Nov. 22: The water engine
I've been a David Mamet fan since I acted in Goldberg Street when I was a
19-year-old college student in 1992. Ten years later, I finally got to
realize my dream of directing a David Mamet play. I picked the Water
Engine. It was not my first choice. My first choice would have been
Glengarry Glen Ross but I doubt that the small town theatre-going crowd -
which was used to The Odd Couple and Our Town and silly British farces -
would have sat still for 65 minutes of the F-word.
The language of the Water Engine was fairly benign. It told the story of a young man who invented an engine that runs on water. He lives with an invalid sister and he works for a company in depression-era Chicago. He brings his invention to a patent lawyer. Bad guys learn about the invention and decide to destroy it. It is, in essence, a conspiracy theory blended with high drama.
The Water Engine is written as a radio play for the stage - which is to say that the actors speak into microphones as if they are in a radio studio. I directed it in a fashion that blended a radio play with real life drama. It was a marriage of two distinct directing styles. The actors - many of them onstage for the first time - grew frustrated with this. They asked me why I kept going from "the radio studio" to "the real world" and I had no answer except that it sure looked pretty.
No one much cared for The Water Engine. My dad didn't like it. Several of the actors were vocal in their dislike for the script and at least two of them were pretty vocal about their dislike for me. The audience applauded politely but they made it pretty clear that they wanted the plays to make them laugh. They didn't want to watch a surreal play that insisted they ponder such controversial issues as science and ethics.
But hey, I got to direct a David Mamet play.
-
I have a director friend who, for years, used the words "yellow hitler" in his email address. He told me the yellow is because he's Asian and the Hitler is because when he's directing, his actors sometimes compare him to der fuhrer. It's the most politically incorrect email address I've ever heard.
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Part of the Water Engine's set included a rendition of a poster from the 1933 Chicago World Fair. It hangs in my bedroom today. I had the cast and crew sign it.
You can see the poster in this picture of me and the play's producer at the post-production party. I insisted on wearing a tuxedo. Probably because I was an asshole.
-
The Water Engine was made into a television movie a long time ago. It starred William H Macy as the inventor and Joe Mantegna as the mean lawyer who tries to stop him. The guy who played Frasier's dad on Frasier also has a big role and David Mamet himself even has a small speaking part.
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There were times when I was tempted to be mean to my actors. There was a time when I was tempted to be mean to my stage manager. I wanted to be mean because I was angry. I was angry because the actors and SM were challenging me. I didn't want to be challenged, I wanted to be obeyed. This was petty of me.
As I said before, I used to be an awful student. Problem is that awful student is still in my psyche somewhere. When someone challenges me, the awful student wants to scream: "Just obey me. I know everything. I am perfect."
I wish the awful student would die.
After the Water Engine wrapped, I agreed to audition for the theatre company's next play, a murder mystery farce called Murder in the Magnolias. (I felt it would be rude not too.) The audience loved it and we got standing ovations every night and I believe I heard one of the ladies in the audience say "well, that was much better than the LAST play."
And that's my report.
The language of the Water Engine was fairly benign. It told the story of a young man who invented an engine that runs on water. He lives with an invalid sister and he works for a company in depression-era Chicago. He brings his invention to a patent lawyer. Bad guys learn about the invention and decide to destroy it. It is, in essence, a conspiracy theory blended with high drama.
The Water Engine is written as a radio play for the stage - which is to say that the actors speak into microphones as if they are in a radio studio. I directed it in a fashion that blended a radio play with real life drama. It was a marriage of two distinct directing styles. The actors - many of them onstage for the first time - grew frustrated with this. They asked me why I kept going from "the radio studio" to "the real world" and I had no answer except that it sure looked pretty.
No one much cared for The Water Engine. My dad didn't like it. Several of the actors were vocal in their dislike for the script and at least two of them were pretty vocal about their dislike for me. The audience applauded politely but they made it pretty clear that they wanted the plays to make them laugh. They didn't want to watch a surreal play that insisted they ponder such controversial issues as science and ethics.
But hey, I got to direct a David Mamet play.
-
I have a director friend who, for years, used the words "yellow hitler" in his email address. He told me the yellow is because he's Asian and the Hitler is because when he's directing, his actors sometimes compare him to der fuhrer. It's the most politically incorrect email address I've ever heard.
-
Part of the Water Engine's set included a rendition of a poster from the 1933 Chicago World Fair. It hangs in my bedroom today. I had the cast and crew sign it.
You can see the poster in this picture of me and the play's producer at the post-production party. I insisted on wearing a tuxedo. Probably because I was an asshole.
-
The Water Engine was made into a television movie a long time ago. It starred William H Macy as the inventor and Joe Mantegna as the mean lawyer who tries to stop him. The guy who played Frasier's dad on Frasier also has a big role and David Mamet himself even has a small speaking part.
-
There were times when I was tempted to be mean to my actors. There was a time when I was tempted to be mean to my stage manager. I wanted to be mean because I was angry. I was angry because the actors and SM were challenging me. I didn't want to be challenged, I wanted to be obeyed. This was petty of me.
As I said before, I used to be an awful student. Problem is that awful student is still in my psyche somewhere. When someone challenges me, the awful student wants to scream: "Just obey me. I know everything. I am perfect."
I wish the awful student would die.
After the Water Engine wrapped, I agreed to audition for the theatre company's next play, a murder mystery farce called Murder in the Magnolias. (I felt it would be rude not too.) The audience loved it and we got standing ovations every night and I believe I heard one of the ladies in the audience say "well, that was much better than the LAST play."
And that's my report.
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