Stage Violence - A Fine Line

Have you ever seen a fight on stage and just not believed it? Have you ever seen someone fall on stage and worry that they may be really hurt. These are the two extremes directors and actors strive to avoid in presenting any sort of violence onstage. The audience must believe that the fight is real, but must never believe that anyone is truly hurt. To master this thin line of believability, the process begins with rehearsal.

In the initial rehearsals, a fight choreographer is utilized. Their job is to break the fight into beats. In these beats, the actors know exactly where they are at all times. Usually the appearance of violence is the job of the receiver. It is not the person who throws the punch who must “sell” it, but the person being punches who must provide the reality in their reaction. If a person grabs someone by the lapel and pins them to the wall, it is the person pinned who is supporting their own weight and who is giving the appearance of struggling and gasping for breath. Throughout the rehearsal process, these beats are rehearsed over and over and over until the involved actors can go through the beats without hesitation or trepidation.

It is important to note here that stage combat is not always a complex choreography. In Enemy of the People, there was a simple move made by Cliff to intercept Sandy when she becomes overexcited at Tammy’s discovery of the polluted spa. What appeared to be a simple matter of stepping in between the two ladies, had to be choreographed as intricately as a sword fight or a slugfest. If Cliff is too early in his interception of Sandy, the scene loses the intensity. If Cliff is too late, Sandy runs over Tammy.

Once the scene is choreographed and rehearsed to the point that the show is ready to open, there is a new process of preparation which happens every night before the start of the show. Fight call is a walk though of all the stage combat in the show just before the show starts. Usually this is done at a slower speed, building up to full speed with each repetition.

When you see physical staging in Mouse in a Jar or any other Red Tape show, you can be certain that the safety of the performers in the primary objective. Every move is well rehearsed to make you believe that the fight is real. Every move is well rehearsed so you can fear for the safety of the characters without fearing for the safety of the actors.

Errol McLendon
Company Member

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009
Tickets are available through our website.

Chiaroscuro Mouse

“‘s not a game’s a plan not like you’d understand. Jerk.”

When I first heard Mouse in a Jar almost a year ago, what struck me was the playwright’s visceral application of language and image like “a scene told in chiaroscuro.” I felt plosives, guttural vowels and words repeated ‘til they were gibberish. And each of these utterances seemed to further my understanding of the complex relationships between the characters. In that initial encounter, I experienced much more through the implicit meaning rather than explicit meaning in the dialogue. I wasn’t surprised then to learn that the playwright, Martyna Majok, is also a poet.

In Mouse, images are fragmented by language and experienced in surprising ways. Soldiers are “boots” or “Men With Boots.” A daughter recalls life before she had a mouth or her eyes had met. “Boots kick out the lights,” she says. Martyna’s sophisticated use of metaphor is as moving as it is unexpected. And these image-fragments accumulate as Mouse bursts with connotative expression.

Her use of repetition strips away explicit meaning until there are only consonants and vowels and the tension between people. In the opening scene, the word ‘peel’ is used six times in six lines, saying more about what the characters are doing to each other, rather than the act of preparing food. The same is true of the word ‘jerk.’ Through brute repetition, words transcend their meanings and become little primal utterances of unmet emotional needs.

There is much to admire in the sheer vitality of Martyna’s language. It is language which demands to be expressed in more than words. I’m very excited to see, that after almost a year, Mouse is finally being realized in a full theatrical production with Red Tape Theatre.

Rob Oakes
Company Member

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009.
Tickets are available through our website.

In this Basement

A lot of people ask why Mouse in a Jar is an important play to me, why I've been drawn to the text. I think I am more than willing to talk about how caught up I was by Martyna's language the moment I turned over page one, what a visceral punch her text packs, what a treat her rich and complex world of rhythm, image and sound are to me, I am less likely to mention that I see scraps of myself in her story.

Now it is important to note that this is not a play about domestic violence. If it was the story would follow a more conventional path dumping us off at the moral: hitting people is bad. Instead this story happens to be grounded in a darker family dynamic, but the narrative investigates how these people chose to negotiate their lives against the backdrop of dysfunction, not the dysfunction itself.

That being said, it's probably worth mentioning that I often come home from rehearsal with my stomach in knots because some of the work we do unearths shards of memory for me. A different time in my life where one false move only seemed to lead to another to another to another, until I found myself painted pretty desperately in to the corner not even sure what a way out would look like.

