The Road to Epidauros

By Jeanne Fuchs

This travel diary is an eye-witness account of a production of a classical Greek play at Epidauros, Greece. But, above all, it is a story of friendshipdeep and abiding friendship that transcends time and place. Its setting is both ancient and modern. The heart of the story is a three-week journey that climaxes with the presentation of Euripides Medea. The mythical road to Epidauros did not take only three weeks to traverse, but rather several lifetimesindeed centuries. The details of the friendship emerge in the journey with a troupe of Greek actors and artists devoted to a single mission: presenting an incomparable ancient tragedy at the most fabled theater in the ancient world. Herein is a voyage of discovery recounted with equal doses of innocence and experience. From maids to movie stars, waiters to walk-ons, the characters in these pages will transport the reader to a magical place, where the feeling of being a part of an enchanted production will linger in the readers imagination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781467031189

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© 2011 by Jeanne Fuchs. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 10/21/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4670-3116-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-3117-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-3118-9 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011916223

Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

PROLOGUE

Act I

ACT II

ACT III

EPILOGUE

POSTSCRIPT

Acknowledgements

For Actors Everywhere

PROLOGUE

When a dream comes true, it is important to have witnesses. If for no other reason than to show it can happen. I am a witness.

In the summer of 1990, my friend, Andreas Voutsinas, invited me to come to Greece to attend rehearsals and performances of Medea. Directing the production represented the fulfillment of a long-held dream of his, so off I went.

Although the voyage began in a mundane manner, it became a combination of a magic carpet and roller coaster ride. So follow me and see for yourself.

Act I

July 10, 1990

Frankfurt Airport: Trip started yesterday and went pretty smoothly. Check in at JFK, Lufthansa, boarding pass, no problem. Boarding by rows didn’t happen; they just said, It’s ok to board. Everyone boarded (6:05 p.m.). Simple, German efficiency!

Plane a DC 10. I had an aisle seat (33C) with three next to me. Two of them empty—good. Took off at 6:55—on time. The woman to my right sprawled out on three seats! Said she has a bad back. I thought, I’ll have one too if I have to sit up all night.

Cheese, crackers & drinks were offered at 7:40, no charge. I asked for gin and mineral water (Rosebocher Urquelle Stilles Mineralwasser). Dinner at 8:00 (time chic, food mediocre): baby shrimp salad, chicken, spaghetti, zucchini salad with smoked chicken, tomato and a slice of American cheese (why?). Saved by an excellent Bordeaux (Château Maillos, 1988), then some lemon Bavarian cream with kiwi. I ate everything. Starved. No food since breakfast. (The sprawled one slept through it all.)

Listened to side one of my Ellenika (Greek) language tape. I’d been working on my Greek for about a month before departure. Not enough, but fortunately, I knew the alphabet having studied Homeric Greek in college. I hoped to be able to speak some kind of baby talk by the time the plane touched down on Greek soil.

They showed a film, Options, which I opted not to watch. I have trouble sleeping on a plane. Once in a while on the long trip I dozed off, but mainly I began thinking about Andreas. Before leaving for France in 1967, he had quite a lot of success in the States as an actor and coach. The movie for which he is best known is Mel Brooks’ The Producers, in which he played Carmen Ghia, the boyfriend of the director of Springtime for Hitler (the play within the film). He also appeared in Brooks’ The Twelve Chairs and History of the World, Part 1. On Broadway, he was in the original cast of the Archibald MacLeish/Elia Kazan JB, as well as numerous off-Broadway and summer stock productions. Perhaps, his most enduring contributions to theater and film have been as coach to some of the best-known female stars of the period, especially Jane Fonda, whom he coached in seven films, starting with A Walk on the Wild Side. They had an intense collaboration and were lovers during most of the time they worked together.

I was often with them during those years, and it has always baffled me why none of Ms Fonda’s biographers (or she herself) has ever recounted how she became a member of the Actors Studio. (Patricia Bosworth in her recent bio of Fonda mentions this.) In order to gain entrance, every candidate has to audition. Andreas was already a member and so he chose the scene, coached her, and played it with her. It was from Butterfield 8; he played Steve, the Eddie Fisher part, in the scene in which Gloria, Jane, in the Elizabeth Taylor role, shows up at his apartment in a mink coat with only a slip underneath.

As a matter of fact, some friends were gathering in Jane’s apartment before the audition, and, as I entered the lobby, Jane got off the elevator—mink coat and all—and whispered to me that both the elevator man and doorman looked at her approvingly in her (borrowed) mink. She said, This is how they obviously think I should dress all the time. We laughed. She then asked if I had ten dollars I could lend her for cab fare to the Studio. I gave it to her. Other friends were already in her apartment on West 55th Street preparing some food for what we all hoped would be a triumphant return. It was. Jane became a member of the famed Studio that evening. We had quite a celebration. (She never remembered the $10.)

Andreas later told me that there was a thrilling, unexpected moment in the scene when Jane put her hands (fingers splayed) on her hips and the crimson fake nails that she had applied all popped off onto the floor. Both characters made the most of it. He felt it added immensely to the reality of the moment.

Without a doubt, Andreas’ best friend in the theater and one with whom he had an unbreakable bond was Anne Bancroft. They met when she was in Two for the Seesaw and were equally involved in their chosen art and had long discussions about it. He adored her and always said she was unequalled as an actress. They did a number of scenes at the Actors Studio together, and the one they especially both loved was from My Fair Lady with Bancroft as Eliza Doolittle, Kevin McCarthy as Henry Higgins, and Andreas as Pickering.

From his days as a member of the Lincoln Center Repertory Company, Andreas had remained friends with Faye Dunaway (also an original member of that troupe). He coached her in The Thomas Crown Affair and some of her later films. Not unlike