The Play’s the Thing.
May 23, 2009
Here’s an article from the L.A. Times on OLEANNA.
A girl could get used to this city.
Not that I disliked L.A. before, but I had never really felt at ease here…and I did participate in that bad New Yorky habit of dismissing it right off the bat. Let’s say my feelings about L.A. could be summed up in three stages:
Phase One:
The Rat Crawling Out From the Sewer… (only to be scared by her own shadow)
I arrive at LAX in winter clothes because it is frigid in the northeast, only to be greeted by a blazing sun that is both refreshing and a disturbing reminder of my blinding, white, hibernating skin.
Phase Two:
(Find the Good and Praise It!)
I find that there are quirky things to do in L.A, places to go hiking (wha?!), gorgeous trees, and that socializing does not have to revolve entirely around overpriced restaurants.
Phase Three:
Out From the Cocoon, Young Caterpillar!
I don’t inevitably get lost, and maybe that Seasonal Affective Disorder thing is actually real.
But back to the reason for my Westward trip in the first place- Art- (yes, the fartsy kind). “Oh to be in Oleanna…” Mamet writes in the prologue of the script. The title comes from a folk song about men and women existing in an egalitarian utopia.
I’m at that place in rehearsals that I absolutely cherish, where, if my mind is left to idle, what surfaces is a line from the play. Or if I am stopped at a traffic light, or brushing my teeth, or opening a carton of milk, another line will jump out at me with new significance.
Unlike the experience on a film, which has it’s own merits but a long rehearsal period is not one of them, doing a play involves such deep repetition that the words seep into your whole being.
This play is about so much more than sexual harassment; it’s about misunderstanding, it’s about vindication. How it’s easier to sweep things under the rug, and how it’s uncomfortable not to. No matter how strict the rules, they are created and enforced by human beings, and subject to our flaws. It calls into question if people can ever really connect beyond their own self-interest. The professor says, “We can only interpret the behavior of others through the screens we create.” Even in a play with only two characters- especially in a play with only two characters- there is no good guy and no bad girl, there is no villain. There are only moments, and Good Intentions, agendas and mistakes. Oleanna is a tragedy in its truest form, where once you start digging that ditch, it only gets deeper.
One thing I love about Los Angeles is that when I step out of rehearsals, I immediately have to focus on driving. Which is always a life or death situation, and the play must be left ’till tomorrow.
I’m curious if any readers of this blog have been following the controversy over the Oxford poetry professorship. It’s been covered extensively in the UK press and there’s a piece in the New York Times today.
Puth Padel, the new poetry professor at Oxford, has resigned. Her main rival for the post, Derek Walcott, had dropped out of the race after previous allegations reappeared that he had sexually harassed students at Harvard and Boston universities. Padel recently admitted having passed on the allegations to newspapers. The latest developments are covered at The Guardian newspaper:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/26/padel-error-poetry-election
The writer and broadcaster Clive James commented on the controversy, also in the Guardian:
“I think it’s a catastrophe,” he says, “because Derek Walcott is a great poet. But what male teacher is going to escape a sexual harassment case? All you’ve got to do is stand there, and you’re sexually harassing them.” Does he mean he thinks the claims against Walcott are false?
“I don’t know, I don’t know the case. But it sounds to me like a David Mamet play where you’ve got an imaginative girl, thinks she’s been approached, she may not have been. But who knows? It’s a very bad reason to stop a 79-year-old man who has all the qualifications, including [the fact that] he would write brilliant lectures. It means a whole generation’s going to miss out on his wisdom. For what? For a couple of cases that have been mouldering for 20-odd years.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/may/25/g2-interview-clive-james-television
I’ve been following that a bit. I am not sure what to make of it; I do enjoy Derek Walcott’s work, but I don’t see how “imagine me making love to you” could ever be an acceptable thing to say to a student. Whether he crossed a line, though, is hard to judge so many years later, and with no factual information other than that the student ultimately received a “C.”
Walcott was teaching poetry, which involves entirely subjective grading. That must only heighten confusion for a student about the teacher’s demands. That is not to say I can judge who is right in this situation, but perhaps that both sides are justified in their case. Walcott can claim that he never intended a sexual advance, and the student can argue that that is how she interpreted his behavior.
I think Clive James’ comment is irresponsible (to put it lightly). Nice that he referenced OLEANNA, but aargh… “All you have to do is stand there, and you are sexually harrassing them.” ?????? How is it that the defendants (or perpetrators, to use a harsh word) have become the victims? More important, though, is that it is not okay to say that this happened 20 years ago, let it go. There do need to be standards for behavior upheld, especially in an institution like Oxford.
Anyone up for a major influential position is going to have to be vetted, and face scrutiny about their past.
Walcott’s reported comments to his student at Harvard certainly seem inappropriate. Interestingly, Nicole Kelby, the Boston student who reported Walcott for harassment in the 90s, has recently written in The Times in his support:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/poetry/article6288023.ece
I’d like to think people can change, but it’s always going to be a risk for an institution to employ someone with this kind of record. I believe the Oxford post involves no one-to-one teaching with students though. Of course, these accusations were never going to just go away, but I found the anonymous nature of the campaign against Walcott distasteful. Ruth Padel may well, as she maintains, have had nothing to do with the campaign, but once she admitted emailing the information to journalists she appeared complicit.
Yes, Clive James’ comment is a ridiculous exaggeration. It does highlight, however, the sort of male paranoia that Mamet plays on in OLEANNA. I’m sure every male audience member, whether they find John likeable or not, must identify with his situation. That’s what makes his actions all the more uncomfortable.
Good luck with OLEANNA. I’ll be interested to read about what new dimensions you find in the play compared to the West End production.
[...] On her blog, actress Julia Stiles reflects on Oleanna, just 2 days away from beginning in previews at the Mark Taper Forum, and about the always-jarring transition from New York to Los Angeles. [...]
Oh my goodness…where to begin…
Well…I saw Oleanna last night for an acting class of mine, and all I have to say about it is OH MY GOD! You and Bill (Pullman) pull off both Carol and John with such precision! The depth of the characters was so vivid and made it very believable. I was literally at the edge of my chair because I could not stop feeling the emotions that were put out there by the two of you…
Now I’ve seen the film version with William H. Macy, and I’ve seen the one last night, so if I had to choose the best, without a doubt, it would have to be the one with you and Bill. So what I really want to say is that I thoroughly enjoyed the play and will definitely go and see it again before it leaves the Mark Taper Forum.
Paul Waring
Ontario, California
As a native New Yorker in the biz who spent almost ten years living in LA I have to say that I sometimes miss the weather, I often miss my friends and I definitely miss the drives to the desert and north on the PCH. I definitely do not miss the driving on the 10 and the 405. Ten years there was probably three or four too many, I grew gloomy and unhappy. When I moved back to my native New York I woke up the next morning, walked down to the corner deli, got a coffee in a paper cup, a bagel and a NY Post, I was instantly happy. As far a my work and the biz I mostly talked to my peeps on the phone in LA anyway as I do now in NYC. When I go back to LA for the work I savor what I truly love about it. But as a New Yorker at heart.