Forward Theater Company Blog

The Farnsworth Invention Blog 

The cast of Forward Theater's first production in the 2011-2012 season, The Farnsworth Invention, includes high school and college students, MFA candidates from the acting program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a mix of professional and community actors with a wide range of experience. Because the show is so large -- 16 actors portraying more than 70 roles -- and the pace is so fast, the three week rehearsal process will be intensely challenging. We asked several of the actors and technical artists involved in the production to give us their perspectives on the process. We'll we adding new posts throughout the rehearsal process and production.

 

And One More Story From Behind-the Scenes of The Farnsworth Invention

There are unsung heroes in all professions -- those noble folks who roll their sleeves up pitch in to help, just because it's the right thing to do. They seek neither recognition nor acclaim for doing (often thankless) jobs. In the theater world there are a myriad of these individuals. From the assistant stage manager, who literally runs from one side of the backstage area to another to retrieve a costume piece for an actor moments before an entrance, to the crew member who crawls under the set and painstakingly secures each creak and bubble in the wood to cut down on the noise level when actors walk. The little miracles these folks perform go unnoticed by the audience and help make the performance seamless. As actors we recognize and honor this work, knowing we are all small cogs in the massive machine that is a professional production. In The Farnsworth Invention, we needed all the usual unsung heroes, plus one more.

Three days into the run of the show, actor Paul Kennedy walked into our dressing room, dropped to his knees, rolled to his side, and said “I’ve spent the day in the emergency room. I can’t keep anything down. My stomach hurts, and this is bad.” I’ve known Paul for many years, so I stood there waiting for the punch line, as did the other actors in the room. When Paul turned over and we saw the pallor in his face we knew this was not a joke. This was serious.

Kristi, our stage manager was alerted, as was director Jen Gray – one of our actors may not be able to go on tonight. We had a sold-out audience and a theater critic or two coming to see Farnsworth in an hour, and Paul didn’t have an understudy. (None of the actors in the show had understudies.) Cots were set up on either side of the backstage area for him to rest between scenes. Paul’s blocking was changed to allow him to leave the stage during any crowd scene he felt unable finish. Arrangements were made so he wouldn’t have to lift any set pieces or props. The show went on and Paul put in a Herculean effort in maintaining multiple character parts with many quick changes. He collapsed on his respective cots between scenes, but he made it through.

That night Jen called FTC advisory company member Jim Buske, who had starred in last season’s Moonlight and Magnolias. He was put on alert and began pouring over the script. Immediately after the show Paul went to the hospital and we were all informed it was his appendix. He pulled off another show on Sunday then left for surgery. The following Thursday the company was informed that Paul’s appendix had burst and it was almost certain Jim would be replacing him.

Immediately I thought of Paul’s first scene in the show -- he plays a Russian officer, SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN! Not only did Jim have to learn several parts in just a few days and navigate the complicated choreography of going on and off stage at breakneck speed, he had to learn RUSSIAN! The company had a “put in” rehearsal on Thursday where Jen walked Jim Buske through his scenes. She assigned “minders” to Jim, actors who would guide him from the moment he left the stage, telling him what scene was next, and where to enter. Jim borrowed one of Paul’s backstage cots and laid out all his costumes plus a script and his personal cheat sheet. Other than a small slip of paper inserted into the program informing the audience of a cast change, no one knew that The Farnsworth Invention cast included an actor who had literally just learned the part.

And against all odds. . .he did it. Jim pulled it off, and no one in the audience knew which actor was the replacement. In talkbacks after the show, we singled Jim out for an extra round of applause, for his incredible acting ability and his nerves of steel. Jim finished the second weekend of the run and through sheer force of will, Paul returned to his role for our sold-out closing weekend.

My hat is indeed off to both of these guys. In all honesty I don't know if I could have done what either of them did. I am in awe of anyone who could even think of going onstage with an appendix ready to burst and I am struck to the soul with fear of having to learn a part in two days and go onstage without a script in hand. (This is a recurring nightmare for most actors, by the way.) Both Paul and Jim are my heroes and I can't wait to hear these stories shared in future Forward dressing rooms. This is the stuff of theater lore, folks!

