"Last Chance folks!"

This blog has been a little bare in the last month or so. I just wanted to remind peeps that there is only one more weekend to catch some heads of the rounded and pointed variety. Houses have been great so far. Here is some music from The Coup that I think embodies the energy and some of the themes of the show. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQthFDpYCys

Andres

Roundheads and Peakheads. Photo by Colin Hovde.

German playwright Bertolt Brecht and Catalyst Theater Company were made for each other. Catalyst excels in multi-media presentations combining video, sound montages and live musical accompaniment and Brecht practically invented multi-media theater.

Add to the mix director Christopher Gallu whose staging of Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Alberto Ui very deservedly won the first Helen Hayes Award for Best Ensemble and you have an outstanding theatrical experience like Catalyst’s current offering, a revival of Brecht’s rarely performed 1934 satire Roundheads and Peakheads.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, Roundheads and Peakheads was a scathing indictment of the Nazis’ fueling of racial hatred to promote their agenda. The mythical kingdom of Yahoo is experiencing an economic meltdown (timely much?) and the country’s leaders decide to quell a potential uprising of the lower class by the exploiting the enmity between two ethnic groups: the rich peakheads and the poor roundheads.

Brecht conceived Roundheads and Peakheads as a semi-musical and one of the best things about Catalyst’s production is the way Gallu stages the musical numbers in a variety of styles: rap, rock, 40s jazz, folk, etc. The original music is by Chris Royal and the lyrics are by Brecht (with the exception of the second act rap number and the climatic rendition of Charles Mingus’ Freedom).

Once again, Gallu has put together an impressive ensemble cast consisting of Monalisa Arias, Jenny Crooks, Catherine Deadman, Kathleen Gonzales, Cesar Guadamuz, Dan Istrate, Erica McLaughlin, Andres Talero, John Tweel and Grady Weatherford all of whom do impeccable work playing multiple parts. Deadman, with her wicked comic timing and wonderfully smoky singing voice, is a particular stand-out as cynical prostitute Nanna. (Her two songs, performed in front of an old-fashioned microphone, makes one long to see her cast as a night club chanteuse in a stage noir.)

The story goes that, at the premiere of Roundheads and Peakheads, Brecht saw some audience members crying and others laughing during the same scenes. “And I was satisfied with both,” Brecht said. He probably would be equally satisfied with Catalyst’s superlative production.

See full review here.

roundheads and peakheads

We are movin’ on up!  I am not talking about the TV show, ‘The Jeffersons,’ but now that I am: isn’t it good!?

No, really I am talking about moving the play out of our small rehearsal room and onto the big stage in Atlas.  I always feel like someone in poking me during this phase and whispering in my ear: “Bigger, louder, better and funnier!”  There is a comfort level gained in our small, unthreatening, rehearsal room and then I get to the stage and realize that we will actually be performing this thing.  It all comes down to a sense of misplaced ownership.

I have been talking about “our” rehearsal room, but the play is some distant and unreal thing.  It’s like exchanging your XBOX360, and getting a child in return; the play seems to run automatically in rehearsal, and then you get in the space and you realize that it’s alive (much less poop though…hopefully).

–Andres

Even in our diversity of origin, there are so many similarities. We had a conversation one day about the Hatsos. I could recognize their use in the play because in Haiti, where I am from, we have a long standing history of government trying to control the people by using the forces of “government empowered” people, whether official or unofficial. We had the ton ton macoutes of Duvalier who wore uniforms and caused problems for anyone who spoke against the government, to the chimeres (ghosts) of more recent times who were from poor neighborhoods but were given arms and specific instructions on where and how to cause chaos in order to keep the citizens in a state of fear.

In Panama, they were called Dobermans, men who had been unofficially sanctioned by the government to be the strong arm, beating up individuals who possibly spoke against those in power at the time.  Someone else mentioned the private security companies used by the US in the Middle East which caused some major news scandals a few years ago when it was discovered that they are exempt from prosecution of any “war crimes” they may commit in the name of democracy.

So there it is, our common understanding of what these characters do and how they function in the play. Each of us comes from a different path with different experiences but we are able to come to a common understanding because this type of thing does happen everywhere. And this is only one layer of the story of Roundheads and Peakheads, in the land of Yahoo, under Iberin’s proud white fluttering flag.

–Kathleen Gonzales

Photo right: Unrest. Port-Au-Prince, Haiti: The military lead a ‘Ton Ton Macoute’, a vigilante militia that ruled during the Duvalier regime, to safety, protecting him from an angry mob gathered outside his home.

