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Play tells tale of lesbian love
in life of ‘spinster’ Dickinson
‘Wild Nights’ presents
a whole new perspective
on Emily Dickinson’s work
Steven Neuman
Freelance Reporter
The work of poet Emily Dickinson
does not usually stir up much contro
versy, often because it's usually consid
ered tame by modem literary standards.
A new University play might
change that.
The University Theatre is presenting
"Wild Nights With Emily," which tells
the tale of Dickinson and, according to
the play, her intimate relationship with
longtime friend and sister-in-law Susan
Gilbert Dickinson. The play opens Fri
day in the Robinson Theatre
Written by Madeleine Olnek, "Wild
Nights" draws upon recendy published
copies of Dickinson's work. Research
into the original copies of her poems
and letters has shown just how much
of the poet's work was censored and
sanitized by close friends and relatives
to remove any hints of an improper
lesbian relationship.
Director and Theatre Arts Assistant
Professor John Schmor discovered Ol
nek, the playwright, before finding her
1999 play "Wild Nights."
"I have a friend who's an award-win
ning playwright in San Francisco who
had met Olnek at a conference in New
York," Schmor said. "I was having a hell
of a time finding a comedy with strong
roles for young women that wasn't
about pursuing men, or about men. So
he said, You should talk to Madeleine
Olnek,' so I e-mailed her and she sent
me four scripts, and this was the one I
liked the best"
Senior theater arts major Jena
Schmieding, who plays Emily Dickin
son, said the most difficult part about
playing the poet was making her char
acter as truthful and realistic as possible
'Taking on the responsibility of pre
senting a literary artist in a way that
honors the text that she had written
and also honoring this historical per
spective of her text," she said. "Artisti
cally and morally to me it was impor
tant that I give my all in allowing her
work to come alive."
As the play's research and rehearsal
assistant for the director who provides
background, Kathy Thomas was re
sponsible for investigating details about
the time period and the historical char
acters. She spoke to a small audience at
Mother Kali's Bookstore on Saturday.
"I was very moved by the story be
cause we've all read her work, but you
start to see her as a real person whose
relationship with Susan, from an early
age, inspired such beautiful work,"
Thomas said.
Thomas said the "spinster" image of
Dickinson is partially a posthumous
construction by a society unable to em
brace lesbian-love poetry, but is more
directly a product of family politics.
"There were a lot of family issues,"
she said. "Emily's brother, Austin,
was married to Susan, and Austin
was having an affair with Mabel
Todd. It was a very long-term, very
open affair. You can imagine that Su
san had some very strong feelings
about Mabel, and so it takes almost
no time for a feud to erupt."
After Emily Dickinson's death, the
poetry fell into the hands of her sis
ter, who initially picked Susan to edit
the poetry. However, Susan stalled
the process.
"Probably because of grief over
Emily's death, and probably because
she understood the complexity of
Emily's work, Susan didn't work fast
enough," Thomas said. "So she let
Mabel Todd take the poetry and do
the editing. That's where we get the
deletion of Susan's name, the erasing
of suggestive lines, and the propaga
tion of the spinster myth."
Schmieding said she had to base
her character's actions on a personali
ty essentially lost to history because
the play takes a non-traditional ap
proach to Dickinson.
"Instead of giving the audience an
swers, I feel that it's more important to
leave the audience with a question,"
she said. "No matter who we're talking
about, or what story we're presenting, I
feel like this story is an example of how
history can be skewed. The only thing I
could do was follow the script and be
true to the love the script portrays and
give it my all."
Schmor was not originally a fan of
Dickinson's work but noted that the
play had changed his perspective.
"I had thought she was just a Hall
mark poet," he said.
Thomas also had a change of per
spective The poems she had previously
interpreted as sweet took on a new
sense of life
"The fire the intensity, the passion,
the love — (her poetry has) all of that,"
Thomas said. "It's not just a sweet little
tale about flowers when you realize that
she was writing very often for someone
she cared deeply about.
"We didn't know this before, be
cause the relationship between Susan
and Emily was a controversial one at
the time."
lighting designer Rachel Steck, who
spoke with Thomas at Mother Kali's,
said the script and history informed the
production's set and lighting design.
"I think our first inspiration was a
picture of Emilys desk facing out to the
window with a shade on it" she said.
According to Steck, the image be
came central to the play's visual motif.
"We thought, as we were hashing
out ideas, that we are talking about
history and a different histories of
what has been presented before so we
came into this idea of framing," Steck
said. "When you look at the set you'll
see multiple frames and multiple
windows because our idea is to sort of
frame history ... (or make) a picture
of history."
Schmor said he was cautiously opti
mistic about the potential of "Wild
Nights" to change people's perceptions.
"I just hope that people are just
inspired to read Dickinson more
carefully now," he said. "If it just in
spires a few people to go back to
Dickinson and rethink and refeel
who she is, then that's enough."
"Wild Nights With Emily" plays Feb.
27 and 28 at 8 p.m., March 4, 5, 6,12
and 13 at 8 p.m., and March 7 at 2 p.m.
Tickets are available at the EMU Ticket
Office or at the Robinson Theatre box
office Tickets are $5 for University stu
dents, $9 for seniors and University fac
ulty and $ 12 for the general public.
Steven Neuman is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.
PULSE BRIEF
Four Portland bands
will rock WOW Hall Friday
The UO Cultural Forum will
sponsor The Portland Showcase, a
concert featuring four bands from
the Portland area, at WOW Hall on
Friday.
Three all-male trios — Jonny X
and the Groadies, Life At These
Speeds and The Motive — and one
all-male quartet, Pseudosix, will rep
resent the Portland music scene.
Cultural Forum regional music
coordinator Timothy Cooke said
Jonny X and the Groadies produce a
lively scripted show with a hard elec
tronic sound.
"They are quite fun in perform
ance," he said. "They play a 17
minute show that is always the same
and very fast."
Cooke said Life At These Speeds
and Pseudosix fall into the indie rock
category, with the former band play
ing a more general indie rock and the
latter group supplying a mellow feel.
He described The Motive's music as
"mathematical rock," "very loud and
intricate" and "progressive rock."
Cooke said the Cultural Forum is
sponsoring the show to support the
growing number of bands in Port
land. He said the event will be an
enjoyable sampling of the city's
current underground groups.
"I felt that this would be a great way
to promote and bring some talent to
the University and Eugene. It's going
to be great to see a cross-section of the
music scene going on in Portland
right now."
WOW Hall is located at 291 W.
Eighth Ave. Tickets are available in ad
vance at the EMU Ticket Office and at
WOW Hall at $6 for the general pub
lic and $3 for students. At the door,
tickets will be $8 for the general pub
lic and $4 for students. The doors
open at 8 p.m. and the show begins at
8:30 p.m.
— Natasha Chilingerian
06 3 TX
10
14
Courtesy
The quartet Life At These Speeds will perform at WOW Hall's The Portland Showcase on Friday night with other Portland musicians.
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_I Oregon Daily Emerald.