By Rusty Andrews
Shoestring Theatre Company, Los Gatos, California
Directing GODSPELL can be one of the most fulfilling and
frustrating experiences any theatre company can have.
Fulfilling because this John-Michael Tebelak/Stephen
Schwartz show provides almost limitless opportunities
for both directors and cast members to expand their
horizons and hone their improvisational skills. Frustrating
because its cast is so small only ten characters
and no chorus.
If you're working with a school with a very large
talent pool or a theatre company like ours which
has a firm policy of casting everyone who shows up
for auditions, you're stuck on the horns of a dilemma
when confronted with a show with such a small cast.
If you were producing almost any other musical you
d be able to place the "overflow" in the
chorus. Here you're stuck. GODSPELL doesn t have
one!
So the question is, "How do I expand this cast
without doing violence to the material?" Please
note the second part of the question, " without
doing violence to the material". There are all
kinds of ways to expand a show, but some of them
will damage the deceptively-simple (and surprisingly
fragile) show that is GODSPELL.
Possible Solution # 1: Break up the disciples parts
into more parts.
Definitely not recommended. It s vital to the success
of GODSPELL that each of the disciples experience
and portray a "character arc" (see the
Director s Notes that are included in the package
you receive from Music Theatre International or Theatre
Maximus). Splitting up the eight disciples into,
say, sixteen disciples (or even twelve) will dilute
each of them and make accomplishing that arc virtually
impossible. Your audience will become confused and
will come away from the show having been entertained,
but also having lost the message behind the show.
Taking Peggy and breaking her up into Peggy and Gertrude
will simply create two very colorless characters.
Besides, doing this would be a MAJOR violation of
the license agreement that your organization signed
with the licensing agency and lay you open for an
ugly lawsuit. Who needs that?
Possible Solution #2: Assign the parts of the philosophers
in the Prologue to performers who are not playing
disciples.
This is pretty simple and straightforward and will
gain you up to eight additional parts. It also creates
a group of fairly low-impact (in terms of rehearsal
time) parts that you can assign to fine singers who
are just too busy to attend all of the rehearsals.
The philosophers are only in the Prologue and are
never heard of again unless you choose to utilize
them later in other roles.
Our production had three "pure" philosophers,
three philosophers who reappeared later in the guise
of Pharisees (more on this later), and two who "converted" and
joined Jesus disciples. When we performed the prologue,
the six persons who comprised the remainder of Jesus
eight disciples appeared on stage dressed in black
(a la Martha Graham dancers) and moved frantically
between the various philosophers as they spouted
their various opinions. Rather than having the philosophers
become violent as described in the stage directions
we had the "listeners" portray their confusion
and frustration with being unable to find a philosophy
that suited them, ending with them holding their
heads in pain during the final "Ohhh. Ohhh" of
the Prologue.
When John the Baptist arrived on the scene, all
the Philosophers "took in" his message
during the opening part of "Prepare Ye",
although each group reacted to it differently. The
listeners/disciples eagerly accepted it. The Philosopher/Disciples "broke
away" from the others to be baptized and join
in with "Prepare Ye". The Philosopher/Pharisees
stood apart, obviously making fun of John and trying
to prevent the Philosopher/Disciples from joining
him. The "pure" Philosophers backed away
in horror and left the stage.
Possible Solution #3: Have performers other than
the disciples portray the Pharisees in Act 2.
In Act 2 Jesus has a very acrimonious confrontation
with three Pharisees. In the script these parts are
assigned to disciples. You can, if you wish, assign
these parts to other performers who do not make up
part of Jesus inner circle. We did it by having
three of the Philosopher/Pharisees from the Prologue
reappear to challenge Jesus teachings. These three
characters appeared again after the Last Supper,
gloating over Jesus crucifixion.
You could also use performers who haven t been on
stage before. This would gain you three more parts.
Possible Solution #4: Add a chorus.
This is tricky. To maintain the show s integrity
you can t simply have a chorus come trooping in out
of nowhere and participate in the "big" numbers.
If you're going to add a chorus they have to be fully
integrated into the show so they don t "jar" the
audience and interrupt the rhythm of the show. We
created a chorus of "urchins" who were
essentially part of the scenery.
