One-person shows are probably as old as theater itself. Maybe even older. They may have begun the first time prehistoric man came home from the hunt, stepped up on a rock and entertained his neighbors by acting out the events of his day.
The current proliferation of these shows, however, makes them seem like a hot new trend. As is evident from the diverse area offerings, one-person shows now come in a variety of forms -- though they share the same ancient storytelling root.
Biographies of famous people are one of the most popular forms. "Hannah Senesh," part of Center Stage's series, "Feminine Singular: Women Speak Solo," is about the Zionist who was the first woman to parachute behind Nazi lines in World War II. And "The Belle of Amherst," being presented to benefit Everyman Theatre next weekend, is about poet Emily Dickinson.
There are several other types as well. "Citizen Reno," which opens the "Feminine Singular" series Wednesday, offers a personalized look at current events delivered by a savagely comic performance artist. "Shirley Valentine," coming to the Mechanic Theatre next month, is a full-fledged fictional play that happens to have a cast of one. In "Playing Paradis," which ends its repeat engagement at the Theatre Project today, Claudia Stevens interweaves her personal history with that of an 18th-century musician.
Even reciting the Bible can be considered a one-person show if the actor is as skillful as Alec McGowan, whose performance of "St. Mark's Gospel" returns to the area for a one-week run at the Kennedy Center beginning March 21.
What's the reason for this slew of monodramas, as they are sometimes called?
In conversations with a number of the performers, several reasons came up again and again.
"On one level it's really about low overhead and portability," says Rhodessa Jones, whose show, "Big Butt Girls, Hard-Headed Women," is based on her experiences teaching aerobics to incarcerated women. A sell-out at Center Stage last season, it returns in April as part of "Feminine Singular."
For Baltimore actress Tana Hicken, low overhead and portability have allowed her to offer benefit performances of "The Belle of Amherst" for worthy causes.
"I knew it was something I could hang onto. If I did it, I could give it away," says Hicken. She first appeared as Emily Dickinson in the William Luce script 12 years ago, and has used it for various benefits since then. Everyman Theatre originally scheduled it for a three-week run, but when the theater ran into funding problems, Hicken volunteered to give two fund-raising performances instead. (She will also perform "The Belle of Amherst" during this summer's Columbia Festival of the Arts.)
In addition to the low cost of mounting a one-person show, it can also serve as an annuity for an actor. Having this type of professional insurance is an idea whose merits are apparent to even a relatively secure actress like Hicken, now in her 12th season as a member of the resident company at Washington's Arena Stage.
"Since most actors are out of a job most of the time, I would recommend that most actors put together a one-person show to be able to continue to work when you're not technically employed," she says.
In this respect, it's not entirely coincidental that all the interviews here are with women -- or even that Center Stage's series is "Feminine Singular." Says Reno: "A lot of performers for practical reasons recognize there aren't a lot of acting roles to go around, particularly for women, and they'll make it themselves."
Besides the economic advantages -- a major consideration in these hard-pressed times for the arts -- the intimacy of monodramas is another advantage. "Because you have no other actors to get involved with, it's really the most pure and intense form of communication that I've ever experienced on stage," says Lori Wilner, who helped develop "Hannah Senesh" with writer and director David Schechter 11 years ago and will perform it at Center Stage next month.
Wilner, who appeared in the play steadily for four years in the 1980s, relishes "the freedom and control you have doing a one-person show. You're driving the car. You are steering it. You decide how much gas you want to give it. You decide how fast to take the turn. You know the roads, and you know the car, and everything else is what kind of day it is, what kind of mood are you in, what are the weather conditions?"
Point of view
In shows of a more personal or autobiographical nature, the solo format becomes an ideal way for the performer-creator to express his or her point of view. "The audience gets to walk around inside of my head. I feel like that's my responsibility as an artist," explains Jones, who portrays herself as well as four composite characters in "Big Butt Girls, Hard-Headed Women."
The autobiographical element is so intense in some works -- such as Spalding Gray's monologues or former Baltimorean David Drake's "The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me" -- it verges on confessional. For some audience members, such shows may fill the same need as tell-all talk shows.
"I am definitely against voyeuristic television or shows," says Reno. "On the other hand, I've been extremely interested in the line between theater and un-theater. I talk a lot in my shows about my own real life. I theatricalize it, and I think that's the wise way to go."
This theatricality helps distinguish one-person plays from, say, stand-up comedy -- which doesn't mean a show such as "Citizen Reno" can't include comedy. But, the single-named performer says she discovered early on she wasn't a stand-up comic. "I'm not succinct, and I don't talk about things that are sort of light-weight. . . . My stories are longer; I don't have the same syntax, the same style, the same one-two-three joke."
