a chatty red-headed barmaid version of herself, which is an entertaining bonus. I've been wearing the Charlotte costume since the first day of rehearsal, which is always very helpful to me. I work from the inside and the outside simultaneously.

VW: You're playing 35 different people. Who are the two or three most challenging characters of the play, and why?

AS: Charlotte alone would be enough of a challenge for any actor! She is quite the conundrum. Any actor and director team working on her must examine the evidence as presented in the play, form some decisions about what Charlotte did or didn't do, and then follow that through in interpreting the rest of the play. Other characters can be challenging for the opposite reason -- they may appear for only a single sentence, but they must be flesh-and-blood within that one sentence.

VW: Doug Wright referred to Charlotte as "a complete and vexing mystery" - what are your thoughts?

AS: That about sums it up! The rest is in the playing --the audience will enjoy taking the journey for themselves, and I'm sure it will provide for a lot of lively post-performance discussions around town.

The Neo-Nazis Attack

Charlotte Is Confronted By Journalists about Her Stasi Past

VW: You say the dialects have been a "fun challenge" - what was the toughest, and why? One scene includes a press conference with questions being asked by journalists from several different countries - this is one exacting playwright!

AS: Ironically, the Midwestern voicings for a couple of minor characters were more challenging for me initially than the other half-dozen or so nationalities that appear in the play! And Russian also has a particular glottal "L" sound that is not used in the U.S. But I was lucky to be born with a good ear for dialects, and Vermont Stage arranged for me to have some great coaching with expert Gillian Lane-Plescia, who works with performers on Broadway and all over the world. My friend Katja Karner in Western Germany has also been acting as a sounding board. Of course dialects are only a means to an end -- the play is about the people and their views; the dialects just tell you from whence those views originate. This is very much a global story, actually.

VW: For you, is this play about Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, or more about an idea than a specific person?

AS: It's about both. It's about Charlotte and Doug, and through them about self-discovery, the definition of courage, the price of survival, and our need to find perfect heroes. But truly, the best "explanation" I can give is in the performance itself. I look forward to sharing Charlotte, Doug, and the other 33 characters of I Am My Own Wife with Vermont audiences!

Charlotte Escapes into Her Music

Doug Remembers Charlotte

Note: The full article from VermontWoman.com can be read here.

Attention Equity theatres: director Sara Lampert Hoover and I would be delighted to talk with you about bringing our interpretation of this play to your theatre. Please e-mail me for more information.