The Tempest and the World of Theatre - Essay Example

THEATRE ARTS ‘The Tempest’ was a play directed by the eminent director Julie Taymor and was played on Broadway in New York. The production is one of the most widely recognized works of the renowned director that has drawn inspiration from various techniques in Theatre across different parts of the world. Taymor’s prowess in being able to use her illusory skills has helped her tremendously in her productions. Birds soaring into the air and dancing bears that seem very gentle in their intentions have provided an insight into her perspectives as an individual having the ability to capture moments of significance through her mastery in the fields of puppetry and costume design. The Tempest has been chosen as a topic of relevance in the current study on theatre arts as it the production of ‘The Tempest’ provides a valuable insight into the work of an individual across several fronts. In this case, Julie Taymor has taken on many responsibilities apart from the core role of directing the play such as designing the costumes and make up of actors, designing puppets to be used during various scenes as well as creating masks to be used by the actors. In all these various roles, Taymor has gone on to use her extensive experience of showcasing the stage using adaptations from representations across different streams and cultures and in doing so, she has brought these unknown forms of drama to the forefront. The current essay is an effort in this direction aimed at studying all these influences that have played a prominent role in the design and creation of various elements of the play. Different theatrical approaches such as the use of the ‘Bunraku’ style from Japan. Additionally, Indonesian styles of drama as well as the use of the styles adopted by the mud men of Papua New Guinea will be extensively discussed. INTRODUCTION In this world where there are several mediums for expressing feeling and emotions in so many distinct ways, a common question arises if there is any unique form of art that enables the combination of the human, physical, emotional and the spiritual forms of expression. What have some of the most prominent people in the profession been doing and drawing inspiration from as part of their exposure to different approached would be an interesting question in this context and is the prime purpose of this paper. One of the most special faculties that combine different forms of expressions to life in a real sense is the world of theater arts. Theatre or Drama is a notch higher than most other forms of expression and falls under the auspices of the study popularly known as ‘Performing arts’1. The world of Theatre has seen many eminent directors and artists each of whom has created a niche for them through years of constant practice, observation and determination. Among them, it has been even more difficult for women directors to come to the forefront and achieve recognition. Whenever the question of who the greatest women director is surfaces, the name Julie Taymor always leads the list. Julie Taymor is an influential American director of Theatre and Opera, who is associated with numerous awards and nominations including an Academy Award nomination. Born in 1952 and a product of the Oberlin college of Ohio, Taymor took an early interest to acting and drama at an early age. Even before she graduated with a degree in Mythology and folklore, she had widely travelled the world as part of dance and stage troupes and had seen the different ways in which theatres were using unique styles to perform in front of home crowds. Her subsequent forays into learning the ancient techniques of the bunraku form art from the Awaji island in China and the distinctive theatrical style of Bali based theatre groups would go on to play a huge part in the way she approached the stage. All of these shall be discussed as part of the current paper in the forthcoming sections. Apart from being a director and producer of many recognized theatrical productions, Julie is also a renowned as a puppeteer and artist. As such, she is acknowledged with filling in several voids in theatrical art and has also been known to have worked with several others prominent actors and directors. Many of the visitors who have witnessed here displays of art and theatrical fondly remember her for providing an intense representation of memories and emotions. Many have attributed with her skilled acumen in being able to instill lively expressions both in on stage characters as well as puppets. One of the several common mistakes that we do when we visit a theater or a presentation by way of sheer innocence is to miss out in looking in the details of the design that are depicted and constitute an integral part of the drama. For individuals who have realized such an occurrence, the presentations of Julie Taymor are an open invitation2. The current essay will primarily concentrate on one of the most influential and critically acclaimed personalities in American Theater and Drama, Julie Taymor, who has emerged as an icon of the stage as a result of combining different cultures and themes through her work in stage direction, puppetry and costume designers. William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ will be used as a source of inspiration to determine the traditional influences that have played a significant role in helping her through the production of this play. In the subsequent paragraphs, the use of different techniques and approaches such as Commedia Dell’arte, and the Papuan New Guinean mud men, whose ideas have been sourced from in producing costumes and masks shall be discussed extensively. The overwhelming influence of Indonesian and Japanese forms of Theatre on Taymor’s productions including ‘The Tempest’ will occupy a considerable portion of this essay. Fig: Julie Taymor at work. Source: 3 COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE Taymor is known