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Poe Artists: Brent Cirves
An interview with musical producer Brent Cirves Backgrounder: The Fall of the House of Usher began as a collaboration between Brent Cirves, the head of the drama department at Woodberry Forest School, and Mike Johnson, at the time an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary studying music composition. Edgar Allan Poe's short story by the same name was the perfect inspiration for a musical: a tale about a musician dying of sensitivity to sound. In the writing process, other works by Poe which were appropriate to the story were added in. Annabel Lee, the title character from a famous poem by Poe, became the great love of Roderick Usher in the days when he was still happy. The raven, again taken from the poem of the same name, became a metaphorical stalker which takes on grave proportions. In addition to these, many other poems by Poe worked their way into song lyrics and dialogue. Book by Brent Cirves The Fall of the House of Usher premiered this summer at the Capital Fringe Festival from July 11-24, 2009. Usher was then produced in New York City at the International Fringe Festival from August 14-19. EAP200: Tell us a bit about your background in musical theatre, Brent. Cirves: I have directed about 20 musicals over the years, and I've written roughly 10 plays (the last couple of them very rough, still). USHER is my first attempt at writing a full-length musical, though I did an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest a few years ago, and it was a so-called "musical play" as is USHER. We called it "The Jazz Tempest," and we imagined Prospero as a Chicago-Italian-Mafiosi-type, marooned on a lake island. The lake, of course, is Lake Michigan. We had a lot of fun with that show, and it made me think that I'd like to write a full-length musical some day.
EAP200: What led you to create the Poe musical? Were you always an admirer of Poe's works? If so, how have they influenced you as an artist? Cirves: I've been an admirer of Poe since I was a boy and able to read stories on that rung of abstraction. I'm guessing I was maybe ten when I first read "The Pit and the Pendulum." I was hooked immediately--not to mention terrified. As I grew up I would revisit Poe, reading and rereading stories that I might not have understood at an earlier age, reading the poetry, some of it for the first time, and later on reading some of his criticism. People tend not to know just how much Poe wrote—and at what dazzling levels of sophistication. He's a man for all seasons. I will no doubt be reading Poe and finding new ideas when I'm 80 (if I don't meet some macabre end before then—to sound the Poe bell). At some point in my teenage years I sort of stopped reading Poe and went big into Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories—only to discover a couple of years later Poe's stories of ratiocination. He invented Sherlock Holmes long before Doyle did, in the form of M. August Dupin. Poe has influenced me as an artist by teaching me the importance of suspense (all good stories should have it in one form or another) and by showing me that one can write a popular suspense story that is also, at the same time, deeply intellectual and aesthetically tuned to fine language. Poe has it all: he's literary and popularly entertaining at the same time; and his stories are timeless. I suppose I decided to write my first musical based on his works as a sort of homage—a thanks to the great artist-friend. And of course because he's so good—it gave us a head start! I should also mention that the irony of Poe's story, a tale about a man dying of over-sensititivity to his fellow man, a painter dying of over-sensitivity to light, a musician/composer dying of over-sensititivity to sound—this was just too great a nexus of ironies for me to pass up. My collaborator, Mike Johnson, agreed. And off we went, just over a year ago, now.
