YSU Christopher Martin is back and in black

This 30-year veteran of the stage has many accomplishments.
By JUDITH DULBERGER
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Dressed in the long, black 16th-century priestly frock of Doctor Faustus, it's hard to distinguish the telling physique of Christopher Martin.
He has the barrel-chested strength of an opera singer and the legs and lightness of a dancer. But he is neither of these.
Instead, Martin applies his natural endowments to the powerful vocal delivery and physical agility required of an Elizabethan actor. And he's doing just that in the starring role of Youngstown State University's production of "Doctor Faustus" beginning next Thursday.
This is Martin's third tenure at YSU as a visiting guest artist. In 1985 he directed American dramatist Barrie Stavis' play, "Harpers Ferry." The following year he directed and composed the musical score for his own rock opera, "Quasimodo."
It's been a while, but this internationally renowned actor, director, designer, and composer is back in town. And he is here in multiple capacities. Martin not only plays the lead role in Doctor Faustus: Together with Dr. Dennis Henneman, a YSU theater professor and director of the show, Martin has adapted two screenplays from several available versions of Doctor Faustus into a single production. And he has composed the musical score for the play.
Accomplishments
A 30-year veteran of the stage, Martin is the founding artistic director of the Classic Stage Company Repertory in New York. He has appeared in such productions as "Don Juan," "Twelfth Night," "The Merchant of Venice," and "Jekyll and Hyde." But he doesn't act much any more, only when a role really interests him.
Since leaving the Classic Stage Company in 1985, Martin has been directing, designing and composing for the theater. So far, he has directed more than 135 plays.
Though his home is still in New York where he grew up "back stage" with parents who were stage, TV, and radio actors, he spends most of his time abroad. Martin directs now mainly for European national and state theaters.
Martin devotes his down time to writing. He is concurrently working on two theater books, one on acting and one on directing. And his love of murder mysteries has him immersed in a non-fiction study of Jack the Ripper and a fictional work on Blue Beard.
When Martin isn't in the theater or writing, he is singing the blues in nightclubs on both sides of the Atlantic. This activity brings him nearly full circle back to his original career as a rock musician recording hit records and touring the country in the early 1960s.
Technique
Martin expects to be in Youngstown for seven weeks. Outside Ford Theater, he spends much of his time in the classroom. He sits in on Dr. Henneman's theater classes, "to put in my two cents," he says. And, when asked by other faculty, he attends as guest lecturer.
His days are long, usually running 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. when rehearsals are over. He carries over his teaching role into rehearsals, where he coaches a cast of 26 YSU students portraying 44 characters in Elizabethan acting techniques.
Martin believes that Elizabethan acting is a lost art both on the American stage and in British theater, where it was conceived some 400 to 500 years ago. Elizabethan English, he points out, in many ways is a foreign language, so he coaches students to speak their lines as if it was their own language.
He emphasizes that the language must be spoken with the same inflections used in modern conversation, but with precise diction so that the audience understands it.
Martin sits with each member of the cast, working on every single line over and over until they get it right. He likes coaching students like Kara Terlecki, a freshman at YSU majoring in early childhood education. "Doctor Faustus" will be her theatrical debut. Martin finds it easier to coach actors with little or no experience, such as Terlecki. For those with experience, he says, "you often have to fight to try and break bad habits."
From her perspective, Terlecki says it's been a great experience working with Martin. At first, the cast was a little scared about Martin's involvement. They thought he might come across as a "know-it-all" actor. But, she says, "he treats us like equals, just like a professor would, or better."
Good vs. evil
"Doctor Faustus" is a late-16th century play by Christopher Marlowe about man's inner conflict between good and evil.
Martin says the play is about choices. Driven by greed and ambition for knowledge and power, Doctor Faustus makes a bargain with the devil that seals his ultimate fate. Contrary to what the audience may expect, evil gains the upper hand in Marlowe's play.
True to Elizabethan theater, there is no scenery, but the audience can expect some special effects. The play will be performed on a raked stage, or a pitched stage that is higher in the back than in the front. It allows actors who may be blocked up stage to see and be seen. And, says Martin, it thrusts the performer into the audience, meeting the audience eye-to-eye from every perspective.