Artist of the Month

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April 2006: Matt Huff, Lora Hogan, and Rachel Winograd

Theater Emory Students and Alum Collaborate on the Season’s Final Production

MATT HUFF
Theater Emory has just wound up its 2005-2006 season with Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer-winning The Skin of Our Teeth. Directed by Emory alumnus Matt Huff, the play followed the Antrobus family as they survived the Ice Age, the Great Flood, and World War III. Huff and student actors Lora Hogan and Rachel Winograd from The Skin of Our Teeth, are the featured artists of the month.

An Atlanta native, Huff graduated from Emory with a dual BA in theater studies and religion, and then received his MFA in directing from the University of Texas at Austin. As a student in Austin, Huff directed several plays, including After Commencement, Hungerhunger, Helen, Hush: An Interview with America, and Sueno. When he returned to Atlanta, he continued working with theater, helping out at the Alliance Theatre, directing a new play workshop at Theater Emory with acclaimed playwright Robert O'Hara, and performing as an ensemble member in the creation of Out of Hand Theater’s Shorts. This past season, he directed The Nerd at Aurora Theatre and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan at Jewish Theatre of the South. Matt is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

Huff says that his first draw to the arts came in the form of putting on magic shows for his neighbors and classmates. “I wasn't interested in just doing some little tricks here and there,” he said. “I wanted my shows to be whole productions, with music, lights, and so on.” One thing led to another, and eventually theater seemed to be the best place to use this creativity.

As director of Theater Emory’s final show of the year, Huff says that one of his contributions to the play, which was written in the forties, was to bring it into the twenty-first century. On the other hand, he said that Wilder created a play that is still shocking and surprising to audiences today, treating the audience to a kind of theatrical roller-coaster experience. While the production maintained the spirit and heart of Wilder's play, Theater Emory, under Matt’s influence, added its own creative spin on certain elements.

“Ultimately,” says Huff, “the play is a tribute to human perseverance and the roles we each play in our own survival. Given the recent events America has survived — rather is still surviving, such as 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, and the war in Iraq — the play speaks very directly to an American audience about how humans make it through such disasters and what makes life worth living in the face of an unknown future.”

Huff says it was wonderful to be back at Emory working as a professional. “I must say at first it felt a little surreal to be collaborating with people who were once my professors,” he said, “but that feeling faded quickly. Luckily, the professors who were working on the show with me are all top-notch professionals and, as director, I needed that level of quality to really bring a play like this to life.” In the fall, Huff will direct a short play that Theater Emory will be producing as part of their “Young Acts.”

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LORA HOGAN
Lora Hogan, an Emory College junior and theater major, is originally from northern California, though her family now resides in Madison, Georgia. She has been continually involved in theater since coming to Emory and, upon graduation, plans to pursue a career in acting.

Hogan’s first taste of the arts came when she was a little girl in ballet. “But the whole ballet thing had one huge drawback: you have to be silent!” she said. “I was a chatty, outgoing child and the rigid rules of ballet didn’t seem to mesh with me.” But when she was seven years old, her parents took her to Guys and Dolls at the Sundance Theater in Utah — her first play — and she fell in love with theater. She had her stage debut as Willy Wonka at age nine and, “somehow, I just haven’t been able to leave the theater world since.”

Hogan said that being student of theater at Emory has been a phenomenal experience, largely because the faculty is so knowledgeable. “Ever theater class that I have taken has challenged my analytical skills and my creativity, and honed my acting abilities,” she says. She has worked in all aspects of theater, including acting, writing, and singing — even ushering audience members about a parking deck.

Hogan is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, a staff writer for the Emory Wheel, a frequent patron of restaurants, a singer, and a regularly practitioner of yoga.

In The Skin of Our Teeth, Hogan played the role of the daughter, Gladys. “I absolutely love her,” she says. “Playing Gladys was a thrill. She really grows up over the course of the entire play and has an innocence about her that is delicious to explore.” Hogan says that she finished each night of the play in an upbeat mood. In preparing for the role, Hogan was able to apply the technique of “practical aesthetics” that she learned from two summers of training at the Atlantic Acting School in New York City: she figured out what Gladys wants in each scene and which character she wants it from, and then created a general “through-line” for Gladys for the entire play. “Playing Gladys is especially enjoyable due to the given circumstances of age (playing a child and a teenager), costume, and the challenges of theater in the round,” she said. She also said that working professional actors and an outside director is helping all the student actors feel more grounded in the world of the play and to “up the ante.” “Most importantly,”, she said, I’ve prepared by trying to physically ground my character on stage, remain present at all moments, listen to the other characters on stage, and, above all, breathe.”

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RACHEL WINOGRAD
Rachel Winograd, a senior and a psychology major and theater minor. Skin is Winograd’s second fully produced Theater Emory production; she also appeared in Alcestis last semester, and has played roles in the Theater Emory productions Equus and The Fantasticks. She is a board member of the student theater group Starving Artist Productions, which takes pride in bringing to campus varying theatrical experiences for all to enjoy.

Winograd says that she has always had an interest in the arts. “I was raised on dance, drawing, and cooking classes, plus a ton of sports, which I bet many people would consider art forms in some way,” she said. She became particularly drawn to theater when she was a junior in high school. “I took an intro to acting class and realized how excited the whole thing was,” she says. Ever since, she has felt bored when she is not in some way involved in theater. “I made sure to pick a college with a good theater program and, as a graduating senior, I feel confident when I say that Emory was a good choice.”

Rachel played the role of Lily Sabina Fairweather in Skin of Our Teeth — “the maid in the first act-turned beauty queen in the second-turned dark-and-embittered war veteran in the third,” says Wingorad. She also played the role of Miss Somerset, the actress playing Sabina. Figuring out how to play these roles was challenging, she says, but rewarding. “I've had to really learn how to be someone else,” she said, “while still being believable and effective. Who knows if I've succeeded in doing this, but getting to where I am now has been a feat in itself.”

Sabina is Winograd’s first major role in a play, so she has had to accept the fact that parts of the play depend on the energy she brings onto the stage. “I have never worked so hard or cared so much about something that I'm doing,” she said, “And Matt Huff has been a wonderful director with insights all over the place!” Winograd said that Sabina is a character at once tempting and emotional and reactive. “She says and does things we all want to but are forced to reign in because of the responsibilities and boundaries of daily life. … The best part of her is that when she needs to think about others, she does,” said Winograd. “She serves as a mirror to the human condition — we all do whatever the hell we want, until something bad happens.” Then, and only then, humans instinctively kick into gear and help others. “I find her incredibly honest and familiar despite her over-the-top antics,” she said.

In addition to performance, Winograd likes cooking, spending time in the outdoors, and attending theater. She plays intramural sports — court hockey, soccer, basketball, flag football, and “whatever else” — and watches some good or trashy television in sweat pants with her dog. After graduating in the spring, she plans to stay and work in the Atlanta area.

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