Out, Damned Spot!
Sans her longtime collaborator, Blanka Zizka takes on a new partner: Shakespeare.
[ theater ]
TWO BECOMES ONE: Blanka Zizka (left), now sole artistic director at the Wilma, tries her hand at Shakespeare for the first time with Macbeth.
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To say the Wilma Theater's recent changes have the feel of a Shakespearean tragedy would be an exaggeration. Yet two recent shake-ups — one departure, one new addition — have reshaped one of Philly's longest-standing theater companies. On the sunniest Saturday of September, director Blanka Zizka isn't breaking a sweat over the simple facts.
"Not quite yet," smiles the Wilma's artistic director on a break from choreographing fight scenes from this season's opener, Macbeth.
After 31 years of theater, the Wilma is launching its first-ever production of Shakespeare — any Shakespeare whatsoever — with a spare, ambitious, violent staging of one of the Bard's final tragedies.
And after 31 years of theater, Blanka is going it alone; her co-artistic director and ex-husband, Jiri Zizka, announced he was leaving for good after staging last spring's Leaving. (Apt, no?)
First things first: The play's the thing.
Like so many of the Wilma shows Blanka has directed (Animal Farm, Quills), Macbeth is epic and full of impact. But as for the reason she's waited so long to take on the master of drama, it's personal. "I've always been seduced by Shakespeare but was worried about the language, what with being a foreigner," laughs the Czech immigrant. "I still haven't gotten it all, so the idea of going into the Old English was daunting." Yet after a private reading of the play, she not only considered Macbeth and saw its staging light up in her mind, but she's already considering her next Shakespearean steps once the 2010-11 season comes to an end.
"Much of what's happening next here is trying to figure out what we'll become," says Blanka. "I've no precise answer yet as to what the next years will look like. Will we stay a subscription series with four plays a year? Can we squeeze in riskier, out-of-the-box productions for two-week runs? What other directors will we bring in?" she asks, rhetorically, mentioning that she's considering Pig Iron's Geoff Sobelle and one-time Wilma compatriot Annie Kauffman as potential future collaborators. "I can't direct four shows a season. I would die."
Surely new managing director James Haskins will have strong opinions on these matters. But for the most part, the Wilma's vision is down to Blanka, as her partner, Jiri — once in marriage, almost always in aesthetics — has left her as sole artistic director. According to Blanka, Jiri felt the weight of doing so much for the Wilma ("two plays for Blanka, two plays for Jiri," she laughs about the company's usual season) that it left little time to tend to his other work. "Jiri's a brilliant writer," says Blanka. "He's produced and directed films. He wanted to do those things."
When I spoke to Jiri Zizka about Leaving back in May, he kept snickering as he said, "Everybody leaves, you know."
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"He has a strange sense of humor, Jiri does," says Blanka regarding her ex's offhand comment. Blanka claims there were signs of Jiri's waning interest in the Wilma, but nothing was definitive until Leaving. At present, she's not even too certain how she feels about his departure.
"I don't know yet if I miss him. It's too soon," she says coolly. "We did work so separately from each other. I mean, we gave each other notes on each other's productions so not to manipulate each other. But I was certainly sad at first as with the end of any relationship. It leaves a big gap."
Maybe there'll be more time after Macbeth for any lingering sadness. Blanka's eyes are such deep, dark pools of wild invention and taut emotionalism, one can't help but imagine some twist in her somber, serious state of mind.
"Yes, I don't doubt there'll be sadness later," says Blanka. "I've had to forget any of my emotions. Right now, I'm enjoying looking at my new mission, and that of the Wilma's, and how we must embrace it."
Through Nov. 7, $20-$59, Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., 215-546-7824, wilmatheater.org.
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