Donnie Mather

The Journey to the Stage: "Kaddish" by Allen Ginsberg

2011-09-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

"Kaddish" by Allen Ginsberg is an unrelenting expression of grief in poetic narrative written mostly in a marathon 36 hour session fueled by uppers and coffee. In transferring this monolithic text to the environs of theatre, many humbling questions spring to mind.

How does one capture the original energy behind this seminal exertion of poetry?

How does one meet such specific personal experience?

What is the theatrical equivalent to the non-linear recollection of thoughts, memories, and nightmares searching for peace and grace?

The poem “Kaddish” is largely the story of Allen’s mother, Naomi Ginsberg. Naomi's journey began with her immigration as a child from Russia to make a new life in New Jersey where she battled mental illness in adulthood--and ended with a stroke while committed to a mental institution on Long Island. Allen signed for her eventual lobotomy that most likely led to her untimely stroke. Previously, Allen had written notes for years in his journals including false starts of poems about his relationship with Naomi. But, it was the finality of her death that was the catalyst for "Kaddish".

The beauty of the poem is in the words. I love poetry. I love poetic theatre. I first read "Kaddish" fifteen years ago. As I did, the words leapt off the page for me begging to be given physical form. I was not alone in this instinct to adapt "Kaddish". In the early 1960's, photographer/filmmaker Robert Frank asked Ginsberg to adapt his poem into a screenplay which he did. Although never produced, the Chelsea Theater Center in 1971 adapted the screenplay into a multi-media, multi-character play which was produced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and directed by Robert Kalfin. Another production was translated into Hebrew and produced by the National Theatre of Israel. In 1988, the Eye & Ear Theatre Company in New York also adapted the poem incorporating many elements from the screenplay as well.

“Kaddish” is, after all, a dramatic story but not an easy one to tell. It is raw and vulnerable and stands in stark contrast to that other seminal Ginsberg poem "Howl". When Naomi passed, Ginsberg was a rising star. "Howl" was published the year before Naomi's death and the ensuing obscenity trials and censorship controversies put Ginsberg in the national spotlight as an important face of the Beat Generation. The captivating authority of the poetry in “Howl” contrasts the literary voice in "Kaddish" which was born from Ginsberg's own personal demons--his conflicting thoughts about his sexuality at the time, the horrific childhood memories caring for his mother effectively reversing the mother and child relationship, his ambivalence towards his cultural and religious background, and a hint at a new direction for his own spiritual journey.

The title comes from the Jewish prayer for the dead. The Mourner’s Kaddish is an exaltation of God that one speaks at a time of loss particularly that of a parent. It is also an ancient prayer and is written not in Hebrew but in the older Aramaic. When one says Kaddish, one is speaking the words of every person that has ever lost a loved one since the time that prayer was first uttered. It is full of history and conjures the spirits of ancestors inviting them into a communal and public experience. For me, these are basic ingredients of theatre which is a place that is also ancient in tradition, both public and private, and that is cathartic in experience.

The Kaddish prayer was never said for Naomi. Not because the Ginsbergs were not practicing Jews, but because as a fluke a minyan of 10 men were not present to speak it, which is required at a funeral. The significance of the Mourner’s Kaddish is that it must be public and must be heard. Allen was not a practicing Jew and was only beginning to investigate the Eastern philosophies. However at this time of familial loss, it’s interesting that Allen looked towards his own culture and history. Indeed, it is a conflicted relationship which is why the poem is so terribly compelling and dramatic.

In our production of “Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)”, we rely on the first two sections of Ginsberg's poem (the Proem and the Narrative). These sections were written under what Allen referred to as "all day attention". This was a technique that he frequently employed, and one that was born from his belief in "first thought, best thought". Ginsberg is certainly not without structure and he knew how to set up circumstances that would allow him to create lasting works of art. In other words, to get out of his own way.

My theatrical background comes from a strong training in the Viewpoints and the Suzuki Method of Actor Training. Suzuki Training provides a structure for artists to train basic and essential performative issues. The Viewpoints relies on structured improvisation. Both techniques give artists the tools and the ability to create work quickly without sacrificing specificity. For me, this connected to Ginsberg's own methodology of writing, “first thought best thought”, which is less random and anarchic as it might sound at first to the ear. Ginsberg's rapid fire production of language does not come without years of meditation. On the contrary, it includes years of history, discipline, and preparation that finally allow the inspiration to flow freely. It has a lot to do with timing and circumstances. A delicate balance, to be sure.

