Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) and The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Dr. Charles F. Urbanowicz / Professor of Anthropology
California State University, Chico / Chico, California 95929-0400
530-898-6220 [Office]; 530-898-6192 [Dept.]; 530-898-6824 [FAX]
e-mail: curbanowicz@csuchico.edu / home page: http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban

24 March 2003 [1]

[This page printed from http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/BrechtSp2003.html

The Caucasian Chalk Circle was performed March 4-8, 2003, @ 7:30pm and March 9, 2003 (2pm) in the Wismer Theatre @ California State University, Chico

"This intriguiging parable by Bertolt Brecht focuses on a dispute over a piece of land abandoned during the war: should the government return it to original owners who never did much with it, or deed it to new owners who will greatly increase the productivity of the land? Using the ancient Chinese legend of the Caucasian Chalk Circle, they arrive at an interesting solution. This minimalist production, directed by Theatre faculty member Susan Pate, employs songs and poems, physical art, exaggerated characterizations, and a 'presto-switcho-chango' mentality." From: Kaleidoscope: CSU, Chico Arts Events 2002-2003 Season, page 21. [http://www.csuchico.edu/hfa/chicoarts/caucasianchalkframe.html] [AND SEE: http://www.csuchico.edu/hfa/chicoarts/caucasianpr.html; http://www.chicoer.com/articles/2003/02/27/buzz/theater-chalk.txt [Chico Enterprise-Record, February 27, 2003] and http://www.newsreview.com/issues/chico/2003-02-27/finearts2.asp [Chico News & Review, February 27, 2003] and http://www.chicoer.com/articles/2003/03/06/news/news6.txt [Chico Enterprise-Record, March 6, 2003].

INTRODUCTION
EUGEN BERTHOLD FRIEDRICH BRECHT (February 10, 1898 - August 14, 1956)
DRAMATURGE
DRAMATURGE INFORMATION (
GLOSSARY OF SOME TERMS)
THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (DER KAUKASICHE KREIDEKREIS)
MISCELLANEOUS MATERIAL
CONCLUSIONS
THE CSU, CHICO PRODUCTION OF SPRING 2003
POLITICS AND THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (By Ernst Schoen-René)
A ONE-ACT "POEM"
A CHARLIE URBANOWICZ
POSTSCRIPT
VISUALS FROM THE SPRING 2003 CSU, CHICO PRODUCTION
OTHER BRECHT
VISUALS
VARIOUS REFERENCES (INCLUDING WWW)

Poster designed by Drew Hathaway.

INTRODUCTION

"The circle has no beginning and no ending. It is unbiased, solid and unwavering in its geometric simplicity, denoting unity and eternity, totality and infinity. ... The circle draws its rich symbolism from numerous sources, including, but not limited to Biblical liturgy (St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose center was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere).... [stress added]." Jessica Helfand, 2002, Reinventing The Wheel (NY: Princeton Architectural Press), page 13.

Bertolt Brecht on theatre: "'Theatre' consists in this: in making live representations of reported or invented happenings between human beings and doing so with a view to entertainment. At any rate that is what we shall mean when we speak of theatre, whether old or new." Bertolt Brecht, 1949, A short organum for the theatre. John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 179-205, page 180.

"Human beings go to the theatre in order to be swept away, captivated, impressed, uplifted, horrified, moved, kept in suspense, released, diverted, set free, set going, transplanted from their own time, and supplied with illusions. All of this goes so much without saying that the art of the theatre is candidly defined as having the power to release, sweep away, uplift, et cetera. It is not an art at all unless it does so." Bertolt Brecht, 1940, On The Experimental Theatre [translated by Carl Mueller]. Robert W. Corrigan, 1963, Theatre in the Twentieth Century [NY: 1965 Grove Press Edition], pages 94-110, page 106.

Bertolt Brecht on actors: "...nobody who fails to get fun out of his activities can expect them to be fun for anybody else." Bertolt Brecht, 1926, "Emphasis on Sport. Translated and reprinted in John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 6-9, page 7.

"A firm believer in the use of theatre as an instructional medium, Brecht...sought to prevent audiences from becoming too involved emotionally with the events portrayed on stage. He considered it a shameful waste of the theatre's resources to mesmerize an audience and purge its emotions through an identification with the characters and situations. All such empathic theatrical experiences he identified as 'Aristotelian.' He called theatre that existed solely to give sensual pleasure without provoking socially meaningful thought 'culinary.' Theatre should inform the spectator; it should make him ponder the drama's Marxist implications--the need for societal change [stress added]." Samuel L. Leiter, 1991, From Stanislavsky To Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (NY: Greenwood Press), page 158.

"Bertolt Brecht has become one of the few twentieth-century dramatists whom critics and public alike agree is of the first rank." Charles R. Lyons, 1968, Bertolt Brecht: The Despair and the Polemic (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press), page v.

"Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is recognized, thirty years after his death, as perhaps the greatest playwright and certainly as the most important theoretician of drama in this century. Without his doctrine of Epic Theatre, theatre in both East and West would be hard to imagine today." Russell E. Brown, 1986, Bertolt Brecht as Dramaturg. Bert Cardullo [Editor] What is Dramaturgy? (NY: Peter Lang), pages 57-63, page 57.

"Few will doubt that the plays of Bertolt Brecht are the outstanding achievement of twentieth-century German drama. Even had Brecht never written a line of dialogue, his work as a theatrical theorist and director would have established him as one of the foremost figures in the history of the theatre." Samuel L. Leiter, 1991, From Stanislavsky To Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (NY: Greenwood Press), page 151.

"The epic theatre is chiefly interested in the attitudes which people adopt towards one another, wherever they are socio-historically significant (typical). It works out scenes where people adopt attitudes of such a sort that the social laws under which they are acting spring into sight. For that we need to find workable definitions: that is to say, such definitions of the relevant processes as can be used in order to intervene in the processes themselves. The concern of the epic theatre is thus eminently practical. Human behavior is shown as alterable; man himself as dependent on certain political and economic factors and at the same time as capable of altering them [stress added]." Bertolt Brecht, ~1935/1957, On The Use of Music in An Epic Theatre. John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 84-90, page 86.

"The 'epic theater' Brecht envisioned was to rest on three pillars: new dramaturgical constructs embracing different raw materials; a new style of production that would de-emphasize emotion; and a new spectator who would cooly and scientifically appreciate this new theater concept [stress added]." John Fuegi, 1972, The Essential Brecht (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalss, Inc.), page 18.

Bertolt Brecht on "Dramatic Theatre" and Epic Theatre" entitled: The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre. Bertolt Brecht, 1930,John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 33-42, page 37.

DRAMATIC THEATRE
EPIC THEATRE

plot

narrative

implicates the spectator in a stage situation

turns the spectator into an observer, but

wears down his capacity fo action

arouses his capacity for action

provides him with sensations

forces him to take decisions

experience

picture of the world

the spectator is involved in something

he is made to face something

suggestion

argument

institnctive feelings are preserved

brought to the point of recognition

the spectator is in the thick of it, shares the experience

the spectator stands outside, studies

the human being is taken for granted

the human being is the object of the inquiry

he is unalterable

he is alterable and able to alter

eyes on the finish

eyes on the course

one scene makes another

each scene for itself

growth

montage

linear development

in curves

evolutionary determinism

jumps

man as fixed point

man as process

thought determines being

social being determines thought

feeling

reason

"Epic Theatre. In the 1920s the term was used to describe a theater of ample scope, treating contemporary materials in all their epic complexity. The 'epic theater' was usually political, tendentious, and employed a large number of documentary and 'narrative' devices. A good practical example of such a theater was that of Piscator who used the terms 'epic' and 'political' as virtual synonyms. As used in Brecht's later aesthetic theory, the term lacks, as Bentley and Willet (among others) have observed, coherent meaning. Brecht himself seems, late in life, to have argued with this latter view [stress added]." John Fuegi, 1972, The Essential Brecht (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalss, Inc.), page 187.

"The Berliner Ensemble came to represent what is today called "epic theater". Epic theater breaks with the Aristotelian concepts of a linear story line, a suspension of disbelief, and progressive character development. In their place, epic theater uses episodic plot structure, contains little cause and effect between scenes, and has cumulative character development. The goal is one of estrangement, or "Verfremdung", with an emphasis on reason and objectivity rather than emotion, or a type of critical detachment. This form of theater forces the audience to distance itself from the stage and contemplate on the action taking place. To accomplish this, Brecht focused on cruel action, harsh and realistic scenes, and a linear plot with no climax and denouement. By making each scene complete within itself Brecht sought to prevent illusion. A Brecht play is meant to provoke the audience into not only thinking about theplay, but into reforming society by challenging common ideologies. Following in the footsteps of Pirandello, he blurs the distinction between life and theatre so that the audience is left with an ending that requires social action. (http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/about_bertolt_brecht.html)

"NOTE: The term Epic Theater, used by Brecht for the first time in 1926, did not originate with him, although it is generally applied to his work today. It was already in the air in 1924 when Brecht moved from Munich to Berlin and was first used in connection with revolutionary experiments by director Erwin Piscator. Many playwrights and composers produced plays and musical compositions in the 1920s which have been since been labeled epic (Stravinisky, Pirandello, Claudel), and others have followed in their footsteps (Wilder, Miller, Becket)." [http://www.orst.edu/instruct/ger341/brechtet.htm]

"Brecht's plot may consist of a number of episodic, demonstrative actions--as many as happen to be needed--with no overt connection. The five-act play is practically unknown to him. This is 'epic theatre' applied to the actual structure of the text. The term episch in German has to do with narrative form--less with sheer scale, as often in English. Brecht constructs model situations to show social relationships, rather than more or less naturalistic depictions of probable and lifelike procedures. Theatre is not life. It must however learn from life and have an analagous relationship of plan and chance, probable and improbable [stress added]." Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), page 39.

"Brecht, at this time [~1918], was like his own literary creation Baal, insatiable. His powers of absorption were unlimited. What he absorbed he used, or was to use. later he woiuld be charged with plagiarism--an accusation he would admit and dismiss with his usual sang-froid. Whether it was from the present or the past, he could take generously." Frederic Ewen, 1967, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art And His Times (NY: The Citadel press), pages 68-69.

"Back in the early twenties, Brecht plays were not getting much attention. 'What you need,' a friend told him, 'is a theory. To make your stuff important.' So Brecht went home and got himself a theory, which is now known to more people than the plays." Eric Bentley, 1998, Bentley on Brecht (New York/London: Applause), page 17.

 

EUGEN BERTHOLD FRIEDRICH BRECHT (February 10, 1898-August 14, 1956)

"German dramatist, director and poet, whose work dominated 20th-century German theatre and is perhaps the most influential force in Western theatre since the Second World War [1939-1945]. ... in 1945 came what many consider his finest play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, with its complex mix of pathos and comedy...." Christopher Innes, 1988, Bertolt Brecht. The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre [edited by Martin Banham], 1988, (Cambridge University Press), page 112.

