Who Will Carry the Word?

In which we shall see: More theatre stuff.

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So one of the great things about working as a dramaturg is having the opportunity to go and research plays. Yes, OK, I get that some of you immediately thought "Wow, I'd rather have a root canal", but trust me, it's really very cool to go digging around in history with a particular frame and set of experiences in mind. (Yes, OK, I also get that I am, once and for always, a total geek.) Anyway, my latest project involves a performance of a piece titled Who Will Carry the Word? which is about a group of female resistance fighters during World War II who have been captured and are being held in the Auschwitz concentration camp. It's intense, and horrifying, and depressing, and incredibly, completely beautiful - the short scenes in this production are intercut with gorgeous music and dance as the characters die and are set free.

I wanted to post here the notes I wrote for the program - I can't wait to see the performances this week (the production did very, very well at the Region and State competitions). I’m very interested in any responses and feedback – too much? Too little? Too cheesy? Brings you to tears too soon? Er, or something like that…

Who Will Carry the Word?
Dramaturg Notes

In the 1920’s the world was still reeling from the aftermath of the Great War. Art and culture were changing, and “expressionism” was gradually adopted as artists developed works that invited emotional, rather than clinical, responses. Theatre was turned on its ear in 1921 when Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of An Author calmly invited audiences to “participate in [the] stories” of his six “real” characters, and reasoned that truth was to be found only in the journey into the self. Surrealism (the dream state) and Neo-Expressionism began to show people what they felt and dreamed, instead of giving them a picture of what they actually were.

By the late 1930’s the world was changing again – moving back into war, this conflict even more pervasive and titanic. As German armies moved across Europe, resistance movements sprang up – and one, in Paris, included a young activist named Charlotte Delbo. Captured in 1942, her husband was shot and she was imprisoned; in 1943 she and 229 other French women were sent to Auschwitz with one of the few convoys from France that included non-Jewish prisoners. The convoy entered camp legend by approaching the gates singing “La Marseillaise”, the French national anthem. Only 49 women returned. Released in 1945, Delbo began to write about her experiences – stories, memoirs, and a play called Who Will Carry the Word?.

In transferring her memories and sufferings to paper, Delbo created immortality – as she transcribed those she had known and lost she also described friends and visions that live anew each time their lines are spoken. While viewing the play the audience is invited to participate in the lives before them, and to change the picture of their own day-to-day existence. As the author asks “who will carry the word?”, she is suggesting that as we discover the truths of courage, heartache, beauty, pain, and faith for ourselves onstage, we might then answer, “I will.”

CB

2008

Thanks, everyone - believe me, you're a great audience!

Watch out for falling turtles,

Cyd

Meaningful phone calls I made this weekend: 3

Meaningful phone calls I tried to make this weekend, but got voicemail: +2

Meaningful phone calls I really need to return: 1 (love you, Becca!)

Two weeks ago: worked out twice

Last week: worked out three times

This week (goal): work out four times (I've got a Bellydance DVD, baby!)

Sunday School lesson I prepared in 45 minutes (after discovering I'd worked for 3 hours on the wrong lesson): 1