Filling the Void

PW scares me. Production Workshop (PW) is a non-profit student theater group at Brown University. It puts on four shows per year, and so far all of the plays have been extremely avant-garde... to put it nicely. One particularly interesting show had a naked man rolling around in a bed of nails screaming for over ten minutes. Being more into musical theater and its wonderful cheesiness, I stayed well away from PW. However, I was soon put on the spot by a friend to go see Metamorphoses, an adaptation of Ovid’s poem of the same name, which was being put on by PW. I begrudgingly agreed, even though I was a bit skeptical.

I walked into the performance space, a black box theater with risers of seating on each wall, and was intrigued by the simplicity of the set. In one corner sat a small staircase, and in the opposite corner a low platform. As I sat reading the program, I was surprised by the director’s note stating that the play was not supposed to change how theater is performed or to delve deep into philosophical arguments; it was supposed to entertain. I thought that perhaps, I was going to enjoy the night after all.


The Music

The play started off slowly, with a frame story gradually moving from tale to tale all the while weaving music into the storyline. Music played many different characters within the show, in some instances it was used to instill a sense of levity, like when all of the women danced together with mirrors to Beyonce Knowles’ Diva. There was one specific case where it played both the comic and the harbinger of what was to come. In the story of King Midas, the man who wishes that everything he touched turned to solid gold, Mo Money, Mo Problems by Biggie Smalls, Mase, and Puff Daddy is played. Hilarity ensues as a white kid comes out dressed in a gold track suit, a slanted baseball cap and a large gold dollar sign chain. Nonetheless, it also foreshadows the problems that arise with Midas’ wish: when his daughter tries to hug him, she turns to solid gold.

Music plays yet another, more critical role within the frame of the play. During the times of great passion (lust, love, reverence, anger, etc.) parts of the soundtrack to The Hours, composed by Philip Glass, could be heard as the actors portrayed their emotions through dance and movement instead of words. The music from this movie is very “heavy”, charged with sentiment and feeling. This gravity that the music depicted in these instances was in stark contrast to the humor it carried in other aspects of the work. In my opinion, the dichotomy was set up to illustrate the different facets of the show: at some points contemporary, with a modern soundtrack, and at others traditional, with a classical soundtrack.


The Audience

As I looked around after the performance was over, I saw a relatively homogeneous group of audience members. It was mainly, if not completely made up of, Brown students (I know this as I knew most of the audience or had at least seen them around campus), and so therefore relatively young; their ages ranging from 18 to approximately 23, most likely. Also, I knew much of the audience to be active members within the theater community at Brown. After the show, I was able to sit and discuss it with some of the audience and I was surprised by how many people were pleased with how watchable it was. I sensed an overwhelming backlash within the theater community and even within the PW community against the more experimental theater that had been put on throughout the year by PW. Though there were some comments about how the play didn’t make them think as much as other shows, the people I talked to quickly followed with another along the lines of, “But I enjoyed just being entertained; it was a nice change.” There was an obvious void within the dramatic arts community that this particular production filled.


The Director

The show was directed by a senior at Brown University by the name of Mark Brown II. In his note in the program, he talks about the many different influences that he has/had throughout his life that have played a part in shaping who he is and consequently what the show is. He mentions how he is part of both the African-American and gay communities and also his Southern upbringing. His ethnicity had a minor part in influencing his choice of music, as he discusses in his program notes, selecting Hip Hop and R&B songs, which are generally considered to be black genres, to enhance the presentation. Though race plays a small part, I believe that his being raised in the South had a larger, more crucial role in his direction. I can definitely understand how a Southern upbringing would influence a less radical realization of a piece. I see the Northeast as more of a hot bed for theoretical theater, as compared to the South which, to me, would favor a more traditional interpretation. Perhaps it is a part of the “Southern Hospitality” mentality manifesting itself in the wanting to put on a good show for people to enjoy and be entertained. The Southern gentlemen character within Mark Brown was definitely present in his agreeable production.


Conclusion

This particular program turned out the way that it did because of two main features present which influenced, albeit indirectly, how the production was shaped. The first was the niche that was created within the theater community by the rash of radical productions put on by PW. Mark Brown stepped in to fill the void with his more traditional outlook on theater. Within the vehicle of this show, Brown used music as a vehicle for the emotions present in the dialogue. He carefully wields this tool to highlight what is being said by the actors and intertwines it with dance to craft a program satisfying to an audience that is hungry for an agreeable performance. There were many forces at work on the show which utilized the universal nature of music to convey universal themes.
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