Center Theatre Group Blog

Bailey Pennick is Center Theatre Group’s Press Intern for Summer 2009. She is majoring in English at UC Berkeley.

1st soldier: It’s not a question of where he grips it! It’s a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.
King Arthur: Well, it doesn’t matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?

             Before the 2005 Tony Award winning musical “Spamalot”, there was the 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” which (unlike its influenced musical offspring) did not win any legitimate awards.  And before John O’ Hurley donned the crown of King Arthur in the Ahmanson production, there simply was Graham Chapman. 

Standing 6′2″ tall with sandy blonde hair, an expressive mouth and a distinct air of unpredictability, Chapman was one of the six members of British comedy group Monty Python.  He was the noble, but naïve “Arthur from the Court of Camelot”.  Remembered most for his lead roles in both of Python’s narrative feature films (King Arthur and Brian from “Life of Brian”) Graham Chapman was always the Python who wanted to push the limits of humor and silliness as much as his colleagues would allow.

Beginning his professional career by studying medicine at Emanuel College in Cambridge, Graham Arthur Chapman met fellow student John Cleese and began to think/write/live/breathe comedy.  After working for the BBC as a writer (usually for David Frost), Chapman and Cleese came together with Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin to create the comedy troupe “Monty Python” and the hilarious BBC One television show, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” in 1969.  Chapman was pegged for authoritative roles in sketches and usually seen as the “straight man” in the wacky world of Python, with hints of insanity seen when he dressed in drag, or tried to return a dead parrot.

            Chapman truly represented what was so revolutionary and quintessentially important about Monty Python: he let others shine within a scene.  While many see Graham Chapman as underutilized within the sketches because he never had a “catch phrase” like other Pythons (ex: “Wink wink, Nudge nudge”, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”, “I’m a Lumberjack and I’m okay”), I believe that the real point to be made about Chapman is that his performances are just constantly underrated. 

Beyond trying to comprehend the real talent of a man with so many hardships within his private life including extreme alcoholism until 1977, and dealing with the negative response to his homosexuality until his untimely death from spinal/throat cancer in 1989, we must recognize that Graham Chapman embodied the concept of an ensemble.  Standing as the solid “typical man” within each scene of various lengths and subjects, Chapman was the blank canvas for his fellow performers to play off of.  Excelling at outrage, disbelief, and being the universal voice of reason, Graham Chapman’s characters are relatable, reliable, and reminiscent of our own emotions and reactions to the craziness of the Python’s world where people have funny walks and would like to pay for an argument.  Viewers often overlooked his genius because he was so similar to their own personalities with his on screen persona.

Chapman was seen as perhaps the best actor of the Pythons; really harnessing the comedy of the deadpan performance while either being dressed outrageously or asked to do ridiculous things.  He was always ready and willing to do anything in the name of comedy.  Brian and Arthur are indeed the main characters of their respective Python films, but the true heart comes out of the several ingenious vignettes featuring each character in the way that only those six men could.  While the plot of “Spamalot” focuses most of its attention on the Holy Grail quest according to the king, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” does exactly what the title suggests; it gives you the quirky and unique talents of each Python as they work together to make you laugh more than ever expected.  A lot of the magic of that film is in part because of the giving canvas and wit of Graham Chapman.

There are two quotes of Chapman’s that stuck out for me as possible ending lines for this piece:

“I hope I will have achieved something lasting.”

“It’s nice to see that look of alarm on the faces of the others.”

I think he would have wanted me to pick the latter.

Bailey Pennick is Center Theatre Group’s Press Intern for Summer 2009. She is majoring in English at UC Berkeley.

Welcome to the Working Week

The week of June 8-12, 2009 is infamous through the halls of Center Theatre Group: twelve CTG employees were laid off last Tuesday and Wednesday purely for budget reasons.  This was my first week working as the Press Intern.  Most of my previous summer jobs were silly retail or food industry, but not this one.  The first moments working for Center Theatre Group initiated me into the (seemingly exclusive) club more commonly known as the adult work force, and the ugly truth that comes with membership.

With regards to work in general I believe that Elvis Costello said it best, “Oh I know it don’t thrill you, I hope it don’t kill you.”  This cynical sentiment was tested during my first few days.  As I sat at my desk, tearful employees would come through the Press office holding the dreaded brown envelope not ready to say good-byes.  At these moments the signature kindness of the Center Theatre Group broke through the dark clouds with long hugs and heart-broken tears; mostly assuring their friends that this was not the end.  Cutbacks, even necessary ones, always feel personal; especially in an organization that can be seen more as a close-knit family than as a business.  Everyone experienced salary cuts, everyone experienced the pain, and everyone came together to try and survive the storm together.

While the mood throughout the office was less than cheery, I continued to feel welcomed by the entire staff, which was touching and unexpected by me for obvious reasons.  I quickly realized that because I did accept an internship in the theater world, emotions ran particularly high all across the board.  The extremely sad moments were countered by the biting wit maintained by the CTG staff.  In an attempt to keep morale as high as it could be in the events of losing co-workers and friends, dark humored jokes and quips became the norm for office banter.  The consensus was that it was too soon.

As a fresh intern off from college for summer break, I know that I have not been here long enough to weigh in on the true importance of last week’s issues, but I do think that it is too soon to do a lot of things: too soon to have wounds completely healed, to make lay off jokes, to knock on wood.  Too soon to truly notice the absence of the valuable individuals that had to leave.