The Good Harvest team prepares for an audience event
Playwright Darren Callahan conducted interviews and contributed to this report:
“We have the most exciting audience in town,” says Richard Engling, Artistic Director for Chicago’s Polarity Ensemble Theatre. “That’s why we’re able to do the things we do. There is a risk in bringing new works to the stage. But our audience embraces the adventure of it. They believe that there’s no place like Chicago for theatre. They want to take part in the latest work from our local writers produced by an exciting ensemble of artists who take the time and the care to perfect the vision. That’s why right now is such an exciting time at Polarity. We are in the final weeks of Lisa Rosenthal’s deeply emotional new play The Good Harvest. We are rehearsing the four amazing new plays of the Dionysos Cup, which will open two weeks after The Good Harvest closes. And we are casting Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, the great American classic in which our distinguished guest director Susan Padveen will breathe new life.”
When asked what makes an audience exciting, Engling says: “It’s about the connection they make. It’s a network. They find us because they want to be part of this dialogue. They take part in this ensemble ideal we have that means creating and keeping connections among an ever-widening group of actors, writers, designers, directors and audience. They become an integral part of creating this art. Audience members participated a number of times along the way in shaping The Good Harvest, for instance. And that makes it yet more important to them to see the results. And we continue the dialogue. This Friday (April 23) I’ll host a talk-back event after the performance with playwright Lisa Rosenthal and others. We’ll discuss The Good Harvest and the process of writing and mounting a new play. We’re even going to a Cubs game with our audience.”
What made him interested in this particular play? From Mr. Engling’s perspective, the playwright can sometimes come before the play. “I love the connection Lisa has with us as much as I love the play.” Impressed by Chicago playwright Ms. Rosenthal as a person, as a force, and as a writer, he became committed to developing a partnership that would result in a world premiere.
In 2006, Polarity began its Dionysos Cup Festival of New Plays, a series of staged readings where four plays from Chicago playwrights receive development and two performances each—one of the events in which the audience has a profound and direct influence on the work of the ensemble. Ms. Rosenthal’s Retreat was one of the hits of the festival. This started talk from Polarity about a possible collaboration.
Polarity continued to produce works, such as new takes on Hamlet, Othello in mask, and A Streetcar Named Desire, and also original works, such as the surreal mystery The White Airplane and the genuinely creepy Ghost Watch.
When the 2008 Dionysos Cup rolled around, Ms. Rosenthal’s The Good Harvest made an even more favorable impression with the company. “The play itself is a wonderful portrait of relationships,” says Engling. “But it also has the added drama of obsession that disturbs the characters in the play at the point where it twists all their lives.”
A story of artificial insemination, multiples, and the lost child of Joan, a dead woman who appears in flashbacks, The Good Harvest uniquely refines the family drama to the sharpest point.
“Chicago Dramatists Resident Playwright Lisa Rosenthal’s wonderful new play The Good Harvest paints a compelling and highly original family portrait,” adds Russ Tutterow, Artistic Director of Chicago Dramatists and another champion of Ms. Rosenthal. “She is a ferocious worker who always has more new projects in the works than you would think would be humanly possible – and she somehow manages all of them with great care and detailed attention.”
For instance, Ms. Rosenthal is founder of the international grassroots organization, the Vet Art Project (vetartproject.com). She was inspired by hearing a radio interview with Edward Tick, Ph.D. author of War and the Soul speak about the healing power of storytelling for veterans beyond the peer group and counseling setting. This initiative offers creative arts opportunities for veterans and their family members to learn techniques from artists to explore their stories of war and service, sometimes for public performance. Since beginning this project Rosenthal refers to herself more as a social artist because she says “she can only make art that makes a difference.”
When asked if The Good Harvest, a play that was written before the creation of the Vet Art Project, is still representative of her changing worldview, she thinks for a long moment. “My playwriting is now more connected to war and service, it’s true. But this play speaks to the journey that many experience involving childbirth and again helps us realize there is a community of others who travel our path with us.” The play has undergone quite a few changes since the Dionysos Cup: new scenes and changed order and I’ve eliminated quite a bit of extraneous text. Richard has been a great resource in this refining process, too.” She remains excited by the story and feels that Mr. Engling, who also directed the production, really understood what’s required. Rosenthal also mentions her gratitude to Laura Sturm who directed the reading of this play for the Dionysos Cup and Ann Keen for her helpful feedback, too. Says Rosenthal, “Polarity is a great company of diverse artists and I feel that Richard really is a great collaborator.”
Engling is asked if the play might have a life beyond this production, maybe even a life as long as some of the classics Polarity has taken on. “When we do a new play, we really like to take the playwright’s intention as far as it will go, so it becomes, as much as possible, the definitive version. We go into it with great hope and with great engagement with our audience. There’s not much we can do for Shakespeare that hasn’t been done, but we have a lot of fun doing him. But when we take a new play, we have to give it its absolute best shot at a life beyond that first production.”
Performances of The Good Harvest take place at the Polarity Ensemble Theatre in Wicker Park at the Josephinum Academy, 1500 N Bell, Chicago, through May 2, 2010. Showtimes are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. Regular performances: $19. $15 seniors over 65. $10 students with ID. All tickets are general admission. Tickets may be purchased by calling 1-800-838-3006 or visiting BrownPaperTickets.com.