Over the course of two hours, Boston University student David Gram will switch between 40 different characters in Doug Wright’s one-man show and Tony Award-winning play, ‘I Am My Own Wife,’ showing April 22 to May 10 at the College of Fine Arts Theatre Lab.
Gram, a third-year graduate student in the School of Theatre, stars as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a transvestite based on a real person who collected furniture and preserved German culture during Nazi and Communist rule.
The performance is part of the Boston Center for American Performance, a BU professional performing arts initiative.
During the play, directed by fellow third-year graduate student Jeffry Stanton, Gram transitions between characters with various dialects, genders and sexualities.
‘The theater is a wonderful outlet to tell stories, practice the craft and struggle,’ Gram said.
Gram’s interpretation of all the characters is ‘complete,’ School of Theatre Director Jim Petosa said.
‘He creates vivid portrayals,’ he said. ‘They are not cartoons. He does a wonderful job of turning himself into another character in the blink of an eye.’
Gram and Stanton, who are completing their master’s degrees in directing, have worked together previously in the BU production of ‘The Birthday Party’ in December 2008. They proposed the play for BCAP, Petosa said.
‘They have such a strong artistic and professional relationship,’ Petosa said. ‘A relationship built on a tremendous amount of trust.’
The play is a love story between Doug, the playwright, and Charlotte, the transvestite, Stanton said.
‘I don’t think you can do this play without that kind of close relationship,’ Stanton said. ‘Also, it’s hard for things to go wrong with only two people.’
Stanton, who first saw the Broadway performance, said he feels this particular play captures the challenge of the artist to speak to his time.
‘It is a haunting theatrical piece,’ he said. ‘It stuck with me. It leaves you with a certain amount of unease. But it asks what the role of the artist is towards his subject.’
Stanton said he was impressed with Gram’s performance.
‘This play is the equivalent of a marathon,’ he said. ‘It requires tremendous amounts of energy and stamina.’
Despite the daunting task of holding the audience for two hours and embodying all the various roles, Gram said he felt assured.
‘I’d be lying if there weren’t butterflies that drive the performance,’ he said. ‘But part of the fun is meeting [the play] head on. Though being on stage can be lonely, it’s also very liberating.’
The challenges of the play center around telling the story clearly, capturing the ‘rollercoaster’ within the play, and conveying its humor as well as its heartbreak, he said.
‘We recognize the strength of the text, the conventions, the storytelling,’ he said. ‘We embrace the challenges and negotiations of the play.’
He said there is a humbling aspect to the show.
‘It requires you to give over yourself. It isn’t a vanity project,’ he said. ‘It has to be selfless. None of us [are] bigger than the play, the text, or the characters. I’m a conduit for these characters.”
The greatest challenge is to make the audience believe, Gram said.
‘If we’ve done our job, it shouldn’t feel like we’re putting on a one-man show,’ Gram said. ‘It should feel like an evening with a whole cast of characters.’
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