Hammond is solo ‘tour de force’ in ‘Syringa Tree’

by Karen Keefe
Grand Island Dispatch, December 29, 2006
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, December 30, 2006

Gin Hammond stars in the critically acclaimed production of “The Syringa Tree.”

The upcoming Studio Arena production “The Syringa Tree,” weaves the story of a young girl’s experiences of racial discord in South Africa in a tapestry of 24 different characters.

Actress Gin Hammond plays all of them.

So powerful is her performance that she won the Helen Hayes award as best actress in 2003 for her run at the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. She has performed “The Syringa Tree” around the world, to much critical acclaim.

“It was confusing at first,” Hammond said. In fact, trying to get all the characters down as separate personalities gave her insomnia for the first time in her life.

She studied each role in detail, even traveling to South Africa to visit with playwright Pamela Gien’s parents. There, she poured over photo albums with them and traveled to sites included in the play. The author also guided Hammond through the rehearsal process, along with director Larry Moss. Gien was the first actress to perform her own work, winning prestigious awards both for the play and her solo performance.

“Once she started handing off the role to somebody else, she noticed even more things about what she wrote,” Hammond said of the playwright’s own insights.

Finally, everything jelled for Hammond as distinct portrayals. “All these characters were coming to life inside of me,” Hammond said. “I found them physically with my body.” She explained that with her physical approach to acting, she can actually feel the characters’ energy and convey it to the audience. She’ll change her stance, her voice, the way she sets her jaw. One character will have an energy she describes as “ping-y,” another, “lethargic.” For each one, “I bring as much truth as I can to the role,” she said. The movements, the accents – including the “clicks” of South African language – all convey a world unfamiliar to most American audiences.

To follow in Gien’s footsteps, Hammond said “I pretty much needed every bit of training of ever got.”

Gien’s play, inspired by actual events in her own life, is the story of an abiding love between two families – one white and one black – whose children are born into a shared South African household in the early 1960s.

The action is seen first through the eyes of 6-year-old Elizabeth Grace “as she tries, with humor and sometimes fear, to make sense of the chaos, magic and darkness of Africa,” as Studio Arena literature describes their upcoming production. The narrative spans four generations, from early apartheid to present-day free South Africa.

Hammond said the fact-based play does use some characters who are an amalgam of several real-life individuals, but is largely true to actual events. The primary role is that of the child, Elizabeth Grace. But the play is written in such a way that different audience members may identify more strongly with another character, based on their own life experiences, and conclude the play is essentially telling that character’s story. “Who is to say they’re wrong,” she observed.

The story has been described as deeply moving. At the end of the performance, Hammond has seen tears on the faces of men who may have come to the theater that night just to humor their wives. “Young people get it on a more gut level,” she said. They also ask a lot of questions, as she found while touring schools in California with a presentation that included a snippet of the play.

Hammond said the production resonates strongly “with people who have lived through the experience.” She also performed “The Syringa Tree,” in Germany and in Scotland, where she encountered a journalist who toured with former South African President Nelson Mandela in exile, as he sought to evade capture by a brutal government that condemned his civil rights activities. Mandela was a political prisoner for many years, jailed for his efforts to end discrimination, segregation and violence against black South Africans and establish a free, democratic government.

The journalist recounted to Hammond stories of the terrible violence of apartheid, when the minority white government trampled the civil rights of the majority black population – restricting where people could live, separating them from their loved ones, maiming and murdering people.

Hammond said she feels a kinship with the playwright, whose family is represented by the Grace family in the play. The actress said that being half black uniquely qualifies her: It helps her understand and interpret the many roles.

“The Grace Family (the white family) allowed those involved in the anti-apartheid movement to use their home as a kind of stop along the ‘freedom fighters’ ’ underground railroad,” Hammond said. “Specifically, they turned a blind eye to the gatherings happening around the fire in their back yard late at night. Nothing was spoken, but it was all understood, and much was risked on both sides by doing so.”

She said the families in the story act as a prism for understanding the apartheid experience. The play itself, she said, shows the reality of a complex issue through one loving, but torn family.

Hammond, a graduate of the American Repertory Theatre Institute at Harvard University/Moscow Art Theatre School, grew up in San Diego. In the course of touring with this production, she met her husband in Seattle, where they now live. “This play has made a big difference in my life,” she said.

Preview performances of “The Syringa Tree” begin on Friday, Jan. 5, 2007, with an 8 p.m. performance at Studio Arena Theatre, 710 Main St., Buffalo. Opening night is Friday, Jan. 12, at 8 p.m. Performances continue through Sunday, Jan. 28. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 856-5650.