|
|
-
Me, myself, Carrie and Clara
When Jane Cox gets on stage, she's usually by herself.
-
While Jane Cox's foray onto the stage with one-woman shows was already established,
it wasn't until a request from a former dean of the College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences that she started to dapple into developing the plays herself.
"(Former LAS dean) David Glenn-Lewin was very interested in history,"
Cox said, "and he researched graduates of Iowa State that went on to
do great things. One of those graduates was Carrie Chapman Catt."
Glenn-Lewin asked Cox if she would write a one-woman play about the life
and times of Catt. Since the associate professor of theatre had already
performed similar productions including "Shirley Valentine" and
starred as Emily Dickinson in "The Belle of Amherst," she jumped
at the opportunity.
The result was "The Yellow Rose of Suffrage," a play that Cox
researched, wrote and performed as a one-woman show. The play was presented
not only on the Iowa State campus, but toured the nation and in March 1995
was seen at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Since then Cox has gone on to produce several other one-woman performance
pieces including "The Longing to Understand" about the Nobel Prize
winning geneticist Barbara McClintock; "Promised Land," a story
about a Nebraska pioneer woman; and three musical dramas, "Clara Schuman:
Liebe und Leben;" its sequel "The Unforgettable One: Johannes
Brahms;" and "Words on Music."
The musical dramas also featured the talents of Sue Haug, associate professor
and chair of the music department.
The concept of the one-woman performance pieces has made it easy for Cox
to tell the complete story of a person's life. "It's a way of getting
into great minds," she said. "It is really inspiring to see what
these women have done with their lives."
With the exception of "Promised Land," each of Cox's shows is
based on real-life women. In "Promised Land," Cox created a composite
character whose trials, tribulations and triumphs on the Nebraska plains
are based upon true stories from actual Nebraska settlers.
All told, Cox says it takes approximately 18 months to research, write and
rehearse her one-woman shows before she performs before an audience.
"You read, read and read about an individual," she says. "Then
there comes a point where suddenly everything seems to make sense. It's
a lot of work to get to that point."
Some of that work includes researching the private papers of her subjects.
In most cases that was easy. With Catt, it was a little more difficult.
"It took a lot more time to portray her as a private person,"
Cox said. "If you're going to make someone into a theatrical person
you have to have private, personal information."
- Many of Catt's personal papers and letters were destroyed before Cox began
her research. She was however able to talk with several individuals who
knew Catt personally.
It was during her original planning, research and performance of the Catt
piece that Cox realized why she was so excited when Glenn-Lewin made his
request.
"I'm the type of person who would rather have two or three very close
friends than 200 acquaintances," she said. "I want to know someone
really well - how they live, what excites them, get to know everything about
them."
In turn, she transformed that belief into her performance pieces.
"I hope at the end of two hours the audience gets to know one person
really well," Cox said. "You still get to know the high points
of their lives but also what changes them. That's what appeals to me.
"In the theatre you know what happens to the characters on the stage,"
she continued. "You know how the story plays out. That's interesting
to many people."
Around LAS
August 28 to September 3, 2000
|
|