-Richard Ganoung, FTC advisory company member, 
and cast member of The Farnsworth Invention

 

 

Thanks to you, our community!

Posted 11-16-11

They assure me before the opening scene that there are a lot of you in attendance. But really, I have no idea how many of you are actually seated out there during the show. The lights are too bright, the house is too big, and I’m too busy trying to keep pace with some of the finest actors in the Midwest. But just before the evening concludes and the last light fades, the sixteen of us get a clear view of the crowd that has gathered to hear the story of the birth of television. The house is bathed in a cool blue haze, and as I look out past the footlights for the first and only time of the night, I see 300+ faces looking back at me. It’s quite something.

I was in a little play this past summer. It was in a little theater; it had a little budget; we printed up little programs with typeface little enough to fit all our little names. But something happened to our little play. Crowds came. Big crowds. Crowds big enough to warrant additional shows. Crowds big enough to suggest the possibility of a successful remount.

I mention that little play because every time this big play ends and the house lights come all the way up, I can’t help but be reminded of the other shows I’ve been a part of here in town--mostly because I find myself looking into many smiling, cheering faces I swear I’ve seen before.

Forward Theater’s production of The Farnsworth Invention has nearly sold out. Kudos to all involved, of course. But perhaps we can infer something even greater from this accomplishment--something about the community that has so enthusiastically received the production and the company, along with other locally produced shows this year.

In the half hour before the opening performance of Farnsworth last weekend, my friend and fellow cast member Richard Ganoung said he loved what was about to happen, because after so many long months of it being the director’s and creative team’s show, and after so many long weeks of it being the actors’ show, it was finally about to become the audience’s show.

It’s an amazing thing to feel the overwhelming support of our community. It’s amazing that no matter what happens politically, no matter what happens economically, no matter what happens socially or culturally, Madison will always value its stories.

I think it means we were meant to be storytellers too.

    -Jake Penner, University of Wisconsin, Madison student and
    cast member in The Farnsworth Invention

 

The Final Ingredient
Posted 11-4-11

 Nicholas Harazin, Photo by Zane Williams

Theater cannot exist in a vacuum. It should not exist in a vacuum. And that’s why the final step in the play-making process has to be flinging open the doors and inviting an audience to share in what has been created. So often plays are co-opted into the spheres of academia and hoisted into an ivory tower of heightened poetry and lofty literature. But plays are meant to be heard, not read. True, they can be literary and wordy and well constructed but they are not meant to be read alone in a room. Plays are meant to be shared.

For me, theater is a communal experience. It is the campfire where a community sits to hear its stories reflected back to its members. Today people come to that campfire, “to see a play,” but in Shakespeare’s time, and even as far back as the Greeks, people would attend the theater “to hear a play” that is why we call them audiences and not vidiences. I was reminded of this fact recently by a fine teacher.

The Farnsworth Invention, for all of its scientific language, legal jargon, and history, is a play to be heard. It is a reflection of our human experiences, of our drive to succeed, and our need for forgiveness. The characters portrayed are real, their words honest. Their dreams are to leave this world better than when they found it, no different than yours or mine.

Last night, a sold-out preview audience heard that story. It was spoken by many members of the Madison community and stands as a testament to the vital importance they place on the art of storytelling. We cannot do this play without you. You are the final ingredient. You are the community we wish to serve, enrich, and inspire.

I thank each of you for supporting Forward by hearing this story.

-Nicholas Harazin, Philo Farnsworth in The Farnsworth Invention

 

 

 

Tech Week Begins
Posted 10-31-11 

Photos by Jen Trieloff

I find that my love of a show, and my connection to it, happen at sporadic moments while tech-ing a show. It normally happens when blind cueing a show produces great results or when I get to see a very intricate cueing section finally brought to life. Two such moments happened yesterday and today. Saturday just seeing a transitional moment with streaks of color running across it really got me excited for this play. Today’s tech brought a very challenging moment to my table, working the New York Stock Exchange moment. It was a fast and furious cueing session and it was not until the whole thing came together that I realized exactly how beautiful some of these moments can be.

