"And Quiet Men Turn into Wolves, During Certain Moons..."
From 'We're Here to Tell You,' Whisper House
WARNING: Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the show!
The role of the Sheriff (also named Charles) in Whisper House is a tricky one. The actor playing him is written to double as the Doctor who breaks the bad news about his Mother to Christopher and sends him on his way to the lighthouse. As Sheriff Charles, he functions as an antagonist in several different ways: instilling xenophobic and jingoistic ideas in Christopher, posing a physical and legal danger to Yasuhiro, and imperiling Lily's plans in his service to an unjust law. Many of the ideas he expresses in the show are truly odious, especially viewed through the eyes of a 21st century audience member. When one of the ghosts sardonically muses, "Does he stand for justice, or something else instead?" when introducing the character to the audience, the script doesn't waste a lot of time getting to the 'something else.' The typical casting and portrayal for this type of role might be to make the part some sort of towering, swaggering bully, very much in the 'good ole boy' mode (the setting of Maine notwithstanding). The script definitely leans in that direction as well (the stage directions describe him as 'burly' in his first appearance). But the actor I chose to play the part, T.J. Anderson, decidedly doesn't match that type. What gives?
I think it's more dramatically interesting to lean against that type in the service of some of the other goals the piece is trying to accomplish. It's dramatically necessary for Christopher to take a very fast liking to the man, to the point that he readily soaks up his ideas and values. In the service of that need, it makes more sense to me for them to be more alike- for the Sheriff to be more bookish and slight, like Christopher is- and have similar energies onstage. The audience needs to understand why Christopher would find this character instantly likeable and listen to him- and what better way to accomplish that than to have the actor be one who exudes a likeable presence onstage (as T.J., frankly, does in spades)? Beyond that, I want the audience to find themselves liking the character at first, just like Christopher does, and then find themselves jarred by some of the insidious ideas that start coming out of his mouth. I wanted Charles to be portrayed in such a way that when he says about a Japanese character,
"He doesn't really count as someone, now does he?"
That the audience is genuinely surprised and appalled instead of it being exactly the sort of opinion we'd expect based on his type. To me, the lyric "And quiet men turn into wolves/ during certain moons" in the song "We're Here to tell You" is about Charles and men like him: mild-mannered people in whom certain circumstances bring out the worst. In this production we even underline that connection by having the actor playing the dual role 'transform' from the Doctor into the Sheriff during that lyric in the song, in a sort of parody of an old timey horror movie werewolf transformation. The circumstances of the piece bring out the worst in Charles, turning him from a banal but harmless individual into something truly dangerous.
We also see indications sprinkled throughout the script that Charles' focus on the lighthouse and suspicion of Yasuhiro have more complicated motivations than solely casual racism or misguided patriotic fervor: he has both a romantic interest in Lily and a genuine liking/sympathy for Christopher. We aren't asked to approve of Charles, but the script does ask us to understand him as another lonely, messed up individual who is making some terrible choices. In the song "Earthbound Starlight," for instance, a verse is dedicated in the script to seeing Charles on the shore, looking out longingly at the lighthouse at night (slightly reminiscent to me, at least, of Gatsby looking out across the water at Daisy's green light). In the end, though he still is condemned by the ghosts in the curtain call song as being "better when he doesn't do anything," he too has a modicum (however slight) of bending of his blind dedication to law-and-order in the final scene.
But let's be clear: he's still a jerk. I just think it's too easy (and lets audience members off the hook too easily) for him to be a totally hateful individual. Racists (and racism) are more complicated than that, and can also be much more subtle and hard to identify in the present day.
One advantage of casting T.J. in particular is that he's also an adept trumpet player. This was thematically/dramatically valuable to me at two moments in particular: the songs "Play Your Part," and the song "Earthbound Starlight." "Play Your Part" is the song in which the Ghosts convince Christopher to, well, 'play his part' by breaking his promise to Aunt Lily and turning Yasuhiro in. In the final verses of the song, a trumpet is very heavily featured in the orchestration, at the same time as Christopher has been convinced to conform/ go along with what society expects him to do. Since in the piece the Sheriff stands in as a proxy for that society with all its xenophobic and narrow-minded tendencies, it made a lot of sense to me to have that trumpet solo be literally played by the Sheriff onstage, as he leads Christopher behind him in a march towards conformity.
As mentioned before, in "Earthbound Starlight," the script shows us Charles looking longingly out over the water at the lighthouse during one verse. It's a moment that is at risk of being too static and also perhaps too confusing or obscure to the audience. Again, having an actor playing Charles who can play the trumpet line during that verse is advantageous; in addition to looking out over the water, he also is almost serenading Lily with his muted instrument- expressing his longing fumblingly but in the only way he knows how.
Now, as an audience member encountering the piece, none of the above may carry over, and it may not work for you- and that's completely valid! But if you're wondering what was going through my head...well, now you know.
-Ed