When I first read "Kaddish", I was honestly not ready to make this piece. I was aware that the idea needed to gestate, and I needed to grow. I needed to experience my own loss, as we all inevitably do, in order to bring something to the table.

In 2009, we finally began workshopping the material in a whirlwind 2 week process. While not as brief as the 36 hours Ginsberg took to compose the original text, 2 weeks is still extremely limited in the world of theatre. However, the opportunity allowed myself and our talented team of collaborators (director Kim Weild, sound designer Darron L West, scenic designer Nick Vaughan, lighting designer Brian H Scott, projection designer C. Andrew Bauer, and costume designer Terese Wadden) to work intuitively and instinctively. Inspired by what Allen remarked as “years of preparation but only seconds to execute”, we worked fast on our feet. By that point, the research had been done and Ginsberg had already provided the detail. There was no time to be heady. We worked quickly, trusting out hearts, listening to the room, allowing all the gestating ideas to unfold freely while making bold strokes on the canvas. Our structure was Allen’s poem. Without editing or deconstructing, we retained every word of the text in the order as it was published. This allowed Ginsberg’s words to stand on their own. They are vivid, dense, and powerful. Our job was to meet the poetry every step of the way. Therefore, we concentrated on cultivating a physical environment, discovering an emotional journey, and creating an aural and visual landscape to stand up to Ginsberg’s language. It meant putting the story back into the heart and mind of a solo character. (It is after all one man’s story from one man’s point of view--a dark night of the soul and an exorcism of memory.)

In truth, "Kaddish" was not written as a play; and yet, “Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)” is not a poetry reading either. It is my belief that Theatre is a journey and often a poetic one at that. As Allen's father Louis, who was also a poet in his own right, once told Allen "there are many mansions in the House of Poetry". I also believe there are many mansions in the House of Theatre as well. I believe in Theatre as a space to take an audience on a journey. Sometimes the journey is entirely about a great plot, or of a theme, or of characters in conflict, or of an emotional response. But whatever the hook, the experience for the audience is still that of a journey nevertheless.

“Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)” has already provided for me a unique collaboration between Theatre and Poetry, and a fitting beginning for The Adaptations Project. I hope you will journey with us.

Tickets are ON SALE at www.BrownPaperTickets.com

Sept 29 - Oct 9 at the 4th Street Theatre, NYC

- Donnie Mather

Note: This blog was previously posted in another form during the 2009 Workshop.

Life & Art mix Unexpectedly

2011-09-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

I write this entry today during the first week back in rehearsals for "Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)" based on the poem by Allen Ginsberg directed by Kim Weild. Our premiere later this month will mark the 50th Anniversary of the poem's publication. The poem's title comes from the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead, particularly of a parent. Allen lost his mother Naomi at the height of his fame with "Howl". The Kaddish was not said at her grave because they did not have a minion of 10 men to bear witness. Allen wrote his elegy to Naomi 3 years after her passing.

Since our initial workshop of this play 2 years ago, my father passed away a year ago in August. The experience of the play, the research of the tradition and ritual of observing such an occasion was swirling in my head. My father while fairly healthy in this elder years, fell out of his bed and suffered a severe subdural hematoma. Within several hours, he was taken to hospital and within the following hour rushed to a specialized hospital to undergo emergency brain surgery to relieve the swelling. But it was clear that his condition was worse and that the damage was fatal. He was left in a coma.

One rushed day of making difficult family decisions via conference calls, I jumped on to the last flight to Louisville where I met my family at the hospital to make our collective goodbyes together. By midnight, the nurse entered to remove the life support, feeding tubes, and the like. She administered the morphine drop and I felt my father's already motionless hand gently release from my own. He held steady through the night. My sister and I slept on a floor in a storage closet for a mere 2 hours. This would be the last sleep I would get for the next 2 and a half days, a feat I had never in my life encountered. By the following night, only 25 hours after removing life support, he passed away in one final struggle and noble fight there in front of myself, my mom, and 2 of my sisters. Never bearing witness to the passing of a life before, it was an extraordinarily profound experience for me. I will never forget it. The arrangements began at 3am that night and I was appointed to write the eulogy (the reason I didn't sleep the third night).

