Sarah Daum: Gender images in CLOUD 9
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Cloud 9: Origins
The Possibilities of Change
From The Plays of Caryl Churchill by Amelia Howe Kritzer:
"Max Stafford-Clark originally recruited Churchill for a play about emigration to America that was to be produced cooperatively with Joseph Papp's Public Theater in New York. When funding for this project fell through, Churchill proposed the focus on sexual politics. To research the subject, Churchill and Stafford-Clark decided to begin with personal experience. Workshop participants were therefore selected on the dual basis of acting experience and sexual perspective; the resulting group included male and female representatives of various heterosexual and homosexual lifestyles...
"During the research period, in addition to hearing guest speakers and sharing books, each member of the workshop took a turn to tell her or his life story and answer questions about personal sexual experiences. Led by Max Stafford-Clark, the actors participated in improvizations based on social status and social norm-breaking."
Why the Victorian Era Act I
"As Churchill explained in a 1983 interview, two important themes which emerged from the workshop formed the background of these choices:
'We explored Genet's idea that colonial oppression and sexual oppression are similar. And we explored the feminity of the colonized person...Also people had talked in the workshop about their childhoods and what they had expected they would be like as grown-ups...Each person felt as if he or she had started from a Victorian perspective and had, in their lifetime, discovered the possibilities of change.'"
[From pages 111-113]
From The Plays of Caryl Churchill by Amelia Howe Kritzer:
"Max Stafford-Clark originally recruited Churchill for a play about emigration to America that was to be produced cooperatively with Joseph Papp's Public Theater in New York. When funding for this project fell through, Churchill proposed the focus on sexual politics. To research the subject, Churchill and Stafford-Clark decided to begin with personal experience. Workshop participants were therefore selected on the dual basis of acting experience and sexual perspective; the resulting group included male and female representatives of various heterosexual and homosexual lifestyles...
"During the research period, in addition to hearing guest speakers and sharing books, each member of the workshop took a turn to tell her or his life story and answer questions about personal sexual experiences. Led by Max Stafford-Clark, the actors participated in improvizations based on social status and social norm-breaking."
Why the Victorian Era Act I
"As Churchill explained in a 1983 interview, two important themes which emerged from the workshop formed the background of these choices:
'We explored Genet's idea that colonial oppression and sexual oppression are similar. And we explored the feminity of the colonized person...Also people had talked in the workshop about their childhoods and what they had expected they would be like as grown-ups...Each person felt as if he or she had started from a Victorian perspective and had, in their lifetime, discovered the possibilities of change.'"
[From pages 111-113]
Cloud 9: A View
"Equal Opportunity Humor" on Caryl Churchill and Cloud 9 is posted at the Stage Matters blog.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
CLOUD 9 AT HSU
Clive is a stalwart official of the Empire, soldiering on in darkest Africa with stiff upper lip and rationalizing eyes. Betty, his wife (played by a male), struggles to stand by her man, Queen and country, through loneliness and inconvenient longings.
Joshua is their black servant (played by a white woman) with his own conflicts and secrets. With Edward, the son who plays with dolls (and who is played by a woman), daughter Victoria (played by a puppet), a mother-in-law, a widow, a governess and a bisexual explorer, the family struggles to uphold the imperial standards with the required hypocrisy… and then it all falls apart in a cross-gender bedroom farce, with the bite of a multi-generational tragedy.
And that’s just the first Act.
[text continues after photos]
Joshua is their black servant (played by a white woman) with his own conflicts and secrets. With Edward, the son who plays with dolls (and who is played by a woman), daughter Victoria (played by a puppet), a mother-in-law, a widow, a governess and a bisexual explorer, the family struggles to uphold the imperial standards with the required hypocrisy… and then it all falls apart in a cross-gender bedroom farce, with the bite of a multi-generational tragedy.
And that’s just the first Act.
