Departments
Arts
|
Week of 20 February 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 21 |
Arts
A novel production
By Judith Sandler
Some directors are despotic, barking commands from behind the footlights. But the last thing Caroline Eves wants to do is scare the Dickens out of her performers.
Gently guiding and occasionally interrupting the flow of rehearsal, Eves, along with the 40 students assembled in Room 109 of the School for the Arts, is in the midst of creating a stage adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens' vast novel of the French Revolution. The fruit of their collaborative labors is running at the Boston University Theatre through February 22.
"Roger Croucher [director of the Theatre Arts Division]
asked me to do a broad, expansive piece," explains Eves
during a break in the rehearsal. "He wanted the actors to
develop the piece organically, so that it grows as students
work on it, rather than being set from the first day." A crowd scene from Charles
Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, being staged at the
Boston University Theatre through February 22.
Photo by Kalman Zabarsky
"We're allowed so much creative input," says senior John
Byrnes, who portrays the play's hero, Charles Darnay.
Christopher Jones, who plays Sidney Carton, describes the
process: "We've created our own scripts. Caroline gave us an
outline she had already worked out, and then we broke up
into groups and read chapters of the book, selecting
characters so everyone could take part. So we put together
our own interpretation of the scenes; then the groups showed
their scenes, and we all discussed what we liked and what we
didn't like." Finally they pared down, made changes, and
assembled the scenes to create a huge, multifaceted play.
Croucher suggested that Eves do a play like Tale because she "had done this sort of thing before with Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and A Christmas Carol," Eves says. "I've also directed A Tale of Two Cities before, at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, where we created quite a different play. This production uses the music written by Jennifer Tatum for the London show."
An instructor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Eves is teaching at SFA for the current academic year. She has worked with BU students before, directing three Shakespeare Projects in addition to The House of Bernarda Alba last May. This spring she and Roger Croucher will codirect Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Happy End.
Sitting at the piano is Elaine Vaan Hogue, codirector and SFA acting instructor, who is also musical director. "This production is a theatrical event," Vaan Hogue says. "It's breaking the mold of what's usually done here at SFA. We have a huge cast, we've added music and dance numbers, and we've used unusual methods to construct the play. We have taken a script, then added, subtracted, and improvised, so that these students own the production."
Vaan Hogue left Los Angeles -- where she worked as an actress as well as director and instructor at the Theatre Program at the 32nd Street/USC School for the Performing and Visual Arts -- to pursue a graduate degree in directing at SFA. Her recent directing projects at BU include Angels in America, The Cherry Orchard, and Buried Child.
Carefully watching the unfolding drama, Judith Chaffee, associate professor of theater arts and the play's choreographer, says she is intrigued by what she sees. "Whether it's the stage or the set or the costumes or the actors, the imagery is on a grand scale," she says. "The students are horses, dogs, doors, and gravestones; they are continually changing characters, from narrators to aristocrats to commoners to musicians. It's the ultimate acting challenge."
"It's a challenge to make the characters real," agrees Erica Leerhsen, an SFA senior who plays Miss Pross, "and to keep telling the story, while maintaining a balance between the characters and the grand spectacle."
"Everyone's on the stage the entire show," says Jones. "This is a storytelling type of production and an ensemble production. It's a huge spectacle, particularly the storming of the Bastille, with people fighting and swinging on ropes. We have altered the theater to accommodate the scope of the production."
"We've taken every element we have available as performers," says Byrnes. "Acting, circus skills, working with stilts, acrobats, dancing, singing, and playing instruments."
Although the cast and director have put their stamp on this adaptation of the novel, Byrnes says they have "remained true to the Dickens text. It begins with a spiral that moves faster and faster and then rips."
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, adapted by Caroline Eves and directed by Eves and Elaine Vaan Hogue, is being performed through Saturday, February 21 at 8 p.m., and on Sunday, February 22, at 2 p.m., at the Boston University Theatre Mainstage, 264 Huntington Ave. Admission is $8 and $6, $4 for students and seniors, and free to Boston University students, faculty, and staff. For further information, call the box office at 617-266-0800.