Read it here!

and from Boston Broadway World!

Read it here!

In fact, because this production is so spare, I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce you to the actors with whom you’ll be spending 100 minutes when you come join us at the BCA.

In order of appearance, of course:

Lynn R. “Girl” Guerra: Lynn is one of those actors with whom Ex Corps has always wanted to collaborate. She is smart, sweet, bad-ass, multi-talented and has attacked this challenging role with openness and a ‘no fear’ attitude from the very first read through. She is so wonderful at committing to emotion, taking risks onstage, and connecting with her collaborators in the moment. Simply put, she is a pro. I don’t want to spoil too much about her portrayal, but I can promise you that she will break your heart in the best way possible, night after night.

Zach “Boy” Eisenstat: Zach is just one of those actors that you want to have in the room all the time. He is an incredibly hard worker, never backs down from a challenge, takes direction like a champ, and is a great colleague with an incredible sense of humor. His character, Boy, probably has the biggest and scariest journey in the play. At the top, he is so innocent and simple that you almost feel badly for him. By the end of the play, his entire world is completely destroyed, and, worst yet, he has let it happen and you have watched it happen. Zach brings this progression to life so beautifully. You want to hug him, put him to bed and fix everything for him. But you can’t.

Bob “Man” Mussett: Bob has been a founding core member of ExCorps with me since 2009. Though we’ve collaborated on a few short projects since then, most of our collaboration has involved balance sheets, transporting sets, or planning seasons. It has been wonderful to have focused, creative time to work with him on this incredibly difficult role that would give the likes of Brian Dennehy a run for his money. Bob is a nice guy. One of the nicest, in fact. However, the character he has created for this show? He is shaping up to be one of the most terrifying and maniacal motherf@ckers to grace a Boston stage in a long time. I think his performance will make you uncomfortable in all the right ways. Prepare your spine for chills.

Janelle “Woman” Mills: Like Bob, Janelle is a fellow core member whose work I’ve admired in other people’s productions for a long time. I am a big picture person, and Janelle taught me a lot about specificity throughout this collaboration. From early on, she asked me to focus with her on what each distinct moment meant in terms of her overall storytelling arc. From that level of specificity, we found the true heart of the character. Janelle’s Woman is a brash, funny entertainer who is a natural onstage and wonderful to watch. But she’s also been bruised in the past and wears the stripes of her experiences like scars. Janelle carries off this particular blend of toughness and vulnerability with grace and ease.

Actually, there is a fifth character: you! This show needs you to be truly alive — not just because two of the characters spend half the play talking to you directly, but because so much of the play’s themes deal with the nature of truth and reality and the notion that illusion has to be witnessed and then believed to be real. Exquisite Corps believes that live performance is a collaboration between actors and audience. To that end, the show isn’t complete until you show up. Though the words will be the same, the essence of the show will be different each time.

So anyways, yes, it’s time to step back. I will miss being an integral part of the process every night, but I so look forward to sitting next to you and watching it grow up.

–Adrienne Boris (Director)

If it isn’t already clear, I was not knowledgeable of Albee’s work at that point, but in the years since have learned a little about how foolish I was, having now seen dynamic productions of The American Dream, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Seascape, The Zoo Story.  So when our hardcore play-reading director/ExCorps Managing Director Adrienne Boris brought up this play as a possibility during one of our season-selection meetings (and seriously, she’s a go-to person if you’re looking for a play to read), well it was time to knock it off the to-do list!

And what a read it was!  I was sold right away.  The play is meaty and thrilling for actors; “Shit Goes Down.”  Practically, there are none of the design complexities of Seascape or Virginia Woolf, with everything stripped down to its essence.  The characters don’t even have names in the formal sense: Man, Woman, Boy, Girl.  Even the characters that are referred to in the third person lack names: polo player, Mother, etcetera (with one brief exception – a lesbian couple with feminine names shortened to their masculine forms).  And that’s the thing – there is something about this weird contradiction of specificity and non-specificity that lends itself to shaping and re-shaping reality.

The first appearance by Man in the play has him bringing up the idea of how a simple repetition of an action can alter our perception of it.  At the simplest level, a 15-minute walk somewhere is laborious the first time, but once you get it into your system, the next time its over before you know it.  Now the oh-my-God-no-let’s-take-a-cab is manageable.  And in a sense the reality of that effort has changed.

No, maybe that’s not what I mean.  Let’s go grander: “History is written by the victorious”, or “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”  If our reality is determined by our perception of what we’ve been through, then our reality is constantly changing.  All the time.  And at some level we just accept this and go about our lives and somehow manage to not go insane with all the uncertainty.  Depending on how philosophical you want to be about it, there’s nothing to say whether this is purely a mental conceit and our past is perfectly safe, or that you (the reader) came into existence one second ago, with an artificial array of memories and props surrounding you.  Or that in another second all of it won’t end without you realizing it.  Pop culture is already full of examples of this.  Some ready favorites are movies: Dark City, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etcetera.