It's a gut reaction as the viewer to boil these women's problem's down to victimization, but we are doing the story a huge disservice if we allow that. The truth here is that people are frustratingly complicated and they want things that often seem to nullify or eclipse other desires.

What is love in this basement? There's nothing cheap or shallow about it. It's got the same complexity as any other love, perhaps the stakes are just higher, perhaps there's just so much more to lose here. But I would guess that's not the truth, we all want the same things when we love someone, consistency, reciprocation, perfection. Often we will turn a blind eye to the imperfections of our partners or the complaints of others just to hold onto the dream of our love. I think it's hard to admit how little perspective we can have in those situations, how much we will sweep under the carpet for a shot at connection. That's what's going on in this basement and sometimes those knots in my stomach as I bike home are in recognition of my own story and sometimes there about all of us.

Daria Davis
Company Member and
Director of Mouse in a Jar

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009.
Tickets are available through our website.

Haunted Hijinx

Halloween is right around the corner. It may be one of my favorite holidays these days. It wasn’t that way when I was a kid though. When I was 10 yeas old, I remember going to Amlings Haunted House with my mother, my father, my aunt and uncle. Back in the day, Amlings was THE place to go for garden fare in the northwest burbs and it had one of the best haunted houses in the Chicagoland area.

I don’t remember much about the haunted house with the exception of one room, a room with five doors. To get to the next room, I had to choose a door. I remember opening the fourth door only to have a person dressed as Frankenstein behind bars let out a loud groan, which scared the living hell out of me. My uncle howled with laughter. I eventually opened the right door and went to the next room of haunted hijinx, but I’ll never forget those doors.

Our lifetime presents us with a myriad of doors. Some are easy to open and walk through. Others, however, terrify us with real or imagined consequences that can debilitate us. For example, maybe we want to start our own gig, but is it worth leaving a comfortable job that pays well and has good benefits? Should we stay single because we don’t want to make ourselves vulnerable or settle in a relationship because our biological clock is ticking? An MBA sounds great, but what if I can’t pay off the loans? I’ll start writing that script, novel, play, etc. tomorrow. I’ll give up smoking, start working out, drink less, love more, try harder on January 1. Sound familiar?

While it can be hard enough to walk through scary doors ourselves, convincing someone else to walk through the door with us adds a whole new challenge.

How far would you go to win someone’s love? What steps would you take to protect someone you loved from danger? What would you do to save someone who didn’t want to be saved? Would you walk through the door when you had the chance?

Mouse in a Jar, a new play produced by Red Tape Theatre, poses these questions. It opens October 5th. I invite you to check it out so you can think about these questions and how you would answer them.

Robert A. Lynch
Company Member

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009.
Purchase tickets through our website.

Digging Deep

Now that we are rounding the corner and tech looms on the horizon I'm enjoying these last few days of rehearsal with just the cast. Our rehearsal room may be a massive gym, but the feeling when we get down to work in there is intimate and warm. It is not necessarily unique that we've grown into a close knit group, that is what rehearsal does to people, but the process of cracking this new play has afforded us an opportunity to dig deep within the text and each other. As we fold our designers into the day to day of rehearsal, I'm eagerly anticipating expanding our conversations. I can't wait to see what we all get up to as the gym transforms into a tiny New Jersey basement.

Daria Davis
Company Member and
Director of Mouse in a Jar

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009.
Tickets are available through our website.

Meet Fip: Actor Ben Gettinger

When reading Mouse in a Jar for the first time, what are some of the first images or words that resonated with you?
Dampness, mold, meat, blood, puss, scars, and stench.

Mouse is a new work, has that changed how you approach the script?
Yes. Everyone is intensely engaged, discovering how to bring this piece to life for the first time. It's not like doing an established play, where we ask ourselves what's our take on this piece? What else has not been touch upon? Other than the well known themes, what facets do I want to bring to light? In a new piece I am obliged to ask myself on a deep level and really search to find, what is this at it's core? It is just not as clear, because it has not been done before and there is a greater responsibility to find it.

What feels like the greatest challenge for you in this play?
The writing is highly stylized, the cadence so unique, and the suffering is layered so richly; A world is created which is unreal, dark, but surprisingly beautiful. Because my imagination runs rampantly I can easily be swept up by the world and start playing my character, Fip, very obscurely. Almost too obscure for anyone to relate to. The challenge is to exist in this abstract world, while playing the real emotional undertones that will connect with the audience and help ease them into this strikingly different environment.

