Four Places, produced by John Perrin Flynn, Matthew Elkins and Deborah Puette for Rogue Machine Theatre, plays Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 7; until June 13; then in repertory with New York Animals Fri., 8 pm; Sat., 5 pm; Sun., 7 pm; through July 3. Tickets: $25. Theatre Theater,  5041 W. Pico Blvd, Los Angeles; 323.960.4424 or roguemachinetheatre.com.

Just beginning a third season, Rogue Machine Theatre has already been recognized as “one of the decade’s top 10 theatre companies in LA” (Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly, Dec. 2009) and “one of the most ambitious and accomplished new theatre companies in LA” (Variety, about its 2008 season). With a growing national reputation, Rogue Machine presents LA, West Coast and American premieres of cutting edge plays and world premiere productions by an impressive cadre of in-house playwrights.

Last weekend, RMT unveiled the West Coast premiere of award-winning Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson’s Four Places. A Resident Playwright with Chicago Dramatists since 1991, he got his start as a writer with the late Econo-Art Theatre where Beautiful Dreamer, A Slim and Crooked Genius and three other of his plays were produced. Steppenwolf Theatre presented The Fall to Earth in the spring of 2004 and also commissioned Johnson to write a new play, A Blameless Life. His other plays include As the Beaver, Before My Eyes and The End of the Tour.

Robin Larsen

Robin Larsen, director of Four Places, is a multi-award winner recognized most recently for her work at the Black Dahlia Theatre where she directed the West Coast premiere of Karoline Leach’s Tryst, nominated for five 2007 Ovation Awards, and the LA premiere of David Schulner’s An Infinite Ache. She is also a film director and screenwriter with award-winning projects including Sombra, Out of Habit and No. 6 with Ron Perlman.

LA Stage had an opportunity to speak face-to-face with Larsen and email-to-email with Johnson.

LAS: How did this play come to Rogue Machine?

LARSEN: I’m on the theatre’s literary committee and we are always on the lookout for interesting new plays. RMT founding member Deb Puette, who is from Chicago, contacted Joel through some of her friends there and he sent us Fall to Earth and Four Places.

JOHNSON: Other Chicago playwrights spoke so highly of Rogue Machine: Lisa Dillman, whose Half of Plenty played at Rogue Machine last year, and Brett Neveu, whose American Dead had its West Coast premiere during Rogue’s first season.

LARSEN: We wanted to get the rights to produce Four Places last year but there was a New York production pending at the time. I really felt pulled to direct this piece and the company agreed it would make a great third season opener.

LAS: Had the two of you worked together before?

JOHNSON: The only thing I knew about Robin’s work was what I heard from members of Rogue Machine who had nothing but great things to say about her.

LAS: What attracted you to this play?

LARSEN: People come to me with plays quite often but I’m very selective, especially now with a new baby in my life. Joel’s play really spoke to me. It offers an emotional experience which is something I always look for. I love that it’s simultaneously funny and heartbreaking. There is a very dense back story because the characters are a family. I love the family dynamic - the peeling back of layers, of masks. We humans only drop our artifice when we’re alone or with family. I was also intrigued by the fact the play happens in real time; all the secrets are revealed in real time. It’s just wonderful writing - fabulous writing.

LAS: Can you talk about experiences that may have inspired this play?
JOHNSON: I borrowed from the experiences two friends had with their parents who were not only elderly but alcoholic as well. And, of course, my own experiences with my parents. The car ride scene that begins the play is me channeling my mother. I remember what car rides were like with my mom.  She was always trying to think of things to say, and - like Warren in the play — I often sat in the back and acted like I couldn’t hear, putting all the obligation of conversation on the driver. I personally heard my mother say everything Peggy says during the car ride and much of what she says in the restaurant scene.

LAS: How much collaboration was there between the two of you?

JOHNSON: I would say Robin had complete autonomy. I live in Chicago so there wasn’t much opportunity for collaboration. I have six more productions of Four Places going up this season and I would imagine I will have little input in the process which is as it should be. At some point, a play needs to stand on its own.

LARSON: Early on, Joel did suggest an actress for Peggy, the mother, and we followed up. It was an excellent casting choice but she wasn’t available. Joel has been very supportive all along. He made himself available to me whenever I had questions. It has been invaluable. I got some insight from him for one of the actors and brought it to her. She said, “That’s one of the perks of having a living playwright!”

