Research helps Prospect Heights actor give 'Fake' its authenticity
Alan Wilder went to the Field Museum last week. It wasn't a pleasure trip. The longtime Steppenwolf ensemble member and resident of Prospect Heights was preparing for the role he is playing in Eric Simonson's new play, "Fake," opening in previews Thursday, Sept. 10, at Steppenwolf Theatre.
Actually Wilder is playing two roles in the play. which focuses on one of the most notorious scientific frauds of the 20th century, the Piltdown man, the so-called missing link in the evolution of human beings. The play, he says, "goes back and forth" from 1914 (around the time when the Piltdown man was "discovered") to 1953 (when the hoax was exposed).
"Both of my characters in the play are the head of the Natural History Museum in London," says Wilder. Wilder plays the man in charge in 1914 and his successor nearly 40 years later in the same job.
Every production at Steppenwolf involves research into the setting and characters of the play. The trip to the Field Museum was arranged as part of this research.
"I went because I wanted to talk to the people at the Field Museum," Wilder says. "I wanted to get a feeling for what those people do and what they are like."
Wilder went with three others, including the dramaturge, Rebecca Rugg, who is responsible for researching the play, and the playwright, Eric Simonson.
Wilder admits he was surprised by what he found. He expected a place of dusty artifacts and stuffy anti-social scholars. Instead, he found lots of smart, energetic people who were "very friendly and funny."
"We found out that running a museum now is more of an entertainment thing" than it was a 100 years ago, Wilder says, adding that museums today are more about attracting and educating lots of people. "At the times my characters were head of The Natural History Museum it was much more about scientific research."
Still, Wilder is quick to add, the Field Museum trip was all part of the process - a process that comes as second nature to an actor who has appeared in 63 productions since he joined the ensemble in 1976.
Then, it seems, combining research with performance has always been part of Wilder's tool kit. Wilder was a class clown from way back.
"I remember getting a laugh in music class in Fairview Elementary School (in Mount Prospect) with my old pretending to levitate with the chair trick," Wilder says.
But he could also be a serious student when he wanted to be. By the time he began his studies at Harper College in Palatine, his fascination and ability with language led him to linguistics.
By chance Wilder, who had not been into theater in high school, got a taste of acting in college. Something clicked and he transferred to Illinois State to study theater. There, he met a group of fervent student-actors who became the core of the Steppenwolf ensemble. The rest is theater history.
"We are the longest-running theater ensemble," Wilder says. "We are still together in part because early on a lot of us went to school together, we were lovers and friends, a big dysfunctional family in which we have learned to adapt to each other. And we are united by a higher noble purpose."
Wilder notes that focus on a higher, noble purpose is a definite part of the current production, a world premiere.
"We have been rehearsing 'Fake' for three weeks," Wilder says. "We have been doing some adjustment to the scripts. It has been a very collaborative effort. We have a cohesive kind of thing, a very cooperative and supportive atmosphere.
"We are a collective with a desire to create." Wilder adds. "We are still willing to make the sacrifice."
Like taking the time for field trips to add depth and heft to a performance.
• "Fake" opens in previews Friday, Sept. 10, and runs through Nov. 8 at Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted, Chicago. For tickets, go the box office at the theater, call (312) 335-1650 or go to www.steppenwolf.org.