Late last year, The Husky Jackal Theater produced a play featuring the words of Shakespeare in the plot of James Cameron's Terminator 2. Funded by Kickstarter and starring actors and musician from the middle Tennessee area, the play was one of my favorite experiences of 2011. I recently asked one of the play's writers, Marshall Weber, a few questions about the Terminator the Second experience and what's next for the Husky Jackal Theater.
Where are you from originally? What is your formal training in? Can you give me an idea of your resume before Terminator: The Second?
I was born in Knoxville but have lived here (in Nashville) ever since I was 7 years old. I did theater in high school and was a ghost tour guide for a little while, but no extensive experience in theater before Terminator the Second.
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Terminator: The Second was on my personal top ten list for 2011, but it was funded by one of the entries on my co-host Tripp's top ten list, Kickstarter. How was your experience using the crowdsourcing website to bankroll your project? Would you use it again?
The experience was amazing. I remember seeing an article in Nashville Scene about online resources for artists, and Kickstarter was one of them. After nosing around on the site I thought our project was perfect for Kickstarter. What makes it work so well is the reach it has. Once we were featured on the site's front page and in their email newsletter, we started getting donations from as far away as Brazil, Finland, even the Philippines.
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I am sure you are tired of being asked this, but what was the genesis of Terminator: The Second?
We thought it would be funny to stage a performance of Macbeth at Springwater Social Club wrapped in bedsheets. That was really the start of the whole process. After months attempting to get the project off the ground, we realized that a traditional Shakespeare Company was much better suited to put on a traditional Shakespeare play. Then Cody thought maybe we should try something more suited for us, like Shakespeare does The Terminator. I thought it was a great idea, and we set about defining what that actually meant. We came up with the rules for creating the script regarding pronouns, proper nouns, and so forth, and took it form there. 9 months later, we had a script.
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One of the artistic choices you guys made was to have your actors capture the vocal qualities and body language of the actors who originally played those roles, in particular Kahle Reardon's Sarah Conner/Linda Hamilton and Jasson Cring's Terminator/Arnold (and, of course, Marshal, your portrayal of Robert Patrick's T-1000). Was that a part of your vision for the play from the very beginning, or did idea come as the project developed?
From the beginning we made it very clear that Terminator 2 was the story we were presenting. It may be in the words of Shakespeare, but everything else is Terminator 2, from the costumes to the sets, and the actors portrayals. No petticoats or codpieces allowed.
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Perhaps the most impressive portrayal was Jamie Bradley's spot on performance as John Conner/Edward Furlong. Elizabethan plays had a long history of casting men in female parts, how did it feel to cast a woman as a male in a production inspired by the Elizabethan era?
Jamie got the part because she pretty much is a female version of John Connor in real life. We had little reservation about the decision to cast her, and the gender reversal just made it more interesting. Honestly the first thing that came to my mind was Mary Martin as Peter Pan.
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I remember sitting in the auditorium before the play began thinking about the scenes from the original movie that I assumed you would have to work around. Foremost in my mind was the tractor trailer chase scene in the Los Angeles River. When the curtains pulled back and there was John Conner being chased by an incredible reproduction of the cab of a semi, I was floored! It reminded me of the insanely elaborate plays Jason Schwartzman's character put on in Rushmore. Would you say that you were challenged to back your clever play idea (Terminator 2 + Shakespeare) with ambitious set design and dressing?
Yes we were. The task seemed so formidable that Cody and I would often just say to each other, "This is so stupid. Why are we doing this? This is just stupid. What are we thinking?" Luckily, we had so many talented people involved, not just with sets and props, but with light and sound and everything else, which made it easier to communicate some of the more ambitious aspects of the production without having to rely on physical props. I remember early in the script-writing process, my roommate asked me exactly what we envisioned as the end result of the production, and I pulled up a clip of that scene from Rushmore on YouTube. I was only joking of course, but it's incredible how close we came to that in the end.
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While we're on the subject, what was the most difficult scene from the movie to replicate on stage?
The steel mill. You had the cauldron, the wench to lower the Terminator (which we managed to hook up about 2 hours before the curtain opening night), plus the platforms, smoke machines, etc. It was a nightmare back stage. Many people may remember how long the set change was for that scene. If/when we put it on again, we hope to use what we learned to streamline the process with different approaches.
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What was the most difficult piece of Terminator 2 dialogue to fill with Shakespearean language?
For me it was the scene in the car where the Terminator is explaining to Sarah exactly how Skynet caused nuclear Armageddon. I mean he's talking about computers launching ICBMs and a bunch of other stuff that didn't even exist in Shakespeare's time. Luckily for us, he was prone to metaphor. It also goes to show how timeless his work is. When you read his plays, the thoughts, emotions, the motives his characters discuss easily related.
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The music for Terminator: The Second was composed by The Protomen, how was your experience working with a group of local musicians?
It was awesome. Those guys are all so solid, each and every one of them. But they weren't the only ones scoring the production. A lot of it was done by our friends Jimmy Thorn and Timothy Carey, who did a remarkable job. Our friend Aaron Irons did all the sound effects too.
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With nearly four months hindsight, what was one thing you learned from the entire experience?
That you really don't know yourself or those close to you until the chips are down.
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What's next for Husky Jackal? Is there temptation to repeat your Terminator: The Second success by commissioning something like Woody Allen's Braveheart? Or do you think your artistic hunger will lead you down other paths?
Right now we're working on the DVD. Terminator: the Second has a lot of potential, but we're not sure where it will go right now.
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Is there a work in any medium (TV, movies, books, etc.) that you are really enjoying right that you think people should check out?
Eastbound and Down, Boxianna by Pierce Egan, and anything by Buckminster Fuller
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Finally, how can people keep up-to-date with your projects?
Facebook.com/TerminatorTheSecond and TerminatorTheSecond.com
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