"I love collaboration, and using our resources and talented, creative people in Northwest Arkansas," says Betsy Jilka, who teaches theater at the University of Arkansas and is often seen on the TheatreSquared stage.
Jilka calls her latest project, "Clara and Johannes at the Lake: An Original Love Story," "a kind of 'gesamtkunstwerk' (total work of art) in a sense, without the dance."
On stage one night only, April 19, at the Thaden Performing Arts Center in Bentonville, it combines "a mini three-act play with a little piano music, a little singing, and a lot of orchestration" and involves playwright Bob Ford of T2 and Steven Byess, music director and conductor of the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, along with director Steven Marzolf and actors Riles Newsome and Jilka from the UA.
"It means so much for us not only to get to work with APO in this capacity but also to have collaborated with Bob," she enthuses. "It has been such a delight. I hope it will mean that we get a little more information and interest out there to the theatergoers of T2 as well as APO regulars about classical music, and the people behind the curtain of it. It's a collaboration in every sense of the word."
The concept started when Jason Miller, executive director of APO, and Jilka were talking about an idea for some kind of production focused on Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann.
"I remembered that Bob had written about Clara and Johannes Brahms a bit in his book, 'The Student Conductor,'" Jilka says. "I knew he had an interest in the story, so I told Jason that Bob would be the perfect person for the job, and luckily, he got on board with us immediately."
"Clara and Johannes at the Lake" is based on the friendship between the celebrated composer and his mentor Robert Schumann's wife.
"Brahms and Clara kind of hit it off, as he spent a lot of time at their home while studying with Robert," Jilka begins the story. "Robert actually died in 1856. After he died, Clara and Johannes became closer. He was about 12-13 years younger than she, but because they were so close and got along so well, they considered the idea of getting married. They toyed around with the idea of being together romantically, and they took a trip together after Robert died, to see if it could happen. Our story centers around that trip, and what it was like for Johannes and Clara after Robert died."
"They take a two week vacation together in Switzerland, on Lake Lucerne, accompanied by Johannes' younger sister, as kind of a chaperone, and two of her boys," Ford picks up the narrative. "The understanding is that they're going to figure out whether they should get married or not. We don't really know what happened -- we just know that at the other end of it, they had decided not to get married, even though there was this sense that they were madly in love with each other."
Through Ford's script, the audience will get an opportunity to imagine what led the couple to the decision to separate.
Jilka points out that it is also the story of Clara Schumann's undeveloped talent.
"She was an accomplished pianist and a pretty good composer, but as a woman at that time, and having the number of children she did, she never really had a chance to become a famous composer like Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms did," Jilka says. "We wonder what might have happened had she been able to provide for her children and had more time to create. Such is the plight of a working mom, and I relate to this entirely!
"We also tell the story of what it was like for Brahms, leading up to the writing of his first symphony. What we do know is that Clara and Johannes remained very good friends for the rest of their lives. So you will see that story sort of unfold. It's a really beautiful telling of the story that Bob has written."
"He has a very strong -- and I can't overstate [it] -- a very strong musical background," says Byess of Ford, who has played the flute since childhood and has performed with professional orchestras. "So he has an intricate understanding of the drama between these two people. He's an author, as well, so he understands the mechanics of exploring personal relationships. But Bob's experience as a trained musician also helps him understand the relationships of musical themes as they might reflect the masculine and feminine qualities of Clara and Johannes.
"I think we've taken a theatrical performance and enhanced it, and we've taken a symphonic performance and enhanced it -- so that the discovery of the music, the motivation behind it, the relationship with the musical themes reflected in the relationships with these people and their own lives are all combined," Byess says.
Director Steven Marzolf is no stranger to marrying theater with classical music. He collaborated with TheatreSquared in 2013 on a project with the South Arkansas Symphony and directed a play to accompany "Symphonie Fantastique," a project whose success paved the way for this production.
"[Jason Miller] said, 'This will be very new for our audiences,' and I asked why," remembers Marzolf. "He said, 'They're used to just sitting there, and they'll close their eyes a lot of times to listen to the orchestra.' But the response we got afterwards? They were just so thrilled with it. The audience just absolutely loved it."
Though he's happy to make the audience happy, Byess points out that the benefits of these collaborations go far beyond one night of performances.
"Part of the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra's mission is to take music to where people are physically or abstractly or philosophically so that there are no barriers to people experiencing this wonderful artform of symphonic music," he says. "Part of that has always been a commitment to collaboration. And whatever we do to work with a theater or dance company or a museum is just seen as a way to strengthen not only our organization, but also to strengthen our connection to the community and our place in the fabric of the community."
FAQ
Arkansas Philharmonic
And TheatreSquared:
'Clara and Johannes at the Lake'
When: 7 p.m. April 19
Where: Thaden Performing Arts Center in Bentonville
Cost: $5-$40
Information: arphil.org