Theater is collaborative, but the best theater always has someone at the helm with the foresight and the ambition to go an extra inch or an extra mile, either with provocative, little-seen work, or with innovative staging and an astute eye for casting.
In the South Bay, two people spring to mind who came and went, both of whom made lasting impressions on local theatergoers: Jeryll Adler of Pacific Stages and Brady Schwind of the Neighborhood Playhouse. For the moment, it’s Schwind who’s returned, and with a dazzling new project. And while it’s not taking place locally, local people are behind it who believe it’s as grand as anything he’s ever done.
In Palos Verdes nearly six years ago, Brady Schwind gave us an exquisite rendition of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” but not long afterwards he decamped for New York where he’s continued to direct plays, write plays, and take on work as a script doctor for the movies. Before then, there were a couple of years where his productions made headlines at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Malaga Cove – works which also included “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” “Amadeus,” and “Parade” – and these are remembered fondly by those fortunate to have seen them. Although Schwind still has a place in
Palos Verdes where he can retreat, it’s been far too long since we’ve had an opportunity to see his work without first having to board an airplane.
Intimate and grand
When someone mentions a “cult musical” or “cult movie,” that usually means the work is quirky and not to everyone’s taste, despite a core of people who remain devoted to it no matter what. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was or is one such musical, and another seems to be “Carrie,” a tale of the supernatural that first appeared as a Stephen King novel in 1974, and then as a film by Brian de Palma in 1976 (with a 2013 remake). In 1988, a Broadway production ran for just five performances, but it was in 2012 that Brady Schwind saw the resurrected and scaled-down off-Broadway production at the MCC Theater directed by Stafford Arima.
Even at the Neighborhood Playhouse, Schwind says, “I was always drawn to what I called intimate but epic formulas, doing things like ‘Parade,’ which is a big show, but doing it in a kind of intimate way… I’ve always been drawn to those larger than life stories and ideas, and I always loved the idea of giving an audience a grand experience but in an intimate setting.
“And so it was interesting,” he continues, “when (I was approached) about doing ‘Carrie’ because my idea for ‘Carrie’ was big.” Although he praises the intimacy of the off-Broadway production, Schwind adds that “‘Carrie’ is about big things, big feelings. It’s almost Greek in its emotional hubris. It’s like ‘Medea’ – you’ve got revenge and betrayal and cruelty and retribution; and of course it’s a story about a girl with telekinetic powers. So it’s also a grandly theatrical spectacle.”
A synopsis of the story, by way of a press release, is a bit of a cliffhanger: Taunted by her peers at school and terrorized by her religious zealot mother at home, (this is) the haunting tale of 17-year-old Carrie White. Lonely and tormented, Carrie discovers she has a shocking secret power. But when a prank at her high school prom goes horribly wrong, everyone finds just how powerful a secret can be.”
For the curious, film clips online reveal a prom night finale that is Wagnerian in its volatility.
Epic and intimate, a small theater but a grand experience: That’s what Schwind was thinking of, “so that all the layers of the story come through.”
Audience immersive
Brady Schwind looked at the musical and asked himself what he could bring to the table that was new. Again, there’d been both a large-scale and a small-scale production. “The original Broadway production was very interested in the spectacle of it, and the off-Broadway production was very interested in the social morality (aspects) of it, but it needs to be all of those things to be fully realized.
It needs to be a spectacle and it needs to have the Greek mythology, and it needs to have the (social commentary), the high school experience and what that means.”
This led to an audience-immersive concept, Schwind says, “where we’re putting the audience in the middle of the story, and I was drawn to that because everyone’s had a high school experience. When you look at what’s made the story resonate and be popular for 40 years I think that’s the heart of it. We all know what it’s like to have had that experience, and to feel like that is the most frightening experience of our lives.
“We all know what it’s like to be Carrie,” Schwind adds, and as for the “revenge fantasy” component of the story, well, he says, laughing, “it’s part of our pop culture and it’s made this story endure.”
As for that innovative staging we’ve been hinting at, much of it has to do with where in the theater we plant our behinds.
“A portion of the audience literally will move along with the actors,” Schwind says. Immersive theater, where the audience steps into the show, is not exactly new, but usually it’s voyeuristic in the sense that one can follow certain actors or choose one’s own forward path through different rooms or sets.
“But I thought it would be interesting to take that idea and put it with a linear book musical,” Schwind says, “with an iconic story that everyone knows. In the theater we’re always trying to hold up a mirror, we’re always trying to have the audience see something in themselves through the story, and I thought doing this unique staging might be a way to do that.”
However, to go back in time a couple of years, Schwind sent his staging concept to the writers of the show, and apparently they were quite impressed. And so then, working with his own production company, The Transfer Group, one of his partners being Suzan Fairchild (formerly of the Actors’ Repertory Theatre, which was based in Rolling Hills for many years), Schwind teamed up with Broadway producers Jack Batman and Bruce Robert Harris (Tony Award winners for “Pippen” and “Clybourne Park”). They said yes to Schwind’s concept as well.
Not many theater companies are inclined to, or are even equipped to, try out and develop a new show. But when it’s a show that incorporates all kinds of special effects, the range of likely candidates grows even smaller. And as for Carrie, Schwind says, “You’re basically looking at a full production even just to test the concept.”
Fortunately, we have someone like Brian Kite, the artistic director of La Mirada Theater. As Schwind explains it, “He’s a really interesting guy who likes pushing the buttons. He had started a program there where they do one experimental show a year. They were looking to do ‘Carrie’ in kind of an experimental way, and we were looking to do ‘Carrie’ in an experimental way. So it seemed to be a really good marriage.”
Coming on board
Jack Messenger and Lois Bourgon are well known throughout the South Bay for the shows in which they’ve appeared and for the shows they’ve produced, most often in recent years at the Manhattan Beach Community Church. As Messenger puts it, “We believe in Brady and his vision,” and so he and Bourgon became front money investors and co-producers for Schwind’s take on ‘Carrie.’ Like
everyone else involved, they’re banking on its success here and elsewhere.
Schwind describes La Mirada Theatre as a rather traditional theater, “but we’re not using it in a traditional way; we’re actually reconfiguring the theater to be a very intimate experience. We’re kind of building a theater within a theater.”
What that means in terms of numbers is that each performance will accommodate about 250 people, a far cry from the usual mid-range theater of 400 or 500 seats, let alone the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center which seats 1,457.
When Schwind spoke with us back in 2009 he was quoted as saying “People will go to the theater if it’s challenging. It’s about doing exceptional work.”
Do those words still describe what he thinks and feels?
“I guess what I would caveat now,” Schwind replies, “is that you have to give audiences something to care about, something they’ve never seen before. I think that’s our responsibility as theater artists, or as artists in general. We want to give people an experience through art that moves them in ways that haven’t before.
“One of the things that’s fun about this project is that it’s so crazy; the ideas that we’re doing are so outside the box. But I think if we can find a pay-off in there, an audience may walk out saying, I’ve never experienced anything like that before. And, to me, that’s the challenge and that’s the reward, and that’s the reason for doing it.”
Carrie opens in previews on Friday the 13th, at 8 p.m. in La Mirada Theater, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada. Opening night is Wednesday, March 18, at 8:30 p.m., with performances Tuesday through Sunday, closing April 5. Times vary. Tickets, $40 to $70, with student and senior discounts. (562) 944-9801, (714) 994-6310, or go to lamiradatheatre.com. ER
