An Interview with Trinity Rep's Curt Columbus

In October 2005, The Board of Trustees of Trinity Repertory Company announced that they had wooed Curt Columbus from his position as Associate Artistic Director of The Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, to be the new Artistic Director at Trinity in Providence, starting in January 2006.  Columbus replaced Oscar Eustis, who replaced George C. Wolfe at New York's Public Theater.

After nearly nine months of fulfilling someone else's vision, Columbus will get the chance to show the audience the very beginnings of his vision for Trinity.

In Providence, RI (and the very extended Trinity community) people are excited to see what Columbus will do with Trinity and its company.

Recently, I got to sit down with Columbus over coffee at Tazza Cafe, in downtown Providence. The meeting gave me a chance to ask Columbus the questions that I had, and I know other people have.

Randy Rice:  So, why Providence?  Why Trinity?  Why leave Steppenwolf?

Curt Columbus:  It is interesting.  The last month has made me understand why I did all of this.  I don't know if anyone even knows that we did this yet.  For years and years, I had dreamed of working the way Chekhov did, or the way Clifford Odets did, or even Shakespeare, which is to take a company of actors; you have ideas, you have, perhaps, some central text and you do improvisations, you do readings, and you work on projects from the ground up.  You have playwrights in the room; you have directors in the room. 

About three weeks ago now, I took 13 of the 15 company members, the [only] two that weren't there are in Louisville, KY, doing My Fair Lady….Paula Vogel was there, myself and four young writers.  We worked on eight projects for four days--including my adaptation of Camus' The Stranger and Paula Vogel's Civil War Christmas.  We did readings. We did improv.  We worked with the two young women who did Boots on the Ground last year.  We worked on their new piece…we talked about "What is obscenity?" v. "What is Free Speech?.  I think we got eight plays out of it that are in various stages of development. That was one of the best weeks of my life.  I know that I am a giant nerd, but that was one of the best weeks of my life.

On the Tuesday following that, we had a big cookout at my house, and everyone came. We talked late into the evening.  And then, we started rehearsals on Cherry Orchard.  I have been involved in five other productions of Cherry Orchard, but this is the first one that I have directed.  I have always been [just] the translator in the room. Now I feel like I have worked on the translation enough that I am able to have some distance and work on it as a director. Its just been, just been, the most amazing possible experience.  So why Providence and why Trinity? Nowhere else in America do you have a resident company of actors.  We have 15 actors…[with an wide] age range and all kinds of people and they are interested in work that challenges and says something.  They're not just "Jobbers," they're "Lifers."

RR:  That is true.  This is a group of actors that have been working together for a long time.

CC: You know, Randy, I am fairly convinced that the paradigm of the American Theater has got to shift, entirely.  We have gotten to this place were we are making this for a national audience, but we are not making anything that is for the people around us.  If we think about how Shakespeare worked--he was writing these little plays that were for 3,000 people, 10,000 people. That was four to five hundred years ago.  Same with Chekhov; why are we [now, in 2006, staging] these plays about very particular moments and time, about very particular people, one hundred years later?  It is because these writers, these collectives, were making work for their own communities.  It had international significance, but only over time.  I find one of the stumbling blocks of the American Theater today is [the attitude of] "If it will play in Philadelphia, it will play, anywhere."  And I have been the recipient of this because my [translation of] Crime and Punishment is playing all over the country right now.  So, "shut up" is what some people would say to me, but I feel like the reason to come to Providence is that you can make stuff here for an audience that is actually, willing to see pretty challenging stuff and the company. And that is why [I came to Trinity].

RR:  At quick glance, sitting in a room alone translating Chekhov and being the artistic director of regional theater company would take two different skill sets, two different personalities.

CC:  (laughs) What are you saying about translators?

RR:  I am only saying that I can imagine that it is quiet, solitary work.  I can also imagine that being the artistic director of a theater company is not.

CC:  Regina Taylor, who I worked with, is a really wonderful artist.  My adaptation of The Seagull is the basis for her work, Drowning Crow.