So anyway, we have this play.  The Play About the Baby.

By purest coincidence, I just realized something I wrote earlier in this post wasn’t true at all.

–Bob Mussett (aka MAN)

It was a pretty heavy question to see on the audition sheet for The Play About the Baby. I answered YES.

Well, yes, in general, I am comfortable with nudity. Still, I’ve never before been confronted with the prospect of running around naked in front of complete strangers 5 times a week for four weeks. Worse, I’ve never had to break the news to my mom and dad before. Still, on audition day, it was easy to write yes because I wanted the part. When I got the part, that yes seemed like a much more difficult conclusion to come to.

What it boils down to is this; is there good, artistically-sound reasoning for the nudity in this play, or is it gratuitous? Is it pornographic? Is it a cheap trick to fill seats or to titillate the audience? Is the nudity justified? The short answer is yes.

When Adrienne, Zach, and I discussed it, we spoke mainly about the idyllic, Adam-and-Eve-like quality of BOY and GIRL’s relationship. They are virgins when they’re married. There can be no hiding behind grape-leaves for characters who feel no shame, who have not yet lost their innocence. Sex clearly plays an important role in their relationship, but the glimpse of nudity Albee offers the audience is not about sex. It’s about honesty and simplicity. It’s about being laid-bare. It’s about being a blank slate, free of scars, pristine, perfect.

Man asks, “Blood? Piercings? Gougings?… Without wounds what are you?” Well, we’re Adam and Eve without the apple.

Still, there are many ways of conveying innocence without asking your actors to strip down to their birthday suits, so why is it important in this particular play? This brings me to WOMAN’s story about the painter. She had been dating a young and handsome polo player when she was approached by the “hollow-cheeked,” painter with “bony fingers.” He flattered her and said he wanted to paint her naked. Nudity for her spells sex, seduction, temptation and trickery. It is the violent end of one relationship and the birth of shame and disgust in another. In short, it is the exact opposite of BOY and GIRL’s experience with nudity. And I think, one can’t help noting that Albee, tongue firmly in cheek, is commenting on nudity in art as exploitation.

Ok, GIRL. This play is art. Nudity in art is exploitative. Now play innocent. Thank you, Mr. Albee.

Nudity in WOMAN’s experience is a different beast than the nudity we see in BOY and GIRL’s world. Her recounting of her experience with nudity in art is juxtaposed against the actual nudity in art that the audience will experience. Interpretation, therefore, is the essential factor. Albee is asking us to question our own thinking and to realize that something beautiful and pure can be corrupted by our perception of it. It is possible to ruin a thing just by thinking about it from the wrong angle

GIRL would be horrified at the idea of running naked in front of an audience. She’s embarrassed just listening to WOMAN’s story. Can I, as an actress, skew my own perception of a room full of people, so that running around naked is fun and sweet and not an exploitation of my body? God, I hope so.

-Lynn R. Guerra (aka GIRL)

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Hello, this is Edward Albee.

Hello, this is Zach. I just have a few questions… if you can spare a day or two.

Click.

Fortunately, I have found incredible support from our director (who is far more patient with me than my imagined Albee), and the rest of the cast. That said, THE PLAY ABOUT THE BABY is proving to be a personally, and artistically, rewarding challenge. We have been at this for weeks now and I feel like I am just beginning to crack into BOY’s innocent ideology. Before BOY, the parts I have had the pleasure to play have all been predominately defined by what they have experienced, but the unique challenge of this play, and this character, is that BOY is defined more by what he hasn’t experienced. Perhaps it is a thin distinction, but I find it easier to imagine what never was than to forget what is.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Hello, this is Edward Albee.

Hello, this is BOY. I have a question for you. Not exactly for you, but for you to answer. Just one question: what is real?

Click.

Reality is a concept constantly commented on in our rehearsals: the reality in which the play exists; each character’s sense of reality; and how reality is tested, manipulated, and ultimately changed. BOY’s name aptly reflects his initial sense of how the universe works. He is obsessed with the physical. He is easily taken to, and lost in, storytelling. Cause and effect are ever present forces. Good things happen to good people. The fun part is figuring out how exactly his sense of what is real erodes, and how to play that.

So, if you need me, I will be at rehearsal, questioning reality.

