'Cloud 9' lofts McCallum to campus

When Davis McCallum '97 departed the Princeton campus not long ago, his name was perhaps one of the most recognizable in his graduating class. Winner of the prestigious Pyne Prize, a Rhodes Scholar and founder of the still-active Princeton Shakespeare Company, McCallum's mark on the Princeton campus community has proven indelible.

When word spread that McCallum would return to campus this fall to direct Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9" as the opening production in the Program in Theater and Dance's drama season, there arose an excited murmur from those who still remembered his impressive presence on this campus — Princeton's beloved son was coming home.

"I was in the Netherlands, touring with a production, and I went to the public library to check my e-mail and [Princeton theater and dance program director] Michael Cadden had written me and offered me the job," McCallum said. "He asked me for a list of plays that I'd be interested in directing. I was thrilled. I ran back to the theater."

And run he did, arriving on campus this fall with plans to stage a campus production that would provide an array of challenges for himself as director and for the student actors and professional designers whose talents he has combined into this ambitious production.

McCallum's choice — naturally, perhaps — was Churchill's most popular play, "Cloud 9," which juxtaposes Victorian British ideals of identity, both sexual and racial, with the revolutionary 1970s era of radical feminism and sexual freedom. The result is a show that McCallum hopes will challenge audience members.

"I guess when ['Cloud 9'] was written in 1979, it was a kind of propaganda play — a play that made a strong and theatrical case for sexual liberation, particularly regarding women and gay men," McCallum explained. "Unfortunately, it's still one we need to hear, perhaps especially at Princeton, which is often stereotyped as being straight, white and male."

Indeed, deconstructing stereotype is what "Cloud 9" is all about. Men are women, women are men and white actors present black characters in order to show that gender and racial identities are often mere theatrical constructions.

But Churchill also seeks to draw out stereotypes by presenting them in their most extreme forms. Little boys who play with dolls grow up to become gay men, lesbians dress like boys and British colonial Africans are drum-beating savages.

Because of these elements, the play is often criticized as being a little too politically incorrect for our time, a notion that McCallum's production hopes to dispel.

"['Cloud 9'] is written in a very performative, almost Brechtian style. It's not a realistic representation and I think our production reflects that," McCallum said. "What's exciting, I think, is to be poised right on the edge between stereotype and real person, and to be able to shift into either and shift back in a single moment."

McCallum draws many parallels between "Cloud 9" and Shakespearean drama — once his own theatrical forte and still an avid passion. It may come as a surprise that the founding father of PSC would choose a non-Shakespearean work to make his on-campus professional directing debut, but this is a question that McCallum is more than prepared to address.

"There is a lot about 'Cloud 9' that is very Shakespearean. For a start, there's the cross-dressing, which is sexy and bizarre. It's a storytelling play — just the actors' bodies and the force of heightened theatrical language in the theater space, and that's my approach to rehearsing Shakespeare as well," he explained. "And we've set up the [Matthews] Acting Studio in what's called a 'thrust,' which is another way of letting the wires show, calling attention to the play as a play. In terms of subject matter, Shakespeare's plays are largely about theater and sex and history and politics, and so is 'Cloud 9.' "

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Facing so many technical and performative challenges, McCallum relies on his previous theatrical experience abroad. While at Oxford, he was a prolific actor and director, working with writers and directors both new and experienced, learning the ropes of the collaborative process to which he now ascribes. In England, McCallum even had the opportunity to work with Max Stafford-Clark, Churchill's primary collaborator during the writing of "Cloud 9."

Like Churchill, whose dramatic works often spin off of politics and current events, McCallum hopes to some day form a production company of his own that operates in a similar manner.

"I'm talking with some Princetonians and people from elsewhere about starting a company of physical and imaginative actors to work on new work with writers or to adapt from non-dramatic pieces, or make miniature theater pieces from newspaper articles or other works based on research and improvisation," McCallum said. "That process is very intriguing to me."

In the immediate future, McCallum will return to the world of professional theater by working on a handful of New York productions, as well as possibly returning to London to collaborate with a new writer. But for now, he is relishing his brief return to the place he called home for four years.

"The cast and crew have worked on this show with total dedication," he said. "I've been hugely impressed by the talent and intelligence and energy that they've brought to the show. I've really enjoyed it, and they've taught me a lot. I look forward to doing more plays with them after they leave Princeton."

In the meantime, don't miss out on the opportunity to see the fruits of students' and McCallum's labor. With a notoriously demanding rehearsal schedule — sure to become as legendary in the campus theater community as McCallum himself — this production should prove as pleasing to the eye as to the intellect.

But be sure to check any and all prudish sensitivities at the door.

As McCallum joked, "Some of the more conservative audience members will be shocked and horrified by the sexual goings-on in 'Cloud 9,' but we all secretly love to be shocked and horrified, don't we?"

The Program in Theater and Dance presents Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9," directed by Davis McCallum '97. The Matthews Acting Studio, 185 Nassau Street. Thurs., Nov. 9 - Sat. Nov. 11 and Thurs., Nov. 16 - Sat., Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. Sat., Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. Call (609) 258-3676 for reservations.