On Aliens, Memorization, and The Music Man

This week, I’m doing something a little different.

The person I’m talking to is still involved in theater, and we’re going to use anonymity to discuss
three topics in theater this week so my interviewee can say whatever they like without fear of
getting ripped apart in the comments section.

(They’ll probably still get ripped apart, but at least you won’t be able to find their house.)

So here’s what we’re tackling--

• The High School “Alien” Production
•  (https://deadline.com/2019/03/elaborate-alien-high-school-production-gets-hollywoods-attention-1202582603/ )

• Actors Having Their Script with Them Onstage
• (https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/ct-ott-doubt-thebus-jones-0322-story.html)

• The Music Man
• (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sutton-foster-star-opposite-hugh-jackman-music-man-1194655)

Let’s dive in:

Me:  So, for the record, you didn’t actually care if you were anonymous or not.

Them:  I didn’t, but you were pretty insistent.

Me:  It’s for consistency, and my brand, and my brand’s--

Them:  Brand’s consistency.  Got it.

Me:  Let’s start with Alien Jr.

Them:  (Laughs.)  Is that what we’re calling it?

Me:  Yes, it shall forever be known as Alien Jr.  What are your thoughts on it?

Them:  I think--wow, so maybe I really do want to be anonymous--

Me:  Let loose.

Them:  I think these kids and their teacher or teachers or school committed a crime and
it’s being treated as some sort of cool thing because it--looked good.

Me:  So you don’t think they should be championed for their creativity?

Them:  Well--tell the story you told me about what your students said about it--

Me:  So yesterday I asked the kids in my writing for theater class about it and they said
‘Yeah, we could do something like that too, but nobody will let us because it’s illegal.’

Them:  Those kids can throw down.

Me:  You think I don’t teach them shade?  That is the first thing I teach them.

Them:  And they’re right.  High school students are usually very resourceful because
they have boundless energy and lots of time on their hands, so there’s nothing to say
that other schools and theater departments couldn’t do something like that, it’s
just that--they’re not allowed to, because there are laws about it.

Me:  And I don’t think we would be this “Right on!” about it if they had done, like,
an illegal production of Wicked.

Them:  No, it would be a totally different thing.  It’s actually brilliant, on their part,
to rip off a movie, because people don’t tend to think of movies as any one person’s property,
whereas in theater, we’re hyper aware of not taking money from playwrights who are already
usually, you know--

Me:  Destitute?

Them:  Yes. That.

Me:  I’m just not sure what the consequences can be in this case?  I mean,
I doubt they made that much off it--

Them:  You like talking about narratives, right?

Me:  Right.

Them:  Okay, so let’s talk about the narrative that either the school or the media or
both put together about this being some poor school where the kids just don’t know any
better and what a great story--bullshit.  They had a $3500 budget. I worked at a private school
in my early twenties where the tuition was twenty grand a year and we didn’t have $3500 given
to us to do a play. That is a lot of money.

Me:  Yeah, all that ‘recycled materials’ stuff--

Them:  Recycled materials AND $3500 go a long way.

Me:  I was talking to a friend on the phone last night and he pointed out that it’s still pretty
impressive even for $3500--

Them:  So let them be pretty impressive with Twelfth Night.

Me:  Exactly.

Them:  Do you realize what position this puts every drama teacher in the country in?
 Their students are now asking them why they can’t do something similar so
they can get that kind of attention and also, maybe, not have to do some stupid play
they don’t want to do, but have to, because that’s what you do in high school--

Me:  You do boring, safe plays.

Them:  You do boring, safe plays most of the time.  And now students are going to want to
know why their school can’t do what North Bergen did and it’s because--it’s illegal.

Me:  But if nothing happens as a result of it--

Them:  Well something has to, because, if it doesn’t, they have--and I’m being serious
here--set a legal precedent.

Me:  Sadly I know alllll about this.

Them:  Whether they want to or not, whoever is now in charge of Alien has to do
something about this or say something about it, because if they don’t, there is nothing
stopping every theater and college and high school in the country from doing exactly
what these kids did.

Me:  Someone pointed out that a lot of high schools and smaller theaters get away with
stuff like this--

Them:  And some people get away with murder, but if you get caught, you get caught.
 And we definitely should be--I sound so mean right now--

Me:  Go with it.

Them:  (Laughs.)  I was going to say we should use something like this as an example--
make an example out of them--because it’s not okay when it happens other places, and
people should be aware that in an age of social media, you’re way more likely to get caught.

