FARFETCHED FABLES
Production Ensemble 2011
The Department of Theater presented George Bernard Shaw's FARFETCHED FABLES, Directed by Lars Jan on March 25th and 26th, 2011 at 8PM and March 27th, 2011 at 3PM in the LPAC Cinema. The six-part FARFETCHED FABLES, an often dismissed and rarely staged late work by George Bernard Shaw, was penned in 1950, the playwright's ninety-third year, and is radical in its anarchic interplay of ideas.
Eugenics, global chemical warfare, genetic engineering, the possibility of non-corporeal consciousness, and the fundamental problem of education all surface and sink in this complex, brief, and very messy "play." Created in an era defined by the televised clowning of both Lucille Ball and Joseph McCarthy, FABLES has inspired the creative team to draw on these and other sources to construct a dramatic scaffold around Shaw's off-kilter text. A teleplay by design, this production posits the FABLES as censored television broadcasts from back in the days when television was almost always live. Dramatically reenacted before our "live studio audience," the FABLES are tested, framed and interpreted by a focus group team interacting directly with the audience.
Lars Jan, the director, is also a designer, writer, and media artist. He is the founding artistic director of Early Morning Opera, a multi-disciplinary art lab based in Los Angeles that specializes in live performance. Lars is a 2000 graduate of Swarthmore College and completed his MFA in Directing and Integrated Media at CalArts with the support of a Jack Kent Cooke Fellowship. Lars is the recipient of the 2008 Sherwood Award, granted by Center Theatre Group to an innovative theatre artist in Los Angeles. He has created new work and taught in residence at Princeton University's Atelier Program as well as at Mount Holyoke, Swarthmore, and Amherst Colleges.
Production Ensemble 2011 members perform in multiple roles, control the cameras, choreograph movement and otherwise conjure the world of the play both on "stage" and behind the scenes. Collaborators include: Lori Barkin '12, Sebastian Bravo '13, Jessica Cannizzaro '12, Ryane Disken-Cahill '12, Michael Edmiston '12, Michelle Fennell '12, Katie Goldman '14, Jamila Hageman '13, Jeannette Leopold (Haverford) '13, Meryl Erica Sands '13, Sam Shuker-Haines '14, Marina Tucktuck '13, and Elliot Weiser '13. Scenic & Costume Design is by Laila Swanson, Lighting Design by James Murphy, Sound Design by Louis Jargow '10.
