Play Guide [2.6MB PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

LUDLAM
R. Hamilton Wright and Bob Sorenson in
Arizona Theatre Company’s 1999 production
of The Mystery of Irma Vep. Photo by Tim
Fuller/Arizona Theatre Company.
CHARLES LUDLAM
Playwright Charles Ludlam
The Mystery of Irma Vep
I sometimes think that the Ridiculous is the only serious theatre. After all,
everywhere you look in this world there’s something that’s ridiculous. It’s
important to help people see that. I often think all theatre is ridiculous, but we’re
willing to admit it. —Charles Ludlam, from Confessions of a Farceur
Actor, director, playwright and set designer Charles
Ludlam spent twenty years with New York’s Ridiculous
Theatrical Company. The theatre’s goal was to synthesize
many forms (parody, vaudeville, farce, melodrama,
satire) to create a modern American comic theatre.
Charles Ludlam was born on April 12, 1943, in Floral
Park, New York, the second of Joseph William Ludlam
and Marjorie Braun’s three children. His fi rst encounter
with the theatre took place when he was six at the
Minnesota State Fair, where he saw a Punch and Judy
puppet show and a “freak” show. This early exposure
to exaggerated theatre forms seems to have infl uenced
his entire theatrical career. Among his other early
infl uences, Ludlam counted the movies and the Catholic
Church.
“I love Gothic Horror. I was in Dracula, now
playing for its second decade, at Actors Theatre of
Louisville. The audience would pack the theatre
every night to collectively scream in terror. As
I work on The Mystery of Irma Vep, Ludlam's
great spoof of Dracula, Wuthering Heights, The
Wolfman, Gaslight, The Mummy, and many more,
I fi nd myself screaming often, not in terror but
with laughter. – Oliver Wadsworth, actor in ATC’s
The Mystery of Irma Vep
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 6