to have relied on Commedia dell’arte for the first time in the production of the fairy tale titled ‘The King Stag’ that was produced in collaboration with the Romanian director Andrei Serban. The use of the different styles by Taymor, which shall be elaborated shortly, in different areas such as the costumes and puppets had contributed immensely to the successful running of the play across 3 continents and also resulted in a 66 city tour across the United States. Commedia dell’arte is an Italian version of the improvised theatre that has its origins in the 16th Century thereafter attaining the height of its glory during the mid 1900s. ‘The comedy of artists’, as it is generally recognized in English was unique in the sense that the performances were mostly based outdoors and did not consist the inclusion of a documented script. As such, actors and other contributions did not use much resources and he performance was quite instantaneous and required little training. The productions depended on contributions from viewers and were thus performed for free to the general public, thereby helping them rise in popularity albeit in a gradual manner. A troupe normally consisted of 10 people and has produced some well known names such as Copeau and Lecoq, who attained fame due to the inherent natural action and expressions that could be generated in Commedia dell’arte4. Some of the most common themes that were the subject of this theatre form were issues such as treachery, adultery, jealousy and love. As such, its existence within the production of the tempest is quite relevant and obvious. As the name suggests, the main idea behind commedia dell’arte is to invoke the interest of the audience through the use of jokes and physical gags. The approach has used some well known and improvised techniques such as Concettu and Burle in order to provide an on-the-spot performance to the audience. Additionally, the versatility of the stream allows the comedy to be localized thereby allowing actors to direct their jokes instantly towards local scandals and events. Some historians have even written about the art form having existed as early as during the 2nd century AD5. The prime purpose of producing the Tempest was enchantment and the Tempest produced for the New York Theatre has certainly gone miles ahead in achieving it. The play was produced at the CSC repertory and the use of commedia dell’arte meant that the set for the play had to have a very simple setting. As it was a work of Romance and comedy, the use of commedia dell’arte was rather visible from the simplified version against the original manuscript that has been considered to consist of several difficult sentences6. Taymor acknowledges that this was done in an effort to reach out to the maximum section of the public. She further went on to comment that the intention was to allow the audience to enjoy the principal message of the romantic comedy instead of spending their time in the theatre trying to figure out what was being said on stage7. While Taymor was the director of the play, Jeffrey horowitz contributed as the producing director and the duo’s inclination towards using commedia del’arte is evident from the basic tenet of the stream in performing in short spells and moving on. The entire play was shortened to a length of less than 90 minutes which necessitated the removal of complicated parts from the various scenes that had also become increasingly notorious for lengthy and exuberant speeches8. Taymor has believed that the modern approach to theatre deserves to take a different approach in response to the dwindling numbers in the audience by relying on traditional methods such as commedia del’arte that are intended to take forth a simple idea to the masses instead of depending on the public to come to the stage. Despite its simplification, the humor and the musical exuberance have been kept alive through the various enchanting rhythms and tones that have come to adorn the long standing reputation of the work. Commedia dell’arte has further stated that its prime purpose is to educate and enlighten people by taking a simple message in a funny manner such that it provides a sense of healing to the listener. The roles of Trinculo, the Jester and Stephano, the drunken butler were additional inspiration for the design of the masks and costumes using the approach of commedia dell’arte and had been played by th renowned comedians Kelly Walters – best recognized for his role as Barnum s well as Reggie Montgomery, who was previously a member of the ‘Ringling Brothers’ clown duo as well as the Barnum & Bailey Circus9. All the characters appeared in half masks so as to enable them to project their comical expressions. The combination of the plot, the use of simple dialogues and the balanced music from th contributions of Elliot Goldenthal have gone to achieve every purpose of Commedia del’arte in the presence of the modern audience. As such, Taymor’s extensive inspiration as a director has been drawn from this art form that has contributed in a significant manner in the success of one of the noted works of the literary and theatre world. THE MUD MEN OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA The next source of Influence that is apparent within the production of the tempest is that of the Mud men of Eastern Papua New Guinea. The Asaro Mud men are natives to the Goroka Town in the eastern highlands province of the country. Legend has it that during one of the usual tribal fights, the warriors were driven into the muddy Asaro river thereafter emerging out covered entirely in mud. While returning, they chanced upon another tribe by the time when the mud on their bodies had dried making them look frightening. As a result, the people of the other tribe ran for their lives. This incident is said to have encouraged the warriors of Asaro to cover them in mud before going to war. Within the context of the tempest, the sycorax’s son, Caliban