BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE

BY: ANDREA BRAUN, THEATRE ARTS CORRESPONDENT

The above is a very brief definition of what a dramaturg may (or may not) do during the production of a play. First, there is the matter of the term itself. Both "dramaturg" and "dramaturge" are used interchangeably, though the practice itself is "dramaturgy" (hard "g"). A playwright may also be called a "dramaturg." So can a translator, a scholar, a theatrical historian, or someone who gets the director’s coffee while offering an opinion about blocking a scene. Confused yet? Yeah, me too, but it says in the playbill that I am the "Dramaturg" for The Lady from Dubuque, now playing at the Kranzberg Arts Center by Muddy Waters Theatre Company. I thought Vital Voice readers might enjoy a backstage look at the process of putting on a show.

First, Muddy Waters, like the majority of smaller professional theatre companies around St. Louis has weekend performances—11 total—of each work comprising the three-play season. That doesn’t sound like very many shows, but the amount of time, effort and thought that goes into each one starts a year or more before you’ll actually be sitting in the audience. What follows is a series of impressions on what happens on the way to opening night.

First, the selection of the plays. Muddy Waters stand out from most other local companies because it puts on three plays by the same playwright each season, and this year the chosen one is Edward Albee. The Lady from Dubuque follows Three Tall Women and precedes Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which will be staged in November, 2009. "Lady" is a lesser known Albee work, but the co-artistic director of Muddy Waters, Cameron Ulrich (his wife, Patty is the other artistic director) wanted to direct this play. The Board and its consultants read it and had some spirited discussions. It was agreed that it was a risk, but that we’d proceed.

Auditions brought us some of the area’s finest actors, and there were many from whom to choose. We ended up with a dream cast: Emily Baker, Sarah Cannon, G.P. Hunsaker, Robert A. Mitchell, Todd Pieper, Joshua Thomas, Patty Ulrich and Kirsten Wylder. It would be tempting to think you could just get out of their way and let them do the work, but the director and dramaturg are sort of like Mike and Carol Brady, because this group must "somehow form a family" for purposes of cohesiveness among each other and to be perceived as real people, husbands and wives, friends and enemies. In other words, find a way to allow the audience to see themselves in this story, even though it is a highly symbolic treatment of a completely earthly (and earthy) situation.

Rehearsals began, and as usual, everyone was walking around with scripts, trying bits of business, getting used to each other, running into one another at times, laughing, swearing (there is a lot of swearing at rehearsal) and sweating through repetition after repetition of a scene, a line, a word. This is where I admire actors most: they have the ability to follow the director’s lead and their own instincts to make a person who doesn’t exist live and breathe before us. But it isn’t as easy as they make it look when you see them onstage.

And there are myriad details from the set to the lights to the props to the discussion of the tiniest article of clothing, hairstyle or makeup as the process moves along toward the all-important "Tech Week." By now, scripts should be down, marks should be hit, and the run-throughs will generally involve the whole play. (There is, it should be noted, a lot of calling for a "line" from a prompter during these sessions. More swearing often ensues.)

"Dry tech" involves running through the technical aspects without actors—fixing and focusing the lights and running the board through the light cues; dressing the set, and working with sound design. The Lady from Dubuque takes place in a couple’s home, so there aren’t a lot of technical tricks and microphones are not used. "Wet tech" brings the actors in and pulls it all together.

My job was to research the play, break it down to discover meaning and nuance, and sit in on rehearsals to compare notes with the director. Cameron Ulrich is a quiet director who doesn’t badger his actors or behave like directors in the movies—running onto the stage, urgently but quietly conferring with players, and all that. He sits, he watches, and he, well, "directs."

Finally, it’s time for the audience to arrive, and this is when the actors really come alive. All the preparation that has gone into the work is channeled through their characters and that audience is drawn into the magic that is live theatre. And if all goes well, the production will get good reviews, and we have. Still, that’s not what it’s all about.

I stole this line from a speech I heard before curtain at a show once. To the audience: "Without you here, this is just rehearsal." Art does not and cannot exist in a void. So, I hope you will accept your role and come out this weekend and next to see The Lady from Dubuque. Visit www.muddywaterstheatre.com for ticket information or visit the box office before any performance. And whatever you decide about coming to this show, I hope you will support live theatre in St. Louis and, as the bumper stickers say, "Go See a Play."

will be performed Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday, June 21 at 2 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, June 28 at 2 p.m. only. There is an industry special for both performances on June 21. You may get a ticket for $5 or whatever above that you can pay. Patrons with prior reservations will be seated first.