Incubator of Creativity:

Reviving Lanford Wilson’s Balm in Gilead at NY’s T. Schreiber Studio

by Erica Lauren McLaughlin

When I first accepted the role of Bonnie in Balm in Gilead, I thought “this will be a breeze”. I should have known then I would be in big, big trouble. As an actress who had taken classes previously with our director Peter Jensen, I knew first hand that a role is never as simple as it seems on the page, and that there would surely be work to be done. Even with that knowledge, I had no idea just how challenging it’d be performing Balm in Gilead: Lanford Wilson’s intricate blues symphony about New York’s lower depths.nnBalm in Gilead is a 29 character play, (down from the original draft by the playwright which featured over 50) featuring overlapping scenes and dialogue, and a famous monologue which lasts for the majority of the second act. Most of the characters are on stage all the time: living, conversing, doing drugs, rambling on to themselves, singing, prostituting, you name it–even when they don’t have written dialogue. This results in an underscoring cacophony of sound unlike what you hear when walking down any street in Manhattan, and as the playwright notes in the play, “when it gets quiet… you almost think something is gonna happen”. As an actor, this requires you put some of your best acting training to use: relaxation, imagination, improvisation, character development, among other skills; and the play highlights one particularly important skill—listening.

Which is undoubtedly what Lanford Wilson did when writing the play, he listened. In a 2001 interview he says, “I found that the quality of my work improved immensely in New York because I was in this incubator of creativity.” Balm in Gilead seems to be a direct reflection of this, a young ambitious playwright; all at once consuming the sea of voices that surrounding him rather than to be consumed by them. It is not unlike how I often feel as an actress in the city, or more specifically as an actress studying at T. Schreiber Studio, performing in Balm in Gilead. I am constantly surrounded by a diverse group of multi-talented people, and in a nurturing artistic environment, rather than be intimidated, I am able to become inspired by and ride the wave of their creativity. Lanford Wilson listened to the rhythms of the city and responded with his pen. On stage in Balm, we listen to the melody of the script and respond through his exacting dialogue.nnSpeaking of exacting, the production is in the capable hands of Peter Jensen, whose last year production of Wilson’s Fifth of July gained critical acclaim and the seal of approval of the playwright himself, who visited with the cast at T. Schreiber Studio. Peter’s character exercises, place specificity, research, and commitment to attempt (at least once) the script exactly the way it was intended makes him a perfect companion to Balm in Gilead. Much of the work on the play is like figuring out a Rubix cube: rearranging the various interlocking colors until they all fit together in harmony. As an actor, this means doing your best research: Who exactly am I talking to? Where am I coming from? What do I really want in this moment? In Balm, the lines simply serve as clues. We are lucky to have Peter who guides this work and ensures it is done meticulously for every role.nnThe result of all of this is that the entire Gloria Maddox Theater at T. Schreiber Studio is transformed into a buzzing, bustling, café like the ones our playwright encountered upon arriving to New York City. The production becomes homage to the then avant-garde productions of Lanford Wilson at the beginning of the Off-Off Broadway movement. To me, after seeing most of last season’s plays on Broadway, this play, 45 years later, still feels revolutionary. The attempt at a new naturalism in his writing is far more experimental than that of say, David Mamet, who has been produced on Broadway constantly in the last few seasons. Which is not to say the two writers should even be compared similarly. With a Broadway revival of Talley’s Folly scheduled for next season, Lanford Wilson will return to the commercial world of Broadway. But in the right hands (hopefully ours are capable enough to fit the bill), his work seems to thrive best in that incubator of creativity that is Off-Off Broadway. I feel privileged to be a part of it, and can’t wait to share it with our audience.