EAP200: How challenging was it to get any funding and support for the musical once you had conceived of it? Were there any major obstacles? Cirves: There were major obstacles, not the least of which was trying to raise production money in this economy. We needed to raise about $14,000 in order to mount not only this show but a second play that I wrote called EXILES FROM THE SUN, which was also accepted to the New York Fringe Festival. We never imagined that both shows would be accepted, but they were—apparently a first for FringeNYC: two full-length plays by a single author playing in repertory in the same time-frame, and both directed by the author as well. So of course two shows meant more fund-raising. It also meant a pretty hectic rehearsal schedule to get both productions ready for New York (USHER premiered solo in D.C. at the Capital Fringe Festival—good thing we didn't try to start the summer off with both shows!) So funding was a major challenge; but it turns out that my collaborator Mike Johnson is very good at the business side of things, and he and others did a terrific job of raising the money we needed. Other major obstacles? One in particular: my lead actor for EXILES wasn't working out, so at the last minute I had to let him go. Two or three other actors said no to me. I was my fourth choice, and I couldn't say no to myself. So in addition to mounting a freshly rewritten production of USHER in New York and premiering a brand new show, EXILES, I was acting in same! All turned out well, though. We got excellent reviews for both, including four stars for EXILES in Time Out Magazine. And somehow or other I avoided meeting a macabre end (there's that bell again). Another major challenge I might mention was trying to figure out a way to turn USHER into a musical without subverting the serious—and often scary—drama of the story itself. We wanted to be true to Poe; and yet we would have people breaking out in song. How was that going to work? Our solution there was to make the music organic to the story, i.e., have the four principles actually compose music as opposed to having them simply break out into song with an invisible orchestra at their disposal. EAP200: Tell us about the musical. For those who didn't see the productions in Washington or New York City this year, what was it like? Cirves: We decided very early on that we wanted to play up the musical aspects of Poe's story, the fact that Roderick is described as playing instruments, in particular the guitar; that he is clearly an artist. We decided to turn him into an aspiring composer whose house is, in the first act of the play, a sort of beautiful temple to the gods of music (the muses themselves). We also decided early on that Roderick should not only have his twisted sister Madeline living with him in the manse, but that he should have a love interest as well, a sort of conflicted love triangle. So I imported Annabel Lee into the story, from Poe's poem. Then we imagined that she, and Madeline, and the narrator, are all music students who keep challenging each other to new heights of composition. At this point we had what we considered a perfect storm of ideas. The story really took off after we added our music-loving Annabel to the mix. What did I imagine people would expect? A macabre tale of terror, full of darkness just-barely-visible. What did they get? We wanted to surprise people and give them a beautiful story about love and friendship, about inspiration and human complexity; and we wanted to explore the idea that there can be beauty even in the midst of terror. To do this we took a few liberties with the story by creating a back story in Act I that was actually rather upbeat—until our poor Annabel begins to weaken and sicken. Things turn very dark in Act II, as they must, making the story a true tragedy by the end. We wanted to give people a realistic story, not a story filled with stock gothic elements just to scare them. In the end I wanted people to really feel for the characters, and to think—to think to themselves: Now I see why a brother might bury his sister alive, now I see why a man would invite a dear friend to a house that's clearly ready to fall down. Now I see, in human terms, how Poe's story might tick (tick, tick). Yes, we wanted to write a realistic story with beautiful and haunting music that would honor Poe's original vision—but also attempt to explain it. A tall order? Yes. Presumptuous of us? Probably. The fun we had? Priceless.
EAP200: What are your thoughts on Poe's bicentennial year in 2009? Do you think it has been given the attention it warrants, or has it been over-hyped? Cirves: Poe's bicentennial could not possibly be over-hyped. I don't think it's been hyped enough. I wish I could do more. I think Poe is certainly among America's top four fiction writers, along with Mark Twain, Herman Melville, and William Faulkner. The French have Poe's place absolutely right, in my book. He's our great "symbolist," and as such, he goes deep, deep—as deep as that maelstrom he writes so well about. We can't possibly thank or honor him enough. EAP200: Any other thoughts on Poe, the man, or his works? Cirves: I always found it very sad that for all his brilliance, Poe never really got his due in his lifetime, his short 40 years. He never felt totally secure in his value as a writer (despite his vast ego), and he was never financially secure. Part of this was his fault—or the fault of his own peculiar psychopathology. He was constantly shooting himself in the foot with friends, fellow writers, love interests, creditors, his step-father, etc. It was almost as if he had to be miserable, had to be doomed, to write. But one has to really admire the fact that he kept writing in the face of misery, alcohol problems, crushing poverty, continual reversals of fortune, the death of his young wife, etc.—and that he continued to write so well. At his best, Poe's prose is poetry, and his poetry, sublime. If Mike Johnson and I came anywhere near honoring Poe with our work, as several of our reviewers said we did, then I can go to my grave a happy man. But not too soon, please—and not under macabre circumstances! (There's that bell again.) For more information, visit the following website: www.usherthemusical.com Photos: Copyright Brent Cirves - used with permission |
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