TeenTix LA Blog by Cyrus Rose

Museums are so much more than noiseless halls filled with old, boring paintings. The Skirball Cultural Center has been proving this true for nearly 30 years. From their interactive, all-ages, recycled materials in their Noah’s Ark permanent exhibition, to one of their latest exhibitions,The American Library, I have always loved the Skirball for having fun, unique exhibits that are as whimsical as they are educational.

The first Skirball exhibit I remember going to was a Harry Houdini exhibit. I couldn’t have been older than 6 years old, but I was already enchanted with the grainy black-and-white footage of Houdini in a straitjacket, the life-size replica of his last diving tank, and the colorful old posters that brought this long-dead magician to life. For the next ten years, my family and I would go to the Skirball countless times, exploring and experiencing exhibits ranging from Simon and Garfunkel to Star Trek. Every visit I would learn something new about a figure or movement in history I loved.

Then, when I read about one of the most recent exhibits at the Skirball, The American Library, I knew I had to talk to the curator of the exhibit, Vicki Phung Smith. The first thing that caught my eye about the exhibit was the fact that it was styled like a library — I love books and am a huge supporter of public libraries! The second was that it featured a combination of physical and digital mediums, making it accessible and current. The third was that the artist was Yinka Shonibare, an artist whom my AP Art History class covered extensively, particularly his shocking and referential installation The Swing (After Fragonard). This artist — and his latest exhibit — is very relevant to my life as a student, art appreciator, and someone whose family is the result of many migration stories. I felt drawn to the installation and to its curator, so I sat down with her to learn about Smith’s experiences curating The American Library, and the magical world of museum curation as a whole.

Cyrus: Hi, Vicki. Do you want to start by telling me a little bit about your background and experience with the Skirball?

Vicki: So I've been an associate curator at the Skirball for a year now. I have been working in contemporary art and the art scene in LA for over 15 years. Prior to the Skirball, I worked at other contemporary art galleries in LA. My background and study was to be a studio artist. From a very young age, I was like I'm going to be an artist. And then, after I went to school, I realized that there were things about it, in terms of my temperament and personality, that made me very unhappy. So I pivoted to working with artists and curating as a way that I can still be creative and be surrounded by art. And it was just a much more healthy and happy experience for me. I started my career at contemporary art galleries, and the Skirball is the first nonprofit institution that I worked at. That was a big shift and change. One of the early things the museum director said to me is, ‘your background is contemporary art, but just so you know, the Skirball is not a contemporary art museum. We're a cultural center.’ It’s a broader audience. So I think that was something I was thinking a lot about when curating the show.

Cyrus: I love getting that background on like the differences between working for a museum and curating private collections. That's really cool. So you lead the guided tours for the American Library at the Skirball. What do you love most about leading tours? And what's also challenging about them?

Vicki: Contemporary art is all about keeping up to date. It’s weird to say, ‘oh, I’m a scholar of contemporary art’ like you would for a time period. With, say, post-World War II or 1960s performance art, you can study and research and go into depth. You go into a tour knowing the most on that subject and you’re teaching people. What I love about contemporary art and giving tours for The American Library is that it’s a conversation. I love the way Yinka Shonibare framed it as a library, with 6,000 books. It speaks to this idea that the story of the United States is not one story; there's many stories and not one story is more important than the other. I always learn something new every time I give a tour. I love hearing people’s responses and what they share with me.

Cyrus: The main themes of the American Library exhibit are immigration and diversity. Yet some of the names in the book are people who are anti-immigration. How do you think this contributes to the overall message of the exhibit?

Vicki: I think it’s one of the most evocative, almost punk-rock things that Shonibare does. I think it's really wonderful that alongside first and second generation U.S. immigrants who have made notable contributions to American life and culture, he also presents figures throughout American history that have opposed immigration. This speaks to the nuance and complexity of the ongoing debate. The fascinating thing is, many of these people against immigration are second- or third-generation immigrants. Trump is in the exhibit because his mother was from the UK. It’s great that Shonibare is showing the array of perspectives.

