A Theatrical Restrospective of Michael Saltzman and Me - Picasso at the Lapin Agile

One of my best friends is leaving town. I've written about Michael Saltzman before, but in two weeks he'll be leaving DC for Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television, and more importantly to start a new chapter of his life - away from his childhood home and the accumulated baggage that comes from trying to be an adult in the same place you were once a kid. Intellectually, I think that's fantastic, and maybe even necessary, but I'm really torn up about it. We threw a big goodbye party for him the other night and it was a surprisingly emotional experience for me. I don't cry a lot, but I did then. I'm going to miss him.

Mike is a really close friend of mine, way beyond just making theater. But he's also one of my closest artistic collaborators. We've done 13 shows together, more than me and anyone except Zach Fernebok. When I read shows, I think of Michael in them. When I decide I want produce or direct a show, it's because Michael will shine. He can take any character and find a world of honesty, humanity, and nuance inside them - whether pirates or hunchbacks or turtles or a talking stack of books. His versatility is unmatched, his talent is huge. More than anyone he's been my brother in process.

I can't imagine going forward making plays without him.

This is a look back at the 13 productions Michael and I have collaborated on so far - as Actor and Director, Playwright and Director, Producer and Director, Producer and Actor, Actor and Dramaturg, Actors together - every combination. A small tribute to an incredibly valuable partnership that is coming to a hopefully brief and temporary pause.

Each of these productions probably deserves a longer post or series of posts of their own, but in the interest of brevity (and anyone who reads this blog is laughing at that) I'm going to try to focus on my experiences working with Michael on each of these shows.

PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE

There is a moment in Picasso at the Lapin Agile when several characters are reminiscing about what may have been, fantasizing briefly about their secret hopes and dreams that will remain forever unfulfilled. In our production, we turned that section into a song - a soft, breezy, gentle melody supported by Aaron Bliden's (as an unnamed Elvis) guitar, using his music to coax a group of strangers' secrets into the open. In the middle of it all was Michael Saltzman as Albert Einstein, singing with beautiful and upbeat clarity, anchoring the moment.

This was my first show with Michael after knowing each other for about a year or so. I was very excited to have him on board. He brought an intelligence to Einstein that wasn't stuffy or historic. I remember his good natured displeasure with having to rock a mustache for the better part of a month as a young Einstein. I remember his daily Jack Handy quotes at top of rehearsal check ins. I remember the wonder I felt when he, Picasso, and Elvis would stare at the sky and see the universe unfold.

But mostly I remember a song about Albert Einstein and the Kentuckymen, a secret dream put into melody and verse.

Body of Work, Body of Years

In college I used to play a game with friends where we would try and guess who from our department would actually do theater out in the real world, and who would move on to something else. Who did we think had the talent, temperament, and tenacity to make it as a professional actor or director or designer. Who seemed to really want it, and to have the tools to get it. Who would stay on their path, who would move backstage or into education, who was committed, and who was just there. It was part critique, part psycho-analysis, part gossip. It was arrogant. But as a time waster it was fun to imagine to what heights our crew could be capable of. I enjoy and take great pride in watching my friends succeed, even if recently I've felt marred by a tinge of professional jealousy that I am hoping to excise. And while there are a lot of people who have moved on to new passions and endeavors since graduation, a surprisingly large number of my classmates have stayed in the field - creating a strong Maryland Mafia in the DC theater community that has birthed several companies and a deep sense that we all really have each others back. Cause we do.

My preoccupation is with what other people think about me. So one day I asked my friend Amanda if she thought I would stay with it. She paused for a second and said, "Yeah. I can't see you doing anything else."

I started doing theater when I was 12 years old (if you don't count my onstage debut as God in the 3rd grade play, where I shouted "Al Har Sinai! Al Har Sinai!" but my glove was twisted and pointed to the wrong mountain) as the Arbiter in a production of Chess, which is such a weird and quirky first show to be in. I'm 27 now and theater is the dominating and driving passion of my life. It's my art, my career, my predominant play time, most of my social circle. It's most of my life, honestly. And at 15 years into this craft and business I've now been pursuing it over half my life too.

