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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2001)
22 iiry 5.2001 It was difficult, though, to explore queer culture. “I felt like I was living in a world o f ‘ don’t ask, d o n i tell.11 know there's a queer culture there; it's just so under ground I wasn't able to find it...." — Stephanie Mulligan Dream. Both he and Browning were appointed as cultural specialists by the U.S. State Department, which partially funded the project. Mulligan, 45, has been with ART for most of its 19 years, managing, designing and directing. The Washington, D.C., native has an impressive theater résumé that includes 20 years in stage manage ment around the Pacific Northwest and at A C T in San Francisco. She has been a guest lecturer on stage management in New York, D.C. and Oregon, and she acted as stage manager for the Vietnam productions. “Allen and Lorelle wanted very much to bring a production stage man ager as well as a scenic and lighting designer,” Mulligan explained. “I hap pen to be all three!” Left: Celebrating Corresponding via e-mail for several Thanksgiving 2000 in weeks, Mulligan described her experi Ho Chi Minh City ences to Just Out. Her 20-plus-year (Stephanie Mulligan is background was invaluable, but she third from the right) admitted, “The challenges in collaborat ing on a project of this scope have been Below left: Laura and enormous.” her Gentleman Caller First, there were the obvious lan take on a new look guage barriers, plus there was only one fluent actor/translator. Mulligan and several others know enough Vietnamese to get around the city but not to direct a production. Most of the Vietnamese involved were at about that same level of English. During rehearsal for the bilingual, co-directed Midsummer, both the U .S. and Vietnamese directors pro duced notes, which had to be translated into the other’s lan guage clearly enough so the concepts were understood by the cast and crew. It was a long and tedious process. But once the language barriers were broken and the actors understood the direction, they were able to execute the lines “as well and as professionally in either tongue,” Mulligan observed. “T h at’s where you see that art is the common ground.” As stage manager, Mulligan’s tasks were numerous. She worked with the director “from the first rehearsal to opening night,” she explained, “after which every aspect of the show was under my supervision until closing night.” by Lisa B radshaw Mulligan was responsible for all the lighting, sound and scenery cues as well as direction to the actors regarding lines, tempo and positioning. “ Really, everything that makes The project was founded by Lorelle Browning, associate pro the production work smoothly.” fessor of literature and peace studies at Pacific University, in She had to convey her own stage direction working around partnership with Artists Repertory Theatre and Vietnam’s Cen language, showing the crew what she wanted instead of saying tral Dramatic Company. The exchange includes two stage pro it. (Although, she said, “They all knew my key phrases in Eng ductions with both U.S. and Vietnamese actors and various the lish: ‘Take five’ or the dreaded ‘One more time!’ ”) ater workshops. The theater culture of Vietnam added to the difficulty of ART’s artistic director, Allen Nause, became the first U.S. understanding Mulligan’s production orders. “Stage manage citizen to direct a play in Vietnam. Along with Mulligan and ment is unheard of here,” she said. two Vietnamese directors, he staged a Vietnamese language pro Instead, senior actors function as company managers but duction of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and a bilin do not direct lighting or sound cues. “The operators just run gual production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s the cues however they see fit,” she remarked. TING ON ISTORY Theater exchange promotes diplomatic relations with Vietnam rowing up in the ’60s and 70s, all I knew about Vietnam was what I saw on television. War, poverty, sadness,” says Stephanie Mulligan of Portland’s Artists Repertory Theatre. However, she spent the past three months getting to know Vietnam a whole lot better. She just returned home after taking part in the Vietnam America Theatre Exchange, the first ever artistic collaboration between the United States and Vietnam. W«')c Mt M Rttfrm pulliva h Make Bender Properties your real estate home. Put your feet up and relax! Details are our business. You won’t lift a finger as we attend to every aspect of buying or selling your home-even the lit tle chores that others sweep under the rug. And successful? When it comes to fresh marketing or resourceful hunting, our enterpris ing agents really clean house. Complete service and client educa tion are always our priority. U*»f HOME PURCHASE & SALES INVESTMENT PROPERTY SALES, PURCHASE & MANAGEMENT LICENSED TAX CONSULTATION tt'* A i t í* f t t 4c*níftífn ! (^properties 4133 SE Division Street, “Richmond Place" f n COIMi. MOMMO 503 . 233.4363 Portland, Oregon 97202
