From fascination to collaboration

James Houska never expected to direct the first stagedadaptation of an acclaimed HBO film about the Holocaust: He justthought it might be a good script for someone else.

“I had intended on (directing) something eventually inLansing, but I didn’t want to be the one that single-handedly destroyedRiverwalk Theatre,” Houska says, with a self-deprecating smile.

What began as Houska’s personal quest to find an elusivescript eventually became a year-long collaboration with distinguishedNew York writer Loring Mandel, culminating in Thursday’s world premiereof “Conspiracy” at Riverwalk Theatre. 

Based on a lone surviving document, “Conspiracy”dramatically reconstructs the 1942 Wannsee Conference, a meeting of 15high-ranking Nazis who discussed the practical implementation of theFinal Solution. By the meeting’s end, the Wannsee Protocol transformedpreviously nuanced goals of Jewish eradication into a deliberatelysystematic policy of genocide. 

The film version — starring Kenneth Branagh asSchutzstaffel-General Reinhard Heydrich, Stanley Tucci as AdolfEichmann and Colin Firth as Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart — peers behind theprotocol’s suspiciously euphemistic wording and its sadistic intentionsto the social dynamics within the meeting itself. Participantsmanipulate others into compliance through careful coercion and bluntthreats, creating a powerfully relevant parable about groupthink.

The film went on to garner several awards, includingEmmys for Mandel’s screenplay and Branagh’s lead performance, a BritishAcademy of Film and Television Arts Award, a Golden Globe for Tucci asbest supporting actor and a Peabody Award. 

Although Riverwalk has produced several world premieresover the years, “Conspiracy” is the most high-profile yet, according toRiverwalk President Tom Ferris. Mandel, who has written extensively forradio, stage, television and film since the early 1950s, will attendThursday’s performance and conduct a talkback after the show. Duringhis six-day stay in the Lansing area, Mandel will also speak to theaterand history classes at Michigan State University and conduct a lectureat Cooley Law School. “Conspiracy” is Riverwalk’s 2011 Stages of theLaw play, a series of local productions with legal themes that areunderwritten by Cooley.

Despite numerous accolades and positive criticalreception, an official screenplay of “Conspiracy” was never published.After almost a decade of failed Internet searches, Houska made a finaleffort two years ago to find a copy. Hearing nothing from HBO directly,Houska searched for the most accessible member of the crew: thescreenwriter himself. Mandel’s Web bio conveniently contained a link tocontact him through Facebook, which Houska did.

Houska says he complimented Mandel on the script andasked if he had still had the rights, but never anticipated to hearback. But the tech-savvy Mandel responded via e-mail that hisrepresentative would be calling Houska shortly. What happened next wentbeyond Houska’s wildest fantasies. 

From phone to script

Houska acquired a copy of the script from Mandel’s NewYork representative. After seeking guidance and approval from Riverwalkfounder Bill Helder and later Ferris, Houska made contact with Mandeldirectly to discuss the script’s adaptation to the Riverwalk stage. 

According to Mandel, the idea of adapting “Conspiracy” tothe stage did not come to him until filming began. The film’s director,Frank Pierson, told Mandel about the Wannsee Protocol and asked him towrite the script. Mandel agreed, but says he initially viewed the storyas an unlikely prospect for television.

“Fifteen people sitting around a table does notautomatically tell you this is a surefire television show,” Mandel saidin a phone interview. By the time he finished writing, he felt it wasan important story to tell and natural for the stage. 

In addition to providing names, faces and more complexmotivations behind Nazi, Mandel calls “Conspiracy” perhaps the onlyHolocaust story that “evoked anger” instead of pity or sorrow. Mandel’sextensive research into the lives of the participants allowed him towrite dialogue through their characters.

Although lines like “We have a storage problem” areshockingly cold, Mandel says the real challenge in writing wasimagining real justifications. “You had to start out with thepresumption that nobody looks in the mirror in the morning and says.‘I’m a bad person,’” Mandel said. “And yet what they did was kind ofhorrendous, but they didn’t all do it for the same reason.”

At one point before Houska approachedhim, Mandel says film and stage director Sam Mendes (“American Beauty,”“Revolutionary Road”) purchased an option on the material to produce asa play. But before the partially adapted script could advance intoproduction, Mendes accepted a lucrative directing contract overseas,putting Mandel’s hopes on hold.

“I didn’t want the play just to languish there,” said Mandel, who asked Mendes to release the rights back to him. 

From script to stage

When Houska auditioned the cast, Mandel was present, too— via Skype. Throughout the rehearsal process, Mandel and the entirecast communicated continuously through a Facebook forum. It is notunusual for premiere rehearsals to involve the playwrights, but giventhe value of Mandel’s time and his physical distance from Michigan, hisaccessibility from the production’s inception made a particular impacton both Houska and his cast. 

Actor Michael Hays, who plays Heydrich, seems especially touched.

“He’s just so gracious,” Hays said. “When you ask him a question on Facebook, he gets back to you immediately.”

Considering the subject of the play, the cast members hadto perform their own independent research on their characters —research that Houska says took each of them on a dark journey ofdiscovery. 

For Hays, this meant appreciating the strategic genius ofa sociopath. “I’ve never done research on anybody that was sopower-hungry: This guy was so driven,” says Hays, who remarked thatpreviously playing Vice President Dick Cheney in Peppermint CreekTheatre Co.’s “Stuff Happens” helped prepare him for this role. 

Through the process of structurally adapting the scriptto stage, Houska consciously worried that Mandel might refuse to allowchanges to his script that were necessary for Riverwalk. Adding anintermission to preserve cast and audience stamina meant potentiallydisrupting the play’s momentum. Also, space limitations meant squeezingthe action in a two-room house down to one room. To Houska’s relief,Mandel approved the adjustments deferring to Houska and Ferris’sknowledge of the Riverwalk’s stage and audience.

Mandel compares the screen to stage adaptation processto arranging music: “It’s like the difference between writing asymphony and writing chamber music. You’ve got much more severerestrictions placed upon you, but on the other hand, if you succeedwithin those restrictions, it’s a better piece of art.” 

Although Cooley underwrites the cost ofthe production itself, additional costs — including travel and lodgingfor Mandel and renting historically accurate costumes from England—totaled $5,000. According to Ferris, generous contributions fromindividual donors and local organizations helped Riverwalk to meettheir funding goals.

Although Ferris is proud of the Riverwalk’s premiere, hedismisses the notion that “Conspiracy” might be a thematic stretch forthe community theater.

“We try here at Riverwalk to reallycover the wide breath of things,” he said. “The fact that I’m producing‘Conspiracy’ and at the same time just started directing ‘TheSurprising Story of the Three Little Pigs,’ I think that’s just ashowcase of what we do here at Riverwalk. We’ve committed to bringingtheater to the community and engaging the community in theater, andthis is just another way of doing that.” 

For his part, Houska says once theproject germinated and began to grow, he felt a deep responsibility tosee it through as a director. “I had researched it so much and had allthese ideas about what I’d like to see,” he said. “To hand it over tosomebody else, if they were to go off in another direction with it, itstarted to bother me. It just feels like handing over a child after acertain point. Even though I’m not a good parent, I’m trying my best.”