Loss and mourning are basic human experiences that we universally share. I am not Jewish, but I marvel at the rituals that other cultures have to mark these profound occasions. Growing up in a Protestant household without even the rituals of the Catholic Church to guide us, my family relied on the social habits of our community to navigate us through the difficult terrain of our own "shiva". Having lived in New York for 2 decades, I am fairly removed by time and distance from many of these social habits in Kentucky. But leaning on them at that time had its comforts.

This year, in seemingly pure coincidence, our first day of rehearsal for "Kaddish" landed on what is called, in the Jewish faith, the Yahrzeit or the anniversary of my father's passing. Traditionally this is a day of reflection, a day to avoid celebratory and social events. One lights a solitary candle for 24 hours and does something in the memory of the loved one, a mitvah, such as donating to a charity in their name, or engaging in spiritual study. It had not occurred to me until this month that my father's Yahrzeit would be our first day of rehearsal for "Kaddish" of all things.

The circumstances of Allen's loss of Naomi are quite different, of course. She suffered from mental illness for years, going in and out of hospitals, enduring a lobotomy, and succumbing to a stroke while institutionalized. It is not only a story of loss, but of loss that happens in pieces, many times in many ways, over many years. Allen was not a practicing Jew, but even 3 years after her passing, he reached back to his roots, his family's cultural traditions to find peace in his own way through his art. I may not have experienced the same pain and suffering that Allen endured with his mother's struggles, but I understand this very simple and yet profound impulse: Allen looked to his muse Poetry as a way to channel sensation, to find inspiration, to create utterance as a way to discover grace, or what Allen would call "consciousness".

On the occasion of my father's Yahrzeit, I am grateful that I also have my muse Theatre to navigate me through my own experience. And with Ginsberg's poem, he provides a difficult but sublimely beautiful terrain.

The Adaptations Project presents its inaugural production "Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)" at New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theatre Sept. 29 - Oct. 9, 2011

Tickets are on sale now at BrownPaperTickets.com

30% Early-Bird Discount in effect thru Sept. 12

For more information, visit http://www.AdaptationsProject.org

Sao Paulo Workshop

2011-07-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

Viewpoints & Suzuki Training

in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Aug. 15 - 19

Info:

www.miolodasartes.com.br

THE LAB: Training & Collaboration

2011-03-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

Early-Bird Discount ends April 1

Enroll NOW and SAVE $30

The Lab with Donnie Mather

Viewpoints, Suzuki, & Collaboration

This workshop is designed for artists who already possess a foundation in both Viewpoints & Suzuki Method. We will review the basics, work on more advanced material in the context of Collaboration. The Lab is a great opportunity to revisit the training with other artists while exploring Text, Movement, & Music within a prescribed Theme.

Saturdays

April 16, 23, & 30

10am - 2pm

Atlantic Theatre School

76 Ninth Ave (at 15th St) 5th Floor in Studio 3

New York, NY

To apply, email donniemather@gmail.com

$180

(only $150 for Advanced Registration by April 1)

(For credit card purchase, use PAYPAL account donniemather@gmail.com)

Donnie Mather has 15 years experience with The Viewpoints and the Suzuki Method training primarily with SITI Company as well as with Tina Landau and Mary Overlie. Since 1999, Donnie has been a frequent instructor at the Atlantic Theatre School, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, New York University, Columbia University, The New School, Hope College, University of Puerto Rico, Louisiana State University, Fordham University, and Bard College. Donnie has also taught abroad at the University of Rio de Janeiro, Florianopolis State University, University of Uberlandia, Cia dos Atores, Sao Paulo, Manizales Theatre Festival, and the Iberoamericano Theatre Festival in Bogota. As an actor, he is a former Associate Artist of SITI Company performing in SEVEN DEADLY SINS, LILITH, NICHOLAS & ALEXANDRA, and MACBETH. He has collaborated with director Kim Weild on FETES DE LA NUIT and UNCLE VANYA as well as the upcoming premiere of KADDISH (or The Key in the Window). He created & performed A SHOW OF FORCE with director Leon Ingulsrud (NY Fringe, Manizales Festival, Hope College, & Hudson Guild). He is the founder of The Adaptations Project, a collective dedicated to creating theatre based on unusual source material.