-Zachary Eisenstat (aka BOY)

As producer, I have my hands in all aspects of the show. It feels like directing to a degree, but now my eye is trained on the fundamentals of the production. I have been forced to really think strategically about the time line of the production, and what needs to get done when. How we make the production “grow & go”? How do we find and hire the right team for the production?   How do we ensure that everyone involved has the proper tools to get what they need done? And if someone doesn’t get what they need, what’s the best solution for the show? I am learning to think about how all the pieces of the production fit together as a whole, instead of focusing my energies on just the world of the play.

There are so many balls in the air at once; I am learning how to change focus quickly. Some of the broader brush stokes of producing include: Ensuring that production supports our director’s vision for the play, the actors get what they need for rehearsal props, the designers have access to the tools they need to build the world of the play. I have been learning what it’s like being the point person from ExCorps to the Theater itself. I need to make sure that the ticketing info is set, rental payments are received, program materials are completed and general audience logistics are taken care of. Also, I have had the pleasure to work with our fabulous marking and creative directors on how to get “butts in seats.”

I count myself incredibly lucky to work with this amazing production team on Baby. The learning curve as a first time producer has been steep, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the effort of the director and production team. Their tenacity, guidance and boundless creativity have given me the unique opportunity to help build a production from the foundation up.

It’s gonna be a great production and I can’t wait to start showcasing it in March!

See you at the show!

-Louisa Richards (Producer)

Yet, I have so many questions about her.  Why is she with MAN?  Why are they infiltrating the world of BOY and GIRL?  What does she really want?  Why does she vamp away so often?  At this point, I don’t really know.  I have an idea, but I don’t know.  I guess that is what rehearsal is for after all.  There’s also the question of What does it all mean?  Heh.  I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you.  Actually, I think my director or my producer might kill me.  It’s a good thing I haven’t figured that out yet either.  I have more questions now than when we started rehearsing.  This is the fun part for me – the discovery.

I have to say working with Lynn, Zach, and Bob is making this discovery time a lot of fun.  They bring so much good energy to the rehearsal room.  They are a devoted group of actors who help answer my questions.  I’m sure you are thinking that folks say this about all casts, but it really is true.  As just one example, Lynn revealed that the women are closely tied to creation while the men of the play are more about the physical world.  That’s brilliant!  I hope I’m not giving away anything she wants to blog about.  This has been an invaluable revelation as I’m working on the script.

We have a few weeks left until opening.  I’m expect the momentum to really start to pick up this week.  What we’ve worked on so far is already compellingly different from what I had in my mind.  I am very much looking forward to where we end up.

Eeep!

–Janelle Mills (aka WOMAN)

I’ve had the privilege of working in the room on this terrific but challenging play for just over a week now. We are still on book and feeling our way through the piece, and there is no better way to do that than by diving into it on our feet.

What can I say about blocking this play? The experience has been unlike any other I’ve had. Baby takes place in a world without scenery, barely any props, and no textually defined sense of place. As such, there are no ‘landmarks’ on the set, except for two chairs and two exits, and no prescribed way that characters behave in these particular environs. We know from the text that the room belongs to Boy and Girl, but Man and Woman seem comfortable there as well. They infiltrate the space with no effort and even seem to control it for most of the second act.

When it comes to the mechanics of blocking, it has been much more challenging and fun than a typical living room play (or any room play). Usually when one is staging a play that takes place somewhere with some recognized identity, blocking tends to be based on some combination of story-based or power shift-inspired moves along with typical patterns, familiar to an audience and actors, of how one might move around the given place. With Baby, however, we have no such luxury. We need to define the rules of this space ourselves, and then we need to create movement in it that is almost only plot and action based. That means we need to be thinking about every layer of character and action from the very outset so that we can authentically physicalize it. My hope is that, when we are done, the movement landscape of the piece will be akin to that friend everyone has, who may not speak much, but when they do, it is profound and surprisingly elegant.

So, Boy’s words from Act 1, quoted at the beginning of this entry, ring true for the process of staging this play as well. It’s easy to create the visual reality of this piece – you just have to know it inside and out, and understand both logically and viscerally what happened, and what is going to happen.

-Adrienne Boris, Director

-We’re proud to announce our new artwork, by Alison Naturale . Not only is it snazzy, but it really reflects the themes of the play!

-Check out our show page here for more info about the show and the performance schedule.

-Keep an eye on our blog — As we did with Trout, we will be bringing you updates about the show from the perspective of the cast and production team, as they take on this challenging play.

-We have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help defray the formidable costs of producing a play at a venue as prestigious as the Boston Center for the Arts. Please check out the short video which we made for the campaign, which provides a fresh look at our past, present and future! We are overwhelmed with the support we have already received, and cannot wait to share this production with you!

Girl – Lynn R. Guerra
Boy – Zachary Eisenstat
Man – Bob Mussett
Woman – Janelle Mills

Stay tuned for more information soon as we shift into production for this haunting, deceptively simple play, by one of the masters of American drama.