"The unity of Brecht's work, in my opinion, is directed by the fact that his plays are, in a sense, explorations of the quality of a single human action--the futile attempt of the human will to assert itself in a free act. This attempt, in other words, is a struggle to attain a sense of consistent and meaningful identity, to separate the unique and personal aspect of being from its environment [stress added]. Charles R. Lyons, 1968, Bertolt Brecht: The Despair and the Polemic (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press), page xvi.

"Eugen Berthold Brecht was born on 10 February 1898, in Augsburg, Bavaria. His father was a clerk in the local paper-mill, who later rose to the position of manager of the firm. ... Brecht's mother was Lutheran, his father Catholic: he was baptized in the Barfüsserkirche, but throughout his early years retained an interest in Catholic liturgy and ritual. His school years saw the emergence of at least two traits which were to become characteristic both of his work and personality: the forming of a wide circle of intimate friends and collaborators...and the interest in the Bible, biblical phraseology, and poetic forms such as the psalm, hymn and chorale [stress added]." Michael Morley, 1977, Brecht: A Study (London: Heinemann), pages 1-3.

"At the age of fifteen [~1913] Brecht was already showing that he could put his knowledge of the Bible to good literary use. He had one gift in common with Jesus: they both knew how to state a complex truth about human behavior in a provocative story with the resonance of a riddle [stress added]." Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford university Press), page 3.

"Germany in the twenties, the Weimar Republic, never really emerged from the slaughter of World War I which preceded it before entering the violence which portended its close and the horrow of Nazism. Brecht reflects an age which sees life as brutish and basic, people as self-centred and violent, even nature as uncaring rather than maternal. ... From 1919 to 1921 Brecht wrote theatre criticism for a left-wing Augsburg paper but was also much in Munich. ... From about 1929, when Brecht witnessed the bloody dispersal of a May Day march by the Berlin police, whose president was a Social Democrat, he determines to aid the Communist cause in practical ways, though he apparently never bcame a party member. ... Hitler's rise to power meant immediate exile (followed by withdrawal of German citizenship in 1935 and povery through loss of royalties. ... On 21 July 1941 the Brecht family arrived in America, where friends awaited them and a house was ready in Santa Monica, Hollywood [stress added]." Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), pages 3-10.

"As a well-known left-winger, Brecht's name was prominent of the Nazi blacklist when Hitler came to power. In 1933 brecht and his family left Hitler's Germany for what turned out to be a period of exile lasting fourteen years." Samuel L. Leiter, 1991, From Stanislavsky To Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (NY: Greenwood Press), page 156.

"These years were to prove years of hardship and privation for Brecht and his family--though the self-pity and laments for lost status and identity that one finds in the writings of a number of german émigrés...are conspicuously absent from his work. ... Instead of any lament or loud complaints about personal grievances being voiced in the poetry of these years, we find Brecht describing his situation in lines which have become a dispassionate motto for his years in exile: Gingen wir doch, öfter als die Schuhe die Länder wechselnd ["For we went changing countries more often than shoes']. " Michael Morley, 1977, Brecht: A Study (London: Heinemann), page 8.

"Heartening though it was, the American declaration of war [in 1941] made life more difficult. He was now an 'enemy alien'. He had a registration number - 7624464. Like other German immigrants in and around Hollywood, the Brecht's came under suspicion. Some neighbors thought they were working for the Nazis; others thought it was for the Russians. Their movements were restricted to a five-mile radius of their home, and they were not allowed out of doors between eight in the evening and six in the morning - which meant that Brecht often had to stay the night with friends." Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), page 259.

"Brecht, Bertolt (1898-1956), German dramatist, director, and poet, whose unique, disengaged treatment of social themes and revolutionary experiments greatly influenced modern drama and theatrical production. Brecht was born on February 10, 1898, in Augsburg, Bavaria, and educated at the universities of Munich and Berlin. In 1924 he became dramaturge at the Berlin Deutsches Theater, under the direction of Max Reinhardt. His early plays show the influence of expressionism, the leading dramatic movement at the time. In 1928 Brecht wrote a musical drama, The Threepenny Opera (trans. 1933), with the German composer Kurt Weill. This musical, based on The Beggar's Opera (1728) by the English dramatist John Gay, was a caustic satire on capitalism and became Brecht's greatest theatrical success. Staged first in Berlin in 1928, it was produced in the United States in 1933. In 1924 Brecht had begun to study Marxism, and from 1928 until Hitler came to power, Brecht wrote and produced several didactic musical dramas. The opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930; trans. 1956), which also featured music by Weill, severely criticized capitalism. During this early period in his career Brecht trained actors and began to develop a theory of dramatic technique known as epic theater. Rejecting the methods of traditional realistic drama, he preferred a loose narrative form in which he used distancing devices such as asides and masks to create a historical frame around the action. This technique prevents the spectator from identifying with the characters on stage. Because of his anti-Hitler political activities, Brecht fled from Germany in 1933; he lived first in Scandinavia and finally settled in California in 1941. During his years of wandering he wrote a novel and many anti-Nazi poems, one-act plays, and radio scripts. He also wrote several other plays, including Galileo (1938-39; trans. 1945-47) and Mother Courage and Her Children (1941; trans. 1963), which established his reputation as a serious dramatist. During his years in California Brecht wrote The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1944-45; trans. 1948). In 1948 Brecht returned to Germany, settled in East Berlin, and founded his own theatrical company, the Berliner Ensemble. He was a controversial figure in Eastern Europe, because his moral pessimism conflicted with the Soviet ideal of socialist realism. Throughout his life Brecht also wrote several outstanding collections of poems that, with the plays, rank him among the greatest German authors. He died in East Berlin on August 14, 1956 [stress added]." FROM: Brecht, Bertolt. Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

"Instinctive compassion is a major subject of Brecht's last major dramatic work, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which was written in 1944-45 while Brecht lived in exile in the United States. This beautiful play, which is a kind of dramatic dream, concerns a young servant girl who saves the deserted infant child of the Prince during a revolution." Charles R. Lyons, 1968, Bertolt Brecht: The Despair and the Polemic (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press), page 133.

"[After returning to Berlin, Germany, on October 22, 1948] Brecht was now allowed to form his own theatre troupe, the Berliner Ensemble. This company first performed in the Deutsches Theater, then in 1954 took up resident in Brecht's old rebuilt theatre of the twenties, the Theatre am Schiffbauerdamm. The troupe was generously supported by the state: Brecht had sixty actors and two hundred fifty staff members in all; production and rehearsal time were virtually unlimited. Thus, like Shakespeare and Molière in their time, Brecht had his own private theatre to mount productions of his own work and that of others, to put into practise his theory of Epic Theatre, and to train a whole generation of theatre people, actors, stage designers, composers, and dramaturgs [stress added]." Russell E. Brown, 1986, Bertolt Brecht as Dramaturg. Bert Cardullo [Editor], What is Dramaturgy? (NY: Peter Lang), pages 57-63, page 58.

Brecht gave his company "great freedom, allowing the actors to discover their own movement and behavior through the employment of a wide assortment of creative techniques, especially improvisation." Samuel L. Leiter, 1991, From Stanislavsky To Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (NY: Greenwood Press), page xiii.

"The qualities that determined Brecht's development emerged during his boyhood and adolescence. His self-confidence and his vitality were both so remarkable that he could make people feel privileged to be in his company, reacting to him with the unstinting genorisity that is usually reserved for the beautiful and the famous. With his quick mind, his willingness to accept both sides of a contradiction and the pleasure he took in challenging convention, he could give a great deal of pleasure and stimulation to the admirers who surrounded him, encouraging them to acknowledge their feelings -- sexual feelings, and rfesistance to the war, to authoritarianism and conventionality - they might otherwise suppressed. Brecht gave a great deal and took a great deal. Skillful un manipulating people, he was ruthless both with girls and with boys who were younger or weaker than he was. He felt entitled to take, not because of what he gave, but because his needs were so intense and because he knew he could get away with it [stress added]." Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford university Press), page 23.

"The story of a charming, sexually magnetic man who ran a play factor and wrote great contracts for himself, though it certainly has an interest on its own, is only one strand in the complex weave of a tale covering three continents and every major intelligence agency of the '20s, '30s, '40s, and '50s. Beyond the facts of canny contracts and doctored bank statements, what is central, of course are the great plays that generated the money and the enduring fame, and the everyday lives of the people who created the work. Tracing the course of the actual writing of plays such as The Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage, Galileo, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle involves a globe-circling journey as the persons central to the creation of the plays are chased around the world by numerous intelligence agencies [stress added]." John Fuegi, 2002, from the "Preface To The Second Edition" of Brecht & Co: Sex, Politics, and the Making of the Modern Drama (NY: Grove Press), page xiv.

"The evidence kindly given to me since the appearance of Brecht & Co. in 1994 makes it essential to reissue the books with the warning that the original text significantly understated the extent to which several plays published under the name of Brecht were often almost entirely written by others. ... Working systematically through the records of the creation of over forty plays as new archives have been opened and additional eyewitnesses found, I was able to begin to construct a day-by-day account of who was writing what. Starting with relatively obscure adaptations supposedly done by Brecht, I began in 1974 to publish articles noting they were not primarily written by Brecht at all but marketed as though they were written by him. ... For instance, every indication of the manuscript trail, once I started down it, was that the libretto of the Threepenny Opera, including the majority of the songs, was at least 70 percent the work of Elisabeth Hauptmann [1897-1973] [stress added]." John Fuegi, 2002, from the "Preface To The Second Edition" of Brecht & Co: Sex, Politics, and the Making of the Modern Drama (NY: Grove Press), pagesxvii-xviii andpages xxii-xxiii)."

  

DRAMATURG (OR DRAMATURGE)

"Dramaturg. In the German theater, the 'Dramaturg' functions as both play-reader and play-doctor. He can also be called upon to direct productions. A large number of German playwrights have held such positions. Brecht's own theatrical career began with his serving as 'Dramaturg' in Munich. Unfortunately, English and American theaters can but rarely afford the 'luxury' of a 'Dramaturg.' A major exception is the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis." John Fuegi, 1972, The Essential Brecht (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalss, Inc.), page 187.

"...Brecht's experience as a dramaturg has three phases. At first, in 1923, he played a more-or-less conventional role in Munich, then he joined Piscator's collective dramaturgical structure in Berlin in 1927, and finally he himself sponsored a dramaturgy training group in East Germany from 1949 to the end of his life [in 1956]. There Brecht was, on the one hand, democratic, adaptable, and part of a team, but on the other hand also a dominant, charismatic, famous, and politically favored leader who shaped productions according to his own inclinations and theory, whatever particular role he assigned himself on each occasion. He added the role of the wise theatre veteran, his Chinese-philosopher persona, to the flamboyant and spoiled child-genius of the past [stress added]." Russell E. Brown, 1986, Bertolt Brecht as Dramaturg. Bert Cardullo [Editor], What is Dramaturgy? (NY: Peter Lang), pages 57-63, page 62.

