Angela Iannone is familiar to Milwaukee theatergoers for her intensely realized performances, sometimes of familiar female artists such as Maria Callas (Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s Master Class) or Katharine Hepburn (In Tandem’s Tea at Five). She can easily fill a stage with her presence. Iannone has also starred in productions as varied as Milwaukee Rep’s A Christmas Carol and Milwaukee Opera Theatre’s take on Oscar Wilde, Ernest in Love. She has also been involved in scholarly research at the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Hampden-Booth Theatre Library in New York. Recent years have also seen her turn to playwriting, including a cycle on Edwin Booth, founder of the Hampden-Booth Library and one of 19th-century America’s most prominent actors (and brother of the infamous assassin, John Wilkes Booth).
Off the Cuff asked her about her Edwin Booth cycle’s latest chapter, This Prison Where I Live, which she will direct for Theater RED.
What drew you to the subject of Edwin Booth?
Edwin Booth operates as the center of commerce, arts, politics and social practices. Of course, anyone who trains as an actor will have heard of him distantly, rather unfortunately usually as “the other Booth.” He came up more prominently for me when I began doing research into editions of William Shakespeare plays that Edwin Booth was involved in shaping as an actor and as a producer. As it turns out, he was unique among theatrical actor-managers in that his genius was of an extremely practical type. He knew his craft and audience preferences so completely that his editions of scripts can still be produced with great success. Outside of my own pleasure in writing the plays in the Edwin Booth cycle, I continue to have a mission to ensure that when people speak of “the other Booth,” they don’t mean Edwin.
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How much is documented on the relationship between Edwin and John Wilkes? To what extent did you have to fill in the blanks through imagining their lives?
During Edwin’s lifetime, there would have been nothing written about his relationship to his younger brother, except to say that there was no relationship. Everyone in the family distanced themselves from John and, indeed, as I mention in This Prison Where I Live, no one spoke his name in the presence of Edwin, and no one asked Edwin any questions about John, or they would never be permitted in Edwin’s company again.
In recent years, there must have be three of four books published about John Wilkes Booth each year, and in the last eight years, two new books have been published about Edwin, and I think at least one on the supposed “rivalry” between the two brothers. It is one thing to create a fiction about the relationship between the two brothers; it is another to look at actual documents, letters, diaries and newspaper reviews.
My particular interest in writing all my plays is to begin with real documentation. The events of the lives of the members of the entire Booth family are interesting enough without making things up, so I steer clear of that kind of invention. My research is thorough enough to allow me to say, “I didn’t make any of the events up.” I work in as much quotation from the source material as I can.
How did the assassination of Abraham Lincoln affect Edwin’s career?
That event affected the lives of every actor in America. It resulted in a complete shut-down of every theater in the country—and a most cautious reopening for every venue many months after the event. In the immediate aftermath, the entire Booth family was placed under arrest. Oldest brother June and brother-in-law John Sleeper Clarke were placed in actual jail; their mother, Mary Ann, and oldest sister, Rosalie, were placed under house arrest; younger sister Asia (married to Clarke) was heavily pregnant at the time, she also was placed under house arrest. Youngest sibling Joseph somehow boarded a ship to Australia and spent two years abroad; he was arrested when he returned to America two years later out of fear that he had been a conspirator, but nothing was ever proven against him.
Edwin had been performing the night of the event and was not apprised until the morning after. He promptly cancelled his engagement and went into seclusion, only venturing out at night and in the company of a group of friends to protect him from death threats or assault. He spent eight months in retirement from the stage, returning only because he was the financial support of his entire family, and he needed to return to making money. Some unkind critics claim that the event boosted his career, and some say it is a testament to his own genius that he recovered from it. That he carried the shame and stigma of it with him ever after cannot be doubted.
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What are the challenges of directing your own play? Is there a danger that a director-playwright might not have sufficient distance from the material?
I am completely happy directing my own plays and find the greatest challenge is not in the direction of them, which is the same set of skills no matter the text, but in the assumption that all of my creative team will be caught up with the kind of research and historical knowledge that I have. This is partly why I prefer to work with actors who have a history of working with me; we have a good communication system and a certain ground level of knowledge about the time, characters and events that makes the process easier. I am thrilled to be working with five Booth cycle alumni—Alan Piotrowicz, Cory Jefferson Hagen, Leah Dueno, Christopher Elst and Marcee Doherty-Elst, as well as some newcomers to the plays.
The directors I enjoy working with are those who are intimately connected with and knowledgeable about the script they have been hired to direct. They are unable to be surprised with a question that the creative team might have. They should be able to be delighted, but not surprised. Directing is loving everything about the text you are working on and using all the skills you must create the best possible production. In any given moment, with any line, or situation, there are an infinite number of ways to perform it—opening up that moment like a beautiful spiral of possibility.
Theater RED will present The Prison Where I Live Aug. 24-Sept. 9 at Tenth Street Theater, 628 N. 10th St. For more information, visit theaterred.com.