2008 Next Wave Festival Chuck Close, Bill T. Jones I Diptych, 2008, Pigment Prints BAM 2008 Next Wave Festival is sponsored by: AI tria 2008 Next Wave Festival Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman William I. Campbell Chairman of the Board Vice Chairman of the Board Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer presents Opening Night Approximate BAM Harvey Theater running time: Dec 2—6, 2008, 7:30pm two hours and 20 minutes, By John Cassavetes no intermission Toneelgroep Amsterdam and NTGent Directed by Ivo van Hove Set and light design by Jan Versweyveld Costume design by An d’Huys Sound design by Marc Meulemans Video design by Erik Lint BAM 2008 Next Wave Festival is sponsored by Altria Group. Leadership support for the Next Wave Festival is provided by The Ford Foundation. Leadership support for BAM Theater is provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc. and The SHS Foundation. Opening Night is supported by the Netherlands Fund for Performing Arts+. Opening Night is supported by the Netherlands Fund for Performing Arts+. Opening Night reception support is provided by the Consulate General of The Netherlands in New York and The Netherland-America Foundation, with wine provided by Barefoot Wines and floral décor provided by Fleurs Bella. Opening Night Photo: Jasper Vartjes Dramaturge Koen Tachelet Dutch translation Gerardjan Rijnders / Sam Bogaerts Camera Judith Hofland, Menke Visser Cast Elsie de Brauw Myrtle, plays the character of Virginia in the play The Second Wife, ex-wife of Maurice Jacob Derwig Maurice, opponent of Myrtle, plays the character of Marty in The Second Wife, ex-husband of Myrtle Oscar van Rompay Gus, plays the character of Tony in The Second Wife, the first husband of Virginia Lien de Graeve Lena, wife of Tony in The Second Wife Fedja van Huêt Manny, director of the company, married to Dorothee Karina Smulders Dorothee, wife of director Manny, ex-actress Johan van Assche David, producer of the theater company Thomas Ryckewaert Leo, stage manager, organizes the play’s performances Kristof van Boven Kelly, Myrtle’s dresser Chris Nietvelt Sarah, playwright of The Second Wife Hadewych Minis Nancy, fan of Myrtle Opening Night was selected both for the Flemish and for the Dutch Theatre Festival 2006. Also in 2006, actress Elsie de Brauw was awarded the Theo d’Or, the most prestigious Dutch award for an actress in a leading role, while Jacob Derwig received the Arlecchino, the equivalent for an actor in a supporting role. As an outstanding actress in a supporting role, Chris Nietvelt was nominated for the Colombina award. Opening Night Photo: Jasper Vartjes Synopsis co-star Maurice, who also happens to be her ex-husband. Although the slap is obviously Opening Night portrays a theater company make-believe, to Myrtle it only feels too real. during the hectic run up to the opening night When she witnesses the death of a young fan of a new play entitled The Second Wife. Dur- shortly after giving her an autograph at the first ing the day, the actors rehearse some of the preview, Myrtle starts to confuse real life with more difficult scenes and in the evenings they theater. She cannot rid herself of the images of perform previews. Opening Night begins on the accident and her role becomes associ- the evening of a preview and finishes three ated with the death of Nancy, with whom she days later on opening night. Fragments from identifies. Myrtle regularly brings the girl back The Second Wife alternate with rehearsals, to life in her imagination: perhaps this way she discussions, conflicts, and personal conversa- will master her role in the play. But instead of tions between the characters. Opening Night being a blessing, Nancy gradually becomes a offers a unique look behind the scenes of a curse. Myrtle finds herself increasingly depen- theater company. But it is more than that. dent on the dead girl. Her fellow-actors see her Myrtle Gordon, the company’s leading actress, teetering on the brink of insanity. Myrtle can has a problem. She is finding it hard to identify only see one way out: in a surge of her survival with the role she is playing; that of a woman instinct she kills the image of her younger self. past her prime desperately trying to hang Just when nobody believes she will perform, on to her youth. Myrtle tries to incorporate Myrtle decides to go on and, together with hope into her role. Moreover, she is worried the rest of the cast, turns opening night into a about being slapped on stage by her male huge success. Opening Night Society and the individual John Cassavetes and Opening Night Opening Night is about the strained relationship John Cassavetes knew the theater world like of society and the individual. Society requires the back of his hand. Although artistically des- individuals to conform to familiar roles: father, tined for independent film, he always referred mother, president, actor, job-seeker… But