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The Play Version of Turandot to Premiere This Weekend at Trinity

Tripod Sits Down With Visiting Professors Michael Preston and Barbara Karger to Discuss Trinity's Turandot

By Bailey Triggs

At 8 p.m. from November 11-13 Trinity College's visiting Theater and Dance professors Barbara Karger and Michael Preston are directing a production of Carlo Gozzi's play Turandot in the Goodwin Theater of the Austin Arts Center.

Last Friday I had the pleasure of sitting down with Karger and Preston to discuss their background in theater and this upcoming project. They explained the history of Gozzi's play and their vision for Trinity's production of Turandot.

Visiting Professor Barbara Karger has extensive theatrical experience throughout Europe, co-founding Antagon-Theatre with the renowned Folkwang Hochschule in Essen and touring the world with the Swiss Mask theater group Mummenschanz.

Most recently Karger co-directed the new musical Ludwig II in Germany and collaborated with Michael Preston on a full-length version of Peter and the Wolf in Amsterdam, and Clown Brain and the Bindlestiff's High Heels and Red Noses in New York City.

For most of the 90s Michael Preston toured the world performing with the Flying Karamazov Brothers, including three stints on Broadway. He has appeared on "Seinfeld," "Ellen," "Law and Order," "The Today Show," and "The Tonight Show." Before that, he was a longtime member of the Shaliko Company, founded by Leonardo Shapiro and based at La MaMa. Film work includes Matewan and Eight Men Out, both by John Sayles. He has worked with Cirkus Amok, Circus Flora and Zoppe's Circus Europa as a clown and ringmaster.

Carlo Gozzi wrote Turandot in 1760, in Venice, a state at the end of its Empire and looking to more exotic lands for inspiration. Gozzi believed in a theater that was transformative, that was both rough and refined, a theater that encompassed the improvisation and crudity of Commedia dell' Arte as well as the poetry of classical drama.

In Turandot, Gozzi contrasts scenes of the lowest physical comedy with scenes of great emotion and tragedy. Engaged in a famous feud with rival Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni, Gozzi insisted on a theater that was religious and raunchy, sacred and sarcastic, beautiful and disgusting, in contrast to what he believed was Goldoni's sanitized and naturalistic middle-class theater. Gozzi defeated Goldoni, who moved to Paris, and continued to write plays that used the traditional Commedia dell' Arte characters while adding depth and wonderment to the situations that they found themselves in.

Turandot, which has been made into an opera by Giacomo Puccini, is set in a mythical land where war is a constant and refugees are drawn to the one nation that has the strongest army. Turandot, the princess played by Meghan Boone '06, does not want to be married and lose her independence. She devises riddles for the princes who are courting her to answer and if they fail in answering these riddles they are beheaded. What starts as a stratagem for protection becomes a tragedy of destruction.

As Kager explains Turandot's situation: "She is trying to create a more peaceful situation for herself [by not getting married], but [through the beheadings] it becomes the opposite."

Though Turandot is set in a politically charged, warring environment, Kager and Preston assert that their intention was not to "push politics" with this piece. It is a testament to how pertinent this play is to today's world that when Karger and Preston decided on Turandot, hot-button issues of today, like political assassinations via beheading, were not yet on the national radar screen.In searching for a fall play, Karger and Preston explained that they were looking for a classical play that was both comic and tragic.

They decided on Turandot because not only did it incorporate both comic and tragic elements, but it also had several themes that were pertinent to Trinity life: Turandot's feminist, independent desire to not be married and the play's setting in a world where countries were perpetually at war with each other. Preston explains: "This production was created, in collaboration with the cast, to portray a world at war, where tragedy is always at hand, but where the spirit of comedy and humanity prevails in the most theatrical and fantastical way possible."

In this production of Turandot, Karger and Preston worked hard to push their cast to experience and express the full range of emotions in their portrayal of their characters. Preston explains their philosophy: "Unlike film and visual art, which are cool mediums, theater is a hot medium. Actors have to be able engage their audience and be able to make huge jumps between tragedy and comedy. In this mostly WASPy environment, our emotions are closed down. I wanted to challenge the students to go to a bigger emotional place."Commedia dell' Arte is a type of theatrical comedy that was developed in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries, characterized by improvised performances based on stock characters and bare-bones plot outlines.

Commedia dell' Arte troupes would travel throughout the country performing wherever crowds were. Karger and Preston see many parallels between these wandering performers and the group of college students who are bringing their diverse talents to this production of Turandot. I

In true Commedia dell' Arte style, much of this production was created through the improvisational work completed by the all-student cast. This version of Turandot works hard to engage its audience. For example, it replaces the somewhat stuffy expositional introduction with an upbeat rap performance and throughout the play the Hungarian and Bulgarian cast members speak in their native tongues to emphasize the idea that everyone is a refuge in this play. The cast also creates their own music for much of the performance.

Karger gives credit to the cast for the great progress the show has made in its final week of rehearsal: "This is a great group of students. They are all different kinds of people but they have pulled together and made real strides in their performances."Turandot will be performed in the Goodwin Theater of the Austin Arts Center on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening Nov. 11-13 at 8 p.m. and is free to Trinity students.