This semester, Professor Jordan and her assistant directors were presented with a challenge, which was the large number of students she has enrolled in the fall semester. With 19 students (2 directors and 17 actors), this is going to be quite a production. Not only is the amount of students an obstacle, the play itself, “The Good Woman of Setzuan”, written by the famous German playwright, Bertolt Brecht, should prove intimidating if nothing else. The play is about three gods played by, Iesha Hodges (‘13), Edna Campos (‘13), and, Nya Thompson (‘13), who are trying to find someone who is considered good in their eyes. After searching all day until night, they come across Shen Te played by Aya Abdelaziz (‘12), a prostitute who apparently has a heart of gold for taking them in for the night. For her hospitality they give Shen Te money so she would not have to sell herself and she opens a tobacco shop. But with a large family rooming for free, and a landlord and carpenter demanding their pay, Shen Te cannot seem to handle the stress. Using her cunning, she transforms herself into her alter ego, her cousin, Shui Ta, to create some order in the tobacco house, and aspire to be married to the person she loves.

I was lucky enough to attend a class, watch the actors practice and talk to the assistant directors Maddie Hammingson (’13) and Tsiann Hills (’13) as well as Aya Abdelaziz about the challenges of this play as well as their thoughts of what it means to be good.

Before diving straight into the interviews, a little background information on Brecht is necessary. The German born Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was part of the Expressionist movement, which was a smaller sect of a modern art movement in theatre, music, cinema and art. Expressionism was supposed to present a subjective perspective and stimulate moods or ideas in the piece and in the audience. Brecht adopted this idea, and coined it as the alienation effect. The approach to acting in Brecht’s play was radically different, wherein the actor really attempts to interpret the character, depicting their actions and personality. It is almost as if the actor assists the audience in critiquing the character. Brecht calls this acting in quotes.

I was able to talk to Maddie and Tsiann, both who have had experience as a director prior to this play in tenth grade scene study, and asked them about the challenging aspects. Tsiann stated that, “Some challenging aspects were getting to know the actors and who they are. I had worked with some of them but not everyone and as a director its really important to me to connect with the people I work with, so I had to get to know my actors before actually being able to stage them and help them further develop their character”. Maddie also said it was a lot harder to perfect the performances in each scene because of the large cast. The showing dates are Tuesday, January 10th at 6pm, Wednesday, January 11th during Dean's Hours, and Thursday, January 12th at 4pm.