Cyrus: Like many of the Skirball's exhibits, American Library offers digital learning opportunities. What do you like about combining digital museums with traditional museum experiences? And what would you say to people that don't like digital museum installations?

Vicki: Digital options in museums are really important. You have to keep up with the times and present to visitors in ways they’re familiar with, because that’s how you engage the audience. The artist created a website in tandem with the exhibit, where you’ll see names you recognize like Selene Gomez. It’s a digital catalog of all the names in the exhibit at the Skirball. There’s another really cool part of the website called Your Stories, which has an option to share how your family immigrated to the United States, or maybe migrated within the States. It makes the exhibit this ongoing thing -- history is still being written. A lot of our visitors at the Skirball are families with young kids going to see the Noah’s Ark exhibit, so the digital screens are more accessible to them. That doesn’t mean we can just throw out analog options. The American Library also has a story sharing prompt with paper and pencils to make it more physical and accessible to older generations. A combination of digital and analog creates more points of entry for people. It’s been such a successful interactive, with tons of responses.

Cyrus: That, that, what you were talking about, about digital accessibility is a great segue into my next question. The exhibit is interactive, which makes it accessible to people of all ages and walks of life, just something I've always loved about the Skirball. How do you find interactive art enhances or changes the message of an exhibit?

Vicki: We want to appeal to a beastly broad audience as a cultural center. A lot of our exhibits center around not wanting to talk down to the audience or present information in a hierarchical way. Interactives are great because then the visitor becomes a part of the story, and has their own agency in a bigger conversation. It creates investment and buy-in for visitors who think, ‘why should I care?’ I’m always curating for the person who doesn’t care, and make it exciting for them.

Cyrus: Lastly, what do hope visitors - especially teen visitors - take away from this exhibit?

Vicki: I can’t exactly put myself in the shoes of teens today, but when I was young, most of the heroes I looked up to were white men and they didn’t look like me. Through The American Library, I found out about this astronaut Eugene Trinh, the first Vietnamese American astronaut. It was amazing to learn about him because I loved space as a kid, but I only ever learned about the three men who landed on the moon, and I can’t really relate to them. To find a Vietnamese astronaut, even as an adult, was so meaningful. I hope people coming to this exhibit can see themselves and their aspirations.

Founded in 1998, Independent Shakespeare Co. started their iconic free outdoor

Shakespeare performances in 2003, at Barnsdall Park. By 2010, ISCLA had moved to Griffith Park’s Old Zoo and has since performed two shows every summer, with bonus live music and cultural performances for their audience of over 40,000. I am one of ISCLA’s many adoring patrons, and have seen their shows every summer for longer than I can remember. Their sense of whimsy, incredible commitment, total immersion with the outdoor performance space, and ability to adapt Shakespeare to modern sensibilities through music, costume, and more makes the experience a delight every time.

As a non-profit theater group, their longevity and ability to survive the pandemic

is inspirational -- amidst the Covid-19 lockdown, they even established a permanent stage at Griffith Park! But their outdoor space is not the only home of ISCLA’s breathtaking shows; in 2011, Atwater Crossing Complex welcomed ISCLA into their arms with a year-round indoor theater space. This 65-seat theater has been home to incredible shows over the years: Julius Caesar, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, singalongs, and even workshops with Independent Shakespeare’s wonderful founders, David Melville and Melissa Chalsma. Now, from March 21-April 9, David Melville will be performing Hamlet, Solus, a one-man show version of one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies.

Melville is no stranger to solo theater; for many consecutive years, he has

performed a two-person show of A Christmas Carol, playing both Dickens and most of the characters. He’s also done some even more minimalist one-person shows including Nicholas Nickelby and Solemn Mockeries. Hamlet, Solus, however, is an entirely different beast. Fascinated by the commitment to such an emotional and complex show, as well as being a huge fan of Shakespeare, I sat down with David Melville to discuss what led him to create this iambic lab.

