Robertson Dean and Deborah Strang, two of the brightest stars in A Noise Within's constellation, met with Back Stage West to discuss their current starring vehicle The Taming of the Shrew, playing in repertory with Cyrano de Bergerac and Under Milk Wood at ANW through Nov. 14. We met over lunch at master chef Serge Burckel's One Restaurant, La Brea's newest gustatory hot spot. Dean and Strang were paired as embattled spousal partners in last year's critically acclaimed ANW staging of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. Together again as warring partners in Shakespeare's classic, they were finding unexpected depths and complexities in the struggle of Petruchio and Kate.
Both are resident artists with A Noise Within. Their talent is undeniable, their training impeccable, their resum s impressive. Strang's wide range was evident in such diverse roles as Hesione Hushaby of Heartbreak House, Miss Havisham of Great Expectations, The Threepenny Opera's Mrs. Peachum, The Little Foxes' Regina Giddens, and Lavinia Hubbard in Another Part of the Forest. In The Seagull, Dean made the role of playwright Trigorin so completely his own it seemed custom-tailored to his measure. He was memorable also in the title role of ANW's Oedipus the King; he has worked extensively with regional theatres throughout the country; he is active in films and TV, and he records audiobooks, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari among them, for Hollywood's Theatre of the Ear.
I inquired how the company was dealing with Shakespeare's oft-attacked "sexism" and "political incorrectness" in Taming of the Shrew.
Deborah Strang: It's interesting that you bring that up; we struggled through last night's rehearsal of scenes where the "taming" starts. When I first studied the play years ago, I was a raging feminist, so young, and I hated this part! I don't think I ever could have played Kate until now. But after being in a long-term relationship and knowing the compromises one must make, I now see the play in a whole different light. It's not just Katherine, but Petruchio also who gets tamed.
Robertson Dean: It's interesting what Deborah says about both of them being tamed. Petruchio is seen at first as also very shrewish. He beats up his servants and abuses them vilely. In the process of learning about Katherine, he learns a lot about himself. He, too, goes through a journey, to discover the part of himself that is missing. It works out very well, this equality between the two of them. Where the real sexism comes in, I think, is in the nature of the play as a series of contracts being drawn up: "Show me the money and you can have my daughter." [Director] Sabin [Epstein] emphasizes this in the first couple of acts-her father, Baptista, quite openly is selling his daughter to the highest bidder.
Back Stage West: And Petruchio blatantly is looking to marry a rich wife.
Robertson: Exactly-"I come to wive it wealthily; if wealthily, then happily." I want the money; I don't even need it, but I want it. Once you buy into the idea of this contract being arranged on a financial basis, then the actual personal thing between Kate and Petruchio can be seen, on a very human level, as a couple of people playing the world they live in. Sabin talks about us both being "outsiders." Petruchio obviously doesn't fit into polite society. And certainly Kate doesn't. We achieve a relationship based on human values and it's a very beautiful thing. We learn about each other. It's surprising to see how moved Petruchio is by her speech in the final scene.
Like Deborah, I also couldn't see myself in this play, as Petruchio. It's funny-a bit like my experience with Trigorin. I never wanted to play that role, either. In both cases, when I started to rehearse, it was one of those magical things. I simply knew what to do and it was easy. I certainly never thought of myself as a big, blustering fellow like Petruchio-but, working on it, the character becomes absolutely irresistible.
Deborah: I can't believe you never thought about playing that role. You're so perfect for it.
BSW: Why do you say that?
Deborah: Well, first of all, he's so sexy. And so completely dynamic. I'd never seen this side of him before, but it must be deep down there somewhere, because it comes out.
Robertson: I don't know where it comes from, the blustery braggadocio. It's like my experience with Trigorin. I didn't know I had that sort of person in me either
BSW: That's the wonderful thing about being an actor, isn't it? And apparently Sabin is an inspiring director, one who can make you find whatever you need in yourself.
Deborah: Very much so. This is my third or fourth play with him. In this one especially, he seems so free. He's jumping up a lot, getting into the action. When I've worked with him before, he's been more silent, saying very little.
Robertson: It's because this play is so irresistible-and irrepressible! There's the humor in it, and the characters get bigger and bigger, and you think, Hey! We can do this-and we can do that! It's the nature of the play. Plus, Sabin is extraordinarily familiar with it. There was a famous production of Taming-famous anyway among ACT members-that Sabin worked on for three years. So he knows every word of it, and he's full of ideas-everything from low comic bits to high-level notions of reality.
We joke about the fact that I played Deborah's husband, Horace Giddings, in The Little Foxes-and she murdered me. So we call this "Horace's Revenge." But it's clear in the script that this is indeed a love story, and that Petruchio and Katherine are immediately, powerfully, attracted to each other. He finds her physically fabulous at first sight.
Deborah: It's mutual; that attraction is what makes the play work.
Robertson: I quote Petruchio: "For by the light whereby I see thy beauty-thy beauty that doth make me like thee well-thou must be married to no man but me. For I am he that's going to tame thee, Kate!" Well! So not only am I going to tame her-it's going to be fun!
Noisy Beginnings
Deborah: I went to school in the South, University of North Carolina, and I got my graduate degree at Chapel Hill.
Robertson: And I went to Yale, and Yale Graduate School. I came to L.A. after doing a lot of theatre in New York, and started doing television work, and some film parts. I wasn't feeling very fulfilled. I saw an advertisement-in Back Stage West, actually-and I sent my resum to A Noise Within and became a company member two years ago. I still do soap operas and MOWs, TV things. And I always know I have Shakespeare to go to at night. So because of A Noise Within, I'm the happiest I've ever been in my professional life. I can't see what more an actor might want.
Deborah: It's pretty much what I've always wanted to do, too-to be a member of a classical theatre company. It was my goal, but for a time I thought it would be impossible. I became involved with ANW through Joel Swetow and began here with Coriolanus.
BSW: Among all the roles you've played, do you have favorites?
Robertson: Two or three. Richard II is another of those roles where I understood the power struggle he was going through. It's a beautiful, beautiful play. Last year's ANW Oedipus is a favorite. And, yes, of course, Trigorin.
Deborah: For me, it has to do with the experience of the work more than the role, I think. Also, in most instances, my favorites were roles I had never really imagined myself playing-Lavinia in Another Part of the Forest; I've never enjoyed playing a role so much. Amanda in Glass Menagerie was another situation with Geoff and Julia [Elliott] and the cast that was just heaven.
And of course Sally Talley in Talley's Folly, 15 years ago, which is how I met Joel Swetow-and fell madly, deeply in love, and we've been together ever since. It's so rewarding to work with actors you know, as we do at ANW. Rob and I have worked together often now. We understand and trust each other, but we approach the work very, very differently. We come from different directions and meet in the middle.
Robertson: What I like to do in rehearsal is know my blocking, the action of the play, where everybody is going to be, what the set looks like. After that, I feel safe to approach the emotions, the human reality. Deborah goes about it in exactly the opposite way. She first searches out the humanity and the emotional reality.
Deborah: I jump on a bucking horse and just buck around for a while. During rehearsals, I settle into the saddle and start riding the horse.
Robertson: It works out. BSW