BAM Blog Questionnaire: Will Oldham of The Glory of the World

Tonight, Will Oldham (better known by the stage name Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) takes over the role of "The Man" in Charles Mee's new play The Glory of the World—playing the BAM Harvey Theater through February 6. We spoke with Oldham about posture, persona, and the public domain in anticipation of his BAM debut.

Will Oldham (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy).

How did you connect with Les Waters (artistic director of Actors Theatre of Louisville)? Have you worked on any other projects together in your hometown of Louisville?

It’s been a couple of years. Around when Waters came to town, somebody or some force allowed us to get together, and we have met and spoken about this or that. I go to see the work he directs, which is stronger and more satisfying with each successive production.

In Context: The Glory of the World

Charles Mee's The Glory of the World, directed by Les Waters, comes to BAM January 16—February 6. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles and videos related to the show. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought below and by posting on social media using #GloryoftheWorld.

BAM Illustrated: Thomas Merton

Charles Mee and Les Waters' The Glory of the World (Jan 16—Feb 6 at the BAM Harvey Theater) celebrates the legacy and centennial birthday of Thomas Merton. In anticipation of the production, illustrator Nathan Gelgud breaks down ten things you should know about this renowned mystic and Catholic monk.

Glory Be

The Glory of the World. Photo: Bill Brymer

When it premiered last spring at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Charles Mee's The Glory of the World—coming to the BAM Harvey Theater from January 16 through February 6—quickly became one of the most debated productions in the decades-long history of the Humana Festival of New American plays. The play had been commissioned to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, who spent most of his career writing and meditating in the secluded confines of the Abbey at Gethsemani just south of Louisville. At the heart of heated discussions: How accurately had Merton’s legacy been portrayed?

Merton, author of some 70 volumes of poetry and essays (and the best-selling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain) is revered around the world—just a few months ago, in a speech to the US Congress, Pope Francis singled Merton out as a “great American.” But he’s especially beloved in Kentucky, where the Thomas Merton Center is housed at Bellarmine University (and where a recent campaign has emerged to name a new Ohio River bridge after him).

A Love Letter to BAM

This January, playwright, collagist, and Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Award recipient Charles Mee returns to BAM for a fourth time with The Glory of the World. Here—in an excerpt from 2011's BAM: The Complete Works—Mee shares dynamic memories of America's oldest performing arts center:

Mee's The Glory of the World comes to BAM Jan 16—Feb 6. Photo: Bill Brymer

By Charles Mee

We live in a world these days where it’s taken for granted that BAM is one of the greatest cultural institutions on the planet. And yet, not long ago—certainly within my own lifetime—it was a big old dark neglected pile of stones right off Flatbush Avenue where no one I knew ever thought to go.

The first time I ever walked into the theater at BAM it was completely inadvertent. A friend had invited me to see a theater piece called The Photographer/Far from the Truth, inspired by the work of the 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, whose obsession with animal and human locomotion led to developing a photographic means to project a series of images that had been captured by a set of still cameras: galloping horses, running bison, nude women descending staircases. I knew Muybridge’s work, and I thought it was great, but, of course, I knew no one could make a good theater piece out of it. Still, I went anyway, because I had nothing else to do, and I thought it might be kind of exciting to venture out into the unknown wilderness—and stop for some cheesecake at Junior’s.