Publication info: by Rebecca Webb for the September 2001 issue of
SENIOR
PERSPECTIVE, published in Glenwood, Minnesota by Jeanne Olson (editor and publisher).
| John Hawkes, the actor formerly known as John Perkins, has impeccable timing. His large role as Bugsy in The Perfect Storm added a thrill to his return home in July to star in Harvey at Theatre L'Homme Dieu. But his co-starring role with Keanu Reeves in Hardball won't reach audiences until September 14, making it clear he did not come home to bask in his fame. In fact, a customer at the octagon fruit stand on Nokomis who remembers"little John Perkins running around Alexandria as a kid" draws a blank about John Hawkes. The man with dozens of films to his credit and a hugely popular guest appearance on The X-Files is a well-guarded secret in his home town. "My joke," Hawkes
grins, "is that I can get hired in Los Angeles or around the world
but I can't get a job at L'Homme Dieu." Lots of television and movie stars do summer stock, but Hawkes has loved Theatre L'Homme Dieu (TLD) since long before his move to Hollywood and not just because he was raised on the shores of its namesake lake. "I did a small part here in a play called The Front Page when I was in high school. I've been wanting to come here and perform for a long time," he explains. But first Hawkes wasn't famous enough, and then he was too famous. "I'd call the theater and either people didn't know who I was, or later they wouldn't believe I wanted to work here. Maybe I wasn't talking to the right people," the actor shrugs. Theatre L'Homme Dieu has a ten-week season during which the student company and guest professionals like Hawkes stage six productions. One show is rehearsed while another is performed for the public. The company practices from 9 am to noon, 1pm to 5pm, and 7pm to 10pm every day. Those not appearing on stage work on set or costume crews, park cars, and staff the box office. Since time before and after rehearsals is spent learning lines, professionals and student company members generally work a 13-hour day or longer. "It's an intense working environment," says Jason Bisping, a student company member and St. Cloud State University graduate from Rochester. "A professional lead like John has a lot to worry about, more responsibility. He's on stage more, has more lines, he carries the show in a many ways. When he's not working with us, he's off working on his lines and his character." The process begins on Tuesday with a read-through of the script. On Wednesday and Thursday, the actors learn their blocking (where they move on stage). On Friday they begin working 'off-book' (without having the script in their hands) but are allowed to 'call for lines' (ask to be prompted) through Sunday morning. Bisping says the actors who don't have two big parts in a row often have their lines memorized by Saturday morning. By Sunday evening, they must have the play and their blocking memorized. There are run-throughs and dress rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday and the show opens on a Wednesday night. "It's a grueling schedule," admits associate artistic director Amy Rohrberg Wilson. "But it's a great experience for students who are used to working on a show in a college for six weeks. Suddenly they have to put a show together in one week! It changes how you learn your lines, how you work with other people, how you master your blocking." The students learn many of those new techniques from the visiting professionals. "The best part is seeing their method, how they work," says Bisping. "You learn about the nature of theater and the nature of people. John and all the other professionals who have been here this year are amazing. It's good to see a working actor who knows what he's doing and isn't tired of it after so many years." Hawkes has an additional tie to Alexandria's summer stock theater; he attended St. Cloud State University for a year after graduating from Jefferson High School in 1977. St Cloud State has long supplied much of TLD's personnel and equipment; students receive up to 6 hours of academic credit for working at TLD. But in the future, TLD will be severing some of its ties to SCSU. The demands of summer stock have caused burn-out among some of the faculty, and TLD is trying to buy its own equipment to ease the financial burden on the state-funded school. Rohrberg Wilson, a professor from the University of Northern Iowa who will be TLD's artistic director next year, understands how draining the season can be and encourages faculty to consider short-term involvement with specific productions. The students seem unconcerned about the change, too. "Know-how is the biggest thing," says Bisping. "Theatre L'Homme Dieu be fine as long as they have a working relationship with a school with an active theater department so they have access to someone who knows how the equipment works. I suspect students from St. Cloud will still be a large part of the student company; they just won't be able to roll out of bed and go across the street to audition. They'll have to attend one of the conferences instead." The conferences he is referring to are national and regional theater conclaves held at varying locations throughout the country, attended by representatives from many of the nation's professional summer theaters. Centralizing the casting process, the conferences reduce the need for hundreds of local auditions across the country. "They're a great resource for college students or anybody who wants to appear on stage," says Rohrberg Wilson. But will students from outside Minnesota really want to travel all the way to Alexandria when there are summer stock companies in most states? "One of the advantages of coming to L'Homme Dieu is networking with professionals from the Twin Cities," explains Rohrberg Wilson, who had students from the University of Northern Iowa in the TLD company this summer. Many of those professionals stay at the theater compound while in residence at TLD, often bringing family with them. "The student company members have always been great about entertaining offspring if necessary," says Rohrberg Wilson. Though he has family in the area, Hawkes rented a high school acquaintance's cabin closer to the theater to minimize commuting time while securing some seclusion for reflection and meditation vital to his method of character development. But he took several meals with the other cast members. The students are grateful, Bisping says, for the opportunity to chow down with people like Hawkes at lunch and supper between rehearsals. "It's good to sit down and talk about things they've done, to learn interesting things about the business." Part 2 |