Behind the Curtain with Jeremy Peter Johnson

Full Given Name: Jeremy Peter Johnson

Hometown: Bridgewater, NJ… Now I live in Brooklyn.

Playhouse Debut: She Loves Me, 2010

Why you love Beyond Therapy:
Durang has a lot of nerve. His characters say and do things that seem absurd. Yet somehow we see ourselves in them and in the events of the play, and that makes the script great. The challenge, as with most plays, is to figure out “Why does he say this here, why does she do that?” It’s really fun and scary at the same time, to pull apart each moment, and try to understand just what is going on with these people. 

Best thing about working at the Playhouse: Its incredible history. Some wonderful ghosts.

First time on stage:
I was ten, playing Dummling in “Dummling and the Golden Goose” at my school. I entered, said a line, and got a laugh. My fate was sealed.

Biggest onstage disaster:
I once played a smooth, sexy, romantic hunk. (How that happened I’ll never know.) At the end of one scene, I was supposed to kiss the heroine, turn around, and exit. The edge of the stage was curved in such a way that I kissed her, turned around and fell off of the stage, into the lap of a man sitting in the front row. Huge gasp from the audience. No one was hurt… but smooth and sexy it was not.

Last great movie you saw: “Taxi Driver” at Film Forum!

TV show you can’t miss: I don’t have a TV. I’m an online news junkie.

Book on your nightstand: John Cheever stories.   

Guilty pleasure:
There’s a pizza place on my corner that stays open late. When I get home from a show at Westport, that pizza is pretty fantastic.

And…. “how do you learn all those lines?”:
I try to have a clear image, intention, or action associated with whatever I’m saying. But sometimes… you just gotta get out your script and drill ‘em.

 

A Week in the Life: John Mosele

A transplant from the Midwest, Chicago native John Mosele has put his scenic technology degree from the University of Illinois to good use on the East Coast since arriving over 7 years ago. Since graduation, he has built sets at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine, Stamford Theater Works just down the road, and finally landed at Westport Country Playhouse in 2006 as Technical Director. With the rich and varied seasons here at the Playhouse, however, John’s education is never over. He had the chance to learn about Gothic Revival architecture during That Championship Season, antique furniture for The Circle and computer controlled winches for the scene changes in Dinner With Friends. Follow John through his busy week as the Playhouse’s technical director as we prepare for our first show of the season, Beyond Therapy. 

Monday: A PRECISE PLAN
John’s Monday mornings start just like any other…early; as the first to arrive to the Playhouse John puts on a pot of Chock Full o’Nuts in the green room. Once caffeinated, he is off to start drafting construction drawings for the set of our upcoming show Beyond Therapy. He uses a computer aided drafting program to convert the designer’s drawings into large blueprints that the shop’s carpenters and welders will use to create the set. Most theatergoers don’t realize that the set isn’t actually built on stage - it’s built in the shop during the weeks preceding the show and gets loaded onto the stage in only 2 days! Everything is essentially finished before it goes on stage; walls are painted and papered, light switches are attached, and molding is affixed. Having never been fully assembled before, John needs to be absolutely sure that all the parts will fit together properly. Precision is key in his planning and drafting as the individual set pieces can have virtually no margin of error to ensure they fit on our stage.

Tuesday: NEW DESIGNERS
While the shop’s carpenters are hard at work on the set, John takes a moment to meet with Andrew Jackness, the set designer for the third show of the 2011 Season, Lips Together Teeth Apart and a Playhouse newcomer. He walks Andrew through the ins and outs of designing a show at the Playhouse, including the designer’s set budget and the production schedule. As with each new set designer in a season, John initially sent the technical information and blueprints of the theater as Andrew began his design process. After his meeting, John heads over to the Lortel Barn for input from artistic director Mark Lamos and the rest of the production team to make sure everyone is on the same page with the set that will appear on stage. Before the set design is finalized through meetings to ensure its feasibility and accuracy, he will work through revisions, cuts and adjustments with the show’s director David Kennedy, Mark, and Andrew. With his years of experience, both at the Playhouse and in the industry, it is easy for our design teams to put their faith in John as he suggests changes to the initial design due to budgetary or safety constraints.

Wednesday: KEEPING IT SAFE
A huge part of John’s job is safety – for his crew, for the actors and for the audience. As there are no building codes for scenery, all the safety precautions are based on experience and training. John always double checks the structural integrity of potentially dangerous items (anything that hangs overhead, or has to hold someone’s weight like a staircase or a bridge). Today John heads backstage to make sure the fly system works properly and safely; there are 27 linesets, or battens, and almost all of them are used for every show. They can be used to lighting instruments or backdrops, as well as for both mobile and stationary scenery. With so much suspended from this system, it is absolutely essential that it is working properly before the season begins. As technical director, John also spends some time playing handyman, working with facilities coordinator, Ravi Anand, to keep the Playhouse in good shape. This afternoon, for example, he heads to the lobby to help hang past show posters on our infamous poster wall.

