Interview: Honoring the Past & Present of a Classic

“I feel a responsibility to both past and present,” declares MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, who also serves, together with Marc Robin as Co-Director for the production which opens MSMT’s 2024 season. “It is always my intent to present shows in the way they were intended to be presented. We’ve made only minor adjustments to this production to accommodate a modern audience. It’s a pretty special piece just as it is, and these guys do a pretty special job of presenting it.”

Clark is referring to the three other panelists, William Michals, Lydia Gaston, and Todd Lawson, who together with moderator, Broadway World’s Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold, have convened to discuss SOUTH PACIFIC and inaugurate the 10th season of MSMT’s Peek Behind the Curtain series at Curtis Memorial Library on June 12.

The actors begin by discussing their connections to the work.  Michals, who has played Emile de Becque on Broadway and internationally, finds that SOUTH PACIFIC “has a message that lasts long after the last time you have performed it.” Michals identifies with de Becque’s sentiments about pointless war and the play’s indictment of racism and prejudice. “It’s a darn shame that 75 years later this bitter message about racism still needs to be spoken. Things have gotten worse over the years, and the message is still salient.”

Gaston adds,“This play is very special to me because I grew up in the Philippines and listened to harrowing war stories from my mother’s and father’s childhood.  As I grow older, they have a different effect on me because I am a parent and older now, too. Plays like this really bring back the reality of that time.”

Lawson also has a personal connection to the material, telling how he read through a collection of letters sent by his grandfather to his grandmother during World War II. “What struck me is how much levity there was in them.  Anytime you are dealing with war, you have to find the humor in it somewhere. We always need to bring humanity and levity into dark situations.”

The panel focuses on the timelessness of SOUTH PACIFIC’s book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, only the second musical to do so. Says Clark, “The Pulitzer Prize committee recognized the significance of the creators’ presenting unpopular opinions in this show. Rodgers and Hammerstein fought hard to keep those views in their work, even resisting demands that they remove the controversial elements.  I believe SOUTH PACIFIC would still be eligible for the Pulitzer Prize today, while other winning musicals like HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS with songs like “Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm” might not [stand the test of time.]  It is important to judge works based on the time in which they were written, which, in my opinion, elevates SOUTH PACIFIC even more.”

No doubt, the fact that Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning story collection by James Michener, Tales of the South Pacific, adds depth and realism to the material. The actors, all of whom read Michener’s work as part of their research, comment on the relationship of the book to the play. Michals says that “Emile de Becque is more complex in Michener’s work. He has had several female partners [before meeting Nellie] and eight children. He is a progressive thinker for his time – a man who believes in ‘the free life’ and who reads writers like André Gide. I believe him to be very open-minded and willing to accept a young woman like Nellie who doesn’t have the same continental experience he does.”

Gaston references the Michener tales which feature her character, “Fo’Dollar” and “Bloody Mary.” “The way Bloody Mary is described in the novel is not how she was originally cast.  She looks more like me; she is small and Southeast Asian (Tonkinese).”  But Gaston also draws her characterization from her actual experience. “ I have an identity crisis. I grew up in a sugar-farm-owning family; we were like de Becque.  My family and my grandfather’s family took care of an entire town of people.  There was one woman, whose daughter was my playmate. I remember this woman selling lottery tickets with a notebook; she had a red mouth from chewing beetle nuts and was always cackling.” This childhood memory serves Gaston in shaping her Bloody Mary.  “Mary is using a survival technique; she feels this is her territory, and the GIs are just guests.”

Lawson observes that in Michener, Luther Billis has been a used car salesman back in the States.  “He doesn’t respect anybody. He is running his own show.” Lawson also found inspiration in Michener’s detailed account of the boar’s tooth ceremony and uses that to inform how much his Billis “loves the ceremony and really likes souvenirs.”  Other influences, Lawson adds, are Art Carney in the Honeymooners and his own Navy grandfather who taught him how to roll his stomach.

The actors talk about the technique needed for their roles and for the “legitimate” style of SOUTH PACIFIC.  Michals pays special attention to his breath control, his diction and French accent. “Keeping the performance solid and fresh eight times a week takes discipline and craft. Ezio Pinza (the original Emile de Becque on Broadway) was an established basso cantante; he had a swagger and was a great actor.  He had enough [contractual] pull to say he was only going to sing twelve minutes of music in the show. The role is actually not that taxing for a trained singer.  You walk on stage, sing a great song, and exit, and do that four times in the show.  I am fortunate to have been trained early on by great opera artists and am happy I can still use those lessons today.”

Gaston says that as “an older actor, I find my voice is lower, so it has been fun to revisit Bloody Mary.  Ten years ago, I approached the role much more as a dancer because my first training was as a ballet dancer.” Like Michals, whose uncle sang leading roles at the Met, she comes from a performing family.  Her mother was a ballet teacher for fifty years; her grandmother a singer, and her aunt Conchita Gaston an international opera singer. “Ten years ago I didn’t belt “Bali H’ai” as much as I do now, though my friends always say I [still] sound legit,” says Gaston. The early dance training remains a very large part of Gaston’s technique. “When I take a breath, I feel as if I am doing a grand plié; if I’m holding a note, it feels like an extension. I compare everything in singing to something physical in dance.”