Cyrus: Of all the famous and beloved Shakespeare plays, what drew you towards Hamlet for the Iambic Lab?

David: Well, I suppose I have a long history with Hamlet. I've done it a number of times, not just with ISC. It was the play that brought me to America. I was in a production that was on Broadway in 1995, and Ralph Fiennes was playing Hamlet, and that's where I met Melissa, and Melissa and I run the company together. So really, Hamlet's the reason I ended up in America, and I ended up meeting Melissa, and without Hamlet, I wouldn't have my children, or Independent Shakespeare Company wouldn't exist. And then when we started doing shows in the park, our second season, 2005, we did Hamlet, and I played Hamlet that time. And I think it was the first show where things really started to take off. It was the first show that really started attracting significantly large audiences, and it was popular.So we did it again the next year, and then we came back to it several times, and it's always been really good to us, I think, in that regard. And the last time I did it was, gosh, must be about 12 years ago now, and I was sad when it was over, because I had such a long relationship with the play. But I always thought it was unfinished business somehow, and I think I was doing a school's workshop, and I had to do some speeches from Hamlet, and I just got the idea then, I wanted to actually do this as a one-person show. But if you do a one-person show, you're not just playing Hamlet, you're playing everyone, so that kind of gives you license to, you know, to be creative. So that's kind of how we arrived at it.

Cyrus: That's perfect. That's actually a great segue to my next question of playing even one of the main roles in Hamlet would be a daunting task, and you're playing them all. What's that like, emotionally and physically, and even practically?

David: We're not doing four and a half hours of me saying absolutely every line. And it's been whittled down quite a bit. I think that it probably should be, it's a little, probably a little over 90 minutes. So I've had to cut quite a lot of roles, and I've really sort of centered on certain themes and certain relationships. But, you know, most of the main characters are there. So I found it interesting starting to work on it, having been so familiar with Hamlet and Hamlet's point of view, it does feel a little bit like the characters are being presented from Hamlet's perspective. So Claudius is way more evil than an actor would approach him, probably, you know, and Gertrude is way more fickle and flighty. And I don't know whether that's how it'll end up in the actual sort of final mix, but certainly as a way in, it was hard to dissociate myself from Hamlet's perspective and his point of view.

Cyrus: One thing that fascinates me about Independent Shakespeare is that you guys often incorporate modern music and live music into your productions. I noticed that that's also a theme for Hamlet, Solus. How do you think that enhances or changes the meaning of the story?

David: Hopefully it enhances it. I think there might be some people that come and see it and strongly disagree with that. You know, there's not a whole lot of music. I mean, it's mostly the Shakespeare text, but I, you know, we wanted to use this as an opportunity to experiment with a certain way of doing things. And I've done a number of one person shows before and I've always approached them in a very minimal way.But, you know, I've been interested in -- I've started doing a lot of sound design for the show. So when I work as a director, I often do my own sound design. And I really like it. And I record my own music at home because I write. So I've been writing songs for the Shakespeare plays. So I do love sound design. And I was sort of curious about how to use looping and whether there was a practical application for that in a stage. So I wanted to see if there was a way to create live loops on stage, and I'm trying to incorporate it on some lines. So certain words can be put into a loop and then sort of repeat. It's quite complicated, because it means I've got to have various trigger points around the stage, where I can activate these things. I mean, doing Hamlet as a solo show is a tightrope walk, as it is, but to deal with all this very fiddly tech stuff… I don't know, my mind might explode.

Cyrus: But hopefully not until after the show.

David: During the show, probably.But, you know, in rehearsals, we've done it, you know, it's quite satisfying when it works. But so yeah, I was just really interested in can I do that? Can I build just using the kind of synthesizer applications that you would use in a program like Logic? There's a live version of that called Main Stage. And I'm not using it a whole lot, but to be able to sort of play just a tone that will underscore a speech in a way.