Thursday: WRAPPING UP WINTER
After spending the morning working out the logistics for the colorful artwork featured on the Beyond Therapy set with designer Lee Savage, John spends with the rest of the Playhouse production team wrapping up the final events of Winter at the Playhouse, which officially ends this weekend. During the winter months, we have outside groups rent the Playhouse facilities for their own programming. One of the final rentals will be Westport Art Center’s annual gala and today John meets with their event staff to answer questions they have about the theater, lights, sound, scheduling and backstage staffing. As the meeting comes to a close, he assures them that he will be on hand during the event to advise them on any last minute needs and keep an eye on the building. Now it’s off to the green room for a quick lunch with some of the Playhouse staff; nothing like a Trader Joe’s burrito with plenty of hot sauce to get you through the afternoon! 

Friday: A TOOL BY ANOTHER NAME
In charge of maintaining the budgets for both the set and the day-to-day operations of the scene shop, a fair amount of creativity goes into making the world of each play come to life on stage with the financial constraints of non-profit theater. In addition to the lumber, steel, paint, fabric, hardware and specialty equipment like motors, it is also John’s job to find new products to use, most of which were originally meant for something else. He has discovered things from trade shows, restaurants, construction, television and movie industries, all of which have contributed to the magic on stage in most unexpected ways. For example, most people think that all sets are painted by hand; an occasional innovation John uses in the shop is a massive printer. Elements of the set can be printed off on huge sheets of paper and later assembled to create the same effect an artist would. The large scale artwork you will see on the Beyond Therapy set is a prime example!

With the first rehearsal for Beyond Therapy less than an hour away, John takes a moment to survey the work on the set so far. As he heads over to the meet and greet with the cast, he catalogs what he’d like done by the end of the day and thinks just how glad he is the get started with the season.

Meghan Moorlach, Development Coordinator

 

Spotlight on Matthew Melchiorre

Who exactly calls the shots during a performance? While actors command the stage every night and the director and designers’ work is set as soon as the production opens, one key collaborator seldom (if ever) gets the applause they deserve. When it comes to “calling” the shots during a performance, the Production Stage Manager makes sure all is well onstage and our patrons get a performance they won’t soon forget.

In the Playhouse tradition of gathering the most talented and dedicated artists to produce our season of remarkable plays, Production Stage Manager Matthew Melchiorre is among the best. In addition to his sense of humor and collection of newsy caps coveted by many a Playhouse staffer, Matthew is the consummate professional theater-maker whose aim is to uphold the director’s vision and the theater’s mission and has quite a resume under his belt. In addition to his frequent stage management work at the Playhouse since 2008, his Broadway credits include The Light in the Piazza, Coram Boy, Hamlet, A Tale of Two Cities, Curtains, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Wicked, The Lion King, All Shook Up and The Frogs. Additionally, he has worked at such notable theaters as Primary Stages, Paper Mill Playhouse and Carnegie Hall, among others.

Matthew took a few minutes, newsy cap affixed to his head, to answer some questions posed to him by Director of Marketing David Byrd about his career, the role of a Production Stage Manager and his affiliation with the Playhouse.

Okay, hard question first - what exactly does a Stage Manager do?

This is probably the hardest question I ever have to answer. How do you explain the many, many hats a stage manager has to wear in such a short amount of space? In a nutshell, the job of a Stage Manager is probably one of a communicator throughout the rehearsal process. It is my job to communicate and facilitate the director’s vision of the show to the various departments...sets, costumes, lights, sound, etc. as the director and actors work and find things in rehearsal. As we move into performance and once the show is open and "frozen" it is the stage manager who is responsible for maintaining the director’s vision throughout the run of the show.

Theater professionals often remember when the lightbulb went on- when they were bitten by the theater bug. When did you know that Stage Management was for you and how did you first become involved?

Well, it’s not exactly a nun receiving her calling, but I've always said that I came into this world with a headset on my head. Actually, I figured out that I wanted to try stage management when I was in high school. My junior year, a friend convinced me to work on a high school production. I didn't know what I was doing, but he was a good teacher. I picked up some books as well and started really learning about the job. I had fun doing it, so I did a second production my senior year and when it was time to think about colleges and majors. I had THAT talk with my parents and chose to pursue this career. I knew that if I was serious about this then I would have to go to a school in New York City and that's when I chose Fordham University, which has a small intimate theatre department and gave me the freedom to figure out this job in the context of all aspects of technical theater...and the rest as they say is history.

What does your day-to-day life in the theater look like?

Sometimes I feel that I never stop working. The Blackberry is always buzzing. I do try to find moments in my life that when I'm not always working...I feel that is important. I'm of that rare breed in the theater community that LIKES to wake up early...usually 6:00 or 7:00am. If I'm in rehearsal, I will arrive an hour beforehand with my team, and we will set-up and get ready for the day, including answering emails or phone calls. Rehearsal will come and go and then we will spend the hour after rehearsal writing a report which is the way we communicate with departments expressing our needs for the production. If it's a performance day, I like to get to the theater early—at least 2 hours before the show. It helps me to get focused by being in the building and checking in with departments. The show will start, mostly on time, and will end. I will write a performance report noting how the performance went as well as how the audience received the performance. Yes, you are observed too! You are much a part of the evening as the rest of us. I will end the night having a drink (usually Grey Goose vodka & tonic)...it's a tradition that helps me to unwind...kids don't try this at home. I will head on home and unwind reading and just relaxing and then its lights out around 1:00am give or take. Yes I like a FULL day.