January Workshops in Brazil

2010-12-17T21:52:00.000-08:00

Viewpoints & Suzuki Training

with Donnie Mather

There are 2 opportunities to train in Brazil this January!

Jan. 10 - 14 in Rio de Janeiro

Information: Cia. dos Atores

tel: 22424176

Jan. 17 - 21 in São Paulo

Information: Miolo das Artes

oficina@miolodasartes.com.br

tel: 11-43018625/11-96423814

Workshops in Bogotá, Colombia

2010-03-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

Suzuki & Viewpoints Workshop with Donnie Mather

March 29 - April 2, 2010
at the Iberoamericano Theatre Festival
of Bogotá, Colombia

The Iberoamericano Theatre Festival is the largest international theatre festival in the Western Hemisphere. Artists from all over the world participate and attend this two and half week celebration of Theatre. As a guest artist, Donnie Mather will present 2 separate workshop series in the Suzuki Method and the Viewpoints Training during the week of March 29 - April 2. Both workshops are open to actors, directors, dancers, and choreographers as well as students and professionals alike. This series is part of the numerous special events surrounding the Iberoamericano. For more information on the Festival, please visit:

http://www.festivaldeteatro.com.co/.

For more information on Special Events visit:

www.festivaldeteatro.com.co/festival/eventos-especiales/eventos.html

Suzuki Method for the Actor
9:30 am - 12:30 pm (15 hours)
Monday - Friday
March 29 - April 2
$180.000 Pesos

The Suzuki Method for the Actor was created by Japanese Director Tadashi Suzuki and his company. The training is a physical and vocal discipline that combines traditional and innovative forms. Through a series of exercises, the performer addresses energy, breath and concentration.

Viewpoints Training
2 - 5 pm (15 hours)
Monday - Friday
March 29 - April 2
$180.000 Pesos

This technique was first articulated by Choreographer Mary Overlie and later adapted for the stage by Director Anne Bogart and members of the SITI Company. The Viewpoints Training addresses issues of Time and Space through physical improvisation. Participants expand their awareness through a unique physical vocabulary exploring the limits of theatre, movement, and music.

Donnie Mather is an actor and teacher based in New York City. With over 10 years of teaching experience, Donnie has taught at theatre programs and universities throughout the U.S., Colombia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico. He trained as well as performed with SITI Company (Anne Bogart, Artistic Director) where he was an Associate Artist for many years. Currently, Donnie is an instructor at the Atlantic Theatre Conservatory in New York.

To enroll in either of the workshops, please email escueladelfestival@gmail.com
Register early as space is extremely limited.

Tango & "Fêtes de la Nuit"

2010-01-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

One of my first Tango instructors from Buenos Aires pointed out to me that the real Tango is not about sex, or romance, or even seduction. That pervasive stereotype often includes over the top images of lovers passing flowers from mouth to mouth which has nothing to do with the original form. Tango, she told me, is about memory. When one is dancing, one is remembering--not only their past but their present and future. So, Tango is really about longing whether it is the longing for the future or the regret of the past.
I was excited to hear this for many reasons. As an actor, I'm reminded that the Theatre also plays on our memory. It is unique however in Tango that the act of remembering is both intensely private for each of the dancers while also being a sublimely shared experience. Tango is, after all, two people moving together as one--two individual events entirely connected. These contrasts (private yet shared, isolated and intimate, solitary and mutual) are rich for any performer. Tango requires a heightened sense of listening which changes the performers' presence. I completely identify with this as an actor because presence is about listening and listening is acting.
I'm so thrilled to be asked to collaborate on the upcoming production of FETES DE LA NUIT at the Ohio Theatre in New York. FETES DE LA NUIT is a joy ride through Paris by the playwright Charles L. Mee, Jr. This non-linear play challenges the audience's expectations by mixing both authentic French sensibilities as well as our American perceptions of Paris. The play is filled with lovers, music, coffee, smoking, dancing, fashion, eating, drinking, and philosophizing. The director of the production, Kim Weild, has invited me to collaborate with her in making Tango a part of this glorious world by performing with the lovely Mirabelle Ordinaire. In collaboration with choreographer Mariana Parma as well as with Mirabelle and myself, Kim Weild has integrated Tango as a kind of anchor for the entire play. FETES DE LA NUIT is largely about communication. Likewise in Tango, there is a dialogue happening in the heat of the moment. At times sexy or humorous. Or even sad and mournful. There are sophisticated politics inside the dance form. Everything is a negotiation. One must make space as well as time for the other. It is inherently dramatic. There is such a fine line between fighting and dancing, or between leading and following.
In Weildworks' production of FETES DE LA NUIT, Tango is the metaphor for the essential requirement for all of our life relationships, and that is presence. True, honest, and emotional presence. Charles Mee's FETES DE LA NUIT is about the joy and the difficulty of connecting between different worlds, whether between two lovers, two nations, or two cultures. This is definitely a play for the 21st Century.

