This week we interview Lead Artists Jessica Brater (Artistic Director, Polybe + Seats) and Natalie Robin (TMT Associated Artist / Lighting Designer) whose Yes Is For A Very Young Man runs for a very limited engagement at The Connelly Theater this Saturday May 30th at 7:30pm and Sunday May 31st at 2:00pm. Tickets are only $15 and available HERE.
TMT: Do you remember your first Stein encounter? How have your feelings/perceptions evolved to today, as you get ready to present Yes Is For A Very Young Man?
JB: Oh, yes indeed! It was in a theory class in college—we read Gertrude Stein’s essay/lecture Plays and it blew my mind. I think when I first read Plays it cracked open this doorway into an alternate universe of performance and since then her ideas have been foundational to the way I approach making theater. For this particular project, I’m very interested in the melodramatic technique she identifies in the essay: “silence stillness and quick movement.” Stein used that phrase to describe a technique she admired in the work of William Gillette, an early twentieth century melodramatist, and I think in many ways Yes Is For A Very Young Man is an homage to and experiment with his approach.
NR: I first heard Stein’s words out loud when Jessica directed Turkey and Bones and Eating and We Liked it. I was immediately drawn to her language. Together, Jessica and I have worked on various short Stein works over the last almost fifteen years. Each time I find new exciting things. Yes Is For A Very Young Man is really fun because it is, on the surface, more accessible.
TMT: How did you approach your particular Stein source material? How has that approach metamorphosed during the show’s development?
JB: Initially I was curious about how the melodramatic impulses I noticed in the text could coexist with or fight against the Steinian landscape of language. Also, I wanted to see how we could apply that technique of “silence stillness and quick movement.” In the rehearsal room I think we’ve had to let go of that first more theoretical question and just roll up our sleeves and go for it, but “silence stillness and quick movement” has continued to be a useful organizing principle. We’ve been playing with using melodramatic gesture, abstract gesture, and a sort of mishmash of the two. It’s been a lot of fun.
NR: I was, and continue to be, excited about doing a Stein piece that is really located in the real world. We know where, and when, these people are talking. It has really opened up the language for me to have a sense of place. And our very short rehearsal process has allowed (forced?) us to commit to strong ideas about why and what which is exciting.
TMT: What is your relationship of working together? Has the process of collaborating on a Stein melodrama yielded any melodramatic moments?
JB: We’ve been working together since 2001. My creative relationship with Natalie is by far my most sustained collaboration with a designer! We work together pretty intuitively and have a very efficient short hand, so all the melodrama is on the stage.
NR: We have worked together since 2001 (I think Jessica directed my first “professional” play) and are founding members of Brooklyn-based Polybe + Seats (Polybe is the name of Gertrude Stein’s dog). As Jessica says, we have a shorthand and a comfort level which means we can push each other and ourselves. And it stays fun.
TMT: If you were to take Gertrude Stein to attend one of your favorite contemporary theater pieces, what would that be and what might be her impression?
JB: You know, she ended up hating to go to the theater so I’d approach our outing with trepidation. I think she might like The Artist is Present because, as with her landscape plays, you have to make acquaintance with Marina Abromovic. Although she was such a fan of melodrama that she might also like An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
NR: I wonder what she would think about a play like Gatz or something like Christine Jones’ Theater for One. Both explode ideas about what is a play but are also heavily reliant on language and the audience relationship to it.
TMT: Do you have a favorite line from Stein at the moment?
JB: Yes it is, Mademoiselle, it is it, it is.
NR: Yes you shall and will stay where you like as you like as long as you like and wherever you like, but I think at your date at any of your dates we will be free and so glad to see you.
Jessica Brater & Natalie Robin’s Yes Is For A Very Young Man runs for only two performances at The Connelly Theater on May 30th at 7:30 and May 31st at 2:00pm. Tickets are only $15 and available HERE.