For Joe Papp, the force behind bringing Shake-speare to the masses, all the world would have been his stage, had he had enough speed and energy to set up a platform and stretch a curtain around the globe. But it was enough that he was the genius behind Shakespeare in the Park and New York City’s Public Theater, which debuted such seminal works as ‘Hair,’ ‘A Chorus Line,’ ‘Short Eyes,’ ‘True West,’ and David Rabe’s loose trilogy of plays drawing on his experiences as an Army draftee in Vietnam. Now, more than 50 years after the Public was established in the East Village, readers can learn about the man behind the history in ‘Free for All: Joe Papp, The Public and the Greatest Story Ever Told,’ by Pacific Palisades author Kenneth Turan and Joe Papp. An invaluable source for theater professionals’producers, directors, writers and actors’the book is also a Horatio Alger saga of one man’s relentless mission to present Shakespeare to everyone free of charge. The story unfolds in a continuous collage of interviews Turan conducted over two years beginning in 1986. While he admits he has never been a theater person (Turan has been a film critic for the Los Angeles Times since 1991), his agent presented the idea to him. The project was all-consuming for Turan, who conducted 160 in-person interviews, some requiring frequent travel not only to New York from Los Angeles but also to the men and women’actors, directors, choreographers’who were scattered across the country. He moved to New York for six months, interviewed Tommy Lee Jones (who played in Sam Shephard’s ‘True West’) in the desert, and Jason Miller (‘That Championship Season’) in Scranton, Pennsylvania. With 10,000 pages of tape-recorded material, Turan wrote the first draft and gave it to Papp, with whom Turan shared a kinship despite a 20-year gap in their ages. (Both men grew up in Brooklyn in a Yiddish-speaking household.) And then the story became a drama unto itself. ‘A mercurial person under the best of circumstances, Joe was at A low point in his life,’ Turan recalls. ‘He had been diagnosed with the prostate cancer that would kill him three years later, and his son was dying of AIDS. He called me and said, ‘This book is over.’ ‘It was devastating. I put the draft in a box and there it stayed for the next 10 to 12 years.’ While Turan went on with his life and career, the book idea would not die. ‘I thought it was the best work I had done,’ Turan says, ‘so I wrote a letter to Gail Merrifield Papp and told her that I thought it was too important to be dead forever and could we get together to talk about the book.’ She not only agreed with Turan, but seemed to be on his wavelength and encouraged him to revive the project. After 18 years, he re-read the manuscript and saw how it could be envisioned. He sequestered himself at the MacDowell Colony in the New Hampshire woods, and set about shaping and cutting the book. ‘While I was there in my cabin, set among the trees,’ he recalls, ‘it was very disconcerting to be out among all those trees and I really went very deep into the material without distractions. I was really alone with the work and began to realize that my feelings had changed. It had been about me, but now I could see that this book was about these people’s testaments about Papp, and I started to feel an obligation to these people. This was valuable oral history.’ Not only is the reader privy to nascent careers of so many titans in the theatrical world’George C. Scott, Colleen Dewhurst, Tommy Lee Jones, Martin Sheen, Meryl Streep”but also to the nigh-mythical story surrounding Papp’s legacy. Here was this impoverished kid, son of Russian Jews, whose father made tin trunks and whose mother labored to keep a clean house and food on the table. It wasn’t until he was in the Navy that he could count on three meals a day.   While not exactly an intellectual (and most likely the one goofing off in school), Papp nevertheless was fortunate to have seventh-grade teacher Miss McKay, who introduced him to Julius Caesar and his love of Shakespeare. ‘It sounded good,’ he says, ‘and it gave you something you could really chew on and learn.’ Daniel Petrie, who worked with the co-author when Papp was a floor manager at CBS’a job that would sustain his ambitious plans to launch free Shakespeare for all’characterized Papp’s love of Shakespeare as political. ‘He wanted to supply a place where ordinary people could go and experience it.’ Papp demonstrated his political activism as early as his high school years. He joined in demonstrations on Times Square on behalf of the poor who were evicted for past-due rent, raised money for the anti-Franco forces, and, after high school and working for a tough boss, went on strike on behalf of workers’ rights. All through his life, Papp fought for his goal with tenacity, fearlessness and conviction. ‘No’ didn’t compute for him. He prevailed against the powerful New York Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, who was opposed to free Shakespeare in Central Park. He faced the House Un-American Activities Committee with his dignity intact. ‘Nobody was torturing me,’ he said. ‘It was just a matter of prison, possibly. I figured, that’s not the worst thing in the world. At least they pay for your room and board.’ Papp was unflinching in his fight to secure a permanent home for the Public Theater, which would provide a venue for contemporary work. His dealings with the developer were classic Papp. According to Papp, the guy, ‘Mr. Big,’ was all business, numb to Papp’s pleas to support public theater, alienated from his Jewishness, unmoved by the significance of the building, a designated landmark. Papp argued with him for more than an hour, until Mr. Big finally gave in. ”Look,’ I said, ‘you should be doing something for the city after all it’s done for you. It would be a disgrace if this building was torn down and we could not use it for this purpose.’ I was not going to leave that place without that building, I’ll tell you that. You get that determination.’ An apt title to be sure, ‘Free for All’ not only defined Papp’s lifelong passion, but also the rough and tumble life he lived to achieve his dream. ‘Theaters like that don’t happen because you get someone who’s going to be pleasing to you,’ producer Robert Whitehead surmised. ‘They happen out of a kind of vital, vigorous craziness which I knew Joe Papp had.’

