Poe Takes College Theater in New Directions Soon-To-Be Starving Artists Profiles of Seniors with Majors in the Arts

Author: Kate Prouty

Alex Poe, a senior theater major from Denver, Colo., will probably never be a starving artist. Not because he's not hungry, but because he's so hungry. About to graduate from Middlebury College, Poe has more than taken advantage of the College theater department.
Working the intolerable hours that only an artist understands (probably skipping many meals in between) Poe has acted, directed, adapted and even created, with Joe Varca '02, a theater company.
Poe has more than a famous namesake, he has his own voice.

Campus: What first opened the doors for you to the Theater Department at the College?

Alex Poe: I actually started off as an actor, acting in a few faculty shows, and then I became involved in this guerilla theatre group, ITE, which has since been disbanded. We mostly did things like performance art in elevators, some things that were pretty strange and a lot that just didn't work, but it really expanded my idea of what audiences respond to and what's possible in the theatre.

Campus: Did you have any reservations or halting first impressions of the department?

Poe: It's a little difficult to deal with some of the bureacratic aspects of the department at times, but the faculty is supportive of student work, especially the playwriting professor, Dana Yeaton, who's really been a motivating force behind Redux (Company, which Poe formed along with Varca last year). I've kept most of my work independent from the department in order to move quickly and to bypass the restrictions associated with directing a production.

Campus: What other drama experience do you have outside of the College?

Poe: I've worked at the Williamstown Theatre Festival for the past few summers as an acting apprentice and as a directing intern. It actually won the Tony for Best Regional Theatre this year. It's an insane place, you work 24 hours a day, assisting on the mainstage and then working on your own stuff.
I adapted and directed an outdoor production of "Lord of the Flies" in a week with 10 actors running around at midnight with spears. It was a great time, the whole thing was lit with flashlights and tiki torches.

Campus: What made you and Varca want to branch out with the Redux Company?

Poe: The idea was to make a company devoted to creating new work, both original and adapted. The department is great, but it's also good to have a counterpoint, and I think in some sense, that's what we are. It's also nice to have a name you can attach to your work so that each show builds off the plays we've done in the past.

Campus: Tell me about Redux. How does it operate and what does it aim to accomplish?

Poe: Each production is about taking the mistakes and successes from the previous show and applying it to a new subject.
There are some recurring elements, chairs are definitely a trademark of redux, mostly because our productions are zero budget, but also because there's a malleability to our work, a few chairs can set up just about any location. I like to let the rough edges show through, I don't want to smooth everything out.
I think audiences are more interested in seeing how you can overcome obstacles with a few chairs rather than immense sets.
There's a kind of cinematic aspect to my work, short scenes in different locations with an emphasis on visual action as opposed to dialogue.
Another key element in my work is music. In some cases the score is selected or composed once the play is finished, but in Frank's Wild Years, for example, the music was actually the inspiration for the play. Listening to this Tom Waits album I just saw the whole thing unfold and wrote each scene to a different song. Even though "Somewhat Damaged" was half-adapted from the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the Nine Inch Nails score had a strong influence on the writing of the play.

Campus: Where have these past productions influenced you to go this fall? What are your motivations and hopes for directing this semester?

Poe: The project I'm focuing on now is an adaptation of Albert Camus' novel, "The Stranger," which I'll direct later this semester.
Adaptation is like taking a painting, cutting it up and then trying to paste the pieces into a sculpture of the same painting. You've got to change this two dimensional text into something that exists in three dimensions, but you've also got to keep the author's intent, because presumably that's why you're adapting it in the first place, because you love what the author had to say and you want to see how it will work in a different form.
I'm also writing an original script about a boy whose family disappears. I like to work on a few things at once, when I'm stuck on one script I can jump to the other.

Campus: Is there anything you are trying to avoid this fall, mistakes from the past of recurring habits you are trying to break?
Poe: I try to avoid repeating something I know works or imitating someone else's work. I guess I only direct new work because I like the risk associated with doing something no one else has done before.
Every production should risk complete failure, or else there's not much to be gained. Directing existing plays certainly has its place, but it seems to me that if there's going to be any kind of new life breathed into the theater it's going to come from new work.

Campus: Any thoughts about transferring what you know about theater outside of Middlebury?

Poe: The plan is to transfer Redux to New York next year. The main difficulty, aside from paying the rent, will be to get a group of people together who believe in the company and who want to make it work.
Getting a theatercompany going is not an easy thing to do by any means, but I think there's a real need in the theatre community for something new.

Poe's work and that of his cohorts can be seen on their Web site: http://reduxtheatre.tripod.com. Also look for Poe's production to be held in the Hepburn Zoo later this semester.