by Webmanager | Sep 24, 2018
Ana Sharp, Dramaturg for “All My Sons”
It’s a crazy idea, right? Exegesis and hermeneutics in theatre? Well, yes! The same principles apply and are almost as rich in the study of theatre and production of plays as they are in the study of the Bible and the story of our lives! Our fall production, All My Sons, by Arthur Miller, has been rich in something known as dramaturgy. What better way to share with you the principles of dramaturgy than to introduce you to Ana Sharp, our own exegetical and hermeneutical dramaturg.
Here are Ana’s responses to my interview questions:
- How do the terms exegesis and hermeneutics apply to theatre?
In theatre, as in the Christian walk, we are faced with the task of making choices based on a text we may not fully understand. Dramaturgy, like theology, is a field built around a premise of high respect for a text and its author. Dramaturgs and other theatre artists strive for an accurate exegesis (interpretation of the text), and with every play we need to choose the right hermeneutic (strategic approach).
All My Sons requires a historical-literal hermeneutic much like we would use for the gospels. The more we know about the historical events, culture, and world surrounding the events of the story, the better we understand what the author wanted to communicate and, by extension, the better we can communicate the author’s intent to the audience.
- How does good dramaturgy help cast, crew, and director of a production?
The historical setting, moral themes, and story structure combine to form what we call “the world of the play.” Every design choice, every directing choice, and every acting choice is informed by the world of the play. All My Sons takes place in a world where honesty matters, and every choice has far-reaching consequences, beginning with one’s closest relationships and extending to people one has never met. It also takes place at a specific time (August of 1946) in a specific place (Ohio, USA), and in a neighborhood of a certain income level.
Dramaturgy is digging into every detail the playwright gives us in order to firmly establish the world of the play in the minds of the artists creating it onstage. Good dramaturgy contributes toward solid acting choices, informed directing decisions, and a unified storytelling effort on the part of the design team.
- Why is excellent dramaturgy particularly important to this year’s fall production, All My Sons?
Arthur Miller, playwright
First and foremost, this play deals with a war that really happened, and pain that millions felt. Arthur Miller wrote with compassion and sensitivity to the humans wounded physically or emotionally by World War II. They were his first audience. We have the honor of telling this story in the 21st century, and the least we can do to honor the sacrifices of that generation is to put the world they lived in on stage as accurately and respectfully as possible.
The P-40 Warhawk, a WWII plane at the nexus of the conflict of “All My Sons”
All My Sons is a story that was very pointedly written for its time. Its message is timeless and forever relevant, but its setting requires some translation. The show was set in the “present day” when it first opened in 1947. Its first audiences would have needed no introduction to the social and political climate of the time—they were living it! 71 years later, however, the events and sentiments surrounding the story of the play are more obscure to us. Themes of integrity and honesty will always resonate, but what are Post Toasties? Who are the Gumps? Dramaturgy for this show is heavily focused on helping the cast and crew understand the world of 1946, so they can deliver every nuance of the story to the audience.
- Could you share with us All My Sons dramaturgical connection to Greek tragedies?
Absolutely! Without revealing too many spoilers, All My Sons conforms to the structure of antique tragedies such as Oedipus Rex or Antigone. A tragic hero with a fatal flaw makes a single huge mistake and eventually has to face the consequences of that choice and do their best to right it and bring their world back into balance. All My Sons even conforms to Aristotle’s “three unities” of time, place, and action. The events of the play take place within a 24-hour period (unity of time) in one location (unity of place), and everything that happens on stage feeds into the eventual crisis and climax of the play (unity of action).
- What’s your favorite dramaturgical tidbit from researching All My Sons?
Aside from absolutely geeking out over the classical tragedy parallels mentioned above, I’ve immensely enjoyed reading the old comic strip “The Gumps” which is mentioned in the show. The style of humor is fun to compare to modern meme culture. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
Join us for an exegetical, hermeneutical, incredibly moving experience! Tickets are on sale now!
by Webmanager | Sep 19, 2018
From right to left: Mallory Pihl, Christy Stone, Elijah LePage, Corey Ruehling, Vincent Matteson, Jon Van Pelt, Rebekkah McIntosh, Callie Weeks, Levi Bennett, and Zeb Johnson
While you were finishing your Labor Day picnic, the dedicated cast of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons began an intense rehearsal process. With just five and a half weeks to mount a full production, the process is demanding. Actors will be off book by September 24; however, eight-year-old Elijah LePage in the role of Bert already has his down!