Susan Angelo learned early on that to ‘be the best actress I could possibly be’ would be achieved for her through classical theater. And from the time she was first cast professionally, at 19, as Juliet at the Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, she has been inhabiting Shakespeare’s women, and other classical roles, ever since. She is appearing in ‘Richard III’ at A Noise Within through December 17. Perhaps growing up in a small town on Lake Erie, away from the TV- and film-centered coasts, insulated Angelo from the screen. While she maintains a career in these more lucrative media”Medium,’ ‘Law & Order,’ ‘The Truman Show,’ and a recurring role on ‘Days of Our Lives”she is noted for her numerous theatrical appearances.   Her approach to the craft has been to dig deep, privilege the words and build character from there. Too scared to go to New York after high school, Angelo came to CalArts, where she earned her BFA and realized just how much she had to learn. ‘At that point, at that age, you’re a baby,’ she says. ‘I remember we were studying ‘Macbeth’ and I was cast as Lady Macduff. I knew I was supposed to like it, but I was lost; I didn’t know what to do with my hands.’ She really credits Ellen Geer, artistic director at the Theatricum Botanicum, with opening up Shakespeare for her. ‘There’s nobody like Ellen,’ Angelo says. ‘She trusts her actors and gives us the freedom to create whatever we want.’   Geer, the daughter of actor Will Geer, has worked continuously for 40 years in television and motion pictures. After the death of her father in 1978, she took over as artistic director of Theatrical Botanicum, whose repertory company and theater school continue to emphasize the importance of the classics.   ’Right out of CalArts, this woman/girl arrived and had the most beautiful audition,’ says Geer, recalling her first meeting with Angelo. ‘She was like a gorgeous colt, and just sang out to me, Juliet. After the audition, she sent me a thank-you note with an apple seed inside it. This clinched it for me.’   Angelo’s 20-year relationship with the Theatricum is as close as it can be without being part of the extended Geer family, many of whom are members of the Theatricum’s repertory company and school.   ’It couldn’t have worked out better,’ she says of those first years with the company in the 1980s. ‘I played all Melora Marshall’s ing’nue parts, after Melora [Ellen’s half-sister] took a leave of absence for about five years.’   Angelo found Shakespeare the most freeing vehicle for her talent, once she uncovered the techniques. ‘The time in which he wrote was a ballooning period of exploration in language,’ she says. ‘Like great music, Shakespeare’s poetic language keeps ripening, and as you do it over and over you appreciate it more.   ’Changes in rhythm and meter (e.g., iambic pentameter to anapest) help in clarifying meaning and clues to characters,’ says Angelo, who has a firm background in rhetoric and scansion, and teaches these techniques in the Intensive Shakespeare Seminar at the Theatricum. She is also the director of education at the Theatre. A year ago, Angelo retuned home to Pacific Palisades after a six-year sabbatical in Washington, D.C. and New York, where she completed an MFA at George Washington University with a concentration on Shakespeare and classical texts. ‘I took a five-year break,’ Angelo says. ‘I wanted to be a student, not teach.’ It was in the East where her belief in classical theater was confirmed. ‘There is great classical theater happening in the United States, not in Los Angeles and New York.’ She worked at the Signature and Workshop Theatre in New York City, the Rep in Pittsburgh, the Syracuse Stage, Indiana Rep and American Players Theatre in Wisconsin. Angelo is enjoying her association with A Noise Within, the classical repertory company in Glendale, under the co-artistic direction of Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez. She made her ANW debut last season in ‘The Rehearsal,’ Jean Anouilh’s arch view of 18th-century sexual shenanigans and betrayals.   ’Geoff is a good director,’ Angelo says. ‘He has a clear vision of the play, good understanding of the text, and he gives actors the freedom to explore, but he is there to guide them.’   She views her role as Elizabeth in ‘Richard III’ as a measure of her growth as an actress. Years ago, she played Lady Anne, the young widow who hates Richard for murdering her husband and father-in-law, but falls for his charming entreaty to marriage. Angelo sees these two roles as sort of bookends to the play.   Now living in her aerie in Castellammare with a view of the Pacific, Angelo is glad to be back teaching, doing TV work, and enjoying her life on the stage. Tickets: Call 818-240-0910 ext. 1; visit www.ANoiseWithin.org.

