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Inside this guide A Brief Moment with 2 Deborah Staples A Brief Moment with Michael Gotch 3 Additional Information 4 Discussion Questions and Activities 5 Study guide written by Andy North, Education Coordinator With contributions from Christina DeCheck Katie Kowbel Edited by Kristin Crouch, Literary Director Jenny Kostreva, Education Director Dean Yohnk, Education Artist This study guide was researched and designed by the Education De- partment at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and is intended to prepare you for your visit. It contains information that will deepen your un- derstanding of, and appreciation for, the production. We’ve also in- cluded questions and activities for you to explore before and after our performance of Armadale. If you would like to schedule a classroom workshop, or if we can help in any other way, please con- tact: Andy North at (414) 290-5393 or [email protected] Jenny Kostreva at [414] 290-5370 or [email protected] Our study guides are generously sponsored by A Brief Moment With Deborah Staples Deborah Staples plays Lydia we are. So if we‟re being economical, Gwilt in Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s then the smallest little change makes production of Armadale. you a different person. For example, I‟ve been in the resident acting the actress playing Mrs. Oldershaw is company at Milwaukee Repertory Thea- playing that she always has blood on ter for twelve years. I was an intern here her hands, or is wearing rubber gloves seventeen years ago. The early part of my so that she doesn‟t get blood on them, career was very heavily based in classical so they‟re always kind of held up in theater and Shakespeare, which is great front of her. Her other character, she‟s training for an artist to have. Since I‟ve decided, has a bad arm: she‟s sort of an been here, I‟ve really been fortunate to invalid, so her arms are down. So it‟s be able to do all kinds of plays and play very clear who she is, even if she‟s all different kinds of characters. standing perfectly still. Throughout the rehearsal proc- I play a single character, think it‟s entirely human, if you have ess there have been constant line cuts, Lydia Gwilt, all the way through. She been told that you‟re on the dark side, line additions, changes… and that will has a horrible, horrible past, and she that you‟re a bad person… at some point keep going. That‟s how we spent the first has found a way to energize her life, to you have to embrace it. You have to em- three days of rehearsal, doing rewrites, go on, to look for the next thing and go brace it so that you have something to before we even got on our feet, and it‟s after it… and she feels perfectly justi- hang your hat on, something to go for- continued throughout. fied in what she‟s doing and entitled to ward with… and I think in society we see It‟s mostly about storytelling - what she‟s pursuing. She takes a cer- that as well. I think that‟s what she‟s we inform more than most straight plays, tain joy in her accomplishments, and holding on to. What she can’t live with is so there are a lot of narrative lines, and she has a lot of energy. That‟s the not being evil, having found real true going in we did not know who would say really fun thing about her: she‟s not love and then living with the harm that them. That‟s been part of our job, to fig- going to be put off and she‟s not going she does. Those things are not compati- ure out what exactly that is: who should to be kept down. ble. So in order to be at peace, you‟ve got deliver those lines, how they should be I think to hold on to the image that split up, what the action is. Whether the her affection you‟ve created for yourself. “Everybody in the world has to narration is addressed directly to the au- for Allan and And we often do this. Once feel good about themselves. I dience, or whether it‟s directed toward Ozias comes as we evolve, we try to cling to think it’s entirely human, if you another character on stage. Whether we a great surprise whatever persona we have in have been told that you’re on the say the lines in character or from a neu- to her. And it‟s our heads, because it can be dark side, that you’re a bad tral point of view. We use all of the perhaps her hard and scary to drop that person… at some point you have above, depending on what‟s going to tell dirty little se- when it‟s not useful to us any- to embrace it.” the most interesting story. It‟s very cret. I think more and go forward. And gratifying to figure out how we can use she‟s so suc- Lydia can‟t. How could she our language and our bodies to tell this cessful and so possibly, possibly live with story as a group, and it‟s very fulfilling to good at what she‟s done in her life be- herself if she did? be allowed to sort of step outside of con- cause she believes it: she very rarely For the bulk of our story, her vention a little bit, be a little more crea- tells a lie. She always finds a way to ideal future is to have revenge, and to tive in our solutions. It‟s a play based on live the truth, in a strange way. I have everything that she was promised a sprawling, 800-page novel, so there are mean, really there‟s nothing dishonest and denied. But of course revenge is not many solutions that need to be found. about falling in love with a charming, satisfying, so her motivation changes. We need to be so very clear, spe- extremely wealthy young man. There‟s She has a need to rise above everything… cific and economical that your eye is only nothing torturous about that. Lydia I guess to become invulnerable, ulti- drawn to what it needs to be drawn to at has found something that she thinks mately. To never be in a position where the proper moment. The story seems to will make her life work. So that doesn‟t anybody can hurt her again. be popping when we keep ourselves very have to be a lie. I think it becomes con- What‟s fun is that essentially still and economical. And it makes the fusing for her when she‟s no longer able there are no rules with her. She will break characters clearer as well. With most of to pursue her agenda because feelings any rule, she will step over any line. It‟s the actors playing at least two different start getting in the way - I think that‟s very liberating, in a way. She can do characters, and bouncing back and forth very confusing. So that‟s something what she needs to do, and she largely between them sometimes within one line, she does have to wrestle with, that is a with no significant shift in appearance departure for her. finds a way to be true in all of it. So like a costume change or anything like I think everybody in the world that‟s really fun. that, we need some way to know where has to feel good about themselves. I A Brief Moment with Michael Gotch Michael Gotch plays Ozias Mid- man that you‟re playing? winter in Milwaukee Repertory Theatre’s What do you want to make production of Armadale. him? This is my first Rep show. Previ- So starting this ously in Milwaukee I worked with Mil- process, with Armadale, I waukee Shakespeare. I did The Taming of skimmed the novel – and I the Shrew and Richard II a couple years say that because it‟s like an ago. Most recently, I‟ve been in Los An- 800-page behemoth, it‟s a geles where I was at South Coast Reper- huge, huge book, so I could- tory doing The Importance of Being Ear- n‟t really read the whole nest. I‟m based in New York but I grew thing. I kind of skipped to up near Chicago in northwest Indiana. I places where I knew my did my undergraduate at the University character was going to come in: what productions of it going, I‟d probably go of Chicago, then went to the University they described him looking like, how watch them and see what the guy playing of Delaware Professional Theater Train- other characters described him in the Mercutio was doing. I‟d watch some of ing Program, which a number of Rep novel, in terms of the way he dressed, the film versions of it, from Baz Luhr- company members the way he carried him- mann‟s one with Clare Danes and Leo- and APT company self, the way he spoke – nardo DiCaprio to the old version with members and a lot of “Really there are no rules when and then read some of Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, and Milwaukee people you’re starting from that ground- the scenes from the take from them what worked and forget have been trained by. floor level. You’re just thinking, novel next to what the what didn‟t.

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