February 13–March 18, 2007
Art Manke Directs: The Ice-Breaker
by Michael Crabb
Art Manke concedes that working as a director for television keeps his bank account healthy but his heart remains in live theatre. "It’s where I like to be," says the award-winning former actor who, when he’s not directing for UPN sitcoms Eve and One on One can be found working at any one of the country’s leading regional playhouses.
Manke directed the world premiere of David Rambo’s The Ice-Breaker last spring at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre and is currently putting the finishing touches to the Southern California debut production at The Laguna Playhouse, February 13 to March 18.
Manke had already known Rambo for many years when the playwright gave him an early draft of The Ice-Breaker. The play compelling mixes a romantic drama about a man and a woman of different generations, each carrying heavy emotional baggage, with a fascinating parallel and very timely theme of catastrophic climate change.
"I fell in love with the play," says Manke. In 2003 he read a profile of Chris Smith, Magic Theatre’s incoming artistic director, and thought he’d be equally intrigued. Manke’s instinct proved correct. "I gave Chris the play and within a week he’d made a decision."
Manke, who has received praise for earlier local directing assignments at South Coast Rep, emphasizes that Laguna is getting a brand new production. "It’s a completely separate project." As often happens, Rambo has also taken the opportunity to do some minor fine-tuning to the script.
Directors such as Manke who have started their theatre careers as actors tend to approach their offstage role from a thespian’s perspective. "I try not to impose," says Manke, "or else the actors can end up like someone wearing an ill-fitting suit. I prefer to use a Socratic approach. I ask questions that I hope will help the actors find their own emotional truth in a role."
For this to work, says Manke, casting the right actors becomes absolutely crucial. He’s delighted to be working again with Monette McGrath who plays Sonia Milan, the driven young climatologist, and counts himself fortunate that Andy Barnicle has agreed to play Dr. Lawrence Blanchard, the disgraced scientist Sonia has tracked down in his desert hideaway. McGrath starred in Manke’s Pasadena Playhouse production of Private Lives and was in the 2003 Laguna Playhouse production of The Laramie Project. When Manke began his search for the right Blanchard he began asking around and soon discovered the right man was immediately to hand. "I found that Andy has quite a stellar reputation."
Manke explains that there’s a fundamental difference between directing for television and for the live stage. "Theatre is a medium of listening. Television is about watching. The language of theatre stimulates the imagination." His job, says Manke is to chart the emotional course of the drama and, because the human eye does not come with a TV camera’s close-up lens, to help focus the audience’s attention.
As for relinquishing the stage as an actor – he quit about 10 years ago – Manke says he’s happy to get his life back. "Once opening night is over I get to go home. As an actor you have to give up the time most people spend having a social life."
David Rambo Bio
-- Michael Crabb reports on the arts for Canada’s national newspaper, The National Post. He is the author of numerous books and is the award-winning producer of CBC radio’s “The Arts Report.”
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