Cowan Palace: Drowning in Beauty Beyond a Grand Victorian Soap Opera and Other Chats With Margery Fairchild

This week, Ashley’s talking to Margery Fairchild about her new production!

Featuring, Christy Crowley, Kirsten Dwyer, Katharine Otis, and Courtney Russell; Photo Credit: Basil Galloway

As we get ready to begin The Year Of Monkey and dive deeper into 2016’s second month, Dark Porch Theatre is preparing to kick off their new season! Pas de Quatre, opening at EXIT Studio in just a few days, is the poetic brainchild of Margery Fairchild who has spent years developing this work exploring the relationships between ballet dancers and their art.

Here to bring us further into the world of dancing, is the writer and director herself, Margery!

Please tell us a bit more about Pas de Quatre.

In 1845, Benjamin Lumley, the director at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, had a brilliant idea; to bring together the four reigning Ballerinas of Europe and have them dance together. He also commissioned the famous choreographer Jules Perrot, to create the Divertisment (as it was billed) and the Pas De Quatre was the result of that collaboration. It is considered, along with La Slyphide and Giselle to be one of the seminal works of the Romantic Era in Ballet.

However, the mixing of these powerful celebrities with very distinct styles and personalities, proved somewhat volatile and many historians marvel that it even made it to the stage! Perrot had been married (and divorced) to one of the dancers, partner to two and Ballet Master to all. The dancers themselves had been subjected to incredible public scrutiny and as manufactured as their rivalries were, it still had a distinct impact on their working relationships.

The story has all the makings of a grand Victorian soap opera, but my goal with the project was to dig beyond that temptation.

How has the production evolved since you first began working on it?

I wrote Pas de Quatre as a screenplay in 2002, but it travelled to the back burner. In 2012, I wrote PDQ as a full Two Act play with a cast of 8, which had a staged reading as a part of DIVAfest. In 2014 PDQ morphed into a 50 minute long experimental dance/theatre piece and had a 4 performance workshop at DIVAFest. After several revisions and a new cast, it will debut as part of Dark Porch Theatre’s 2016 residency at Exit Theatre. It’s not a straightforward narrative. The story is deconstructed and organized to parallel the actual music score of the Ballet, a format that allows for greater exploration in the storytelling and character investigation.

As the show focuses on the relationship that forms between ballerinas and ballet, can you tell us a little bit more about your relationship and background with ballet?

I studied Ballet for 9 years at The Boston Ballet and I had a love/hate relationship with the experience. Ballet, like all Fine Art studies, created a foundation of discipline and dedication, but it was also incredibly difficult. While putting your body through the transformation needed to achieve the lines and perfection of the craft, one must deal with a lot of pain and disappointment. I never had the right body and feet to continue as a professional, but I still put myself through it out of love. I quit Ballet at 17 after multiple back and neck injuries. It took a couple years before I started studying Modern Dance in college and began to identify myself as a dancer again. Now as an actor and director, I’ve always recognized the edge and vision that as come from my formative training.

While the show may take place in London, 1845, what do you think San Francisco audiences in 2016 will most relate to?

The Dancers, like ghosts, almost appear as if summoned by the audience themselves and once conjured, they must play out their stories. The history is important, but it is not the lesson of the story, it’s about the people themselves. We connect to human stories, in so far as history repeats itself and we find ourselves navigating the same conflicts and trials despite the Age. I suppose that’s why I’m always drawn towards historical re-imaginings, because there’s so much to learn from it.

What’s been the biggest challenge in bringing this show to its feet?

The biggest challenge was casting. Finding actors with the dance/ movement background to pull off the physical requirements. Ballet isn’t something you can fake. I needed to craft the Play in a way that could accommodate different levels of strengths, but ultimately balance them.

What’s been your favorite moment of mounting this production so far?

The question: “Why do we put ourselves through this?”, being answered one night during the tail end of a Monday Night rehearsal, when the cast has had a collective breakthrough despite their exhaustion and you’re left smiling in wonder. The inevitable doubts being answered by the creative process itself. It keeps us coming back again and again!

What’s your favorite local place for a post show drink/snack?

I like to shake it up! PianoFight and the White Horse are the usual destinations these days.

What’s next for Dark Porch?

Dark Porch Theatre will be presenting the darkly hilarious The Diplomats! Written and Directed by DPT’s co-artistic director Martin Schwartz. It will run through the month of May on the EXIT Main Stage.

What’s next for you? Any projects you’ll be working on in the future or shows you’re excited to see?

I’ll be performing in and co producing The Diplomats in May. I’m also involved in the final shooting phase of the feature film, To No Good End, which I’ve co created with my fiancé Kindrid Parker… And then we’re getting married!