Me:  And if you’ve got $3500--

Them:  You can afford to do a wonderful production of Midsummer.

Me:  You can afford two wonderful productions.

Them:  Okay, what else you got?

Me:  That whole Chicago thing of having a script onstage.

Them:  You’re giving me all the hot topics.

Me:  It was a busy week.

Them:  So what are we talking about in--

Me:  Do you think memorization is important?

Them:  Are you even asking me that?

Me:  (Laughs.)  Welcome to 2019.

Them:  I mean...Yes.

Me:  Yes you think it’s important?

Them:  It’s--that’s like...half our job.

Me:  Yeah.

Them:  More than half--as actors, it’s--

Me:  Okay, so let me play devil’s advocate here.

Them:  On behalf of not memorizing?  Okay.

Me:  Yeah, I--

Them:  Didn’t you yell at someone in one of these interviews for not being able to memorize?

Me:  I did, well I didn’t yell--

Them:  But you’re playing devil’s advocate so--

Me:  Yes, because, okay--I may be sort of more flexible on this than I thought I was.

Them:  Oh god.

Me:  I tell students all the time that auditioning is not acting.  That it’s sort of--adjacent to
doing theater. Like, there’s no really art in auditioning.  There’s a technique for it, but it’s
not the same as creating something in a play.

Them:  Okay.

Me:  Isn’t that sort of like memorization as well?  Like, it’s not quite acting. People who
do audiobooks are acting.  People who do film and get to look at the five lines they have
to say right before the camera rolls are acting.  And there’s no memorization there.

Them:  But that’s not theater.

Me:  But are we denying ourselves something interesting but forcing people to memorize?  
Especially people who might have difficult with that?

Them:  I guess, but why would I pay money to watch somebody read a script onstage?

Me:  You’ve never paid to see a staged reading?

Them:  But that’s not what this was, right?  It was a full production with other people off-book.

Me:  But so much of theater is imagining anyway right?

Them:  You want me to imagine that the actor doesn’t have a script in their hand?

Me:  Is it harder to do that than to imagine that people burst into song and dance?

Them:  You’re arguing that it’s a convention.

Me:  It is a convention.

Them:  Everything is a convention.

Me:  Right, and we’re breaking a lot of conventions right now--

Them:  See, I think we’re lowering the bar.

Me:  But, like, think of all the incredible people who could play Lear if they didn’t have to
memorize Lear.

Them:  What about Glenda Jackson being in her eighties and memorizing it right now?

Me:  Do we know she doesn’t have an earpiece?

Them:  I do not know that, but I doubt it.

Me:  What are your thoughts on that?

Them:  Uh--well, the earpiece helps keep the illusion, right?

Me:  But who is the illusion for?  For us? Why does seeing a script break the illusion but
not a set piece moving across the stage or one actor playing two roles?

Them:  I think--I guess where I’m at with it is--if there’s a reason someone can’t memorize
and a production wants to accommodate them, fine.  But it shouldn’t be the norm.

Me:  Because you don’t like it?

Them:  (Laughs.)  Yes, because I don’t like it.

Me:  Last topic.

Them:  Jesus.

Me:  This one’s not so bad.

Them:  Says you.

Me:  The Music Man.

Them:  Yes?

Me:  Why?

Them:  (Laughs.)  You know, I could get behind it if I thought it was going to be any sort of
new take on it but--

Me:  We are getting the Music Man-iest Music Man ever.

Them:  Music Man could be really interesting done right, you know.

Me:  But it’s just going to be glitz and glamour and Hugh Jackman pretending to be straight
for five hours.

Them:  You are brutal.

Me:  You were mean to people who can’t memorize.

Them:  Leave Hugh Jackman alone.

Me:  What are your thoughts on Sutton Foster?

Them:  I love her and I think she’s miscast.

Me:  Me too.

Them:  I really thought Jessie Mueller--

Me:  I was pulling for Laura Benanti.

Them:  But those are sort of obvious choices so maybe they went with Sutton to, you
know, spice things up?

Me:  Wow, when you’re throwing Sutton Foster in for the spice of it--

Them:  (Laughs.)  Yeah.

Me:  This was great.  Thank you for stopping by.

Them:  We’re talking on the phone.

Me:  I know, but the reader doesn’t know that.

Them:  You’re keeping all kinds of secrets, aren’t you?

Me:  They don’t know you’re really Sutton Foster.

Them:  I’m Sutton Foster and I feel I’m miscast.

Me:  That is breaking news.

Them:  You heard it here first.

Them is an actor and they might be Sutton Foster.