Jackson Pollock

Throughout the show, Jackson Pollock is brought up time and time again. At times I seem to revere him, others despise him. Derrick and I discussed the idea, and decided on creating a relationship between the two throughout the play.

At one point I mention "He was a great painter, I knew him very well, we came up together." and at another time I highly regard "those painters whom I came up with." I also go into a long story about him and get touchy when Ken brings up his death.

I decided to play the relationship as the two of them being old friends, at least as much as Rothko could have a friend. We worked together to "move beyond what was there to what is here," forging into the world of Abstract Expressionism. Then, as Pollock "grew tired of himself, grew tired of his form, grew tired of his viewers...he no longer believed there were any real people left to look at pictures." I watched as he "tried to retreat from life," and eventually resorted to alcoholism which lead to his "lazy suicide" as I call it. I had lost the one person I felt close to. Now, alone without a place of my own, I had thrown myself wholey into creating art hat was neither alone nor "rootless."

The First Week - Scene One

Our first week of rehearsals went by quickly and efficiently. We began working through each scene, tackling one a night. 

I quickly found the first scene to be a beast to tackle. Ken has just come in to begin his job and I don't give him even a minute before I start to test him. I immediately begin proding him, seeing what I can get out of this fresh meat. Derrick and I discussed the idea that I go through a lot of assistants and I've stopped really caring about who they are. It's more a matter of seeing how long they can put up with me before eventually wearing out. This all-in type of introduction is my way of seeing if he's even worth my time. 

However, Ken proves to be more apt than I initially assume. Throughout the scene as I weave and wind through stories and ramblings, there are moments of actual artistic insight that I impart upon him. At one point when Ken asks "How do you know when [the painting]'s done?" to which I reply "There's tragedy in every brush stroke." Though all he responds with is "Ah" that small response shows me that he gets it. I reward him with a drink, something I only do one other time during the show. 

From that point on I realize Ken may actually be of more worth to me. Though I say that I don't really care about his opinion, I still use it as a sounding board, as basic feedback from at least a relatively intelligent viewer. I ask him what he sees, provoking him to think further into the paintings and eventually just using the opportunity to go into another long winded story where I can show off. 

As the scene ends, I reveal that my life's goal has been to create a temple-like place so that the viewers of my murals can spend time in reverence to let the paintings move and do their work. 

Turner - Artist Notes

J. M. W. Turner - British Romantic landscape painter, watercolors

Rembrant - Artist Notes

Rembrant, a Dutch painter, Born July 15, 1606, Died October 4, 1669

Self Portrait

The Magnification of Simeon

The Mill

Belshazzar's Feast

Blocking the Show

Our first week of rehearsals started off much differently than I've ever started a show before. Instead of the usual round of table work and then jumping immediately into blocking, we started by running the entire show all the way through, using whatever blocking we wanted. We did this for a number of reasons, the first being, as I mentioned before, the fact we've been sitting on the characters and script for a while now. In our time off we still talked about the show and the characters. Derrick wanted us to just get up on our feet and let it out, and use what he saw to guide rehearsals from there.

It was a great relief just to be able to let the show out for once and see it in its entirety. We'd read the show over before, but there's something very different about getting up and doing it. Sure, there was a lot of stumbling, but it was great for all of us involved.

After our dinner break, we came back to start in on getting the blocking down for the first scene. On Sunday, we picked back up with the rest of the scenes, and actually got the entire show sketched out during the first two days.

Prep Work

This project began back in November when I was approached by Derrick Shane to participate in a scene he was directing for the SDC Competition at the KCACTF Region II festival, along with my friend Brandon Clemens. It was from a play called Red by John Logan where I would be playing abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko. I read the scene and was immediately excited to play it. The language and character behind Rothko were fun and rich, and provided a chance to play my own spin of this historical character.

But we were all left wanting for more as we returned to IUP for the Spring Semester. As I busied myself in our production of Monster in the Garden and course work, the time came round for me to start looking into my Senior Project. As most of my work here was as an Actor, I felt it appropriate to use my senior project as an exploration of my acting process. I have grown so much over the years, from my first performance as Kulygin in Three Sister's through this year's Brothers Karamazov and Monster in the Garden. This was an opportunity for me to explore my acting process in a uniquely collaborative environment.

The biggest challenge that we had to overcome in getting everything set up was that we lost our original space. Due to conflicts that were beyond anyone's control, the Studio Theater space had evaporated for the time we had originally planned. We set out to secure a new place, and were welcomed over at the Art Department in their Kipp Gallery.

So we set off to complete the pile of paperwork that needed to be turned in, and after a few fumbles out of the starting gate, we were off!