"The main job of a dramaturg is to keep asking why. Why are we doing this play? Why this season? Why here? Why does our theatre exist? Why do we exist? Why has theatre worked elsewhere or in the past? Why do our audiences come? Why does ninety to ninety-five percent of the local popualtion stay away? Why are we, inside the theatre, excited about the plays we are doing and why are we not spreading our excitement of the community?" Peter Hay, 1983, American Dramaturgy: A Critical Re-Appraisal. Bert Cardullo [Editor], 1995, What is Dramaturgy? (NY: Peter Lang), pages 67-87, pages 74-75.

"In exasperation, a moderator, Anne Cattaneo, herself a dramaturge who works for the Lincoln Center Theater, asked all six members of one panel to state the mission of a dramaturge. Here is what she got. 'I'll probably get killed for saying this, but I don't know the answer,' said Tom Cole, director of the Market theatre in Cambridge, Mass., and a former dramaturge. 'I look for patterns in things, said Irma Mayorga, a doctoral candidate in drama at Stanford University who has been a dramaturge for many new Latino playwrights. 'I am a mediator between the actor and the director,' said Andrea Koschwitz, executive dramaturge of one of the oldest theaters in Germany, the Volksbühne in Berlin. 'A dramaturge is a great equalizer and a glorious leveler of all that goes into theater collaboration,' said Judith Dolan, a costume designer for theater, opera, film and television. She talks to dramaturges all the time, she says. 'I want to be sure that every actor understands every word and every line and every scene that's in the play,' said Joanne Zipay, director of the Judith Shakespeare Company in New York and a sometime dramaturge. 'There's an old joke that goes: 'What do Americans do with a question? They answer it,' began Morgan Jennes, a theatrical agent and former dramaturge at the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. 'Well, the job of the dramaturge is to make that question as deep and as difficult and as provocative as possible [stress added].'" William H. Honan, 2002, Dramaturges Take a While to Defend Themselves. The New York Times, March 12, 2002, page B2.

"Learning has a very different function for different social strata. There are strata who cannot imagine any improvement in conditions: they find the conditions good enough for them. Whatever happens to oil they will benefit from it. And: they feel the years beginning to tell. There can't be all that many years more. What is the point of learning a lot now? They have said their final word: a grunt. But there are also strata 'waiting their turn' who are discontented with conditions, have a vast interest in the practical side of learning, want at all costs to find out where they stand, and know that they are lost without learning; these are the best and keenest learners. Similar diffrerences apply to countries and peoples. Thus the pleasure of learning depends on all sorts of things; but none the less there is such a thing as pleasurable learning, cheerful and militant learning [stress added]." Bertolt Brecht, ~1936, Theatre for pleasure of theatre for learning. John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 69-77, pages 72-73.

 

DRAMATURGE INFORMATION (GLOSSARY OF SOME TERMS)  

Note: all page references below come from the Grove Press edition (New York City) of The Caucasian Chalk Circle (revised English version with an introduction and Appendix by Eric Bentley).

Page 19: Nazi = "A widely used acronym derived from the first letters of nationalsozialistche. The use of 'Nazi' and "Nazism' remains unpopular in the USSR [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics], where it is felt that it emphasises the socialist element in Nazi ideology. The term fascist is preferred." James Taylor and Warren Shaw, 1987, The Third Reich Almanac (NY: World Almanac), page 224.

Page 19: Kolkhoz Rosa Luxemburg} Kolkhoz} " Russian, from kollektivnoe khozyaistvo collective farm, Date: 1921: a collective farm of the U.S.S.R." [http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=kolkhoz]

"Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919), German socialist leader and revolutionary, prominent in the international socialist movements in the early years of the 20th century. She was born on March 5, 1871, in Zamosc, Poland (then a part of Russia), and was educated in Warsaw, where she became active in political societies. In 1889 she fled Poland to avoid imprisonment for her activities and settled in Switzerland; she studied natural science and political economy at the University of Zürich, writing a doctoral dissertation entitled The Industrial Development of Poland (1898). In 1898 she migrated to Germany, acquiring citizenship by marriage to a German worker, and affiliated herself with the German Social Democratic party (SPD), the leading organization of international socialism. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 Luxemburg went to Warsaw to participate in the struggle and was imprisoned. After her release she taught in the SPD school in Berlin (1907-14) and wrote The Accumulation of Capital (1913; trans. 1951). At the outbreak of World War I, she and the German socialist Karl Liebknecht formed a revolutionary faction within the SPD that became known as the Spartacists. Because of her vociferous opposition to the war, she was imprisoned; after her release in November 1918 she helped to transform the Spartacists into the Communist party of Germany. Luxemburg reluctantly took part in the unsuccessful Spartacist uprising against the government in January 1919, and both she and Liebknecht were arrested and murdered by German troops on the 15th of that month." Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. And see: http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxembur/ [The Rosa Luxemburg Internet Archive]

Page 22: 1 hectare = .405 acre; 1 acre = 43,560 square feet; 1 American football field = 57,600 square feet; 100 hectares = 1 square kilometer

Page 23: Mayakovski = "Mayakovsky, Vladimir Vladimirovich (1893-1930), Russian poet and propagandist. His early political activity during the czarist period led to his imprisonment; he then began writing poetry. Mayakovsky became a leading spokesperson for the Russian Revolution. He employed techniques geared to mass appeal, including the use of vernacular, even vulgar, language and new poetic forms. Poems such as "Oda revolutsi" (Ode to Revolution, 1918) were as popular as his passionate and lyrical love poems, such as "Lyublyu" (I Love, 1922). During the 1920s Mayakovsky provided propaganda for the Soviet government in a variety of forms such as poems, posters, plays, screenplays, and satiric travel sketches. In his play The Bedbug (1929; trans. 1960), he satirized the philistinism of the times. Disappointed in love and disillusioned with life in the Soviet Union, Mayakovsky took his own life in 1930." Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. And see: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/majakovs.htm [Vladimir Mayakovski]

Page 27: "Croesus (reigned about 560-546 BC), last king of Lydia, an ancient country of Asia Minor. His father, Alyattes (reigned about 600-560 BC), king of Lydia, died about 560 BC, and after a brief struggle with a half brother, Croesus became king. He increased his territory by conquest, winning a vast amount of booty, which made his wealth proverbial. According to legend, the Athenian sage Solon once visited the Lydian capital, Sardis, and was asked by Croesus if the possessor of such riches might not be considered the happiest of mortals. Solon replied: "Call no man happy before his death." Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia.

Page 33: Ironshirts [= blackshirts? brownshirts?] = "Mosley, Sir Oswald Ernald (1896-1980), British politician, born in London, and educated at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Mosley served with the Royal Flying Corps during World War I and entered the House of Commons in 1918. He was in Parliament until 1931, serving successively as a Conservative, an Independent, and as a member of the Labour Party. Mosley left the Labour Party in 1931, and the following year he founded the British Union of Fascists, sometimes called the Blackshirts. In 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, he was taken into custody by the British government and was not released until 1943. Freed from detention, Mosley vainly tried to revive his movement. He wrote The Greater Britain (1932), Europe: Faith and Plan (1958), 300 Questions Answered (1961), and My Life (1968)." Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia.

Brownshirts = "The colloquial name for the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA; stormtroopers). Their name refers to their brown uniforms. They were founded in 1921 and reorganized by Ernst Röhm [1887-1934] in1930. Squads of thugs, who molested and murdered the Nazis' opponents, they numbered two million by 1933. In 1934 Hitler eliminated Röhm and greatly reduced the power of the Brownshirts." [http://www.xrefer.com/entry/498926} The Macmillan Encyclopedia, 2001]. And see: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%F6hm.

Page 34: "Persia, conventional European designation of the country now known as Iran. This name was in general use in the West until 1935, although the Iranians themselves had long called their country Iran. For convention's sake the name of Persia is here kept for that part of the country's history concerned with the ancient Persian Empire until the Arab conquest in the 7th century AD." Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia.

Page 38: piaster = "...the 100th part of the pound of Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, or the Arab Republic of Egypt." The Random House College Dictionary, 1975, page 1002.

Page 90: "Vizier (Arabic wazìr, "bearer of burdens"), ministerial title applied in Muslim monarchies to high governmental officials. Viziers held considerable power as councillors of state during the Abbasid caliphate, from 750 to 1258, and also headed state departments in the Ottoman Empire and in the Mughal Empire of India. In the Ottoman Empire, head ministers were known as grand viziers, and in wartime they served as military commanders." Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia.

Page 92: Lake Urmi = "Urmia, Lake (Persian Orumìyeh Daryacheh-ye), shallow lake in northwestern Iran, west of the Caspian Sea. It is about 145 km (about 90 mi) long, with an average breadth of 48 km (about 30 mi), and occupies part of a level basin enclosed by mountains and lying at an altitude of more than 1200 m (3937 ft). The lake is fed by radial streams of considerable size, but it has no outlet. It is consequently too salty to nourish any life with the exception of certain crustaceans. The lake has been shrinking for years, exposing wide tracts of slime." Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia.

Page 123: "...like the cracked Isaiah" = "Isaiah, longest prophetic book of the Old Testament. Isaiah, traditionally considered the author of the book, was born the son of Amoz about 760 BC. ... According to tradition, Isaiah was martyred in either 701 or 690 BC. The beauty of his style and the consistent nobility of his message made him one of the most revered biblical writers. Although the whole book is attributed to Isaiah, scholars now recognize that it took shape over several centuries, attaining its present form sometime before 180 BC. The Book of Isaiah falls into two sections...The first section (chapters 1-39) exhibits a variety of literary forms. The first 12 chapters, for example, contain oracles of judgment, numerous denunciations of religious and social abuses. ... The main theological ideas are found in the first 12 chapters. According to Isaiah, ritual sacrifices to appease God are rendered unholy when offered by those who deal unjustly with others, particularly the less privileged and the poor. ... The main themes in chapters 40-55 are the following: (1) the Lord God of Israel is "God of the whole earth" (54:5) and beside him there is no other; (2) the nation of Israel, his servant, is to be redeemed from "the furnace of affliction" (48:20) into which God had placed it "for a brief moment" (54:7) because of its past blindness and deafness to his law; (3) the divine instrument for accomplishing the redemption of Israel is to be the Persian king Cyrus the Great (44:28-45:4), and, after the Lord punishes the oppressors of Israel (chapter 47), Zion will be restored, and the Lord "will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord" (51:3)." Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia.

"Caucasus Mountains, mountain range, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and southwest Russia, considered a boundary between Europe and Asia. The range extends for about 1200 km (about 750 mi) from the Abseron Peninsula on the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea to the mouth of the Kuban' River on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea. The western region is drained by the Kuban' River and the eastern portion by the Kura River. Of the two principal chains within the Caucasus, the most northerly range has a number of peaks higher than about 4570 m (15,000 ft) above sea level. El'brus, which has an altitude of 5642 m (18,510 ft), is the highest peak in Europe." Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. And see: http://www.pilgrimtours.org/eng/tours/caucas.htm, as well as http://www.caucasian.org/misc/caucasus%20mtns.htm, and http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/viewrecord?9035.

 

THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (Der kaukasische Kreidekreis] 

"Then came the one great work of the American period, Der kaukasische Kreidekreis (The Caucasian Chalk Circle)." Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), page 10.