Theater Review

In high school productions, quite often after the play is over, parents rise and give a kind of obligatory standing ovation. At the Palisades Charter High School fall production of ‘The Diviners: A Play in Two Acts and Elegies,’ this reviewer was the first person standing to applaud the outstanding performance given by Julian Schwartzman. Schwartzman plays 14-year-old Buddy Layman, a boy left mentally disabled after a near drowning when he was three. His mother had died while saving him. As a result of that early traumatic experience, Buddy is good at locating water by using a divining rod. And yet, not surprisingly, he is terrified of water and refuses to bathe. Set in the small town of Zion, Indiana, during the Depression, this drama by Jim Leonard, Jr. depicts a close-knit community that has been without a church or a preacher for a decade. So when a wandering ex-minister, C.C. Showers (played by Sean Pinto), drifts into town, many of the people see him as someone who can help the boy and restore religious order. But Showers has given up preaching because he lost his faith, and he resists the well-meaning attempts by residents to reinstate him to his profession. When Showers discovers that Buddy needs to take a bath, he exploits the mutual trust he and Buddy have developed to entreat Buddy to go into the river, with serious consequences. Pinto, reminiscent of a young Jimmy Stewart, is likeable as Showers, and the interaction between him and Schwartzman is lovely. Eli Shavalian, who plays Buddy’s father, Ferris, is good as a Midwestern guy upset over losing his wife years ago. He invests the character with just the right amount of stoicism. The role of Jennie Mae is double-cast with Devon Baur and Tasha Solomita. The night the play was reviewed, Baur was sweet. Her innocence was exactly appropriate while trying to argue with the minister that, as a 16-year-old, it was okay to date him. ‘My mom was married at 17,’ she says. The stage lit up whenever Darlene (DeAdra Davis) made an entrance. We’ve all heard the story of Adam and Eve many times, but Davis’ spunky way of explaining the story was hugely entertaining. The two farmhands, played by Tucker Best and Jake Schievink, provided nice comic relief. They were threatened by their employer Basil (David Mitchell) more than once that they would be replaced by a tractor. At times throughout the play, songs performed by the cast serve as background to establish the period. Credit goes to music director Elena Loper, also a senior, who wrote, arranged and taught hymns and music to the cast. Bravo! Well done! Designing costumes for a period piece (on a public school budget) had to be a challenge, but senior Katie Lantz did an excellent job. She also played an overbearing storekeeper. The staging of the show is imaginative. I’m still marveling over how Lexi Rubaum, the technical director and scenic designer, fashioned a rainstorm on stage (yes, actual rain!) Although I wasn’t crazy about Leonard’s play overall, I have nothing but praise for director Lisa Kraus, who achieved quite a feat by including 26 students on stage in an 11-person play by incorporating them as members of the Zion community. ‘The Diviners’ plays December 10, 11 and 12 at 7 p.m., with a matinee at 3 p.m. on December 12 at Mercer Hall on campus. Tickets at the door are $12 for adults and $10 for students.

While actor Bryan Torfeh admits that the narrator’s challenge will be balancing the feel of the music with what’s happening in the story, and knowing when its his turn, his job will be easier because he reads music.   ’In a sense, I am one of the musicians,’ he says. ‘I am running the dialogue with the musicians, just keeping the story moving forward and keeping the voices distinct.’   Torfeh came to acting in an odd reverse from the experience of many kids who ache for a theater career.   ’When I was 14 or 15, I announced to my parents that I was going to law school,’ he recalls.   Most dads would be thrilled with such an ambition, but not his.   ’My dad was so disappointed,’ Torfeh says, adding, ‘I had a prejudiced dad who was an actor and had trained at the Birmingham Theater School.’   Growing up in Pacific Palisades, Torfeh studied music with Delores Stevens, who for many years just taught him theory, harmony, voice leading and chamber music, but not piano. He had another teacher for that.   ’One day, Dee said that she could teach me piano,’ Torfeh says. ‘I, being rebellious at the time, said that ‘I’ll only do Chopin and Beethoven.’ She said, ‘OK,’ and, as time went on, of course I opened up and she got me back in.’ Torfeh is still is very close to the Stevens, especially with their son, Paul. The two boys attended Windward High School., after which Torfeh did not go to London but instead studied theater at UC Santa Cruz, where he received ‘phenomenal training. I had done a couple of summer stock gigs in New England, but also with the Pacific Conservancy of the Performing Arts [PCPA] in Santa Maria, which is a well-respected resident company of theater professionals and training ground for actors and theater technicians on the Central Coast.’   