CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois theatre department’s 2019-20 season examines the notion of justice and the struggles people have with many forms of injustice, large and small.
The season opens this month with two plays at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. “Gem of the Ocean” will run Oct. 17-19 and Oct. 24-27. “Titus Andronicus” will run Oct. 24-26 and Oct. 29-Nov. 3.
“‘Gem of the Ocean’ tells an intimate, deeply personal story, but it is also a reflection on the huge social injustice of enslavement in America and its aftermath. It speaks to the ways we are all, as Americans, implicated in this history to this day,” said Gabriel Solis, the head of the theatre department. “‘Titus Andronicus’ meditates on the lengths people will go to in cycles of revenge when they feel wronged. It is bloody and tragic, and may be a timely play for us even now, though it is set in the era of the Roman Empire.”
Goodman Theatre Resident Director Chuck Smith is directing “Gem of the Ocean,” the first in playwright August Wilson’s 10-play series “The American Century Cycle,” looking at black life in 20th-century America. Smith worked with Wilson on the world premiere of “Gem of the Ocean” at Goodman Theatre in 2003.
For the Krannert Center production, Smith reimagined the key “City of Bones” scene. In the scene, Aunt Ester – a formerly enslaved healer for her community – takes a newcomer seeking redemption to the City of Bones, a mythical place in the ocean that represents the people who died on slave ships bound for America.
“It’s one of my favorite scenes, and I’ve never seen a production of the play that satisfied me in terms of what could happen,” Smith said.
He wanted a strong visual element for the scene and worked with Illinois dance department professors Kemal Nance and Endalyn Taylor to choreograph a dance piece using African dance movements and music with a strong drumbeat. The costumes give the impression of bones dancing, Smith said.
“They take us on a wonderful journey,” he said. “I’m hoping it gives a better understanding to the City of Bones scene to bring more attention to the fact that a lot of individuals did not make it across the water.”
The themes surrounding Aunt Ester’s journey include the sacrifices she must make in her life to help her community find its way after slavery, said theatre professor and producer Lisa Gaye Dixon, who plays the pivotal role.
“I find her to be one of the most multidimensional of Wilson’s women characters. She’s intelligent and sly and funny, and passionate in all sense of the word,” Dixon said. “She’s done some suffering but it’s been her choice and on her terms.”
To Dixon, the play stands out as one of Wilson’s best works.
“They are all epic and beautiful in their own way, but there is a richness in the language and text and imagery and metaphor that is above and beyond many of his other plays,” she said. “It’s beautiful to hear.”
Smith directed “Barbecue” at Krannert Center in spring 2018 and was eager to return.
“This has become one of my favorite places to work,” Smith said. “It’s a very creative and wonderful environment. In terms of work environment, production values and talent, they’re doing it right. Working with the students is just like working with professionals.”
The theatre department’s production of “Titus Andronicus” is designed to be accessible to audience members with a hearing impairment or a limited understanding of English.
Unique to the theatre department’s production of the play, two people will portray Titus. Director and theatre professor Robert Anderson described graduate students Rachael Fox and Andrew Morrill as highly talented Shakespearean actors. They will appear on stage simultaneously, with Fox speaking the role and Morrill performing in American Sign Language. The two have worked to synchronize their performances, Anderson said.
The theatre department hired a consultant, Columbia College professor Crom Saunders, whose specialty is translating Shakespeare for American Sign Language. He is directing Morrill and working with other actors who are learning their roles in sign language.
The performance will also have captioning on large TV screens the audience can see as they watch the play, making it more accessible to those who are hearing impaired, as well as those for whom English is a second language.
“For people who feel afraid of Shakespeare, it’s very welcoming to them,” Anderson said.
The play is quite violent, with the rape and mutilation of a female character, and it also uses dark humor. Much of the violence happens offstage, and some of it is presented in an abstract way. Anderson worked with English professor Andrea Stevens to adapt the script, both in its presentation of violence and in trimming it to a 90-minute performance.
“It was the most popular of Shakespeare’s shows during his lifetime. It really strikes a chord with people and was part of revenge tragedies that were popular at the time, kind of like horror movies,” Anderson said.
“There’s something in the play that is so satisfying for the audience. Even contemporary audiences really respond to it,” he said. “There are some horrible things done early in the play, and those people get their comeuppance in very vivid ways. That’s very cathartic for the audience.”
Anderson said Shakespeare’s search for balance in a chaotic world seems relevant to contemporary culture.
“For a play that’s 400 years old, it feels very topical,” he said. “Having a young cast work on this keeps it fresh, alive and vital. It’s not museum Shakespeare, or reverential. There’s something raw and young about it.”