Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings 632
(upbeat music) - Welcome back and everyone to a fabulous new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. We are so, so excited to be welcoming back one of our favorite new playwrights, Stefan Detelm. He's joining us today to talk about his new work, Anton Goes to Heaven, which is playing September 19th through October 6th at Theater for a New City. Tickets and more information are available at theaterforthenewcity.net. We had such a great time speaking with Stefan last time he joined us with a new work then, and he's back now with a great new show. So let us welcome back in Stefan. Welcome into Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. - Andrew, thank you. Thank you for having me back. Always very, very nice to be here and chat with you. - I'm so excited you're back and you've come back with a great new work. Anton Goes to Heaven. I mean, we were talking just briefly before and you mentioned that there was a question mark in the title. I was like, well, now you've just changed everything because before it was like, yes, he's going to heaven. Now it's like, mm, easy. - No, who knows, you'll have to, you know, if it comes in, find out exactly. I do love the little mystery in the title. - So, well, I want to start by having you tell us a little bit about what this show is about. - Of course, so Anton Goes to Heaven is a very abstract existentialist play that sort of deals with this character Anton, who is not necessarily the best of people and who dives Spurs and ends up in, in purgatory, in a version of purgatory and in this purgatory encounters family members, two family members specifically, his mother and his grandfather in scenes that play out from previous parts of his life or scenes that never happened in his life but could have happened in his life. And all of that is sort of being overseen by Id, this character who is sort of in charge of purgatory of this specific afterlife and it's sort of not quite clear at the beginning but presented throughout what Anton is here to do and what is asked of him. And then the essential question becomes, can he face the things that made him who he is and let him down the paths he has gone down? And can he make the changes or make the necessary leaps of understanding to change or to reckon with who he is? So it's, that's sort of that the challenge presented, I guess is like, is this person who is presented as quite flawed from the beginning, able to recognize his own flaws, is he able to recognize the origins of his own flaws and how does that affect us? And there's many, many different themes in it but I'm sure we'll get to that. That's sort of the quickest blur back in there. - I love that, that sounds so fascinating. What a great, great premise for a show. So tell me Stefan, what inspired you to pen this piece? - It's a wonderful question. There's a couple layers of inspiration that I sort of cycle through. In literary, I'm a big believer and steal from your idols. Steal everything, let yourself be inspired by plays and I have been really delving into the catalog of Sarah Kane recently because it turns out there is a personal connection between my mentor and her as a playwright during her life which was of course cut way too short. And I've just resonated so strongly with her pieces in a way that is the brutality of it is just very human and I had a desire to write a piece that was brutal but in a human way, it's not beating you over the head with look how clever it is, oh, this is so scary. It's like this is a version of humanity that exists that we don't want to or shouldn't have to face in life but there is something to be learned from that experience. So Sarah Kane was a big inspiration. No exit by Jean Paul Soft was also a big, big inspiration on that play. I've been rereading and rereading. It's actually the play that made this play make sense. And there's a couple other underlying things I've always been very interested in. The rehabilitation of people, be they in jail be they drifted off into cults or fringe political groups because I think we forget in our digital age that when someone is that far gone, they don't just disappear the moment we don't want to interact with them anymore. And they are still existing in themselves and they still exist in our society. And so it is our charge as a society to do our best to help rehabilitate people and bring them back in 'cause they don't, again, you can block someone online. They still walk our streets. They still have their own needs and experiences. And that was sort of also folded in with personal things. I think everyone has family members who interacting with is challenging. And when you are overtime more intensely for us to reckon with family members like that, when it comes to these questions of rehabilitation of building around as a family, it just sort of brings these things in. So that made like a nice little soup. And that's what sort of initially brought up the writing of this piece. I want to depend on something that was brutal and human and absurd because I always harken back to the theater of the absurd and sort of my crutch. I can always, when I can do nothing else, I know I can make a fun and absurd moment happen that makes people go home. And so I've tried to avoid that here, but the root is still the root. - That is so awesome. I love that. Who doesn't love a good theater of the absurd? But it's all I'm saying. That's a great experience I have, you know? - 100%, 100%. - So literally as we are talking right now, you are at the theater, rehearsals aren't our way for the show. I would love to know what has it been like developing the piece? - That's a wonderful question. So I've been developing this piece with my friend and our director Andy Rife, who is just a wonderful mind in the world of theater, has been a very, very exciting process, working with them on this. And it's been very collaborative. So I started writing this play over a year ago. Last time we chatted, I had my show "Devil and the Playwright" going up. And I made the fatal mistake of not writing anything when that was going up. And so what happened was I sort of was stuck for half a year after that show went up. And I was writing this and rewriting this and rewriting this piece. And wrote a bunch of versions. Read no exit, that made it more succinct. And then I brought it to Andy at the end of spring and was like, "Hey, I wanna do this." And we've been connected by mutual friends. And so since then it's been very collaborative to answer your question and earnest. Since it's been very collaborative, we've brought