After a great opening weekend, you're not going to want to miss out on this compelling show that will keep you on the edge of your seat until its end. Images by Marc Franklin
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Sara Bookin-Weiner, the From the Deep dramaturg, asked actor Charlie Linshaw a few questions about his time with this play and experience bringing Ilan to life.
You've been involved with this project for a while. When did you start working with Cassie and Lindsay on it, and what's kept you with it? I was part of the first reading in May 2013 at Interim Writers. I completely fell in love with the play and Cassie just kept inviting me to be involved in more readings. I thought from the beginning that an actor in his early twenties would play Ilan, and so my primary interest was in helping Cassie develop her play. How has your character evolved since you began working on the play? Ilan has become more complicated. He has more flaws and more secrets. We rehearsed for most of the readings, so we’d done a lot of table work by the time we assembled to begin rehearsing for this production. The work changes when you get up on your feet and eventually put your script down. Ilan is always busy doing things. He’s also very reactive and can be playful one moment and enraged the next. I’ve been working on finding his lighter side. He needs his sense of humor to survive. What elements of your character do you connect or identify with, and how? It’s an interesting question because I’m playing someone with very different experiences: I’m not Israeli, I haven’t been in the army, and I’ve never been a prisoner of war. But my job isn’t to have had those experiences; it’s to use my body and voice in the collaborative telling of a story. The audience knows I’m an actor, so that’s part of our agreement. That being said, I’m human, so I know about loneliness, loss, love, anger, responsibility, and compassion. I see a lot of Ilan in myself. I also see some of Andrew in me. I think in really great plays, we often can find ourselves reflected in all the characters on stage, good and bad, and this can be wonderful and also unsettling. What's been your favorite rehearsal moment? I love rehearsal. I wish we could do it for eight weeks. But there was a day last week, where a tough scene finally just sort of clicked. Lindsay had me play with the ping-pong paddle, and all of a sudden there was a scene. I know that’s vague, but I don’t want to give anything away. Jeff has also begun to make Andrew increasingly defiant and funny, and it can be really hard not to laugh. But I think Ilan would feel the same way. Do you still want to play ping-pong after this? Ping-pong has been surprisingly fun. I say surprisingly only because I was always the worst one in a family of avid ping-pong players. So I was actually dreading this part of the process. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hit the ball on the table. But there has been some improvement. I wasn’t expecting it to be as relaxing and meditative as it’s been. So the answer is yes. We asked the team of From the Deep three questions about Boston Public Works' upcoming production, and over the next few weeks we will share their answers with you. Meet Sam Layco, the assistant stage manager for From the Deep, a recent transfer from Portland, Oregon to Boston, Sam braved her first real winter and kept our actors on track, all at the same time and all while riding her bike! Learn more about Sam, her wedding proposal, and see the magic that Sam will make happen during this show! We begin previews this Thursday and open Saturday! We asked the team of From the Deep three questions about Boston Public Works' upcoming production, and over the next few weeks we will share their answers with you. Meet Rose Fieschko, the fight director for From the Deep, one sweet yet badass chick who can show you how to take down someone double your size, dance and fly like a performer in Cirque, and still find time to snuggle with her favorite memento. Check out Rose and come see the fights for real in just seven days!t In Cassie M. Seinuk’s From the Deep, we watch Andrew and Ilan’ interaction in captivity – a place full of trauma and uncertainty. Loosely inspired on Jonathan Dailey and Gilad Shalit, the real-life counterparts for these characters were also countries and years apart, never having even met. Despite this, Seinuk draws inspiration from local and international cases, bringing attention to not just prisoners of war but missing persons everywhere. Jonathan Dailey (Inspiration for Andrew) Early Life: Born and raised in Charlotte, Norh Carolina, Dailey studied architecture with his friend Miles Smith at Appalachian State University. Boston: Dailey moved to Boston with Smith for graduate school at Boston Architectural College. During the time of his disappearance he had taken a semester off due to financial reasons. Disappearance: Went missing on October 2, 2012 and was last seen in Allston, Massachusetts by Smith. He didn’t answer phone calls or show up for his job as a sales associate in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Finding: On October 9, 2012, Boston University rowing coach saw a body in the Charles River, ankles in chains and tied to a cinder block. The dental records were later matched with Dailey’s, though. Gilad Shalit (Inspiration for Ilan) Early Life: Born in Nahariya, Israel, Shalit excelled in science at his high school before beginning is military service in July 2005. Capture: On June 25, 2006, an attack on the Gaza Strip left Shalit wounded in his gunner’s seat in a tank; he was captured. Life in Captivity: To keep his sanity, Shalit maintained a daily schedule and itinerary and was constantly active, making up lots of games to keep his mind occupied. Timeline: June 2007 — Audio released that proved he was alive. April 2008 — Hamas leader confirmed Shalit was alive. June 2008 — The last of a series of letters Shalit sent to his family. October 2009 — A video was released where Shalit appealed to his family and the Israeli Prime Minister to release him from captivity. October 2011 — Shalit is released after five years in captivity. Andrew and Ilan in Rehearsal Working on characters who have real life groundings comes with perks and challenges. Through dramaturgical research, Charles (Ilan) and Jeff (Andrew) have learned about the back-stories that inspired the fictional figures they portray, and this research informs their understanding of these people. But it’s also up to them to decide: when do you remain true to these characters’ real-life counterparts, and when do you create your own unique interpretation that isn’t connected to them? Andrew and Ilan are very much their own people; Andrew’s personality is more closely connected to his scripted lines than to Jonathan Dailey’s life, and Ilan’s demeanor is written as much more of an energetic go-getter than Gilad Shalit. By both using the background material on Jonathan and Gilad, and letting the creative juices run freely while we play in rehearsal, Jeff and Charles have crafted an Andrew and Ilan that pay homage to their inspiration, while becoming their own unique characters in a very similar situation. |
Boston Public Works Theater Company
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June 2017
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