Scott Ellis: Bringing Streamers to a New Generation
When it comes to directing, Scott Ellis is a quadruple threat: equally comfortable working on plays and musicals, new scripts and revivals. In the past four years alone, this five-time Tony nominee and Olivier Award winner has jumped from a classic drama Twelve Angry Men to a new comedy The Little Dog Laughed, a classic comedy Entertaining Mr. Sloane, a new musical Curtains, a new drama Good Boys and True and now a revival of David Rabe’s award-winning Vietnam-era drama Streamers. When he’s not on duty as associate artistic director of Roundabout Theatre Company—home of Streamers at its off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre—Ellis moonlights as an Emmy-nominated director of 30 Rock. How did he set his sights on a 32-year-old play that tackles such timeless themes as racism, sexual identity and the fear of young men about to be shipped off to war? Ellis explains his 21st-century view of Streamers.
For six years, I hounded David Rabe to try to get a production of Streamers. Friendly hounding! After directing his play The Dog Problem at the Atlantic Theater in 2001, I knew I wanted to work with him again, particularly on Streamers. I saw the play at Chicago’s Goodman Theater in 1978 when I was in school there, and it’s been in my mind all these years.
Interestingly, Streamers was the first play in David’s Vietnam quartet that he wrote, but the last one to be produced, in 1976. He had started writing it before the others The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, The Orphan and Sticks and Bones and came back to finish it later. The play is a period piece—it’s clear that it takes place in 1965—but it’s not dated. It’s not as much about the specific war as it is about these young guys and how they confront their fears. If there are things about it that resonate with audiences given the fact that we’re now in the sixth year of another war, that’s fine, but it’s not the reason I wanted to do it.
Streamers was ahead of its time in the way David deals with racial and sexual tension, especially in presenting the play’s gay character. Even though society as a whole is now more open about race and sexuality, David’s writing from 30 years ago touches a nerve surprisingly close to the surface.What’s remarkable about David’s writing is that you never know where it’s going. His storytelling is not linear—the characters take different paths, and David is always swinging open another door. One thing affects another until the relationships start to unwind and go to a violent place. I know Streamers very well and yet it still surprises me. As things go out of control in that barracks room, you think, “Please, someone stop this!” There’s no easy explanation for the chaos that happens, no easy answers.
There are also no villains in this play. The young guys and the two older sergeants have been thrown together, and their pasts and their history conspire to create a bad situation. The sergeant’s long monologue at the end of the play, a breathtaking piece of writing, puts into perspective how violence can erupt when worlds collide. The title of the play, which refers to what happens when a parachute fails to open, is so evocative—the idea of free-falling, of flailing and trying to grab onto something and connect with somebody. That basic fear in wartime hasn’t changed in the 30 years since David wrote this play.
Reviving a well-known play that had a very successful New York production directed by Mike Nichols definitely presents challenges. But I felt it was time for a new generation to see this play. My approach is always about exploring the text, telling the author’s story and focusing on storytelling. For me, the text and the characters and the situations are it—I don’t try to put something else on top of that.
At first, David was resistant to the idea of a revival of Streamers. I began with a private reading of the play at the Roundabout, just to hear it again, and David did not attend. After a second reading, he was gracious enough to let me do a production away from New York last fall. In Boston, David spent some time with us during rehearsals and saw a run-through there. After the successful run at the Huntington Theater, we got the okay to come to Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre. Slowly, David continued to get involved, to the point that he has been with us most of the time during rehearsals and the tech period. I think he saw how committed the actors were to bringing this story to a new audience. And that’s been the most enjoyable part of the whole experience for me—seeing David embrace this play again, more than 30 years after he wrote it. It has been remarkable collaboration and certainly worth the six-year wait.