A "Reason" for Everything
Theater Artists Chong and Rohd Create New Work with Harvard Students
For some theater professionals and their audiences, creating a production like Reason may seem…well, unreasonable.
Reason is a performance piece created by 2001-02 Peter Ivers Visiting
Artists Ping Chong and Michael Rohd, who were in residence at Harvard
in January and February of this year under the auspices of the Office
for the Arts’ Learning From Performers program. Featuring Harvard
undergraduates in the cast along with professional actors, Reason is currently
in its world-premiere enagagement at the Market Theater, a professional
theater company located in Cambridge at 1 Winthrop Square, site of the
former Grendel’s restaurant.
What may seem "unreasonable" about Reason is that Chong and
Rohd arrived at Harvard on January 5 without a script—they had only
visual and thematic concepts for the show, and a cast of actors selected
after auditions were held last October. The script was developed and written
by Chong and Rohd in collaboration with the cast members through discussions,
improvisational exercises, and sometimes their own writings.
Chong, an Obie Award-winning director/writer based in New York, has developed
and refined this process since his first original dramatic work was presented
in 1972. Since that time he has created more than 35 works for the theater,
including Pojagi, a kind of meditation on Korean-American culture, which
was presented as a work-in-progress in 1999 when Chong was in residence
at Harvard under the auspices of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue,
sponsored by the American Repertory Theater. Work on Pojagi was conducted
in the Office for the Arts’ rehearsal studio at 74 Mt. Auburn St.,
where the OFA’s Learning From Performers program manager Thomas Lee
was able to sit in on rehearsals and witness the way Chong works firsthand.
"I was intrigued by Ping’s working process, which is hard to
describe," Lee recalls. "It’s intuitive, but at the same
time very precise and analytical. It’s as if he knows exactly what
he wants, but doesn’t want to reveal it right away—he draws
it out of his actors and design collaborators, making their personalities
and histories a part of the piece. He also has a keen sense of visual
design and how disparate production elements go together; all of it—sound,
lighting, projections, costumes—is very much of a piece."
Lee was intrigued enough to invite Chong to return to Harvard, this time
to work with students who would gain from the experience of working with
a professional theater artist. Lee raised the bar a bit further by inviting
the Market Theater to be a partner on the project. Open for only a year,
this professional theater company has already established itself as a
major, critically acclaimed player on the Boston theater scene, presenting
new, cutting-edge work in a state-of-the-art venue practically in the
middle of the Harvard campus. Tom Cole, director of the Market Theater,
knew Chong’s work well and decided that this ground-breaking collaboration
would be worth the risk.
"Working with Ping, Michael Rohd, and the Office for the Arts has
been thoroughly engrossing," Cole states. "It's thrilling for
us to have master artists, talented young students, and Boston professionals
in the same room creating new work."
And what sort of work is Reason? Cong claims, "It’s my least
political show; it’s more humanistic than the work I’m used
to doing. It’s more about spiritual issues. In a way it’s been
kind of palate-cleansing." Michael Rohd, who is the founding artistic
director of the Sojourn Theater in Portland, Oregon, explains that the
world it conjures up is "metaphysical."
"It’s kind of a documentary of the unconscious," says Rohd,
who has collaborated with Chong on two other projects. "It explores
relationships between human beings using multiple narratives that connect
in obvious and sometimes not so obvious ways." Both Rohd and Chong
emphasize their close collaboration with set, lighting, and sound designer
Randy Ward as a major factor in the development of Reason.
They also credit the actors for much of the inspiration for and creation
of the show. "Listening to their stories—that has been a key
part of this project," says Chong. "Telling stories and listening
to them; that’s what a lot of this is about."
For Angela Mi Young Hur ’02, one of four Harvard undergraduate actors
in the production, Reason has been a journey of exploration and discovery.
"What's been most different and at the same time both challenging
and exciting is Ping and Michael’s use of improvisation in developing
the script," Hur explains. "The directors gave us characters,
storylines, narrative arcs and moods and set up a video camera to record
our improvised scenes; later they transcribed what we created. It was
daunting at first, but allowed us a chance to create dialogue that was
natural, original and sometimes surprising since we each brought our own
speech patterns and styles to the process.
"This approach to theater has made me more aware of people's unique
way of communicating; of how they use their language, with its tics and
such...which is important for me as an aspiring writer," Hur continues.
"I also got a chance to sit down and write a monologue for my character,
a lot of which I'll get to deliver on stage. This is very thrilling, to
contribute as both writer and actor."
Getting involved in Reason has been beneficial in another way for Hur,
who is currently writing a novel as her creative thesis for a degree in
English Literature. "Writing the novel and working with professionals
in creating a play that will debut at the Market Theater: this is a fantasy
life for me, to be both writer and actor, to be able to use what I learn
in one area for my other project. I'm afraid it'll all be downhill from
here afterwards, but I'm enjoying the sweetness of this life for now."
Reason continues its run at the Market Theater, 1 Winthrop Square in Harvard
Square, through March 17. For performance schedule and tickets, call the
Market Theater box office at 617-576-0808, extension 1; or the Harvard
Box Office at 617-496-2222..
