BWW Interviews: Jaston Williams Talks MAID MARIAN IN A STOLEN CAR

Texas stage legend, Jaston Williams, is heading back to Galveston's The Grand 1894 Opera House. This time around he is bringing his newest play, MAID MARIAN IN A STOLEN CAR, to tickle our ribs. Having received enthusiastic reviews in Austin, he is ready for Galveston audiences to see the show at his favorite American theatre. Gearing up for the production, Jaston Williams talks to me about why you should see MAID MARIAN IN A STOLEN CAR.

---

Let's talk about MAID MARIAN IN A STOLEN CAR!

Jaston Williams: Well, I had never really written about theatre. I've been doing it all my life, but I'd never really written about it. So, I thought, "Well, what have I got to lose? I'm this age. I can't do any more damage [Laughs] to my reputation. You might as well tell some of the stories."

Several years ago I wrote a piece-the first professional production I was ever in was a production of HAMLET in San Antonio. I was playing one of the less significant characters in HAMLET. We had a program where different schools came to our theatre to see the show. So, we would do HAMLET at nine o'clock in the morning for high school students. Somebody had booked these two Hispanic schools-their student bodies were 95% Hispanic-to the same performance, but these schools were blood rivals. They had an infamous football game they called "The Chili Bowl" (the annual football game played every year between Sidney Lanier High School and Fox Tech High School since 1932), where you were more likely to get injured in the stands than on the field. These kids all showed up at the same time, and it was just absolutely insane. By the end of it, we were changed people because it was like performing for the groundlings. It was like performing during Shakespeare's actual time, and I've never been around an audience that understood and reacted to Shakespeare the way they did. They got it in a different way than any other audience. So, I wrote this piece about it. It is a very comic piece, but it is also has a lot of heart in it-"Hamlet con Queso." I read it to a couple of people, and they loved it. They said, "You've got to do something with this." So, I started writing more pieces about theatre.

Initially, it was just going to be a monologue show like my monologues shows where you just go from one to the next, to the next, to the next. But, I hired this marvelous director, Sarah Richardson. Sarah Richardson and I had worked together before in THE LARAMIE PROJECT as actors, and she's a magnificent actress. She's one of the founders of a group called The Rude Mechanicals here in Austin; they actually play a lot in New York and have gained national and international fame. Their approach to theatre is a lot like The Wooster Group. Everybody in their copy is an Artistic Director, and they just kind of get in there and fight it out. So, I had no qualms about hiring her. It turned out to be the best thing I'd ever done. She told me, "Well, I hate to say this: I've never seen your one man shows." I said, "That's probably a good thing because you don't have any preconceptions." She took this material, and what she shaped it into is overwhelming. We all said, "This is a play! It's not just a series of stories." This really is a seamless evening of theatre.

The play starts with me impersonating my mother. When I was about seven-years-old, I guess, I went up the street to see a production of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. I came back home, was signing out in the yard, and my mother was very worried about me. [Laughs] She said, "What's wrong with Jimmy?" So, I ended up writing a piece about that.

So, it starts with me being seven-years-old, and it ends today. You travel through that early, lonely period when you're an actor kid in West Texas, then getting your first job, and then there's a wonderful section that I really love that is about the creation of GREATER TUNA. It's about how Joe Sears and I. We both lived in San Antonio in the 70s, and we lived very near a lovely and very old park. We'd go out to this park, which had oak trees with those big old, wide limbs that came right down to the ground where you could walk up into the tree. So, Joe and I would walk up into a tree, and as I say in the play, "indulge in behavior now totally legal in Washington State and Colorado." [Laughs] We had no idea that we were really creating TUNA, but we were out there telling stories, doing voices, and sharing laughs. That is the end of the first act-the whole creation of TUNA from my memory of it and what an amazing experience that was.

The second act opens with the whole "Maid Marian" sequence. I was hired in the 1970s into a radical feminist theatre group in the mountains of New Mexico. [Laughs] When I put it into words, it just makes me laugh. [Laughs] But anyway, they hired me, and it was the craziest group of people I've ever worked with. It was hippies, anti-war activists, and all of that after the Vietnam War had ended. They didn't have anything to protest, [Laughs] so they took it out on the audience. [Laughs] I ended up working with an actress who was-oh, God bless her-she was truly out of her mind, and she was playing Maid Marian in this production of ROBIN HOOD. We were all expected to go out onto the town square dressed up as clowns and stir up business. This was in Taos, New Mexico, but our version of clowns was more like something out of Night of the Living Dead. [Laughs] It didn't work real well. But, she would come pick me up. She drove like a mad woman, and every time she'd see a cop, she'd jump the curb and tear through the underbrush. Finally, I asked her, "Is there a problem?" She said, "Oh yeah, yeah. The car's stolen." [Laughs] I said, "Well, who stole it?" She said, "I don't remember. It was a long time ago." [Laughs] She said, "I only take it if the other cars are gone." [Laughs] So, she and I became great friends, and somehow we never got arrested. I convinced her it wasn't a good idea when she saw a cop to jump the curb and cut through the underbrush. I said, "That might draw attention." She was grateful. [Laughs] So, in short, I'm not this way for nothing, you know.

