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The making of ‘Szechwan‘

by Andrew Schultl

“Kill me! " the director cried and
the forty cast members responded
by filling the air with a furious
spray oi curses. They shook their
limbs and made faces that
resembled Japanese No masks.

The director was trying to
motivate her castithe‘proletarian
mob in [his caskto make them
leal real hate, real violence against
|he evil capitalist exploiter, Shui
Ta. But then Shui Ta wasn’t
vehement or spiteiul enough in
reply to the horde, so the director
bolted from her chair into the
midstoi the scene. She shoved past
an assistant director and was on
Shui Ta: kicking, screaming,
swinging her arms.

anger

“BITCH! YOU GODDAMN
bitch!" the director criedflailing
away at Shui Ta. She caught Shui
Ta with a quick forearm shivver
across the chest and sent her
neatly backwards into a wells
positioned chair.

Now Shui ’l‘a was motivated.
Now Shui Ta was mad and was up
and swinging and the two oi them,
the director and Shui Ta, Slapped
at each other, with the director
finally ending the skirmish by
giving Shui Ta 3 last kick to the
shins.

“OUCII!”
backing oll.

SIIUI TA Cried,

“Songs are much a part of
Brecht," said Kevin Zoemig, the
musical director of The Good
Person of Szcchwiln. Why? It has
to do with what is called the
“Verfrendungseffekt,” the aliena-
tion effect common in Bertolt
Brecht's plays The basic idea is
that if someone on stage starts
singing a song,the audience is not
supposed to believe in the reality oi
that someone.

IF. PRIOR TO the song being
sung, the audience felt some kind
of sympathy or identification with
a stage character, Brecht wants to
eliminate it by making the
character do something unr
believable and unreal. it works,
because, as everybody knows, life
is no musical,

Actually, the V-eﬂcct, works to
force the individual to step back
and assess the situation on stage
intellectually e rather than
emotionally.

ZOERNIG IIAS WRITTEN six
songs ior Good Person, plus some
incidental music, He said he had
been thinking about what he was
going to write ior a while, but
didn't actually set it down on paper
until the week before break,

The songs are written in what
Zoernig calls quartel harmony.
utilizing fourth intervals instead of
the more common third interval
He says this technique, used in jazz
and modern classical music,
helps createa tension in the music,
making it sound uphappy without
having to resort to the minor key.

ZOERNIG ALSO HAD to
manipulate the lyrics of the songs.
Director Ellen Mease of the
theatre department, assistant
director Robert Egloil and Siggy
Barber ol the German department,
retranslated he words of the songs
irom the ori nal text. Zoernig then
rewrote these to fit me music and
the rhyme, all the while retaining
the author’s meaning.

In the song,“Mr. Chin Had Seven
Elephants," Zoemig’s music at-
tempts to convey the bitterness and ,
anger. of the workers as they are ‘
victimized by one of their own kind

 

(the eighth elephant in the song) ,
who acs as a cruel foreman.

Mr. Chin had seven
elephants; he aiso had an
eighth

Seven were wild and the
eighth was tame

and the eighth one
watched while the others
took the blame

Trot raster! They've got
to clear the iorest park

Beiore it gets completely
dark . . .

“now CAN I be good when
everything is so expensive?" Shen
Te asks the gods. This question
provides a capsulized statement oi
a major theme in Good Person.
basically, the play )5 a Marxian
parable decrying the plight of the
proletariat. But, it is also about the
paradox ol being good both to
yourself and others at the same
time.

Shen Te, the play's protagonist,
is a compassionate prostitute
chosen by the gods to be their
“good person" on earth, In the
course oi doing good lor others, she
discovers those she helps are
greedy and ungratelul. To protect
herself, she takes on the identity of
Shui Ta, her masculine alter ego
“cousin" who clears her tobacco
shop of the rabble and takes over.
Shui Ta is the pragmatic side of
Shell Te's personality. He sym-
bolizes “prudent self-preserva»
tlon." rather than “romantic self-
abundance,”

THE PARADOXICAL SIDES of
human naturwthe giving side and
the greedy side—are played out as
Shen Te falls in love, becomes
pregnant, and then disappears only
to reappear in the climactic courte
room scene. Then, she eloquently
brings forth a brutal indictment of
the gods and ., well, asit is said in
the play: “You've got a surprise
coming.”

