Actress

than living ones, and you have to write for a majority. This is socialist realism. This rock of a text can be fragmented like molecules breaking apart, but even In the end it can't be destroyed. We start out with a man on tape sounding like a Shakespearean actor, and then add another voice-Chris Moore sounding very neutral, androgynous-a simple way of speaking; then Chris Knowles, who erases some of the words, putting holes In the text; then we have HarryMurphy sounding likea newscaster; the voiceofa child then speaks some of the text; and finally the ghostlike voice of Death. So the Prologue sets up these different ways of speaking, of thinking about language,ofpresenting ideas through words that anticipate the situation that is to follow. Crystal-clear, it's gripping, transparent. It's likea silverline that's being drawn. Never pushing, never forcing. You have all these different ways of reading the text. MULLER The way the piece was written has something to do with the fact that I worked with Bob before. I had notes, I didn't know quite how to do it, then I just began. In a way, he was in my head during the writing. I never thought of him doing it, but I wouldn't have written it like that without knowing his theatre. And it's not just diplomacy, it's true. What I like about his theatre is his way of handling time and space in theatre. There is always theatre time and there is theatre space, and it is not depending on real time and real space. It's something special. It's a world of its own. And that's the main quality. It doesn't pretend to depict things. It's something with its own scale of values. I'm never interested in technique. I never had technical problems and so I'm not interested in discussions about techniques and forms. It's just that you have it and you use it. Sometimes if I have a choice to take this word or this word, in all cases the word that sounds good is the right word. Later you see it, but at first you have the feeling for the sound, the right sound, in the context of the sentence, and that's where you make your choice. And two weeks later you see how it's transplanting the right meaning, too. There are no technical problems. Twenty years ago, thirty years ago, I could have talked a lot about that, but not now. The more you write the more you begin to be silent about writing. DIANE D'AQUILA, ACTRESS Having done CIVIL warS I knew exactly what to expect. I had already gone through what audiences go through when they first see a Wilson piece. I knew it was going to be slow. I knew it was not going to have a beginning, a middle and an end in the conventional sense. Knowing all -that, I think the only surprise for me in the workshop was that we started with the text, and 97 EL I. to r.: PAUL RUDD, BONNIE ZIMERING, DIANE D'AQUILA blocked it very early on. He did this also in CIVIL warS. He's very quick about knowing the pictures that he wants, and he puts them together quickly , not wasting a whole lot of time while the actors endlessly move about. I think the only surprise for me was that I thought it would be easier to get a text into Wilson's work. Everything was so episodic in CIVIL warS. The through line that tied it together was loose. But in Alcestis we are telling a story. And I thought the audio part of the piece would be easier than it was. I found it very difficult, and I don't think I actually ever personally solved the problem of how to incorporate the text with Wilson's movement and Images . The text that we have now did not happen until this last rehearsal period. In the workshop we were doing the entire Arrowsmith version, and it was big and uncut. We did every word and...