vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #147 / Arts and Ideas / Reading article...

American theater director Mark Williams visited Vladivostok the last week of July to cast Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" for the Chamber Theater.

The Seattle native says he purposely assigned an absurdist play to the company, as a challenge to the highly traditional actors. And he says the classically-trained performers have to get a little better - at having fun.

"They're best at psychological drama, at crafting a particular moment and making it meaningful," says Williams. "But they're not so good at being silly."

"Godot" portrays a group of people waiting for an individual whose appearance they do not know and who continuously postpones their meeting. The play shows the absurdity of waiting for a person who will obviously never appear. And this reverberates in Vladivostok life.

"Who knows better about waiting than Russians?" he asks.

This is Williams' first visit to Russia; he admits he is not familiar with what local audiences expect. But he thinks everyone will appreciate the play's theme. "I'm hoping to give the audience something they're not used to seeing," he says.

Williams comes from the Alpha Dog Theater Company, where he has been producing a musical as well as a touring "stage combat" show. The former director of the Seattle Shakespeare Festival says his own classical training at the University of Washington makes directing this cast interesting. "It's like watching [theater master] Stanislavsky come to life. But this is not a museum - they're very much alive."

The company's strict, director-based style differs from Williams' collaborative approach, but, Williams says the actors are magnificent. He also envies their repertory tradition, in which 10 or 15 plays are constantly rotated for a few years. This not only gives the actor a chance to perfect a role but also allows a break from the same lines and actions.

The cultural exchange is no accident. In 1995, his company brought over Chamber actors to perform "The Seagull." Now Williams has been able to complete the circle. He hopes to bring the actors back to the United States, perhaps to tour.

"If the acting is good, words are almost not necessary," he says. The company's 4 1/2-hour Seattle performance of "The Seagull" in Russian left everyone "weeping - not just teary-eyed." After his weeklong stay, Williams will return in early fall. "Waiting for Godot" will open in October.