don’t question it. I love the music.
the dawn of the twentieth century.
Signature: Can you talk about the music Sarah
[Rothenberg] will be playing?
MC: One of the great benefits of going to Juilliard was
being exposed to an extraordinary range of music and
history. I studied choreography with Martha Graham’s
lover, and when I was seventeen I did a little piece for him
to a composer named Frederic Mompou, who’s Spanish. His music is extremely spare and deceivingly simple,
but very emotional. We’re opening the piece to Ravel’s
“Valses Nobles et Sentimentales.” We’re using one of the
last études Debussy wrote, which is wild and doesn’t even
sound like Debussy. It sounds like Scriabin. We’re using one
or two pieces of Poulenc. Five of Ravel. And probably twelve
or fourteen of Mompou. It’s a little bit like a Rothko painting.
It’s this kind of color field that begins decoratively and gets
more and more sparse till there’s a last chord.
Signature: What is Tina [Howe] writing?
MC: There’ll be at least three monologues that will give
information that can’t be choreographed. Like WWI, for
instance. And Chéri’s childhood. We’ve decided that the role
of Charlotte – Chéri ‘s mother – would be an important
protagonist for the piece, and the only one who could speak.
She’s a wonderful observer. And you understand, by getting
to know his mother, the empty places in Chéri.
Martha Clarke directs
Alessandra Ferri and
Herman Cornejo, 2013.
Signature: What else are you developing right now?
MC: I am going from Chéri to the Atlantic Theater to do
Threepenny Opera. I am in the theatre because of Lotte Lenya –
I saw her in Threepenny at the Theatre de Lys in 1957.
Also, I met with Taylor Mac and am thinking about reinventing
[Alice’s Adventures Underground] I did at the National Theatre in
London. It was very, very British and I want to make it much crazier.
And the Caravaggio piece. Do you know the actor Mads Mikkelsen,
from a film called A Royal Affair? My newest crush. He’s playing
Hannibal Lecter for NBC.
Signature: How’s your experience at Signature
been thus far?
MC: I love everyone here and I love the space. There is such warmth
and community. And honestly, for me, I love the efficiency.
I’ve never worked in a place where things come together quickly
As I’m watching
performers I think
in images. They come
into my head like
Frida Kahlo’s little
pictures of Diego
Rivera. It’s not a
thought process.
and there’s no waiting. I adore Signature. After more than
forty years of schlepping, I have come home! n
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