FETES DE LA NUIT runs Feb. 8 - 27, 2010

at the Ohio Theatre in New York City

For Tickets CLICK HERE

Photo by Carol Rosegg

Suzuki & Viewpoints Workshop with Cia dos Atores, Brazil

2009-10-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

Viewpoints & Suzuki Method Workshop

in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Nov. 3, 4, 5, 6

2:00pm - 7:00pm (14h - 19h)

R$200,00

Tel 22424176

This extensive workshop in both the Suzuki Method and the Viewpoints will be led by American actor Donnie Mather. This workshop is presented by Cia dos Atores, one of the most exciting Brazilian theatre companies working today. For more info, visit http://www.ciadosatores.com.br/

Viewpoints & Suzuki in Brazil

2009-10-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

On October 29 - 31, Donnie Mather will present an introductory workshop in both the Viewpoints and the Suzuki Method for Actors in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This international conference on theatre training is sponsored by UNIRIO and also includes a special presentation by the originator of the SIX VIEWPOINTS by American choreographer and teacher Mary Overlie.

Review of KADDISH (or The Key in the Window)

2009-10-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

"Mather conveys masterfully in his notes-free presentation. Frankly, he's mesmerizing to watch, and director Kim Weild, sensing that a young, plaintive Ginsberg is more powerful than the bearded guru as which most remember him, keeps the focus on Mather at all times. Beat fans will sit still and wonder, but those unfamiliar with Ginsberg's work will find in its melodic strains the ring of the universal." - Ellen Wernecke, EDGE (Boston)

Click Here to read the full Review

Hope College Tour

2009-09-14T21:47:00.001-07:00

A SHOW OF FORCE

Touring this week

Sept. 17-18

Hope College

Holland, Michigan

For more info:

http://www.hope.edu/pr/pressreleases/content/view/full/24173

Revisiting A SHOW OF FORCE

2009-09-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

In his play SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, John Guare asked "How do we fit what happened to us into life without turning it into an anecdote with no teeth...it was an experience. How do we keep the experience?"

That question echoed in my head on the day of September 11, 2001. It especially resonated for me on the following day when the media quickly assisgned a name to the tragic events: "9/11". When I first heard "9/11" uttered on the news, it gave me the shivers. It felt insulting to attempt to summarize the myriad of emotions and experiences with what only sounded like middle school chat room talk. Its self-aware cleverness seemed entirely inappropriate. Again, I thought of Guare's description of "an anecdote with no teeth and a punch line you'll mouth over and over for years to come...And we become these human juke boxes spilling out these anecdotes."

Of course, Guare was talking about an entirely different set of circumstances, and yet the words of that play haunted me while living in a city whose breath had just been knocked out. It was clear to me that someone else could call it "9/11", but not those of us who lived here and experienced it or saw it with our own eyes. How could we refer to it merely as a soundbite? It was an experience. How do we keep the experience?