The final piece of the play is a "Thank You" to all of the technicians, the designers, the costumers, and the dressers-to all of them that do 90% of the work in any production and are never seen.

I'm real proud of this one, and the reviews have been just ecstatic. I feel like I've kind of turned a corner in my writing with this one, so I'm real excited. When we re-stage it for Galveston, we'll have to put it in proscenium. Previously, we did it in the round in a much smaller theater. We have to go into rehearsal again and prepare it for The Grand 1894 Opera house, which is, again, my favorite theater in America. I'd rather be there than anywhere. That's the gist of it, David. [Laughs]

You don several different costumes and do drag for this show. What was the inspiration for returning to this kind of performance for this production?

Jaston Williams: Being in the Maid Marian costume, which is just a wild and crazy costume, I just like the image of that. I wasn't thinking much about TUNA to tell you the truth. I just thought that was such a funny image. It's kind of the Eddie Izzard thing. I think he's such a genius. He goes out on stage in a dress and just talks very calmly to people. That's how funny he is! [Laughs] It's a funny bit, and it has worked throughout history. I thought, "You know, in the second act, I would really like to just come out in that Maid Marian outfit." But, I'm not really pretending to be her expect for a couple of moments. I'm just in that outfit, sharing the story, which to me makes it a lot funnier. It's that sort of thing of someone not acknowledging what they look like on stage, you know? [Laughs] "Why is the man wearing the ballet skirt? And, he seems so calm!" [Laughs]

And, the whole thing with recreating my mother came later. That was one of the last pieces that was written for this play. I don't know; there was something a little incomplete about the first act. We had the choice; we could start it in a poetic and kind of somber way. I had another piece called "A Handful of Mud," which I really liked. Or, we could find something else to kind of kick it up. We added my mother's character in as a sort of a "Hello" to the TUNA fans-for them to see where that came from. I'm not playing a TUNA character! I'm playing my mama! She was crazier than anything we ever came up with in a TUNA character! [Laughs] That was kind of the inspiration for that.

In an earlier interview, you mentioned that TUNA's Vera Carp was a lot like your mother.

Jaston Williams: Oh yeah. [I laugh] Oh yeah.

But, what is it like actually bringing your mother to full life on the stage?

Jaston Williams: Well, you know, the first time I put on the wig, glasses, earrings, and I put an apron on-one of those kind of full body women's aprons, otherwise I'm just wearing jeans and a kind of regular shirt-but, when I put that wig on, put on those glasses, and looked in the mirror, it scared me to death. It just scared me to death! You know, you don't realize how much you look like a parent until you dress up like them, I guess. I always had thought I looked more like my father's family, but I don't. I put that thing on, and I look like my mother. It was scary. [Laughs] It was like, "Oh my God, she's back!" [Laughs]

My older brother is Yosemite Sam in the flesh. I mean, he really is. He's a little cowboy, crazy-as-hell, and he looks just like Yosemite Sam. He looks like you took a cowboy, put him in the dryer, and shrunk him down. So, at Christmas, we'd be sitting around the table, and you'd have Vera Carp at one end of the table and Yosemite Sam at the other. Again, I'm not this way for no reason! [Laughs] When I tell people I'm not the craziest member of my family, they get this real worried look. [Laughs]

It was fun to recreate my mother and the kind of playful hysteria that was always surrounding her. She just had a lot of energy. She was a very, very good person. She wasn't like Vera in her politics at all. All of Vera's right wing, crazy politics are something that we added in, but other parts of her (my mother's) personality were very much like Vera Carp. It was kind of fun to get the real one up on stage. It really was. It's a tribute to my mother.

As you noted, MAID MARIAN IN A STOLEN CAR has gotten rave reviews in Austin. Why do you think audiences love this show so much?

Jaston Williams: Well, I think that the TUNA audiences really love knowing what went into that. It's kind of like a peek backstage. So many people have seen the TUNA plays over the years, and so I think for the TUNA audiences getting to take a look at that is gratifying.

The other thing, I think, is audiences don't understand what goes into theatre-what it is like to be on our side of the stage, on our side of the lights. They don't know what it's like to be an actor performing HAMLET for 400 extremely hostile young Hispanics. [Laughs] They don't know what it's like to be a technician. They don't know about the relationships that go on there. They don't know about how crazy it can be trying to sell tickets. It's crazy enough that you'll dress up like clowns in a stolen Volkswagen and try to get people to come to the show. They don't see that side of it. And, that side of it is very theatrical and very funny. The people that make up that world are obviously theatrical and funny, but they're also frightened, scared, and they have broken hearts. People in our business, when you're sick, you still go on. People go on with their heart broken. I think showing that-letting people in-they come thinking they're going to see one thing, but they get a look at theatre that they've never seen before. I think it makes them laugh. I think it makes them think.

