DEATH AND HARRY HOUDINI
By Michael W. Sasser and Rafa Carvajal | Photo by Michael Brosilow. Provided by Adrienne Arsht Center
One of the world’s most mysterious and famed figures is brought to life in the unique production, Death and Harry Houdini. The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is presenting The House Theatre of Chicago’s critically-acclaimed production of Death and Harry Houdini, commended by the Chicago Tribune as “Magic of the very highest order!” This play is one of the many productions The House Theatre of Chicago has presented at the Adrienne Arsht Center over the years, including last season’s The Hammer Trinity.
Written and directed by The House’s Artistic Director Nathan Allen, Death and Harry Houdini delivers a roller coaster ride through the life of the great magician, Harry Houdini, and his lifelong battle against death. House company member and award-winning magician, Dennis Watkins, has joined the cast and is set to perform Houdini’s most renowned and dangerous escape – the dreaded Water Torture Cell – in this dark and tumultuous story guaranteed to keep audiences on the edge of their seats.
Watkins brings distinct appropriateness to his role. Watkins, a celebrated actor and third-generation, award-winning magician, brings a lifetime of creating magic to the character of Harry Houdini. Watkins has designed a fantastic landscape that highlights many of Houdini’s original creations as well as a performance of Houdini’s most infamous stage escape, The Water Torture Cell, in which he is locked upside down in a tank of water with only as much time to escape as he has air in his lungs. This ingenious production boasts the first-ever recorded performance of The Water Torture Cell in the round.
Death and Harry Houdini plays in the intimate Carnival Studio Theater (Ziff Ballet Opera House) from April 26 – May 20, 2017 as part of the Theater Up Close season. For more information and tickets, visit www.arshtcenter.org.
In advance of the exciting opening, Wire Magazine sat down with Dennis Watkins to discuss the magic behind Death and Harry Houdini.
Rafa Carvajal: Tell our readers about Death and Harry Houdini.
Dennis Watkins: My friend Nathan Allen began writing Death and Harry Houdini when we were in college. The play was created to be the first show produced by The House Theatre of Chicago and it opened on Halloween of 2001. It’s the story of Harry Houdini and his lifelong battle with death. Nathan wanted to tell the story using a lot of original music, dance, puppetry, and of course – magic. It was a huge experiment in storytelling for Nathan and all of the artists who moved to Chicago to build our little company.
The show has had several productions over the last 16 years. I like to believe that it has grown and evolved greatly in each and every one of its incarnations. The show features a great deal of magic, from close-up sleight of hand to large-scale stage illusions. Of course, we also feature Houdini’s Water Torture Cell escape, in which I am locked upside-down in a tank of water. From a theatrical standpoint, one of the most exciting things about the show is that our audience gets to watch this very suspenseful escape, and all of the magic, from just a few feet away.
RC: When did you decide to become a magician?
DW: I’ve wanted to be a magician since I was a very young child.
RC: How did you learn to do magic?
DW: My grandfather was a terrific sleight of hand performer who ran a small, storefront magic shop in Dallas, TX for a long, long time. I started learning magic from him when I was around the age of 7.
RC: How do you prepare for a role as demanding as Harry Houdini?
DW: Well, the role definitely requires some very specific preparation. There is a good amount of difficult sleight of hand, I walk across a bed of broken glass. And, naturally, performing the Water Torture Cell is no small undertaking.
So, I worked pretty closely with Nathan (the writer and director of this piece) to create magic that suited the story, and then I spent time on my own engineering those specific pieces, rehearsing them, and getting them ready to implement into the story.
Now that we’re on our 8th production of the show, most of the preparation feels like it’s been behind me for a while. The first time around I spent months learning to hold my breath for several minutes, how to swallow razor blades and walk on broken glass. But underwater escapes are inherently dangerous, so we do tackle this one like it’s the first time every time. We’ve had several hours of Water Torture Cell rehearsal with the whole team, making sure that everyone can do exactly what is needed and that everyone is 100% prepared for the moment that something goes wrong.
RC: Describe yourself in 3 words.
DW: Hmm… that’s a hard one. I think that I am hard-working, thoughtful and playful.
RC: What is the most rewarding part of being a magician and why?
DW: There are so many things that are rewarding about my job. I feel like I’m enormously lucky when it comes to my work life. I get to travel the country doing exactly what I dreamed of doing when I was a kid.
I hope that folks come to our shows and give in to their imaginations. We don’t do that an awful lot of the time. As grown-ups, we carry a lot of responsibilities. We are completely wrapped up in our lives and we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the impossible. We don’t look for the magical or the mysterious in our everyday lives.
I think the most rewarding part of being a magician is helping people reacquaint themselves with a sense of childlike wonder, if only for a few brief moments.
RC: What is your most difficult magic trick/illusion in the show and why?
DW: I believe the most difficult piece of magic in the show is the Water Torture Cell. I’ve performed it hundreds of times, but it remains extremely stressful to perform. Though I am confident with my ability to execute the escape, it is the psychological effect of being locked upside down in a tank of water that makes it difficult every time.
RC: Have you ever had any scares during a performance?
DW: So far, we’ve been extremely successful with the escape. There have been a few nights where things took longer than anticipated. This, of course, means I’m under water longer than I’d like. But, we have not had any true emergencies. We will do our best to keep it that way.
RC: How do you think social media and the invention of the Internet have affected magicians everywhere?
DW: I’d say that it’s been great for us. It’s true that you can find videos of kids teaching each other magic tricks on YouTube. Initially, that sounds deadly for us magicians. But, just like any other art, the more exposure it gets, the more people are interested. More magicians on social media, and more accessibility to good magic… this only leads to more people wanting to enjoy magic as a form of entertainment.
RC: What advice do you have for aspiring magicians?
DW: To practice and study magic like it is a craft, then to surround themselves with different kinds of artists. Make sure they’re smarter than you and more disciplined than you. Learn about how they practice their craft. While most magicians think of their art as a solo journey, you will benefit most from collaborations.
RC: What is the most difficult part of being a magician?
DW: The hustle. As a magician, you are a performing artist. That means you’re always looking for opportunities to share your work. You’re a gigging professional, and all gigs come to an end. So, working for more work, building an audience, and keeping the calendar full… these are the most difficult parts of my job. The magic… that’s the fun part.
This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 17.2017