Princeton Weekly Bulletin March 5, 2007, Vol. 96, No. 18
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/07/0305/1a.shtml
Creative Connections: ‘Godunov’ project driven by scholarly, artistic
collaborations
By Eric Quiñones
Princeton NJ — Honoring a legendary Russian director’s unfulfilled vision
for a classic tale of power and intrigue, an army of Princeton scholars and
artists is working this semester to mount a world premiere production of
“Boris Godunov.”
Bringing this new interpretation of the famed Russian play to the stage is a
creative team with dozens of members from numerous disciplines, including
faculty experts in Russian music and literature, seasoned music, theater and
dance professionals, and student actors, singers, dancers, musicians and
architects. The production is accompanied by several academic initiatives,
including courses, an international symposium and a Firestone Library
exhibition (see “By the numbers” on page 5).
The Princeton premiere, which runs April 12-14 at the Berlind Theatre, is
inspired by a version of Alexander Pushkin’s 1825 historical play that was
conceived by director Vsevolod Meyerhold but abandoned in the 1930s. Though
Pushkin’s play about the Russian tyrant is one of his most famous works, the
full text of “Godunov” never has received a first-class staging in English.
The Princeton production also will feature a new translation by Antony Wood
as well as an original score by composer Sergei Prokofiev that was
commissioned by Meyerhold but never has been used for a live performance of
“Godunov.”
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The project exemplifies Princeton’s mission to enhance the role of the
creative and performing arts on campus, which resulted last year in the
establishment of the University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts.
The center is the major sponsor of the production, along with several
departments and offices across campus.
Tim Vasen, a lecturer in the Program in Theater and Dance who is directing
“Godunov,” said the scholarly and artistic collaborations are “unprecedented
and completely extraordinary.”
“I really don’t think this kind of thing could happen anywhere but at a
university like Princeton. At least in this country, there is no theater
company that has these resources to offer,” Vasen said. “Back when Meyerhold
was creating the original idea for this production, most theaters would have
had their own orchestra and a large company of actors and dancers — that was
normal, but now would be almost an absurd luxury.
“For me, it’s absolutely thrilling,” he added. “I love collaboration, and I
love learning about new areas of the world every time I do a play. This is a
quantum leap in that regard, so I’m having a fantastic time.”
A multifaceted effort
The “Godunov” project is managed by Simon Morrison, an associate professor
of music who has tracked down lost scores and choreographies by Prokofiev
and other artists, and Caryl Emerson, chair of the Slavic languages and
literatures department and a leading authority on Pushkin’s play (see “From
dissertations” on page 5). It is a collaboration between the University and
the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.
The play is accompanied by several initiatives in this multifaceted project.
In addition to their rehearsals six times a week, student cast members are
participating in a course led by Vasen and Michael Cadden, director of the
Program in Theater and Dance. Emerson is teaching two courses — one for
undergraduates and one for graduate students — on Pushkin, Meyerhold and
Prokofiev. She and Morrison also are leading an alumni studies course
focused on the production. A Firestone Library exhibition devoted to the
project will open April 1. An international symposium on Pushkin, Prokofiev
and Russian theater is slated for April 12-14 to coincide with the premiere.
“This is something that no members of the cast have ever experienced,” said
freshman Nadia Talel.
“It’s a different type of theater, it’s a play in which many of us get to
play different genders and different roles, and it’s something the
University has been working on for a long time. One of the best things about
this production is it’s so interdepartmental,” said Talel, whose roles will
include the patriarch (who encourages Godunov’s ascension to the Russian
throne), a lady at a party, an old woman and a Polish gentleman named
Sobanski.
“Professor Emerson comes every Friday to our seminar and gives us a lot of
history and background,” she added. “This is a culture and time period with
which many of us are unfamiliar, and we get a lot of different perspectives
from the people working on it.”