As far as shows I’m excited to see? I’m honestly overwhelmed with the wealth of good Indy theatre/dance/performance happening in this town right now, despite the struggles that artists have faced to stay here. Between Exit Theatre, PianoFight, CounterPulse all on the same block, it’s proof that we’re holding our own!

In 160 words characters or less, why do we need to see Pas de Quatre?

This play is only an hour and you will spend the entire 60 minutes drowning in beauty!

And, it gets even better Theater Pub readers! Margery has offered a special discount code for you! To get it, use: Code: DPTdiscount16; Discount: $10 off per ticket ($15 tix)!

Pas de Quatre runs Thursday – Saturday, February 11 – 27 at 8:00 p.m. with an additional matinee performance at 3 p.m. on February 20. For tickets and more information, please visit www.darkporchtheatre.org.

Working Title: Sex, Shotgun & Rovers

This week Will Leschber discussses Aphra Behn, sexual symbolism and Shotgun Players’ current production of The Rover. It’s time to transport it all to the Carnival!!

When I think of Aphra Behn I think of English Lit in college and my firecracker of a professor who always had a penchant for pointing out the sexual aspects of the various stories we were required to read. What made it funnier was that Professor Firecracker looked like she walked off the set of Golden Girls and into the classroom. Picture Blanche Devereaux teaching you about the underlying sexual nature of Keats.

Like a beautiful misleading costume, she cloaked herself in the veneer of a sweet older lady, but never failed to make sure everyone student was titillated by the unsavory nature of William Blake’s “The Sick Rose” or Wordsworth’s “The world is too much with us” or Lord Byron’s “When we two parted”. I’m not sure I ever wanted to read between the lines of a symbolic Sick Rose but I can’t unsee the crimson symbolism now. Thanks Blanche!! Along with these old white dudes of the Romantic Era, a pillar of female Restoration writing was plenty discussed as well. English lit! You gotta cover everything! In the end, Professor Blanche was right… linking Aphra Behn to using a lens of sexuality and gender politics isn’t that far off base, considering her work still invites a discussion of gender roles and stereotypes 300 odd years after it was initially written.

That’s all well and good and boring for us not enrolled in ENG 205, you say. I hear ya! But this is where it gets contemporary. Wait for it…

Shotgun Players, which is celebrating it’s all female playwright season, gets into the Halloween spirit through all manner of costume and mask, with Aphra Behn’s Restoration Era classic, The Rover. The play follows three women pushing on masked gender expectations in this comic romp that takes place in Naples during the Carnival masquerade. Boom, I told ya! The play is on and it’s just as funny as it was when it premiered back in 1677. What’s that now? You need some movie recommendations to wet your abridged attention span before going to check out The Rover? Alright…here goes.

Siobhan Marie Doherty as Florinda and Caitlyn Louchard as Hellena, photo by Pak Han

I had the pleasure of speaking with Siobhan Marie Doherty (Bay Area actor, director, teacher, rapscallion, and voiceover artist) who plays Florinda in Shotgun Player’s The Rover. When asked for the perfect film pairing for their play, Siobhan had this to say…

“A fabulous movie to get primed for gigantic passions and the powerful spirit of Carnival would be Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) from 1959. It is a re-telling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth set in Rio de Janeiro, that has many, many parallels to our play: the use of mask, the threat of death, desperate lovers, scorned lovers, seduction, transgression, etc. I haven’t seen it since high school, but it made a big impression on me. Between the stunning photography and the excellent soundtrack, the movie has been described by many as a sensual feast.”

“…the most sensuous use of color I have ever seen on film…it is not so much dressed in color as created out of color.”
~Paul Beckley, New York Herald Tribune

Black Orpheus won a slew of awards in it’s day, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign film. It’s a classic of world cinema and glorious to behold. If one excellent classic recommendation wasn’t enough, Siobhan threw in something a little bit more contemporary for our sampling as well. She continues…

“Another movie to activate your spirit of transgressive adventure would be Thelma and Louise. It parallels the play in that there are two sisterly women determined to better their lives in a dangerous world. While the men they know well, or encounter on the journey, may sometimes present temptation, they always present a very real threat to their spirits, finances, and/or their bodies. However, even in the face of great danger, the women continue to help each other, and they fight hard. Also, if you haven’t seen it, uh, you’re seriously missing out. If you have seen it, watch it again!”

There you have it folks; something old, something new, something sexual and something to do. If you aren’t into the scares this Halloween but still want to get into the carnival costumed spirit, check out The Rover at Shotgun Players; It runs now until November 15th. Black Orpheus can be found on Youtube. Watch at your own pleasure. And Thelma & Louise can be found at all video stores circa 1992. Enjoy!