in, they've sort of brought in the technical aspects of it. I will write something and they'll be like, "Okay, cool. "Let's tie it into what's already here. "Let's tie it into what we've already set up. "Where do we need more clarity? "Where can it be beautiful and abstract and weird? "Let the acting or the stage itself tell the story." So we've really found moments where the words are what drives us forward in moments where everything else drives us forward. And it's been very collaborative also with the actors. They've been very generous in trying things and giving impulses that I can then see and rework. It's actually interesting you're catching me in the first rehearsal after we froze the script. So we just froze the script and now it's trucking towards the end. So now I can't change it anymore, which is very terrifying but it's been just a joy so far. - It's fantastic to hear. That's a wonderful process going on there. I love hearing that. Now with such a fascinating story that you're telling and with such great themes that you're playing with, is there a message or a thought that you are hoping the audiences will take away from the show? - That is another great question. I've thought about that for a while and it has taken many forms. I think the thing I've, I always find out what my plays are about when I watch them. So opening the heights, that's what I answer to that question for me. But I think what I want people, what the first thing is I want people to think when they come and see the show. I don't want them to be able to just sit back and watch and be like, huh, funny or hot, sad. I just want people to be affected by it and then take their own conclusions. I think there was a through line in there of looking at how families specifically and our circumstances make us who we are but then or give us the building blocks of who we are but then it's on us to go out and choose to do good. And that is examined through characters who are given flawed building blocks but choose to not do good with them to sort of exacerbate that whole process and sort of carry that on through generations. So I think, yeah, I think I want people to look at that and then examine that in themselves, examine that in their lives. Michael is always to put real living, breathing human beings on stage and the interactions those human beings have and their relationships and the way they talk to each other should be a reflection of how humans talk to each other so that then people who watch it can go out and be like, how am I like this? How am I not like this? How is someone in my life like this? Think theater is at its best when it holds up the mirror to society, to humanity, but not with judgment and not with, it doesn't filter anything and it doesn't highlight anything. Theater should be a perfect mirror and what we take away from that is what we take away from that. - Oh, I love those ideas, love them. Well, my final question for the first part is who are you hoping have access to? Anton goes to heaven. - That's a wonderful question. I think, I mean, what I really adore about the theater for the new city is that they are really focusing on making theater accessible for everyone, perhaps wise, and there's not necessarily, I think the target group I could foresee is people around my age range, people in their 20s and 30s and 40s, because I think we have growing up with or growing into the internet and social media. We get the sense that people who we disagree with cease to exist when we don't see them anymore. And I think it's important to reckon with that and what makes people be the way they are and how we can reach them. I think that's a large thing throughout the play is you have to try to reach people and they will reject you most times, sometimes every time. So I guess it's very much a play that I think could benefit from a young audience, but I think it's a play that can benefit from everyone. Seeing it, I want theater to be accessible. I want everyone to have a chance to think 'cause I think everyone knows a person. Like this, everyone knows a person to life, whether it's politically, personally, that they have intense disagreements with that are hard to be around. And I'm not saying that that is something we should all just sit down and tolerate, but I'm saying, there's a reason why people are the way they are and it's very easy to not want to think about that without necessarily excusing their behavior. It's the kind of thing of, yeah, what is everyone's building blocks and how do they use those building blocks to build who they are? I think that's the important question. I often harken back to, and I am very long-winded, I often harken back to Stephen Sondheim. Stephen Sondheim would have had every right based on his upbringing, based on the things he experienced to be the meanest person on planet Earth. There are people who have gone too much less and excused bad behavior, but he chose love, and joy, and connection at every single turn. And it's just very exciting to think that a lot of people are like that. (upbeat music) For the second part of our show, as you know, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better. And we've had you on before. We had a lovely conversation about you, if you will, but I'm curious to know, you know, Stephen, how did you come into the performing arts? - I does a wonderful question, and as an actor/writer, I always love talking about myself, so thank you for its platform. So I started out as a singer, I was a classical singer, I'm from Switzerland originally, which is not that many playwrights in the US from Switzerland, which is to my benefit, there's one very famous play reference to Switzerland that people will be familiar with, who is furthest to Denmark, wrote "The Visit" and "The Physicist" and all that. Back in the day where Swiss plays will go straight from Zurich to Broadway, there's in the '30s still, but I was a singer, and classical singer fell in love with the musical theater, my senior year of high school. I moved to Hamburg, Germany at the young age of 17 to study musical theater and did that until summer 2020, when the pandemic hit, and I was like, well, I've always wanted to try to come to New York City and try to study here and work here alongside all these great, great theater minds, because the drive is just, the level of talent is higher, and the drive is much higher. People here are so driven, especially in the city, 'cause you kind of have to be. And I was like, I want to measure myself with that and see how I end up. And I went to theater school here for two years, and that's how I met my mentor, Eduardo Machado, who