June 1944} "...Brecht suggests Auden, in lieu of Isherwood, as translator for Der kaukasische Kreidekreis: the original intention was that the play should be staged on Broadway, and the first version is now ready." Michael Morley, 1977, Brecht: A Study (London: Heinemann), page 130.

"This reworking of the traditional Chalk Circle theme was written in March to June 1944 in Santa Monica, California, with a New York production in mind: the actress Luise Rainer had been instrumental in getting Brecht a contract with a Broadway theatre. Alterations were made in July and August, the prologue was recast in September. The first performance was however not until 1948, when a student production took place in Northfield, Minnesota; the first professional performance was on 7 October 1954, when Brecht, assisted by Manfred Wekwerth, put it on in the Berliner Ensemble [stress added]." Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), page 140.

May 4, 1948} "The Caucasian Chalk Circle (English translation by Eric and Maja Bentley). Amateur production at the Nourse Little Theatre, Northfield, Minnesota, directed by Henry Goodman." Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), page xxiv.

"Written in 1944 while Brecht was living in America, The Caucasian Chalk Circle was initially intended for Broadway. It never quite made it there, but was instead premiered by students at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1948. Brecht's source for the play is most likely Klabund's Circle of Chalk, which was based on an ancient Chinese play written in 1300 A.D. with the same name. Brecht adapted this story into parable form and changed the setting to Soviet Georgia near the end of World War II." [http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/chalkcircle/about.html]

"Like both Arturo Ui [1941] and Schweyk [1944], Der kaukasische Kreidekreis was intended for an American audience. None achieved what Brecht had hoped for: the earlier two never reached the stage, while Der kaukasische Kreiderkreis received its first preformance in Minnesota! It was not the Broadway opening Brecht had banked on when he first suggested the play to Luise Rainer. Yet it remains--especially with English-speaking audiences--the most popular of the later plays. The reasons are not hard to find: the panoramic character of the work, the 'fairy-tale' elements (though these are far more double-edged than they appear at first glance), the characters of Grusche and Azdak and the familiar combination of the poetic and the commonplace. Brecht was well aware of the play's individual position in his oeuvre...[stress added]." Michael Morley, 1977, Brecht: A Study (London: Heinemann), page 77. 

Incidentally} "Contemporary history was ever-present in Brecht's mind. On April 29, 1941, a few short weeks before he himself had to leave Finland, he completed The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a play he was never destined to see produced in his lifetime. It was written in hopes of being performed that year. The idea of composing a 'gangster' play, with Hitler [1889-1945] as 'hero' came to Brecht while he was in New York during the winter of 1935-1936, on the occasion of the performance of Mother [Die Mutter]. ... The completed play, Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui ... [with] Parody, elevated verse, and reminiscences of Goethe's Faust and Shakespeare's Richard III, are now used to expose the vacuity and moral and spiritual mediocrity of a 'gangster-here'--Hitler--to denude him of that aura of heroism and greatness which attach in the popular imagination to murderers and criminal who commit acts of epic proportions. Arturo Ui, a petty gangster leader from the Bronx, succeeds through terror in making himself the 'protector' of the cauliflower trust of Chicago. He manages to undo and displace the corrupted political boss Dogborough (Hundenburg); and, with his lieutenants Giri (Goering) and Givola (Goebbels), to exterminate his other henchman, Roma (Roehm). He eliminates the head of the neighboring vegetable trust, Dullfeet (Dollfuss) of Cicero (Austria), and wins the latter's widow. In the end he obtains the overwhelming vote of approval of both Chicago and Cicero. The Reichstag Fire Trial is parodied in a similar vein. In subsequent discussions of this play, after 1945, Brecht showed that he was sensitive to the criticism that might be directed against it on the score of its humor. 'The great political criminals,' he stated, 'must be exposed--and particularly exposed to laughter. For they are by no means great political criminals, but the perpetrators of great political crimes, which is something altogether different' [stress added]." Frederic Ewen, 1967, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art And His Times (NY: The Citadel press), pages 372-373.

"Responding as he did to the story of the chalk circle, he could draw more deeply on his resources than in any play since Mutter Courage [1939], and this material had greater potential for epic treatment because is was not conducive to naturalistic writing; balladry could run through every artery in the organism. Villainous rulers, cruel soldiers, greedy peasants, a cowardly police officer, an opportunistic monk, a shrewish sister-in-law can be introduced like figures from a ballad, touched into three-dimenionsionality, while large hunks of human experience are absorbed as the narrative alternates between stylized action and poetic narration. The dramatic texture is extraordinarily rick, partly because the story-telling is so vigorous, partly because the language is so muscular. The play reprises many themes Brecht had handled earlier [stress added]." Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), pages 284-285.

"The Caucasian Chalk Circle defines morality in terms of social 'use.' The biological mother has abandoned her child. Grusha brings her social morality into play and makes the child her own through her own privations and sacrifices. Each act of benefit to the child jeapardizes her own chances of escape or survival. She brings order into the disorder of the times, just as the disorderly tramp Azdak, spokesman for the 'insulted and in jured,' cynically does the same. But through his actions traditional order is revealed as oppression and tyranny, and his disorderliness as humaneness. Yet, as brecht puts it, 'in evil times humanity and humanenesss themselves become dangerous.' Grusha is a 'sucker' (Brecht uses the American term). She illegally appropriates the child. All her acts are self-contradictory and suicidal. Her transformation is into a 'productive' personality. She produces motherhood within herself. The final test, in the court scene, is utterly paradoxical according to traditional standards: When Azdak asks Grusha why, as a good mother, she would not return the child to his princely comforts and luxuries, she looks around at the biological mother, at the servants, at the armed warriors, at the mother's counsel. She remains slient, and it is the minstrel who speaks for her: If he walked in golden shoes, He would crush the weak. Evil he would have to do, And laugh in doing it. She will turn the child into a human being. The minstrel summarizes the 'moral' of the story after the judgement has been given: 'That what there is should belong to those who are good for it; so, the children to the motherly, that they may thrive; the carts to the good drivers, that they may be well driven; and the valley to those who water it, so that it may bring forth fruit' [stress added]." Frederic Ewen, 1967, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art And His Times (NY: The Citadel press), page 413.

"The final masterpiece of Brecht's direction that he lived to see was his great folk-parable play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, produced in June 1954 [sic.] [by the Berliner Ensemble in the Theatre am Schiffbauerdamm., Berlin]." Samuel L. Leiter, 1991, From Stanislavsky To Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (NY: Greenwood Press), page 163.

October 7, 1954} "Der kaukasische Kreidekreiss at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, East Berlin, designed by Karl von Appen with Angelika Hurwich (Grusche) and Ernst Busch (Azdak)." Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), page xxiv.

"The Ensemble is given the renovated Theater am Schiffbauerdamm as a permanent home. Brecht produces The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Brecht's production of Mother Courage wins the First Prize at the festival of Paris. Brecht is awarded the Stalin Peace prize. Considerable propoganda work for the German Democratic Republic." John Fuegi, 1972, The Essential Brecht (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc.), page 184.

"The Caucasian Chalk Circle, polished and pared for almost a year before it opened at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, with its cast of some one hundred and fifty characters (reduced to fifty actual players by the use of masks and the doubling and trebling of roles), with the lighting swift scene changes required by such scenes as the 'Flight into the Northern Mountains,' was just the thing to show off the total effects of what was at that time the greatest theatre ensemble in the world." John Fuegi, 1972, The Essential Brecht (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc.), page 144.

"Even in a jungle, lovely flowers will spring up here and there, such being the fecundity of nature, and however badly our pastors and masters run our society, however much they pull to pieces that which they claim to be keeping intact, nature remains fecund, human beings are born with human traits, sometimes human strength outweighs human weakness, and human grace shows itself amid human ugliness. 'In the bloodiest times,' as our play has it, 'there are kind people.' Their kindess is arbitrary. No sociologist could deduce it from the historical process. Just the contrary. It represents the brute refusal of nature to be submerged in history and therefore, arguably (and this is Brecht's argument), the possibility that the creature should, at some future point, subdue history [stress added]." Eric Bentley, 1998, Bentley on Brecht (New York/London: Applause), page 173.

"It is, however, the characters of Grusche and Azdak who provide the focal point for the play's theme, and in this respect, Der kaukasische Kreidekreis is something of a rarity in Brecht's works. In no other play has he created two such dominating protagonists, so similar in their vitality and conviction. Grusche, in assuming responsibility for the child, performs an isolated act which cannot have any great impact on society. But Azdak, the good/bad judge, is set in a position where his judgements can redress the balance of society--if only for a sort time. Azdak embodies Brecht's fondness for paradox and contradiction in a more extreme form than Grusche. For she is the only character in Brecht's dramas for whom goodness pays off--yet it requires the assistance of a most unlikely deus (or rather advocatus) ex machina to see that she wins the case [stress added]." Michael Morley, 1977, Brecht: A Study (London: Heinemann), page 83.

"In The Caucasian Chalk Circle, the reality of social behavior is established by the corrupt princes." Charles R. Lyons, 1968, Bertolt Brecht: The Despair and the Polemic (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press), page 142

"In Brecht the behavior of the individual is constantly determined by the social situations. A few characters have qualities which override this, and so they come into conflict in society: Kattrin in Mother Courage, Shen Teh in The Good Person, and Grusha here [in The Caucasian Chalk Circle]. But around them are many others who are mere ciphers, altering their attitudes more or less as the wind blows them: the cook in Mother Courage is a good example, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle is full of them. ... The world in which Grusha and Azdak move is made up of people with no impetus to change it, though very few of them benefit from it. The possible changes in the world would have to start with the activiation of people like this, whose true interest it would be to put an end to their exploitation by those above them. Indeed, Brecht is more interested in showing this end of society and where the show rubs it than in attacking the exploiters directly. Socialist realist critics objected to the lack of positive revolutionary content in Brecht [stress added]." Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), pages 153-154.

"In discussing The Caucasian Chalk Circle in terms of the central Brechtian drama, it is important to see that the instinctive movement of the compassionate act is defined in this play as something dangerous to the self, 'terrible,' but as a strong value. ... That consciousness of a real and cruel world exists in The Caucasian Chalk Circle; but, in this play, the poet seems to share with the audience an enjoyment of the aesthetic illusion that compassion can exist, freely and creatively, in a sordid, suffering world and be rewarded with happiness rather than self destruction." Charles R. Lyons, 1968, Bertolt Brecht: The Despair and the Polemic (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press), page xviii.

"In The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Grusha makes that ambiguous surrender to experience which is also an assertion of the will; she succums to the 'terrible' temptation to save the child, but in the romance of this play, her assertion is not self destructive. Here Brecht dramatizes an assertion of the will which, ultimately, realizes the identity of the human consciousness. In her act, Grusha becomes the mother of Michael, and eventually, her goodness is rewarded with happiness." Charles R. Lyons, 1968, Bertolt Brecht: The Despair and the Polemic (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press), page 154.

