Lessons from Gollum

About the author:
Remy Auberjonois--not to be confused famous father Rene Auberjonois--has been in the family business for some time now. He has appeared in the off-Broadway production of Othello, the film The Reality Trap and has had guest appearances on TV shows such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, ER and L.A. Law. Now Auberjonois is in the off-Broadway production of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, and he is continuing to make a name for himself on the stage with warm reviews and his wonderfully wicked sense of humor. Here, Auberjonois meditates on technology, inspiration and imagination.

You might not have heard of me, although my name may seem vaguely familiar. You may have seen me in the 1980 all-Oakwood-Elementary-School production of The Hobbit, appearing as Gollum. It was, I believe, a very hot ticket that summer in Studio City, California. Certainly a plum role for a pre-kindergartener. I had not yet learned to read, so my father, Rene Auberjonois, read the lines onto a tape and I memorized them that way, inflections and all he's not too shabby an actor himself. The outdoor performance was amplified, and they asked me what I wanted to sound like. "Like I'm underwater," I replied. My microphone was run through a synthesizer and a bubbly, gargling sound resulted. What a thrill that was! I felt so creative, like I had invented something entirely new. Of course I watched my share of TV. Thundar the Barbarian. Space Ghost. Land of the Lost.

So I began my life as an actor relying heavily on external, even technological vehicles for character, recreating what I knew from television and mimicking my father. Perhaps it's appropriate--I come from a family of actors--my father, mother once upon a time, wife, sister, brother-in-law, cousins are all actors--and we live in an entertainment culture that is based on generic reproduction. Undeniably, we gather our expressive tools from the people we grow with and from our cultural environment. That said, in the years I have been performing I debuted professionally at the age of nine at the Mark Taper Forum and graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2001 I have learned that the true implements are ones own self brought to bear in collaboration with ones peers.

Right now I am performing in The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at the Atlantic Theater. This play is humorous and techno-savvy, and I play a range of comic characters. Some of my roles are somewhat derivative at first glance; movie "types" like the mad scientist or the army colonel. The challenge with these roles has been to evoke the generic while keeping the motor personal. Rolin Jones' writing of course supports this, all of the characters are uniquely and idiosyncratically written. Few of the parts I play in this production have full arcs, so my job is to provide as full and specific a snapshot of the person as possible, while keeping the plot of someone else's story moving forward. This means I get to have a lot of fun and no pressure well maybe a little. Inspiration and interpretation can come from anywhere, one of my characters completely came into focus for me when the costume designer, Jenny Mannis, handed me a white baseball cap. "Types" can work for you when filtered through your own range of associations.

The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow is all about modern technology, both real and imagined. Yet the production is entirely and firmly theatrical. I have no scenes that take place face to face. All of my characters' interactions on-stage are "mediated" in some way--through e-mail, instant messaging, i-cam chats and the telephone. The director, Jackson Gay, has addressed this head on. The multiple modes that we use to communicate in this digital age are distilled back into conversations, albeit facing out towards the audience. In a way, the audience becomes the mediator between our characters as we converse. Of course, the logistics of timing and rhythm and all of that stuff that goes into building a scene are complicated by the style, but it hopefully boils down to two people talking. The rest is about imagination.

The realization of this play has been a unique experience. I've played multiple roles before, and I've played broad comedy before, but this one brings me back a bit to my earliest experiences. It stretches the definition of what theater can present, without a lot of extra stuff that money and machines can do for you. I think--I hope--that we've found a way to bring to life the curious nature of communication as it has evolved. That we've brought it back into the theater to be experienced live and used it to conjure a story for today in today's idiom.