RR:  Which played on Broadway, right?

CC:  Which played on Broadway.  We had never worked together before that project.  I met her in the early stage of her work...She came [into the room] and we were talking.  After a few minutes, she said, "I'm sorry, I have to stop you.  You are not at all what I pictured when I thought 'Russian Translator.'  I pictured an old guy with a big beard."  And I said, "Thank you, I guess".

RR:  I would take it as a compliment.

CC:  (nods tentatively, in agreement) I really think that I am the biggest theater nerd.  I don't do anything else.  I wish I could say that I had (Columbus uses his game-show host voice) this variety of interests that include skiing and snorkeling.

RR:  But this is it?

CC:  This is sort of it.  Translating, specifically.  I have tried to translate literature.  I have sat down to translate a book of poetry, which I love.  I tried to translate a short story.  I am just not interested.  I think it is because when you translate a play, you hear it as dialogue in your head. You are never really alone. Oh...that sounds sort of mad.

RR:  The characters are there with you?

CC:  Right.  It is always about that.  The translating process and the playwriting process, when you are doing theatrical text, is about being in a room with other people.  So, while I do my first pass on a translation alone in a room, the second, third and fourth passes are things you do in a room with actors.  Then you hear [the words as dialogue], and can say, "That word doesn't sound right", and add and subtract.

RR:  Everyone wants to know--and I am sure some people are afraid to ask--what changes you are thinking about making to Trinity Rep's Company.

CC:  No, No, everyone asks.  The big change that I am making to the company is that I am involving them in every level of the theater.  This is, collectively, an enormously talented group of people…like any family, they have specific ways of relating to each other and it is really rich and fruitful when you put them together.  That is what is so amazing about doing this Chekhov [play] with them.  There is a history there that injects itself into the life of the play, so the play is more textured.  If you are talking about the make up of the company, am I going to get rid of people? No.  My plan is that I am going to use these 15 actors and cast them and find roles for them and, hopefully, find a full season of employment for them every single year.  That's the notion.  Over time, we will certainly add people, but it [will happen] over time.

RR: Your notion lends itself to using the Brown/Trinity Consortium, then?

CC:  Right.  That's it.  That is the "over time" piece.  Your investment is getting these young professionals…they are young people who have left their early careers to come and work in a focused fashion.  What we are trying to do is create cohorts, within the Consortium, who will then go out and work together.

RR:   Are you going to teach at the Consortium?

CC:  I start on Wednesday.  I am teaching a class called "Collaborative Context."  I am committed to the idea that artist are powerful contributors and collaborators.  The old model: that actors are hired help and directors are hired guns; that is not generative.  That is not going to create anything new.  Part of what we are talking about with [these students] is how they can be powerful artists across the discipline.  In other words, I am a theater artist.  I am not an actor, I am not a director, I am not a translator, I am not a writer, and I am not a designer.  I have done all of those things, and I do all of those things.  Often times in conservatory programs, [students] are encouraged to [think of themselves as just one thing].  Don't worry about writing, because you are an actor.  Here, they have a playwriting class--for actors and directors.  This collaborative context class is to say to them that the world around contributes to how you shape your art, be aware of that, as opposed to unaware.  As an example, I think we will start with Oedipus Rex…we will read the play in week one.  In the second week, a woman who teaches "Anthropological Ritual" at Brown will come and talk [to the class] about ritual and what these rituals meant to the societies that were performing them.  The third week, we will read the text again [and talk about] what's enlivened by the context.  We will do Cherry Orchard, Galileo, Beckett, and Twelfth Night, because everyone needs to wrestle with Shakespeare in context.

RR:  Long term, where do you see musical theater fitting in, at least at Trinity?

CC:  (long pause, then choosing every word carefully) It is hard to answer that question.  I am big musical theater queen. I have just taken out of one of the drawers…and given to several people, the musical that I have written.  Not the music, but the book and lyrics.  I am kind of just "coming out" about the fact that I have written the book and lyrics.  So [musical theater] is one of my great loves.  The "American Musical" as a form has, I think, taken a step back towards the musical hall. If you go see Spamalot on Broadway, it is a blast.  It is a "musichall."  It is a "show."  It is a Broadway show.  It is a Las Vegas show.