David (continued): I'm giving a little bit more space to a character who I think is probably the most important character in Hamlet, outside of Hamlet, who doesn't have any lines. And that's Yorick. Whenever you see a picture of Hamlet, you know, it's Hamlet holding Yorick. He's quite sort of iconic as far as the production goes. But we don't really know too much about him [Yorick]. But he has a very interesting perspective, I think, because Hamlet is so much about death and grief. And that's one of the themes I'm trying to explore in this. And, you know, of course, Yorick sort of is on the other side of that. He does know a thing or two about it. You know, he might just be the court fool, but he is actually, something that Hamlet doesn't know, and it's not until Hamlet meets Yorick that it's after his meeting with Yorick that he's finally ready to do what he's been avoiding all of this time, not until he stares into Yorick's eyes, or what used to be his eyes. So I've sort of resurrected him, and he's helping to narrate the show a little bit. But rather than me sort of trying to write Shakespeare, I'm doing it mostly in the form of this 1930s/40s English Music Hall style, in the style of this performer called George Formby, who played a banjolele. And so I'm sort of riffing around his song style, which is very upbeat and comedic. So, tonally, it's very much against the grain of what people would expect from something like this. I'm not sure, you know, whether it's going to please people or not. But I'm just -- this is a ridiculously indulgent project. (laughs)

Cyrus: What was the process of making Hamlet, Solus? Like, I know sometimes productions can be sat on for years. If so, how many months, years, how much time has been spent?

David: We've talked about it for a long time, mostly sort of as a joke. When we're trying to think about what we're going to put in our indoor space, and something drops out. And I said, ‘Well, I can always do my one-man Hamlet’. But this year, I guess, Melissa, just put it on the calendar. And I didn't know whether she was serious or not, but I decided to take her seriously. And then the next part, I guess, was trying to learn some of the speeches of the characters that I'd not played before. So that they're sort of more in my bones, because Hamlet's very in my bones, but you know, Gertrude obviously isn't. So that was the other key part of the process, but it's been very, very much “solus”. But, you know, one of the nice things about doing a one person show is that you can always be in rehearsal. If you're in the car, or whatever you're doing, you know, you can always be working on it. But one of the downsides is that it's rather lonely. And I, one of the things I love about being in the theatre is, you know, having my fellow actors around to goof around and play with and, you know, it's a little lonely. Although I do anticipate that I can have many cast parties, and they'll all be very cheap.

Cyrus: You can invite Hamlet and Gertrude.

David: I don't know that you’d want Hamlet at a party. (laughs)

Cyrus: What do you want or hope audiences to take away from this show?

David: I think that I'd like people to connect with the themes that I want to explore. I'd like them to have a slightly deeper understanding of some of the relationships. I'd like them to sort of understand the graveyard scene as more than just a comic bit. I'd like to think that one of the advantages of doing it as a one person show is you can show characters' points of view a little clearer. Because you have to take a little bit more time in between reactions, and you can stay with reactions, you can show one person saying something to show the other reaction. But if it's just you, you can highlight some of the characters' points of view. There are some key moments. The piece with Hamlet meeting Yorick, which I'm setting up Yorick as kind of this dark comic character. But there's a seriousness when they meet. And also the scene with Gertrude -- I think there's something about the way that it's been edited that it sort of really leads to that moment. So I hope I can sort of highlight some of Gertrude's turmoil and her guilt. And I hope it sort of weirdly, even though it's very sort of edited, I hope there are some elements of the story that maybe make a little more sense. Something I'm very interested in is why Hamlet pretends to be mad. I'm making Hamlet's madness, this sort of weird, like early Pink Floyd sort of noise that sort of keeps coming back and annoying Claudius. So I can create this sort of sound character. So and again, because you're seeing things, you know, the perspective of the characters a little more clearly because it's one person show. I hope I can sort of hone in on the use of Hamlet’s feigned madness that’s a little different from what you would be able to do in a bigger production. Basically grief and madness.

Cyrus: I love that. You’ve touched on this a little bit, but what do you hope to take away from this experience? Do you think you’ll do an iambic lab or Solus project like this in the future?

