Chautauqua Theater Company Guest Artist Ceci Fernández, as Ernestine, and Conservatory Actor Kamal Sehrawy, as John, perform during a dress rehearsal of Birthday Candles last Friday in Bratton Theater.
Just in time for Chautauqua’s 150th celebration, Chautauqua Theater Company is throwing a party with its mainstage season opener, Birthday Candles, and everyone is invited.
Guest Artist Fernández, with Conservatory Actor Sehrawy, portraying Billy, and Conservatory Actor Kay Benson, as Joan.
Noah Haidle’s play is returning for a full homecoming after its 2017 development as a New Play Workshop and journey on Broadway and across the world.
Directed by Arya Shahi, Birthday Candles, a story that centers around Ernestine Ashworth through nine decades each year on her birthday, opens at 6:30 p.m. tonight in Bratton Theater with performances throughout the week. It will run through July 21.
During CTC’s Theater Chat last Thursday, Producing Artistic Director Jade King Carroll sat down with Karl Michael Iglesias, a Drama League directing fellow and the play’s associate director; scenic designer Brittany Vasta; and composer Surrija, to discuss their inspirations for the directing, scenery and music and how they connect to and convey the show’s meaning.
Vasta, who serves as the scenic designer for all of this season’s mainstage productions, said the set is inspired by themes of the passage of time, love, loss and the wonders of the universe.
“It is both the very mundane, grounded, real elements in front of us — the act of baking the cake is really representative of that — as well as this sort of universality, ethereal, existential qualities of moving through life,” she said.
A Brooklyn-based set designer, she has worked on Broadway productions such as The Lifespan of a Fact and Uncle Vanya.
Jane Lui, who composes under the name Surrija, created original music that serves as the soundtrack of Birthday Candles. She is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is credited singing vocals as Opera Evelyn in the Academy Award-winning film, “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.”
She, too, focused on emulating the span of time when she was composing for the show.
A particular folk melody is played on the piano by one of the characters as a child up until he passes on, and Surrija said it captures the “arc” of a full lifespan.
“Hopefully it contains grief, loss, joy and space, and what it feels like when you look up at the night sky and see our future and our past all at the same time,” she said.
Iglesias said part of the directorial vision was refocusing the concept of age and how the body physically changes. As actors “orbit” around Ernestine throughout her life, they portray multiple characters of a variety of ages as the story goes on, concentrating on embodying the nature of their roles.
“As they change from passing away to being born again as grandchildren in different bodies, you’ll see a little bit more youth in them,” he said. “We are guiding (the actors) in the capacity of making sure they’re staying true to whatever the essence of the character is, rather than having to portray age so much.”
While the characters emotionally orbit around Ernestine, Vasta said the set also creates a space where they can physically move around her in a way that flows naturally.
“I think that’s one of the things I really look for when I design a space, is not just what it looks like, but how it physically impacts movement through,” she said.
Perhaps the anchor of Birthday Candles that ties the story together is Atman, the goldfish that is given to Ernestine and lives in a fishbowl in her kitchen. A live goldfish is featured on stage throughout the show.
Goldfish stereotypically have short memories; with Atman as a scene partner for the actors, Iglesias said the little fish holds a deeper meaning that adds to the play’s magic.
“It’s this lovely parallel with the brevity of life and how quickly it can move, shift, restart, be reborn and redefine both in name, body and in love,” he said. “…There’s constant discoveries within life, and I think the goldfish is a beautiful metaphor of this idea of rediscovering something, perhaps every five seconds.”
