The Genius of Spalding Gray

Spalding was completely riveting that evening. His autobiographical monologue entitled "Travels Through New England" was so intimate. He shared stories from his life about his mothers suicide and her odd Christian Scientist ways. He spoke of going to Walden Pond and of masturbating there to feel closer to Thoreau! He was outrageous, he was funny and above all he was real. The character he was choosing to portray was himself. His script came from his life.

After the show he sat on the edge of the stage and had a beer and answered some questions and comments from our class. I don't remember saying anything to him except "thank-you" but I left the theater that night and knew that the course of my life had been altered. I didn't know how and when I was going to get there but I knew that what he was offering was a path that I too would follow.

I had been craving this simplicity of expression without even knowing it. The combination of authentic and brilliant writing based on his direct experiences delivered to a live audience blew my mind. I understood immediately ad intuitively the enormous possibilities for performers and audience members alike.

As a teacher of solo performance and solo performer myself I have come to understand many of the components of solo performances that inspire an audience and those that don't. One of Spalding's great talents was his ability to completely embody his material. He made every word a visceral experience for himself and his audience. One of the amazing things about this was that he never moved. He sat at his desk in every performance I ever saw (except in one brief moment when he danced across the stage with a boom box in Morning, Noon and Night- what a joy!!!) and yet he filled the theater with his presence.

For me, the undertaking of a solo show is about 90% about presence. Yes, the story is important. The writing is very important. But what makes it or breaks it for me is the performers presence. Are they willing to take us beyond a "reading of a work" into a "feeling of their work"? Are they willing to show up with every emotion available to them and every cell in their body willing to re-experience the events they are sharing about? If they are, they can take their audience on a journey like no other.

At it's best solo performance connects us so deeply with one individual and their humanity that it connects the audience with themselves and their own deepest humanity. It takes a bedrock of courage to expose so much; not just in the writing of our stories, but in the embodiment of them for the audience.

Spalding had the knack.

Solo Performance to Change the World

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Creating Original Characters in a Solo Show

A Woman's Work.........(performed Feb. 2000)

I did nine performances of an original monologue show that I worked on with two other Santa Fe woman. The inspiration behind the show was from a Studs Terkel song about working. The concept of the show was that we would each write three , 10 minute monologues exploring female characters at work and their personal stories.

All three of the characters were based on my personal life experience but I put them into the context of different voices. The first character that I created was based on Barbie (the doll) She was giving a speech at the annual "Barbie Convention" being her usual "perfect" self when she starts to have a bit of a nervous breakdown onstage. She gets carried away and speaks of her longtime lust for G. I Joe and what it's like to be put into an arranged marriage with that "unic", Ken. She speaks about what it's like to smell food, but only to be allowed to snack on celery sticks and have to manage about 30 different "careers" and the "Malibu beach house" all the time with an insipid smile plastered on her face. She speaks about the emptiness of never aging and getting "laugh lines' from really never having lived.

When I created this piece, I found that I was able to publicly present some of my own political views in a clever and humorous way. It would have been "preachy" if I had given a speech about these topics, but as I incorporated them into an original character and showed the juxtaposition about how she was forced to live as an "image" rather than from a place of authenticity, these views were received in an open and positive way by the audience.

When I teach solo performance classes now, if someone is attached to "making a point", I encourage them to do it through a character. In my experience, when we're speaking on stage as ourselves, it only works if we stick to our own experience. In other words, our own stories from our lives and the insights that arise from our experience. I challenge my students to cut all opinions, judgments (good or bad) and metaphors out of their own story. Onstage, opinions and judgments will distance the audience from you. It takes the audience out of their own experience and into their intellects. Does this mean that you as a performer don't have opinions or judgments or a point of view? No. All strong artists do have a point of view. Your point of view comes across by what stories from your life you choose to share, the tone, your body movements, energy and presence. But, for me nothing is worse than going to a one person show where somebody starts to preach at me. Even if I agree with them!

However, the one way I've found to get around this is through creating original characters. You can take a point of view and show it through a character. For example, rather than saying "war is bad", create a character of a veteran whose child has died from birth defects related to his exposure to depleted uranium. Have this character tell his story. This will make your point much more powerfully and effectively than saying "war is bad".