an to the theater as a Utopia. To him, theater was individual needs to feel free and unique. In this the only truly free place where an actor could case, society is represented by the company unreservedly express himself; a place that had of actors, technicians, and the artistic team: not been contaminated by artistic conservatism a theater family. The relationships within the and the commercial interests of the film studio family have long been determined; the direc- system. tor, producer, playwright, and technical crew all have clearly defined job descriptions. There Cassavetes produced Opening Night in 1977, are deadlines, and there are ticket sales. Life but his idea for a “backstage” film about an is organized around bureaucracy, allowing little aging stage actress actually dated from the time or regard for the crisis in which Myrtle finds 1960s. “Getting older” was an important herself. The death of young Nancy has rudely subject to Cassavetes. Many of the female awakened Myrtle’s latent feelings of discontent. characters in his films struggle with the realiza- Myrtle is now convinced that she cannot and tion that their youthful energy and physical will not play the role of Virginia in the way that beauty are coming to an end. Opening Night the playwright has intended; she wants “hope.” is the first film in which Cassavetes connects She draws the entire theater family into a crisis this issue with his own habitat, the world of by radically rejecting the routine and violating film and theater, actors, and actresses. This is all codes of the theater. She thinks that this will not a coincidence. Actors are a perfect example confirm her sense of freedom and individuality. of people who are aware of how other people Nothing could be further from the truth: it merely see them, both on stage and off. An actor does serves to magnify her loneliness. At the end of not only play a role on stage; his fate is always Opening Night, while performing on opening determined by others: success or failure, cred- night, Myrtle finally accepts that she can only be ible or incredible, trendy or old-fashioned. Cas- an individual if she is also a member of society. savetes was fascinated by the troubled plight She hits rock bottom, and only during the grand of actors trying to distinguish how they see finale, in which she is initially so drunk that she themselves from how others view them. Experi- can hardly stand up straight, she gradually starts ence had shown him how difficult it could to come to her senses. Eventually, she is able be to stay in touch with who you really are, to act on stage with Maurice, showing renewed disregarding the image other people have of energy and personal commitment. The balance you. As the years went by, the struggle became in the theater family has been restored and it can increasingly existential. Moreover, towards once again function at full speed. the mid-1970s, Cassavetes and his wife and leading lady Gena Rowlands were themselves Myrtle returns to the place where she was hap- approaching 50 and getting old was rapidly piest. Her survival depends on being part of this becoming a fact. This makes Opening Night theater family, even if it stifles her. Myrtle accepts one of Cassavetes’ more personal films. that her life is constrained by routines and rituals. But acceptance generates new opportunities: it is a sacrifice that will perpetuate a society. Who’s Who Ivo van Hove (director) began his career as a various plays, particularly for New York Theatre stage director in 1981 with productions of his Workshop: More Stately Mansions by Eugene own writing (Germs, Rumors). He was con- O’Neill, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennes- secutively artistic director of the Flemish theater see Williams, Alice in Bed by Susan Sontag, companies AKT, Akt-Vertikaal, and De Tijd. Hedda Gabler by Ibsen, and The Misanthrope From 1990 thru to 2000 he was director of by Molière. For Schauspielhaus Hamburg he Het Zuidelijk Toneel. Since 2001 van Hove has directed Faces by Cassavetes and Molière’s been general director of Toneelgroep Amster- The Miser. Meanwhile he is working on his dam. Productions of his have been performed first feature film Amsterdam which will be re- at Edinburgh International Festival, Biennale leased in 2009. Van Hove’s work has received of Venice, Holland Festival, Theater der Welt, a number of awards: two Obie Awards for best Wiener Festwochen, and in Lisbon, Paris, director of an off-Broadway production (for Verona, Hanover, Porto, and Cairo. He directed More Stately Mansions and Hedda Gabler), the ensembles of Deutsches Schauspielhaus the Oeuvre Award of the Province of East-Flan- Hamburg, Staatstheater Stuttgart, and New ders (1995), The Award of the Dutch Flemish York Theatre Workshop, and staged the tele- Theatre Festival (1996), and an Archangel play Home front for NPS public broadcasting.