Pushkin’s play dramatizes Godunov’s rise to power, his increasingly
tyrannical reign as czar from 1598 to 1605 and the challenge to his throne
by Dmitry the Pretender, who claimed to be a son of Ivan the Terrible. For
political as well as dramatic reasons, Pushkin’s play was not approved for
performance until 1866 and then was adapted into an opera by composer Modest
Musorgsky between 1869 and 1874.
Meyerhold, who became a seminal figure in modern theater through his
innovative productions, attempted to stage “Godunov” in 1924-25 and in 1936
but abandoned his efforts in the face of Stalinist Soviet politics. He was
arrested on fabricated charges of treason in 1939 and shot a year later.
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Peter Westergaard is providing new music for a crucial dreamlike scene that
composer Sergei Prokofiev did not complete. (photo: Denise Applewhite)
Prokofiev’s score was written for Meyerhold’s production in 1936, when the
composer “was in top form,” according to Morrison. The University Orchestra,
which will perform in the April production under the direction of Michael
Pratt, presented the North American premiere of this score in concert in
December as a preview.
“The music needs the play,” Morrison said. “Prokofiev intended it as an
acoustic lining and filter for Pushkin’s spoken words.”
Student singers from the University Glee Club, conducted by Richard Tang
Yuk, will serve as the choir for the Princeton production. “The ‘above and
beyond the call of duty’ involvement of the two conductors, Michael Pratt
and Richard Tang Yuk, is crucial to this project, which comprises a true
synthesis of the musical with the verbal and visual,” Morrison said.
“Coordination and timing are everything.”
Emerson said the Princeton project benefits from the interdisciplinary
partnerships and the experience of previous theatrical adaptations at the
University, as well as technological advances since Pushkin wrote the play
and Meyerhold planned his production a century later. Both the playwright
and director also knew that their visions for the politically charged
production could not be realized in their times.
“Pushkin’s play features monks — and drunken monks at that — as well as the
patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Pushkin knew that the imperial
censorship did not permit the portrayal of ecclesiastics on stage. He
dreamed of a kind of production that technically and physically and
politically couldn’t have happened in his time,” Emerson said. “I think
Pushkin would have adored the Princeton production.”
While they are working from Meyerhold’s extensive notes on his concept of
the production, the members of Princeton’s creative team have more
flexibility in exploring the historical period that led to Russia’s “Time of
Troubles,” Emerson noted.
“The Russian audience for whom Meyerhold directed knew Pushkin by heart, so
it was impossible to leave something out. Indeed, omitting lines and scenes
would actually draw attention to them, since Pushkin’s words are part of the
inner soundscape of Russian speakers,” she said. “Americans in 2007 do not
carry around that equipment. These risks are marvelous ones to confront —
the actors, set designers, musicians and producers really are free.”
‘Intellectual firepower’
Vasen said both Emerson and Morrison have been essential in “helping me to
understand the artistic impulses behind the writing, the music and the
direction. It is a production deeply rooted both in historical Russia and
the Russia of the 1930s. I knew very little about that, and they have been
fantastic guides in helping me to understand where this play came from and
where the music came from and how it all goes together.
“Caryl brings history to life like nobody I’ve ever worked with. Everything
in the play is based on detailed historical research Pushkin did. There is a
back story to every character, even somebody who appears in the play for two
lines, and Caryl knows that back story. That is incredibly helpful because
even though the audience is not necessarily going to be able to get all of
that, it will make the experience that much richer for the student actors
and for all of us,” he said.
Cadden, who is serving as the production’s dramaturg, added, “We wanted to
take advantage of the intellectual firepower we have here at Princeton. We
feel fortunate to be the beneficiary of their lives’ work as scholars.”
These creative collaborations suffuse every aspect of the production.
Because existing recordings are either incomplete or inaccurate, the
Princeton team is working with the archival manuscript of Prokofiev’s score.
