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Freaks [film]
Unconscious
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"Speed
Happens: A Playwright Turns to DV"
The writer, actor, director and producer Robert Cucuzza's best play and biggest hit, Speed Freaks, ran for 15 performances in 1999, and then, like most downtown shows, disappeared, despite positive reviews. Cucuzza, 32, has staged 11 such productions at the Ontological Theater at St. Mark's in the past six years. "After making ephemeral art for 17 years," he reasoned, "I wanted very badly to create something that I could completely shape, hold in my hands and give to people for the rest of time." Where did he turn? Digital video. Cucuzza took Speed Freaks, a screwball comedy play about Ivan, the psychosexual ringleader of an illicit drug operation, and his idiotic helpers (think Marx Brothers on meth). and turned it into Speed Freaks the movie–a lurid, intense dark comedy also about Ivan (played by Cucuzza in both instances), who's taken too much of his own product, becomes jealous and paranoid, and goes on a shameless tear of weird pleasure seeking and murder. The tall, affable, Cucuzza (kuh-KOO-za) credits fellow theater artist D.J. Mendel, a Hal Hartley veteran, as his "main source of inspiration." Mendel had made his own full-length original movie, Afterbirth, on DV, and even loaned Cucuzza his high-quality DV camera. In turning the stage play into a screenplay, Cucuzza says he "took out flowery or poetic or excessive language, because that stuff holds up better in theater than on film," as well as certain "dramatic moments that bordered on dance." He hopes his video stands alone as a film, and not just as a play on tape. Cucuzza sees potential in DV for theater people everywhere. "The advent of digital video, which, to the naked eye, looks like film, has placed the holy grail of moviemaking into the hands of everybody," he says. Using DV cuts the budget to about one-tenth of what a film would cost–Speed Freaks will run in the range of $12,000–$15,000. Cucuzza thinks that filming on DV can be liberating for actors. "Because the DV camera is so much smaller than a film camera, it feels more relaxed to act in front of one," he says. There's no worrisome feeling that you're burning film and money's flying out the window. It allows you to be more playful, more experimental." He edited the film on his home computer. "The editing has become my favorite part of the whole thing," he says. "That's where I feel as if I'm actually directing it." Cucuzza agrees that where the play was somewhat goofy, the movie is insane. He shot from a lot of different angles, which allowed him to get right "inside" his main character: "It eventually becomes more psychological, because of [DV's] intimacy." The born-to-ignite Cucuzza hails from Bradford, Pennsylvania, home of Zippo lighters. He enrolled at Carnegie Mellon as a theater major, but soon transferred to the English department because, he felt, "That was not the kind of theater for me," and continued to perform and write plays. After graduation in 1990 and a spell in Europe, he moved to New York and interned with the Wooster Group and then with Richard Foreman (acting in two of Foreman's plays). Cucuzza directed his first play, Love Clump, in 1993, and staged about two each year after that, calling his company Hangdog Theater. For the future, he says, " I would love for someone to see Speed Freaks and say, 'I would like to produce your next movie.' I have screenplays I'm writing. At least now I have a calling card–as a writer, director and an actor–that I can send out to anyone at any time."
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In 1936, Clare Booth Luce, a formidable Manhattan personality and writer (who also happened to be married to Time magazine publisher, Henry Luce), wrote a popular Broadway drama entitled The Women, a regular "meow mix" about a group of catty, upper-class women and their momentary comeuppance. Luce noted at the time: "The women who inspired this play deserved to be smashed across the head with a meat ax." Flash forward 60 years, and say hello to Robert Cucuzza. Approaching on tippy-toes with a sly, slightly mad grin on his face, Cucuzza is the perfect modern day ax-bearer. A brilliant, highly original, young (28) director, Cucuzza likes nothing more than creating funny, entertaining theatricals. Mean Rich White Ladies, his version of Luce's classic, is a fast-paced, pie-in-the-face to the highfalutin' production, complete with his usual dose of Marx Brothersesque physical comedy and insanely energetic choreography. Tall and affable, with black hair and black-rimmed glasses, the born-to-ignite Cucuzza (he's originally from Bradford, Pennsylvania, home of the Zippo lighter) needed nothing more than a tall lemonade at Cafe Orlin to 'fess up. He explains that the original play was terribly misogynistic," and that there was a lot of talk about "distrusting the female gender" and "how people would rather be men," etc. So the first thing he did was, "cut about half the text, including all the pontificating and philosophizing,' thereby transforming a three-hour three-act into a 90-minute one-act. They've changed character interpretations, too. In the original, "Mary," the wife of an adulterous husband, receives a lot of sympathy and serves as the play's moral heroine. "In our production," Cucuzza gleefully says, "Mary is very neurotic, very confused, sometimes psychotic and a much stronger character." Admits Cucuzza: "It's a very superficial presentation of the play. There are 8 actors, all women, playing 30 roles. We think the play is pretty idiotic, so there are many moments when you see the actors reacting to lines that they just recited or lines that are particularly ridiculous. The cringe element is there. Cucuzza has several tricks up his theatrical sleeve. Some would call them "stage devices." He calls them "toys." An example: "The script has terrible stage directions. So we have a person on mic reading some of them, directing the actors reactions, etc." This results in "egging on the characters or annoying the actors. We're really out to interrupt the play as often as possible." Expect dancing during the scene changes, and music throughout the production. Cucuzza says, "I always do dancing. I love seeing it, and they love doing it." He adds, with an eye to the future, "I'm just gearing up for the 'big musical' next year: The Music Man-set in a 1939 Berlin cabaret." I can hardly wait!
Creating
Some Magic with "Listen Houdini" Actor Robert Cucuzza, who bears an uncanny resemblance to master magician Harry Houdini, has landed the lead in "Listen Houdini," written and produced by the Axis Company and directed by Randy Sharp. The play, opening this month and running through mid-December, focuses on the later years of Houdini's life, when he was obsessed with a quest to debunk fake mediums. I spoke with Cucuzza about the show, his role, and what Harry Houdini was all about. DS: Tell
me a little about your background. DS: What's
the company's mission? DS: And how
was "Listen Houdini" conceived? DS: Can you
talk about the play's tech? DS: What
did you do to prepare for your role? DS: Do you
have an favorite lines in the piece? DS: What
would you especially like to share with your audience? |
