Janet Ulrich Brooks

Lillian Hellman died in 1984, but she remains as colorful and fascinating a figure today as ever.  The playwright had her first successful play, “The Children’s Hour” at the age of 28, and that seminal work is currently being revived by the highly lauded TimeLine Theatre Company.  Add Writers’ Theatre’s production of “Another Part of the Forest,” a prequel to “The Little Foxes,” and TimeLine’s one-woman play “Lillian” by William Luce, and Chicago theatergoers can presently enjoy a mini Hellman feast.  TimeLine Artistic Director PJ Powers called in actress Janet Ulrich Brooks to portray the ever dynamic and controversial playwright in the 1986 one-woman vehicle originated by Tony Award winner Zoe Caldwell.  Powers felt he had a dynamo on hand from her first reading.  “I thought she could do it tomorrow,” Powers enthused.

How does this veteran actress and arts educator feel about stepping into such big shoes?   “I live from day to day between complete confidence and sheer terror,” she confesses.  For Brooks, the standard actor’s combination of fear and adrenaline is magnified, “because once I get out there, it’s just me.  And I feel this great responsibility because I have come to love (Lillian Hellman).”  The play is taken directly from Hellman’s own words, and Janet feels “a great responsibility to be as honest as she was, and to portray her as honestly as possible.  Some times I think how I’ve waited a long time for this opportunity and it’s time, I’m ready and I’m up to the challenge.  And the next day I want to call PJ and ask if it’s too late to get out of this, because I’m totally daunted.  But I’m really anxious to share it with an audience.  That’s the true test, to share, because the audience is my scene partner.” 

What is Brooks’ take on the legendary left-wing playwright?  “She was this emotionally charged woman.  A lot of people think she was mean, and that’s this general knowledge that she could be harsh.  I think she was just being honest.  There are many successful women who speak their mind who are labeled that because they are women.  She did respond emotionally in the moment, and she had a great respect for honesty.  But she has such a command of language that after a moment she can articulate emotionally just what happened and why.  The way she can describe a moment and the social behaviors within that moment is what makes her a great playwright.  Earlier in her life she tried to write short stories unsuccessfully, but was better at plays because she was an active person.  She was interested in the moments and the emotional responses people have in those moments, the give and take, the “he said she said, she said he felt,” she really wrote for the action.

Janet sees not only Lillian’s strength and obstinance, but also her vulnerability and enormous wit.  “She was very much into the human experience.  She was a student of social behavior, a sociologist.  Some of that anger and bombastic behavior are born of that.  You tend to be the most hurt or angry when something really gets you in your gut.  If you’re always analytical then you’re not feeling the moment.  She felt things strongly and deeply, and anyone who feels things that deeply is extremely vulnerable.” 

Hellman was noted for defying the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, with a famously worded letter that stated, “I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashion.”  In refusing to name names for the Communist witch hunt committee hearings, Hellman was blacklisted in Hollywood, but won the respect and admiration of many for her heroic stance.  In the play “Lillian,” Hellman explains that it was her first lawyer’s decision that someone needed to take a moral position rather than relying on the legalities of the fifth amendment.  “It was his idea to do this, but she made the decision and stuck with it and put that letter in her own words.  I like the part right before that, where she says, ‘To hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago to save myself to me is inhuman, indecent and dishonorable.’  Right there to me cuts the committee to the quick.”

Hellman’s ability to stir up controversy certainly did not end with the House hearings.  She had an FBI file, containing over 300 censored pages that was kept out of the public record even after her death for fear of threat to the National defense.  She had many enemies, J. Edgar Hoover among them, but a large and glittering array of friends, allies and lovers, including Dashiell Hammett, Leonard Bernstein and Dorothy Parker, among others.  According to Brooks, “I don’t think she’s always what other people expect or think she should be.  A lot of people cast her in certain roles, but a lot of Lillian’s experiences she was just on a journey.  By happenstance she ended up in a lot of these situations that she might not had she not written a play.”