[text continues after photos]
CLOUD 9 skips ahead in Act II to the contemporary city, where familiar members of the post-liberation young, educated middle class try to cope with changing mores and consciousness, clouded by the sobering spectre of the war in Iraq, in a comedy of gender manners very relevant to the world we live in today.
Generational issues, from children to an elder’s perspective, and how values are transmitted and can change, are also part of the human comedy presented with the theatricality of one of the world’s most respected contemporary playwrights.
Generational issues, from children to an elder’s perspective, and how values are transmitted and can change, are also part of the human comedy presented with the theatricality of one of the world’s most respected contemporary playwrights.
British playwright Caryl Churchill’s acclaimed comedy of gender politics first appeared in the late 1970s, with its first American performance in the early 1980s. Since then it has become a classic, performed in regional and university theatres across America and in other parts of the world.
“I’d always been fascinated with this play,” director John Heckel says, “going back 25 years or so.” But would it be relevant to today?
“One of the first things I did was to look at the play to see if any of the material is dated, after almost 30 years. I discovered that none of it is—nothing that relates to the themes of gender identity, homosexuality, Lesbianism, how generations affect each other, colonialism."
While Act I in Churchill’s script and in the HSU production is set in late nineteenth century Africa, Heckel had to decide whether to keep the Act II timeframe of 1970s/80s London. He chose to change a few references to make it contemporary to today. “The only change I made in the script was to substitute Baghdad and Iraq for Belfast and Northern Ireland.”
He did this because the fundamental issues are still the same. “The arguments have gotten more complicated, but otherwise I thought the play really does a remarkable job addressing the issues of gender and sexuality of today.”
“I’d always been fascinated with this play,” director John Heckel says, “going back 25 years or so.” But would it be relevant to today?
“One of the first things I did was to look at the play to see if any of the material is dated, after almost 30 years. I discovered that none of it is—nothing that relates to the themes of gender identity, homosexuality, Lesbianism, how generations affect each other, colonialism."
While Act I in Churchill’s script and in the HSU production is set in late nineteenth century Africa, Heckel had to decide whether to keep the Act II timeframe of 1970s/80s London. He chose to change a few references to make it contemporary to today. “The only change I made in the script was to substitute Baghdad and Iraq for Belfast and Northern Ireland.”
He did this because the fundamental issues are still the same. “The arguments have gotten more complicated, but otherwise I thought the play really does a remarkable job addressing the issues of gender and sexuality of today.”
Partly because of that greater complexity, and partly to make the best use of the available talent pool for this production, Heckel made two changes in how the show is cast.
“If it’s gotten more complicated, how do I reflect that?” The answer was casting Joshua, the black slave in Act I, not with a white male as called for in Churchill’s script, but with a white woman. And in Act II, the role of Martin, “the New Age male” as Heckel describes him, “the husband who talks about believing in feminism more than his wife does,” is played by a woman in the HSU production.
At HSU, Heckel has directed Paula Vogel's Learning To Drive, and both parts of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, among many other plays, including Brecht's Mother Courage last spring. He is retiring from teaching in the HSU Theatre department this year, but for the past several years he has pursuing an advanced degree in psychology. His dissertation is on gender identity, so Churchill’s play is a natural.
Issues of racism, sexuality and their relationship to political power are also interwoven themes. “With Churchill, there’s this funny, stylized, very theatrical surface, but underneath there are primal expressions of what we continue to do to each other through the generations.”
Audiences should relate to the action and attitudes and “the generational issues in the play,” Heckel feels. Though there is strong language, sexual situations and the proviso of “For Mature Audiences,” “this is the work of a mainstream playwright. This isn’t obscure.”
“If it’s gotten more complicated, how do I reflect that?” The answer was casting Joshua, the black slave in Act I, not with a white male as called for in Churchill’s script, but with a white woman. And in Act II, the role of Martin, “the New Age male” as Heckel describes him, “the husband who talks about believing in feminism more than his wife does,” is played by a woman in the HSU production.
