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An Interview with Michael Bloom, Director of Ten Chimneys

December 30, 2011 by Beau Buccilli, Artistic Intern in Ten Chimneys

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Beau Buccilli interviews Cleveland Play House’s Artistic Director and director of Ten Chimneys, Michael Bloom, about his thoughts on the play, the Lunts, and their home.  
Ten Chimneys- The Play and the Place  

Beau Buccilli:  Why Ten Chimneys?  What first drew you to the play?  What made you want to do it?
Michael Bloom:  First, I thought it would be fun to open a new theater with a backstage comedy.  The play is a tribute to the most famous theatrical couple in American history, the Lunts.  But you don’t have to know the Lunts to enjoy the play.  It’s a wonderful romantic comedy about a couple who is already married.  I thought it would appeal to theatre lovers, people who knew the Lunts, and people who wanted to have a fun theatrical evening. And I think that Cleveland audiences like to laugh in January.  To have a summer experience in January is pretty unusual in Cleveland unless you’re a snowbird.   

BB:  Before the play, how familiar were you with the Lunts and their work?
MB:  I was very familiar with them.  I had seen the Lunts’ movie The Guardsman which was the only movie they did together.  I actually directed a stage version of The Guardsman with Christopher Reeve at Williamstown years ago.  So I knew about the Lunts, but I didn’t know they had a summer home in Wisconsin named Ten Chimneys, so it’s been a fantastic experience to research it.  I visited there last week, and it is a truly transforming place.  It’s in part a gentleman’s farm. Lunt, who was a chef with a diploma from the Cordon Bleu school, raised all sorts of plants and vegetables, milked cows, and tended the farm when they were at Ten Chimneys.  And starting in 1925, the Lunts had it written into their contracts that they would never work in the summer so they could come back to Ten Chimneys. 

BB:  How did going to Ten Chimneys affect your understanding of the play?
MB:  Tremendously.  I now completely understand why Jeffrey Hatcher wrote a Chekhovian comedy.  The only thing it lacks is a lake to be a truly Chekhovian setting.  But the great thing about the play is that you don’t need to know any Chekhov.   

BB:  Would you say that Ten Chimneys is a theatrical landmark for America?
MB:  Oh it is.  It’s actually a national historic landmark.  I’m not sure there’s another stage actor’s home that is honored nationally.  It gave me a sense of how devoted the Lunts were to the theatre because the whole house is like a series of stage sets; the rooms are painted with murals.  They made their house a work of art. First of all, it’s so quaint and whimsical.  It has such a great sense of humor.  A tiny sitting room called the “Flirtation Room” has six doors in it, and it evokes a French farce.  Some of it’s ornate; some of it’s very subtle.  Something else I enjoyed was that you can really tell the Lunts were fantastic hosts.  When you came to see them, it was for a long stay, it wasn’t for a weekend.  And that’s why their friends loved coming to Ten Chimneys.  Their generosity of spirit comes through in the home.  

BB:  There are three separate buildings, right?  There’s the main house, the studio, and the hen house or the chicken coop.
MB:  Yes, that’s right.  The play takes place in the studio in the second act, and in the first act outside of the studio near the pool.  They unceremoniously kicked out Alfred’s mother from the main house into what was originally the chicken coop, which they renamed the “Hen House” when they put her in there. She was never that happy about it.  But the Lunts really made the main house an artistic refuge. It was a place for them to recharge their batteries and think about future projects.   

BB:  What about the other famous actors in the play like Uta Hagen and Sydney Greenstreet?  How familiar were you with them before this play?
MB:  Pretty familiar.  What I didn’t know is that they were in the Lunts’ company.  It’s been fun to research the play because you’re dealing with all of this American theatrical history.  

BB:  Since these are real people, do you feel obligated to try to portray them as realistically as possible?
MB:  No.  Not at all.  Much of what Hatcher has written is fiction, although it has the spirit of the real people in it.  I don’t feel the necessity of imitating the people and the setting.  We’re after the essence of the place and the people.  

On this Production:  

BB:  What is your personal take on the show?  How will your production be different from others?
MB:  First of all, it’s going to be staged in the round.  We want to create an environment in this new theater that makes people viscerally feel what it’s like to be at this very inspiring, evocative summer place where the Lunts would bring very famous theatre people like Olivier and Coward and Helen Hayes.  Then I think it’s got to have a real comic sophistication because it’s in the vein of both Chekhov and Coward.  

BB:  So it merges everything they would have done in their careers?
MB:  It does.  It’s a pastiche of a typical Lunt comedy, a Coward comedy, and a Chekhovian comedy.  

BB:  You said Chekhov isn’t going to be prominently featured in your production.  You don’t need to know anything about Chekhov to enjoy it.
MB:  No.  

BB:  Then, how significant is it that it mirrors The Sea Gull?
MB:  It’s only significant to people who know The Sea Gull.  But certainly, you can appreciate the play completely without knowing The Sea Gull.  It’s just another layer.  The play is also very much about balance --finding a balance in one’s life.  In The Sea Gull, you have a famous actress returning to her summer home and dealing with her lover and the servants, and in Ten Chimneys, a famous theatrical couple returns to their home each summer to revive themselves, work on plays, and deal with Alfred’s family.   

BB:  There are many different acting styles represented in the play.  There’s the pre-Lunt Delsarte system with exaggerated gestures, then the Lunts moved into a more realistic style, and then Uta Hagen went on to develop her own style.  Will these be seen in your interpretation of the play?
MB:  I think you need to have a uniform style.  What’s fun is one of the scenes is actually a debate about acting style between Uta and Alfred.  That’s a very cleverly written scene that I think will be fun even if you don’t know much about either of their approaches to acting.  

BB:  A lot of this play is a celebration of the theatre, and there’s also a lot about the concept of home.  How much does this relate to CPH’s move to a new home downtown?
MB:  Well, I think it does.  As I said, it’s fabulous to open a new theater with a play about the theatre.  And it is our new home. You’re right, the play is very much about home and the way that actors try to balance the life in the theatre and their personal lives.  It is certainly a tribute to theatre people, but it’s also a very humorous portrayal of the foibles of an acting family.

BB:  Great.  Thank you very much.

Related Shows: Ten Chimneys