{"id":53779,"date":"2017-03-01T15:56:23","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T20:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/?p=53779"},"modified":"2022-11-01T16:38:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T20:38:50","slug":"a-brecht-collage-to-prod-and-provoke","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2017\/a-brecht-collage-to-prod-and-provoke\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Globe feature: A Brecht collage to prod and provoke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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March 1, 2017<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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This article<\/a> was originally published by The Boston Globe<\/h5>\n

WATERTOWN \u2014 Playwright, poet, lyricist, and director Bertolt Brecht wrote dramas designed to provoke audiences to action, not reflection, says New Repertory Theatre artistic director Jim Petosa.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrecht\u2019s dialogue and his situations have a visceral force,\u201d says Petosa, who is directing \u201cBrecht on Brecht\u201d Feb. 4 through March 5. \u201cThe selections included in this theatrical collage connect on a surprisingly emotional level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBrecht on Brecht\u201d consists of a series of songs Brecht wrote with Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler \u2014 \u201cWhiskey Bar,\u201d \u201cMack the Knife,\u201d \u201cSurabaya Johnny\u201d \u2014 as well as haunting and often biting scenes from his one-act plays, along with some poetry.<\/p>\n

The original piece, compiled by George Tabori, is rarely performed, partly, says Petosa, because it depended on a crude chronology, a linear approach to Brecht\u2019s artistic output that played as too didactic for anyone who was not already familiar with his absurdist approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think familiarity with Brecht\u2019s work has sadly been lost,\u201d says Petosa. \u201cWe tend to apply the adjective \u2018Brechtian\u2019 to describe contemporary theater, when in fact Brecht saw theater as an opportunity to stimulate social action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBrechtian\u201d or \u201cepic\u201d theater describes a documentary-style approach to storytelling, in which there is some distance between the actors and the characters they are portraying, and the audience is often directly addressed from the stage. In his work as director of Boston University\u2019s School of Theater, Petosa sees a new energy fueling interest in Brecht\u2019s provocative and often poignant stories and songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we selected this piece, I thought we would be in a polarized but still progressive democracy,\u201d Petosa says. \u201cBut the world is a different place even from the first day we started rehearsing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although all four of the performers \u2014 Christine Hamel, Carla Martinez, Jake Murphy, and Brad Daniel Peloquin \u2014 are strong singers, Petosa says the actors\u2019 ability to find the humanity in this striking selection of scenes was his priority. \u201cTheir voices and their personalities are very different from each other,\u201d he says, \u201cand the goal is for each . . . to portray a different aspect of Brecht as we journey through his mind and experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petosa says the absurd theatricality in the pieces never obscures Brecht\u2019s wit and intelligence. Although \u201cBrecht on Brecht\u201d jumps quickly from one scene to the next, Petosa says it\u2019s a \u201cstyle audiences are familiar with, even as they contrast with quietly powerful emotional moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis one-act in which a Jewish wife prepares to flee Nazi persecution, even as her husband dismisses her concerns, serves as a call to awareness that times can change,\u201d he says. \u201cNeedless to say, we have found the work stimulating and energizing in ways we didn\u2019t expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not this Texan\u2019s first rodeo<\/subhead-small><\/h3>\n

A production of \u201cBilly Elliot the Musical\u201d naturally relies on the strength of the young performer in the title role, so Wheelock Family Theatre producing artistic director Linda Chin and director Sue Kosoff didn\u2019t take any chances. Thirteen-year-old Texas native Seth Judice is taking on the role for the third time, after playing the young boy from an English mining town who trades in his boxing gloves for ballet slippers at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, Ohio, and the Phoenix Theatre in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Although he may be a \u201cringer,\u201d Judice\u2019s jaw-dropping spins and leaps are worth the price of admission alone. Locals shouldn\u2019t feel slighted, since New London, N.H., resident Shane Boucher plays Billy\u2019s pal Michael, and the duo deliver a tap number that brings down the house. Boucher will take on the title role in several performances in February. The show runs through Feb. 26.<\/p>\n

August Wilson winners chosen<\/subhead-small><\/h3>\n

More than 550 Boston-area high school students from 13 schools competed in this year\u2019s August Wilson Monologue Competition. On Monday, the Huntington Theatre Company hosted the Boston regional finals, and Laury Teneus of Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers took first place with her performance as Black Mary from \u201cGem of the Ocean.\u201d Fanta Diakite of Snowden International School at Copley was named first runner-up with her portrayal of Rose from \u201cFences,\u201d and Medgene Joseph of Codman Academy Charter Public School \u2014 performing as Berniece from \u201cThe Piano Lesson\u201d \u2014 was second runner-up.<\/p>\n

The three teens will receive a total of $850 in prize money, and the top two winners will be awarded an all-expense-paid trip to New York City, where they will perform their monologues in the national competition on May 1 at Broadway\u2019s August Wilson Theatre.<\/p>\n

The August Wilson Monologue Competition celebrates the writing of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning playwright. Kenny Leon\u2019s True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta inaugurated the competition in 2007, and this is the seventh year that the Huntington has hosted the regional finals in Boston.<\/p>\n

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This article was originally published by The Boston Globe WATERTOWN \u2014 Playwright, poet, lyricist, and director Bertolt Brecht wrote dramas designed to provoke audiences to action, not reflection, says New Repertory Theatre artistic director Jim Petosa. \u201cBrecht\u2019s dialogue and his situations have a visceral force,\u201d says Petosa, who is directing \u201cBrecht on Brecht\u201d Feb. 4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4922,"featured_media":91129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[192],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[329],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/53779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4922"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53779"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/53779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95065,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/53779\/revisions\/95065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53779"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=53779"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=53779"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=53779"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=53779"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=53779"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=53779"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=53779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}