The play is set in post-WWII 1947 middle America and won two Tony awards, one for Best Author (Arthur Miller) and another for Best Director (Elia Kazan). It was Miller’s first success. The action centers around the Keller’s backyard as a terrible secret is slowly unraveled through the course of the action. The Keller family is composed of Junior Corey Ruehling as Joe Keller, patriarch of the Keller family; senior Christy Stone, plays his wife, Kate; and their son Chris is played by junior Vincent Matteson. Elijah Page as the friendly neighborhood kid Bert is joined by Chris’ girlfriend Ann Deever (Junior Mallory Pihl), Ann’s brother George (Junior Zeb Johnson), neighbors Jim and Sue Bayliss (Jon Van Pelt and Callie Weeks) and Lydia and Frank Lubey (Rebekkah McIntosh and Levi Bennett).
Tickets are now on sale, and they’re easy to get! See details below…
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by Webmanager | Aug 27, 2018
All My Sons is an American tragedy. It’s the story of a post-world War II family caught in a cycle of greed and deception; it’s the story of a terribly flawed patriarch who hides a terrible choice that holds devastating consequences for the family he desperately loves.
From Sophocles to Shakespeare, tragedies have been events for the masses who watch them collectively and process them experientially, perhaps even cathartically. The target market of the Greek tragedy was the aristocracy, but the groundlings of the Elizabethan Age paid a hard-earned penny to arrive in eager droves to see Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear. The unified experience involved a tragic hero with a tragic flaw who left on an epic journey, often begun with an invocation to the gods. At the end there was personal revelation with terrible consequences. And there was death. So what is the appeal of a tragedy?
First Corinthians 10 may shed some light:
10 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.
6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.” 8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. 10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. (New American Standard Bible)
These things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved…these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. The apostle Paul is very specific: Old Testament stories, tragedies in literature older than the Golden Age of Greece, are poignant signposts pointing us to the narrow way; Achan’s horde under the floor, the Golden Calf, David and Bathsheba, Joseph and eleven jealous brothers, Jacob and his deceptions, Lot’s wife and her over-the-shoulder farewell to Sodom and Gomorrah are some of the more dramatic among them.
Joe Keller, the protagonist of All My Sons, could have been a character pulled right off the pages of Genesis and plopped into a 20th century script. He was laid low in his own wilderness, very much as the Children of Israel were laid low in theirs. The original travelers never made it to the Promised Land. We know from Scripture the nation of Israel learned the hard way at every turn of their journey; so did Joe Keller. Joe Keller could have learned by taking the narrow way, which is in the end, the easy way of choosing the easy yoke of the One who wrote the story.
So, we circle back to the original question: what is the appeal of tragedy? At the end of any tragedy, I find myself left with two reactions. First is the stark revelation of senseless waste; a different moral choice would have sent the characters on a vastly different trajectory involving far less pain and far more nobility. Then, the collective sigh of relief: there but for the grace of God go I.
This is exactly the choice Joe’s son Chris is presented with at the end of the play. Chris and Kate, Joe’s wife, hear an offstage gunshot after Joe understands for the first time the consequences his actions have had. The result? No spoiler: a terrible tragedy. Kate is all too aware of the dilemma her son now finds himself in:
CHRIS: Mother, I didn’t mean to…
KATE: Don’t dear. Don’t take it on yourself. Forget now. Live.
Chris is in danger of making exactly the choice his brother and father did. Kate, in the rarefied air of the final moments of the play, understands this completely, and her love and imperative to her son ultimately pull him from the edge of the abyss.