Lawson says that the physical demands of playing Billis are considerable. “In the second act, I am running around like a crazy person changing costumes and singing and doing all that physical business, and I have to do a character voice for Billis, too.  I find I have to do a full body warm up in order to keep everything open.”

Gaston sums up: “When you sing, it’s always about the character; you produce your voice, but what comes out is whatever your characterization is.”

The panelists turn their discussion to MSMT’s new video wall technology which has won raves in SOUTH PACIFIC. Clark explains how this technology (MSMT is one of only 4 regional theatres nationwide to currently own this state-of-the-art setup) has been invaluable to the company, especially in simplifying things at changeover and on MSMT’s ever-busy schedule. “Teching BEAUTY AND THE BEAST this past weekend was the first time we were able to change from mainstage to TYA and back without putting crazy demands on the staff.”  He describes how the video panels all snap together, are interchangeable, can be re-programmed remotely, if necessary, by the designer, and can be used with great flexibility.

Michals praises MSMT’s use of the technology: “I believe the real victory is the restraint and artistic taste they are employing in the design because [overuse] it could easily detract from the human aspect of the story.  Kudos to MSMT. That is not happening here.”

Gaston comments that the new technology cuts down on big set pieces and dangerous set changes, while Lawson says, “It helps transport the actor to a different place. Live performance is live performance. You still have to use your imagination.”

Clark observes that this production may likely be the first SOUTH PACIFIC to use the video technology.  This is one of the modern elements he has brought to the show as its producer/director. But, he maintains even the contemporary touches are there to help recreate the 1940s experience as vividly and authentically as possible.  “A great deal has changed in terms of sensibilities since the old days,” Clark remarks. “There have been all white companies of this show and others like THE KING AND I. Fortunately, we know better now that that does not tell a true story. We are in the process of fixing those issues in our industry, but it does take time. When Stephanie [Dupal] and I did our auditions in New York this year, we saw over 2000 people, and though we don’t know specific ethnicities, I would estimate that only 50-60 were people of color.  That makes it hard to do a show like this.  You either have to know appropriate actors or go out and find them. In a place like Maine that is very difficult.  I have had folks say ‘Why do you care? We are all white here?’ And I say, that is exactly why I DO care!”

Michals shares his experience of a SOUTH PACIFIC at the Opéra de Toulon in which “the actress playing Bloody Mary was an established French star who wore what can only be called yellow face and had her eyes taped back.”

And while these practices are, happily, vanishing, there are others who might decry what they see as “stereotypes” or “antiquated behavior” in SOUTH PACIFIC’s characters.  Gaston responds by arguing that she sees Bloody Mary as a survivor.  “She is a realist about the war, and she has to do desperate things. Protecting her daughter Liat is her prime focus. She wants to do well by her, and she has handpicked Cable to be the guy for Liat.”

All the panelists concur that honoring the history and the characters who inspired SOUTH PACIFIC is of primary importance.   Gaston says that when she is teaching Applied Theatre at CUNY, she and her colleagues often discuss how “what is taught in the United States about World War II is European centered. This show does a good job of reminding us what it was like in Asia. I feel I can represent the women who worked on my family’s and others’ lands and who had very little power. I  want to tell my whole family to get rid of the land, the remains of a feudal, colonial society.  It’s a burden.  So when I [play this role] I feel I am honoring these [working] women.”

Lawson says his character and the Seabees honor a different aspect of the war. “They were AT war but not IN war, just as the Americans at home were helping with the war effort, but not really part of it.”

Gaston comments, “Theatre like SOUTH PACIFIC sets up questions but doesn’t always give answers. A piece like this really makes people look inside themselves.”

Clark thinks a show like SOUTH PACIFIC is so powerful because it portrays that deep bond shared by servicemen – “a whole generation of people who knew and shared some unbreakable connections and memories.”

Gaston sees the war itself and wartime stories such as this one demonstrating how “Americans experienced the world in a way they had never before. The war shattered their isolation and made them aware of the rest of the world.”

“And they all came home with a story,” affirms Clark.

His words are underscored by an especially poignant tale Gaston recounts: “My father told me how they would often watch [aerial] dogfights that took place near their property between Japanese and American planes. One day an American pilot crashed on a cliff near the beach.  My grandparents recovered his dog tag with his name and a rosary, and after the war, they located his parents in America and met with them to return the dog tag and rosary.”

No small amount of the enduring appeal of SOUTH PACIFIC lies in its authentic depictions of characters, place, and events. “Written shortly after the end of the war,” Clark says, “SOUTH PACIFIC was powerful because the story was fresh in everyone’s minds. Many of the themes were hard messages to hear then, and, sadly they still need to be spoken today. But fortunately a work as compelling as SOUTH PACIFIC makes those messages easier to be heard.

 

Photos courtesy of MSMT, Dane Whitlock, photographer

PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN is a 4-program series of panel discussions held on June 12, July 3, July 24, August 14 at noon in Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. 

SOUTH PACIFIC runs until June 22, 2024 at MSMT’s Pickard Theater on the Bowdoin College campus, 1 Bath Rd. Brunswick, ME  207-725-8769  www.msmt.org