"The ending [of The Caucasian Chalk Circle] emphasises that men are made what they are by social life, not by biology. For all practical purposes Michael is Grusha's child now. This application of the Marxian statement that social being determines consciousness has alienated some believers in la voix du sang, but is surely understandable even to them as an answer to the racial madness which is what National Socialism made of theories of heredity [stress added]." Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), page 159.

"The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play within a play. Since this type of theatre can be difficult to follow here is a short plot summary. The play begins with a tribunal hearing to determine ownership of a valley in the war-torn country of Grusinia. The play within the initial play is a story about a war-torn land in which a singer tells of another story about an abandoned royal child. The abandoned child is rescued by a common woman and they face many dangers as they try to flee to safety. To further complicate matters, the Royal family wants the child back and they must find a way to hide. The climax of the play is when the court must decide who should get custody of the child, the biological mother, or the woman who saved him. Only the Chalk Circle can decide and in the end a great lesson is learned regarding the people of Grusinia and the valley they are fighting over" [stress added]. [http://people.stu.ca/~hunt/p2s/22230102/finlwebs/chalk/cccguide.htm]

"The final masterpiece of Brecht's direction that he lived to see was his great folk-parable play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, produced in June 1954. Brecht's masterstroke of casting had Ernst Busch playing both the musical narrator and Adzak, the scoundrel who becomes a judge following a palace revolution...." Samuel L. Leiter, 1991, From Stanislavsky To Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (NY: Greenwood Press), page 162.

"...in The Caucasian Chalk Circle the singer, by using a chilly and unemotional way of singing to describe the servant-girl's rescue of the child as it is mimed on the stage, makes evident the terror of a period in which motherly instincts can become a suicidal weakness. Thus music can make its point in a number of ways and with full independence, and can react in its own manner to the subjects dealt with; at the same time it can also quite simply help to lend variety to the entertainment." Bertolt Brecht, 1949, A short organum for the theatre. John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 179-205, page 203.

"In Berlin Brecht worked hard at bringing Der kaukasische Kreidekreis to three-dimensional life, evolving stage pictures to replace the mental pictures he had formed when he wrote it. ... Selecting the right materials for decor and costumes involved them in historical and ethnographic research centred on ancient Caucasian history. They chose copper, silver, steel and silk for the nobility, and woven linen for the ordinary folk, with some articles for both made of leather and wood; no other materials were used." Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), page 379.

"Der kaukasische Kreidekreis is the last of those plays to display convincing evidence of Brecht's poetic and dramatic genius." Michael Morley, 1977, Brecht: A Study (London: Heinemann), page 85.

"Practically all Brecht did is based on opposition.... It is useless to object to the crassness of this duality, dismiss Brecht as simplistic, and go on to conclude that despite his errors he did quite well considering the era he had to live through. The shock-effect of the extreme is only part of his uniqueness, and so is the tenacity with which he applies Marxian views to the business of men's communal life. ... When we consider the interplay of exaggeration and nuance, of mass constraints and individual dignity, of action and relaxation, of commitment and distance, in Brecht, and when we ask what other playwrights offer similar fruitful complexities, then we may come close to grasping his greatness. Next we might look at the umnatched lyrical form in which he can put his thoughts, for instance the words which the Singer in The Caucasian Chalk Circle attributes to Michael and which makes Grusha pick him up. ... If we then examine his plays as the writings of a man steeped in theatre practice, embodying a new vision of a possible theatre experience, we have the third element of Brecht's greatness before us. The epic components of the plays serve to open up the stage for the presentation of the dramatic action in the context of a wide historical development, and most of all they aim at a unique interplay of appeal to the head and appeal to the heart. In keeping with the general demand for serenity and relaxation, the play on the stage is to allow the audience to keep cool and laughing, not to put it into emotional tension which impairs possession of the faculties. Brecht-theatre should make us use our senses and our sense to the full, not sweep us off our feet and make us passive [stress added]." Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), pages 171-172.
October 7, 1954} Première of Der kaukaisische Kreidekreis by the Berliner Ensemble in the Theatre am Schiffbauerdamm.

"He had asked for a stiletto to be put throught his heart as soon as the doctors were sure he was dead, and then to be buried in a steel coffin so that the worms would not be able to get at him. Both instructions were obeyed...." Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), page 388.

Bertolt Brecht (born February 10, 1898) dies August 14, 1956.

 

MISCELLANEOUS MATERIAL

"The Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center [New York City], built at a cost of $9.7 million, opened on October 21, 1965. ... It had 1,140 seats when proscenium staging was used an 1,083 when the thrust stage was employed. ... [Among the four plays of the opening seasons was] the New York premier of Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, adapted by Eric Bentley, in which actors wore masks. This surrealistic play, dircted by Mr. [Jules] Irving, was considered the best production offered by the company that season [stress added]." Louis Botto, 2002, At This Theatre: 100 Years of Broadway Shows, Stories And Stars, edited by Robert Viagas (NY: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books), page 305.

"A useful term in the analysis of Brecht's plays, but one with which he himself had difficulty (sometimes defining it more narrowly than I shall), is Gestus (untranslatable: attitude as shown in the signs we use in communicating with others. At its widest this means the basic attitude which informs any particular transaction between people. The transaction can be a whole work of art presented to a public, a conversation, a single speech considered as an independent component of a conversation. Gestus concentrates on interactions between people, for Brecht disliked psychological observations which could not be expressed in social interplay and put to work in the recognition and changing of social circumstances. It includes the unspoken 'languages' of demeanour by which we recognize others' behavior, but language itself also. Its theory is basically Hegelian. What is said in dialogue cannot be interpreted out of context, but only when placed within the complex interaction of theses and antitheses which is conversation. Theater aims to communicate from stage to audience a demonstration of social facts, so the basic gestus of theatre is demonstration [stress added]." Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), page 41.

"'Gest is not supposed to mean gesticulation: it is not a matter of explanatory or emphatic movements of the hands, but of overall attitudes. A language is gestic when it is grounded in a gest and conveys particular attitudes adopted by the speaker towards other men. The sentence 'pluck the eye that offends thee out' is less effective from the gestic point of view that 'if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out'. The latter starts by presenting the eye, and the first clause has the definite gest of making an assumption; the main clause comes as a surprise, a piece of advice, and a relief. ... Bertolt Brecht, 1932, On Gestic Music. John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 104-106, page 104. NOTE from Willet: "The definition of 'gestus' or gest here is the clearest and fullest to be found in Brecht's writings. It can perhaps be illuminated further by a short unpublished fragment (Brecht-Archive 332/76) headed 'representation of sentences in a new encyclopedia': 1. Who is the sentence for? 2. Who does it claim to be of use to? 3. What does it call for? 4. What practical action corresponds to it? 5. What sort of sentences result from it? What sort of sentences support it? 6. In what sort of situation is it spoken? By whom?" John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 104-106, page 106.

From: Bertolt Brecht, 1929, A Dialogue About Acting. John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 26-28, page 26.
[JW]"The actors always score great succeses in your plays. Are you yourself satisfied with them?
[BB] No.

[JW] Because they act badly?
[BB] No. Because they act wrong.

[JW] How ought they to act then?
[BB] For an audience of the scientific age.

[JW] What does that mean?
[BB] Demonstrating their knowledge.

[JW] Knowledge of what?
[BB] Of human relations, of human behavior, or human capacities.

[JW] All right; that's what they need to know. But how are they to demonstrate it?
[BB] Consciously, suggestively, descriptively.

[JW] How do they do it at present?
[BB] By means of a trance. They go into a trance and take the audience with them." Bertolt Brecht, 1929, A Dialogue About Acting. John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), pages 26-28, page 26.

"Deviating violently from German stage practice [in the 1920s], he insisted that the actions such as eating, drinking and sword-fights must be realistic and interesting to watch. Soldiers must tie nooses for hanging a man as if they had done it dozens of times before. Brecht would sit in the stalls, confindently shouting out 'Wrong, completely wrong' to the bewildered actors when actions were untruthful in relation to character or circumstance. He made the actors repeat over and over again gestures and inflections that seemed important: he wanted each piece of stage business to be expressive of the whole character, and he reacted strongly against generalizations, vagueness, blurring. One of his strengths lay in his ability to stand back and look at what he was doing as if from the outside [stress added]." Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), pages 100-101.

 

CONCLUSIONS

"Brecht's primary concern is the nature of human action, the limits of which are imposed upon the human will as it acts to assert itself." Charles R. Lyons, 1968, Bertolt Brecht: The Despair and the Polemic (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press), page xiv.

"Because Brecht believed human nature could be altered, he wrote and directed in such a way to demonstrate that what the audience sees is a picture of people behaving in ways which reflect the influence on them of social, politcal, and economic conditions. It should be clear to the audience that, were these circumstances changed, the behavior of the people would likewise be changed. If the spectator is to consider the many factors that affect human behavior, it is essential the actor 'show' his character or 'act in quotation marks.' Never should the actor lose himself in his role by too completely identifying with it; if he does, the actor sacrifices his objectivity and ability to comment on the role through his performance [stress added]." Samuel L. Leiter, 1991, From Stanislavsky To Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (NY: Greenwood Press), page 170.
# # # 


THE CSU, CHICO PRODUCTION OF SPRING 2003

Director's Note

Brecht was a great champion of the "little guy" and hated power-mongers, whether political, military, or capitalistic. Like Azdak, he believed that it was in times of chaos that the little guy has a chance for justice. Ironically, when Brecht produced Caucasian Chalk Circle in Germany in 1954, it was a big business extravaganza. We're just little guys so we're sticking with early Brechtian style: minimalistic and theatrical. But the message is the same: "Justice is fickle and comes at a price. It may cost you, but you have to do what's RIGHT!" -- Dr. Susan Pate

CAST

Isaiah Bent

Azdak, Ironshirt, etc.

James Borsdorf

Musician

Nancy Borsdorf

Musician

Denice Burbach

Grusha, Fruit Peasant

Ashley Morgan DeCarli

Kato, Suliko, Fat Peasant Woman, etc.

Jan Hawkley

Maro, Mother-in-law, Sandro Obaladze, tree, etc.

Lee Holcomb

Arkadi Tscheidse (Singer)

Matt Larson

Jussup, Shauwa, Ironshirt, etc.

Caleb Mains

Georgi Abashwili, Lavrenti, Corporal, etc.

Ashley Morgan Monroe

Nina, Ludovica, etc.

Griffin Moran

Ironshirt, etc.

Cameron Pate

Bizergan Kazbeki, Ironshirt, etc.

Tim Rawson

Simon, Ironshirt, Blackmailer, etc

Marcus Sams

Arsen Kazbeki (Fat Prince), wounded soldier, etc.

Ernst Schoen-René

Surab, Illo Schuboladze, etc.

Jillanne Tuttle

Shalva, Aniko, tree, etc.

Charlie Urbanowicz

Aleko Bereshwili, Mika Loladze, Monk, etc.

Sadie Urbanowicz

Makina Abakidze, Niko Mikadze, Invalid, etc.

Nikky Von Winckelmann

Natella Abashwilli, State Delegate, tree, etc.