At HSU, Heckel has directed Paula Vogel's Learning To Drive, and both parts of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, among many other plays, including Brecht's Mother Courage last spring. He is retiring from teaching in the HSU Theatre department this year, but for the past several years he has pursuing an advanced degree in psychology. His dissertation is on gender identity, so Churchill’s play is a natural.
Issues of racism, sexuality and their relationship to political power are also interwoven themes. “With Churchill, there’s this funny, stylized, very theatrical surface, but underneath there are primal expressions of what we continue to do to each other through the generations.”
Audiences should relate to the action and attitudes and “the generational issues in the play,” Heckel feels. Though there is strong language, sexual situations and the proviso of “For Mature Audiences,” “this is the work of a mainstream playwright. This isn’t obscure.”
Our Cast
Edward/Lynn: played by Sarah Daum
Betty/Edward: Erik Rhea
Harry/Gerry: Alex Gradine
Maude/ Martin: Missy Hopper
Joshua/ Betty: Katherine Bickford
Clive/ Cathy: Calder Johnson
Ellen &Mrs. Saunders/ Victoria: Tisha Sloane
Betty/Edward: Erik Rhea
Harry/Gerry: Alex Gradine
Maude/ Martin: Missy Hopper
Joshua/ Betty: Katherine Bickford
Clive/ Cathy: Calder Johnson
Ellen &Mrs. Saunders/ Victoria: Tisha Sloane
Our Production
Director: John Heckel
Set Designer: Jody Sekas
Lighting Designer: Jim McHugh
Costume Designer: Rae Robison
Make-Up Designer: Corrie Barr
Sound Designer: Evan Wrye
Musical Scoring & Guidance: Missy Hopper
Prop Designer: George Shaw
Technical Director: Jayson Mohatt
Assistant Director: Joe Castro
Stage Manager: Sydney Carlisle
Assistant Lighting Designer: Andrew Schnell
Assistant Set Designer: Amanda Lordell
Costume Shop Manager: Cathrine Brown
Costume Shop Graduate Assistants: Renee Carney, Genneveve Hood
Graduate Shop Supervisors: Kato M.T. Buss, Kristen Hoffman, Justin K. Takata
Undergraduate Shop Supervisor: Evan Wrye
Properties Master: George Shaw
Light Board Operator: Patrick Sullivan
Sound Supervisor: Glen Nagy
Sound Board Operator: Rachel Brink
Wardrobe Mistresess: Renee Carney, Becky Parker
House Manager: Daniel Gibson
Crew Chief: David Abrams
Crew:
Mason Lev
Saqib Keval
Ryan Hall
Rachel Brink
Mychel Ducken
Set Designer: Jody Sekas
Lighting Designer: Jim McHugh
Costume Designer: Rae Robison
Make-Up Designer: Corrie Barr
Sound Designer: Evan Wrye
Musical Scoring & Guidance: Missy Hopper
Prop Designer: George Shaw
Technical Director: Jayson Mohatt
Assistant Director: Joe Castro
Stage Manager: Sydney Carlisle
Assistant Lighting Designer: Andrew Schnell
Assistant Set Designer: Amanda Lordell
Costume Shop Manager: Cathrine Brown
Costume Shop Graduate Assistants: Renee Carney, Genneveve Hood
Graduate Shop Supervisors: Kato M.T. Buss, Kristen Hoffman, Justin K. Takata
Undergraduate Shop Supervisor: Evan Wrye
Properties Master: George Shaw
Light Board Operator: Patrick Sullivan
Sound Supervisor: Glen Nagy
Sound Board Operator: Rachel Brink
Wardrobe Mistresess: Renee Carney, Becky Parker
House Manager: Daniel Gibson
Crew Chief: David Abrams
Crew:
Mason Lev
Saqib Keval
Ryan Hall
Rachel Brink
Mychel Ducken
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Coming Soon!
Caryl Churchill's CLOUD 9, directed by John Heckel, will be performed at Humboldt State University's Gist Hall Theatre on February 22-24 and March 1-3.
More information will be appearing here soon.
More information will be appearing here soon.
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