Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource

Interview with JACK MARSHALL
Artistic Director of The American Century Theatre, on their production of Native Son

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By LESLIE WEISMAN

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It's alright to steal from each other, what we must never do is steal from ourselves.

--Jake Hannaford, in The Other Side of the Wind.

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Introduction

By Lawrence French

Francis Ford Coppola received a well-deserved tribute at The San Francisco International Film Festival, on May 1 and spoke in some detail about his long career in the movies. He was also asked about his work writing a film starring Orson Welles (more about that to follow).

Coppola was joined on stage at the historic Castro Theater by many of his director friends and family, including, most notably, George Lucas, but while talking about his new film TETRO, Coppola made these remarks, which I think make a wonderful introduction to Wellesnet contributor Leslie Weisman's interview with Jack Marshall, as they point out that Coppola was originally a theatre student, and when starting out he copied from the best, namely Tennesseee Williams, Kazan and Orson Welles:

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: When I began as a young man, I was a theatre student, from 1957 to 1960 and I saw wonderful films that were coming to America from Europe into what were then the art houses, and I think all of my contemporaries were wide-eyed at the beautiful movies we saw coming from Italy, France, Sweden and Japan.

So we wanted to do that. We all wanted to make 'cinema' and I didn't ever imagine I was going to be a real studio type of director. So when I began, I was writing a more personal type of movie. So while I was a theatre student, my Gods were Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan and when you are young, you always start out sort of copying the people you admire, even though it's really impossible to copy them. But it gets you going, that's the purpose. My father who was a composer, had this wonderful slogan. He said, "steal from the best." So I stole from the best, because I wanted to do this type of personal film.

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As Coppola notes, all artists are influenced to some degree by what they have seen and experienced, which is why I was so intrigued by The American Century Theatre's revival of three plays originally staged by Orson Welles. Jack Marshall may not have seen the original Orson Welles productions, but as Leslie's talk with him indicates, he was certainly influenced by Welles work in the theatre. And he obviously had the terrific idea to re-stage three of Welles's seminal plays at the American Century Theatre. So maybe Welles's early play, BRIGHT LUCIFER, will eventually be staged at TACT sometime in the future.

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LESLIE WEISMAN: This is The American Century Theatre's (and your) third production of a play directed by Orson Welles, the others being Moby Dick Rehearsed in 2005 and The Cradle Will Rock in 1999, that helped establish him in the consciousness of the theatre--going public as a talent to be reckoned with. They also—not always to his advantage—enhanced his reputation as a maverick who not only wasn’t afraid to tackle controversial subjects, but actively sought out and seized the opportunity. What is it about Welles and his work that first attracted you, and still holds you? Have your perceptions about him changed—either because of things you’ve learned about him in the interim, or as a result of staging his plays? Or both?

JACK MARSHALL: Welles was one of the brightest comets shooting across the Broadway skies during what I would refer to as the golden age of theatre — the period beginning around when O’Neill really burst onto the scene in the early to mid twenties, all the way through the thirties and into the mid forties is when the theatre was the most exciting and taking the most risks. And Welles really showed the same kind of innovation and daring in his theatrical productions that he later did in film. And to a great extent, I thing he merged — he really was the perfect meld of artistic sensibilities, content and a sense of showmanship, and how it would appeal to an audience and be commercial. He just had a great sense of that. So in the case of all his shows, they all were shows of substance, and he also was able to strike just the perfect balance — a balance that I don’t really think the theatre has done a very good job of finding ever since: making it exciting, making it visually exciting, making it challenging but also making it commercial. So it was the perfect meld of serious issues, serious intent, with commercial presentation. That’s what struck me about Orson right off the bat.

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A few months ago I found several old issues of Theatre Arts magazine in the tenderloin district of San Francisco, a few short blocks from where Wellesnet "legend" Glenn Anders lives. The mags were priced at a big 100% mark-up over their original price.

Well, since the original price was only .50 cents, they were actually great bargains, so I quickly grabbed several issues, including the September, 1951 copy that featured an article by Walter Kerr assessing Orson Welles career in both theatre and film, up to that point. Indeed, in 1951 Welles had only been active for 15 years in radio, the stage, and on the screen, and he had already become something of a legend. Or, according to Walter Kerr, a legendary "has-been."

Which is why I thought Kerr's article was way off the mark. (more...)

Kudos to Jack Marshall, the artistic director of The American Century Theater for bringing yet a third Orson Welles production back to the boards, after previously reviving Welles's Moby Dick-Rehearshed (twice!) and Marc Blizstein's The Cradle Will Rock. Since The American Century Theater concentrates on 20th Century American playwrights, it is too bad that precludes them from mounting a revival of Welles's epic adaptation of Shakespeare's Five Kings for a future season!