RR:  I am sure it will play for years in Las Vegas.

CC:  Absolutely, and it should!  No arrogance here.  I had a BLAST at Spamalot.  It is just that the "American Musical" as a storytelling form is a different thing.   I think that is, I am certain, that is what we will be engaged in at Trinity, how we tell the story, because I will be using my actors.  I am not going to import actor/singers, or worse, singer/actors to come in.  I am going to use the folks that I have.

RR:  (laughs) "Or worse, singer/actors?"

CC:  Or worse, singer/actors. It is priority.  I want actor/singers and I have actor/singers.

RR:  Is the feeling of being "the new kid" gone yet?

CC:  No.  This is my first season, the beginning of my first season.  While I celebrated a lot of the wonderful things that happened last year, this is the year that I get to tell the story.  I don't know if you have walked by the theater, but we are doing all kinds of renovations.  I am convinced that the public interface with the theater, the way in which you enter the theater, is a big part of the experience.  We are putting in new carpets and painting the lobby.  We are doing what you would do if you had guests coming into your home. That feels new.  I am hoping that when people walk in the go "wow," because the dome is back, the capitals have been re-gilt.  All of this historical work has taken place. The colors that we chose are the original lobby colors… So, give me another year before I lose my "new car smell."

RR:  I didn't mean to imply that we were bored of you.  We haven't even seen your first production.  It is three weeks from tonight and one of the most exciting opening nights at Trinity in years.  People are really interested to see what you are going to do.

CC:  Thank you.  That is kind to say. What I can say is that it is everything that is old, in a new way.  I am so committed to this notion of "company," because that is foundational to what has been done here.  Even if no one else has used [the company] in this way, this is how I see it going forward...that you create project around them, that you give them opportunities to direct, that you produce the plays that they have written.  [All of the company] are artists, involved in the theater at every level?  Everyone is doing unbelievable work in Cherry Orchard…What is fun about [this production of] Cherry Orchard is; usually you have the "heavy hitters" in the big roles, and here [at Trinity] you have "heavy hitters" in every role, in every single role.  It is an ensemble of people who are at the top of their game.

 RR:  You are pulling a marquee name [William Petersen] for A Dublin Carol.  It is quite a coup for you in your first season.

CC:  I am not unaware and I am not going to sit here and pretend that I didn't think about that, but the great gift is that Billy Petersen and Amy Morton, who is directing, were boyfriend and girlfriend when I moved to Chicago.  I fell in love with them both so hard, when I was 21.  They were the people that I wanted to be when I grew up.  It turns out, I grew up, and I am able to say to these people that I revere and respect like you can't imagine, "Do you want to come work at my theater?"  And they said, "Yes."  That's the gift...Of course; I will keep trying to bring people in to generate interest.  They will be people with whom my actors should be working.  [I hope] the combination of these actors and those actors will create something special and new.

RR:  I have to think it is also exciting to be 41 with the people you were 21 with; you don't always get to do that.

CC:  I know, I know. That is what I am trying to make sure everyone understands.  This is the hugest gift that I actually get to say "thank you" to the folks who made it possible for me to still be in this business.... that I have this opportunity.  I am thrilled.

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Trinity Repertory Company's 2006-2007 Schedule is as follows:

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, translated and directed by Curt Columbus
September 15 – October 22 in the Dowling Theater

Dublin Carol by Conor McPherson 
November 30 – January 7 in the Dowling Theater

Our Town by Thornton Wilder
January 26 – March 4 in the Chace Theater

A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee
February 16 – March 25 in the Dowling Theater

The Fantasticks; Music by Harvey Schmidt, book and lyrics by Tom Jones
March 30 – April 29 in the Chace Theater

The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl
April 27 – May 27 in the Dowling Theater

Curt Columbus will also direct Trinity Rep's 30th annual all-new production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.