How would you characterize the world of the play?
A festering, moldy sausage locked in a basement oozing its acrid grease over a handful of innocent human souls, corroding all sense of the word, purity.

Have you learned anything new so far in this process? (about you, about your character about the world)
Yes definitley. There are a lot of street kids that migrate into Chicago in the summer. I would always just look at them as dirty, wandering, begging hippies, who can't get over thier ideals enough to just get a job. However, now I am playing one of these punks in a play and after researching the lives of runaways I understand why they do wander aimlessly. They come from broken homes and have suffered immensely from all froms of abuse. I came from a practically perfect, loving american family. For me it is easy to adere to the starndard of living that my society would classify as normal. It's really sad because they just have not been conditioned to function in the adult world. By making the effort to investigate the lives of those that are extremely adverse to that of my own, I have discovered new areas of understanding and empathy in my being. I am much more likely to toss some money into their hats on the street.

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009
Tickets are available through our website.

Dance Puppets, Dance!

I love puppets. From the fanciest creation at Jim Henson’s studio to the humblest sock. I’m thrilled that both shows in Red Tape’s season feature prominent roles for puppets, and they are used in ways one wouldn’t expect. The puppets in Mouse in a Jar and The Love of the Nightingale are meant to disturb, rather than amuse.

A quick search for the History of Puppets reveals tales of the Shadow puppet epics of Indoneisa, the years of training spent on Japanese bunruku, and the rod and string puppets used in Italian morality plays, the backstage antics behind the film Team America: World Police, and the latest Broadway outings by Julie Taymor.

Puppets as figures of fright go way back. The uncanny valley hypothesis of 1906 has studied the level of discomfort prompted by puppets, robots, CGI effects and other objects that look and behave similar to humans. The more human it looks, the less we trust it.

Paul G. Miller
Managing Director

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009.
Purchase tickets through our website.

Deep, Dark Woods

We're in the thick of it now. With a week before tech we're coming to the end of our exploratory rehearsal time. As always with things like this, the time feels too short, I think I can speak for everybody when I say this group loves to explore and talk and experiment, and would be perfectly happy to do just that for the next three weeks!

But regardless we're jumping into our first real run through this week and I'm excited to see what kind of shape our hard work is taking. I've been returning again and again to a certain metaphor in rehearsal this week (ask any one in our cast about my metaphors. I tend to either hit the nail on the head with them, or produce some odd expressions) about the deep dark woods. I am probably returning to the idea because of the dramaturgical research our assistant director Caitlin has been generously providing about Mouse's strong ties to a fairy tale structure. I've found the image well suited to this play. Certain scenes seem to lend themselves to the different parts of the Forest, scene seven for example is the deepest darkest part, and scene three a clearing ringed in shadowy under growth. We've also been talking about how these characters pick a path through the woods and then find themselves willingly or unwillingly lead astray in the arc of a scene or in the play as a whole. Much the same things can be said of our rehearsal process it seems to me. And equipped with all the tools necessary to venture deeper, I am excited to strike out into new territory in the coming week and see where the path leads us!

Daria Davis

Company Member and

Director of Mouse in a Jar

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009

Purchase tickets through our website.

Meet Zosia: Actress Irene Kapustina

Where I'm from:
Minsk, Belarus

Education or training:
Loyola University’s Theatre School, Act One Studios, Laura Kessler Agency

What I do when I'm not doing theatre:
Study, study, study and study

One fun fact I would like to share:
When I do not get enough of sleep, or when I am hungry, or cold, my Russian accent gets out of control.


Irene on Mouse in a Jar

When reading Mouse for the first time, what are some of the first images or words that resonated with you?
The basement. It reminded me of a doorway in an apartment building I once lived. I still remember the smell.

Mouse is a new work, has that changed how you approach the script?
The fact that Mouse in a Jar is a new script did not change the approach. The essence of the script, however, shaped that approach a lot.

What feels like the greatest challenge for you in this play?
Stay true to Martyna’s language. It is poetry in verse, with its own rhythm.

How would you characterize the world of the play?
The world of dreams, soaked with sweat and disappointment, coated with fear and love, drowned in misunderstanding, cruelty and indifference, washed in a ray of hope.

Have you learned anything new so far in this process? (about you, about your character about the world)
Mouse made me look at a lot of things in my past: choices I made, people I met, my immigration to the States and how much it changed me. I think that the circumstances of our lives are able to drastically change our own personalities uncontrollably, and pass unnoticed, until it is too late.