Satoko Yanagi

Merchant Woman, Servant, tree, etc.

Based on The Chalk Circle, an anonymous Chinese play of about 1300 A.D.

Produced with special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

There was one 10-minute intermission.

DIRECTION & DESIGN

Director/Choreographer

Dr. Susan Pate

Musical Director/Composer of Original Music

Dr. Ernst Schoen-René

Dramaturg

Dr. Charlie Urbanowicz

Set Designer

Chizuru Matsumoto

Costume Designers

Gail Holbrook and Lacey Prince

Mask/Makeup Designers

Lesley Alumbaugh and Katie Harris

Lighting Designer

Georgina Kayes

Properties Designer

Allison H. Ward

Technical Director

Jaye Beetem

Poster Designer

Drew Hathaway

TECHNICAL STAFF

Production Manager

Michael Johnson

Faculty Set Design Supervisor

J. Marty Gilbert

Faculty Costume/Makeup Design Supervisor

Gail Holbrook

Faculty Lighting Design Supervisor

Jaye Beetem

HFA/School of the Arts Publicist

J. Paul DiMaggio

Scene Shop Foreman

Pete M. Austin

Scenic Artist

David Beasley

Costume Shop Foreman

Sandra Barton

Costume Shop Technician

Hattie Gomez

Properties Supervisors

Jarrod L. Rothstein, Allison H. Ward

University Box Office Manager

Michelle Angela

University Box Office Assistant Manager

Max Zachai

CSU, Chico Arts Events Web Page

J. Paul DiMaggio

PRODUCTION STAFF

Stage Manager

Crystal J. Wolfe

Assistant Stage Manager

Steve Remund

Light Board Operator

Michael Biggs

Prop Crew

Patrick Gateley, Heidi Oberbruner,

Kenny Woolington, Robert Williams

Wardrobe Crew

Kristen Elwood, Alexis Morann, Katie Suverkrop

Make-up Crew

Lindsey Geib, Julie Steffen, Ellen Wilcox

Costume Shop Crew

April Carmo, Lindsey Geib, Karla Gilbert,

Gabrielle Guglielmelli, Cindy Nava,

Kathleen Otey, Jenny Rand

Costume Class

Constance Reynolds, Melisa Mueller, Marcella Sincoff

Master Electrician

Steve Remund

Electricians

Patrick Gateley, Georgina Kayes, Margaret Kayes,

Robert Williams, Andrew Wilson

Carpenters

Tyler M. Bennett, Lori Bray, Ashley DeCarli,

Patrick Gateley, Sean Hamilton, Chris Harper, Rye Johnson,

Dustin Kimura, Kerry Leonard, Chizuru Matsumoto, Rich Matli,

Alexis Morann, Jenny Rand, Katie Suverkrop, Carrie Tharpe,

Kazuhiro Umemoto, Jesus Valencia, Robert Williams,

Andrew Wilson, Satoko Yanagi

Public Relations Intern

Jennifer Lukins

Publicity Photography

J. Paul DiMaggio

SOA/HFA Publicity Assistant

Danielle Connolly

Poster/Flyer Distribution

Alexandra Liss

Special thanks to Nicole Sershon for the loan of her baby doll.


POLITICS AND THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (By Ernst Schoen-René)

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a leftist/communist and skilled dramatist who has long been regarded as one of the greatest playwrights and theoreticians of 20th-Century drama. Known for his political satire and the alienation effect, which was aimed at making the audience see both the play's story as well as its political significance, Brecht also wrote the famous The Three Penny Opera and Galileo.

The ancient area of Grusinia in The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a mixture of the modern-day Georgia and Azerbaijan, south of the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas. Nuka, Grusinia's capital, is actually on the Caspian Sea and quite close to Persia (once the power in the area).

The play begins in 1945, but the idea that the Caucasus was full of happily agreeing collective farmers is a fabrication on Brecht's part. In reality, the area had been seized by the Russian Czars and held onto by the Soviets after the Russian Revolution and Civil War (1917-1924). One of the reasons Hitler's armies were successful in the early years of World War II was that many of the areas under Soviet control were looking for liberation from the terrors of Leninism-Stalinism. More than a million Ukrainians offered to fight for Hitler. Brecht overlooks such peoples' resentment of Joseph Stalin's brutal dictatorship. Stalin (d. 1953), a native Georgian (Joseph Djugashvili), was responsible for almost as many brutal deaths as Hitler.

The Ironshirts in The Caucasian Chalk Circle come from Hitler's "Brownshirts," a group Hitler established in imitation of the "Blackshirts" of Italy's Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). Such groups were thugs used by fascist or right-wing regimes as the backbone of mobs and as groups that could achieve goals the government didn't want to be seen as responsible for -- most famously harassing and beating Jews. In The Caucasian Chalk Circle, most of the Ironshirts support those who allow them to continue their brutal ways.

Azdak is not really a communist but an "anarchist." Before World War II, anarchism was particularly strong in Italy and Spain, its central thesis being that big governments and big corporations are self-serving and bad. Anarchists, who are still found today among those who see America as run by corporations and the rich, argue that voluntary cooperation among small interest groups is the fairest way to organize society, and that societies in which individual freedom is limited by large greedy institutions are inherently unstable. Azdak does not preach any utopian political philosophy; however, each of his decisions attacks or makes fun of self-serving, greedy organizations and people, whether they be fascist regimes, such as those represented by the Grand Duke and Prince Kazbecki, or middle-class capitalists such as the rapist/landowner or the innkeeper. As far as Azdak is concerned, to hell with political systems. Freeing individuals from the control of these systems is his chief goal.

Brecht hates both fascism and right-wing capitalism, which he sees as based on greed, and eager to abuse the poor during peacetime and provoke wars that keep the poor miserable. Brecht's stand on socialism is ambivalent, and, except for his happy peasants at the start, Brecht makes no case that socialism is the answer. His characters' lives seem hopelessly oppressed, except for an occasional period of "disorder" and an occasional "people's hero" like Azdak. As you observe the play-within-a-play, you realize that The Caucasian Chalk Circle blends a cynical world-view with a positive conclusion.


Charles Urbanowicz (Anthropology) and Ernst Schoen-René (English) are both long-time faculty at CSU, Chico who have contributed to the arts scene at the University for many years. Charlie is well recognized as an actor in many productions and as dramaturg. Ernst is a well-known reviewer of arts events and composer for this production. They exemplify the renaissance nature of faculty who have interests within and beyond disciplinary boundaries.

# # # 


A ONE-ACT "POEM"

On the Black Box, or How Grusha Went Into The Woods, Through Communicating Doors, in One Act (With Great Apologies to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka "Lewis Carroll [1832-1898], Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), and all of the Spring 2003 CSU, Chico Actors & Directors & Technical & Production Staff And anyone who can rhyme!), by Charlie Urbanowicz. [Please note the "PS" at the end of this "poem.']

The time has come, the singer sang, to sing of many things.
Of cheese and goats, and collective farms,
And Dukes (so mean) and Kings.

Observe the child, so meek and mild, although a cough was there,
The rabble roused, to kill them all, except, perhaps, the heir. 

A tale to tell, of ancient days,
When bedlam ruled the land,
When chaos struck, and Grusha fled,
With child in tender hand. 

The crowds dispersed, the doors did shift,
The trees, they moved as well.
Musicians played, the singer sang,
As clear as any bell!

Coming upon on a peasant's hut, and although initially pleased,
The peasant looked upon the babe, while down upon her knees. 

"Husband, we can take the child, you surely do agree,"
But then the 'shirts came on the scene, and Grusha had to flee.

Bundling the babe and into the woods,
Grusha struggled so,
The bridge was crossed, the 'shirts were foiled,
And she went to the land of snow. 
Her brother's home, with bench and bed,
Provided them some rest.
And the season changed, the event was planned,
And Grusha was put to the test.

The guests arrived, the mother ruled,
The bride and groom were ready,
The drunken monk regaled the crowd,
Though he wasn't very steady!

The musicians came, the dancers danced,
And joy was had by all.
But then as we did clearly see, it ended with the shawl. 

Jussup rose, chaos reigned, and Grusha now was married,
The years went on, the war did end, and Grusha, she was harried! 

The scene then changed, the tempo shifted,
And within the box of black,
We come upon the only one, our legal-man, Azdák!

Our scoundrel was a simple man, and so, he was appointed,
By those who now did rule the land, Azdák was now anointed.

Some little squabbles were revealed (though rape is never funny),
But Azdák, he was, a righteous judge, as long as there was money! 

And then another funny scene, two couple, they did fight,
But Azdák would take on the case, adjudicate with might.

And then it came, as all things do,
The crisis of the play. Who to get the little child,
Can Azdak save the day?
 

The box was hushed, the child was brought,
The lawyers yammered so.
Poor Grusha was quite mis-rable,
For she hadn't any dough!

A ring was made, the child within,
And "mothers" grabbed an arm,
But Grusha failed to pull the child,
Not wanting to do harm! 

Another test, the same results,
Azdák made up his mind!
Grusha was to get the child,
Natella was left in a bind! 

And so it ends, my black-box friends,
The play-within-a-play.

Do you think quite seriously, of the telling of the fact?
Could all of this be finished,
In a play of just one act?

But yes, it's done, the act is fin,
And Azdák won the day,
And what a proper fitting
For the ending of the play! 

And so dear Brecht, and Susan Pate, the play is done, you see.

It was great fun, the run is done,
And now, eternity!

[PS: The following productions are scheduled for California State University, Chico in spring 2003: Communicating Doors (April 2-6),Student-Directed One-Act Plays (April 16-19), and Into The Woods (May 7-10).


A CHARLIE URBANOWICZ POSTSCRIPT

Charlie and Sadie Urbanowicz (and their nine-month old son Tom) arrived in Chico in August 1973 when Charlie joined the faculty in the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Chico. Charlie's first performance was in Randy Wonzong's production of Inherit the Wind (1996). Since then, he has enjoyed being a member of the ensemble in several shows, including La Bohème (1996, directed by Gwen Curatilo) as well as the The New Moon (2002, directed by Joel Rogers). This was his fifth play working with Sue Pate, having appeared in her productions of See How They Run (1998, Court Theater), The Three Sisters (1999), and The Madwoman of Chaillot (2002); he was also the dramaturge for Sue Pate's The Miss Firecracker Contest (2001). Charlie was in Randy Wonzong's production of Street Scene (2002) and also as served as dramaturge. For Charlie, a dramaturge is someone who "contextualizes" the production for the actors and staff. This is the second production that Charlie and Sadie have appeared in, previously appearing together in a Chico Community Production (Encore Theatre) of Arsenic and Old Lace (1999). Incidentally, at the end of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, as Azdak asks the old couple "How long have you been together?" and the old woman responds with "Forty years, Your Honor" it should be pointed out that Charlie and Sadie were married in 1963!