The twenty-four hour news cycle's job is to reduce the complicated events of the world for easy consumption, but this was an event very hard to swallow. An artist's job, it seems, is to do the opposite and to open up and dismantle even the most mundane events of human existence in an effort to uncover meaning. I felt a profound need to respond as an artist as well as a citizen to find expression in my chosen medium. Yet, the impulse frightened me. I did not wish to diminish the complicated feelings of that unimaginable tragedy with the artistic equivalent of an anecdote "with no teeth". And so I postponed my work for at least 2 years. In that time, I found my way into a project that as my mentor Anne Bogart often says "looks a little left of the sun" in order to find the light of truth. My focus shifted away from the singularity of that day's tragedy and towards the moral crisis that our society found itself in afterwards as we were running up to war.

It is almost impossible now to remember properly what that following year was like in terms of the lack of dialogue about how to mourn, how to act, how to react. It became increasingly personal for me as I had family members enlisted who would eventually be put in harm's way. The question at hand seemed to be when is the time to put our loved one's in harm's way? Is there ever a time to take up arms and go to war? I dared to ask the question when is the ideal time to go to war?

This shift and clarity of focus led me to two years of collecting text that sought to answer one of the largest of our society's moral questions. My research included interviewing a variety of citizens, assigning essays to high school students, spending hours plowing through books, and reading numerous entries on the Internet. It was a wonderfully enlightening experience. Personally, I was most interested in uncovering viewpoints that were not my own. I desired to understand and to discover. I followed only one rule in this search: do not use any text that used the words 9/11, World Trade Center, Iraq, Bush, or Al Qaeda. While nearly impossible to do when interviewing people, it was clear that these references were so loaded with emotions and politics that it would distract from the central focus which was to look at war on the macro level, to pull back the lens in a broader sense.

The historian and WWII veteran Howard Zinn wrote "It is important to remember that wars look good to many people in the beginning because something terrible has been done, and people feel that something must be done in retaliation. Only later does the thinking and questioning begin." It is tempting to argue over specific conflicts and individual wars as to which was worthwhile or "just". In doing so, we escape the larger question at hand. Almost immediately in my research, a new question reared its head and that was do we learn from the past? Great thinkers and great spiritual leaders of our times have offered their varied wisdom. We claim their wisdom as our own but have an uncanny ability to ignore it when in crisis. That fascinated me. I asked myself how much of what we learn affects our actions or our choices when we are faced with the emotional reality of sending citizens to die for a greater good?

And so A SHOW OF FORCE was created--a play that truthfully was born from the terrible events of September 11, but ultimately is not about the events of "9/11".

Walt Whitman wrote "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am Large. I contain Multitudes". This notion seemed aptly true for this project. The questions provoked contradictory truths and this revelation led to the structure of the play which would become a solo performance. Up to that point in time, I had been working with a number of strong ensemble theatre companies. My training and experience was largely based on that type of collaboration. However,I began to envision a play with a single character who would embody the very crisis of these contradictory notions, philosophies, and politics. To contain this in one person, to realize that all of this exists in us is quite disturbing. The character reminded me of how I thought of America: ever-evolving and changing. America is after all an idea and one that is constantly tested. At times in our country's history, these tests have been violent or have been welcomed. The challenge was to use the words that make up our collective unconscious and to find a physical environment for which they could live and breathe. I owe a great debt to director Leon Ingulsrud and my designers Darron West, Brian Scott, and Emily Wright for shaping the final structure of A SHOW OF FORCE. This one person show was anything but a single person's effort.

Now, it has been 3 years since our premiere. In that time, our life and the context of our world has drastically changed. As we prepare for our upcoming tour, I am mindful of how differently the play resonates. It is both exciting and disturbing. This question of do we learn from the past seems more vital than ever. How do we "keep the experience" of our recent past and allow it to shape our choices for the future?

To be in the room together with an audience and allow these large questions to loom, is thrilling and daunting. As my director Leon Ingulsrud wrote, we hope that "in the ecumenical space of theatre, A SHOW OF FORCE provides a context in which to meditate on war".

