Stage Banter: The Arena Stage Blog

Discuss: What is Theatrical in 33 Variations?

posted by Vijay Mathew

As you can tell even from the photos, 33 Variations is wonderfully theatrical. But why and how? We'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

To start you off, here's a quote from the playwright and director Moisés Kaufman in an audio interview I conducted a few weeks ago:

"Moment Work" (a directing and writing method Moisés Kaufman uses) really allows the theater-maker to make work that is theatrical. It poses the question: what can happen on the stage that cannot happen anywhere else? If we as people working in the theater are only concerned with the play that we're doing at any given time, we're doing the art form a great disservice.  But if every time we come to do a play and ask: "how is this going to contribute to our understanding of the art form?" Then, I think we're beginning to address our job.   

For those of you who have already seen 33 Variations, post your opinion at the end of this blog entry telling me what you think is particularly "theatrical" about 33 Variations by Moisés Kaufman. What moments or what about the production do you feel can only exist in the theater and not in any other medium such as television or film.

Opening Out of Town

By David Dower

You know all those scenes in movies about “The Theatah,” where a show’s in rehearsal and the writer, director and producer all meet in a hotel room for a late-night notes session? There are generally tuxedos and high emotions and a fat cigar in someone’s mouth and zinger after zinger all flying around the room like razor blades. And if it’s a musical, someone’s at the piano banging out new ideas for the 11 o’clock number. Or that boffo opener.

I played a version of that scene last night at the Granada Suites Best Western in Atlanta. Somehow it wasn’t as glamorous. None of us looked particularly good in the beige walls and bad lighting of the Best Western. And our witty repartee was dulled by “end of a long day” energy. But we plowed on anyway, making up with tenacity what we lacked in pizzazz.

The Women of Brewster Place had just finished off their rehearsal day with a run-through of the whole musical. This milestone in the process is called the Designer Run, and it’s the first chance the design team has to see the whole show, from beginning to end, in order.  With a musical of this size, that’s a bunch of folks. Suddenly, after a few weeks of relative seclusion, the private safety of the rehearsal hall is invaded by a bunch of strangers, all staring intently at the stage and madly scribbling notes, as the performers gamely try to remember the music, the choreography, the dialogue, the blocking, and what props and scenery they move on or off stage. Ask ten actors and nine of them will tell you they hate the Designer Run. The one who actually likes it is probably the same one who used to remind the teacher to collect the homework.

Citizen Review: 33 Variations

Reviewed by Mateo Stephenson

[Editors' Note: We'll be featuring "Citizen Reviews" of our productions all season. Mateo will be joined by other voices to illuminate the experience of people who are not professional critics, creating a dialogue between the 'pros' and the 'regular joes.' We invite you to share your own reviews with us through the Comments feature.]

The first preview night of 33 Variations managed to combine humor with insight, prose with poetry, and a view on how those little moments in life - that come and go in a blink - balance with those big ones that make us look twice, and then stare again and again.

What struck me was the versatility of the media and styles that combined to create the play. The tone was set by the handwritten manuscripts of Beethoven's musical creations projected onto the walls; a live pianist performed the music and interwove the notes with the action on stage. The story flashed from a modern setting of a mother and daughter colliding, with the tension of progressing disease between them, to Beethoven suffering with his own progression toward deafness. While the mother, a musicologist, is compelled to understand the motivation behind the notes of Beethoven's 33 variations, Beethoven himself is compelled to understand all that lay within the short melody that had inspired the variations. Obsession or inspiration? That is for you to tell.

Buzz Buzz Buzz

posted by David Dower

33 Variations sure has people talking! We're collecting comments from all directions at this point.

A slew of 4-Star reviews have shown up on Goldstar, which if you haven't stumbled onto yet you may want to check out for good discounts on tickets all over town.

And on Talking Broadway there are a couple of different conversation threads about the show.

Have you already seen it? Join the conversation here! We'd love to know what you thought as well.

When you do come, stand at the back of the house during intermission and after the show and just eavesdrop for a moment. The conversations are so intense and animated, especially if you find yourself tuning into a discussion amongst music lovers. Because the show's underlying structure is so similar to music composition, people who love classical music are just on fire. At one of the talk backs over the weekend a woman asked Moisés what his music background was. "I studied piano for three years as a child," he said. "That's it?" "Well, how is it that you've composed this play as a fugue? Did you even know you were doing that? It's a perfect fugue in structure. Did you have any idea?" Moisés grinned slyly and said "I had some inkling, yes." From the twinkle in his eye you could tell he was thrilled she'd noticed.

