A Silk Purse Emerges from God’s Ear

Blogs by Tara Karsian | January 13, 2012

Jeremy Shranko, Amanda Saunders, Alana Dietze, Tara Karsian

When I wrote an article for LA STAGE Times last year, it was as a producer of Mark Shultz’s Everything Will Be Different. This time it’s as an actress. I know — you’re asking yourself, “Is there ANYTHING this woman can’t do?” Yes…sing. Yet I’m being forced to do so in front of an unsuspecting public (my apologies in advance) in Echo Theater Company’s Los Angeles premiere of Jenny Schwartz’s wonderful play, God’s Ear.

Well, who knows if it’s wonderful? We’re not opening until Saturday. As I write this, we’re in the middle of tech and dress rehearsals. Our set isn’t finished, props are missing and costumes have yet to be completed. The actors are doing what actors always do at this point in the game: questioning choices, their talent and why they said yes to doing this show, why they ever decided to become actors in the first place — and is it too late for medical school? Yes, it is. But medical school’s loss is this production’s gain.

Tara Karsian

I’d be lying if I said I loved this play when we did a public reading of it last year. I thought the piece was beautiful, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I thought it was akin to lyrical poetry. I don’t like poetry. I like linear. I’m a traditionalist — you know, three acts and a happy ending. I do remember thinking that it could possibly be more fully realized in a staged production, but I expressed my concerns. As usual, no one listened to my concerns.

Once every 10 years or so, I find myself in the awkward position of being wrong. This is one of those times. From the first table read, I gradually began to open up to Jenny Schwartz’s play, her words and the strange world of grief she has created. Now, I’m madly in love with it. if God’s Ear were a person, I would beg it to marry me. No pre-nup necessary.

The play is about a couple dealing with their grief over the death of their young son. Yeah, I know, you’re thinking that you’ve seen this one before. It was called Rabbit Hole. Now, throw in G.I Joe, a transvestite flight attendant and the Tooth Fairy (yours truly) and a couple of other unsavory characters and try and tell me it’s Rabbit Hole. You can’t. You won’t.

At the beginning of the rehearsal process, we all (including our director Rory Kozoll) found ourselves stymied by the play. Seriously, we had no clue as to what the result would look like. It was as if the writer had shown us a picture of a beautiful house, provided us with the land and all the building materials but left the blueprints out. This show allows for a wide range of imagination and experimentation. No two productions of God’s Ear will ever be exactly the same.

It was incredibly exciting to have that kind of expanse to play with as actors, joining as one, forging new acting territories together. That is — until we realized how terrifying that prospect was…about five minutes into the first rehearsal.

By the end of week one, I was looking at all my fellow actors and wondering how any of them had been cast! My God, were they really going to make THAT choice THERE? Had (insert name here) ever even read the play? Did (points to fellow actor) realize what a colossally stupid road they were going down and how they would destroy the entire play with that one ridiculous cross down stage left? Was the director actually going to allow them to do it? Perhaps they felt they same way about some of my choices? Not probable, but I was trying to show some humility. By week three, I was longing to just scrap everything and see if it was too late to get the rights to Barefoot In The Park.

Then it happened.

Those same actors and that director, who for weeks had been so horribly misguided, started to build that house that Schwartz had shown us. As it rose, it became more and more beautiful. Now my colleagues strike me as fearless, magnetic, funny, touching. I am grateful and proud to be allowed the privilege of sharing a stage with them.

I love theater. I don’t love every theater experience, either as a spectator or as part of a production. As in any relationship, I have gone in hoping for the best and as in some relationships, I find myself slowly disillusioned as it plays its way out. But I haven’t this time. I’ve learned to expand my narrow little linear world and give in to the theatrical machinations of God’s Ear. I’m not sure if it will be everyone’s cup of tea, but we’ve all had a hell of a time brewing it.

Our artistic director Chris Fields told me after the public reading last year that I was wrong about this play. He was right. I was wrong. I’ve never been so happy to be able to say that.