As the finishing touches were being added to this Brecht /The Caucasian Circle web page, the following appeared in Time of March 17, 2003: "Into the spotlight: Theater gives seniors an outlet for self-expression, therapy, socializing and sheer fun [stress added]" and:

"Experts in health and aging agree that participation in the arts is a powerful antidote to the ravages of time--a view that has only recently gained popularity in the health-care world." Sally S. Stitch, March 17, 2003, Time Bonus Section, No Page numbers. [And see: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030317-430840,00.html]

It was work and great fun!


VISUALS FROM THE CSU, CHICO PRODUCTION

The complete Caucasian Chalk Circle ensemble; bottom photo includes Dr. Susan Pate, Director (stage right). [Bottom photo taken by Crystal J. Wolfe.]
  

Dr. Susan Pate (Director).
Crystal J. Wolfe (Stage Manager).
Steve Remund (Assistant Stage Manager).
 

The Musician (James Borsdorf), The Singer Arkadi Tscheidse (Lee Holcomb), and The Musician (Nancy Borsdof).

The State Delegate from Nuka (Nikky Von Winckelmann).
Kato the Agriculturalist (Ahsley DeCarli).
Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach).

The Prologue: Kolkhoz Galinsk (Lower Left) and Kolkhoz Rosa Luxemburg (Upper Right) [Photo by Wayne Pease].

Kolkhoz Rosa Luxemburg: Jillanne Tuttle, Caleb Mains, Sadie Urbanowicz, Denice Burbach, Charlie Urbanowicz, Tim Rawson, Satoko Yanagi, and Cameron Pate.

Kolkhoz Galinsk: Ashley Monroe, Griffin Moran, Jan Hawkley, Ernst Schoen-René, Isaiah Bent, Ashley DeCarli, and Marcus Sams.

Enter The Singer Arkadi Tscheidse (Lee Holcomb) and Musicians (Nancy Borsdorf and James Borsdorf) [Photo by Wayne Pease].
The Musician (Nancy Borsdorf), The Singer Arkadi Tscheidse (Lee Holcomb), and Musician (James Borsdorf).

Three Ironshirts (Matt Larson, Isaiah Bent, and Tim Rawson).

Two Ironshirts and Dr. Mika Loladze (Sadie Urbanowicz), Dr. Niko Mikadze (Charlie Urbanowicz), and Natella Abashwili (Nikky Von Winckelmann) [Photo by Wayne Pease].
 

Natella Abashwili (Nikky Von Winckelmann).
Jan Hawkley and Satoko Yanagi.
Dr. Mika Loladze (Sadie Urbanowicz) and Dr. Niko Mikadze (Charlie Urbanowicz).
 

Simon Shashava (Tim Rawson) approaches Grusha Vashnazde (Denice Burbach) as chaos erupts [Photo by Wayne Pease].

Natella Abeshwilli (Nikky Von Winckelmann) prepares to flee the city [Photo by Wayne Pease].

Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) surrounded by trees and being challenged by the Corporal of the Ironshirts (Caleb Mains).
Ashley DeCarli (with Baby Michael Abashwili) and her husband, Marcus Sams.
 

The Trees in the "The Flight into The Northern Mountains" [Photo by Wayne Pease].
The Old Peasant (Ernst Schoen-René) sells milk to Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) [Photo by Wayne Pease].

Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) meets Simon Shashava (Tim Rawson) for the first time [Photo by Wayne Pease].
Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) and Simon Shashava (Tim Rawson) at the river [Photo by Wayne Pease].

Suliko (Jillanne Tuttle).
Jillanne Tuttle (Suliko).
Suliko (Jillanne Tuttle).
 

Shalva (Jillanne Tuttle).
The Grand Duke in disguise (Caleb Mains).
Caleb Mains (Georgi Abashwili, etc.).
 

 
The Architect (Ashley Monroe).
The Merchant (Tim Rawson) and The Merchant (Ashley Monroe).
The Blackmailer (Tim Rawson).

Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) and Baby Michael Abashwili deciding whether to cross the bridge; also present are the Merchants (Tim Rawson, Ashley Monroe, and Satoko Yanagi).
   

Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) and Baby Michael Abashwili crossing the bridge; also present are the Merchants (Satoko Yanagi, Ashley Monroe, and [slightly hidden] Tim Rawson).
Baby Michael Abashwili and Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) [Photo by Wayne Pease].
Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach).
 

The Wedding Scene: Six Guests are present as the Monk (Charlie Urbanowicz) is marrying Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) to the reclining Jussup (Matt Larson) while Jussup's Mother (Jan Hawkley) assists as a witness with Grusha's brother, Lavrenti Vashnadze (Caleb Mains).

The Subdued Wedding March or Spirited Funeral Dance: Arkadi Tscheidse (Lee Holcomb), the Monk (Charlie Urbanowicz), the Drunk (Ernst Schoen-René), Guest (Jillanne Tuttle), Guest (Satoko Yanagi), and Guest (Nikky Von Winckelmann).
 

Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) bathes her new husband, Jussup (Matt Larson) with the assistance of Jussup's Mother (Jan Hawkley),

Arsen Kazbeki (Marcus Sams).
Companion (Griffin Moran) to Bizergan Kazbeki (Cameron Pate).
Marcus Sams (Arsen Kazbeki, etc.)
 

Isaiah Bent (Azdak, etc.).
Ashley DeCarli and Satoko Yanagi.
Two Ironshirts.
Ashley DeCarli and Satoko Yanagi.

The Doctor (Caleb Mains) and the Patient (Charlie Urbanowicz) [Photo by Wayne Pease].
Ironshirt, Azdak (Isaiah Bent), Ironshirt, and Shauwa (Matt Larson).
The Stroke Victim (Sadie Urbanowicz).

The Stableman (Marcus Sams), Ironshirt, Shauwa (Matt Larson), Azdak (Isaiah Bent), Ironshirt, Inkeeper (Ernst Schoen-René), and Ludovica (Ashley Monroe).

Ludovica (Ashley Monroe).
Isaiah Bent (Azdak, etc.).
Shauwa (Matt Larson).
The Old Peasant (Ernst Schoene-René).

The Drunk (Ernst Schoene-René).
Ernst Schoene-René (Musical Director/Composer).
The Lawyer (Ernst Schoene-René).

  
Shalva (Jillanne Tuttle), The Lawyer Sandro Obaladze (Jan Hawkley), Natella Abashwili (Nikky Von Winckelmann), and The Lawyer Illo Schuboladze (Ernst Schoen-René).

The Lawyer Illo Schuboladze (Ernst Schoen-René) introduces Natella Abashwili (Nikky Von Winckelmann) to His Honor Azdak (Isaiah Bent) [Photo by Wayne Pease].
In the Court of Azdak: Simon Shashava (Tim Rawson), The Cook (Ashley DeCarli), Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach), and The Friend (Ashley Monroe).

Azdak (Isaiah Bent) to make his decision at the Chalk Circle with Natella Abashwili (Nikky Von Winckelmann) and Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) [Photo courtesy of J. Paul DiMaggio, School of the Arts, CSU, Chico].
Azdak (Isaiah Bent), and Grusha Vashnadze (Denice Burbach) [Photo courtesy of J. Paul DiMaggio, School of the Arts, CSU, Chico].

The Lawyer Illo Schuboladze (Ernst Schoen-René) and the Lawyer Sandro Obaladze (Jan Hawkley), Natella Abashwili (Nikky Von Winckelmann), and Shalva (Jillanne Tuttle) looks on as Shauwa (Matt Larson) keeps apart the bickering old couple (Charlie Urbanowicz and Sadie Urbanowicz) who are seeking a divorce after 40 years of marriage [Photo by Wayne Pease].
The old couple (Charlie Urbanowicz and Sadie Urbanowicz) are being told by Shauwa (Matt Larson) and Azdak (Isaiah Bent) that they are not divorced [Photo by Wayne Pease].
 

Denice Burbach (Grusha Vashnadze) and Young Michael Abashwili.
Card designed by Sadie Urbanowicz.
 


Make-up Room.

Lindsey Geib (Make-up crew).
Julie Steffen (Make-up crew).
Ellen Wilcox (Make-up crew).
 

Katie Suverkrop & Kristen Elwood (Wardrobe Crew, along with Alexis Moran); wardrobe boxes below and "dressing guide" prepared by Professor Gail Holbrook.

Katie Harris (Mask/Makeup Designer [with Lesley Alumbaugh) and Lacey Prince (Costume Designer [with Professor Gail Holbrook]).
Chizuru Matsumoto (Set Designer).
Michael Biggs (Light Board Operator).
Heidi Oberbruner (Prop Crew).
Robert Williams (Prop Crew).
  

Allison H. Ward (Properties Designer) and Baby Michael Abashwili.
The Young Michael Abashwili in The Green Room.
 

One of two prop boxes for The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Prop head.
Georgi Abashwili (Caleb Mains)
On the spear.

Prop head.
Arsen Kazbeki (Marcus Sams)
On the spear.

Hat worn by wounded soldier (Marcus Sams) in the Prologue.

Fire Rocks for the Prologue.
Pallets for Kohlkoz Rosa Luxemburg.

Head on the spear and Ironshirt.
The Singer Arkedi Tscheidse (Lee Holcomb) surrounded by Trees.

Ashley Monroe and Marcus Sams.
Isaiah Bent and Ashley DeCarli.

The Tractorist (Ashley Morgan Monroe) and Kato the Agriculturalist (Ashley Morgan DeCarli).
The Messenger (Ashley Morgan Monroe).
The Blackmailer (Tim Rawson) and The Monk (Charlie Urbanowicz)

Sketch of "A Wedding Guest" by Professor Gail Holbrook (Faculty Costume/Makeup Design Supervisor).
The Wedding Guest (Sadie Urbanowicz) and The Monk (Charlie Urbanowicz).

Sketch of "Old Man Goat Peasant" by Professor Gail Holbrook (Faculty Costume/Makeup Design Supervisor).
The Old Man Goat Peasant (Charlie Urbanowicz).

The hanging judge.
The hanging judge.
 
How some of it was really accomplished (from the Scene Shop).
A Theatrical Tradition.
Green Room Historical Posters.

The View Into The Theatre.

Sue Pate (Director) accepting cast gift from Denice Burbach: "Live together, die together."

OTHER BRECHT VISUALS 

The year is 1908: Walter Brecht, Eugen Berthold Brecht and their mother. (From: Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), facing page 232.)
"Brecht with his son Stefan in 1921." (From: Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), between 232 and 233.)

The year is 1927. (From: Frederic Ewen, 1967, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art And His Times (NY: The Citadel Press), facing page 64.)
The year is 1936. (From: Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press), between 232 and 233.)
The year is 1953. (From: Frederic Ewen, 1967, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art And His Times (NY: The Citadel Press), facing page 97.)

"Lotte Lenja, about 1951." (From: John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), Illustration # 15, between pages 108 and 109.
Lotte Lenja. (From the M-G-M Records cover [E3121] of Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigosehenoper).
Lotte Lenja. From: Eric Bentley, 1998, Bentley on Brecht (New York/London: Applause), between pages 312 and 313.

"Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, East Berlin, about 1950." (From: John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang), Illustration # 41, facing page 237.
"Brecht at a Berliner Ensemble rehearsal." (From: Frederic Ewen, 1967, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art And His Times (NY: The Citadel Press), facing page 320.)

