BWW Interviews: OTHER DESERT CITIES Star Kathleen McCall at the Denver Center

Kathleen: Hi, how are you?

Michael: I'm good. How are you, my dear?

Kathleen: Good, I'm good.

Michael: It's so exciting to talk to you again.

Kathleen: Thanks for calling.

Michael: So, you've had some really exciting news happen; you want to share it with us?

Kathleen: Sure, um, I'm not sure how much you know about the Ten Chimneys Foundation, which is a historic landmark home of Alfred Lunt and Joan Fontaine. And in 2009, they started a fellowship program, the first fellowship master teacher was Lyn Redgrave and this year the master teacher is Alan Alda, and they take 8-10 actors, who've been working over 20 years predominantly in regional theatre, and they offer a fellowship, an 8-day, kind of intensive workshop. So they ask theatres to nominate two people, not sure how the process works, but this year they have chosen ten actors, and I am one of the actors from around the country.

Michael: That's wonderful, congratulations. So what will your focus be in the master class?

Kathleen: This is what's interesting, when Lyn did it in 2009, the focus was on Shakespeare. This year, the focus will be on spontaneity on the stage...I'm not sure what that means. Another one of the fellows that was chosen is a good friend of mine, Mark Nelson, and Mark and I both sent each other a note saying I don't know what this means, but it's going to be great. The focus will be this year according to the website says, "The 2013 program will focus on spontaneity on stage." That's the quote they have. "And, it will be led by American icon, Alan Alda.

Michael: So, are you teaching the master class, then?

Kathleen: No, I'm a participant. They select actors, and they collaborate, we have 8 days at the La Fontaine Estate. We do workshops together. It takes actors that have been teachers and have been important in their company. You know, we're mentors to young actors, and it gives us the opportunity to be a mentee, to have someone at a master level to teach us. I think oftentimes when you are with a company 20 years, there's a product you have to put up, and the rehearsal process becomes about an end product. And so in a sense it's going back to when you were in school and workshops just to explore. And that's what it is. It's daily classes shaped around what Alan Alda would like to shape them around. It's living on the grounds of the La Fontaine Estate. It gives us time to work with other actors from around the country that are at the top of their game. And it gives us time to rest and time to contemplate. They are incredibly hospitable there, they treat us well, you know, all of our food, everything will be taken care of, we'll have time to walk around. It's a retreat. I'm very excited about doing this, and also very nervous.

Michael: Congratulations. I know it's wonderful. Have you worked with Alan Alda before?

Kathleen: I have never worked with Alan Alda. Never, and I'm thrilled about it. When I was a little girl, my parents' favorite show was MASH. They were religious about watching it. And, I've seen Alan Alda, I've seen him on stage in a Neil Simon, on Broadway. Of course I've watched him in films and on television. He's remarkable. I feel really fortunate. And, I'm excited about this because I know that Lynn Redgrave was one of the teachers. She worked on Shakespeare and subsequent years Shakespeare was the focus. I've done a lot of Shakespeare. And, so this, to me, is going to be very challenging. I'm not sure what spontaneity means. I'm kind of a creature of habit, and a creature of repetition, so this will be fascinating, and this will be a lot of fun...this will stretch me, this will push me.

Michael: Excellent. You are coming off a very successful run of "Romeo and Juliet."

Kathleen: Yes, that was a wonderful production.

Michael: Were you very much surprised about how much the audience were laughing and found it comedic?

Kathleen: No, I wasn't and let me tell you why. Because they're kids, and it's really about teenage kids. The boys are lusty and impetuous, and they're fighting against the status quo and their parents and we can all relate to that. And, I think that the more humor and fun that you can find in that then the more tragic the ending becomes.

Michael: I have to say I was very surprised, actually, this is one of the first productions where I have ever seen that reaction from the audience before. It really kind of threw me, and it was fascinating to me. But, also, I agree with you, that then ending was so much more tragic to me because it seems that the audience was so much more invested in this.

Kathleen: Well, also, the director, he created a society where we are destroying our kids, and I think that is possible today. In a sense, it's what gun control is about, what violence is about. There's a reason that Romeo and Juliet still exists. It's not just a story of two teenage kids who fall in love. It's a story of our society destroying our youth. And, we are doing that today.

Michael: The interesting thing is that it wasn't until this production that I truly gained an appreciation for Spring Awakening. I totally saw the correlation, I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is totally what this is about."

