Puppetry, Time Jumps, And Stereotypes: A Sneak Peek Of Barnard Theater's Fall Season

Upper West Side NY

17 September, 2021

4:53 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY JANE LOUGHMAN SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 Barnard adjunct lecturer Ran Xia, director of the upcoming Barnard production of Sarah Ruhl's "Orlando," and assistant director, Eleanor Hannah Reich, BC '22, sit outside Milbank Hall on the bustling Barnard campus. Hearing loud construction noises, they joke about staging the play outdoors. It would be COVID-19 friendly and mask-free, but when thinking about all the preparation that has already been done for an in-person production, Reich asks, "Can you imagine telling the designers?" "Orlando" is one of two productions being staged this fall season by Barnard's theater department at the Minor Latham Playhouse. Barnard adjunct lecturer Tara Ahmadinejad will direct the other, "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" by Lynn Nottage. As of right now, the two shows will be staged live and in person with masked audiences and masked actors. Casts for the two shows have been finalized, though auditions had been quite different for both directors. "I have no idea what anybody really looked like," Xia said about the masked auditionees for her Virginia Woolf adapted production. For Ahmadinejad, having masked auditionees was an opportunity to learn how actors can convey emotion with their faces covered. But acting with masks will not be the only challenge for the cast. "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" can be a difficult play for actors as it involves code-switching—the adjustment of one's speech and behavior according to certain environments and audiences—and conveying stereotypes that can be interpreted as potentially harmful. Through Nottage's exploration of representation in the arts via Black Hollywood actress Vera Stark's journey to stardom, a question of agency arises: "How much did [Vera] use what was available to her and subvert 'from within,' and how much was she behaving against her own will, because the circumstances were too overwhelming?" Ahmadinejad asks in her director's statement. Ahmadinejad connected to the play as she found it shrewdly creative and simultaneously humorous and uncomfortable. The director aims to bring the audience into the world and logic of the play by emphasizing the play's awareness of its own stereotypes. In doing so, Ahmadinejad hopes to guide the audience to an understanding of the complexity of agency and representation as well. "It's just a subtle little moment in acting … hinge moments that make all the difference in terms of how an audience experiences the way … the character on stage is navigating what they're doing," Ahmadinejad said. As there are sudden temporal shifts in the play, Ahmadinejad takes into account different time periods, not just for costume and set design but also for video design, as she plans on recreating old movie clips with David Pym. As the play moves between eras, the onstage commotion of physically assembling and disassembling history will mirror the emotional complexity of the characters. "The actors are all dealing with all of their layers of all the different levels that they're playing, and then the design is doing the same thing; it's dealing with these layers that are going to keep unfolding," Ahmadinejad said. Sarah Ruhl's "Orlando" also involves time jumps as its narrative follows the eponymous hero through many centuries, from Elizabethan England to the Roaring '20s. Xia was drawn to the script for its accommodation of a diverse ensemble cast, as well as the journey of identity questioning and self-discovery contained in its narrative. Xia points to the play's final line, "I am about to understand," as a call for continued self-exploration—a kind of cliff-hanger meant to spur more questions. "You're not meant to solve a question and have a concrete answer," she said. "And that's what I love about a play." Since attending a screening of "Orlando" at Syndicated, a dine-in movie theater in Bushwick, Xia has noticed traces of the story's central themes everywhere. She believes the gender roles of the Elizabethan era have persisted across centuries; she likens them to a genetic code that is passed down from generation to generation. "I think it's up to us now to be willing to understand and admit that we don't understand anything, but we're willing to get to know about ourselves and about other people a little bit more at a time," Xia said. The ensemble production will be accented by a set design of silhouettes created with puppetry and shadow work. Xia aims to use these silhouettes to embody the joy of storytelling and "play with this play." Reich sees the involvement of puppetry and shadow work as inevitable for a work like "Orlando." "You kind of have to go all out with the craziness of the play. … You can't just try to stage it realistically. It's not the language [of the play]," Reich said. Xia also plans to bring in live music and sound using everyday objects and sustainable materials. While sustainability cuts costs, minimalist prop use also allows more freedom of creativity, which coincides with the imaginative script. "Everything can be anything," Xia said, "And that's the spirit of Orlando as a character." Xia's philosophy is to trust the audience to move with the art and understand it: "They're the completing element of the storytelling." In previous years, Barnard theater production manager Michael Banta had to put a word out that he was looking for backstage crews, but this year, more students than usual have expressed interest in getting involved. After working on some of the first post-pandemic in-person productions at Barnard—"On Loop" and the Spring Thesis festival—Banta is excited to see students back in the theater this fall even though COVID-19 precautions will limit in-person viewership. That said, there is uncertainty as to whether non-affiliates of Columbia will be able to attend the shows. Thus, Banta is considering reintroducing the live-streaming methods, which he established last spring, so that families and friends can watch as well. However, copyright issues often cause complications with live streams. Ever since the theater industry shut down last year, Banta and the department have been adamant about keeping the spirit of live theater alive, so pre-recorded versions of the shows would not be ideal. "We should not be making films. We should not be recording performances and then rebroadcasting. We wanted something that was real and immediate," he said. Xia and Ahmadinejad will take COVID-19 restrictions in stride, finding ways to be creative with the masking policy. Ahmadinejad wants to experiment with different types of masks for "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark," hoping to find an option that will allow as much expression as possible. She also plans on honing in on vocality, physicality, and eye expressions. Xia is considering introducing visards, masks worn by women in the 16th century to protect their faces from the sun, into the "Orlando" costume design. "[The visards] also hinder [women's] ability to talk. So that is kind of part of the gender narrative that we were talking about. So if we have to involve masks, let's just involve it—and not wear surgical masks." Staff writer Jane Loughman can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @queenofquirk. 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