"The prologue of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, directed by Brecht, set by Karl von Appen. Berlin 1955." (From: John Fuegi, 1972, The Essential Brecht (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc.), Illustration #58, between pages 236 and 335.)

"Basic scene and costume sketch by Karl von Appen for Brecht's production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Berlin 1955." (From: John Fuegi, 1972, The Essential Brecht (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc.), Illustration #61, between pages 236 and 335.)
"The Caucasian Chalk Circle, act 6: Grusha argues with the Governor's Wife (Beliner Ensemble 1954)." [From: Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), Plate 8, between pages 52 and 53.

"The stage realization of von Appen's scene sketch. Grusche (Angelika Hurwicz) is tempted to rescue the child. Berlin 1955. (From: John Fuegi, 1972, The Essential Brecht (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc.), Illustration #62, between pages 236 and 335.)
"The Caucasian Chalk Circle, act 3: the bridge (Beliner Ensemble 1954)." [From: Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble), Plate 7b, between pages 52 and 53.

"Fig. 38. The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Berling, 1954. Karl von Appen's sketch for Azdak's portable seat of justice and the portable gallows." John Fuegi, 1987, Bertolt Brecht: Chaos, According to Plan (Cambridge University Press), page 139.

"Fig. 47. The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Berling, 1954. The chalk circle test itself." John Fuegi, 1987, Bertolt Brecht: Chaos, According to Plan (Cambridge University Press), page 166.


VARIOUS REFERENCES (INCLUDING WWW)

Eric Bentley, 1981, The Brecht Commentaries (NY: Grove Press).

Eric Bentley, 1998, Bentley on Brecht (New York/London: Applause).

Louis Botto, 2002, At This Theatre: 100 Years of Broadway Shows, Stories And Stars, edited by Robert Viagas (NY: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books).

Bertolt Brecht, 1940, On The Experimental Theatre [translated by Carl Mueller]. Robert W. Corrigan, 1963, Theatre in the Twentieth Century [NY: 1965 Grove Press Edition], pages 94-110.

Bertolt Brecht. Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.

Russell E. Brown, 1986, Bertolt Brecht as Dramaturg. Bert Cardullo [Editor] What is Dramaturgy? (NY: Peter Lang), pages 57-63.

Bert Cardullo [Editor], 1995, What is Dramaturgy? (NY: Peter Lang).

Robert W. Corrigan, 1963, Theatre in the Twentieth Century [NY: 1965 Grove Press Edition].

Frederic Ewen, 1967, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art And His Times (NY: The Citadel Press).

John Fuegi, 1972, The Essential Brecht (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc.).

John Fuegi, 2002, Brecht & Co: Sex, Politics, and the Making of the Modern Drama, Second Edition (NY: Grove Press)

Ronald Hayman, 1983, Brecht: A Biography (NY: Oxford University Press).

Jessica Helfand, 2002, Reinventing The Wheel (NY: Princeton Architectural Press).

William H. Honan, 2002, Dramaturges Take a While to Defend Themselves. The New York Times, March 12, 2002.

Christopher Innes, 1988, Bertolt Brecht. The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre [edited by Martin Banham], 1988, (Cambridge University Press).

Samuel L. Leiter, 1991, From Stanislavsky To Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (NY: Greenwood Press).

Charles R. Lyons, 1968, Bertolt Brecht: The Despair and the Polemic (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press).

Michael Morley, 1977, Brecht: A Study (London: Heinemann).

Sally S. Stitch, March 17, 2003, Time Bonus Section, No Page numbers. [And see: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030317-430840,00.html]

Alfred D. White, 1978, Bertolt Brecht's Great Plays (Barnes & Noble).

John Willet, 1957 [1964], Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic (NY: Hill and Wang).


http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc15.htm [Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)} Theatrehistory.Com} Plays, Biographies, Other Works]

http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/chalkcircle/ [Classic Notes: The Caucasian Chalk Circle]

http://www.orst.edu/instruct/ger341/brechtet.htm [Brecht and the Epic Theatre]

http://people.stu.ca/~hunt/p2s/22230102/finlwebs/chalk/cccguide.htm [St. Thomas University} Caucasian Chalk Circle Playgoers Guide]

http://www.nytimes.com/library/theater/052598chalk-theater-review.html [NY Times review} May 25, 1998 Production]

http://archives.thedaily.washington.edu/1996/050996/chalk.html [1996 Review} University of Washington Production]

http://www.ericdsnider.com/reviews/theater/th190caucasian.php3 [2000 Review} Brigham Young University]

http://www.du.edu/thea/designs/Design-ChalkCircle.html [1989} The Caucasian Chalk Circle Lighting Design} University of Denver]

http://www.gunn.palo-alto.ca.us/~jshelby/CCCircle.html [The Caucasian Chalk Circle Set Design]

http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxxi/2001.02.23/ae/p24chalk.html [2001} Review of The Caucasian Chalk Circle ]

http://www.stthomasu.ca/~hunt/reviews/circle.htm [2002} The Caucasian Chalk Circle Theatre St. Thomas] 

http://darkroom.sciopticon.com/Caucasian [The Caucasian Chalk Circle} Interesting Album of 104 items] Cast photos+]

http://departments.mwc.edu/thda/www/archives/99-00/ccc.html [Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA} Photos] The Caucasian Chalk Circle } Cast + Set]

http://twist.lib.uiowa.edu/modthea/BrechtMetatheatre.ppt [Brecht} MetaTheatre PowerPoint]

http://search.britannica.com/search?query=bertolt%20brecht&fuzzy=N&ct=igv&start=6&show=10 [Encyclopaedia Britannica Information on Brecht]

http://www.culturevulture.net/Books/BrechtandCompany.htm [Bob Wake} Highly critical book review of John Fuegi, 2002, Brecht & Co: Sex, Politics, and the making of the Modern Drama (Second Edition).

http://www.mountain-breeze.com/kitchen/meltoncb/132.html [Funeral Cakes]

http://www.mourningmatters.com/funeral-food-art-page1.html [Funeral Foods]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030317-430840,00.html [Sally S. Stitch, March 17, 2003, Time Bonus Section]


PREVIOUS URBANOWICZ THEATRE-RELATED ITEMS (Reverse Chronological Order)

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2003, Teaching As Theatre Once Again: Darwin in the Classroom (And Beyond) [http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/Jan2003Hawai'iDarwin.html. For the Hawai'i Internationan Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, Hawai'i, January 12-15, 2003.] 

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2002a, Visuals From The Birds (of Fall 2002) [http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/TheBirdsFall2002.html], directed by Professor Cynthia Lammel, November 12-17, 2002.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2002b, The New Moon (of Fall 2002) [http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/NewMoonFall2002.html] directed by Professor Joel Rogers, October 23-27, 2002, the Fall 2002 operetta; also performed as M. Beaunoir.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2002c, Dramaturge information [http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/StreetScene.html] and performed as "Abraham Kaplan" " in Street Scene, the Spring 2002 California State University, Chico production, directed by Dr. Randy Wonzong, March 6-10, 2002.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2001a, A Few Mark Beal Specifics. [http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/CourtMarkSpecifics.html ] For the California State University, Chico Summer 2001 Court Theatre Memories and More (Sixth Annual Benefit Performance, June 10, 2001).

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2001b, On Mark A. Beal. [http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/CourtTheaJune10.html] For the California State University, Chico Summer 2001 Court Theatre Memories and More (Sixth Annual Benefit Performance, June 10, 2001.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2001c, Dramaturge information [http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/bethhenleyinfo.htm ] For the California State University, Chico Spring 2001 production of The Miss Firecracker Contest, Directed by Professor Sue Pate, April 3-8, 2001.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2000a, Reprised the role of "Reverend Dr. Harper" (Arsenic and Old Lace) For the California State University, Chico Summer 2000 Court Theatre Potpourri, Fifth Annual Benefit Performance, June 11, 2000.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2000b, Dramaturge information [http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/ChaillotWordsMisc.htm] and performed as "Dr. Gaspard Jadin" and "Sewer Man" in The Madwoman of Chaillot, the California State University, Chico Spring 2000 production, Directed by Professor Sue Pate, March 7-12, 2000.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 1999a, Performed as "Reverend Dr. Harper" in Arsenic and Old Lace, the Fall 1999 Encore (Chico Community Production), directed by Gary Hibbs, November 5-14, 1999.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 1999b, Performed as "Ferapont Spiridonych" in The Three Sisters, the California State University, Chico Spring 1999 production, directed by Dr. Sue Pate, March 10-14, 1999.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 1999c, http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/3Sisters.htm (Phrases From Ferapont Spiridonych, also known as Charlie Urbanowicz: For The Production of Anton Chekov's Three Sisters, Directed by Dr. Sue Pate, March 10-14,1999.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 1998, Performed as "Russian Intruder" in See How They Run (one of California State University, Chico's 1998 Summer Court Theatre ensemble productions), directed by Dr. Sue Pate, July 7-11, 1998.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 1996a, Performed as a "waiter" in La Bohème, the California State University, Chico Fall 1996 production, directed by Professor Gwen Curatilo, November 12-17, 1996.

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 1996b, Performed as "Dr. Amos D. Keller" in Inherit The Wind, the California State University, Chico Spring 1996 production, directed by Dr. Randy Wonzong, March 12-17, 1996.


URBANOWICZ AS "CHARLES R. DARWIN" AVAILABLE ON THE WWW

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 2001, Charles Darwin: - Part Two: The Voyage. [ ~Twenty-two Minutes. Darwin from South America, through the Galápagos Islands, and back to England.] [http://rce.csuchico.edu/darwin/RV/darwin3.ram] Edited by Ms. Vilma Hernandez and Produced by Ms. Donna Crowe: Instructional Media Center, CSU, Chico. Available via the Internet with REAL PLAYER [http://www.real.com/player/index.html].

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 1999, Charles Darwin: - Part One: The Voyage. [ ~Twenty-two Minutes. Darwin sailing from England to South America.] [http://rce.csuchico.edu/darwin/RV/darwinvoyage.ram] Produced and Edited by Ms. Donna Crowe: Instructional Media Center, CSU, Chico. Available via the Internet with REAL PLAYER [http://www.real.com/player/index.html].

Charles F. Urbanowicz, 1997, Charles Darwin: Reflections - Part one: The Beginning. [ ~Seventeen Minutes: Darwin in England]. [http://rce.csuchico.edu/darwin/RV/darwinreflections.ram]. Produced and Edited by Ms. Donna Crowe: Instructional Media Center, CSU, Chico. Available via the Internet with REAL PLAYER [http://www.real.com/player/index.html].


[1] © All rights reserved. For the Spring 2003 CSU, Chico campus production (March 4->9) of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, directed by Dr.Susan Pate. To return to the beginning of this page, please click here.

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[~15,850 words]} 24 March 2003


[This page printed from http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/BrechtSp2003.html

To go to the home page of Urbanowicz, please click here;

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© [Copyright 2003: All Rights Reserved] Charles F. Urbanowicz

24 March 2003 by cfu

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