 

BEFORE BREAK. auditions
were held at the Fine Arts buildin
Smce the play has several song ,
people had to audition ior both
speaking and singing roles. Hours
of first auditions Weeded out a few
people, and then a series oi
callbacks took place to divvy up
the roles,

Besides leaching his theatre and
stagecrai’t courses, Jan
Czechowski must spend ”just
about every tree hour” on the play,
Being technical director means
also being scenic designer and
lighting director. The technical
progress oi the production takes
place on a parallel but separate

marxian

It can be a very grueling process.
Actors have the most delicate of
egos and oiten don‘t take rejection
well. But after the tears and the
disappointment, there is still only
one lead, Besides, there are plenty
oi other substantial supporting
roles

Sue Wood is one of those “little
people" one always hears about
and never sees. She is the costumer
of the play and is in charge of
providing everyone with
something to wear on stage come
opening night, But first, she must
collect the materials She and her
“staff" oi volunteers rummage
around the theatre properties, visit
fabric shops, and solicit cone
tributions from anyone who will
give.

WOOD SAYS SIIE works at her
job lorty hours per week. Despite
the huge time investment, she
says, “We’ll be making costumes
right up till 2 pm. the alternoon oi
the first performance."

Wood has to satisly diverse in
tcrests. She is in continuous con-
sultation with Mease and technical
director Jan Czechowski as well
with the individual actors who are
'encouraged to contribute ideas
about the Clothes their character
will wear. ’

intensity

MICIIAEL GLASSMAN, Who
plays The Unemployed Man, has a
small part and spends between ten
and liiteen hours per week on the

play. Glassman says he studies

oiistage while waiting ior his next
scene. 'As tar as leisure time,
Glassman confesses: “This is it,”

“You can go out and get‘ drunk
aiterwards (after rehearsal),” he
explained, “but you lose two hours
getting started.”

GLASSMAN SAYS being in a
play gives him a ieeltng oi ac»
eomplishment. And: “If it wasn’t
run, I wouldn’t do it," he said.

Mary Bricker, who in her years
in theatre has become quite a
character actress, plays the
mediumrsized role of Mrs, Mi Tzu,
a slumlord. Bricker dacriba her
character as one of the “capitalist

.bad guys” in the play, She spent

between liiteen and twenty hours
on the play per week during the
lust iew weeks oi rehearsal, but
expects the last week to demand
nearly thirty hours oi her time.

“I KNOW Tllr: commitment,”
she said, “but rd rather be doing
this than anything else.”

Priscilla Finch plays the dual
lead role of Shen Te, the prostitute,
and Shui Ta, the heartless
capitalist. The role is Finch's first
leading part and she must put in
nearly thirty-live hours per week
in rehearsal.

“IT'S CHALLENGING, exciting,
and scary," she says. Coin-
cidentally, Good Person was the
lirst production Finch saw as part
of her first acting class, She said
she wanted to be in the play ever
since seeing it.

REGULAR REHEARSAI.
begins with an hour-long series at
warm-up exercises which include
stretches, calisthenics, yoga. and
theatre and dance exercises. The
warm-up is known to be
notoriously eliective in warming
up the muscles once one gets over
the initial morning-after stiffness.

Then the actual rehearsing
begins with Mease oiten stopping
the action to make a suggestion,
critique performances, or explain
what is going on and why.

"PERHAPS I interrupt them too
much, to teach them the play,”
Mease conlesses. ”That may be a
drawback, but we are in a liberal
arts setting and plays are an ex

time line irom the regular
rehearsal schedule. The con-
ceptual drawings ol the set must
evolve early on, preferably at the
beginning of the semester
Czechowski and Mease consult
regularly on what they imagine [or
the play visually.

 

 

(photo by Newton White)

FOR GOOD PERSON. the sets
and lights must lend support to the
thematic elemenm oi the play. For
example. the play is episodic; one
scene ﬂows into the next, so
Czechowski constructed a set

exploding

tension of that work."

