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Channeling the Puckish Charm of a Vexing Mystery:
Vermont Stage Company Presents I Am My Own Wife
By Margaret Michniewicz
Flanked by two adolescent tiger cubs, each as big as he is, a young German boy smiles radiantly and fearlessly for the camera, circa 1938. He has an arm around each cat, and their massive forepaws rest on his knees. Zoo animals, yes, but with ears and eyes unnervingly alert. Either of them could strike the boy down without warning, ferociously devouring him in lethal jaws or merely with one casual swat of the paw.
This boy, Lothar Berfelde, lived a life flanked in his early years by the Third Reich followed by four decades of Communist totalitarianism, in addition to the terror he and his mother suffered under his father's roof. During this time Lothar steadily transformed his identity into that of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. An openly gay transvestite, Charlotte bravely negotiated the minefield of these two consecutive regimes cruelly intolerant of state-defined 'difference.' Lothar's Aunt Luise, whom he revered, lost her beloved to the Nazi euthanasia program - the murder of "undesirables" - in 1935; in her memory, Lothar adopted her name.
Comparing the child's face of Lothar in the photo with the tiger cubs at the Berlin Zoo, with the face of Charlotte in a later, adult photograph, it's remarkable how little difference there is, despite the passage of years - and so many of them darkened by traumatic events. The same bright, childlike eyes; the same gentle, poised smile. It is the face of ten-year old Lothar, now somewhat aged, with longer, now snow-white hair, wearing a demure, even old-fashioned, dress instead of a child's sailor suit.
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf is the major character in the one-person play presented this month by Vermont Stage Company, I Am My Own Wife, written by Obie Award-winner Doug Wright. The title of the play is a variation on von Mahlsdorf's 1992 autobiography, I Am My Own Woman. The play, however, does not purport to be an historically accurate portrayal of the real Charlotte. As Wright describes it, it would "chart my own relationship with my heroine." Ultimately, the adulatory image of Wright's heroine becomes complicated as he learns more; she will remain a "complete and vexing mystery" to Wright.
Having taken over a dilapidated mansion in East Berlin in 1959, von Mahlsdorf restored the house and transformed it into the Grunderzeit Museum. Her collection ultimately included furniture and household pieces from the final decade of Germany's 19th century (the Grunderzeit Era), much of which was given by her beloved Aunt Luise. Also in her museum were any and all kinds of objects Charlotte salvaged in the wake of the Nazis removing Jews from their homes - she walked the streets with a cart, salvaging objects discarded from the pillaging. She ensured the safety of musical recordings by Jewish composers by crafting fake record labels, disguising them as Aryan polkas and waltzes until it was safe again to play Mendelssohn.
Around 1963, the Communists closed down gay and lesbian bars, including the famous Weimar-era cabaret called the Mulack-Ritze. Von Mahlsdorf rescued all of the furnishings (tables, cane-back chairs, menus, bottles of liquor) and resurrected the cabaret, essentially in its entirety, in the basement of her museum. The Grunderzeit became a safe cultural haven for gays and artists, seemingly under the Communists' radar. As Wright describes it, "she kept a fractured, tumultuous country intact." In 1990, East and West Germany united, and von Mahlsdorf was awarded the country's Federal Service Cross for her efforts in cultural preservation.
Wright learned of von Mahlsdorf in 1992 through his childhood friend John Marks, who was bureau chief for U.S. News and World Report in Berlin. In January of 1993 Wright flew to Germany to meet Charlotte for what would be the first of several visits over the next two years, ultimately producing 500 pages of transcribed interviews. It took Wright ten years to finally bring his story of Charlotte to the stage, however, in May, 2003. After he enthusiastically gathered material from interviewing Charlotte, Wright obtained access to the Secret Police (Stasi) file on von Mahlsdorf, in which he found something so startling about her… let's just say it brought on seven years of writer's block.
The play follows the story of Wright meeting Charlotte and listening to the story of her life. And while they are the two most prominently featured characters of the play, there are 33 other persons who make an appearance - and they are all played by just one actor. Andrew Sellon will take the FlynnSpace stage in this 12-day run, directed by Sara Lampert Hoover. He will emerge onstage in a simple, vintage-era dress, and his job will be to subtly flow from one character to the next, so that the transitions are fluid yet legible and distinct. Through Sellon's voice and body, the brutish characters of SS officers, Stasi agents, or Neo-Nazi thugs will temporarily make us lose sight of the soft-spoken figure in the dress that just earlier perhaps reminisced about listening to music on the Gramophone: "If I hadn't had [music], I'm not sure I would've survived. Things were so ghastly with my father - everything my mother and I went through.
But the music would pour through the horn and make things better."
Sellon took a break from rehearsal to answer some questions from Vermont Woman:
VW: You said that while you admired the Broadway production, you will be making some different choices for Charlotte. Can you elaborate on this, and give some specific examples of the differences you will bring?
AS: Anytime an actor plays a character, he or she is "channeling" that character through [his/her] own personal experience, and unique physicality and voice. So we are not trying to copy the Charlotte of the Broadway production, and I am not trying to mimic the voices of the real Charlotte or Doug. I did read Charlotte's autobiography, and also watched her autobiographical film to see and hear her in action, but more to find jumping off points through which I can interpret her. After seeing film footage of the real Charlotte, Sara and I agreed that we wanted to capture more of her puckish charm, and not make her overtly a cipher on the surface. We think the heightened difference between the genuinely charming surface and the darkness underneath is part of what gives our production an extra depth, and we feel that our interpretation of Charlotte is very much in the service of the character that Doug Wright has written.
