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The
season continues for Plan-B with a look at one of the world's great
artists as his muses.
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DI ESPERIENZA approaches the creative genius
behind the works of Leonardo da Vinci, by putting the master
vis-a-vis with three of the inspirational figures for his legendary
works. Deconstructing the technical method he used to create and
exploring his life from age ten to nearing death. I got to chat with
both Jerry and Matthew again about this month's play, and briefly
with the cast and crew on a topic or two. ---
Jerry
Rapier, Matthew Ivan Bennett & Various
Cast/Crew
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http://www.planbtheatre.org/Gavin:
Hey guys, tell us about the upcoming play Di Esperienza.
Matt:
Di Esperienza will give the audience a glimpse of a Leonardo they're
probably never had before. The play delves into his self-doubt, his
sexuality, and the politics he faced as an artist-for-hire. It's also
a deconstruction of the mythic image of Leonardo. Myths are necessary
and good: they motivate us; but they can also be forbidding.
Sometimes, to be inspired, we must feel that we're capable of doing
what our heroes did too. The deconstruction happens in the script, in
the costumes, in the set, in the sound, lighting -- everything is a
deconstruction.
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Gavin: Where did the idea come from to
write the play, and what was the process like writing it?
Jerry:
Di Esperienza began with a simple phone call. I called Matt a little
over two years ago and asked him to write a play about the most
talented human ever to have lived. Silence. Then a tentative “Sure.”
I wasn’t really prepared for power of the contents of the pdf that
would arrive in my in-box a few months later—the most complete
first draft of a play I have ever encountered.
Matt:
The specific idea came to me when I was flipping through a picture
book of Leonardo's paintings. It hit me: his paintings would be the
narrators. I already knew I wanted to emphasize Leonardo's trouble
finishing certain projects, so I chose three works he had trouble
finishing. The writing process for Di Esperienza was certainly
different for me. A few times a single quote from the notebooks
blossomed into a two or three pages of script. Finding the drama was
initially difficult. I had to chip away at my own reverence for
Leonardo in order to see struggle. A direct example of how I did this
was in analyzing Leonardo's famous letter/resume to the Duke of
Milan. A reverential reading of is likely to produce nothing but awe
for the many abilities of the Maestro; a more critical reading of it
reveals that while Leonardo probably COULD do everything listed in
his letter, he hadn't actually done most of it.
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Gavin:
What inspired you to pick these three specific works of art?
Matt:
"La Gioconda" ("Mona Lisa") symbolizes the
mystique of Leonardo; the sketch of Isabella d'Este symbolizes the
nobility of Leonardo; Judas Iscariot from "The Last Supper"
symbolizes the inner critic and the heretical side of Leonardo. I
chose them because they're all unfinished in a way. "La
Gioconda" was worked on for four years at least and futzed with
after that. She was never delivered to a patron. Leonardo died with
the painting in his possession. Leonardo never did the promised
portrait of the aristocrat d'Este. He only sketched her. Had he
applied himself, he probably could have gotten a stream of
commissions through d'Este, but Leonardo was seemingly inexpert as a
businessman. Isabella d'Este was a central, well-connected monetary
force in the Italian Renaissance, but Leonardo failed to seize on her
as an ally.
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Gavin: You marked that this is only the
third English play about Da Vinci. Why are there so few, and how do
you feel knowing that fact?
Matt: I think there are so
few plays because it's difficult to see how to dramatize the life of
a person you see angelically. Most biographies of Leonardo read like
lists of his accomplishments. Writing a drama about him is almost
like writing a play about Merlin -- Leonardo has become a legend and
is attuned to myth.
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Gavin: For the actors and
designers, what was your first impressions of it when you got wind of
the script?
Kirt Bateman (Judas Iscariot): My first
reaction was, "God! This man is brilliant." Actually men—da
Vinci and Matt.
MIichael Brusasco (Leonardo): What
struck me first was not only is Di Esperienza a highly intellectual
debate between Leonardo’s works, it’s also surprisingly
entertaining.
Tracie Merrill (La Gioconda): Di
Esperienza dares to explore da Vinci’s failings and frustrations,
revealing a man so human that his accomplishments seem all the more
staggering.
Teresa Sanderson (Isabella d'Este): I love
the story. And the way Matt has crafted it, as always, is brilliant.
An actors’ dream.
Cheryl Cluff, Sound Designer: What
about the people today who are passionate about their outlandish
ideas - the ideas that seem far-fetched or "crazy." Who
will turn out to be our "da Vinci"?
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Jennifer
Freed, Stage Manager: From the first time I read Di Esperienza I
was hooked; not only by the story, but by the way it’s told.
Jann
Haworth, Costume Designer: Getting to know this modern man as a
modern man, born accidentally into the Renaissance, is the joy of
this play.
Jesse Portillo, Lighting Designer: Di
Esperienza is beautiful and inspiring—a brilliant work about one of
the greatest thinkers of all time.
Randy Rasmussen, Set
Designer: Heroes like Leonardo are flawed—they make mistakes,
they have dark things in their closets. Just like the rest of
us.
Cory Thorell, Props Designer: Leonardo is still
here, his dreams still very much alive.
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Gavin: What was
the audition process like for you going in? And how did it feel to
know you had the part?
Jerry: We didn't hold a
traditional audition for this play. I've invited several groups of
actors to workshop the play since the fall of 2007 and through a
series of mixing and matching found just the right
combination!
Gavin: Did you do any research for the
parts beyond the source material provided, or did you rely more on
the script and Matt to guide you?
Cast: Jerry gave us
these craptacular dvds - a History Channel series about the life of
Leonardo da Vinci. Abominable acting, but incredibly helpful from a
historical perspective. Google and Wikipedia are our friends
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Gavin:
How did you get The Leonardo and the Shakespearean Festival's New
American Playwrights Project involved? And what do they think of the
play?
Jerry: We talked to them about bringing the piece
down to workshop it there and there was a lot of enthusiasm since
Matt is a graduate of Southern Utah University. Of the 100 plays
submitted for the series, it was everyone's first choice! It was
invaluable to be able to test the play in front of a new
audience.
Gavin: The play itself will run along Da
Vinci's birthday. Is Plan-B doing to anything special to mark he
occasion?
Jerry: We specifically scheduled the run of
the play to overlap with his birthday so that the run could serve as
a 3-week birthday party!
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Gavin: Are there any future
plans for the play after its run?
Jerry: Right now, no.
There was hope of a tour to Italy but the current economic climate
has put that on hold. But hopefully that will change as the economy
improves!
Gavin: Aside from the obvious, is there
anything you'd like to promote or plug?
Jerry: Our
season concludes with our annual fundraiser on May 30. What better
way to mark the sixth year of SLAM and the seventh year of And The
Banned Played On than by combining them into one event? Utah's only
fundraiser-featuring-five-10-minute-plays-created-in-24-hours-celebrating-the-First-Amendment.
Cash bar with food by Cali's Natural Foods (the Sage's Cafe/Vertical
Diner peeps). Hosted by Bill Allred and Doug Fabrizio with special
guest Terry Wood.