In 1980, Torfeh signed a contract for the summer with PCPA, where he encountered his first taste of the realities of life for an actor. After three days auditioning for all the plays in the repertory and receiving positive nods for his reading of Shakespeare, ‘I was cast for virtually nothing. I realized that if you’re not a graduate of a theater-training program, such as Yale or Juilliard, people don’t take you seriously. I have worked in regional theater, but in terms of people under 50, maybe two percent had not gone on to an MFA program.’ Torfeh’s mentors at Santa Cruz advised him that he should really go to England.   So to England he went, to study for three years at Guildhall in the early 1980s. After graduation, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he remained for 10 years.   ’In those days, actors in England had families, a real life,’ Torfeh says. ‘Very few actors had survival jobs, as they do in the States. But, by the 1990s, London was getting to be just like New York, and I was tired of being poor, and realized that this was not how I wanted to spend my life.’   Torfeh auditioned for Barry Manilow’s ‘Copacabana’ in the West End and played Mafia leader Rico. All of a sudden, he was making real money and getting a mortgage.   He now lives in the Kings Cross neighborhood of London. He hasn’t gone back to the major companies; instead, he makes a living directing Shakespeare in drama schools and acting in musical theater.   The spoken word work came about when Torfeh was playing Salieri in ‘Amadeus’ in Sarasota. A local symphony was doing ‘Fa’ade,’ based on the series of poems by Edith Sitwell, which were given an orchestral accompaniment by Sitwell’s prot’g’ William Walton. ‘The piece is more sound than sense,’ Torfeh explains. ‘It requires a dozen musicians and a narrator.’ Torfeh took the narrator’s part, and then more of the same kind of work came along, including ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ and ‘Babar, The Elephant,’ for a children’s concert. Torfeh will remain in the States through Christmas, visiting with his two brothers and their families. He says that he has nothing scheduled for next year as yet, except for a Shakespeare workshop in April with William Hobbs, the renowned fight director for ‘The Three Musketeers’ and ‘The Duellists,’ who has written a play about a traveling troupe. Sounds familiar.

When Bryan Torfeh takes the stage with members of Chamber Music Palisades (CMP) on December 15, no visible instrument will be in sight, but he will play three parts in conveying Stravinsky’s ‘L’Histoire du Soldat’ (‘The Soldier’s Tale’) for the CMP audience. Torfeh not only will act as narrator but must also ride the emotional vortex of the story, enlivening the plight of the soldier, The Devil, and the princess. The concert takes place at 8 p.m. at St. Matthew’s, 1031 Bienveneda. Torfeh”whose credits include ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ in the U.K. and on Broadway, and the American premiere of Tom Stoppard’s ‘Hapgood”’adds his classical-trained lilt to a program that also includes ‘Duo for Flute and Piano’ by Aaron Copland, and ‘Then and Now and Forever’ by Morton Subotnick. In addition, the concert features chamber artists Ida Levin, violin, Joshua Ranz, clarinet, Carolyn Beck, bassoon, Alex Iles, trombone, Jon Lewis, trumpet, Edward Atkatz, percussion, and Nico Abondolo, bass, who join CMP co-founders/co-artistic directors Susan Greenberg, flute, and Delores Stevens, piano. KUSC’s Alan Chapman will provide commentary. Stravinsky originally scored ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ with just seven instruments: clarinet, bassoon, cornet, trombone, violin, double bass and percussion. His original concept included three actors and dancers. The concert version will dispense with the dance. The story is based on an old Russian folk tale, but the music comes from 1918, when jazz was just beginning to enter the mainstream. ‘L’Histoire du Soldat’ is rich with shifting rhythms and elements of jazz, waltz and ragtime. The plot is Faustian, relating the story of a deserting soldier who trades his violin to the Devil for a book that predicts the future of the economy. But, ultimately, he finds he’s sold his soul to the Devil. The soldier’s violin becomes a symbol of the soldier’s soul and the Devil’s wiles. Copland composed ‘Duo for Flute and Piano’ in 1971 for a commission in honor of flutist William Kincaid. Considered Copland’s last important work, ‘Duo’ has a lyrical and relaxed opening that develops into a pensive second movement and ends in a lively virtuosic county dance. Subotnick, one of the pioneers of electronic music and multimedia performance and an innovator in works involving instruments and other media (including interactive computer music systems), has also composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles and theatre. ‘Then and Now and Forever’ was written as one continuous 15-minute movement with several sections that return in subtle varied utterances. It was commissioned and premiered by the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society in 2008. For tickets ($25; students with ID are free), call 310-463-4388; visit www.cmpalisades.org.