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009.

Tickets are available through our website.

Mouse in a Jar - The First Readthrough

Walking in from the humidity on an abnormal Chicago Sunday morning, I found myself walking into a cozy one bedroom apartment occupied by the young, hip, semi-indie style of the Davis'. Welcomed by hugs and the comfy smell of fresh baked goods I knew I was in for a treat (no pun intended). Having been to thousands of read-throughs, from college fold out tables to basement floors to one of the greatest regional theatre's in the country, I found myself in a living room and I’ve never felt so comfortable. As Martyna Majok arrived (playwright/Yale Grad. student) the energy of the room was filled with high hopes, nervousness, and of course potential.

Gathered around in the living room the normal process began. We got a chance to listen to Miles Polaski’s chilling sound design. Martyna's face was filled with joy as we heard tracks from his computer. Striking bars from the violin were played from the sound track to There Will Be Blood. The best part was the excitement that this sound designer was giving off; he truly has a passion for his work and this piece. Next came a slideshow from company member Kyle Land, who said, "I’m not a lighting designer, I’m a shadow designer." His images had a modern feel of what Hitchcock would create if he was alive today. Next, Kat Powers, the props designer, who is in the early stages of the process, let us know that if we or anyone we know has stuff from the basement to get in contact with her. This image of shadows and darkness set the tone for Bill Anderson’s set design. This guy's model was something out of a book. The Red Tape space will be transformed into a basement, a dark, water dripping from the walls, horror film style kind of basement. Everyone was gathered around this model, there was a silence and the designer was just keeping his eyes on the model, sort of waiting to see if people liked it. Trust me people were in amazement. This model represents where Red Tape is going and how we will take an audience by the throat and won't let them go until we are done!

We then, of course, did a reading of the play. I don't want to give anything away other then this play is a must see. Strong women roles filled with incredible talent. Be ready for a ride. In my opinion, this play is the bastard child of Sam Shepard and Adam Rapp. Martyna is able to keep us slightly uncomfortable while being fully engaged and wanting more. The designers will keep you in this play without even noticing them. I cannot wait until this play opens.

Nicholas Combs

Company Member

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009.
Purchase tickets through our website.

A Wild Ride

I have been with Mouse in a Jar since last November. It has been an exciting wild ride to watch it change and grow into this wonderful piece. During rehearsals, I work with Daria while she works with the actors to understand more about the different themes running throughout the story. I find it fascinating how many people have a connection with the script. The other night I was discussing with Daria how we all are touched by different aspects of Mouse in a Jar; be it things from our own past, stories we know, the past of another, every single one of us has a different connection. I myself have a Polish background and was inspired to learn more about my history. As we all explore our connections we each help the story grow and take on more life. My favorite part about stage managing this show is how I get the opportunity to watch the set being built, the puppets crafted and the characters refined. What I can say is that this show will truly encompass your senses. As Mouse in a Jar’s stage manager, I am very excited to have the chance to work in this world. Martyna has written a play where not only are the characters a major presence but the surroundings as well can surprise you.

Cynthia Carney
Company Member and
Stage Manager of Mouse in a Jar.

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009.
Purchase tickets through our website.

A Nightmare Man

One of the things that initially drew me to Mouse in a Jar was my overwhelming visceral reaction to Martyna's text. The character of HIM for example is one of the scariest things I’ve imagined since I was a child terrified to leave my bed in the middle of the night. Once or twice I've found myself walking through the blocking for some of Ma and HIM's scenes, tracking how we will try to execute his catastrophic entrances and exits, I am often overwhelmed by the image of this nightmare man.

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of watching our puppet designer Sarah Bendix lead a workshop with Kathleen Powers and Don Markus, our two actors playing Ma and HIM respectively. We had our first real chance to play with the imagery Martyna has so artfully woven through the text. And as the day progressed we all began to tap into the raw-er aspects of MOUSE that Martyna's words and images conjure. As we pressed on into Monday my assistant director Caitlin Parrish presented the first in a series of dramaturgical conversations investigating the idea of storytelling through the lens of original fairy tales. By the end of the rehearsal, suitably mired in the plays psychological roller coaster we transitioned in to some blocking. I don't think I was the only one maybe, possibly, a little scared of the dark.

Daria Davis
Company Member and
Director of Mouse in a Jar

Mouse in a Jar runs October 5-31, 2009
Purchase tickets through our website.