Composing Classic Dramaturgy

As SCR’s Resident Dramaturg, Jerry Patch is the sounding board and the Artistic Department’s consigliere on many of the new works you see on SCR’s stages. His five-plus-decades of experience reading and evaluating scripts—including serving as project director for the first eight Pacific Playwrights Festivals—makes him an invaluable resource in bringing the best out of writers to the enjoyment of audiences.

In between reading and evaluating scripts, Patch took on dramaturgy for Rachmaninoff and the Tsar, Hershey Felder’s newest musical play.

Q: Tell us how this project came about.

JERRY PATCH: “Hershey has an incredible series of shows focusing on composers:  Gershwin, Chopin, Beethoven, Berlin, Tchaikovsky, and others.  It’s an oeuvre he’s spent more than three decades building.  They are biographical, educational, dramatic in nature, and always infused with the composer’s music.  Rachmaninoff is his latest creation, and the first one whose dramatic dimension as he imagined it required another actor—in this case to play the Tsar.  It also allowed him to play scenes with another actor, work he’s been doing in the films he’s made in Italy.”

Q: Take us through the process of dramaturging this work. And how many trips did you take to Felder’s home in Florence over how much time?

JP: “Hershey and I go back to my days at The Old Globe, where he was a huge success.  We’ve stayed friends in the two decades since.  He invited me to Florence to hear a reading of the text he began with.  He had me come back again four months later to work in rehearsals with him and Jonathan (Silvestri) and (director) Trevor Hay in Florence.  We took it as far as we could there, and made some small changes during previews at the Broad in Santa Monica.  Except for a brief pause last fall, he and Jonathan have been playing it in theatres around the country.”

Q: Talk about working with Hershey, who is a scholar of all things pertaining to his work.

JP: “He was a prodigy growing up in Canada.  He is a scholar.  He’s a concert pianist.  He’s multi-lingual—I’ve heard him be fluent in six languages and he’s probably got more.  He’s also an actor.  He’s also a playwright and screenwriter.  He’s also a theatrical producer, a director of theatre and media, and a filmmaker--who engages in philanthropy.  In order to do all that, he works like he’s six people.  We mortals are tired after rehearsals; he just goes on to something else—and he’s been playing the lead and all the music.” 

Q: Do you have deep knowledge/interest in Rachmaninoff’s music and/or Nicholas II and early 20^th century Russian history?

JP: “I know considerably more about Rachmaninoff, his music, the Tsar and the Bolshevik Revolution than I did before I got involved.  Hershey had the knowledge of the composer/pianist and the period from his research, and the ability to play his music.  My job was to help Hershey, Jonathan and Trevor find the best way through the material—being a wall they could bounce off of as they created the show.” 

Q: What was your ultimate goal here in terms of helping Hershey and Jonathan find their artistic “sweet spot?”

JP: “Hershey and I were old friends, so building trust and rapport was a given.  Trevor I knew from The Old Globe.  Jonathan was a good friend inside of a week.  So, the groundwork I usually do as a dramaturg on a new play was a given.  Next was the charge given to doctors and dramaturgs:  ‘First, do no harm.’  Finally, the job is to help, however you can, your creatives find the best version of the story they’re telling.  On this one, the buck always stops with Hershey.  He makes all the final choices.  And that’s after his final collaborator joins in—his audiences.  He’s always in conversation with them, even if they aren’t aware of it.”

Learn more about Rachmaninoff and the Tsar