Tech is always a challenging time for me. As one of my professors likes to say, “Watching a lighting designer during tech is like watching a piece of performance art.” Typing furiously in order to create a certain look, using buttons as both my brush and color palette, I’m able to paint with light, adding in dashes of texture or color in order to highlight a moment, or really pull the audience’s focus to a certain spot on stage. For me personally, tech is my moment to step up to the plate and really deliver, and showcase my art. If you ever get the chance watch a lighting designer create during this process, take it! For those of you who have never been able to sit in on a tech rehearsal, it’s comparable to watching an artist paint while narrating in a foreign language.

 -Jono de Leon, University of Wisconsin, Madison MFA lighting student    

 

 

The Props are Here

Posted 10-28-11

Rehearsal photo:  Assistant stage manager Kim Patch, Kristin Hammargren and Whitney Derendinger with the new props

The second week of rehearsal has come and gone, and the big highlight was…props! We got all of the equipment for Farnsworth’s lab, and I think I’ve finally sorted out what everything does. We have a camera (a box on a stand) with a “cathode tube” that takes in the image, sends it to an electronic transmitter (another box) which then transmits it to a receiver (a third box). We spent a lot of time figuring out what comes on when, who brings it, and which physical piece of equipment is referred to in which lines. Of course some of our props are still stand-ins for the real thing. The aforementioned cathode tube is basically a glass cylinder, so it's too fragile to use in rehearsal. For now we are using a roll of paper towels. It has been a great joy for the lab gang to walk around with a paper towel roll that we handle like a sacred golden idol. Someone called it the “godly roll." My favorite personal prop is a notebook. I play Farnsworth’s sister, Agnes, who doesn’t build anything per se, but I now have a lab notebook and subsequently feel very important. I amuse myself with creative ways to spell what we’re talking about in the lab. (Cesium=see z um, etc.) (And by that I mean, acting is very hard and requires undivided focus.)

As I’m writing this we’re just a few short days from tech. The show is in this great place -- we’re already doing run-throughs and we have time to try a lot of different things in scenes. It’s wonderful. Of course we also have time for more esoteric discussions. For example, right now Annelise Dickinson and Karen Moeller are debating whose coat would win in a fight, Lizette’s or Mary Pickford’s. (I'm not taking sides. You'll have to decide for yourself when you see the show.) In another deeply artistic moment, someone just complimented Whitney Derendinger on his green shirt saying, “Whitney you’re very pistachio today,” to which Paul Kennedy remarked, “I think she’s saying you’re nuts.” Back to business. Happy Halloween.

 -Kristin Hammargren, University of Wisconsin, Madison MFA student    
and cast member in The Farnsworth Invention

 

The End of the Second Week of Rehearsal

Posted 10-25-11
It’s the end of the second week of rehearsals and we’ve accomplished an incredible amount of work. This company is chomping at the bit to do run-throughs, and our director and production crew have graciously allowed us this opportunity. In most productions you may have one or two run-throughs before tech begins, but Farnsworth is a whole other creature. We’ve now done three complete run-throughs and have another coming up this Tuesday!

I have never worked on a show where my off-stage time is busier than my onstage time! As actors in this colossus we are constantly changing character, costume, and set pieces. The backstage life of an actor often involves touching up your make-up, grabbing a glass of water, or checking on the latest sports scores. Not in Farnsworth! In this show you are never far from the stage as you look at other actors who have the same puzzled expression of “what’s next?” on their faces. This is the stage of rehearsal where we commit all 51 scenes in our heads to memory. That roller coaster ride that (cast mate and fellow FTC advisory company member) Karen Moeller talked about on our first read-through is at full swing right now.

This weekend we also had the pleasure of greeting the Friends of Forward volunteers for the “Paint The Town” event, organized by our very own Director of Audience Development Julia Nicholas. The volunteers and acting company were treated to muffins, bagels, and juice in an informal meet and greet on a beautiful autumn morning. The volunteers then delivered posters all over Madison, before returning to watch part of the rehearsal. A vibrant and outgoing volunteer structure is vital to help inform the community about the mission of FTC -- Madison’s “local, professional, exceptional” theater company.

