Page 20 - the NOISE October 2012

20 • OCTOBER 2012 • the NOISE arts & news magazine • thenoise.us
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T Door Offering by Raechel Running is among the socially- imperative pieces at “Beyond the Border” at Coconino Center for the Arts & Flagstaff Photography Center.
Adrienne Bischoff, who plays Nora tells me. “A friend of Ibsen’s had borrowed money without her husband’s permission and the husband actually had her committed — al- though she was eventually released. There were many critics who hated Ibsen’s work when first produced because he attacked mainstream ideals. But he obviously felt he had to because it was a theme he kept re- turning to, this idea of people living by un- natural, suffocating ideals only to become hypocrites; both men and women.
“That’s why Ibsen didn’t want to call this a feminist play: both husband and wife equally are victims of societal ideals. They are in a state of arrested development and they are trying to live up to middle class ideals so much that they sacrifice being their genuine selves. Nora by force has to grow and break free into a fuller more genuine person.”
“I’ve always read a lot. I love theater for the literary aspect of it. It’s a very intense way of getting to know a text and bringing it to light.”
“Quite honestly, it feels like a three-hour race, not in the sense of pace or timing, but in the sheer stamina it takes to pull off playing Nora,” Ms. Bischoff tells me of her character.
“There are moments when I get tired, but, just like with running, I tell myself to keep push- ing, to keep going, lest I slip out of character. I wasn’t prepared for how much of a physical feat this would be, although I’m not surprised. For an actress, there is no bigger — or better
— role than Nora; not just in stage time, but in the monumental emotional cycles she goes through. And her emotions, positive or not, are always at fever pitch. I saw this play in London 16 years ago with Janet McTeer play- ing Nora and I never forgot the incredible in- tensity she brought to the role and which ul- timately exhausted her by show’s end. Even her voice was starting to go. It was frankly se- ducing to see someone give themselves en- tirely to a performance, just how Nora gives herself entirely to averting disaster.”
I ask Ms. Bischoff how it feels to have so
much emotion directed at her through the course of the play. “It’s fantastic because it keeps me focused and energizes me. I love when Joe is raging away at me as much as when he’s seducing me. The entire cast keeps me on my feet as we all continue to discover more facets to our characters and bring that to subsequent rehearsals.”
Theatrikos’ production of A Doll’s House plays at the Doris Harper-White Community Playhouse, located at 11 West Cherry Avenue, through October 14. Theatrikos.com
THE SPACE BETWEEN
As we sit over coffee with cinnamon, slices of oranges and grapes, Raechel Running and I continue the conversation we’ve been having for the past three years. Every time we meet a new piece is added to the story, and I realize now it will never finish being told.
She sits across from me and taking a piece of paper and a pair of scissors, begins to cut a spiral into the paper. “This is the symbol of migration,” she tells me, “as a layer of time. The circle represents movement and it’s also linear.” She lifts the spiral from the center and it curls down from her hand towards the table. “You remember doing this when you were small?” she asks. She tells me time moves like this spiral cut out of paper, it’s cir- cular, yet it’s constantly moving up.
When Ms. Running first went to Mexico, she never thought of connection. But a jour- ney that was only to last a few days ended up keeping her for years. Now she is seeing con- nections in many aspects of her life.
“I was recently on the San Juan and sud- denly in front of me was a T-door,” Ms. Run- ning tells me. The T-door has been a power- ful symbol for her in her work, connecting the past to the future, one culture to another. “All of my shows have been connecting the past.”
“My role as a photographer and as an art- ist is to make signs and help people connect to the bigger picture. I want my work to be a cultural bridge especially in these times;