To finish the craziness of our Gertrude Stein season is the inimitable John Del Gaudio (outgoing Artistic Producer of Target Margin, company member of A Host of People, and advisory board member of Theatrical Reconstruction Ensemble). He will be sharing I Made a Mistake., a newly devised piece, beginning Friday, June 19th at The Connelly Theater. He is also asking audience members to explore the work of Gertrude Stein with him in his performance installation Make Your Own Mistake, which begins June 20th. Get your tickets for both events HERE.
TMT: Do you remember your first Stein encounter? How have your feelings / perceptions evolved to today, as you get ready to present I Made a Mistake. and Make Your Own Mistake?
JDG: I think I just knew of Stein as a persona, a literary figure. Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. That and the occasional “rose is a rose is a rose” play on words. Oh, and the infamous cannabis brownies in the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook. But I was completely in the dark about her as a dramatist until I started at Target Margin seven years ago. My first year we did a show at The Chocolate Factory called A Family of Perhaps Three and I was completely mesmerized. That and a number of around-the-table Stein readings in the office with company members and I was hooked. So she is a pretty recent discovery for me. And I love forever making discoveries. I have been reading tons of Stein since last summer. Tons. And while in large batches it can start making you numb, I feel as though I have just delighted in reading so much and then in seeing texts come to life in the Labs. I know many people feel distanced from her language, but the more I engage in it, the more ins I find. The musicality. The build. The poignancy. And of course the orgasmic cows.
TMT: How did you approach your particular Stein source material? How has that approach metamorphosed during the show’s development?
JDG: From the get go, I knew I wanted to have fun and not treat the language too preciously. I also want to harken back to those Stein reads around the table that I so enjoyed. That’s where the Make Your Own Mistake piece of my project came about. I think everyone has to experience saying Stein out loud before they form an opinion. So why not make everyone read me her longest book while I sit in the theater for three days! Since last summer, her play Not Sightly has really stuck with me so I finally just committed to it. Our performers will be working with the text from Not Sightly but there will be a pre-show installation using the text from IIIIIIIIII. that will hopefully activate the language for the audience. William Burke (my co-conspirator) and I have also made IIIIIIIIII. fair game for the design team. But Not Sightly Stein labeled as a “play” and that is interesting to me. It’s an earlier work, 1914 or 1915, and that is also interesting. And there is an Intermission, a page and a half which we totally intend on exploiting. We have had two rehearsals so far and only 6 total before tech so this whole process is an experiment. As long as there are moments where the language can land and wash over you, I will be happy. And with these fabulous performers saying the words, that’s bound to happen.
TMT: I know little about your pieces, but one thing that does seem clear is that you (in typical Target Margin fashion) are pushing the boundaries of theatrical convention. Is there something particular about working with Stein that encourages such defiance of convention for you?
JDG: I mean, she wrote these plays and none of them were produced in her lifetime. I think she was somehow involved in an opera that used her words but that’s about it. So it’s fun to be starting from scratch. She doesn’t give you much that a playwright would normally give you: characters, stage directions, dialogue. Plus the way the text looks on the page is interesting to me (spaces, indentations, stanzas, etc.) and I want to somehow have that represented during the performance. And then there is the actual language. So on the page there are boundaries being pushed left and right. I want to celebrate that spirit, engage with our space (The Connelly) in an interesting way, and make sure we are all having a blast. I don’t want to give too much away but audiences should expect to be a little disoriented in the lovely mess we are making.
TMT: If you were to take Gertrude Stein to attend one of your favorite contemporary theater pieces, how might she react to it?
JDG: Oh geez, I can think of many artists who are playing with form and language. But in the spirit of nepotism I am going to say that William Burke and Julia Jarcho, two people involved in my show who I am fans of and friends with. I am not gonna tell you how great and interesting they are. Just go see their next piece. Trust me. But I am hopeful Stein would delight in the worlds they create, the distinct choices they make, and their language that can both distance and engage. Plus the last show I did with William had dogs in it. And Stein seemed to heart dogs. There was Basket of course. Plus “I am I because my little dog knows me….” So there’s that.
TMT: Do you have a favorite line from Stein at the moment?
JDG: The last act of Not Sightly of course! Act V. I made a mistake.
John Del Gaudio’s I Made a Mistake. runs June 19th – June 22nd at The Connelly Theater at 7:30, and his Make Your Own Mistake will take place June 20th – June 22nd from 10:00 to 6:00pm. Tickets for I Made a Mistake. are only $15 and Make Your Own Mistake is free–sign up for both HERE.