VW: Although this play is mainly about Charlotte, it is still Charlotte as presented by Doug Wright. Have you approached this role by trying to find (even create) your own Charlotte, or are you proceeding by acting the part of a fictional character named Charlotte created by the playwright Doug Wright?
AS: Everything the director and I do is always in service of the script. Other than that, I will only say that this play is definitely not just about Charlotte. It is also about the unexpected personal journey the playwright character Doug takes while trying to capture Charlotte's essence.
VW: You said one line in the play, spoken by the character of Doug, resonates deeply for you - "You are teaching me a history I never knew I had" - and is the main reason you were determined to do this play. Would you elaborate about that shared history?
AS: I'm a gay man, and over the years I have at times had to verbally and/or physically defend my right to be who I am. Frankly, some of my own experiences are still too painful for me to speak about easily. So to hear Charlotte's amazing stories about her struggles and triumphs as a gay transvestite, surviving not just the Nazis but the Communists as well, reminds me that I too am part of ongoing gay history, part of the ongoing struggle for equality and acceptance. I hope that by extension everyone who sees this play -- even those with differing beliefs -- will see something of themselves in Charlotte's desire to be accepted exactly "as is". What other parts of Charlotte's history I may share, I will leave to the audience's imagination!
VW: I love what you say about this being "your Olympics and that you are competing in all the events." What could we call the flying triple axel moment of the play - in other words, what moment in the play is the most difficult to negotiate - what series of character interactions?
AS: Some moments in the play are technically challenging, for instance a conversation between two or more people. Others are challenging in the emotional depths they plumb. There's a lot of humor in this play, but also a lot of passion. Charlotte led an extraordinary life no matter how you look at it. I don't want to spoil any surprises for those who have not seen the play, and I'd rather not have people come to the play looking for specific "acting" moments, so I'll just say "come and see the whole story unfold!" It's about the story, after all -- and this is a great one.
VW: What are ways you have prepared for this play - and/or specific characters - that go beyond studying dialects and committing lines to memory?
AS: Every actor goes about the preparation process differently. And, of course, preparation is just to give you a launching pad for those moments of impulse and insight that can only be found in on-your-feet rehearsal and live performance. I generally pull bits of inspiration from all sorts of places when I work on a role -- the script is first, of course, plus other texts, visual images, objects, music, clothing -- you name it. It's all grist for the mill, and I just surround myself with it all to see what generates impulses and opens windows, and then I go from there with the director and the designers. In addition to absorbing Charlotte's book and film, I did some research into the time periods and politics involved, looked at pictures of old furniture, and listened to a lot of period recordings that Charlotte would have played on her beloved phonographs. The director and I went on a "field trip" to an exhibit of Weimar-era portraits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I also watched a lovely, bitter sweet film called "Coming Out" that was the first gay-themed film to make it out of Eastern Berlin, in the 80's, which gave a real feel for the challenges of being gay in that time and place. Charlotte actually appears briefly in that film as a chatty red-headed barmaid version of herself, which is an entertaining bonus. I've been wearing the Charlotte costume since the first day of rehearsal, which is always very helpful to me. I work from the inside and the outside simultaneously.
VW: You're playing 35 different people. Who are the two or three most challenging characters of the play, and why?
AS: Charlotte alone would be enough of a challenge for any actor! She is quite the conundrum. Any actor and director team working on her must examine the evidence as presented in the play, form some decisions about what Charlotte did or didn't do, and then follow that through in interpreting the rest of the play. Other characters can be challenging for the opposite reason -- they may appear for only a single sentence, but they must be flesh-and-blood within that one sentence.
VW: Doug Wright referred to Charlotte as "a complete and vexing mystery" - what are your thoughts?
AS: That about sums it up! The rest is in the playing --the audience will enjoy taking the journey for themselves, and I'm sure it will provide for a lot of lively post-performance discussions around town.
VW: You say the dialects have been a "fun challenge" - what was the toughest, and why? One scene includes a press conference with questions being asked by journalists from several different countries - this is one exacting playwright!
AS: Ironically, the Midwestern voicings for a couple of minor characters were more challenging for me initially than the other half-dozen or so nationalities that appear in the play! And Russian also has a particular glottal "L" sound that is not used in the U.S. But I was lucky to be born with a good ear for dialects, and Vermont Stage arranged for me to have some great coaching with expert Gillian Lane-Plescia, who works with performers on Broadway and all over the world. My friend Katja Karner in Western Germany has also been acting as a sounding board. Of course dialects are only a means to an end -- the play is about the people and their views; the dialects just tell you from whence those views originate. This is very much a global story, actually.
VW: For you, is this play about Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, or more about an idea than a specific person?
AS: It's about both. It's about Charlotte and Doug, and through them about self-discovery, the definition of courage, the price of survival, and our need to find perfect heroes. But truly, the best "explanation" I can give is in the performance itself. I look forward to sharing Charlotte, Doug, and the other 33 characters of I Am My Own Wife with Vermont audiences!
I Am My Own Wife runs March 28th - April 8th, 2007 at FlynnSpace, 153 Main Street, Burlington. Performances are Wednesday - Saturday at 7:30 PM and Saturday - Sunday at 2 PM. Prices are $23 for matinees, $26 for weeknights, and $29.50 for weekend nights. Discounts available for students and AARP members. Special $10 tickets for Saturday matinees are available at the door on the day of the show. For tickets, call 86-FLYNN or visit www.flynntix.org. For more information call Vermont Stage at 862-1497 or visit www.vtstage.org.
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Vermont Woman is a forum for news, issues, features, arts and entertainment from the perspective, experience, and voices of Vermont women. Vermont Woman is a monthly newspaper published in South Burlington, Vermont and is excerpted here on this site. All content ©Copyright 2006, Vermont Woman Publishing |
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