I've been studying with on and off for a while now, and who is very heavily influenced by writing, but as a playwright to him, as a teacher. And I can't thank him enough for all the lessons he is. If not for him, I would have been writing bad drafts of his play for three years, so I gotta get up to him for that. But yeah, that's how I came into the performing arts is the classic classical singer to musical theater, to actor, to playwright pipeline. We all know it, Diamond does it. It's the fastest way to get in the theater, absolutely. That's incredible, though, I love that. Now, I want to ask my favorite question again to you, 'cause I'd love to hear another one, but what is another of your favorite theater memories? - Ooh, that's such a good question. I was thinking about that, and I'm like, there's so, so, so many. I'm trying to pull in, I can't. I started out in opera, I'm watching opera, so that's always been up there for me. I remember watching a recording of Tosca. They were doing on a swimming stage in Austria, very close to where I grew up. And there was a moment, I don't know if you know, Tosca very well, but the plot is like, yeah, like her. Her love gets imprisoned and beaten up, and what they literally did, and this just kind of as a child, I just think about this all the time, 'cause it showed me what's possible in theater. They have this man, he comes like rolling out into the stage, he's covered in like, in stage blood, and all that 'cause he's just been beaten up, and then they literally kick him off the stage into the water, and I went, oh, we can do that. That's something I've recently thought about. If I ever get that kind of budget, I will definitely have someone fall off the stage. That is a big, that's something I'm a big fan of. I don't know if you saw "The Great Gatsby" on Broadway, but that was one of my favorite moments, was spoilers, when Jeremy Jordan falls off the stage into the orchestra pit. I was like, oh, wow, we can do that. But if we're going theater, if we're going plays, a moment I always harken back to, and I'm gonna keep harkening back to is, when "Pass Over" was on Broadway in 2021, first show to reopen, I went to see it, and just that entire experience I walked out after an hour and a half with so many thoughts, and so many feelings about what had just happened on stage, and it was a play that just got to me. It gripped me and it wouldn't let me go for an hour and a half. And while I am by no means trying to measure myself with entrant wonder or with any of those great playwrights and understand them very much early in my career, and I have a lot to learn, but that is what I'm looking for. I wanna play where people can't sit back. I wanna play where people don't have time to call. That's kinda how I think about it a lot. It's almost walkier in his opera's eliminated applause after Arias, 'cause he wanted the story to keep going, and that's how I feel like coughing. I want to have a play where you are so invested for 90 minutes that you don't have time to call, that you don't have time to shift in your seat, 'cause that's how you know that people are falling out of it, or that it's gripping the very edge. But yeah, so that's "Pass Over" did that for me. I didn't breathe for an hour and a half, I felt like, and I will forever remember what it was like sitting in that audience. It was from the first moment, and I laughed, and then I laughed so much, I cried, and then I cried, and then I got so scared, and then I got really upset, and then I started laughing again. It was just a whiplash of emotions, because you cared about the characters, you cared about what was happening. - Absolutely, those are wonderful memories, first of all. Thank you so, so much for sharing those. These were fascinating. Well, as we wrap things up, I would love to know, if this year's been like more information about Anton Goes to Heaven, or about you, maybe to reach out to you, how can they do so? - That is, I'm available in many forms. The easiest is probably social media. I'm at Steph Diesel, S-T-E-F, and then Diesel, like The Fuel, because my last name is Detelm, and I like puns. They can find the show at theaterforthenewcity.net. If they look at what's playing, they'll find Anton Goes to Heaven. We also have a social media site at, and Anton Goes to Heaven play. Check us out there. We post some cool cast announcements, and we're working on some behind the scenes content, so that's gonna be neat. I should have a website, and I don't currently, so I don't have a website to play. - Perfect, well, Stephane, thank you so much for coming back on and joining us, and bringing us another fantastic work of yours. I'm so stoked for it. I'm going to come see this, this sounds wonderful, so thank you so much for your time today. - Thank you so much, Andrew. Thank you for having me. I had a great time chatting theater with you, as always, and I look forward to seeing you at the show. - Yes. My guest today has been the incredible playwright, Stephane Dietelm, who joined us to talk about his new show, Anton Goes to Heaven. It's playing September 19th through October 6th at Theater for a New City, and you can get your tickets more information by visiting theaterforthenewcity.net. We also have some contact information for Stephane at his show that will be posted on our episode description, as well as on our social media posts, but make sure right now you head to theaterforthenewcity.net, get your tickets, come out and support these wonderful artists and this fabulous show. Again, it's Anton Goes to Heaven, playing September 19th through October 6th. And we want to add for our American listeners that election day is November 5th. Make sure you are registered to vote, have a plan to cast your ballot and do your democratic duty. You can find out how and where you can register to vote by visiting vote.gov. The future demands that we fight for it now. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez, reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap your candies and keep talking about the theater in a stage whisper. Thank you. (upbeat music) If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review, like and subscribe. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at stagewhisperpod.com And feel free to reach out to us with your comments and personal stories at stagewhisperpod@gmail.com. And be sure to check out our website for all things stagewhisper and theater. You'll be able to find merchandise, tours, tickets and more. Simply visit stagewhisperpod.com. Our theme song is Maniac by Jazzar. 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