Removing the Pretention and Finding the Truth In "Cyrano"

Somewhere in the midst of an incoherent ramble, I stopped talking. I had nothing left to say and everything left to say. I was tongue-tied and tired, and four weeks into rehearsing Cyrano for BoHo Theatre, the largest show I had ever directed.

My ramble came courtesy of a question that was asked of me by BoHo Marketing Director Charles Riffenburg during an interview that was (supposed) to be used for marketing purposes. (Look for it on the DVD extras!) Chuck’s question dealt with the amount of theatre being produced in Chicago and wondered, with all the choices that the Chicago theatergoing public had, why someone should come and see Cyrano.

I immediately dug into a word salad full of themes and platitudes about the importance of Chicago Theatre, it’s aesthetic and how this adaptation of Cyrano seemed to be tailor-made for Chicago (9 actors, playing 20 roles over the span of 15 years). I had just finished reading Richard Christiansen’s fantastic book on the history of Chicago Theatre, A Theatre Of Our Own: A History and Memoir of 1001 Nights In Chicago and I was all hopped up on the idea of Chicago Theatre and what that idea represented: honesty, passion, scrappiness, innovation, intelligence. Cyrano has all these traits, so why not make Cyrano a direct reflection of what it means to make theatre in this city! I was going to honor BoHo and Chicago and all those that came before me. With this production of Cyrano, I was going to honor my idea of Chicago Theatre!