I also must give a nod to two very special people who have joined the Forward family, Andrew and Mary Sewell, the parents of our youngest cast member Alistair. Maestro Andrew Sewell is the conductor of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and Mary is a gifted violinist in her own right. Their son Alistair plays both the young Philo Farnsworth and young David Sarnoff. Andrew and Mary take turns being at rehearsal with Alistair and simply beam when they watch their son going through his paces. In the green room they engage the actors, giving us support and asking wonderful questions about the profession. They are a terrific addition to our growing family.
[Photo:  Alistair Sewell] 

 

-Richard Ganoung, FTC advisory company member, 
and cast member of The Farnsworth Invention

 

 

History May Not Be His Story

Posted 10-21-11
Time and time again, I end up working on plays based on real people. Just two months ago, I was with the Milwaukee Rep playing Carl Sederholm Jr, half-brother to Alfred Lunt, in Jeffery Hatcher’s Ten Chimneys. Now, I find myself playing Philo Farnsworth in Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention. Even when I work on Shakespeare, some of his characters are based on real historical figures.

Rehearsal Photo:  Trevon Jackson, Nicholas Harazin, Richard Ganoung, and Bill Bolz

People usually ask, “What is it like to play someone who actually lived?” or, “What goes into creating a role like this?” Personally, I do a great deal of research before heading into rehearsals. For shows that take place in an historical context, I do even more.

For this show, I spent a lot of time revisiting eighth grade science lessons that I forgot many years ago. I read a couple of books on the 1929 stock market crash, researched early television, watched my father take apart a tube television, watched documentaries and interviews, and read biographies. Then you get into the room and you have to forget all of that.

You do the research so you know what these words mean, who these people are, how these events came about, the why and the where, and every little bit of information you obtain helps you create the character or craft a moment. But at the end of the day, what we have to work with on stage is a play pure and simple.

No doubt, Aaron Sorkin did his research. He crafted a powerful play centering on two intelligent individuals. It is also true he took liberties galore with the history for his own dramatic device. Sorkin has changed some characters’ demeanor towards Philo’s pitch for TV, compressed the timeline of events, simplified locations (even though there are dozens already, there could have been more), and used buzz words and technical jargon to substitute for actual scientific explanation. Being obsessed with details, being a cerebral actor, this is something that kills me. But Jen (Uphoff Gray) is there to remind me to play the PLAY.

And that last bit is really the godsend. That little reminder. I am an actor. I am not a scientist. I am not an inventor. And the story we have to tell the audience is not a step-by-step instruction on how to build a TV. It is also not a docudrama. It is not a history class for those interested in the lives of David Sarnoff and Philo T. Farnsworth.

You will, of course, gain some of these insights. You will learn something about this time, these people, and the inception of a device that truly changed the way we see the world. But it is not history, strictly speaking it is Aaron Sorkin’s story. His story is about ingenuity, the strength of the human spirit, and the need to explore. And when you see the show you will find a myriad of other things his story speaks to, which he could not have said, had he not taken dramatic liberties with his story telling.

We are meant to be storytellers. Aaron Sorkin has allowed us to tell one hell of a story. Come check it out.

-Nicholas Harazin, Philo Farnsworth in The Farnsworth Invention

 

 

 

An MFA Student's Perspective

Posted 10-19-11
My name is Kristin Hammargren and I'll represent the graduate student contingent of the cast on this blog. There are eight of us (half of the cast) who are in our third and final year of the MFA (master of fine arts) in acting program at UW. It's really exciting for the UW Theatre Department to collaborate with Forward, and I hope they continue to long after I've graduated.

We're all thrilled for many reasons. We get to work with professional actors, a new director, a fantastic contemporary script, a rehearsal room with windows, a hospitality table (coffee for me?), and of course...we are able to put our two and a half years of hard work to good use playing a huge variety of characters. I play eight different people and I think we average probably ten or twelve characters apiece.

The script is fun in that it really lends itself to making some bold choices as far as voice and physicality goes. This reminds me of my favorite David Mamet quotation about acting, "It doesn't matter how you say the lines. What matters is what you mean. What comes from the heart goes to the heart. The rest is funny voices." And of course, I'm starting with funny voices. My latest is stolen from Sue Scott of A Prairie Home Companion. I believe it's the voice she does when she plays Garrison's mother. I grew up in Minnesota, by the way. There's no humor like Lutheran humor.

