Exploring Lives of Mid-Century Artists in 'February House'

Playing real people in a straight play is daunting enough. Imagine if it's a musical. That is precisely the challenge facing the actors in "February House," a new tuner about poet W.H. Auden, stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, composer Benjamin Britten, and novelist Carson McCullers who all lived together in a Brooklyn Heights commune, on the cusp of World War II. With a book by Seth Bockley and music and lyrics by Gabriel Kahane, "February House" is now running at The Public Theater and undoubtedly giving its actors some big challenges.

Back Stage: What are the challenges in playing real people?

Stanley Bahorek (Benjamin Britten): One challenge is getting mired in historical research and losing sight of the playwright's chosen story. So with great reverence for the legacy of Britten, and equal respect for the man, I focused on embodying the character as sketched.

Erik Lochtefeld (W.H. Auden): The sheer amount of information can be overwhelming. So you have to learn what is helpful to you. However, playing a real person is easier because you can actually look at footage or listen to recordings of them.

Kacie Sheik (Gypsy Rose Lee): The challenge is finding the delicate balance between my own instincts and using the information that has been laid out for me and then marrying the two.

Kristen Sieh (Carson McCullers): The characters in "February House" were alive not so long ago, so most of them have living friends and relatives. There's a real desire not to disappoint these people, to be compatible with the memories they have of their loved one.

Back Stage: To what extent are you interpreting and impersonating your character?

Locktefeld: I think impersonation can be an important initial step but in the end you are capturing the essence of that person. You also can't help but bring something of yourself to the role that makes the performance a hybrid of you and the character.

Sieh: "February House" is a musical, so it's already taking liberties with reality. It's not a biopic and straight-up impersonation was never my goal. That said, enormous amounts of research has been done and I've been committed to making choices that seem in keeping with who Carson was.

Back Stage: How did you go about capturing the person's speech, walk, and style?

Sieh: Gabe Kahane gave me some recordings of Carson reading her own writing, and I have listened to them almost every day since. She has a particular Georgia sound that I try to get as close to as possible. Carson also had major health problems. Her history of childhood illnesses haunts her and she fights it. She never liked to draw attention to her illnesses, so I let her bound around the stage like someone who feels lucky to be alive. But of course, that kind of living takes its toll on a fragile person and that's in there too. Fay Simpson's book, "The Lucid Body" was an incredible help in shaping Carson's physicality.



Lochtefeld: Unlike some other actors in the show I had the luxury of going on the Internet and watching footage of Auden. I also downloaded a number of poetry readings he recorded. The first major decision we had to make was his accent. Auden had an extreme Oxbridge accent. To the modern ear, it is a foreign sound. We wanted Auden to sound different from the two other Brits in our play but not so extreme as to alienate the audience. Physically I find small details helpful. How he held his cigarette and the fact that his horrible corns forced him to wear tennis shoes or slippers most of the time.

Sheik: I was introduced to the musical "Gypsy" when I was playing her younger sister June in a community theater production when I was 14. Since then I have been absorbing much of Gypsy Rose Lee through years of reading her memoir, other biographies, watching the different musical films, auditioning for various "Gypsy" productions, catching the Broadway revivals, and then most recently reading the book, "February House."

Back Stage: Are there added musical challenges in playing a real person?

Lochtefeld: Actually, singing in the accent can be tricky. There are vowels and diphthongs that are unnatural to our American ears. We had to make some decisions on how to make them sound right in the accent and still understood by the audience. The key to singing Auden for me was to think of the songs as clear arguments.

Back Stage: What resonance does this story have for a contemporary audience?

Lochtefeld: First there's the struggle Auden and the other figures experience being artists during a time of war. What is the artist's function? To simply create the most beautiful work they can or to produce work that is a direct commentary on the war? Living in a country that has been at war for the past decade it is something we artists ask ourselves all the time. The second is more universal. I think everyone has had that time in their life they might call bohemian. It is a magical time, but also very fleeting and I think this show captures the joy of that time brings but also the painful nostalgia of remembering that period.

Bahorek: It has great resonance for contemporary audiences. I like to think that were they alive today, Gypsy Rose Lee and [Auden's wife and McCullers' girlfriend] Erika Mann would be persuading Benjy Britten and his boyfriend Peter Pears to hop on the subway to Zucotti Park.

"February House" will run through June 10 at The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC. 212-967-7555 or www.publictheater.org.