Judging from the reviews, however, their revival of Native Son is well worth checking out if you live in the Washington D.C. area.

Below is the press release for Native Son, followed by Time magazine's report on the original 1941 production, which sadly, marked the last time Orson Welles and John Houseman would work together on a Mercury Theater production.

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Novelist Richard Wright’s searing novel Native Son aroused violent controversy from the moment it was published. The saga of a young American black man who becomes an unrepentant killer, the book was hailed as an uncompromising indictment of the nation’s racial divisions and social injustice, and condemned as feeding white bigotry while excusing crime. Naturally, Orson Welles, then the most dynamic force in American theater, thought it was just the kind of story his Mercury Theater needed to tackle. He commissioned Wright to do a stage adaptation in collaboration with playwright Paul Green, and the production, much to Welles’ delight, was as controversial as the novel.

At a very different time in our nation’s history, The American Century Theater (TACT) is giving Washington area audiences a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Native Son, in a new production of the Right-Green-Welles adaptation that still raises disturbing and important questions. The production opens April 14 and will continue through May 9 in Theater II, at the Gunston Arts Center in Arlington, Virginia.

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My real interest in life is education. I want to be a teacher. All this experience I've been piling up is equipping me for that future ...I shall know how to dramatize the art of imparting knowledge.

One day I shall leave all this behind me, go back (to Todd School) and give full rein to my ideas. That's when life will really begin for me.

--Orson Welles, The Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1945

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Simon Callow has undoubtedly written more about Orson Welles and the happy times he spent at Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois, then any other Welles biographer. So I'm quite pleased to announce that Mr. Callow has sent along this message of support for all the citizens and politicians of Woodstock, who are now attempting to save Grace Hall from it's slated demolition: (more...)

September 4 The Chicago Tribune reported about "The Historic dorm for boys at the Todd school attended by Orson Welles, in Woodstock that faces demolition."

Going back nearly 75 years to the summer of 1934, we find that the Chicago Tribune was also reporting on Welles and the Todd School. They were there - to quote Mr. Bernstein - "before the beginning." Charles Collins, the Tribune's astute drama critic, wrote about the upcoming "First ever summer drama colony in Chicagoland."

Below is Charles Collins' report on the Todd Summer theater festival of 1934, followed by a long and fascinating excerpt from the noted Irish stage actor Micheal MacLiammmoir's autobiography, ALL FOR HECUBA. Mr. MacLiammoir starred in a memorable production of HAMLET on the stage of the Woodstock Opera House in 1934, directed by his longtime partner Hilton Edwards, in which Welles played King Claudius.

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Having heard from several concerned citizens in Woodstock, Illinois, who have expressed their concern about the proposed demolition of Grace Hall, I thought I'd try to bolster their case before the city council by highlighting some of the remarkable achievements Orson Welles made in Woodstock.

To begin, here is an overview of Welles relationship with the town of Woodstock, as reported in these excerpts from a profile of Welles taken from The New Yorker, from October, 1938 - just a scant four years after Welles had triumphed mightily on the stage of the historic Woodstock Opera House. (more...)

Q: Where is home for you?

ORSON WELLES: I have lots of homes ...I suppose its Woodstock, Illinois, if it’s anywhere. I went to school there for four years, and if I think of home, it’s there.

It may be a tedious cliché to say that school days are the happiest days of your life, but Roger Hill and his staff were so unique, and the school so imbued with real happiness, that one could hardly fail to enjoy oneself within its boundaries.

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Besides Orson Welles connection to The Todd School, the place he considered his "home" the unsung hero and possibly the biggest influence on Welles, was his headmaster and teacher at Todd, Roger Hill. (more...)

What better way to celebrate the birthday of those two icons of terror cinema, than to have them talk about their work with Orson Welles.

So happy birthday to Vincent Price and Christopher Lee!

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: How did you like working with Orson Welles?

VINCENT PRICE: Orson was a marvelous director. I did two plays with him, THE SHOEMAKER'S HOLIDAY and HEARTBREAK HOUSE. He was a really brilliant director, although I never thought he was a very good actor. I mean he's too Orson Welles. There's absolutely no characterization at all. More he did when he was young, then he does now, because he really is a caricature of himself now. I mean, that fat!

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Was Welles as undisciplined as some people have claimed?