So here’s the video for the web preview.
- Michael

It was thrilling to be at the first read through of Roundheads and Peakheads and hear about the many production elements and how they will come together.  Roundheads and Peakheads will feature live, original music, dance, video and an ensemble of 10 actors playing over 30 roles.  I think Brecht is smiling.   Chris even wrote two raps for the production.  I remember receiving a file titled “not to share with anyone.”  It was Chris’ prologue.  It was Chris himself rapping with a backup beat and all!  I was so impressed and inspired by his enthusiasm and dedication to his work.  It reaffirmed for me why I do theater.

At Catalyst, we pride ourselves in performing bold and challenging works that you will not see on TV and all for $10.  Trust me, you will not be disappointed with this next production.  BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW,  1984 practically sold out and this will too.

Later tonight I am going to post some of the video we have been shooting…again, very exciting!

–Scott Fortier, Artistic Director

Bringing it back to the play, change has also come to the land of Yahoo.  We have been rehearsing the first court scene for the last couple of days and I couldn’t help but notice how similar Iberin is to the idea of “change.”  In Yahoo, like America, there is a war going on at the same time there is a financial crisis and people want change.  Not everyone knows what that change entails, but they know they want it.  I think South Park shows a perfect example of the ridiculous nature of this (The first five minutes of the video):

South Park Video

I play one of the Hatsos in this first court scene and it scared me to realize that Iberin is not an evil or wicked person, as I had originally read her to be; she is actually very hopeful and kind.  When she starts spouting racial separation in the guise of unity I already bought the product and it’s too late to return it.  I use the word product, because I think it mirrors what is happening now.  I am not sure how many people ride the metro (probably a lot of you, if you went to the Inauguration by train), but there are Ikea signs up that say “Embrace Change”.  An obvious rip-off of Obama’s campaign slogan and what has become an almost national cry to arms.

When a slogan is ripped off and used to sell (impossible-to-put-together) furniture, then it loses its meaning and becomes ridiculous, if not dangerous.  Those with money (Big Five in the plays case, and Ikea/Target/Walmart in ours) use Iberin/Obama to sell what they want.  As soon as the people buy it, in its distorted form, it loses all meaning and is out of the hands of the people who created it.

Let me know what you guys think.

–Andres Talero

For example, not a day after Iberin’s declaration that the land should be split into two (Roundheads and Peakheads), violence commences against a Peakhead shop owner when he is “outed” by a competing grocer down the street. The people immediately use the government’s outlandish new laws to their own personal benefit, and turn neighbors into enemies at the drop of a dime.

The other thing that has struck me is how the government of Yahoo uses the politics of fear to encourage separatism. Iberin tries to make Zaks afraid of Ziks, by blaming Ziks for stealing their land, their pride, their daughters—in short, anything they are afraid of losing. Wherever a Zak finds themselves inadequate, they are to blame it on a nearby Zik.

Some of my lines as Iberin:

A fearsome foe lurks in our pleasant land,
Silently working his evil ways: the Zik!
‘Tis he who bears the blame for all your ills
‘Tis his who you must fight with all your strength…

The other thing on my mind this morning and when I first read the play was the simplicity of the racial distinction that the play is based on: you either have a rounded head or a pointed head. In modern day context, it just helps to make the segregation in the play more absurd, as no one can really tell by looking at someone what shape their head is in (unless of course aided by costume hats with points, which we will be).

It really is funny to think that people once believed you could tell character traits by the shape of one’s skull—i.e. the science of Phrenology—but it’s not so unbelievable when you consider what assumptions people once made about race in this country not 50 years ago. And here we are in Washington two days from having our first African-American president.

Ok enough intellectualizing: off to dance rehearsal! Oh yea, you didn’t know there was dance in this play huh?

What we talked about is what the world looked like.  There were some ideas from Danielle Amato (Dramaturg) and Chris Gallu (Director) that the world was caught between an urban environment and a rural one.  (No, I’m not talking about Mount Pleasant .  So you can have a Hardee’s next door to a farmer selling his goods.  Agriculture and Industry have not melded together, but live independent of each other in the same world.  The interaction becomes more obscene and distorted in war-like states.

Yahoo becomes a war-like state during the course of the play and there is much more interaction of the upper class to the lower class.  The interaction may not be harmonious, but those from the higher class definitely come into contact with the poor in a way they have not before.

From my own experience, I see this mirrored in war-like countries.  I was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait for a year during my Army Reserve days in 2004.  It surprised me to see a guy walking a camel talking on his cell phone right next a McDonald’s.  Here is a little picture as an example of what I am talking about:

So the message is: Eat more McDonald’s ya’ll.  It’s good for the war economy!

(I was gonna include a quote from the play to show this, but then ya’ll wouldn’t have to see the play, cause we’d give it all away.)  Peace!