I think that my concept of the Urchins was probably
strongly effected by my having seen The Roar of the
Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd when I was in
high school; that show has a chorus of urchins written
into it. In that show the urchins are sometimes part
of the scenery, sometimes observers of the onstage
action, sometimes comment on it, sometimes essential
parts of the music and action. In Godspell I used
the urchins in essentially the same way but also
as audience-surrogates. As the show progressed and we
hoped the audience became more involved, the Urchins
reflected this increased involvement.
They appeared during the Prologue, moving from philosopher
to philosopher, emphasizing the confusion that this
number attempts to portray and then taking up positions
at either side of the stage and observing what was
going on just as the audience was; if I had been
working with a deeper proscenium stage I would probably
have placed them on scaffolding behind the fence.
They didn t participate in the first several big
numbers or "mini-dramas". Instead they
simply watched the primary action or "napped".
This gave the audience time to get used to them and,
I like to think, even begin identify with them in
their "observer" roles.
The first time they were brought into the stage
action was during the parable of the Good Samaritan
when the disciples drafted a number of them to use
as "puppets" to play the characters in
the story. They then continued to join in during
the parable of the Prodigal Son as the son s fair-weather
friends and as partygoers at the father s house,
during the story of Lazarus as the demons in hell
(they really relished this part), and during the
parable of the Sower as the seeds, wheat, and weeds.
In the second act they portrayed the animals in the
short Noah s Ark sequence and took an active part
in the Gethsemane sequence.
The first musical number they participated in was "All
for the Best". As the show progressed they appeared
in "All Good Gifts", "We Beseech Thee", "Light
of the World", and "Turn Back, O Man",
and the final upbeat portion of "Prepare Ye" during
the Finale.
I assigned "On The Willows" exclusively
to the urchins; since this piece is essentially "background
music", it seemed appropriate for the "background" to
sing it. We gave them battery powered candles and
placed them on the opposite side of the stage from
Jesus and the Disciples. This turned out to be one
of the most affecting moments of the show.
During the Gethsemane sequence as the Disciples
slept the urchins suddenly appeared around Jesus
at the line "If you are the Son of God ." speaking
in unison the lines that are assigned to various
disciples in the script. The sound of the children s
voices speaking these lines was very effective and
just a little eerie exactly the effect I wanted to
achieve.
Whenever they were not actively involved in the
onstage action they returned to their "home
bases" at either side of the stage so they could
turn back into "scenery" or reflect what
we hoped the audience was experiencing.
The Urchins were a very interesting addition to
the show. Like I said, they start out essentially
as scenery (in opera terms, "supernumeraries").
But as the show progresses they become more and more
involved in the action, assuming a role more like
that of a Greek chorus. We must have done something
right with them. Another highly-experienced director,
watching our show, commented, "You would never
know that the show wasn t written that way".
That was exactly what I wanted and was so pleased
to hear it.
Finally:
GODSPELL is a surprisingly difficult show to stage surprising
because it looks so simple and improvised. All that
simplicity and improvisation takes an incredible
amount planning and rehearsing, at least as much
and perhaps more than for a standard stage musical.
When you're dealing with shows like Annie or Oklahoma
you have a starting point: there are conventions
to be observed. You don t hear stories about directors
placing Annie on a Trailways bus or in a bar or (God
forbid!) on a spaceship. For some reason, directors
seem to feel free to "make free" with the
material on the basis of "updating" it.
The show doesn t need updating except, perhaps, in
some of the minor bits of business and humor. GODSPELL
is just as much an American classic as Oklahoma or
My Fair Lady and deserves your respect and understanding
as much as any other major piece of theatre would.
In the end, whatever you do to expand GODSPELL is
going to reflect the director s attitudes and opinions
about the show. I strongly urge anyone about to embark
on directing this deceptively simple show to spend
a lot of time "pre-thinking" the show.
Use the Web to research how other directors have
put the show on stage. Check out the GODSPELL posts
on the Stephen Schwartz forum and the GODSPELL articles
at MusicalSchwartz.com. Explore your own feelings
about the show s theme and message. Then you ll be
ready to begin figuring out how to expand the cast.
|