VINCENT PRICE: He was completely undisciplined. You see, he had the theater like that! (holds up his hand in a fist). I would have loved to have worked with him again, but everybody in the Mercury Theater had a bit of a falling out with Orson. There were two plays we were supposed to do, Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST, and John Webster's THE DUCHESS OF MALFI (intriguingly described by a Mercury press release as, "one of the great horror plays of all time"). My then wife, Edith Barrett was going to be in THE DUCHESS OF MALFI as well. Orson was going to direct both of them, and the actors had contracts to do them. Then, when we went to rehearse them, Orson never showed up. He didn't show up for either show. He just decided he didn't want to do them, but he didn't bother to tell the actors.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: One book on Welles claims he had a fear of completion.

VINCENT PRICE: I think so. Like Michelangelo. I think he could have been the greatest director of the American theater and of the cinema, but there was something missing there.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: It's sad, because when Welles directs, his films are so brilliant. I think his CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT is one of the greatest films ever made.

VINCENT PRICE: And CITIZEN KANE. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS I saw the other day, and it falls apart completely at the end.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: But the ending of AMBERSONS was re-edited by the studio.

VINCENT PRICE: Yes, I know it.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: Was there ever any talk of you acting at RKO when you first went out to Hollywood, perhaps working with Orson Welles, or with Val Lewton's horror unit?

VINCENT PRICE: No. I first went to Hollywood under contract to Universal, and then was with 20th-Century Fox for seven years. However, at that time, my first wife (Edith Barrett), made two films with Val Lewton—I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and THE GHOST SHIP—although I never worked with Val Lewton. Later on, I did THE COMEDY OF TERRORS with Jacques Tourneur, who had worked a great deal with Val Lewton.

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LAWRENCE FRENCH: I understand you once worked with Orson Welles on a film version of MOBY DICK.

CHRISTOPHER LEE: Yes, that's right. It was made for television, right after he did his stage version. I've no idea what happened to it. I don't think it was ever shown. Welles played Captain Ahab, Patrick McGoohan played Starbuck, the first mate, and I played Flask, the 2nd mate. Kenneth Williams played Elijah and Gordon Jackson played Ishmael. Joan Plowright, the present Lady Olivier, played the cabin boy. It was a version of his stage play, which I wasn't in, but it was mostly done in mime, drinking from non-existent cups, throwing non-existent harpoons. The notion was that of a play within a play, where the actors step in and out of their roles, in the story of MOBY DICK. I remember one of the first lines in the film. Orson came up to me and said, "If we touch land, Mr. Flask, for God's sake, no fornication!"

Orson was most encouraging, very helpful, appreciative and very, very funny. It's amazing we ever got any filming done, because most of the time Orson would be telling us stories about John Barrymore or Errol Flynn, people like that. He'd also talk all through your scenes, so of course they would have to be looped. We did MOBY DICK at two theater's in London, The Hackney-Empire and The Scala. Another time, there was a scene where I had to say to Patrick McGoohan, "There's bad news from that ship," when the Pequod is approaching The Rachel. Suddenly, Orson voice came from behind the camera, "There's bad news from that ship - mark my words." Well, I looked at Patrick, and Patrick looked at me, because we didn't quite know what was going on. We both wondered why Orson was repeating our lines. Then, on another occasion Orson came down the center aisle of the theater while the cast and crew were all waiting on the stage, turned to the cameraman and said "action," and the cameraman said, "Mr. Welles, I haven't got a set-up yet," and Orson said to him, "find one and surprise me."

Welles was one of the very few people in the history of the cinema to whom the word "genius" could appropriately be applied. He was a great, great filmmaker. I've seen his OTHELLO, and I've seen the other one, his Scottish play, the name of which I won't mention.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: You mean MACBETH?

CHRISTOPHER LEE: Yes. In British theatrical tradition, the unluckiest thing an actor can possibly do, is to mention it, or ever quote from it, except when you are actually playing it. That's why we refer to it as "the Scottish play."

LAWRENCE FRENCH: And I've just mentioned it!

CHRISTOPHER LEE: You can say it, but I can't. In fact, in THE DRESSER, there's a scene where Albert Finney forgets what play he's in. He forgets he doing KING LEAR, and starts to quote some of the lines from the Scottish play, which causes Tom Courtney, as the dresser, to have a bout of hysteria. The man on whom that part is based —"Sir" as he's called — the part played by Albert Finney, is supposed to be based on the late Sir Donald Wolfit. He was a remarkable actor, and when I was an actor in the beginning of my career, I worked in Wolfit's company. He took companies all around Britain during the war and after the war, and he was quite an extraordinary man. I have actually seen him say, in rehearsal to the electricians, "The spotlight goes HERE!…and don't move it!" All that sort of thing. In THE DRESSER, when Albert Finney comes off the stage, after everyone is trying to create the storm for KING LEAR, with the wind machine and noises you could hear for miles away, he says, "Where was the storm?!" Well, Wolfit was like that. He was either way up there, like that, or else (whispers), right down here. I introduced him to J.R.R. Tolkien, for which he was always eternally grateful. I gave him THE HOBBIT to read, and I've still got the letter he wrote to me, saying, "Thank you, dear Christopher for showing me an enchanted world." I met Tolkien and I still think THE LORD OF THE RINGS is the greatest literary achievement in my lifetime. I also knew T. H. White who wrote THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING. I like fantasy, too!