On the one hand, I love it. Deeply and passionately. And on the other hand, it's a very hard life. Not hard like going off to war, but a difficult existence within the societal framework we all actually need to live in. It's a life I'm surprisingly well wired for, but that society isn't. So I start to feel very one note and unaccomplished, lacking in certain life experiences - the cost of so much time and energy put into one place that is actually so many places with necessary nooks and crannies and that sucks way more energy than you'd ever expect from the outside. Especially since starting Flying V, I've lost my role as the primary social organizer for my friends that I used to be. That energy has gone to the maintenance of the company. Maybe not surprisingly, I also looked up one day and realized I don't have a core group of friends anymore. I have a lot of friends, but we're not really a group. Not the way it was in high school. Not the way it was in college. Things have splintered a bit into more component parts. Because I used to give maintenance to that, and now I don't. I miss it, having that group, and while my company offers many things, it doesn't filll that need. It's been a trade.

I've said that in the past few years I haven't made memories so much as I've created a resume. I wanted to see where this time has actually been spent. So here is a comprehensive list, to the best of my memory, of every show I've been creatively involved with over the last 15 years. It comes out to an average of just under 5 shows a year since I was 12. I don't know if this is impressive or unimpressive. I'm not looking for achievement or validation. I'm not even looking for deep meaning right now.

I just wanted to see for myself a record of where all my time and energy has been invested. What is my body of work in my chosen field as of the almost end of 2012? What have I actually done with this desire?

This list.

1. Chess (The Arbiter) - STAY
2. Grease (Roger) - STAY
3. Into The Woods Jr. (The Baker) - JCCGW
4. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat (Pharoah) - STAY
5. Barnum (Barnum) - STAY
6. Our Town (The Stage Manager) - JDS
7. Brigadoon (Tommy) - JDS
8. You Can't Take It With You (Paul) - JDS
9. Fur Better or Worse (Director) - JDS
10. Grease (Danny) - Wootton
11. A Cinderella Waltz (Assistant Director) - Wootton
12. God Doesn't Live Here Anymore* (Hiro) - UMD Off Center
13. [they fight] (Robber) - UMD Off Center
14. Mother Hicks (Jake) - UMD Off Center
15. The Real Inspector Hound (Magnus) - UMD Off Center
16. Betty's Summer Vacation (Buck) - Weekday Players
17. The Crucible (Giles Corey) - UMD
18. God of Vengeance (Director) - WDP
19. 2006 UMD 24 Hour Play Festival (Director) - UMD
20. 2007 UMD 24 Hour Play Festival (Director) - UMD
21. Machinal (Husband) - UMD
22. Closer (Director) - WDP
23. Not Enough Lifetimes* (Ian) - UMD / August Wilson Festival
24. The Physicists (Einstein) - UMD
25. Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Director) - UMD
26. The Price of Perfection (Nerd/Doctor/Darwin) - eXtreme eXchange
27. Keepers of Shoppe* (Ronald) - UMD Off Center
28. The Gingerbread House* (Stage Directions) - NNPN New Play Festival
29. Filthy Rich (Henry "The Pig" Duvall) - UMD
30. Marisol (Homeless Man) - UMD
31. The Inescapable Us (Producer / Writer) - WDP
32. 2008 Source Festival 24 Hour Play Festival (Actor) - Source Festival
33. Nixon's Nixon (Assistant Director) - Round House
34. This Digital Life (Adam) - Truffle Pigs / Capital Fringe
35. The Naked Party (Writer/Director) - The HeartBreak Kids / Capital Fringe
36. Please Listen: A Musical Chaos (Dramaturg)
37. Macbeth (Assistant to the Assistant Director) - The Folger
38. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (Assistant Director) - Adventure Theatre
39. Proof (Hal) - Rockville Little Theatre
40. The True History of Coca Cola in Mexico (Assistant Director) - GALA
41. The Seagull on 16th Street (Assistant Director) - Theater J
42. If You Give A Pig a Pancake (Assistant Director) - Adventure Theatre
43. Gary Newman to the Max (Writer) - Woolly Mammoth / Bethesda Play in a Day
44. Foolish Fire* (Chris) - Active Cultures
45. Another Fall For The Fallen* (Professor) - Playwright's Forum
46. 3 Scenes From The Life Of A Writer* (Director) - Playwright's Forum
47. Hermeneutic Circle Jerk* (Director) - Venus
48. Featuring Loretta (Director) - 1st Stage
49. Opening Day (Director) - Active Cultures
50. The Hunchback Variations (Director) - 1st Stage
51. Freud Meets Girl (Roger / Associate Director) - Wayward Theatre
52. The Odd Couple (Assistant Director) - Theater J
53. The Promise* (Director) - Theater J
54. Return to Haifa (Assistant Director) - Theater J
55. If You Give A Cat A Cupcake (Assistant Director) - Adventure Theatre
56. Twas The Night Before Christmas (Assistant Director) - Adventure Theatre
57. Amenities (Director) - Source Festival
58. Become What You Are (Director / Producer) - Flying V
59. Monkey See, Monkey Do (Director) - Flying V / Bethesda Play in a Day
60. Science Fiction Double Feature (Producer) - Flying V
61. An Ordinary Afternoon* (Director) - Doorway Arts Ensemble
62. Spacebar: A Broadway Play By Kyle Sugarman (Director) - Source Festival
63. Incurable (Producer) - Flying V / Wayward Theatre
64. Tough! (Director) - Flying V
65. Toobin' (Director) - Flying V / Bethesda Play in a Day
66. The Stolen Diamond (Director) - Rorschach 
67. Iron City (Director) - Forum Theatre
68. The Pirate Laureate of Port Town* (Director) - American Ensemble Theatre
69. Me and the Devil Blues (Director) - Flying V
70. Elizabeth at the Tea Party (Director) - Flying V / Manhattan Repertory Theatre
71. Staring at the Sun (Director) - Flying V

