Prologue Staging...
Many thanks to RJ Tolan for his great post on the forum describing and explaining the new "Prologue" staging:
Carol's Question:
Hi all. I didn't see this show (but have the CD). A director in my little town in Iowa is thinking about
using the basic street concept for staging Godspell. We started wondering how in a show like NYC's
the transfer from philosophers to community following Jesus was shown. And then what happened at
the end in this regard.
In the movie, the players paint their faces and then remove the make up at the end. Was there
anything similar done in this show?
RJ's Response:
Carol:
Ah, you've hit upon one of the greatest challenges a director faces when attempting a
"non-traditional" Godspell, so this is going to be a long explanation. In the original production the
"philosophers" perform the prologue, run off after being baptized during "Prepare Ye," and run back on
in their "motley" costumes. As you said, they apply makeup during Jesus' first speech and take it off
again during the Day by Day reprise after "We Beseech" in act II. They are from the start a stylized
community operating in the genre of "Magical Realism," which allows broad symbolic strokes which
have emotional impact without a naturalistic explanation. The philosophers are the philosophers, the
troupe is the troupe, and there's no need to reconcile the two conceptually.
From the beginning, Shawn's overarching conception of our production was that we should be
following real people (the "street concept" that you refer to), who come into the space as if right off
of the street outside and are transformed by their encounter with the Jesus figure. Our challenge,
then, was to find a way for the Prologue to occur without the performers having to "be" the
philosophers. In our case, we addressed this by having them respond to (and attempt to purchase)
images of the philosphers in Judas/J the B's "shop," and after the conflict and baptism trade their
street clothes for funkier "motley" which is also in the shop. The final transition (taking the place of
the original face paint) was a final accessory (hair clip, necklace, scarf, etc.) given to each by
Jesus, which was returned to him at the end during Beautiful City, which we used in the place of the
DBD reprise.
What your director friend will face, as we did, is the realization that Godspell is one heck of a
well-built show, and that the structure of the piece strongly enforces the logic of the original
approach; that is, separating the philosophers conceptually from those performers in the rest of the
show. Our rendition required some mental gymnastics on our part, and we only really struck a
balance we were pleased with after literally months of experimentation (as the cast can attest). It
also required a leap of faith from the audience, though I think they were happy to make it once we
got that balance right.
I'd love to hear what the mijos thought of the opening of our production, and how close we got to
our initial goal.
Sorry for the long-windedness and my shameful overuse of the word "concept..." Hope this helps.
RJ
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