Interview with Mark Cassidy (Playwright/Director): Part II

The script was in development for over a year. Can you describe this process? How did the actors contribute to the development of the script?

I did a treatment of the book on my own which I brought to the team for our first script development workshop. I described my goals to the actors at this point as follows: to begin the work of creating a dynamic ensemble for this show, to create three dimensional characters for the play - both individually and as a family, to discover what the essential story of this book is for us as a group, to explore different ways to best express this story, to collectively research the period of the story and process it through discussion and improvisation. And that is pretty much how the first week unfolded. We did a series of movement, improvisation, and character exercises building the sense of ensemble and creating possible scenes. As a group, we wrote out scenes and images on cue cards then improvised freely on them in various sequences, experimenting with theatrical forms, the dream-like possibilities of the work. Each actor was put through an intensive solo interview by the group to allow them to create subtext for scenes which were not fully described in the book. I also asked the actors to each prepare their own idea for how to bring a scene from the book to life, with surprises in it and each actor directed the others in these scenes. At the end we strung everything all together in one crazy improv of the whole book, which of course was hugely complicated and epic, but also inspired and filled with possibilities. Some of the verbal and physical improvs were recorded for future reference.

Then I went away and did some more work on the script myself. Many different versions. The second workshop we continued to work physically but did more around the table hashing out of scenes... we each took scenes home and worked on them and presented them to the group engaging in energetic discussions and debates on what was working and not. With the help of assistant director, Esther Jun, I continued to transcribe scenes from actor improvs, preserving the character rhythms but boiling them down to the most important conflicts. Since this second workshop, the script has gone through lots more revision on the computer with many helpful comments from entire creative team, including the author of the book, Vivian Kaplan.

Why did you decide to focus on the story of the four siblings and Poldi? We frequently hear them discuss Mama, for example, but we never actually see her. What other artistic decisions did you make, and why?

I made this decision early on, in response to the question of what or who, is essential, in our stage version. With a film obviously you can include everyone, but in plays, you need to explore how many people are really needed to tell the story. It doesn't bother me when I don't see a character who is always being referred to. Sometimes the limitations of theatre allow an audience's imagination in, rather than doing all the work for them. I am a firm believer in the quickness of an audience's intelligence and look for ways to engage and intrigue without spelling everything out. Another artistic decision which was made in terms of the adapatation was to make all the text active, dramatic. As tempting as it was to tell the story in the same way Vivian does in the book, ultimately it felt right to allow the audience to experience the story along with the actors, not just have them telling it after the fact.

The events of the play happened over 60 years ago. Why was it important to you to tell this story? What do you hope that young people will learn?

Whether you are dealing with events a thousand years or two weeks ago, to me, theatre is always about now. It it is about the reality unfolding between the audience and presenters in relationship to the source material. I am in theatre because I have faith that it can make the world a better place, that, however consciously or subconsciously, it can help promote imagination, empathy, and a sense of community. Theatre invites the question, where am I in all this? I will never forget reading a book by Samantha Power called "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, during which the global community's persistent failure to act on genocides occuring in the world, was described as a failure of the imagination. In situation after situation during the twentieth century, neither people nor their politicians, could fathom, imagine or empathize with, the pain of others being targeted for nothing other than their creed, skin tone or culture, so did nothing to stop murder on a mass scale. I believe theatre encourages us to better understand certain events and therefore make better choices in the ongoing improvisations of our own lives. War in general, and the Holocaust in particular, are aspects of history many people would rather ignore. But as individuals, and as a civilization, we really can't afford to not go there. We need to struggle with what humankind is capable of, both in our evil acts toward each other as well as in our acts of great compassion, courage and love. As I said above, Ten Green Bottles is a story about life against death... a family struggling to survive as the dark clouds of fascism and terror gather over them, testing their resourcefulness and powers of endurance again and again, as they dream of a better future. For me, that makes it an important story to tell.