Janet’s approach to acting varies depending on the needs of the script and production.  “I’m a mishmash of technique,” she confesses.  “In ‘Lillian,’ I knew I wanted to have this in my bones.  There’s nobody that’s going to cover my ass on stage.  I first read it in August, I knew by September I was going to be doing it and we didn’t start rehearsal until October.  I read it every day almost, at home out loud, to know it, Osmosis it so that I was able to get off book quickly once I got into rehearsal.  Then the vocal and the physical, a lot of times I work from the outside in.  Again, it depends on the script.  If it hits me emotionally, then maybe it’s going to come inside out, whereas if I read it and see a picture, watching it from the outside in, I’m going to start with that outside shell and work the character within.  A lot depends on the other energies around me.  ‘Lillian’ I felt, it was a gut reaction.” 

In TimeLine’s production of “Paragon Springs,” Janet started with what she describes as a broad stroke.  “I’m loud and big, I’m a character actor so that’s a comfortable place to start, especially since I may not know where the director is going with the show, or as I work with the other actors it begins to develop a different tone.  By the time I got into rehearsals, it became something vastly different onstage than what I started with.  Same idea, different energy.  It wasn’t until I got my shoes, it was a very physical thing.  You hate to say you found your character in your shoes, but it’s such a collaborative process.  I don’t think you can go into rehearsals certain that every one of your choices is golden.  You should be able to express why you have these choices and bring something to the table.  Teaching kids how to work together in an ensemble for example, first we hear everybody’s idea because somebody might have an idea you like better than yours.  It’s like making a stew, you can’t have too much salt.” 

Janet spent 13 years with Child’s Play, a professional touring company dedicated to stories and poems written by children.  She is still passionate about children’s theatre, which is often dismissed as of less importance to the theatre community.  “What they don’t know is you have to work harder than you’ve ever worked to capture this audience.  And you’re going to get the most honest response you’ve ever had from an audience.  Any time you’re on stage, in a Branson Silver Dollar can-can, in a multi-purpose room, entertaining a wedding, you’re in front of an audience, you’re honing, you’re growing and changing and finding new things.  And if people have that attitude towards children’s theatre, then they’re probably not respecting the theatre we give to children.  If we don’t give them quality theatre then we’re not going to have an audience in the future.  For most of these kids, it’s their first introduction to theatre, and by God they deserve every ounce of energy and artistic integrity.  They’re a great audience, and if you give it to them they’ll give back to you ten-fold.” 

This native New Yorker got her Equity card at 26, but allowed it to lapse when she realized she could get more non-Equity work without it.  She has worked with Equity theatres, including Writers’ Theatre in Glencoe, where she currently works as a freelance teaching artist.  The lure of an Equity contract could still appeal to Janet, although she admits she would miss working with companies like TimeLine.  “Right now I’ve just tossed it to the wind.  If I were given a great role in an Equity theatre that was artistically wonderful and challenging, I am ready to do that.  But until that happens, the thing that makes me sad about going Equity is TimeLine.  Every experience takes you to the next one.  You’re always filling your pocket with new characters.  Any time I grow, that’s what excites me about life is the journey.  There’s never a destination, you’re always growing and changing.  If I get in a rut, a place I am not growing or changing then I’ve got to go.” 

The timing of “Lillian” comes at a personal milestone for Janet Ulrich Brooks, and she is counting her blessings right now.  “I feel really proud that I have had a life in the theatre, that’s what I always wanted.  I feel like I am in the happiest time of my life right now.  I’m living the life I always wanted to live, and I feel very lucky about that.  Sometimes you have to pay bills and you do this or that.  But I’ve managed to balance it very well.  This closes on my 50th birthday, so there’s a very special feeling.  What a wonderful gift.  I ran into an actor I worked with last fall (in TimeLine’s production of “Man for All Seasons”) and when I told him I was doing ‘Lillian,’ he said, ‘Are you the luckiest person in the world?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I am.’  It’s the total package.  It’s one thing to do a great play, work at a great theatre and to have the role you want.  To have all three at once is spectacular.  I’m pretty darn excited to be playing “Lillian” at TimeLine.”  

“Lillian” runs November 12-December 11 for 10 performances only at TimeLine Theatre Company.  Performances are Sundays and Mondays at 7:00 p.m.  All tickets are $10.  The theatre is located at 615 W. Wellington Ave. in Chicago.  For tickets and information, call (773) 281-8463 or visit www.timelinetheatre.com. 

 
Joe Stead
Theatre In Chicago News Contributor Joe Stead has spent over 20 years as a critic, director, designer and performer. His reviews currently appear online at www.steadstylechicago.com.