A Stage Manager’s role often shifts from pre-rehearsal work through the run of a production. Is this true for you? And is the shift/process the same for every production?

This shift is roughly the same for every production. In rehearsal, I find myself more of an observer of how the director and actors work with each other. I really focus on listening to what is discussed so that as I will begin the job of maintaining the show during performance, I am better prepared to maintain what has been discussed and figured out. And when understudies are involved, it is the stage managers job to get them ready for performance in the event they have to perform.

You recently moved from New York City up the Metro-North line to Fairfield, CT. What made you decide to pick up your life and move here?

The move to Fairfield happened basically on a whim. My lease was up in my apartment in New York City last August and I was growing tired of living in the "big city". So, I entertained the thought of moving to the country. I also wanted to find a place to live in that had an element of a relaxed atmosphere. My good friends Beth and Kim, who both work at the Playhouse, showed me around Fairfield one day and I instantly knew it was the right place for me. My downtime is extremely important and when I get off the train in Fairfield from working in New York or at the Playhouse, I immediately feel relaxed...so it's a perfect fit!

You have worked with artistic director Mark Lamos quite frequently over the past few years. When did you first work with Mark and how has your relationship evolved over the years?

The first opportunity I had to work with Mark Lamos was in 2008 for Primary Stages production of A.R. Gurney's Buffalo Gal. We have now worked together a total of five times, including another Gurney play, Black Tie for Primary Stages. I will add another two productions once the 2011 Playhouse season is over. When you work with the same person on a consistent basis you develop a wonderful short hand. There are definitely times when Mark and I can just look at each other and we've read the others mind. Also, the bond we have created over the years is one where we can bounce ideas off of each other, tease each other and most importantly work out problems together...it's like a marriage of sorts.

What might theatergoers not know about the production process from your point of view?

I think an interesting difference that theatergoers might not truly be aware of about a production process is the just how different a performance can be from one show to the next. Yes, we strive to give you the same show every night but it is NEVER a carbon copy. The interesting thing about getting to see the show every night is to see those little changes here and there and to see a performance continue to grow as continue to take the journey of the show on a nightly basis.

Alright, one last question: what about being a Stage Manager brings you the most joy?

There is never a dull moment in this job. However, the most joy I get from the job is the aspect of collaboration. Whether you are a famous movie star, an award-winning director, and designer, 3rd chorus member from the left, dresser, crew or part of the administrative staff— we are all working toward the same goal, to present whatever is on that stage to the best of our ability. When we are all on board with this idea it is pretty exciting.

Learn more about Matthew’s work as a Production Stage Manager by visiting The Playhouse Blog. Throughout the month of April and into May, Matthew will share weekly blog postings about his work on the Playhouse’s 2011 season opener, Beyond Therapy.

 David B. Byrd, Director of Marketing

 

The Culture of Therapy

After seeing Beyond Therapy, you may not find it hard to see why The Consumer’s Guide to Psychotherapy was originally published under the title Am I Crazy, or Is It My Shrink? But what may be less obvious is that playwright Christopher Durang would be the first to tell you therapy can work.

While attending Harvard as an undergraduate, Durang fell into what he describes as “a deep depression…I had trouble getting out of bed in the morning – for two years.” His class work suffered, his writing stopped, and questions about the direction of his life began. Fortunately, Harvard offered free psychological counseling to students, and after two years “with a very helpful psychologist,” Durang was able to get out of his depression. He quickly returned to playwriting, and in two sittings feverishly poured out The Nature and the Purpose of the Universe, which won an award at Smith College, and won him admission to the Yale School of Drama for graduate school.

Though many audiences may not have first-hand experience with Durang’s success with therapy, thanks to the popular psychology trend that became prevalent in the 1980s, we’ve all become well-versed in its culture. Words like “denial,” “closure”, and “Freudian Slip” comfortably find their way into everyday conversation and no one needs clarification. Clinical diagnoses like “neurotic” and “depressed” are bandied about in a humorous fashion to no one’s discomfort. The image of someone lying on a couch in an office is instantly recognized. Woody Allen films, TV shows, and self-help books continue to grow our awareness of popular psychology.

It is this type of real life humor that Durang seems to fancy most. “Sometimes the extremity of suffering, or the extremity of bad behavior, is so extreme, that you see and feel the overview, and it’s awful and it’s funny.”

Beyond Therapy’s extreme humor and emotional awareness made the show a perfect fit for the start of the 2011 season. “I read it and found myself laughing out loud all the way through,” said Playhouse Artistic Director Mark Lamos. “I knew it would be the perfect opener for the coming season: it’s very different from the work we’ve had on our stage for the last few years.”

So, whether you’ve experienced therapy first hand or simply enjoy a smart comedy, Beyond Therapy will not disappoint. Who knows; maybe we’re all a little nuts.

Chad Kinsman, Patron Services Supervisor
Nikki Rowell, Patron Services Manager