彩票頭獎得主資助《2666》搬上舞臺

An actor and stage manager turned Episcopal monk who pledged last year to give away much of his $153 million Powerball jackpot to support the performing arts has made his first grant — to a theatrical production as improbable as his own story.

去年，一位演員、舞臺監督出身的聖公會修道士承諾，他將捐出自己的1.53億美元強力球彩票(Powerball)頭獎的大部分，用以支持表演藝術。如今，他已將第一筆捐款授予一部舞臺劇，這部舞臺劇和他自己的故事一樣不可思議。

The Goodman Theater in Chicago announced last week that its 2015-16 season would include a five-hour adaptation of Roberto Bolaño’s 900-page novel, “2666,” underwritten by a grant from the Roy Cockrum Foundation. The foundation was established to support projects at nonprofit theaters that “reach beyond their normal scope of activities and undertake ambitious and creative productions.”

上週，芝加哥的古德曼劇院(Goodman Theater)宣佈，它的2015至2016演出季將包括一部五小時長的劇目，該劇改編自羅貝託•波拉尼奧(Roberto Bolaño)長達900頁的小說《2666》，由羅伊·科克勒姆基金會(Roy Cockrum Foundation)資助。該基金會的宗旨是支持非營利劇院“創作超過正常規模的有雄心和創意的項目”。

“2666,” directed by Robert Falls, the Goodman’s artistic director, and Seth Bockley, its playwright-in-residence, will be supported entirely by the foundation’s grant, which the theater characterized as “in the high six or low seven figures.”

《2666》由古德曼劇院的藝術總監羅伯特·福爾斯(Robert Falls)和常駐劇作家塞思·波克利(Seth Bockley)導演，將完全由羅伊·科克勒姆基金會資助。古德曼劇院稱，資助金額“在一百萬美元左右”。

Mr. Falls, whose acclaimed production of “The Iceman Cometh” closes this weekend at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, called the gift, which the theater had not solicited, “extraordinary.”

本週末，福爾斯備受讚揚的排演劇目《送冰的人來了》(The Iceman Cometh)在布魯克林音樂學院(Brooklyn Academy of Music)閉幕。他說這是一份“非凡的”禮物。這項資助不是該劇院主動申請的。

“I’ve never in my life had a foundation or corporation or individual come to us and say their desire was to give money towards work on that scale,” he said. “It’s truly unprecedented.”Mr. Cockrum, 58, has emerged as one of the more unusual donors in American theater. He studied acting at Northwestern University in Chicago and worked as an actor and stage manager for television and theater in various cities before entering the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge, Mass., an Episcopal monastery where he took vows of poverty, in 2003.

“我一生中從未遇到過一個基金會、公司或個人來找我們，說他們的願望就是資助這麼大規模的作品，”他說，“它真的是史無前例。”58歲的科克勒姆成爲美國最不同尋常的劇院捐贈人之一。他曾在芝加哥的西北大學(Northwestern University)學習表演，並在多個城市擔任過電視和劇院的演員和舞臺監督。2003年，他加入馬薩諸塞州劍橋市的聖約翰福音傳道會(Society of St. John)，在那裏他發誓守貧。

Until now, Mr. Cockrum who moved to Knoxville, Tenn., in 2009 to take care of his aging parents, had made virtually no public comment about his giving plans.

2009年，科克勒姆搬到田納西州諾克斯維爾市照顧年邁的父母。直到現在，他沒有就捐贈計劃發表過任何公開評論。

But in an interview on Friday, he traced the impulse behind the gift to a trip several years ago to London, where he saw Nicholas Hytner’s lavish adaptation of Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” at the Olivier Theater.

不過，在週五的採訪中，他說這次捐贈起因於幾年前的一次倫敦之行，他在那裏的奧利維爾劇院(Olivier Theater)觀看了尼古拉斯·海特勒(Nicholas Hytner)的精彩改編劇目《黑暗物質》(His Dark Materials)，原著作者是菲利普·普爾曼(Philip Pullman)。

“There was a huge cast, a score from start to finish, special effects every five minutes and a very enthusiastic young audience on the edge of their seats,” Mr. Cockrum said.

“演員陣容十分龐大，從頭到尾都有配樂，每隔五分鐘就有一次特效，觀衆都很年輕，特別熱情興奮，”科克勒姆說。

But after the curtain fell, he felt “rather sad.”

