This Sunday, August 24, the cast and crew of the Montreal Theatre Ensemble’s (MTE) Of Mice and Men will be in Hudson for some serious method acting in anticipation of their upcoming production of John Steinbeck’s Depression-era classic.
They’ll be clearing the brush, stacking logs and branches, carting off rocks, weeding and hoeing around the century-old structure at 541 Main, the property recently acquired by the Town of Hudson for a new parking lot, tourist information office and to house the Hudson Historical Society.
Ten actors will spend the day in character and costume, working as farmhands would in 1937, for only their food. Lunch will be an authentic meal; cabbage, beans and bread, in keeping with the type of food labourers would have eaten during the depression.
This interaction will give the actors something concrete to draw from when playing roles that modern actors might have trouble relating to. While doing this physical labour, the cast can experience one another as they would in the play, without the confines of the script.
The MTE production runs from August 28 to Sept. 13 at the Casgrain Theatre, in the Casgrain Building of John Abbott College, 21,275 Lakeshore Road, Ste. Anne de Bellevue. Reservations: (514) 515-9140
THE METHOD OF MICE AND MEN
Article and photographs by Shane Kelley
I recently met talented young actors Adam LeBlanc, Peter Vrana, Becky Croll and their award-winning director Terry Donald at Hudson’s Pine Lake for the first of our four shooting locations for publicity photos for the upcoming MTE production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
My subjects of the photo shoot were Adam LeBlanc and Peter Vrana, who play the two lead roles. "George" and "Lennie" are two drifters working as migrant ranch hands in Depression-era Northern California. "Lennie" is a large, powerful man but a simpleton, prone to getting in trouble. "George" has taken "Lennie" under his wing and is his protector. The pair dream of a better life and hope to earn enough to strike a claim on their own piece of land free from the whims of tyrannical farm bosses.
Rebecca Croll plays Curly’s Wife (Curly is the bad-tempered boss of the hired hands and the ranch owner’s son) in this cast of 10, the only female role in the play. I have seen Rebecca's wonderful stage talents in several productions and I look forward to seeing her play the “misunderstood tart” in Of Mice and Men.
The play's director Terry Donald is the 2008 recipient of the Black Theatre Workshop's Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award (the first white man to ever receive the award and eligible as a graduate of Syracuse University). Terry, a JAC teacher, brought up the idea for Stage II, a training program similar to that used by most USA colleges to bring together professional theatre companies and theatre students (or professional sports teams and college or university-level athletes) to help students bridge the gap between training and professional work. In the United States, colleges and universities use their theatre and sports departments as "jewels of the school" as a way to promote themselves
Everyone with the company helped make the shoot a success, Terry helping set up the shots and direct Adam and Peter in bringing out the characters of "George" and "Lennie" in the photographs and even wading into the Vivery Creek with me to hold up my light reflector and then climbing a tree to hold back an in-the-way branch. Rebecca’s makeup skills gave "George" (Adam) and "Lennie" (Peter) that added touch of realism as they played for my camera in costume and in character most of the afternoon and early evening.
After photographing Adam and Peter around a giant weathered stump at Pine Lake, we moved to the marshland reserve off Olympic. Sitting with Peter on the small dock "George" (Adam) revealed one of his other talents by showing "Lennie" (Peter)...and Peter, Rebecca and I how to make "music" by blowing against a large piece of grass held between his thumbs.
Our third photo location was along and in the Vivery Creek off St. Charles. We all got wet up to our knees as I insisted looking for the perfect light. Peter showed off his frog-catching prowess by catching a submerged small green leopard frog for some of the photographs ("Lennie" loves little animals and wants to raise rabbits on the farm that he and George hope to own).
We completed the final photographs on the train tracks by the Hudson Village theatre in the last golden light of a perfect summer's day. Posing for my camera for four hours is hard work. The fatigue on the faces of Adam and Peter for the play’s main photograph is real.
After spending four hours playing with my camera and saying "just one more photo" the sun, the actors and the director called the curtain on our photo shoot. I was sad to step back into 2008 and put my gear away but anxious to get back to my computer and download the photographs. Legendary method actor and teacher Lee Strasberg would be pleased with this group.
For more information and ticket reservations see www.MTLTE.com