Playwright, actor and pianist Hershey Felder’s latest one-man show for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has been in the works for nearly 30 years and taken several forms.
“Hershey Felder: Chopin in Paris” – scheduled to open this weekend and run through Sept. 11 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts – is an expanded and more interactive version of one of his previous creations, according to Felder.
The original, “Hershey Felder as Monsieur Chopin,” was first performed in 2005. Like that version, the musical is about a piano lesson with Chopin.
“Years ago, I was asked to do something on Chopin, and it was quite evident that this real lesson happened and what was revealed in the lesson was quite integral and quite personal,” Felder said. “I thought that would be a good premise for a play.”
Set in Paris days after the 1848 revolution, Chopin reveals his romantic story and secrets to the audience while performing his compositions during a piano lesson.
Felder’s longtime collaborator, Joel Zwick, directs. He worked with Felder on the original play nearly 17 years ago.
“Joel and I have done many, many plays together, and we’ve known each other for 30 years,” Felder said. “Joel is a wonderful director, and it’s always wonderful to work with somebody who has a lot of experience and knows what they’re doing.”
Felder has written eight historical plays about composers since 1999, including the two on Chopin.
“I’ve spent my whole life studying (Chopin’s) music and working on characters of this sort, so experiencing this kind of thing has been a lifelong work,” Felder said. “It’s just part of my process of presenting these things to the public.”
Through his performances over the years, Felder said he’s learned a lot about how to tell Chopin’s story.
“I’ve been doing this play for 16 years, and you learn something new all the time,” he said. “You learn how to deal with an audience, how to tell a story, so that kind of stuff is always advancing. They never stay stagnant. You always learn something new in terms of how to tell a story better.”
Felder added that this work isn’t meant to have a specific message, though the audience may perceive that there is one.
“I don’t define the work as ‘Oh, I want you to get this message,’” he said. “I sort of hope that people take away whatever they take away from it. But my sense is that maybe it’s about what a commitment to art means and how important it is for both the artist and for the person receiving the art on the other end.”
“Hershey Felder: Chopin in Paris” is slated to preview at 8 p.m. Friday and open at the same time Saturday. Future performances are scheduled 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets start at $30.
For tickets and more information, visit TheatreWorks.org.