At the end of the first week, I feel like Farnsworth has the makings of a really great show -- one of those shows that I remember fondly as an actor. That's a people thing. The rehearsal room is just full of great people. The mood is really relaxed and positive, which you just can't beat for creativity. A lot of credit should go to Jen (Uphoff Gray) for being really chill while she sorts through a logistical beast of a show. I think working on great material also helps, because the two previous shows that I remember warmly were both productions of Into the Woods, my favorite musical and an extremely well-written, witty, and poignant piece of theatre. All of which also apply to The Farnsworth Invention. Check back tech week and we'll see how fond I'm feeling.

As far as behind-the-scenes hijinks goes...not to give anything away, but in the play there's a scene set in 1912 where a character is receiving (via radio) the names of some survivors of the Titanic disaster. He gives them to another man who then relays the names to a massive throng of people (represented by four actors myself included). Before the assistant director looked up some of the real Titanic survivors for us to use in the scene, we improvised with some interesting names, including: John Doe, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt (bonus pints to anyone who replied "his name is my name too", Susan Sweeney (the MFA's voice teacher), and the dashing Seymour Buts.

 -Kristin Hammargren, University of Wisconsin, Madison MFA student   
and cast member in The Farnsworth Invention

 

 

 

The End of Week One

Posted 10-17-11
Good day everyone. My name is Nicholas Harazin. I am an actor based out of Chicago, born in the front seat of a car in California, raised in Minnesota, and now working, once again in Wisconsin. I have acted here before, but there is something strange about coming to Madison to begin work on this large-scale production during a week when the Badgers are having their homecoming game, the Brewers are playing National League Championship Series, and the Packers attained a 6 and 0 record. Wisconsin is a state that loves sports. It is also safe to say it supports the arts. But it is hard not to seem dwarfed by this recent feats of athleticism on the baseball and football fields.

I can safely say, however, that while all of the above was happening, there was a massive achievement occurring at the rehearsal space for Forward Theater. In less than a week, Jen Gray (artistic director of Forward Theater and director of The Farnsworth Invention) staged the entire play and held a run-through on day 5 of rehearsal - a day ahead of schedule. It was the culmination of a great deal of hard work on everyone's part, on a show which involves a cast of 16, playing 70 plus characters in more than 30 locations. For anyone who is not in the theater, let me tell you this is no small accomplishment. It is a testament to the hard work Jen has put into the play already, as well as the work that each actor and artist has put in, both onstage and off.

Many times patrons will tell me that what they see onstage looks so easy, free, and fun. I would be lying if I said it was not fun, but I can tell you that to make a show look easy and free it takes a great deal of hard work. It is our job as artists to orchestrate the best possible way to tell you the story of the play. The actors, designers, and director create memorable characters and evocative scenes through deliberate, subtle but essential choices (hundreds of these choices!). The rehearsal process is labor intensive, like any other job, but we do this because it creates a better final product.

On a typical rehearsal day, we sit in the room trying to solve a specific problem. The director is the eye of the audience and the actors are the paints used on the canvas - in this case the stage. The director may tell us to do a scene one way, and it may not work. Then we'll try another way, which also doesn't work. But the goal is to get as close as possible to the solution before moving on. For every minute of stage time, you can expect at least an hour of rehearsal for that one moment. Things are put together, taken apart, dissected, and reassembled. We try to find the best way possible to tell the story the playwright wrote, and the only reason that a play ever looks easy or free or fun, is because smart people took the time in the rehearsal room to pay attention to tiny details, asking questions like, "which hand should this prop be in?," "should this door be open or closed at this time?" or "should I loosen my tie or not?"

These may seem like silly, stupid, who-cares-either-way type details, but these are the details that we pay attention to, so that the audience does NOT notice them. We debate what works best in any given moment, so that a patron can watch the show and not be taken out of the moment. They can be immersed in the show, follow the plot, and walk out of the theater affected by a good story told well.

In week one of rehearsal for The Farnsworth Invention, we spent a great deal of time setting the ground work for such a story. And in two more weeks, when it is time to open the show to Madison audiences, this work will ensure that our performances supply as much entertainment and enjoyment as Wisconsin sports have given us over the past week.

-Nicholas Harazin, Philo Farnsworth in The Farnsworth Invention