is a negative character and the intention of Taymor was to make them as fearful as possible. As such, the actor adorning the role of Caliban on the stage is shown to be bursting up from the background and has clay smeared all over his body. Caliban has been represented as a deformed monster and is shown as a man covered in a mask of rocks and has his entire body covered in dried clay. While the play was in progress at the CSC Repertory, the reaction of Taymor was that Theater was all about the actor and the ability of the director to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary10. As such, her balanced show between two extremes of romanticism and cynicism has been ably justified. The actor playing the role of Caliban was Avery Brooks. Fig: Mud men of Papua New Guinea 11. THE ASIAN INFLUENCE One of the most predominant foundations of Taymor’s work revolves around the central idea of mixing actors and puppets in a free manner. In a brief association with Juan Darien, she developed a presentation which narrated the tale of a little tiger cub that evolved into a boy over time. A quick glimpse at some of her galleries would immediately highlight the impact of Japanese puppetry as is evident from the ‘Bunraku’ figures that have come to feature regularly. Bunraku is a centuries old traditional form of puppetry. Some of the common arrangements have included displays such as a head with hair parted in the middle so as to depict an open book or the collection of jaguars fixed in flight. Such a representation points one to the observation that Taymor believed predominantly in mixing detail with design and presenting it in an intriguing and surprising arrangement such that it succeeds in arousing maximum doubt in the minds of the viewer thereby prompting them to have a closer look. In Taymor’s version of the Tempest, one of the main characters, King Porspero has been recast as a woman named Prospera and the angel who serves Prospera, Ariel, has been cast using a bunraku puppet. In this case, the puppet was immensely successful as it was one of the firsts of its kind back in the 1980s to be used in western theatre and consisted of a delicately placed white head that was positioned in such a manner so as to allow it to float along the length of the stage. This innovative way of casting an Angel, who could span across the entire area of the performance received a lot of admiration from the public. The characters’ make up was entirely stylized on the basis of the techniques used in the Kabuki form of the Bunraku puppetry style, an example of which has been shown below12. The picture below depicts that most of the characters who are characterized by the Bunraku style represent acts of serious expressions. However, the use of the half masks with the blend with the commedia del’arte approach has allowed the presentation of serious looking faces in an appealing manner thereby helping in an able depiction of the play. Fig: A Bunraku Puppet. 13 Taymor’s skill and mastery in puppetry is perhaps most visible from the fact that she is greatly inspired by the oriental medium of arts. As such, her works are known to include flavors of all such forms of art. During the year 1973, Seymour was on a summer Program that was arranged by the American Society for American Arts where she witnessed Topeng Masks of Indonesian origin for the first time. This and her subsequent exposure to Wayang Kulit, which is a distinctive form of shadow puppetry, prompted her to spend the next 4 years in distance Indonesia upon graduating from the Oberlin College in Ohio. In Indonesia, Taymor studied various oriental forms of art, theatre and puppetry that included Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean and Indonesian representations of art. She thereafter went on to study the Bunraku form of Puppetry that has been mentioned previously in Japan and this according to her happens to be the place where she first began to experiment with puppetry. Perhaps her most notable achievement to date is the popular musical production, ‘The Lion King’ that was made in 1997. For her contributions to the movie as a director and designer of costumes, she was honored with two Tony Awards, which qualifies her as the first women to have received the award. She went on to expand into movies thereafter by producing Titus in 1999 and Frida in 1992 wherein the latter was an adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare titled ‘Titus Andronicus’14. Based on her experiences during her residence in Japan, she has come to rely extensively on works such as Tirai, which can be seen in her production of ‘The tempest’. Within the play, the prime antagonist Caliban has been depicted as having a big head resembling a stone. The design of the set and the costumes, in addition to the performance of the characters within the play seem to project Julie Taymor as a creative magician, who can transform a costume into a symbol of living and moving art form that is widely recognized as having great power in stimulating admiration and imagination. Here contribution to the African Savannah through her previous success in ‘The lion King’ has been widely regarded as a stepping stone in the success of her latest venture. The extensive influence of Japan through other arts forms is also relevant in the case of the tempest, where most of the sounds related to the sounds of the presence of islands or the sounds indicating the movement of lights or changing colors was created using a ‘Biramba’. A ‘Biramba’ is a percussion instrument that resembles a xylophone and was first developed by the Japanese. During her stay in the Indonesian island of Bali, Taymor is said to have witnessed an age old traditional ceremony that was performed by the village elders under the moonlight. The most challenging part of the entire ritual was the utmost concentration with which the elders were performing the ritual despite the lack of the presence of any