September 11, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Her assault is basis of new work by Mt. Airy playwright
by JEAN-BERNARD HYPPOLITE

Mt. Airy actor/playwright Martha Kemper has written a searing play about her own violent assault.

Martha Kemper, actor and playwright of Me, Miss Krause and Joan, has been involved in theater all of her life. The Mt. Airy resident, 45-ish, splices highly personal and emotional scenes from her own life with scenes from the life of Joan of Arc in her powerful one-woman play, Me, Miss Krause and Joan, which she will perform as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, on Sept. 11, 12 and 13, 7 p.m., at the 2nd Stage of The Adrienne Theater, 2030 Sansom St.  

The Krause in the play’s title refers to Martha Kemper’s mentor, Alvina Krause. “She deeply believed in the power of theater to change lives,” recalled Martha. “She believed in students. She believed in young people’s ability to learn.” Ms. Kemper met Alvina Krause after graduating from Northwestern University in 1976. Together, they relocated to Bloomsburg, Pa. During Martha’s stay there, she would experience a radically life-changing event; she was violently assaulted. However, it would be Alvina who would help guide her through the traumatic aftermath. While Martha was in the hospital, it was Ms. Krause who encouraged Martha to write down her feelings. It was there that the groundwork for Me, Miss Krause and Joan was laid.

It takes courage to expose one’s innermost feelings in the arts. However, in acting out a play about so much personal suffering, pain and redemption, one must delve into places that many would not want to approach. “Rehearsing is hard. You want things to be real. Sometimes it means facing very, very painful stuff,” said Martha.

In Me, Miss Krause and Joan, Miss Krause is a sort of modern-day Joan of Arc. Joan is the entity who holds everything together. She embodies a powerful message of strength, will and most importantly, overcoming overwhelming odds.

“She’s faithful to her mission, to what she believes God is telling her to do; totally positive, with absolute faith in what she’s doing. She’s a liberator of a country. She has a great sympathy for the suffering of people,” said Martha, who closed her eyes and reminisced about a moment of heroism from her childhood. Martha was in 6th grade at the time when she came to the rescue of her cousin’s sisters.  They were being bullied. “I chased down the bully and took him down. He was 15, and I was 10. That was like Joan of Arc; liberating.”           

A defining moment for Martha came when she performed Me, Miss Krause and Joan for an audience in Bryn Mawr. As she was performing, she looked out towards the audience to find that many were crying, moved by her close proximity. “That was powerful,” Martha said.

Me, Miss Krause and Joan was many years in the making.  For Martha, it carries her heart, creative soul and a message. “I hope that people will be moved. I hope people will find their own courage to look at their own lives. That they will, like Joan of Arc, be true to themselves; to find courage to face things that are difficult.”

Kemper grew up in Houston, Texas, where her mom started taking her to acting classes when she was very young. At nine years of age, Kemper’s determination and talent landed her her first role in a professional play, The Ponder Heart, by Eudora Welty. Kemper recalls “really begging my  mother to take me down to this theater,” which was a considerable distance from their home.

“I had one line: ‘They got a Ferris wheel!’” she recites without hesitation. “Just being there was very thrilling for me as a child … it was something I had just wanted all my life.” During high school she was inspired by a theater teacher named June Smith, and Martha proceeded to  major in theater at Northwestern University. 

In 1976 Kemper and seven of her Northwestern classmates desperately wanted veteran acting pro Alvina Krause to mentor them. Surprisingly enough, “after we [students] wrote and asked if we could come and study theater, Krause agreed. She said we could come for the summer,” said Kemper.

The twice-a-week, three-hour long classes at Krause’s house in Bloomsburg, Pa., were intense but rewarding. “She confronted us with this very powerful expectation, and many people were in tears, it could be so painful … She was the most challenging and powerful teacher I have ever seen.” This productive summer and beyond led to the group’s forming of the Bloom Theater Ensemble, which prompted Kemper to stay in Pennsylvania.

Having seen what one drama pro could do for another by way of mentoring, Kemper has modeled herself after Krause. She pushes students and helps them realize their potential on stage since she began teaching at Penn State Abington in 1989.

“Both [acting and teaching] are great feelings. There’s a real sense of pride in my students when I’ve directed something … I don’t audition as often as some actors, but I’m really out there, actively available,” said Kemper. She nails each role with much preparation and research.

A telling example of Kemper’s success in character expression occurred backstage during the performance of Joyce Carol Oates’ I Stand Before You Naked in October, 2002, at The Adrienne Theater.

“I really did sit in a dark corner … for a full 20 minutes,” she said, “to explore the sense that just being physically there was a restricted quality to this character.” So convincing was Kemper in this character’s zone that when a drunken audience member wandered backstage, “It hit home really close to this woman’s experience; someone had killed a member of her family. She got up and came backstage, where I was sitting doing my preparation. She came out of her fog to ask if I was OK, considering that I looked like a wreck, huddled in a dark corner.”

Kemper has performed in many local productions such as The Vagina Monologues at Germantown Academy and Why I Live at the P.O., a one-woman show she created from the works of Eudora Welty, performed many times starting in October, 2001.

“There’s a lot of really excellent theater in Philadelphia that I’m very happy to be a part of,” said Martha. A Mt. Airy resident for 12 years, Kemper is staying put. “I love the environment of Mt. Airy. It has a reputation of welcoming diversity, which I like, as well as support.”

Alvina Krause died in 1981, but has remained one of the driving forces behind Martha’s career. Martha moved to the Philadelphia area in 1989. A practicing Quaker, she will soon be taking Me, Miss Krause and Joan to India for a Quaker Conference.

For tickets to Me, Miss Krause and Joan, the Fringe Festival box office is located at the lot next to the national show room on 127 N. 2nd St. and can be contacted at 215-413-1318 or by email at info@livearts-fringe.org.