Imagine hiring ten of the best playwrights in America and then not using a single word they’ve written. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando explains as she looks to the creative process behind the world premiere of the Old Globe Theatre’s In Your Arms. In musical theater, the recurring question is -- which comes first, the words or the music? But in the case of In Your Arms, the answer was clear to composer Stephen Flaherty. STEPHEN FLAHERTY: It really started with the words of the playwrights, which oddly in this piece, you never get to hear so it’s a very exciting and unusual and unique piece. Unusual because In Your Arms commissioned ten American playwrights to write on the theme of romantic destiny and then replaced the written word with a vocabulary of dance and music. STEPHEN FLAHERTY: It started with their imaginings of who these characters might be and what culture they might live in, what time, what gender they would be, that was really the jumping off point and I had to find a musical vocabulary to interpret each of these very unique and specific worlds. It was like mounting ten separate shows but all on the same theme. Director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli says the format of the show reflects how love is not the same for everyone. CHRISTOPHER GATTELLI : I just loved the idea that it is different for everybody and I think if it was one story that’s one specific story, but I love all ten writers are from such different points of view about love and… so there’s really something to connect with in all of them because it runs the gamut emotionally of what love is. The diversity of the different stories, though, sometimes left Flaherty in uncharted territory. STEPHEN FLAHERTY: David Henry Hwang threw me a piece that was set in a modern day Shanghai techno club with trance music that then has an acid flashback into the Ming Dynasty that he had written for a friend of his that was a star in the Peking Opera and all of a sudden I had no point of reference for any of that and it scared the pants off me because I didn’t know how possibly I could approach this piece. It also meant starting at ground zero with each story. The one that changed the most was the one written by Carrie Fisher. It was a romance in Paris between a ballerina and a hoofer. That was simple enough says Flaherty, but he struggled with what the piece was about on a deeper level until Gattelli made a suggestion. STEPHEN FLAHERTY: He said we are asking playwrights to write their own dance stories so why don’t we make Carrie Fisher a character in her own dance story so I said it’s basically the author creating the characters and we just began playing with that idea and then it became about control, what happens when you can’t control life, what happens when you can’t control your characters, what happens when your characters take on a life of their own and mayhem ensues. In art, mayhem can be a necessary part of the creative process. But creating good theater is about finding order in that chaos says dancer Donna McKechnie. DONNA McKECHNIE: There is an arc to this, it’s theatrical that way. Theatrical content to me is all these connecting dots how things connect in an organic way. That is the wonderful human thing about it that will be successful. McKechnie’s character appears in the Terrence McNally piece about two older dancers that bookends the show. Flaherty says his job was to musically find a way to connect the dots. STEPHEN FLAHERTY: I had to find a way musically to create a very diverse palate of ten different musical worlds but at the same time I had to find a filament that stitches them together, that binds them together and the further we went with the piece we find also signature physical gestures that we were able to use. In fact, each could even though they are unique and specific genders, specific cultures, specific time period, they could all actually be the same couple morphing in different ways through time. Christopher Gattelli says dance and music provide a universal language to tell these stories. CHRISTOPHER GATTELLI : We could do the show anywhere and it doesn’t matter… people will be just as touched, people will understand it just as much because there isn’t a barrier of any kind. It’s truly this universal language. In Your Arms serves up an exploration of love that requires no translation.
Imagine hiring 10 of the best playwrights in the United States and then not using a single word they’ve written. Find out why in this look at the creative process behind the world premiere of the Old Globe Theatre’s "In Your Arms" (running through Oct. 25).
In musical theater, the recurring question is — which comes first, the words or the music? But in the case of "In Your Arms," the answer was clear.
"It really started with the words of the playwrights, which oddly in this piece, you never get to hear so it’s a very exciting and unusual and unique piece," composer Stephen Flaherty said.
Unusual because "In Your Arms" commissioned 10 American playwrights to write on the theme of romantic destiny and then replaced the written word with a vocabulary of dance and music.
"It started with their imaginings of who these characters might be and what culture they might live in, what time, what gender they would be," Flaherty added. "That was really the jumping off point and I had to find a musical vocabulary to interpret each of these very unique and specific worlds."
It was like mounting 10 separate shows all on the same theme. The format of the show reflects how love is not the same for everyone.
"I just loved the idea that it is different for everybody," Christopher Gattelli said. He is the show's director and choreographer. "I think if it was just one story that’s one specific story. But I love that all 10 writers are from such different points of view about love and there’s really something to connect with in all of them because it runs the gamut emotionally of what love is."
The diversity of the stories, though, sometimes left Flaherty in uncharted territory.
"David Henry Hwang threw me a piece that was set in a modern day Shanghai techno club with trance music that then has an acid flashback into the Ming Dynasty that he had written for a friend of his that was a star in the Peking Opera and all of a sudden I had no point of reference for any of that and it scared the pants off me because I didn’t know how possibly I could approach this piece," Flaherty said.
It also meant starting at ground zero with each story. The one that changed the most was the one written by Carrie Fisher called Lowdown Messy Shame." It was a romance set in Paris between a ballerina and a hoofer. That was simple enough, but Flaherty struggled with what the piece was about on a deeper level until Gattelli made a suggestion.
"He said we are asking playwrights to write their own dance stories so why don’t we make Carrie Fisher a character in her own dance story so I said it’s basically the author creating the characters and we just began playing with that idea and then it became about control. What happens when you can’t control life? What happens when you can’t control your characters?" Flaherty said. "What happens when your characters take on a life of their own and mayhem ensues?"
In art, mayhem can be a necessary part of the creative process. But creating good theater is about finding order in that chaos says dancer Donna McKechnie.
"There is an arc to this, it’s theatrical that way," McKechnie said. "Theatrical content to me is all these connecting dots. How things connect in an organic way. That is the wonderful human thing about it that will be successful."
McKechnie’s character appears in the Terrence McNally piece about two older dancers that bookends the show. Flaherty said his job was to musically find a way to connect the dots.
"I had to find a way musically to create a very diverse palate of ten different musical worlds but at the same time I had to find a filament that stitches them together, that binds them together and the further we went with the piece we find also signature physical gestures that we were able to use. In fact, each could even though they are unique and specific genders, specific cultures, specific time period, they could all actually be the same couple morphing in different ways through time," Flaherty stated.
Dance and music then provide a universal language to tell these stories.
"We could do the show anywhere and it doesn’t matter," Gattelli said. "People will be just as touched. People will understand it just as much because there isn’t a barrier of any kind. It’s truly this universal language and that's great."
"In Your Arms" serves up an exploration of love that requires no translation.
"In Your Arms" runs through Oct. 25 at the Old Globe Theatre's main stage. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 619-234-5623.