Earlier this month, the Zemfira Stage company presented the East Coast premiere of Marcus Wolland's Lost Eden: The Magnificent Welles, featuring critically-acclaimed Potomac region actor Jay Tilley as the legendary Orson Welles.

Wellesnet correspondent Leslie Weisman took in the play and interviewed actor Jay Tilley.  Here is some background on the production, followed by Leslie Weisman's interview with Jay Tilley.  

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Shortly before the April 28, 1946 opening of AROUND THE WORLD in Boston, Orson Welles called Harry Cohn in Hollywood to get a loan for the costumes he needed to open his new show.   As most Welles followers know, the result of that call was a loan from Cohn that allowed the show to go on. It also led to the only film Welles would ever make with his wife at the time,  Rita Hayworth.  THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI is now widely considered a masterpiece of film noir, but incredibly enough, it was not even listed on a recent ballot of the 400 greatest movies,  as ranked by that idiotic commercial and corporate group known as the AFI.     

Thankfully, Columbia at the time was not owned by a huge muti-international conglomorate, but was run by an independent mogul, Harry Cohn. That allowed Welles to make the most expensive Hollywood movie he would would ever direct.  Unfortunately, Welles was not given final cut on the film.  

However, the entire reason THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI  happened, was because of the call Welles made to Cohn to help him launch his production of AROUND THE WORLD.  It was based on the famed Jules Verne's novel, which Welles had already adapted to radio, to startling effect,  in 1938.

However, doesn't it seem slightly bizarre that until the revival being put on this week in London by Ian Marshall Fisher, that this work by two giants of American culture  has never been revived on the stage?  And of course, it still has never been revived in America.  

Now, just think what Picasso and Matisse were painting in 1946? Do you think any of those canvases  have been hidden from view for the last 60 years?  Of course not.    

So let's thank all of Welles many friends in the UK who know and love his work.  People in the theater, like Mr. Ian Fisher, and Simon Callow, and Welles first biographer, Peter Noble.  And of course, the BFI and Sight and Sound,  who unlike the laughable AFI,  have the taste, knowledge and appreciation to know that Orson Welles really did make many other movies besides CITIZEN KANE.  

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Theater�director Marc Silberschatz had the wonderful idea to stage a revival of Orson Welles MOBY DICK-REHEARSED, which was never staged by Welles in New York City,�despite it being his own favorite theatrical production.�

Welles original production was presented in London for about three weeks, opening on June 15,�1955.�By�all accounts the play was a sensation, and Welles subsequently began to film a movie version of the play that featured most of the the same actors who were in the stage production, but was never completed.�

The current�New York production will also have a run of about three weeks, and received some�excellent reviews in The New York Times and The Village Voice ( see below).

And as�director Silberschatz is a big fan of Orson Welles work, I'm sure if you have a chance to see it, the show is worth checking out before it closes on March 25th.�

Here is the opening scene from Welles play:

�

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If you're in the UK, you may wish to venture to East Sussex to see Voodoo Macbeth, an exhibition at this year's Brighton Photo Biennial, a festival dedicated to photography. As the web site summary describes it: "Orson Welles' African-American theatre production of Macbeth forms the basis of a major exhibition, Voodoo Macbeth, at the iconic Modernist De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea. The recently refurbished Pavilion was created at the same time as Welles' 1936 production, which relocated the play to nineteenth-century Haiti to comment on the threat of fascism and impending war.

Voodoo Macbeth contains film footage and archive photographs of Welles' original production, plus screenings of the director's films and a video installation featuring his famous radio broadcast, War of the Worlds. The exhibition also features work and new commissions by contemporary international artists including Glenn Ligon, Phyllis Baldino, Mitra Tabrizian, Lee Miller, Kara Walker and Steve McQueen."

There is an exhibiton catalog with essays on all the exhibitions, but the site doesn't get into any further details about contents thereof. The exhibition runs 7 January 2007.

-JW