Review Fix chats with James Ortiz creator, director and puppet designer for “The Woodsman,†which begins performances on Thursday, January 30 for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 16 at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Discussing everything from the inspiration for the production to its cast, Ortiz gives us the inside scoop on what is sure to be one of the cooler independent theatre productions of 2014.
Review Fix: How did the idea for this production come to you?
James Ortiz: L Frank Baum’s classic THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ was the first novel that was ever read to me by my mother. It was the first time that I was transported by a novel, so it was a very special experience and I loved every page of it. However, the one character that stayed with me and haunted me the most was the Tin Woodsman.
His story is simple, but oddly resonant. He was a woodcutter that fell in love with a maiden that happened to also be a runaway slave of the Wicked Witch of the East. In order to prevent their marriage, the Witch enchants the woodsman’s axe so that it will dismember him every time he swings it. But he’s determined to marry this girl and to build a happy life with her- so after each accident, he goes to a tinsmith (the only option he has nearby) to replace
the lost parts with tin ones until eventually his body is entirely made of tin.
But, because his new tin body had no heart, he thinks that he cannot love the maiden anymore and he pushes her away only to rust alone in the forest. Cool story, right?
Years later, during my rare down time in acting school, I rediscovered my childhood love for L. Frank Baum and began delving into all of his collected works. And I found out how seriously he took the Land of Oz.
There were rules, there was a history, and he was really writing about how we should all live our lives. The main lesson to be found in all of his work boils down to this simple idea: be kind, be brave, and keep moving forward.
Simple and amazing.
I would try to share my discoveries with others, and was surprised to realize that most people didn’t know who Baum was or that The Wizard of Oz even was a novel, let alone a series of novels. I felt like I was sitting on some precious secret, and I needed to find some way to share it. Baum created this great, lost American folk tale about a man that progressively- through a series of horrific, self-inflicted accidents, loses his humanity (not to mention the girl he adores) and becomes something else that believes that he’s incapable of love. Despite all the magic and and fantasy in the narrative, his story was just so resonant.–and it just seemed like that story should be told with puppets- and I’ve been a puppeteer and puppet builder on the side for over ten years now.
So about a year ago, I just had this idea of telling this story from a mostly physical perspective-and that we would watch an actor slowly morph into a life-sized metal puppet so that by the end he would be completely replaced by it. That was the initial thought and everything else just burst from there. Now, a year and two productions of The Woodsman later, I feel like we’re kind of actually honoring and accurately telling the story that originally haunted me when I was a kid.
Review Fix: How does it feel to have the recognition of the Jim Henson Company?
Ortiz: Being recognized by the Jim Henson Foundation is still a little overwhelming and I don’t know if I’ve really processed it yet. Its more than an honor. My name will be next to their name. That’s just madness.
Review Fix: What are your artistic influences and how do you think they impacted this production?
Ortiz: Wow. Where to begin. Im influenced by a lot of things. Anywhere and everywhere from various forms of bold artful theatricality to 1980s action movies.
In terms of puppetry, I’m floored the work of Basil Twist, Julie Taymor, Michael Curry, Handspring Puppet Company, and Blind Summit Puppets in the U.K.
I’m ALWAYS inspired the downtown puppet community of New York. The work happening at HERE Arts Center and at St. Ann’s Puppet lab is always amazing- and a lot of my friends work in those venues. So its pretty great that The Woodsman- which I think is representin’ the downtown puppet crowd has made the move off-broadway. It makes me think that people really are interested by this sort of work. However, more specifically, the idea that influenced this production the most was something I read years ago in college:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is considered to be the first American fairytale. America has no fairytale heritage to speak of, all of our most famous fairy stories come from Germany and France. But Baum wrote a story about American ideals, staring an American heroine, and about a idealized land of plenty- the land of plenty that the settlers and frontiersman of the 1800’s hoped they would find by traveling west.
So, there was a desire to depict Oz as a fantasy landscape that in some way resembles America circa 1840-1890- and that idea affected everything. A solo fiddle playing in the style of folk music from the 1840’s would be the live accompaniment for the piece—The puppetry would be technologically no more advanced than what would have been available to the puppet makers of that period —and the theatrical style would be truthfully heightened as a sort of an homage to the melodramatic theatre of the 1800s.
Review Fix: What do you think you’ve learned about yourself as a person through the creation of this production?
Ortiz: I learned a lot about deadlines. I learned a lot about storytelling. I learned that I was very lucky to be surrounded by a talented, enthusiastic group of people that are passionate about telling this story. Also a lot of this story is about love and one’s own belief in themselves, so I think I might have been reminded of a few helpful things in those departments too.
Review Fix: You’ve got a great cast for this. How did it all come together?
Ortiz: They are great. The show is very actor based that incorporates puppetry around them. The cast are all physical gifted and incredibly brilliant actors that I’ve met or worked with in traditional theatre that all learned how to be puppeteers for this production. Which is more of a challenge than you might think. You need to get 3-5 people breathing the same breath in order for one puppet creation to come to life. They fact that they’re all mostly actors, and all very prepared actors- has been a bonus because we can really dig into the character work in these scenes. But, of course, they’re all different people with different opinions about this character that have to work together. It becomes a really lovely exercise in teamwork. Thats one of the most fulfilling parts for me in doing this work.
Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy this show the most? Why?
Ortiz: My mother, probably.
But I think anyone thats has any understanding of The Wizard of Oz (book or movie) will really enjoy finding the threads that lead us back to what we know happens in that story. I think the Oz that people will visit in The Woodsman will be a lot like visiting an old childhood friend and then realizing that he was way more interesting and deep than you ever gave them credit for. Hopefully, at least.
Review Fix: How do you want this show to be remembered?
Ortiz: As a celebration of what the theatre can do with no money and a lot of passion. Maybe as a reminder of a fantastic and somewhat forgotten literary world that an author created a hundred years ago that hasn’t really been explored in a while. More than anything else, I really just want to people to be swept away and maybe as haunted as I was by this story. So, here’s to hoping.
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