David: Well we haven’t performed it yet, so we don’t know. It is an act of extreme hubris, so I could fall on my face and regret it. Or I could find wonderful new modes of expression. I mean, I’m challenging myself in ways I’ve never done before, and it’s really scary, and I hope it’s successful and it resonates. If it isn’t successful, I hope I give myself permission to be brave.

Cyrus: Lastly, do you think Hamlet, Solus is accessible to teens who have never seen Sahelsepate and how might they want to prepare for the show?

David: That’s a really good question. I hope it will be; I’m trying to make the story as clear as I can get. I do think the approach to it is playful, hopefully humorous, moving when it needs to be. That’s always a dangerous area with tragic materials -- you don’t want to overplay that comedy, but not overlay the tragedy that people are so bored with. Checkhov used to say “you need to make people laugh before they can cry”. It’ll never be boring, any of this. I do think it’ll be of interest to teens. Even if students don’t study Hamlet, they’ll probably hear some of these lines used as quotations; it’s nice to know where it sits, where it stems from.

Cyrus: Thank you so much; that’s all the questions I’ve prepared. Do you have anything else you’d like to say to teens or anyone else preparing to see the show?

David: Just come with an open mind (laughs). Everything we do, we try to make it warm and welcoming to everyone. If you don’t know Hamlet, it could be the beginning of a wonderful journey, and if you do know Hamlet, it could lend you some deeper insights.

Though Hamlet, Solus has only been in production for a few months, it seems as

though this production from David Melville was inevitable. Hamlet is interwoven with ISCLA’s very DNA, from Melville’s move to America to Independent Shakespeare’s rise in local fame. His personal connection to Hamlet creates a gripping, personal narrative that just hearing about made me jittery with excitement. From the moment I heard about Hamlet, Solus and marked my calendar to see it, to every detail I learned about its creation and nuance by talking to David Melville, I knew this solo expedition into Hamlet would be something unforgettable.

This interview-article is compiled from an audio interview conducted on 5/3/24. Not all of Mr Melville’s full responses have been included. Some responses have been edited or cut.

Nobody ever wants teens to be loud or take up space. But what if there was a place that wasn’t true?

When you were young and you went to the theater, stuffy old adults told you to be quiet and sit still and pay attention -- after all, that was what they were told, and to them, that’s how you express respect for the show. This can make going to the theater a very daunting and unwelcoming environment for teens, not to mention mind-numbingly boring. Nothing kills a show more than dead silence.

Turns out, that’s how the actors feel as well! Actors want people to cheer and shout and clap and be loud; to them, that’s really they can tell someone enjoys the show, not silent approving nods in the darkness.

When I went to see The Winter’s Tale at Antaeus Theatre Company with a group of my friends, we had all previously been in a production of it, so we knew what to expect. We howled with laughter, we sang along to the songs, we booed the antagonistic characters, and we clapped and roared until our throats and hands were raw. The cast adored it. They came out from backstage invigorated, telling us how wonderful of an audience we were and how appreciated they felt.

It made me realize that no one wants a theater to be quiet (except maybe grumpy old men). The highest sign of respect you can pay to an actor is to express your feelings, and do it loud and proud! They put so much work into their comedy routines, musicals, and plays, that a teen laughing at a joke they likely spent weeks practicing is more precious than a double rainbow.

Of course, this is not to endorse any kind of disruptive behavior. Disrespecting the theater you’re at, talking loudly with your friends, or heckling actors that are working very hard to make you smile is just plain rude. Besides, why bother going to a show just to be an unkind audience? It seems a waste of time and money, if you ask me -- not to mention way less enjoyable than the actual show being performed.

So next time you grab your TeenTix Pass and see a show, laugh if something’s funny. Cry if it breaks your heart, and clap so hard your hands hurt. And if that cranky couple gives you a stink eye? Just cheer louder.

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Cyrus Rose is a TeenTix LA Intern.