Guest actor Dan Kremer talks about his visit to IU and the Department of Theatre and Drama
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tom Robson, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Theatre and Drama, sat down with guest actor Dan Kremer to discuss his visit to the IU campus for the Ruth N. Halls Theatre production of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Here is the complete interview.
Tom Robson: So how did you end up coming to Indiana University to get involved in this production?
Dan Kremer: The connection is through Fontaine Syer, who is directing the piece. Fontaine and I were colleagues at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival some years ago, and have kept in touch since then. She contacted me when she learned rather suddenly that the department had the opportunity to bring in a guest artist to work on this production. This was, oh all rather quickly drawn together, I think it was probably the end of August that she first got in touch with me, and we took it from there. It happened to fit well with my calendar, and it was a project I was eager to do.
TR: How long have you been in town?
DK: About three weeks now, this is the third week. I think I arrived just at the end of [September]. We started rehearsals first or second Sunday.
TR: You knew Fontaine from outside of IU, but had you worked with her previously on a production?
DK: I don't think we have. I think this is the first time we've together. We, of course, were very familiar with each other's work, but the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a large enough organization [where] it really is possible to be in the organization for several seasons and always be moving on a different production track.
TR: I've been looking over your resume, and I see you do have a decent amount of experience working with students and teaching. What draws you to that sort of work?
DK: Well, there's always a marvelous energy that comes from young practitioners in the theatre. There's also a certain desire on my part to be able to pass along certain skills that I've acquired that are not necessarily taught in a day-to-day curriculum. There's a lot about this business that cannot be taught and things that you just pick up over time working with other actors. I don't mean to make it all mystical and woo-woo or anything like that, but there's just subtleties that you discover in the process of working that you don't necessarily discover in a classroom or from a textbook. It very much is an empirical practice in that way. You need to experience it in order to understand it.
TR: Have you had that opportunity to pass on some of that knowledge through rehearsals?
DK: (laughing) I don't say "the guru is here". No. It isn't anything that is ever that specific, you know, "Here's a good tip for you youngsters." It's all much more subtle than that. It has as much to do with the younger actors' willingness to observe what's going on and process how we work together, much more so than my being able to say, "Here's a little tip."
TR: What have rehearsals been like for you so far?
DK: They're fun. They're great fun. That energy … this is a very passionate play that deals with very large ideas, and sometimes that passion can overwhelm the moments that need to be really illuminated, so we've all been discovering together how to live the action of the play moment-to-moment, and sort of let the emotional arc of it come together on its own, rather than trying to push it along. I love rehearsal. It's the best time. You go into the run, and yeah there's the fun of re-creating it every night, but the rehearsal room is where the discoveries happen, and there's always a freedom there that I enjoy.
TR: The question that I'm sure many of our readers who are either inside the department or close to the department want to know is, "Are you enjoying your time in Bloomington?"
DK: (laughter) Enormously! Enormously! I attended the Lotus Festival when I first got here and soaked up not only that experience but all of the charms of the Square. It's been a gorgeous time of year to be here. The leaves are starting to turn. I've found Bloomington to be just an incredibly beautiful surprise. I've never been here before, and to see its physical beauty and all that it has to offer in terms of places to eat, interesting shops and bookstores, and of course everything that the campus offers, it's been an enormously entertaining place.
TR: Do you have any comments about The Crucible?
DK: I do think that this is a play that has extraordinary resonance for us right now. I'm a huge fan of Arthur Miller, and I believe that when he passed a couple years ago we lost a voice of conscience in this country. Throughout his career he had the ability to write almost every decade a major work that spoke to the cultural or political needs of this country, and it is fascinating that this play that was written and first performed in the early-fifties -- 1953 -- holds such profound resonance for us 50 years later.
