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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/26/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
February 13, 2005 All that Sass: Director moves to a bigger stage By Graydon Royce For Joel Sass, 2005 seems like a seminal year, a turning point of exposure
and opportunity. This week, he opens "Pericles" at the Guthrie Lab. Next
month he directs "Triumph of Love" at Park Square Theatre, where he's
been busy the previous two years. And in June, Sass returns to the apprentice
hall of his youth, invited to direct "Lettice and Lovage" at Theatre de
la Jeune Lune.
Friends and colleagues say that at 37, Sass is enjoying the desserts
of 15 years' hard labor in the theatrical trenches. He has long been recognized
as being among the Twin Cities area's most innovative, fearless and fresh
directors -- an auteur whose schooling in painting and sculpting lets
him reify his vision as few others do.
"Tim Lee [founder of Outward Spiral] used to say of Joel, 'Joel is the
Tim Burton of the Minneapolis stage,' " said actor Steve Lewis, a frequent
collaborator who is in "Pericles." And in many respects, that's true.
They both come from this design background into directing, so he's very
in tune with what he wants visually."
John Clark Donahue, who designed Sass' set for "Pericles," agreed:
"You hear the sound; you see the vision. You're seeing the total work,
and that's the kind of mind he has."
Donahue was among the first folks to work with Sass when the bright
youngster came to the Twin Cities, fresh from the University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay, in 1990.
"I was there for a year before I figured out what that big green stadium
was for," he said over coffee near his south Minneapolis home.
Despite its reputation for beer, brats and pigskin, Green Bay actually
had an active underground arts scene -- fueled by expatriates from Chicago
and Milwaukee. And the theater faculty at UW-Green Bay was young and hungry.
Sass feasted on experimental and avant-garde approaches, steeped in Joanne
Akalaitas, Robert Wilson and Mabou Mines.
Donahue hired him as prop master for a production of "Blood Issue" in
1990 and was impressed by the young man's enterprise, discipline and professionalism.
Actor Randy Latimer was in the cast and was attracted first by Sass' "astonishing
creativity" and second by "his excitement and true joy" in solving Donahue's
prodigious prop requests.
He moved on to Jeune Lune, where he designed, built props, assistant-directed,
acted and managed productions for three years. He calls it his "grad school,"
where he learned the importance of totally engaging an audience. By 1993,
Sass was ready for freelance work, which included directing, set designing
and making props for commercials.
"It paid well, but making Styrofoam vegetables for a commercial shoot
seemed a waste of that liberal-arts education," he said with his sly smile.
So Worth it
Sass' principal vehicle in building his reputation was Mary Worth Theatre.
Beginning in 1994, he and his collaborators put up a series of campy,
homemade spoofs that audiences loved. Critics did, too -- for a while.
By late 1995, the jape seemed to have soured, and in the midst of several
other companies doing the same motif, Sass was smart enough to reinvent
his work, slightly. He turned to a peculiar and enigmatic script, "Madame
de Sade" by Yukio Mishima.
A mild box-office success, "Sade" held greater significance as an artistic
and critical success for its lavish, macabre style. The Joel Sass legend
was taking form from these parts: boyish glee for adventure, a knack for
business and production, a campy sense of humor, a cinematic ability to
see the totality, an instinct to tighten dramatic screws and "my own junk."
Not to mention a fearless courtship of disaster that many directors
eschew.
"He seems to be someone who would rather go for it and have a glorious
failure, which is very fundamental to the journey of discovery," Donahue
said.
In 1998, Sass bit off the lesser Shakespeare play "Titus Andronicus."
It would be a hit, or it would drive a nail in Mary Worth's coffin. Among
those in the audience was Joe Dowling, the Guthrie artistic director.
Sitting near the stage, Dowling was spattered in blood.
"What impressed me about it, aside from the dry-cleaning bill, was the
energy and the sense that he was trying things with practically no budget,"
Dowling said. "He was taking risks, and I thought that was something one
should encourage in younger directors."
Dowling continued to watch Sass' career as the two looked for plays
that would exploit Sass' best characteristics.
Mary Worth ramped up its production to three shows a season, but after
"Crazyface" in February 2003, Sass said he felt burned out. The troupe
has not produced since.
Sorry, I'm available
As bold as Sass' style is on the stage, he bears a curious streak of
humility that at times might even be read as insecurity. ("He doesn't
know how good he is," Latimer said.) Several times in conversation, Sass
describes a growth experience as a moment when he quit "apologizing" for
himself.
"I stopped apologizing for always saying to actors, 'I don't know how
this is supposed to work; show me something to direct,' " he said about
the process that built "Titus."
Then again, Sass said he told himself in 2003, "I should quit apologizing
for working in my small-theater setting and get out into the larger world."
He picked up the phone and let folks know that he was available and
ready to move up the ladder. He found eager takers. In the past 18 months,
he has directed three shows at Park Square; designed sets for 15 Head,
Starting Gate and the Ordway Center's McKnight Theatre, and helmed a fabulous
student production of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" at the University of
Minnesota. And he rang up Dowling, ready to try the Guthrie.
"He has a very heightened sense of theatricality," Dowling said. "He
gives it full bore and makes us all aware that we're in the theater."
Sass said that he knows that it was his distinct eye that got him hired
and that he doesn't intend to change his act simply because he's on a
bigger stage. On a recent visit to the basement rehearsal hall, there
were many clues that Sass is in the house. The scene shop was finishing
up a skeletal carcass intended to be that of a camel (actual size) in
the desolate wasteland. Next to that was a 6-foot flounder being readied
for its close-up. Posted on the wall were 19 computer renderings, scene
by scene, that reflected the design Sass and Donahue had concocted. Against
the wall was a tree of spikes adorned with skulls.
Even though on this day he was looking only for outlines on which to
hang the show, Sass showed how he loves to get down and play. He is a
provocateur, working from an awareness of sound, light, set, costume.
As he discussed a movement with actor Kate Eifrig, he noted that she will
be wearing a dress made of "50 yards of silk" and gestured at how that
material will billow when she flounces to the ground.
He knelt next to Eifrig and Lee Mark Nelson, talking over options, adding,
subtracting, commenting on the characters and what each movement means.
In that moment, any insecurity was far away, and Sass focused with cool
confidence, his face etched with whimsy. After about 30 minutes, he asked
Nelson and Eifrig to run through the scene from top to bottom.
"We have a lot of things going; let's see how much of this we can keep
up in the air," he said. "We're almost making art."
Five minutes later, he pronounced in a charming Minnesotan way, "That's
working out pretty darn good. Pretty darn good."
As wild and edgy as Sass' vision can get on stage, he remains a polite
and quiet man. He recognizes the opportunity he has and understands the
needs of the institution.
"He's very practical," Dowling said. "He knows the limitations of the
lab, and he works within those limitations. I admire that about him."
Although he has given himself a set number of years to push his career,
Sass says he is not "as juvenile as saying I'm going to reorient my life
completely if I don't continue as a director."
"I could teach," he said. "I've learned some things that other people
want to know about."
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