Pictured
International Theatre of Chicago's Iphigenia in Kingman, opening Sept. 21. Charles Schoenherr as Pylades, with Talleri McRae, Lisa Herceg and Betsy McKnight as the Chorus. Call (773) 250-7055.
In show business parlance, Eric Appleton is what's called a 'triple threat'. This gay theater artist has distinguished himself as both a scenic and lighting designer, for Bailiwick Repertory and other companies. In recent years, however, his impressive record as a technician has been augmented by several bids to join the ranks of Chicago's playwrights. The most recent of these, a modern adaptation of a classical tragedy, entitled Iphigenia In Kingman, premieres Sept. 21 at National Pastime's Old Speakeasy in a production by the International Theatre Company of Chicago.
MARY SHEN BARNIDGE: Your resumé says you have a Bachelor of Arts in Science Communication from Valparaiso University and a Master of Fine Arts in Lighting Design from UW-Madison. How did you make the transition from one field to the other?
ERIC APPLETON: I went to college thinking that I wanted to be a chemist. By my sophomore year, I noticed that I was busting my ass to get 'C's in Organic Chemistry and Physics, but that I was putting in what seemed like very little work getting 'A's in my Humanities classes. My advisors were intrigued by the idea of an individualized major in Science Journalism, though none of them had any idea how I could use it after graduating. I'd been doing a lot of extracurricular work in the theater department. During my senior year, one of the teachers suggested that I look for some internships in Chicago. The Body Politic took me, taught me, and four years later, I had this wild thought that I might just be able to make a living as a lighting designer.
MSB: You've designed lights for industrial projects, as well as educational and professional theater. Which do you like doing better?
EA: They all have their good points. I enjoy working with students, but I have to teach them the basics before we can really get to work. I find myself scaling back my own design ambitions to ensure that THEY get a positive educational experience. Still, taking interested and eager students on voyage of discovery—as I say in the shop when I'm just making it all up as I go along—can be a real blast!
But I do less lighting design these days. I'm tired—both physically and mentally—of being my own and ONLY crew. As often as not, I'm working with barely functional equipment in a space with nowhere to hang instruments. In my heart of hearts, I'd love to design for museums, but I haven't managed to badger the right person at the right place and time yet.
MSB: What made you start writing plays?
EA: I've been writing as long as I can remember—lots and lots of bad science fiction—but I didn't attempt a play until graduate school. Our department had a program where student productions were chosen by lottery for the times between the official department productions. One of the plays chosen in the first round hadn't even been written when the author/director filled out the application! I was so pissed off that I went home and wrote my own play. A directing student did it as her final project for the semester.
MSB: Does your technical background influence on your approach to playwrighting?
EA: Strangely enough, I feel that lighting design has helped me to become a better writer. If you're going to light a play well, you have to dig into its subtext, its structure, its psychology. You need an understanding of how actors work, how directors work, how stage managers work, how OTHER designers work and how YOUR work affects how THEY execute their craft. Sifting through script after script with a fine-tooth comb, you learn what works well and what doesn't—and this experience taught me what kind of a playwright I wanted to be. Now, after 10 years of learning, other people appear to think that my plays are good enough to perform.
MSB: Your play is a reworking of the Greek myth revolving around the House of Atreus. Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia, so that his ships can sail for Troy. But then his wife Clytemnestra murders HIM in revenge, and her surviving children, Orestes and Electra, murder HER to avenge their father. Euripedes makes a case for Iphigenia going to her death willingly, but her only significance is still that of the martyr who starts all the trouble. In YOUR play, however, we are in the American Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, where Agamemnon thinks that killing his firstborn will end the drought. But Iphigenia escapes, flees to Arizona and later reunites with her brother Orestes. Why did you choose to grant her a reprieve?
EA: The decision you have to make, if your story is going to be a TRAGEDY, is whether Iphigenia goes to her death out of bravery, cowardice, patriotism or whatever. If she goes out of mindless obedience to her father, the weight of her acceptance is diminished. But if she goes kicking and screaming to the last, it's simply a gruesome spectacle.
I don't think I granted Iphigenia a reprieve. Running away from her father was simply a reaction. But now she must make a choice—whether to leave her refuge and pursue an uncertain destiny with her brother—and to live with that choice. Will she continue to view herself as a victim, someone to whom fate happens? Or will she take on the more difficult role of being an active participant in her own fate?
MSB: What's the significance of Kingman, Arizona? Why did you choose it, out of so many remote little towns in the desert?
EA: I drove through Kingman once on my way to a USITT [United States Institute of Theatre Technology] conference in Las Vegas. I didn't see the actual town, but the dusty crossroads and lone truck stop impressed me as somewhere I hope never to visit again.
MSB: Your play will have opened by the time this interview is published. Is there anything YOU wanted to discuss that I haven't addressed?
EA: I want to express my gratitude to Patrizia Acerra and the International Theatre Company of Chicago. I'm thrilled that she liked the play enough to want to share it with audiences and has decided to take a chance with what is really an unknown playwright's adaptation of an obscure play. It's all very exciting.
