Directing Under Milk Wood

In the Spring of 2009, I was invited to direct a staged reading of Under Milk Wood, "a play for voices," by Dylan Thomas.

I eventually had a cast of fifteen, having drawn from an amazing pool of talent on South Whidbey Island, Washington (my little town of 1,200 supports two theaters), including David Ossman as First Voice, and the peerless Amy Walker, who received much exposure in 2008 with her viral YouTube clip, 21 Accents. "I'm devoting the month of May to Welsh," she said, and proceeded to coach the cast on dialect and pronunciation.

Captain Cat was played by Mr. Peter Lawlor, local favorite; the most grizzled salt you'd hope to meet, he's a fine poet and devotee of Dylan Thomas to boot. Another stellar performer was my son, Max Cole-Takanikos. He covered many parts superbly, and his brief conversation with himself (as Organ Morgan and Cherry Owen; "oh, Bach fach") was always satisfying. And not only him, but also Jill Johnson, the great storyteller. And Suzanne Kelman, who toured the States with her wacky show, "Big Purple Undies." And young Kate Hodges was superb as Lily Smalls, and enchanting singing Gwennie's song. Really, an amazing cast.

The common assumption was that the fifteen of us, covering over seventy speaking parts (with only three actors covering single parts only; my cast list is below), would don hats or hand props when switching between characters, to help the audience avoid confusion.

I thought not, though - "a play for voices;" my first vision was that we'd wear black and merely read the piece. I'm a poet too, and can't stand when people try too hard to help poetry out. Just say the words. Besides, less is more, right? Help the audience pay attention.

That was what we ended up doing, to great effect. Fifteen of us in a row on stools with music stands, handsome in black. Discreet water bottles — I was adamant that we not hear page turning, or water bottle caps or travel mug lids... only voices.

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Technology and Producing a Show

Email revolutionized putting on a show. It's the easiest way to communicate among those in a production, to send out call lists, rehearsal schedules, venue change notes, et cetera.

Or, it was the easiest. Having added web design to my bag of tricks, I put together a simple website, as a repository for all the information we'd accumulate and require access to during our production: the schedules and venues, the script as a download, audio clips of melodies for learning the songs, the cast list (confusing, at first)... By far, the best way to have all the information accessible. And simple, so it wasn't a "time-suck." Maintaining it was as easy as sending out emails would have been, if not easier. And way easier for me to keep track of all the details. I just put them on the site, and whenever I needed them, there they were.
It's also in line with one of my core philosophies: ensure that your collaborators have all they need.

When the show closed, I took the site down, stripped our personal information out of it, and assembled the rest as a repository of helpful information for anyone else who might want to take it on. Much of our own research was conducted on the internet, so we've really just aggregated data that was already out there, but added some new content to the mix, as well (the audio cues as a resource, for example).

After our tiny run (three shows), we did a show in the local park, for free. I wanted to use the audio mix (for the door creak, and Utah's cows, et cetera), but the tech-booth software wasn't available on the laptop we'd need to use in that portable situation, so I made a little web page with all the audio cues as mp3s, little Quicktime controls; my audio tech ran that through an amp and some speakers, and we were all set.

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The Cast

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Judith Adams

1st Woman, Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, Voice of a Guide Book, Mrs Dai Bread Two

Michael Barker

5th Drowned, Mr Mog Edwards, Mr Waldo, Mr Pugh, Lord Cut Glass, Fisherman, 2nd Boy, A Drinker

Barton Cole

4th Drowned, Mr Pritchard, Ocky Milkman, Butcher Beynon, Nogood Boyo, Sinbad Sailors, First Boy

Max Cole-Takanikos

1st Drowned, 3rd Drowned, Jack Black, Little Boy, Mr Ogmore, Organ Morgan, A Voice, Mr Willy Nilly, Mr Cherry Owen, Third Boy

Kate Hodges

Myfawnwy Price, Little Girl, Lilly Smalls, Mae Rose Cottage, Mrs Dai Bread One, Girl [Gwennie]

Jill Johnson

2nd Neighbor, Another Mother, Mrs Utah Watkins, Mrs Willy Nilly, Mary Ann Sailors, Bessie Bighead

Kent Junge

2nd Drowned, Preacher, Utah Watkins, PC Attila Rees, Rev. Eli Jenkins, Dai Bread, Old Man, Evans the Death

Suzanne Kelman

1st Neighbor, 4th Woman, Mrs Organ Morgan Mrs Beynon, Girl's Voice

Peter Lawlor

Captain Cat

Marta Mulholland

Rosie Probert [Woman's Voice], 2nd Woman, Mrs Pugh, Girl's Voice

Martha Murphy

Wife [Mrs Waldo], 3rd Neighbor, Girl's Voice,

David Ossman

First Voice

Jim Scullin

Second Voice

Joni Takanikos

Mother, 4th Neighbor, 5th Woman, Gossamer Beynon, Girl's Voice

Amy Walker

3rd Woman, Polly Garter, Mrs Cherry Owen, Girl's Voice, Child

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Here are some snaps of a rehearsal we had in the splendid little park on a splendid spring evening in the really splendid little town of langley. this inspired us to plan our eventual show in the park (flyer above), as it was such fun to move around with the text.

some snaps of our opening performance follow, taken (pirated!) by my friend, drew kampion, who can be relied upon to document and archive events large and small. I'm glad he took these.