Ernest Thompson, one of AU's quietly successful alumni, sat in a folding chair in the basement of the Kreeger Music Building as theater students got themselves into character. The students of PERF-350, Fundamentals of Acting 3, were playing parts in Thompson's new work "Ax of Love," a decades-spanning story that starts when the characters are young, impressionable and in college.
With silent, expressionless focus, Thompson watched as the 18 students traded off roles, improvising in character, first silently and then with dialogue, first face-to-face and then from across the room, sometimes moving, sometimes from a fixed point-all exercises to loosen up, prepare for the class, and settle into an "actor's neutral" state of mind.
When they finished, prepared to run scenes, Thompson spoke up.
"James Earl Jones doesn't do any of this shit," he said. "But I think if he were here, he'd have a good time."
It was the type of blunt but good humor that defined Thompson's visit to PERF-350, for which he conducted a master class of sorts Friday afternoon and received a certificate of induction into the Department of Performing Arts Hall of Fame. Thompson gave notes, feedback and advice to AU theatre students as they ran scenes from "Ax of Love."
"It's been a long time since I've been party to an acting class like this," Thompson said. "And it was pretty cool."
A writer-actor-director and 1971 graduate, Thompson has been around town because his seminal work, "On Golden Pond," is enjoying a high-profile run at the Kennedy Center with Jones and Leslie Uggams. Before Wednesday's show, Thompson held an informal talk with about 25 College of Arts and Sciences alumni in one of the Kennedy Center's rehearsal rooms, and Friday came to campus to see students from his alma mater play scenes created from his memories of school.
With a long, chiseled face, deep-set blue eyes, a smoky gray sweater and jeans, Thompson watched senior Laura Owen and junior Amanda Thickpenny play a scene as mother and daughter on the day the daughter is dropped off at college.
"I want to talk about it," Thompson said quickly after the scene. "This is all about not wanting to let go of someone you don't want to be with." He added that his two daughters are in college and he has been through the same type of separation anxiety.
A native of Vermont, Thompson attended the University of Maryland for a year before transferring and finishing his bachelor's in speech arts at AU. Even though there was no theater program at AU at the time, he recalls doing shows on campus - "Imaginary Invalid," "Wonderful Town," "Goat Song" - in Clendenen Hall, the former gym, theater and lecture space that stood where Bender Arena now does. He and his friends were also successful in mounting late-night productions on campus.
He also remembers protesting the Vietnam War in Ward Circle and seeing his name on a draft list in Mary Graydon Center in the spring of 1970.
"I remember walking away from Mary Graydon thinking there was no hope," Thompson recalled after seeing that his number was up. "I felt the same sense of dread walking in there [today]." Fortunately, he failed his physical and was not enlisted.
Instead, Thompson slipped into show business by landing the lead role in "The Devil's Disciple" at Catholic University, where he was taking a class through the consortium.
"I managed to piss off not only all the students at Catholic, but at AU as well," Thompson said of stealing the coveted role and doing a show at a rival university.
The director of "The Devil's Disciple," Australian actor Cyril Ritchard, asked Thompson to join the production on tour when he graduated. After that, Thompson was cast in a spin-off of "Another World" called "Somerset," did theater in New York City, acted in television movies, was offered a play in Los Angeles, and ended up back in D.C. doing "Summer Brave" at the Kennedy Center in 1975.
In 1977, he wrote "On Golden Pond," his first full-length play, at age 28. He won an Oscar for adapting it for the screen in 1981. Since then, the show has been translated into 35 languages and been performed thousands of times.
Thompson's feedback for PERF-350 focused on acting with restraint - reducing histrionics, saying lines straightly, and being unafraid to admit being afraid when you're onstage.
"The trick is to take your own self and graft it onto a character and make it seem believable," he told the students. "[But] no moving, no stuff, no embellishment. Just be."
Thompson remembers attending a seminar with theatre professionals when he was a junior at AU, and calls the experience eye-opening.
"It's wonderful to know that what you're learning applies to the rest of the world," he said.
Students in PERF-350 felt the same, and reading the lines while the writer was in the room was both a privilege and a challenge.
"Honestly, having him here terrified me," said sophomore Katie Wilber. "But it was great. He has a philosophy of theater that is similar to my own."
Others agreed.
"He realizes that theater is collaborative," said senior Mike Fulvio, the teaching assistant for the class. "And there's always more to keep digging into."
Thompson's philosophy provided a string of dialogue between scenes, as he and students talked about character and personal experiences in college.
"I thought it was a fabulous exchange," said Professor Gail Humphries Mardirosian. "It's what should happen when you have alumni who can talk about the process. It's perfect because it's mid-semester. We've built a lot of trust and it's good to realize that you have to shake it up sometimes."
As far as the Kennedy Center's production of "On Golden Pond," Thompson is pleased with the results, giving high praise to Jones' and Uggams' professionalism, though noting that it slips into comedy more than the movie did.
"It's been a struggle to take some of the humor out," he said. "I think this production is funnier because it's real and they're playing it straighter."
In two weeks, Thompson's play "Amazons in August" will have a reading in New York City, with Broadway regulars Tovah Feldshuh and Swoosie Kurtz playing two very different women, one of whom has breast cancer. "Ax of Love" is currently being workshopped in Paris in preparation for a reading in New York in a couple months.