Discount on Advance Tickets

2009-09-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

Tickets ON SALE NOW

$15

$10 for Advance Orders thru Labor Day (30% Discount)

www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/79680

1-800-838-3006

ONLY 6 Performances

Sept. 23 - 27, 2009

Hudson Guild Theatre

441 West 26th Street New York, NY

"Utterly captivating...The piece combines text and movement so creatively that I couldn't take my eyes or ears off it even for a second." - NYTheatre.com

Directed by Leon Ingulsrud
Scenic & Lighting Design by Brian H Scott
Sound Design by Darron L West & Emily Wright

Is there such a thing as a just war? Do we learn from the past? These questions are wrestled by performer Donnie Mather and Director Leon Ingulsrud. Based on found text including Wilfred Owen, Howard Zinn, Shakespeare, Chris Hedges, Mister Rogers, Malcolm X, Mark Twain, Sun Tzu, and the song and dance of the 1940's. The play is one man's moral crisis as well as a trip through our collective unconscious. An Everyman examines all he has learned in search of uneasy answers. The character is a lot like America: young, passionate, divided and full of contradictions.

Reviews for "Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)"

2009-08-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

KADDISH (or The Key in the Window)

"Vibrates with invocatory power" - Village Voice

"Mather clearly relates to the material. He speaks with a clear voice that conveys the understanding of a man suffering the loss of a loved one. He also created effective images to support the emotional nuances of those words . . . I found Mather and director Kim Weilds cautious approach an honest one." - NYTheatre.com

"[Mather's] representation of Naomi (Ginsberg's mother) in the later, calmer years of her insanity--when paranoic visions of anti-Communist spies gave way to tales of cooking lentil soup for God--is simple and touching." --Village Voice

"Mather's precise, contained performance allows the words to be heard in their beauty, fervor and acerbic tone. His performance as Ginsberg's mother is the most memorable-behind a suitcase of pills, her voice coming from a stockinged hand puppet...Sophisticated images are timed to project on a window upstage, allowing a lovely counterbalance to the text."

- Curtainup (Zapol)

Working on Allen Ginsberg's "Kaddish"

2009-08-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

"Kaddish" by Allen Ginsberg is an unrelenting expression of grief in poetic narrative written mostly in a marathon 36 hour session fueled by uppers and coffee. In adapting this monolithic text, many humbling questions spring to mind.

How does one capture the original energy behind this seminal exertion of poetry?
How does one bring himself to such specific personal experience?
What is the theatrical equivalent to the non-linear recollection of thoughts, memories, and nightmares that search for peace and grace?

The poem is largely the story of Naomi Ginsberg, Allen's mother. Naomi's journey began with her immigration as a child from Russia to make a new life in New Jersey where she battled mental illness in adulthood--and ended with a stroke while committed to a mental institution on Long Island. Allen signed for her eventual lobotomy that most likely led to her untimely stroke. Previously, Allen had written notes for years in his journals including false starts of poems about his relationship with Naomi. But, it was the finality of her death that was the catalyst for "Kaddish".

The beauty of the poem is in the words. I love poetry. I love poetic theatre. I first read "Kaddish" a dozen years ago. As I did, the words began to leap off the page for me begging to be given physical form. Later, I learned through my years of research that I was not alone in this instinct to adapt "Kaddish". In the early 1960's, photographer/filmmaker Robert Frank asked Ginsberg to adapt his poem into a screenplay which he did. Although never produced, the Chelsea Theater Center in 1971 adapted the screenplay into a multi-media, multi-character play which was produced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and directed by Robert Kalfin. Another production was translated into Hebrew and produced by the National Theatre of Israel in the 1970's. In 1988, the Eye & Ear Theatre Company in New York also adapted the poem incorporating many elements from the screenplay as well.

It is after all a dramatic story, but not an easy one to tell. It is a challenge for any artist to relish and one that must be met directly. "Kaddish" is raw and vulnerable and stands in stark contrast to that other seminal Ginsberg poem "Howl". When Naomi passed, Ginsberg was a rising star. "Howl" was published the year before Naomi's death and the ensuing censorship controversies put Ginsberg into the national spotlight as a new and important face of the Beat Generation. The authority in that captivating literary voice contrasted the voice heard in "Kaddish" which was fueled by Ginsberg's own personal demons--his conflicting thoughts about his sexuality at the time, the horrific childhood memories caring for his mother effectively reversing the mother and child relationship, his ambivalence towards his cultural and religious background, and a hint at a new direction for his own spiritual journey.

