The first words after "Let's put on a show," according to tradition, reference a father's surrendering lumber for scenery and a mother's willingness to make costumes. These materials, along with lights and sound, comprise the accepted minimum of technical factors needed to mount a play. Most theater companies in 2010 also know that if your play has people swapping punches and kicks, you call in a fight choreographer. And if the playwright's vision encompasses live animals onstage, you enlist the services of the backstage zookeeper designated a "wrangler," even when the fauna in question is a goldfish. Savvy directors of plays involving characters with disabilitiesWait Until Dark, say, or Treasure Islandare also smart to invite individuals sharing the impairments of the fictional characters to sit in on rehearsals where they can assess the verisimilitude of the actors' mimicry.
With more plays exploring aspects of human experience hitherto marginalized in popular entertainment and delving themes focused on obscure historical events or exotic communities, theater companies are increasingly relying on special consultants to lend their production the accuracy demanded by audiences grown more sophisticated in their expectations. Lawyers, doctors, clergymen, morticians, surfers, magicians, computer wizards, pastry chefs, drill sergeantsall kinds of arcane expertise may be solicited to ensure that the universe depicted on the stage is the most truthful ( or plausible, at least ) permitted by artistic license.
In a city of immigrants such as ours, foreign languages receive the closest attention: For the world premiere of Arthur M. Jolly's A Gulag Mouse ( opening March 29; 773-904-0391 ) , winner of the 2009 Joining Sword and Pen competition, the usually action-oriented Babes With Blades asked Russian speaker Rita Shimelfarb to record words and phrases appearing in the script. For Victory Gardens' premiere production of Lonnie Carter's The Lost Boys Of The Sudan ( opening March 28; 773-871-3000 ) featuring characters speaking the "Dinka" tribal tonguedialect consultant Sheila Landahl studied the history of the culture to derive the source of the language, augmenting her research with taped interviews of Sudanese natives, pursuant to pinpointing key sounds and rhythms for actors to heed in their practice sessions. "Our greatest challenge was maintaining the authentic Dinka sound during scenes of rapid, emotionally grounded dialogue. The cast has done stunning work to overcome their own individual speech patterns in transitioning to Dinka."
More tricky are the plays whose characters speak a mixture of languages. Will Cooper's Jade Heart ( opening April 30 at Chicago Dramatists; 312-633-0630 ) recounts the ambivalence of a Chinese orphan adopted in infancy by a Caucasian American woman. "After reading the play," says dialect consultant Cleo Ngiam, "I was intrigued because it wasn't just about the search for identity, but how we, the audience, define that identity. A Chinese person raised in the United States will adopt the accent of whatever region they inhabit. So in this play, the source of each character's cultural influences is linked to how easily they express themselves in American speech."
Some consultants are hired for a single skillas with the production of Haroun and the Sea of Stories at DePaul University ( opening March 30; 312-922-1999 ) , which employs both a movement coach and an East Indian dance tutorand some are courted for their wide range of knowledge: For Remy Bumppo's production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses ( running through May 2; 773-404-7336 ) , Nick Sandys not only plays a major role, but choreographed the sword fights, oversaw his fellow actors' French pronunciation and offered a study guide to the 18th-century epistolary novels referenced in the text.
Sometimes the consultant's influence is so tightly integrated into the play's action that we barely notice it. Theo Ubique's current ( through April 25; 773-347-1109 ) production of the "cold war" musical Chess involves onstage personnel moving at sharp angles to one another, likewell, chess pieces. So it should come as no surprise that Tom Sprandel, president of the Illinois Chess Association, was included on the creative team from the earliest planning stages to familiarize director Fred Anzevino, dance choreographer Brenda Didier and the principal actors with the game whose vocabulary encompasses such cryptic terms as a "Halloween gambit" and a "fried liver attack?"
"Board logic doesn't play a big part in the production, because the dialogue makes the logic obvious," says Sprandel, "But [ Anzevino and Didier ] wanted the positions [ of the chessmen ] to be authentic. An audience doesn't really have to understand the game."
As to the eccentric behavior often associated with this intensely cerebral pastime, Sprandel shrugs off the stereotype of the brilliant, but neurotic, chess "master." "Top-level chess players are like any other group of high achieversyou rise through dedication and hard work," he said. "The Soviet Union [ at the time of the play ] had a program for promising players that was similar to what their Olympic athletes received, offering organized training and state favorsbut it was tough. In the U.S., chess doesn't attract the kind of donations that team sports do, relying instead on foundations and charities. So, yes, it takes intelligence to visualize chess positions and memorize variations, but smart doesn't always mean well-educated. There are many street people, for example, who have achieved Expert and even Master ranks."
That said, the activity still boasts a wide range of personalities, said Sprandel: "Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria is reputed to be a calculating type, but Magnus Carsen, one of the highest-rated players in the world, is a seemingly well-adjusted 20-year-old Norwegian fond of soccer. And Vassily Ivanchuk, from the Ukraine, another top ten player, does wonderfully wacky things like showing up at a tournament wearing a surgical mask because another player was seen coughing. But he also gives free "simultaneous exhibitions" [ a stunt engaging several opponents at the same time ] , where he'll analyze positions while sitting on the floor with 12-year-old kids."
The availability of specialists can be incremental to the very decision to do a particular play. Last season's The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity would never have been attempted without the participation of pro wrestler Christian Litke, himself hired at the request of fight director David Woolley, to invoke the gaudy ambience of this popular spectacle. Nor could Northlight have essayed The Lieutenant of Inishmore before securing the services of Steve Tolin to supply the indispensable fake exploding cats and dismembered corpses. As we now speak, it's only March, but the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble ( 773-334-7728 ) is already interviewing female Iraqi war veterans for a project on women warriors not due to launch until Maynot a moment too soon, either, when you're looking for the Real Deal.