Ann Gee Bird, Tim Bagley and Roxanne Hart

LAS: Can you say more about this great cast you’re working with?

LARSEN: Roxanne Hart is a Rogue Machine founding member. We could have searched the world and not found a more ideal actress in the role of Ellen. She is glorious. Deb Puette knew Ann Gee Byrd’s work from Antaeus where they both are members. Deb brought her in to read - and that was that! I didn’t expect Warren to be the hardest role to cast but after seeing dozens of actors, I just wasn’t finding that elusive combination of qualities. I solicited suggestions from directors around town. Finally, another of our members, Caroline Aaron, recommended Tim Bagley. He never came in to read; I cast him from his reel. Artistic Director John Perrin Flynn trusted me. I just said, “He feels like Warren to me” and John accepted my choice. Lisa Rothschiller Ragsdale is new in town, from Chicago, where Deb had worked with her. Deb is our Chicago connection!

LAS: How and when did you begin working with John Perrin Flynn and Rogue Machine Theatre?

LARSEN: John was in the process of assembling the company when he saw a production I directed at the Black Dahlia and invited me in. I would say John is everything I could wish for in an Artistic Director. He has given me his trust and my freedom. He supports me in so many ways. For example, last year he and the development director helped me write a grant for a production of Bruce Norris’ The Infidel at RMT. We still have the rights so that’s possibly not too far away on the horizon.

LAS: What have been some of the challenges in mounting this play at Rogue Machine?

LARSEN: Well, not many. RMT’s tech director David Mauer has facilitated and coordinated all aspects of the physical production. He is so smart, so good-humored, always sincerely trying to get me whatever I want. He is something of a wizard. If one thing won’t work, he comes up with another solution to every challenge. However, producing this show while caring for my six-month-old daughter is another story. I got really nervous about a week into casting, wondering if I’d be able to pull it off. My M.O. has always been 110% — in everything! But, because of all the support at the theatre, the producers’ support, I was free to just direct. Plus, I had so much support at home. My mom came out from Miami for a whole month. And, of course, my husband has been totally there for me. No one could do this without that kind of support.

LAS: What about the challenges of the play, itself?

LARSEN: With all the characters, there are two things going on simultaneously. We discovered one character has a very private inner life which she wants to keep hidden and protected. It was a challenge with all of them that their inner lives be going on while they’re negotiating with their outer world but that they not play that inner life. Opposing forces exist simultaneously - the laughter and the tears, the humor and the heartbreak. The characters’ intense love for each other exists alongside the loathing. But, how do you manifest that for an audience? Finding the balance is a wonderful challenge. All those juxtaposed opposites make it richly complex and very, very true to life. Again, Joel has created something so rich and layered and true.
LAS: You are so prolific. How did you get your start as a playwright?

JOHNSON: Oh, boy! Well, it started in high school. I was this lonely gay kid who found friends by staying after school and doing plays. I decided to be a serious playwright after a visit to New York City, seeing some plays and thinking, “I could write that!”  I relocated to Chicago because I had friends here, all of whom were doing theatre, and just got caught up in all that was going on.

LAS: And what is coming up for you? What are you working on now?

Joel Drake Johnson

JOHNSON: A Guide for the Perplexed, which recently won the Aurora Theatre’s GAP Award for playwriting, starts performances on July 9 at the Victory Gardens Theater here in Chicago. The play deals with how one finds redemption from past failures and the guilt that follows you. It features Tony nominee Kevin Anderson along with his fellow Steppenwolfer Fran Guinan, easily one of the best actors in Chicago. Sandy Shinner, Victory Gardens associate artistic director, will direct. Kevin plays an ex-con who goes to live with his sister, brother-in-law and nephew after he is released from prison. The brother-in-law has lost his job because he was accused of mishandling funds and the nephew is a gay kid, terrorized at school and contemplating suicide on an hourly basis. Another play, The Boys Room, is coming up in the Victory Gardens 2010-11 season. It deals with two middle-aged sons who, for financial and psychological reasons, return home to live with their elderly mother. Their old room becomes their new nesting ground.

Production photos by John P. Flynn

Article by Penny Orloff