How this moment is staged is completely up to the director, and it has everything to do with whether this play is merely the audience’s observation of senseless waste or something that challenges us to higher moral ground. As a director, I would, of course, choose the high ground; what my eye already sees is hope. The end result of a well-crafted tragedy has to offer hope for a better world inhabited by people whose trajectory moves us closer down the path toward our Maker.
All My Sons is far more than a cautionary tale. Any piece of literature with a universally true thematic statement is timeless. It tells us our choices matter, and we owe our integrity not only to God, but to the brotherhood of all humanity. That truth speaks to us perhaps even more strongly now than it did to the first audiences of post-war 1947. We find woven in the pages of All My Sons an object lesson of “instruction to us on whom the ends of the ages have come.”
All My Sons is CU Theatre Arts upcoming production, October 11-14. For more details: https://www.calvary.edu/theatre-arts/
by Sara Klaassen | Mar 16, 2018
Weekly Portraits of Calvary Life
A Shakespeare comedy set in the 1960s? Yes, that is the show that our Theatre Department presented to large audiences last weekend!
Lysander (Vincent Matteson) and Hermia (Lindsay Lee)
Calvary students, alumni, faculty, and staff all worked together to bring A Midsummer Night’s Dream to life in this groovy form.
Demetrius (Tedd Williamson), Helena (Christy Stone), and Lysander (Vincent Matteson)
In fact, one of our adjunct Bible and Theology professors, Norm Baker, played Tom Snout/Wall.
Nick Bottom (Corey Ruehling), Frances Flute (Levi Bennett), Snug (Tori Roberts), Robin Starveling (Esther McRae), Peter Quince (Zeb Johnson), and Tom Snout (Norm Baker)
While the setting was changed, the script was still Shakespeare, and the actors did an admirable job of learning all those lines. The costumes were especially memorable and caused some actors to elicit laughter just by walking on stage.
Oberon (Tim McGuire), Titania (Amy Garlett), and Moth (Madison Greener)
As you can see, the show was quite unique!
Puck (Ana Sharp)
Sara Klaassen
Alumni Relations Coordinator
Upcoming Calvary Events
Emily Wirth’s Senior Recital April 8
Hailey Bair’s Master Recital April 9
by Webmanager | Feb 12, 2018
The Mechanicals of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” witnessing the death of Pyramus and Thisbe!
One of the most notorious and uproarious comedic scenes in all of dramatic literature comes from “The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe” performed by the Mechanicals, a troupe of aspiring tradesmen come to perform at the marriage celebration of the Duke of Athens in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this picture, Pyramus (Bottom the Weaver, played by Corey Ruehling) and Thisbe (Francis Flute the bellows mender, played by Levi Bennett) have just expired in a heap in the bottom right corner while Lion (Snug, played by Tori Roberts), Peter Quince (played by Zeb Johnson), Moonshine (Robin Staveling the tailor, played by Esther McRae), and yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is indeed Norm Baker, CU Bible and Theology Prof, as Wall (Tom Snout the tinker).all watch the lamentable death!,
Norm caught the bug first in high school, but his talents have lain dormant until until a few months ago when he was asked to play the role of Martin Luther for a chapel scene on the Reformation. His appetite was once again whetted! He’s having an incredible time and has enjoyed getting to know students on a more casual basis while gaining a greater respect for the craft of acting. All we can tell you is Kenneth Branagh had better move over! You’ll have to see him to believe him, so make sure you’re there for Act V!
The production runs March 8-11. See you at the show!
Tickets are currently on sale here: https://www.calvary.edu/theatre-arts/
by Webmanager | Jan 28, 2018
Calvary Theatre Arts is proud to present William Shakespeare’s most popular comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare’s Midsummer contains all the trappings of a counter-cultural environment, so in the spirit of reflecting that vibe, director Bobbie Jeffrey has chosen a 1960s mise en scene. As you can see from the photo – it’s gonna be groovy! There will be some tunes that are familiar to you; however, Soul Man Bruce Barrett is composing original music specifically for our show. Production run is March 8-11. For all the details, visit our box office: https://www.calvary.edu/theatre-box-office/
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Tim McGuire as Oberon, King of the Aerie Band, and Amy Garlett as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, rock their 60s tie-dye!