audience. This observation seems to have inspired her in every work that she has undertaken that has been a result of hard work combined with focus towards grabbing the attention of every member of the audience. During her stay in the country, Taymor founded the Loh Theatre, which performed with the active contributions of actors belonging to Indonesian, German, Sudanese and American backgrounds15. It was during this time that works such as ‘Tirai’ found their way into the making of the Tempest. Her inclination and prowess at being able to attract the attention of the audience is also evident from the experiences on Bali. Apart from changes in the story of the tempest, a difference in some of the outcomes has added an element of surprise that has encouraged newer audiences to throng performances in expectation of a differently interesting outcome16. The depiction of the ship’s sails on fire was achieved through the use of crimson masks tied to poles that when looked from the audience seemed like the dogs that had been set loose after Caliban by Ariel. Additionally, the scene where Miranda and Ferdinand are shown falling in love has been performed with the expression of an increased mutual eagerness for one another unlike the original description in Shakespeare’s version that shows them to be in hesitation and astonishment. This indicates an urge within Taymor to incline more towards depicting a sense of positivity on stage through her direction and work. As such, it has been termed as a fresh and elegant way of producing old and famous fables. Fig: Costumes in Taymor’s Plays.17 CONCLUSION All of us are fascinated by theatre. Audiences simply love the expression of actors and other role players according to a well scripted plot. Theater, is a closer representation of life like situations that enables viewers to witness the scene in an almost life like backdrop. all these motives have been clearly been satisfied by Taymor through her contribution in the creation of the Tempest. A Theatre performs by conducting plays in which various characters enact a story in front of a live audience. In the case of ‘The Tempest’, a famous work of William Shakespeare, the audience at Broadway was treated to an exquisite performance where every scene consisted of performances by real actors, with real costumes deriving from influences such as Bunraku, Mud men of Papua New Guinea as well as the rituals from Indonesia and Bali. Characters on the stage fall in love, marry, quarrel amongst one another and armies go to war to depict great historical events such as the pardon of Caliban by Prospera. All along, the audience was engaged as if they were witnessing the event in a real sense as a result of unique innovations such as the floating of Ariel along the stage. The preceding paragraphs have discussed the influences that have played a prominent role in the life of Julie Taymor thereby helping her to create a successful production of the Tempest. Accounts of her studies and travels have mapped a progression from a young college grad student who went on a grant to Indonesia to an acclaimed and widely regarded theatre director of international repute. Part of this success has also been due to the influence and collaboration of several key people, the most noteworthy among them being Elliot Goldenthal, who has composed the musical tones for many of her productions including ‘The Tempest’. Her latest work ‘The Tempest’ gathers inspiration from her life long journey that has witnessed the distinct approach to drama and theatre in the Far East and the relatively modern and ever evolving influences in the Americas and Europe. By being exposed to all such different methods to represent and perform in theatre especially in the realms of Puppetry and costume designing, Taymor has shown her professionalism and unique approach to putting life into mere puppets and masks thereby enthralling the audiences through her performances and shows. It is therefore hoped that her latest work would continue to receive similar accolades that would find mention in many critical praises from various corners. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Geetha Ramanathan (1996), Sexual Politics and the Male Playwright: The Portrayal of Women in Ten Contemporary Plays. University of California. 2. Michelene Wandor (1986), Carry On, Understudies: Theatre and Sexual Politics. London: Taylor & Francis. 3. Victor J. 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Gale (2004), Shakespearean Criticism: Criticism of William Shakespeares Plays and Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations. London: Gale Cengage Learning. 13. Sue-Ellen Case (1988), Feminism and Theatre. California: Methuen. 14. Victor J. Seidler (1991), Recreating Sexual Politics: Men, Feminism, and Politics. London: Routledge. 15. Schechmer, Richard (2001). Julie Taymor from Jacques Lecoy to the Lion king. Puppets, masks and performing objects, John Bell, editor. New York University. MIT press. 16. The tempest. “Behind the scenes”1993-94. 17. Gussow, Mel. (1998) Review/Stage Design; Julie Taymor’s Theater Imaginings. New York Times. 18. Theater; Recapturing the Fantasy in Ourlives (2000) New York Times. 19. Julie Taymor (2006) Interview in Los Angeles, California. 20. Academy of audience (2006), Julie Taymor Biography: Transforming the world through art. Academy of Audience. 21. Eileen Blumenthal, Julie Taymor (2007), Julie Taymor: Playing with Fire. London: Harry N. Abrams. 22. Julie Taymor (2006), Titus: The Illustrated Screenplay. 23. George Tsypin (2005), George Tsypin Opera Factory: Building in the Black Void. New York: Princeton. 24. Alexis Greene (1997), The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway. New York: Hyperion. 25. John Bell (2001), Puppets, Masks, and Performing Objects. Cambridge: MIT Press. 26. Helen Krich Chinoy, Linda Walsh Jenkins (2006), Women in American Theatre. London: Theatre Communications Group. Read More