Home Siege Home, presented in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission/ Ford Theatres at [Inside] the Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East in Hollywood. Opening March 26 and 27; Parts 1 and 2 alternate Thurs.-Fri., 8 pm; Part 1 plays Sat. & Sun., 4 pm; Part 2 plays Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 7 pm; through May 3. Tickets: Single admission, $20; Students, $12. Call 323.461.3673 or www.FordTheatres.org.
Katharine Noon has been involved with the Oresteia Trilogy for 14 years, developing all three plays, Clytemnestra, Elektra and Orestes, separately. Now, produced by Mark Seldis for the Ghost Road Company, audiences will get to see them for the first time as one piece presented in two parts.
LA Stage: I understand this trilogy of Home Siege Home is your concept but it is an ensemble-created adaptation. How did it begin?
Katharine Noon
Katharine Noon: In 1995 I did an adaptation of the Elektra story. I gathered people I had gone to Cal Arts with and worked with them on the piece. At the time, I didn’t know I was doing an ensemble-created work but that’s what it turned out to be. In 2000 Ghost Road was invited to pitch an idea to Theatre of NOTE and that became collaboration between the two companies. The piece was an adaptation of Agamemnon, entitled Clyt at Home. It was at that time I thought I might as well tackle the Eumenides next and complete the trilogy. We began work on The Eumineides adaptation in 2006 in residency at Loyola Marymount University. It premiered at The Powerhouse Theatre in 2007 and then performed at The Fools Fury Festival in SF. The Eumenides adaptation was entitled Orestes Remembered. After the run of Orestes at The Powerhouse and a tour to the Fools Fury Festival I went back to the other two pieces with the ensemble and re-worked all three pieces so they would live together in the same world as a trilogy as well as stand alone as individual pieces.
LAS: Even though the Oresteia Trilogy is considered a tragedy, you have injected a lot of humor into the piece. How do you balance it?
KN: I don’t think you can have one without the other. The tragic part doesn’t really mean anything unless it has some sense of humor about itself. When you read the original there is humor there and the characters have moments in which the ridiculousness of their situation and life in general dawns on them. Because we focus so closely on the family there has to be humor. It’s recognition of all the silly things we do as people in hopes of making things right in the moment; the single mindedness, the tunnel vision mixed with flashes of recognition. I also think there is a real place for gallows humor in the piece and the Furies provide a lot of that. They deal directly with death and revenge and are very comfortable with both when washed down with a couple glasses of chardonnay. I find it important to juxtapose humor with seriousness. One brings the other into sharp relief.
LAS: Please describe how the music and design elements are integral to the development.
KN: The music in the piece comes out of real moments; a lullaby, a national anthem, etc. In the original incarnations of the first two pieces the music was much more presentational but this time around it felt important to have it come out of the lives of the characters. Caleb Terray wrote most of the music and lyrics came from him, as well as from the workshop writings of the ensemble and myself. The set grew out of the notion of the family and home being central. Maureen Weiss’ set provides a very flexible space that comes apart and goes together in ways that mirror the changes in the family. We were given the elements of the set and through work in rehearsals we began to find ways to use the structure to help tell the story.
LAS: How many years has GRC been in existence? How is the Company adjusting to this troubled economy?
KN: Ghost Road was incorporated in 1995. Over these years the company has had varying degrees of activity and had a relatively inactive period in the late ’90s. We then regrouped and have been consistently creating and presenting new work. We did not start out doing ensemble devised work but the company’s desire to create new work led in that direction. Ghost Road has always functioned on a shoestring so in many ways this doesn’t feel much different. In certain ways things are better for us with being invited to several festivals, the invitation to perform at the Getty and now the Ford. These have all been situations where there has been financial support from the producing entities. We try to tour when we can and that does help.
LAS: What suggestions/advice can you give to the LA theatre community to keep afloat?
KN: Keep all your irons in the fire, grants, private donations, keep cultivating partnerships and interest in your work. Things will turn around and you will be glad you’ve done the ground work. Most importantly, do the kind of work that excites you, that feeds your soul, that uses you up. People and funders will respond to that. I think it is a mistake to turn yourself inside out to do work purely because you think there’s funding there but that you have no desire or passion for. It will drain you and people will see that in your work.
Feature Image of Madelynn Fattibene, JoAnna Senatore, Ronnie Clark and Sarah Broyles in Home Seige Home. Photos by Mark Seldis