After each rehearsal. actors
collect their “notes,"‘comments
the directing staff have written
during the rehearsal which
compliment. criticize. or chastise
them for their periormances.

SAMPLE NOTES: “Don't pick
your nose with the chopsticks,”
“Don‘t pronounce it ‘Yawng’,
pronounce it ‘Yahng,’ " “Your
pregnancy puff is on upsidedown,"
“Lovely disgusted turn away when
Shen Te comes on," “Don't
pronounce it ‘Yahng.’ pronounce it
‘Yawng,’ "

which provides “simultaneous
staging.” Czechowski explained
that every setting for the play is
always on stage, but each scene.
uses only part oi the set, Each
scene only calls attention to what is
significant for that scene:
Finally, the entire theatre had to
be restructured. Mease and
Czechowski decided that since
Brecht often addressed the
audience directly, the stage and
the play should be more among the
audience. An addition to the front
of the stage thrusts into the first
rows of seats. Two slanted wings

shoot out over the audience from
either side of the stage, and along
ramo extends irom center stage
right up through the center of the
theatre,

FINCII IIAD SUCH nasty looking
\velts and bruises on her arms that
one had to wonder if possibly the

_vio1enee-motivation technique
seen in an earlier rehearsal had
subsequently got out oi hand.

“The technique is done once or
twice in acting classes," Finch
explained, “It’s okay when
necessary, but it must be carefully
controlled or somebody could get
hurt,

Finch emphasized the dramatic
eliect violence has on everyone at
rehearsal. “Everyone really leels
bad. Everyone felt terrible about
my arms,” she said.

“BELIEVE ME, it’s no fun to be
beaten by 12 to 15 people for two
and a half hours,"

“Theatre is about passion and
conflict,” Mease said. She went on
to explain that her motive in using
the violence technique was to tap a
reservoir oi extreme leelings
which seem to be lost in this “age
of mellowness."

“THE EXTREMITIES of our
expression have been cut off7
California has had a pernicious
eliect on us all." Mease quipped.

It is important ior the actor to
experience an extreme emotion so
that he or she can recall the feeling
in the future and use it as a tool of
expression in a performance,

"I WANT THEM to channel that
energy in a creative way," she
said.

During the weekend the play is
being perlormed. Martin Esslln,
the renowned critic, expert on
Brecht, coiner oi the phrase
”Theatre of the absurd," and
iormer professor oi Ellen Mease
at Stanford, will visit the campus.

ESSLIN WILL OFFER several
symposium discussions about
Brecht and about Brecht's
theatrical technique.

Brecht himself is an interesting
character. He was born in Ger»
many in loss and became a lading
figure in establishing new
technique in the modern theatre.
nis methods have come to be
known as Brechtian and include
such features as highly stylized
acting and the V-elfekt described
above.

Brecht's Marxism has a
distinctly humanist tone. The
proletariat suiiers pitilully at the
hands of the capitalist exploiters
and this justifies their revolution.

“WIIEN AN INJUSTICE is done
. . . there must be an uproar," Shen
Te cries in the play.

While Brecht sought to “arouse
sensibilities to the poor" and their
plight and to point up the am-
biguities oi giving and getting, he
is, ironically, in the end. a
somewhat discredited figure. He
“cultivated the affection of the
proletariat with his worker’s cup
and rough beard," Mease said, but
at the same time he kept all of his
considerable fortune in Swiss Bank
accounts.

THE GOOD PERSON Of Szech-
wan. like the process oi putting on
a major play production, is on an
epic scale. (The epic, because of its
scope, does not lend itself easily to
neat and discursive description).

This process is iragmented, and
yet it Somehow all [its together on
opening night. When you see the
play next week, recall the pre-
paration, the hours of h'me and
thought,oi rehearsal and study that
went into Take note of the
music, ligh ng, sets, the way
people are positioned on stage, and
the nuance oi speech and manner.
And finally, recall that theatre,
especially Brechtian theatre, is
entertaining. thought-provoking,
and above all, exciting.

 

