 |
Drama Division Prepares for Kraemer's Occupation By TOMMY SMITH
Blink twice and you might miss him. Perhaps the busiest person in an institution of notoriously busy people, Joe Kraemer never seems to stop moving. In addition to administering Juilliard's prestigious playwriting fellowship program, he acts as the Drama Division's dramaturg, helping to develop new and classical plays for the season's repertoire. If that weren't enough, he also serves as personal assistant to Michael Kahn, the Richard Rodgers Director of Juilliard's Drama Division and artistic director of Washington D.C.'s Shakespeare Theater. Kraemer can often be found behind his desk on the fourth floor, simultaneously (yet effortlessly) typing e-mails while talking on his headset while greeting students or guests.
 |
| Chanda Hartman and Tim McGeever gave a performance of Kraemer’s short piece, Find Some Planets, which developed into The American Occupation. (Photo by Jessica Katz) |
|
So how Kraemer found time to write a play is anyone's guess.The American Occupation, Kraemer's first full-length piece, will premiere this month in the Drama Theater under the direction of Trip Cullman, featuring the fourth-year actors. The play—a rollicking, transcontinental fusion of comedy, drama, and song—follows the exploits of Leisurely Yours, a struggling rock group in the hip Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg waiting for its big break. Plagued with petty infighting, casual drug abuse, and dwindling audiences, the band finally unites to accept a major tour sponsored by MTV Europe. The only catch? The tour is a ploy to bring Western music to the Muslim world. Soon, the American hipsters find themselves face-to-face with political and religious turmoil percolating in countries unfamiliar with the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.Writing the piece has been a daunting but rewarding task for Kraemer, who admits to the rigors of juggling his administrative duties with creating a new play. "It's hard to find the time after a long week at work, but I try to be very disciplined," Kraemer said. "I get up four days a week and write from 6 to 7 in the morning. And I can usually find three solid hours on weekends of effective time at my laptop, so it's about seven to eight hours a week—when I can get it."The creation of The American Occupation has been an exciting odyssey for Kraemer, who first created some of the characters in the play nearly seven years ago. It originally appeared as the short piece Find Some Planets in a 1997 showcase, alongside Jessica Goldberg's Refuge (winner of the 1999 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize) and David Lindsey-Abaire's subsequent regional hit Fuddy Meers—two plays Kraemer helped develop through Juilliard's playwriting program."In Find Some Planets, the band never leaves the loft; they just sit around talking about performing," Kraemer said. "I thought, 'What if they actually played shows? What would that be like?'"
 |
| Group 28 actors Eunice Wong, Tim McGeever, Chanda Hartman, Adrian Rieder, Patch Darragh, and Rob Beitzel in the 1997 performance. (Photo by Jessica Katz) |
|
This led Kraemer to investigate the possibilities for his narrative. Starting in the ultra-hip Williamsburg music scene, Leisurely Yours eventually winds up churning out American rock for audiences in Muslim countries. This switch of scene provides for a compelling fish-out-of-water scenario for the play's dramatic action."There's a division of focus in Acts 1 and 2 of the play. In the first, I chose to emphasize the insular, competitive music scene of Williamsburg band politics. In the second act, I wanted to see what it would be like to watch those worlds clash: band politics meeting world politics head on. It seemed like fertile dramatic ground for me."While the countries of Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt may seem a far cry from the familiarity of New York, Kraemer sketches these scenes with remarkable detail, drawing from his own experience. "In 1999 I took a sabbatical from Juilliard, traveled to Europe and North Africa with my cousin, and lived for three months in Morocco. The landscapes there have haunted my imagination ever since," Kraemer said. "One of the things that fascinated me most was the perceptions people brought with them to foreign countries about themselves, their lives, and the places they call home—and how those perceptions shift and change as you begin to open up (or not) to the new world around you."This concept greatly influenced Kraemer's writing as he began to form the first draft of The American Occupation, molding the play's requirements to fit the performance needs of the fourth-year actors."In my capacities as dramaturg, I looked with Michael Kahn for a large play for the repertory season of the present class. I realized that the play I was writing might become a larger play—much larger than I'd thought!" Kraemer said. "As the play we wanted to find got larger in cast size, the mechanics, themes, and tone began to change as well."Having a talented group of Juilliard actors has played an integral part in the creation of The American Occupation, as Kraemer has tailored the roles with the participation of the individual actors. "When I saw the current fourth-year actors in their cabaret performance last winter, it dawned on me how right this class might be for a rock 'n' roll project," Kraemer said. "I can't wait to hear them performing the songs that have been created for them for this project, too!"
|
The American Occupation
Drama Theater
Wednesday, Nov. 17-
Sunday, Nov. 21
For time and ticket information, please see
the calendar.
|
|
|
While the play is riddled with details about the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, Kraemer himself has never ventured into the arena of musical performance. "I gave up piano after two lessons back in Catholic school, and even failed the class where you learn the recorder," Kraemer said. "But I love music, from Orlando Gibbons to the Streets. In fact, I wrote this play listening only to Keane and William Byrd masses, so I guess I can be a bit of an Anglophile on the music front."Kraemer is certainly familiar with the art of playwriting. Since 1992, he has worked with and helped develop some of America's brightest young playwrights, including David Auburn (Proof), Stephen Belber (Tape), David Lindsey-Abaire (The Wonder of the World), Adam Rapp (Finer Noble Gases), and Noah Haidle (Mr. Marmalade), among others. He also belongs to a writers' group comprising Juilliard playwriting alums Hilary Bell, Ron Fitzgerald, Daniel Goldfarb, Deborah Laufer, Julian Shepard, and Lindsey-Abaire.All this experience fed directly into the genesis of The American Occupation. "One of the big gifts of my work here has been the enormous wisdom I've absorbed about playwriting, especially from masters of the craft like [playwriting program heads] Chris Durang and Marsha Norman. While there are many big ideas I've taken away from their classes and labs, it's often the asides that stick in your mind—like Marsha saying you need to create a problem by page five of a play that really captures your audience, or Chris mentioning how important it is to have at least one character you keep your eye on from start to finish," Kraemer said. "But Daniel Goldfarb probably gave me the most important piece of advice when I found myself sinking, over the summer, in front of my laptop: second acts can always be shorter than first acts. I repeated that like a mantra through most of the month of August."Tommy Smith is an artist diploma candidate in playwriting.
|