* - Staged Reading

71 shows so far, as a Director, Actor, Producer, or Dramaturg in varying degrees.

I hope that I'm better at what I do now than when I started, that my colleagues have enjoyed working with me and respect me as I do them, that audiences have left performances I've helped create wanting to live life more fully or maybe once inject that play into their veins, that I always stay a student of my craft, that my name is some kind of assurance of process or product and not in a negative way, that the quality of what I do is more important than the quantity, and that I am better at what I do the next show than the last.

And that I find better a balance in my life as I pursue a mastery of my craft.

I wonder if I can do something else, in addition, not instead, and feel more full.
And I wonder if I can't.

#283. Do the 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 7

Day 7 -A Song That Reminds You Of A Certain Event

Theater is a very ephemeral art form. It exists for a very brief time in the real world, and then only in the hearts and minds of the participants and audience. Film will last, music will last, writing and poetry and some sculpture all have that potential - but a theatrical performance has a much shorter shelf life as an actual thing. The individual pieces may live on - like the script, a costume, etc. And it may be recorded on video. But that doesn't really capture the experience - it's just not the same medium.

And so your body of work becomes a line on the resume, a series of memories, and hopefully the impact you and your work and the work of your colleagues and team mates have made on an audience and each other.

Closer is one of those shows I am glad I remember vividly and have triggers for.

It is my favorite script, my second show as a director at UMD and for The Weekday Players. It took hard work to make happen after a failed Off-Center bid, the arrogance to say we COULD do this show and to take it on ourselves to just do. It was the moment I knew I could be a director and an Artistic Director someday. I worked with people I love to create the best thing I had done to that point. It was FAR from perfect but it was one of the best times of my life. Hands down.

- Building the set with Christian until 3am, drinking in Tawes.

- Andrew Gerritsen becoming one of my best friends.

- Oren Benamor taking his acting skills to another level in one of the first transcendent actor/character relationships I was privileged to be a part of. A fist wrapped in blood, indeed.

- Brittany, Roni, and Amanda and the joy of working with them and growing with them.

- The strip club scene, with one pool of light and a real cigarette smoking - one of the coolest, sparsest visuals I've seen.

This was my first time I was like - "oh, I can do this."

And the sound design. I loved this soundtrack. Josh Grossnickle and I spent hours and hours going over songs. Only late 80s to Mid-90s british bands. There was a consistent sound and it grounded the piece. The Cure, The Smiths, Radiohead. It was the first time I truly worked to create a world in design as well as acting.

The song that stands out most from so many is

Oasis - Live Forever

From the moment the drums start to snap, it will always make me think of our ephemeral production of Closer. The transition just before the bedroom scene between Roni and Amanda. Roni shirtless, Amanda in T-shirt and undies. Their love and vulnerability. The bed. The slap. "I don't love you anymore, goodbye."

What a great scene, what a great show, and a great group of people.