Interview: Scott Barrow of HERE THERE ARE BLUEBERRIES at The Wallis

Based on real events, Pulitzer Prize Nominee Here There Are Blueberries from Tectonic Theater Project (creators of The Laramie Project) is conceived and directed by Tony and Emmy nominee Moisés Kaufman and co-written by Emmy nominee Amanda Gronich. In it, a mysterious album featuring Nazi-era photographs arrives at the desk of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archivist Rebecca Erbelding who begins to unravel the shocking story behind the images and what they reveal about the perpetrators of the Holocaust and, ultimately, about our own humanity.

I decided to speak with cast member Scott Barrow (pictured) who has been working with Tectonic Theatre Project since 2005 about his career with the group as well as more about the creation and production of Here There Are Blueberries.

Hi Scott. Thanks so much for speaking with me today. First, please tell me about your education and your involvement with the theater world prior to joining Tectonic Theater Project.

I had classical training in the master’s program at Brandeis and also with Shakespeare and Company.

Before Tectonic?! I mean that was analog. We were still getting head shots on film – but I worked extensively in Boston, and then started hitting the regional theater circuit. I found a theatrical home at New York Theater Workshop and the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse.

As an actor, I have played major roles at the New York Theatre Workshop, Arena Stage, the Arden Theatre, Arkansas Repertory, Commonwealth Shakespeare, Hartford Stage, the Huntington, the Wilma Theater, the Mint, Nevada Shakespeare in the Park, DC’s Studio Theatre, New Rep, the Geva, the Olney, Portland Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Urban Stages, Trinity Rep, and Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, where I am an Artistic Associate.

Tell me about your work as the Artistic Director of STAGES on the Sound, a not-for-profit theater company dedicated to bringing amazing artists and innovative productions to schools for workshops and year-long residencies.

One of the things I think was really helpful was to find a side hustle adjacent to my acting career. I did a lot of fight direction and teaching. STAGES grew out of a group of artists creating work together and supporting themselves through teaching. There was also a lot of bartering, like “I’ll bring this production to your school if you let me use your space” kind of deals. I find that cash-poor organizations still have a lot they can barter.

Jeanne Sakata in Here There Are Blueberries
Photo credit: Tectonic Theater Project

What made you decide to join Moisés Kaufman in 2005 for 33 Variations at Georgetown through its Broadway run and into Los Angeles?

I love creating new work. I love devising and using the part of my being that is a generative artist and not just an interpretive artist. Working with Moisés and Tectonic is a really good fit in that capacity. I help build plays, and then step into the production I have been creating. Then once the production is up and running, there’s a different sense of pride and ownership in the production, and I tend to stay with it longer than maybe it needs me.

I saw the magnificent production of 33 Variations at the Actors Co-Op in Hollywood. But it was The Laramie Project that first grabbed my interest in the work of Moisés Kaufman’s Tectonic Theater Project. Please tell me about your experience on the first tour of The Laramie Project Cycle. Were you surprised at audiences’ reaction to that play?

Aaargh! I’ve never seen a production of 33variations! Soon, I hope. That Laramie tour was incredibly rewarding. We hit so many communities and venues where the LGBTQ community was being met with animosity and hostility. Legislation surrounding defense of marriage acts and Obama’s Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. hate crimes prevention bill put the play in the center of a much-needed discussion. It felt important to help facilitate those necessary discussions.             

Are Moisés Kaufman’s Tectonic Theater Project original plays all based on true stories?

No, but they all feel very real because the theatrical question or hunch that we are investigating reflects the concerns that we as theater makers have living in our communities and in our societies. The question of how we tell that story, and how to best explore that theatrical question, determines our relationship to actual events. Like is it based on a true story, is it fictionalized, is it an adaptation, is it interview based. We explore that relationship in the development process as we are looking for the best form to present the story.

Barbara Pitts, Luke Forbes, Delia Cunningham in Here There Are Blueberries
Photo credit: Tectonic Theater Project

I read that you are a “credited devisor” on Here There are Blueberries. Please explain what that means in terms of creating the play.

As a devisor, I am in the room during the development process, helping to create the play. This is the generative artist mindset that I mentioned before. Devising can take many forms from improvising or writing scenes, to playing with design elements, to auditioning text to interviewing and researching, to helping to structure the play.

The devising process at Tectonic starts off very democratized and collaborative; embracing the belief that the group brain is better than just one single perspective. For Blueberries I was most interested in figuring out how to make the projections feel the most alive and tactile; 3-dimensional.

Having performed in the piece at New York Theatre Workshop, STC, and its premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse, what are your expectations for its run at The Wallis?

One of the great successes of the play is that it really does hold a mirror up to the audience. We are in an incredibly different moment in history than we were six months ago. The play is going to echo that in the minds of the audience. The post show conversations are going to be radically different, as the play, and even though we will not have changed anything, will resonate entirely differently.

The Company of Here There Are Blueberries
Photo credit: Tectonic Theater Project

Are there plans to take it elsewhere after the run here?

Yes. We are in Berkeley in April and then definitely at other places at other times. That will be great.

How did the title of the play get selected?

The title is taken directly from the album albeit translated from “Heir Gibt Est Blaubirren” – it’s so deceptively innocent. I think when the Tectonic community voted for this title, that’s what made it the clear winner.