For one scene that Prokofiev did not complete, Princeton composer Peter
Westergaard is providing new music. Westergaard, an emeritus professor of
music, is paraphrasing authentic Russian liturgical chants to create a
supernatural musical backdrop for a crucial dreamlike scene, in which the
young monk Grigory Otrepiev begins his transformation into Dmitry the
Pretender to challenge Godunov for Russia’s throne.
Vasen said, “I’m working with a great living composer, a great composer from
100 years ago, a great writer from 200 years ago and amazing history from
400 years ago.”
For the production’s main dance scene, students will perform two traditional
Polish pieces: a polonaise, which is a stately, procession-like dance; and a
mazurka, which is a lively folk dance. Choreographer Rebecca Lazier,
associate head of dance, said she is excited about trying to infuse these
traditional dances with a more modern flair.
“Tim’s vision for the production is really wanting to find ways to do it for
today, for this audience and this time,” Lazier said.
Lazier said that, similar to the 2005 Princeton production of the lost
Russian ballet “Pas d’Acier,” the “Godunov” project “is a true immersion
into another world. That’s part of the gift of it — to be able to take the
time to submerge myself in the history, in the literature, in the ideas, in
all the layers that go into the production. One of the challenges about this
production, as it is the world premiere, is how to invigorate the aesthetic
with a sense of contemporary life.”
“The process will very much be with the dancers,” she said. “There are
prescribed steps of how a polonaise and a mazurka are defined. So it will be
about taking that prescription, taking those ideas and playing with them for
hours to find variations and new versions. Can I find a new version that is
a lift, a jump or a turn? That’s how I imagine bringing my own contemporary
aesthetic to this work.”
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Some 50 costumes are being made for the play’s colorful collection of
aristocrats, monks, military figures, peasants and other characters. (photo:
Denise Applewhite)
In outfitting the “Godunov” cast, Catherine Cann, costume shop manager in
theater and dance, also is working to balance Meyerhold’s vision with the
need to appeal to a modern audience. She has consulted with Vasen, Emerson
and Morrison to better understand the history of the play and Meyerhold’s
artistic inspiration.
“There are many different worlds in the play, and the idea is to help the
audience understand why those worlds are important and how they relate to
each other — especially in this case, because we’re trying to do this
through the eyes of Meyerhold and to bring a new perspective to historical
events,” Cann said. “That does come across in clothes — in how much fabric
people wear or what colors they’re wearing.”
Cann also studied the costumes from Musorgsky’s operatic version of
“Godunov,” which Meyerhold disliked, to determine “what bothered him about
it and why he thought it was so vile.”
Cann said, “In the opera, the costumes are re-enacting history to visualize
the events as accurately as humanly possible. In the Pushkin play, and in
our production, we are using costumes to depict character and stature so
that our contemporary audience will understand the history.” Emerson added
that this concept “is perfect for a play about a pretender to the throne in
a culture that believed in external ‘signs’ for everything.”
Because each cast member plays several parts — some 50 costumes will have to
be made — Cann is designing a “worker-like” base costume for each actor,
from which they can quickly transform into aristocrats, monks, military
figures, peasants or other characters. “We’re actually making more costumes
than we have for other theater productions, partly because of their stylized
nature,” she said.
The play’s action — 25 scenes, each in a different location — will take
place on a set designed by students as part of a graduate seminar last fall
led by Jesse Reiser, an associate professor of architecture, in partnership
with Vasen. Five of the seminar’s 15 students are working this spring to
help build the unusual set, which features some 150 pieces of surgical
tubing that run vertically throughout the stage, attached to tracks in the
floor. The tubes can be pulled together or apart, and actors can climb them
as well.
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This model shows the set designed by graduate students in an architecture
seminar last fall. The set features some 150 pieces of surgical tubing that
run vertically throughout the stage, as well as scaffolding along the back
of the stage. (photo: Denise Applewhite)
“The set creates the most flexible, dynamic environment we could imagine for
this play,” Vasen said. “It’s a jungle gym, with all the playfulness that
implies. I think it’ll also be better able to tell the story than a more
realistic set — one with walls and doors that look like Russia. Even if we’d
wanted to go that route, there are way too many locations to illustrate.