Kathleen: And, that's why "West Side Story" was created, and why Baz Luhrmann was able to update it and set it in South Central L.A. It's a universal theme. I think people, it's so funny, because they have a valentine's day special, we were all laughing, because everybody thinks that "Romeo and Juliet" is this wonderful love story. And, it's really a tragedy, I mean, it's awful, what happens to these two kids, and all the other kids, Tibault and Mercutio. We're knocking these kids off like flies!

Michael: I loved your performance, I loved the inner conflict that you showed in that between trying to be a mother, trying to be a mother to Juliet as well as trying to obey your domineering husband. It was fascinating.

Kathleen: It was a different time, it was set in Jacobean, where men ruled the roost, but you can see that Lord Capulet could be an abusive father and an abuser to his wife. It was not uncommon for them to strike them? And we have that today, too, and we have that element of who's in charge and what will happen, how far do I go. This is sad, but true, but it was easier to play off of John G. Preston. Of course, I love John. I think it was meant for people to go, "Oh, look at those two again."

Michael: It was fun to see both of you again after "Taming of the Shrew".
So, what are you working on now?

Kathleen: I am in the middle of rehearsal for an incredible play, which I'm sure you know, called, "Other Desert Cities." Ah, ah, such a good play. You know, the days of Arthur Miller, you know those days where we had playwrights who were prolific in their writing. We don't have those playwrights any more, lot of the reason because we have television and film and a lot of good writers do that try and do that as well. But, this is a play that Jon Robin Baitz wrote that's just a really remarkable play. It's wonderful, and I am so thrilled to be working on it.

Michael: Oh, good! Can you tell us a little bit about it? I know you're still in rehearsal, so I don't want to give everything away, but can you tell us a little bit about it?

Kathleen: Yeah, well, it's a play about a woman who has written a memoir, and she comes home for the holidays to her Palm Springs parents' house. She dredges up this memoir. She's been emotionally ravaged by an event that happened years ago with her older brother. She has struggled for almost thirty years trying to grapple with the event and she's had psychological problems, she's spent time in the hospital, and she's written this memoir to try to get these feelings out. And, she comes home and she presents it to her parents and her younger brother and her aunt, and it literally disrupts her family. And what happens is, the secret, without giving it away, something is revealed that is completely contradictory to what this family has believed for thirty years. So, it's a wonderful play about politics, the conservative Republican politics of her parents, and the much more liberal left-wing side of her brother's and aunt's politics and herself. It's a struggle of truth and memory, what you remember, what other people remember, and how, after time, and we all do this as human beings, our memories become what we want them to become. The daughter remembers an incident one way, and the parents remember it another. There's a clash with that and how this disrupts their life. It's just beautifully written. It's an amazing play. I feel really fortunate to be able to work on it.

Michael: This is one of the shows I've been looking forward to all year.

Kathleen: Have you seen it?

Michael: No, I have not. I've read the script, I've never seen it, so I'm really, really interested in seeing it. And, I know the Denver Center will always do great job with that.

Kathleen: It's a wonderful cast. To do contemporary writing, to be able to do work that's this good, this dense, and the writing is very specific and poetic and very careful with his word choices. It's almost like Shakespeare, in that when you miss a word or you confuse them, you can feel it. He's very careful with how he's worded things and how he's chosen to present things. And part of that is, the memory. One person remembers it one way, and another person remembers it another way. It's a beautiful play, a beautiful play.

Michael: I can't wait to see that.

Kathleen: I'm excited about it. I'm excited about showing it to the world because I think it's one of the best new plays of the past number of years.

Michael: Well thank you so much for talking to me again. It's so wonderful to talk with you as always. Congratulations on the master class. I can't wait to hear about your experiences with that. Yes, it'll be great. Thank you. I look forward to seeing you at "Other Desert Cities."

Kathleen: I will see you very soon, dear. Thank you, have a great day.

A story of family secrets and differing political views, Jon Robin Baitz's Tony Award-nominated play, OTHER DESERT CITIES, plays The Space Theatre now through April 28th at the Denver Center. Tickets may be purchased now, by calling 303.893.4100 or visiting www.denvercenter.org.

PICTURED ABOVE: Kathleen McCall (Brooke Wyeth) and Tracy Shaffer (Silda Grauman) in the Denver Center Theatre Company's production of OTHER DESERT CITIES.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jennifer M Koskinen