但是大幕拉上後，他感到“非常悲哀”。

“I knew that the lack of government support made such productions all but impossible in the United States,” he said. “I made a mental note that if I ever got some dough, I would try to do what I could to support nonprofit theaters being able to do that level of production.”

“我知道，由於缺乏政府支持，美國幾乎不可能有這樣的演出，”他說，“當時我心想，但凡有些錢，我一定會盡力支持非營利劇院排演這種水平的劇目。”

Then came the “liquidity event” last summer, as he put it. Mr. Cockrum established the foundation and installed Benita Hofstetter Koman, an experienced arts administrator he knew from their days together at the Actors Theater of Louisville, as the executive director.

去年夏天，科克勒姆有了“流動資金”（科克勒姆的原話），所以設立了基金會，安排貝妮塔·霍夫施泰特爾·科曼(Benita Hofstetter Koman)擔任執行理事。科曼是一位經驗豐富的藝術管理人，他們曾在路易斯維爾演員劇院(Actors Theater of Louisville)共事過。

Mr. Cockrum, who has also made a personal gift of $1 million to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, declined to give the size of the foundation endowment. Applications can be made by invitation only, and are reviewed by him and Ms. Hofstetter Koman.

科克勒姆還向田納西醫學中心大學(University of Tennessee Medical Center)私人捐贈了100萬美元。他拒絕透露該基金會的捐贈規模。只有受邀後才能申請，由科克勒姆和霍夫施泰特爾·科曼審覈。

Starting last fall, he and Ms. Hofstetter Koman visited a number of nonprofit theaters, which he declined to name. At the Goodman, they saw two plays and heard about Mr. Falls’s long-brewing plans for Mr. Bolaño’s novel.

從去年秋天起，他和霍夫施泰特爾·科曼參觀了幾家非營利劇院，他拒絕透露這些劇院的名字。他們在古德曼劇院看到兩個劇本，得知福爾斯醞釀已久的改編博拉尼奧小說的計劃。

“2666,” which became an international publishing sensation after its release in Spanish in 2004 and in English translation in 2008, would not seem like an obvious candidate for the stage. It spans 100 years and features various characters drawn to the fictional Mexican border city of Santa Teresa (loosely based on Ciudad Juarez). Those include three academics trying to track down a reclusive German writer, a widowed philosopher, an amorous police detective and an American journalist reporting on the mysterious murders of hundreds of women.

《2666》的2004年以西班牙語出版後，成爲國際出版界的轟動事件，英譯本2008年出版。它似乎不太適合改編成舞臺劇。小說的時間跨越爲100年，各色人物被吸引到虛構的墨西哥邊境城市聖特雷莎（大致以華雷斯市爲原型），包括努力尋找隱居德語作家的三位學者、一位鰥居的哲學家、一個多情的警探和一位報道數百名女子被神祕謀殺的美國記者。

Mr. Falls became aware of the novel during a visit in 2006 to Barcelona, Spain, where he was intrigued by promotional posters for the paperback edition featuring hundreds of pink crosses in the Mexican desert. He set about adapting it, eventually collaborating with Mr. Bockley and staging a reading in 2012.

2006年，福爾斯去西班牙巴塞羅那旅行時，注意到了這本小說，他被平裝本的宣傳海報迷住了，海報上是上千個粉色十字架豎立在墨西哥沙漠上。他開始着手改編，最終與波克利合作，2012年舉辦了一個劇本朗誦會。

“I had been struggling with it for years as a passion project, not knowing whether it could ever be staged,” Mr. Falls said in an interview. “When Roy told me about the kind of work he wanted to support, I said, ‘Roy, you’re talking to the right guy.’ ”

“我在這個項目上花了多年時間，投入了很大的熱情，卻不知道最終能否上演，”福爾斯在採訪中說，“當羅伊告訴我他想支持這種作品時，我說，‘羅伊，你找對了人。’”

Mr. Cockrum said the foundation would announce more grants in the coming months. The work, he said, has become a “full-time occupation.”

科克勒姆說，該基金會將在未來幾個月裏宣佈更多資助項目。他說，這份工作已經變成“全職的了”。

Still, he said, he has finally found time to read all of Mr. Bolaño’s novel.

不過，他說，他最終抽出時間閱讀了羅貝託•波拉尼奧的所有小說。