Is the play performed in the same ensemble style as The Laramie Project?

Yes, There are definitely similarities and repeated forms. The cast all play multiple roles, and the transitions between characters are swiftly articulated. Stylistically we love bouncing between something that feels very natural into incredibly complex theatrical forms that border on abstraction.

What role(s) do you play? And why did you feel drawn to it? 

After nine years, I’ve played most of the characters in the play. The team we have is fantastic; so much talent and so much dedication to the piece. Currently, my main role is as the creator of the album throughout his life from his 30s through his 90s. It’s a deeply troubling journey that he decided to immortalize in pictures, without having any real sense of the magnitude of these photos.

The subject matter of the Holocaust deeply affects many people who lost friends and family members to it. Is that part of the reason Here There Are Blueberries was created, to tell the truth about what was really going on but not spoken about until the previously-unknown Nazi-era photographs arrived at the desk of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum?

The Holocaust is the event that has been most written about in the history of literature. Moisés Kaufman said, “What else is there to say? And then I saw these photographs. There's a line in the play, 'Six million people didn't kill themselves.' It's important that we are also studying the psychology of the people who did this.

And when Moisés read the 2007 New York Times article ‘In the Shadow of Horror, SS Guardians Frolic’ about the photos, he was thinking about how this story could have a full expression as a work of powerful theatre. Kaufman said, “Those photos pose questions about culpability and complicity. Those issues are important in American culture right now. This is my most American play. It speaks about how we coexist when tremendous injustices are being committed. And how do we leave our daily lives when everything about our country is in perilous danger? The purpose of this play is to show in a very specific way that the people who did this were not raised to do this. They were people like you and me, and through a series of very specific things, they learned how to do it. I refuse to believe the Nazis are monsters. The moment you label them as monsters you can separate yourself from them. They were regular human beings, which makes it all the more frightening.”

The Company of Here There Are Blueberries
Photo credit: Tectonic Theater Project

Sounds very similar to what’s going on in American politics right now, which is also very frightening. Tell me about how the research was done to write the play.

The devising team, Amanda, Moises, and dramaturge Amy Seidel - we all immersed ourselves in the material, and tried very hard to focus on the play and our inquiry on criminality, culpability, and bystanderism. The subject matter is so vast, we really had to limit ourselves to the telling of the story of the people inside the album. And then how their lives relate to us.

Co-writer Amanda Gronich said, "These SS officers are frolicking and having fun on their days off and eating blueberries, and just outside the frame is the killing of 1.1 million people. While we were working on the play, we had the opportunity to show the photos to survivors who had actually been at Auschwitz when photos were taken. And, without exception, every one of them said, 'You must tell this story.' They were not surprised by seeing that human beings are capable of this dichotomy, between having fun on their days off and committing genocide. They felt so powerfully that people didn't know this, and that they needed to see it."

Let’s talk about your work as a senior Moment Work teacher who teaches workshops for Tectonic all across the country, including AADA, New School and year-long capstone residencies at Drew University, and also as a contributing writer on the company’s devising methodology book: Moment Work. How would you describe Moment Work?

Moment work is our devising methodology. It’s the way in which we utilize all of the elements of the stage: the lights, the set, sound, the props, color, proximity of the audience - everything - to tell the most theatrical story. It’s the process by which we create theatrical forms ideal to that specific material.

I love teaching moment work. There’s lots of amazing companies that devise, but I truly ‘feel’ our methodology. Our university is among the most accessible, and the best scaffolded.

What led you to collaborate on and perform in Andy Paris and Anushka Paris-Carter’s Uncommon Sense play about autism in Iowa and Off-Broadway at the Sheen Center?

Working with Andy and Anushka from the first rehearsal through the closing was a dream. It was exciting to see the entirety of the process, and to also work with artists on material that was so personal. The vision, design and even the narrative of the play changed dramatically from Workshop to Workshop, which was also very exciting.

Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself or Here There Are Blueberries?

One of the things that I love about this play, and why I want to share this play, is that it follows a shift of why we study history in school: We study history not to learn what happened, we study history to learn what happens.

And perhaps, to change it if we can, so such negative actions against humanity never happen again. Thanks for all your insights, Scott. I am really looking forward to being in the audience!

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents Here There Are Blueberries, Conceived & Directed by Moisés Kaufman, Co-written by Amanda Gronich, Produced by Tectonic Theater Project, Brian & Dayna Lee and Sonia Friedman Productions for 17 performances March 13-30 on Wednesday, Thursday, Fridays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm, Sunday March 16 at 7:00 pm; Sundays March 23 and 30 at 2:00 pm in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills 90210. Tickets start at $49, available online at https://TheWallis.org/ or by phone (310) 746-4000.

Featured in the cast are Scott Barrow as Karl Höcker & Others, Nemuna Ceesay as Charlotte Schünzel & Others, Delia Cunningham as Rebecca Erbelding & Others, Luke Forbest as Tilman Taube & Others, Barbara Pitts as Judy Cohen & Others, Jeanne Sakata as Melita Maschmann, U/S Judy Cohen & Others, Marrick Smith as Rainer Höss & Others, and Grant James Varjas as Peter Wirths & Others.

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