Reno defines the theatrical aspect of her show, in part, as a narrative structure with a clear beginning, middle and end. In other solo shows, the theatrical element can take a multimedia form, frequently involving music.
Rock's influence
Eric Bogosian has said rock and roll, not traditional theater, was one of the major influences on his work. Bogosian, who performed at Center Stage earlier this year, has helped popularize the type of anthology show in which a single performer portrays a host of characters.
Music has a more overt function in "Big Butt Girls, Hard-Headed Women," in which director Idris Ackamoor plays keyboards and saxophone on stage during the show. "The music acts as another character," he says. Actress Jones elaborates: "He's been able to give my kind of storytelling a kind of real lyrical, musical bent."
Perhaps the best example of the role of music comes from Claudia Stevens, the latest in a long line of solo performers who have appeared at the Theatre Project. A pianist who began her career as a soloist, she says one-person shows are a natural for her. All Stevens' shows rely heavily on music, including "Playing Paradis," which is partly the biography of a blind 18th-century Viennese musician named Maria Theresia von Paradis.
In "The Heart Disclosed," Stevens' version of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" performed last year at Westminster Hall, she portrays a murderess who has hidden her victim's body in a piano. When she plays, a note that sounds like a broken string represents his vengeful heart. "The piano becomes like an equal protagonist," she explains.
In the purest sense, the most theatrical one-person show is something like "Shirley Valentine," a traditional drama in every respect but the size of its cast. Loretta Swit, who will play the title role in the production coming to the Mechanic, says she regards "Shirley Valentine" the same way she would a play with a full complement of actors.
"You bring on a cast of characters with you," explains Swit, who has portrayed the repressed British housewife in Willy Russell's script more than 550 times. "The structure of the play is so interesting because at times the audience is the person sitting in my kitchen. So you're never really alone."
At the same time, Swit doesn't pretend that being on stage by herself for an evening is easy. "Technically the demands are terrific," she says. "You have to have great emotional and physical energy and pace."
'Mammoth effort'
Wilner agrees: "It's a mammoth effort. It's monumental. Even after I had done ['Hannah Senesh'] for a couple of years and knew it cold, it was like running an Olympic event every time I did it."
Yet many of these performers prefer working alone. As a pianist, Stevens says she's "used to practicing by oneself. That's a big, big thing. Some actors really don't work by themselves. I can't imagine working with anybody."
rTC "I love it," says Swit. "My cast of thousands never are late for rehearsal."
One-person shows have, however, met with some audience resistance.
"I'm glad they've become a little more popular," says Wilner. In 1984, when she began performing "Hannah Senesh," "There was a little stigma: 'I don't want to spend an hour and a half looking at one actor. What if I don't like her?' "
But the challenge to the individual to create an entire world on stage can also be an attraction. "The appeal is the fascination that only one person is going to be up there entertaining you," says Swit. "And some of the cynicism involved is, 'How can that possibly be?' "
Indeed, the chance to turn a cynic into a fan by giving a tour-de-force performance may be the most powerful allure of one-person shows. It's what keeps actors stepping out on stage alone, determined to convince audiences that less is more.
"You just want to bowl them over," says Stevens. "I like to think that when the piece is over, people think, 'Wow!' "
Solo acts on stage are springing up
Here are some of the current and coming one-person shows in the area:
* "Feminine Singular: Women Speak Solo," Head Theater, Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St.; 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Sundays, with matinees 2 p.m. Sundays and most Saturdays and 1 p.m. April 12 and April 27; $23 and $28. (410) 332-0033
"Citizen Reno" (performed by Reno), March 14-April 2
"Hannah Senesh" (Lori Wilner), April 5-23
"Big Butt Girls, Hard-Headed Women" (Rhodessa Jones), April 25-May 7
* "Playing Paradis" (Claudia Stevens), Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St.; 3 p.m. today; $14. (410) 752-8558
* "The Belle of Amherst" (Tana Hicken), Everyman Theatre, 1727 N. Charles St.; 8 p.m. March 18 and 2:30 p.m. March 19; $50, to benefit the theater. (410) 752-2208
* "Shirley Valentine" (Loretta Swit), Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, Hopkins Plaza; April 25-May 13; 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, with matinees 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays; $17.50-$42.50. (410) 625-1400
* "St. Mark's Gospel" (Alec McGowan), Kennedy Center, Washington; 7:30 p.m. March 21-25, 5 p.m. March 26; $25-30. (800) 444-1324
* "Where's Toto?" (Dorothy Hirsch), Cafe Diana, 3215 N. Charles St.; 8 p.m. March 24-25, 2 p.m. March 26; $5, to benefit the Mary Helen Mautner Project for Lesbians With Cancer. (410) 435-3150