Again, I'm just real proud of this one. I don't really know, David, how this thing came about. It just sort of happened. I had a couple of pieces, and I thought, "Well, let's deal with this subject. I'll also deal with this subject. And maybe this will all come together." Eventually, when we put it all together, it fit like a glove. It's really bizarre.

A couple of days before we opened the director came backstage with me. She said, "Why aren't there more problems?" I said, "What?" She said, "Why aren't there more problems? Does this seem like it's going extremely well? Kind of scarily well?" I said, "Yeah!" [Laughs] She said, "Nobody's fighting. There don't seem to be any problems. Everybody has done their job, and everybody seems to like each other." She said, "I'm not used to that!" [Laughs] I said, "Well, once in a while, it happens." This was just kind of a harmonic convergence between people. We needed to be working together. We never saw it coming. It's bee a joy. And, getting to take it to Galveston at Thanksgiving is so wonderful because we've played Galveston during that season before-often, with the TUNA shows. It felt really good to say, "Let's take it to Galveston. We've got a lot of our fans and a lot people who loved our TUNA plays there, so lets take it to Galveston during Thanksgiving and give them a chance to see this at that same time of the year." It just feels good.

From your early childhood, to a vignette about playing Osric in HAMLET for San Antonio high school students, to the creation of TUNA, MAID MARIAN IN A STOLEN CAR covers a lot of ground.

Jaston Williams: Yes it does.

What is your favorite part of the show?

Jaston Williams: Oh gosh. [Pauses] You know, it's the kind of show where it varies from time to time. I think one of my favorite moments of the show, and I don't want to give it away, but we have a wonderful transition in the second act. We are going between two final scenes, and it's where we really stop and expose what goes on backstage. We bring on the dresser for the show, who has been seen throughout. She comes on stage several times and just helps me with stuff. But, this time it's a profoundly beautiful and very touching moment. My friend, Kimmie Rhodes, who is an incredible singer and songwriter, put one of Shakespeare's sonnets to music, and we play that at that point in the play. It's just a beautiful transition. It's a breath of life, and it's real relaxation in a very funny play. We just take a moment and show people what it's like backstage. It's very theatrical. It's very loving. I think that's probably my favorite moment in the show. It's not the funniest moment, but it's in many ways the most heartfelt and touching.

But, I tell you, I love being out there in that Maid Marian outfit. That's a whole lot of fun. And, I've got a beanbag chair. [Laughs] Beanbags are funny. I'm sorry, but that was a bad idea, but it was funny. [Laughs] And, nothing says the 1970s like a beanbag chair. I mean, nothing! [Laughs] You can't beat it.

And, I really do love the piece about Joe and I up in that tree. That was a time when there hadn't been any of the TUNA success or any of that. We had what I've always referred to as an exquisite friendship, and the TUNA plays came out of that exquisite friendship. The friendship was there first, and the TUNA plays were like the bloom on the rosebush. It's a whole lot of fun. Everything that all those people who came to see the TUNA plays over the years, everything that they laughed at, you know, we heard that first. We heard those jokes, those stories, and we were the first to laugh at that stuff. It's real pleasant and joyous to go back to it.

In the past, we've talked about the novel that you're writing about a small town in the Texas Panhandle in 1967 and '68. Do you have any updates on that project?

Jaston Williams: I'm heading to West Texas on Monday. I'll be out there for two weeks, and I'm planning to do some major work on that novel then. I've kind of had to put a lot of stuff aside. I was in a production of VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE last spring through the early summer, and I'm also teaching at Texas Tech University. They've kind of hired me as the artistic school nurse for the theatre department, [Laughs] which I really love. I think this novel is well on its way, but it has been on the shelf for about a year. I think it's really time to finish it. That's my goal-to finish that this year and then on to publish.

What's next for you after these performances of MAID MARIAN IN A STOLEN CAR at Galveston's The Grand 1894 Opera House?

Jaston Williams: I'm going to be teaching in the spring. I've been doing the LIFE AFTER LUBBOCK series with Joe Ely, which has been really quite wonderful. Immediately after, I'm going to Dallas for a production TRU, which is the one-person show that Jay Presson Allen wrote about Truman Capote. So, I'll be performing that at Theatre Three for most of January and part of February. We're also working to book MAID MARIAN in other cities. I think I'm going to take it to L.A. You just keep flogging the mule. [Laughs]

Then, we have Song, who is just the most beautiful child in the history of the world, but it takes a lot of time to take care of him the way he needs to be taken care of. What's up with him is always the first thing on my front burner, and we go from there.

MAID MARIAN IN A STOLEN CAR runs at The Grand 1894 Opera House, 2020 Post Office Street, Galveston, 77550 from November 28-29, 2014. Performances are Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 p.m., and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. For tickets and more information, please visit http://www.thegrand.com or call (409) 765-1894.

To post a comment, you must register and login.