Well First Rehearsal Revisited

posted by David Dower

Here's a lovely photo from the first rehearsal gathering for Well. I posted about this event earlier, but here's Arena Stage founder Zelda Fichandler and Arena Stage benefactor Jaylee Mead in attendance.

We've Been Waiting For You

posted by David Dower

What a weekend! Friday night was the first preview of 33 Variations. It was clear almost from the opening moment that this show is going to ravish audiences. The beauty of the music and the physical production didn't surprise me—I'd been watching tech and dress rehearsals. But what surprised everyone was how much humor there is in the play. This is what theater artists mean when they say the audience is the "last actor cast." Until the audience was in its seats and playing ITS part, it was not possible to know where the laughs were and how big they are. Moisés opened the night by telling the audience "We've been waiting for you..." and inviting them to stay for a conversation afterward. Hundreds of them did.

It was a great night, watching it dawn on the actors how much fun it will be to perform this play. It's such an unusual mix of emotions—the comedy leavening the emotionally devastating moments throughout the event. There will be many other posts from other voices reviewing the show here, (and hopefully you'll stop by and comment on your own experience after you've seen it), so I won't go into detail. But I do want to point you to some other sources of information about the play that have begun appearing in the press.

(l-r) Greg Keller as Mike (background left)
Mary Beth Peilas Katherine Brandt, Don Amendolia
as Antonio Diabelli and Susan Kellermann
as Gertie Ladenborger

Listen to WETA interview of Moisés Kaufman and Diane Walsh.

Read The Washington Post interview with Moisés Kaufman.

I Laughed Til I Cried

posted by David Dower

Sometimes I feel I have the best job in the world. I’m on a plane on my way back to DC, having just flown to Atlanta yesterday. (Okay, so that’s not the fun part…) I was here for a quick check-in on the progress of Tim Acito’s The Women of Brewster Place, currently in rehearsal for the first stop on its co-world premiere. When I left the building yesterday, Moisés Kaufman and company had just begun the tech process for the world premiere of his new play, 33 Variations in our own Kreeger Theater. And it was day three of rehearsal for Lisa Kron’s Well. 07/08 is in full swing!

The Brewster rehearsal hall is crackling with energy and the mega-watt personality of its company of divas. I happened to be there for a run-through of the first draft of Molly Smith’s blocking for the scene where the women stage a community-theater musical version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I noticed Terry Burrell, with a look of pure mischief in her eye, taking Molly aside. In the scene, she plays Bottom to Cheryl Alexander’s Titania. She’s got an idea she wants to fold into Kenny Robeson’s choreography and she wants to surprise everyone. I don’t hear what it is, but Molly nods her ascent.

A post from The Post

The coverage of 33 Variations has begun. Here's a link to the Weekend section article from The Washington Post. The show is so visually complex and beautiful that I'm not surprised the reporter focused on the design elements.

When you come, make sure you sneak a glimpse from time to time at the pianist, Diane Walsh, who's accompanying the whole show with Beethoven's actual Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120. She's a world-class concert pianist, and her playing is both exquisite and mesmerizing. It's especially thrilling when Beethoven is composing the Fugue late in the second act. Both performances are riveting and they are perfectly matched energy. An astonishing moment.

You can learn more about Diane Walsh here and read more about her recent recording on Jonathan Digital Recordings.

Rick Kasten on the Final Dress Rehearsal

Rick Kasten is one of the sponsors of 33 Variations and has been in the rehearsal hall from the beginning and in the Kreeger theater throughout tech. This is an excerpt of an email he sent to the company after seeing the show finally come together for its final dress rehearsal:   

“Tonight's performance was amazing and it made me finally figure out why this was the first play rehearsal process that excited me as much as dance rehearsals. When everything worked smoothly tonight, it became obvious that 33 Variations is a dance. All the meticulous preparations, which had seemed slightly obsessive until tonight, made it possible for a play to be a dance, and the end seemed like an integral part of the whole dance.”

Audio Feature: Moisés Kaufman Interviewed by his Assistant Directors

On a break during busy technical rehearsals for 33 Variations in the Kreeger Theater, Vijay Mathew, Jessie Gallogly (First Assistant Director) and Colleen Mylott (Script Coordinator) found some time with Moisés Kaufman to ask him questions about his directing and writing.

Download moises-interview.mp3

Here’s an index of the interview questions:
0:45 - Vijay asks: How is your directing different when you’re not directing your own play?

1:40 - Jessie asks: What are the advantages and disadvantages of working with your company of actors and working with a new group of actors?

3:08 - Colleen asks: How has 'moment work' evolved through the years?

5:02 - Vijay asks: Does your process determine what the final structure or form of the play will be?

5:50 - Vijay asks: Can your plays be rightfully produced and interpreted by other directors?