The title of course comes from the Jewish prayer for the dead. It is an exaltation of God that one speaks at a time of loss particularly that of a parent. It is also an ancient prayer and is written not in Hebrew but in the older Aramaic. When one says Kaddish, one is speaking the words of every person that has ever lost a loved one since the time that prayer was first uttered. It is full of history and conjures the spirits of ancestors inviting them into a communal and public experience. For me, these are basic ingredients of theatre. It is a place that is ancient in tradition, that is both public and private, that is cathartic in experience.

The Kaddish prayer was never said for Naomi. Not because the Ginsberg's were not practicing Jews, but because as a fluke a minyan of 10 men were not present to speak it which is required at a funeral. Allen was not a practicing Jew and was only beginning to investigate the Eastern philosophies. However at this time of familial loss, it is interesting that Allen looked towards his own culture and history. Indeed, it is a conflicted relationship which is why the poem is so terribly compelling and dramatic.

We are presenting the first two sections of Ginsberg's poem (the Proem and the Narrative). Both of which were written under "all day attention" as Allen called it. This was a device that he frequently employed stemming from his belief in "first thought, best thought". Ginsberg is certainly not without structure and he knew how to set up circumstances that would allow him to create lasting works of art. In other words, to get out of his own way.

My theatrical background comes from a strong training in the Viewpoints and the Suzuki Method of Actor Training. These techniques provide a structure for an artist to train basic issues for all performers. A great deal of improvisation is involved particularly in the Viewpoints, that strive to get actors out of their own way as well. This gives artists the ability to create work quickly without sacrificing specificity. For me, this connected to Ginsberg's own unofficial methodology of writing which is less random and anarchic as it might sound at first to the ear. Ginsberg's rapid fire production of language does not come without years of meditation. On the contrary, it includes years of history and preparation that finally allow the inspiration to flow freely. It has a lot to do with timing and circumstances. A delicate balance, to be sure.

Twelve years ago when I first read "Kaddish", I was not ready to make this piece. The idea needed to gestate and I needed to grow. I needed to experience my own loss as we all do in our life. I needed something of my own to bring to the table.

In truth, "Kaddish" was not written as a play. However, it is my belief that theatre is a journey and often a poetic one at that. Allen's father Louis who was also a poet in his own right once said to Allen "there are many mansions in the House of Poetry". I believe there are many mansions in the House of Theatre as well. I believe in Theatre as a space to take an audience on a journey. Sometimes the journey is entirely about a great plot, or of a theme, or of characters in conflict, or of an emotion. But whatever the focus, the experience is that of a journey nevertheless.

In our current adaptation entitled "Kaddish (or The Key in the Window)", we have had a truncated process. While not as brief as the 36 hours Ginsberg took to compose the original text, our process is extremely limited in the world of theatre. Working with a talented team that includes director Kim Weild, sound designer Darron L West, scenic designer Nick Vaughan, lighting designer Brian H Scott, projection designer C. Andrew Bauer, and costume designer Terese Wadden--we have been inspired by what Allen remarked as "years of preparation but only seconds to execute". In only 14 rehearsals, we have had to work fast on our feet. Trusting our hearts. Listening to the room. Allowing all the gestating ideas to unfold freely.

Unlike the previous theatrical adaptations, ours puts "Kaddish" back into the heart and mind of a solo character. It is after all one man's story from one man's point of view--a dark night of the soul and an exorcism of memory. I have decided also to stay true to the original text devoid of major edits allowing Ginsberg's words to stand on their own. They are vivid, dense, and powerful. My collaborators and I hope to create a physical environment that can stand up to it.

For me, it is a dream collaboration.

2009-07-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

Check out this brief interview on NYTHEATRE.COM.

KADDISH at the 2009 NY Fringe Festival

2009-07-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

New York Fringe Festival

2009-06-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

Kaddish

(or The Key in the Window)

Created & Performed by Donnie Mather

Text by Allen Ginsberg

Directed by Kim Weild

Coming this August!

For details visit

http://www.fringenycdata.com/basic_page.php?ltr=K

2009 Upcoming Works

2009-03-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

RISING A DANCE PLAY
an ensemble dance/theatre piece
Conceived & Directed by Donnie Mather
Based on the music from the album "Rising" by Yoko Ono/IMA

THE KADDISH PROJECT
a multi-media solo performance
Based on the poem "Kaddish" by Allen Ginsberg

Stay tuned for the New York return of
A SHOW OF FORCE