Instead of saying "I hate the values of Hollywood and everybody's shallow there", I created a second character based on someone I knew who was an L.A. party planner. I had her entire monologue on the phone calling various people for an event she was planning. I didn't talk about narcissism being unpleasant to people; rather I portrayed how her curt and bitchy with every person she spoke to. I also added a surprising vulnerability to her last phone call which was with her dad who didn't (and obviously hadn't )had time for her. Instead of preaching about how people can become mean and self centered by lack of parental involvement, I painted that picture, through Staci's(the characters) interactions.

To sum my point up, if you are working on a solo show
a) if you are working in a storytelling format, stick to your story. Eliminate rants, and statements of judgment or opinion.

b) create original characters based on people you know or have interviewed. They can be and say anything that you want them to as long as they feel true to themselves.

c) To begin to create original characters, begin with people who have strong personalities who you know well. In my female students, I notice that their mothers and grandmothers are endless goldmines in terms of material. That is because these people literally "live inside" us. When you are developing original characters for the first time it is good to work initially with what we know (same with beginning writing- no coincidence)

The Great Possibility of Creating a One Person Show!

What is solo performance really about?

I was at a wedding in Maine this week and had a wonderful conversation with a professor of art who sat next to me at the reception. He asked me what I did and as always, I got ready to give a rather long explanation. Because, although performance art, storytelling and one-person shows have actually been around for a long time, it is still a marginalized art form. Many people don't exactly know what I mean when I say that I'm a director and performer who specializes in solo performance.

But this man got it right off the bat. He said "like Spalding Gray"? I said "yes, I was writing about how he was my first inspiration on my blog last week." Turns out that he had invited him in as a guest lecturer for his students many years ago after seeing him perform on Wooster Street at the Performing Garage in one of his first shows. So, we were off and running......

He asked me what I thought the value of solo performance actually was. What a great question to be asked! I said that I thought it served many purposes culturally; it gives expression to those who may be marginalized in our society, it empowers actors and performers who may be making a living doing commercials or working as bartenders; in their show they reveal their talent and their souls-beyond that they can take personal responsibility for their creativity in a way that doesn't happen if they're waiting around to be "cast," in somebody else’s movie. It is an opportunity to examine our families and personal stories thru the characters we choose to create, it's the opportunity to take a "Hero's Journey" in the Joseph Campbell sense as we reveal our own struggles and obstacles and utilize them as a path to transformation. It is a way to express the intimacy and connection we all yearn for by "speaking the unspeakable" and exploring the taboo thru our stories. It is a way to "claim oneself" with a depth rarely available onstage or in life. Well, I guess that's some of what it's been about for me...Other's may answer the question similarly or differently. But, in the end I can say one thing for certain. If one has the courage to stand on a stage, alone, and claim their life, their creativity, their characters, their stories and/ or their transformations, their life will never be the same. They will be BIGGER than they previously knew. And, with each performance they will grow in this knowing.

In the end, I would say that solo performance has no less possibility that the awakening of the soul to itself. For the performer and for the audience. Does this mean, it always happens? No. But, this is the invitation!

Wow, what an amazing journey.............

-         Tanya Taylor Rubinstein/ www.ProjectLifeStories.org

-         Solo Performance Coach

Years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing a performance of "Jail's, Hospitals and Hip Hop" in NYC...Danny Hoch is one of the most brilliant solo theater performers in the world in my opinion. Danny grew up in Queens N.Y.....a white guy in a predominanty black/latino/asian neighborhood....Danny is able to embody other ethnicities/cultures better than any performer I have ever seen...He plays guys on the street from every angle. His performances are raw and extremly powerful, yet they have a surprising innocence to them.

Danny also uses theater as a means of social activism whether he means to or not....I read that his new piece which is currently playing in Los Angeles is about gentrification. His message generally is the opposite of gentrification..There is nothing sterile or pat about this man...He is a product of the intergration of culture/experience/ethnicity and social awareness. He is also, plain and simple a brilliant actor.

The reason he got into solo theater is because he literally couldnt find any thing he wanted to act in that spoke to his life or experience. And so he created his first show...

I totally relate.....