Show at Matrix Brings People of Judevine to the Stage

You’ve read the poems. Now see the play.

The latest literary crossover to hit town is David Budbill’s “Judevine,” which opens Wednesday at the Matrix Theatre. A dramatic reweaving--by the author--of his ongoing poetry collection, the work was originally mounted in 1984 at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J., was restaged in 1990 at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and is now being directed at the Matrix by Sharon Rosen.

“I fell in love with it,” said Rosen, 25, who saw the show in 1988 at the Old Castle Theatre Company in Vermont when she was a student at nearby Bennington College. Since then, she’s lobbied hard to get the property, and is staging it as the maiden production of Silk Rd. Theatre Company, which she formed with Lisa Thompson. “Judevine is the name of a fictional town,” Rosen said, “and the stories of the people in it.”

The largely autobiographical drama is a distillation of four earlier Budbill works: the poetry collections “The Chainsaw Dance,” “From Down to the Village” and “Why I Came to Judevine,” and the play “A Pulpcutter’s Nativity.” All four pieces, plus 120 pages of new material, are included in the book “Judevine, The Complete Poems” (Chelsea Green Publishing), which was released last December.

At home in northern Vermont after a recent book tour, Budbill expressed no qualms about moving his poetry to a different medium. “The poems are so dramatic,” he said. “Actors get ahold of the material and just want to play with it.” Budbill, 52, has been there for many of the script’s changes (including earlier incarnations in Texas, Alaska and Arkansas) and estimates his entire “Judevine” oeuvre-- if staged--would probably run five hours.

For now, the writer is happy wearing hats as both poet and playwright. “When I started writing in my early 20s, I wrote plays,” he said. “Then I turned to poetry. It’s a very solitary life, you know. You’re alone in your head and at your desk. And that’s one part of me. But the gregarious, outgoing, social person is also part of me--and that wants to be part of a rich, communal experience.”

“Judevine” celebrates that spirit. Nine actors play 25 roles, including junk store owner Alice, corner store proprietor Jerry, pump jockey Conrad, postman Edgar and his clerk, Laura, Vietnam veteran Tommy and long-marrieds Raymond and Anne. “The main character is David,” Rosen said. “It’s his story, how he sees people. As time goes on, we see how they’ve changed--and how his relationship to them has changed.”

Born and raised on the Westside, Rosen discovered a love of theater early on and during high school began studying with Second City guru Paul Sills. In 1986 she stage-managed “A Mum and His Symbols” at Academy West Theatre, and in 1987 was the co-producer and lighting designer for an innovative production of Richard Murphet’s “Slow Love” at the Harman Avenue Theatre. Last May, she received a master of fine arts degree from California Institute of the Arts.

“I did some acting at the beginning, but jumped right away into lighting and directing,” Rosen recalled. “Design is such a great way to look at a script. You know how to do the research, to look at the whole play. And I love the idea of theater as this live experience.” The director hopes to spark that love in the community and is lobbying for corporate sponsorship for “Judevine” matinees for local high school students.

In the past year and a half since forming Silk Rd., Rosen has busied herself with the nuts and bolts of establishing a tax-exempt organization--and herself as a producer and businesswoman. “Patronizing is what happens the most,” she admitted. “There was more of it with ‘Slow Love.’ People would look at me and say, ‘Who’s going to be supervising the production?’ This time it’s been much better. Of course, I’ve been more on guard.”