Most directors would consider their production doomed to failure if their cast showed no inclination to memorize lines. John Bair '06 seems unconcerned, however, that his cast members do not know a single line from his play "& Juliet," which opens this Friday. After all, he never gave them any to learn.
When Bair and co-author Patrick Bredehoft '03 wrote "& Juliet," they created the elements found in any play: characters, setting and plot. However, they left out scripted dialogue, allowing the actors to create their own.
"Pat and I wrote the basic plot over two hours, with biographical profiles of the characters which we gave to the cast, and this play is what came out of that," said Bair.
Bair and Bredehoft based their format on the work of film writer and director Christopher Guest, of "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best in Show" fame.
"Guest gives his actors an outline of the scene and the basic actions that need to take place. It is the actors' responsibility to invent their own dialogue," Bair said.
Over the course of six weeks, the cast developed characters and refined scenes using group discussion and improvisation. "We would sit down and talk about a scene. The script would say what that scene needed to reveal or the action needed to further the plot. Then we would say, 'Okay, how do we make that transpire onstage?' Then they would just improvise it," Bair said.
By keeping what worked and changing what seemed out of character for any of those in the scene, "we slowly narrowed down to our final product. The action remains consistent but the way the actors carry that out can change. It's really the most exciting kind of theater I think," Bair added.
Working as both actors and, in a sense, as their own playwrights, the cast placed great importance on character development. "You are literally becoming someone else. Without a playwright to direct you, it has to come completely from an organic understanding of the character," Sarah Overton '07 said.
In the process, both theater majors and those in College improv groups gained new insight into their respective crafts. "I've never approached any performance for theater this way. In some ways it's liberating, but in some ways it's terrifying," Christa Hinckley '08 said.
Coming into the production from the other end of the spectrum, Cole Entress '06, a member of the Casual Thursday improv group, learned the difficulties of maintaining an improvisation over the course of an entire production.
"[In Casual Thursday], you have the privilege to say what you want and commit to it for three minutes. Here, every choice you make becomes part of the whole play." While this proves more challenging, he said, "Once you start creating a universe [for the play] you can get much deeper [into the characters]."
Ironically in this play-sans-script, the actors play Dartmouth students rehearsing a production of one of the most famous scripts ever written -- Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."
Bair felt that this "unprepared" rendition of Shakespeare fits well in the Hopkins Center's Jaffe-Friede Gallery, where the play is being performed. "I feel like people notice [the gallery] when it's in transition. They are much more likely to look in when an exhibit is being moved in or out, when it's in flux and not quite ready yet. The idea is that this play's not quite ready yet. So it really worked with the way I think of this space," he said.
The cast stressed that, despite its home in an art gallery and the radical approach to its script and rehearsal, the production remains accessible to a "non-artsy" crowd.
"It is a very personable play for everyone because it is about Dartmouth," Eugene Oh '06 said.
Overton agreed. "It's nice to understand the process, to appreciate [the play] for what it is. But that is certainly not necessary for the humor. It's a very funny play," she said.
The play covers issues ranging from drunkenness to roommate conflicts. "It makes you re-examine every drunken night you've ever had," Oh said jokingly.
"[The daily paper] The Dartmouth is actually an important character in our play," said Bair, who refused to disclose more details.
"& Juliet" runs this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Jaffe-Friede Gallery of the Hopkins Center. Admission is free.