We’ll be able to project supertitles and images that will give the very
concrete sense of place our audience will need to know what’s going on,
while staying true to Meyerhold’s insights about the power of abstraction
and theatricality.”
Vasen said the set, like so many elements of the production, was “the result
of a bunch of different people bringing ideas to the table and synthesizing
them down to a few really simple, really dynamic things.”
“It was kind of scary in some ways because there was a long period of time
that we didn’t even know if there was going to be a set because they
couldn’t put it all together,” Vasen said. “But it does what I wanted it to
do, which requires a very physical production.”
Princeton Weekly Bulletin March 5, 2007, Vol. 96, No. 18
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/07/0305/5a.shtml
From dissertations to collaborations
By Jennifer Greenstein Altmann
Princeton NJ — When Caryl Emerson was a graduate student at the University
of Texas-Austin in the late ‘70s, she spent her days and nights studying an
1825 play by Alexander Pushkin called “Boris Godunov,” the subject of her
dissertation.
Emerson went on to become the A. Watson Armour III University Professor of
Slavic Languages and Literatures at Princeton, concentrating on 19th-century
Russian prose and the Russian critical tradition, but she never put aside
her fascination with “Boris Godunov.”
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Princeton scholars Simon Morrison and Caryl Emerson are managing the
“Godunov” world premiere project. (photo: Denise Applewhite)
“It’s a very complicated play,” said Emerson. “I’ve not stopped thinking
about it for 25 years.”
Now Emerson is a leading force in bringing Pushkin’s play to the stage as it
was meant to be seen in a grand 1936 production that went unrealized.
Emerson and Associate Professor of Music Simon Morrison are jointly managing
the ambitious project to stage a world premiere of “Boris Godunov” at
Princeton.
The historical drama was set to be performed in Soviet Russia with a
magnificent score by legendary Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev and
direction by Vsevolod Meyerhold, an innovator in the theater, but the
politics of the Soviet era prevented the play from being staged.
For Morrison, an expert on Prokofiev and his music, this is the second major
work by the composer he has launched at Princeton. In 2005 he was the force
behind the performance of “Pas d’Acier,” one of the great lost ballets of
the 20th century.
Morrison was drawn to the score for “Boris Godunov” because of the eerily
appealing music and the poignancy of its never being realized as Prokofiev
intended.
“It’s a wasted score from the most productive and provocative period of his
career,” Morrison said. “But the music needs the play to be understood. It’s
built to wrap around the words, to amplify the literary themes of loneliness
and alienation.”
The two professors have known each other since Morrison was a graduate
student at Princeton. When he received his Ph.D. in 1997, Emerson was one of
his dissertation advisers. As colleagues, they developed a close working
relationship, since much of Morrison’s work centers on Russian and Soviet
music.
As co-project managers, the two have collaborated to explain the beauty of
the play and the music. Emerson has articulated the play’s symbolism and
historical plot; Morrison has elucidated the significance and appeal of the
score.
“To succeed, the project absolutely demands a Pushkin expert,” Morrison
said, “because Pushkin’s text is quite experimental, an affront to
theatrical convention.”
Emerson is beyond thrilled to be involved in the project. “This is
everybody’s academic fantasy: What you care about when you’re sitting alone
in the library becomes what everybody else cares about,” she said.
And even though she has studied and written about the play for the last 25
years — this year she co-wrote “The Uncensored Boris Godunov: The Case for
Pushkin’s Original Comedy” with Chester Dunning — this production has still
taught her new things about the play.
“A great text never stops teaching you,” Emerson said. “I reread it and see
things I never saw before. A great work of art is like a diamond. It has a
lot of facets and you can’t take them all in at once. And it never loses its
luster.”
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