St. Petersburg – If you’re unfamiliar with the work of August Wilson, American Stage in downtown St. Petersburg is ready to transport you into his world with its latest production: Trains Running.
At the helm of the production is Bob Devin Jones’ playwright, director, actor, and co-founder of The Studio @ 620 in downtown St. Petersburg who relocated here 20-plus years ago from California to be with his partner.
“I’ve directed a number of productions here at American Stage, and this is my fourth one in the August Wilson Century Cycle, and they asked me to do this and I was delighted,” says Jones. “It’s the words, the language, the story, the vivid characters, and with the right ensemble you know you can do the right things with it. Anyone who has had any familial relationships, who has been part of a community, any race or gender, you’ll get August Wilson.”
Wilson’s Century Cycle is a series of 10 plays, each set in a different decade, and dealing with the African-American experience throughout the 20th century.
Set in 1969 in the aftermath of the riots and the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 2 Trains Running is the seventh work in the Century Cycle. It takes place in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Penn., in a small restaurant that is slated for demolition.
“The community is dying, it’s a depressed economy, and we’re right in the middle of urban blight, and this is the last restaurant on the block and they’re trying to shut it down,” says Kim Sullivan, who plays Memphis, the restaurant owner.”This happens in every east coast city you can imagine, the neighborhood gets run down and they don’t want it to just die, so they buy everyone out, knock everything down, and start over again. But how do you get the city to acknowledge your personal pain and suffering in a situation like that? How do you approximate a monetary value to that kind of thing? That’s what this play is about, the struggle to get a proper compensation for your years of work and toil in your own community.”
For Jones and the actors, the preparation to bring the story and characters to life begins with the words written on the page, but soon moves toward a more visceral place of creativity.
I read through it [the play] again with the actors the very first day we started work, and that’s the last time I looked at the play, I now just look at them,” says Jones. I find what works best for me [as a director] is looking at the actors, and finding a way to direct what they’re doing, because while I certainly I have a vision, your best clue into the script is watching the actors give it breath and decision.”
Renata Eastlick, who plays Risa, was drawn to her character the first time reading the script, and has worked hard to bring Risa to life.
“She’s an interesting character,” she says. “No one really understands her but they all think they have the answers as to why she is the way she is. She’s very different from me, but there are moments, these little nuances where I find similarities, and your best acting is when you do find those similarities first and work from there and build.”
Sullivan’s experience in this production is quite unique, as he acted in this play in the early ’90s.
“I was considerably younger, and I played a younger man’s role. This time around I play an older man’s role as Memphis,” says Sullivan. “When I first did this play it was in 1994, it was in my hometown of Philadelphia, and I got married there during the production, so it has some special fondness for me. Now it’s 2014, I’ve matured some 20 years, and there’s been a lot of gristle and grit in those years, so hopefully the maturity will come into play.”
Both Eastlick and Sullivan have a great fondness not only for the work of Wilson, but for Jones’ directing style and accessibility.
Bob knows his stuff, says Eastlick. He was an actor, so that helps, he understands the actors’ point of view, but he also asks questions, “why are you doing this or that? What are your intentions in this scene? Let’s discuss this. He knows how to open up the actor and knows how to talk to us in the right way to get what he wants out of us.”
“I was doing a lot of work in Sacramento some years ago, and I was working with a director and he asked me something in regards to the play and my character” and I said, “Well, I don’t know,” and he said,”Great!” says Jones. “And so I say now as a director, “I may be asking this, but you don’t have to tell me now, you don’t have to please me right now.”
As rehearsals and preparations come to a close, and the director and actors prepare for the four-week run of the show, their view of what they have created as a team is rarely seen as one whole triumph, but rather as many unique pieces that fit together to create one beautiful accomplishment.
“The creative sneeze that goes into this process is so involuntary, I don’t have any one moment that stands out, there are so many moments, and sometimes it’s just a gesture, a look, and not everybody is going to see it,” says Jones. “But collectively, it will have happened and it will help the quality of the understanding of the play.”
Eastlick agrees.
“Everyone’s reaction is going to be different,” she says. “But as long as we are giving them a visceral reaction of something real and tangible, that’s what I want people to take away.”
Jones feels that in the end, the collective efforts and freedoms of creativity are what make for a memorable performance.
“If they do something right on, I’ll say ‘Protect that,’ that’s exactly what you want, but really I like to say ‘Consider this, consider that,’ and then have faith that they know their characters,” he says. “They are the experts in the room on their character, and I’m the expert in the room on how to direct that character, and if you all mutually agree, then that’s when you get the best performances.”
2 Trains Running runs Jan. 24-Feb. 23. For tickets, visit AmericanStage.org.
MORE INFO:
WHAT: 2 Trains Running
WHERE: American Stage, St. Petersburg
WHEN: Through Feb. 23
TICKETS: AmericanStage.org