God’s Ear, presented by Echo Theater Company. Opens Jan. 14. Plays Fri-Sat 8 pm; Sun 7 pm. Tickets: $25. The Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., LA. www.echotheatercompany.com 877-369-9112.

***All God’s Ear production photos by Megan J. Carroll

Tara Karsian is an actress who is also associate artistic director of the Echo Theater Company. She makes her living doing television and films, and then cheats on them both by doing theater. It’s the best affair she’s ever had.

Early on, when blogging took off, I became all too aware that my patience level for people saying, “Oh, I’ve started a blog. I’d love to get your opinion on it” was at an all time low. Oh, hell, I’m not going to sugar coat it…it grossed me out. It made my skin crawl. It made me want to take a sharp object and shove it through their beady little pretentious eyes. Who, in God’s name, told you that you had anything of interest to impart to the masses (me in particular) and why, when you’re boring the crap outta me at a dinner party, would I feel the need to run home and log on to see what brilliant bon mots you’d come up with this week? But log on I did to check out a few (Catholic guilt and all) as I told totally-boring-person that I would. I found a few to be mildly amusing with some information that had never permeated my mind. I found one or two to be something that I enjoyed but wouldn’t necessarily want to became a “follower “of. Just the term ”follower” didn’t sit well with me. I’m a leader, damn it! But for the most part, it became an exercise in futility. I would respond to the person with a hearty “Good for you…your spelling and grammar are spectacular and I love your choice of fonts!” and then quietly fade away into the Internet darkness, never to grace their blog again.

Last year, I produced a play for the Echo of which I am an acting member and Associate Artistic Director. Towards the end of the run, we were asked to write a guest blog for LA Stage Times. This request became like a game of hot potato, being thrown around to see who would finally sit down and do it. We were nearing the deadline. Yeah. The potato was mine. I won the old blogging lottery! I churned it out at 2 am, and when I was finished, I was convinced that I appeared not only to be drunk while writing it but that I had never actually attended a single English class in my entire life. I was hoping that maybe the kind folks at LA Stage would take pity on the pathetic, obviously drunk actress and not run the piece. But run it they did. I knew at that moment that I would never darken the blogging world again. My one night stand with blogging was over and I would take the walk of shame back to my car in the morning and never look back. The experience was like Alaska. I went once and enjoyed it but I never have to go back again.

So, imagine my surprise at our last Board Meeting when it was suggested that we include a theater blog on our website that I found myself agreeing to write it. I’m still wondering what possessed me…and I do believe I was possessed at that moment. It was as if one of the Board Members had slipped a blogging Roofie in my water and when I awoke the next morning, I knew something bad had happened. Something really bad. But I was raised by people who said, “You’re only as good as your word” so, I have prepared myself to give over to this and try and enjoy it as much as possible. Kinda like the last date I had…but I digress.

This blog is not going to be about me…you’re welcome. It’s going to be about the thing I love most. Theater. More specifically 99 seat theater in L.A.. It always pisses me off when I hear people (yes, New Yorkers, I’m looking at you) talk about the dearth of good theater in L.A. They couldn’t be more wrong. This blog will celebrate not only the actors and directors of the Echo but our fellow comrades in this wacky Equity Waiver world of ours. I will be doing interviews with actors, writers, directors and I’ll even throw in the odd techie just so that they know how much we truly do love them! It will be about acknowledging why we strive to create good theater in a town that considers us the red haired step-child of the industry.We’re an extraordinarily brave and strong group and I marvel at how and why we do it again and again. It’ll be about us.

So, it seems my one night stand has turned into something more. I don’t know if I’d classify it as a relationship just yet, Let’s just take it slowly and see how things progress, okay? But just for the record, I think this could be the start of something.

COMEDY DIRECTION — Larry Biederman
LEADING MALE PERFORMANCE — Jeremy Maxwell
PLAYWRIGHTING — Matthew Benjamin & Logan Brown
LIGHTING DESIGN — Dan Weingarten
SET DESIGN — Efren Delgadillo, Jr
SOUND DESIGN — Drew Dalzell
PRODUCTION DESIGN

To see all of the nominees click here.