BRATTLEBORO — This weekend, a group of talented New England Youth Theater alumni, under the guidance of a visionary local director, are unveiling a new look at a classic tragedy.
From June 21 through 23, the NEYT Alumni Association will present a special production of “Blood Wedding” by the Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca.
Rather than merely reviving this celebrated tragedy, NEYT's “Blood Wedding” is transforming it into what director Eric Bass calls a folk opera.
Using a new translation from the original Spanish by NEYT alumnus Jessica Callahan Gelter, and original music by NEYT alumnus Lynn Mahoney Rowan, this production is the world première of a virtually new work.
Written in 1932 and first performed in Madrid in March 1933, García Lorca's “Blood Wedding” is a dark story of violence and vendetta in a rural Spanish town. The death-bound love triangle at the center of the play fuels passions to a fever pitch, and propels the story to its tragic conclusion.
When an arranged marriage between the children of wealthy landowners is about to take place, the bride's former lover arrives at the wedding. He and the bride run away, and in the middle of the night the entire town goes after them. Pursuers and pursued plunge into a realm of deep darkness where the moonlight is not friendly and the forest not shelter enough.
García Lorca - Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca - might just be the most important Spanish poet and dramatist of the 20th century. Born in 1898, he was executed 38 years later, in 1936, by nationalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. His body has not been recovered.
Significant controversy remains about the motives and details of García Lorca's murder. Personal, non-political motives have also been suggested. His biographer, Leslie Stainton, says his killers remarked about his sexual orientation, suggesting that this had played a role in his death. His assassination might have been part of a campaign of mass killings intended to eliminate support for the Marxist Popular Front.
“Blood Wedding” is the first production for the alumni association directed by Eric Bass, co- founder and artistic director of Sandglass Theater in Putney, although he has directed several times for NEYT.
“It's a treat to work with the NEYT alumni,” Bass says. “I've known some of these actors since they were young, worked with some when NEYT was still in the little storefront next to the Latchis [Theatre]. Now we get to work together on a project that I've dreamed about for a number of years."
Bass says he had long wanted to direct “Blood Wedding.”
“Lorca uses a very sparse language that is highly suggestive. Much of the drama is about what is left unsaid, which for me makes an absolutely exciting directing experience, as the audience is asked to use their imagination in inventive ways. Actors speak and move to make space in a tragedy that is entirely about containment until the last moments. Tensions remain high, as characters live under a time bomb that is ready to go off.”
This production of “Blood Wedding” has a minimalist set, Bass says.
“Our stage is almost bare, except for a lot of rusty blades. You get knives and farm instruments and chopping things. It is an appropriate backdrop for a play which is about weapons and the cultures that turn to them to solve problems, or do the opposite and use them to embed problems in the culture.”
In this time of national debate about gun control, García Lorca's 1932 play seems as relevant as it did when it was written. It asks some of the same questions that we see each day in the news: Is violence related to the availability of weapons? Is violence embedded in the psyche of a culture? Is violence the preordained result of unresolved conflicts?
Bass originally considered using a favorite translation of “Blood Wedding” for this production, but when he couldn't get the rights, started considering others. That's when Jessica Callahan Gelter began considering attempting one of her own.
“'Blood Wedding' is one of my favorite plays, and I loved the prospect of translating it. Its language is beautiful, specific and rich with imagery,” she says.
Nervously, she took her translation to Bass to see what he thought.
“Happily, Eric took a look and loved it,” Callahan Gelter says. “More than other versions we had come across, it proved the most suitable to set pieces of it to music.”
Bass says his vision from the beginning was to turn this straight play into a folk opera.
“Lorca was a classical musician and some of the most poetic pieces of 'Blood Wedding' are practically songs. So the piece practically begs to be turned into opera.”
Bass said he contacted another NEYT alumnus, Lynn Mahoney Rowan, a member of the a cappella group “Windborn,” which Bass had heard when they performed at his Sandglass Theater.
“The music Lynn writes, particularly the Corsican folk melodies, was exactly what I wanted for this play,” says Bass.
Rowan, who teaches a Community World Music course at Keene State College with her husband, says she was excited about writing her first stage work.
“It was a daunting task. I had only three months to complete the music, and I won't lie, I had to pull an all-nighter to get done on time.
“I wrote about a dozen a cappella new pieces for the work. Of these, many were songs, some soundscapes achieved with humming and rhythm, and some ambiance sounds. Most of this music was derived from Corsican folk traditions, but I also used some Bulgarian, Appalachian and generic American folk music. I cheated on one piece and used an existing jig, so there is one genuine piece of folk music in this folk opera.”
That said, Rowan is reluctant to label “Blood Wedding” a folk opera.
“It may in some ways, not in terms of the music but in the way it is used in a drama, be like an opera, but in other ways it is more like musical theater, and in others a movie soundtrack,” she says. “But then again it is very different from all those things.”
And Bass wants to reassure those who find opera to be inaccessible and alienating that there is nothing to fear here.
“The music enhances the haunting quality of the text making it seep through the skin,” he says.
Bass admits that it is difficult to describe what kind of theater this is, but he says, “I want to urge people to come and see something that may seem different but is riveting. From start to finish, it holds your breathless attention.”
Bass says he found working the NEYT Alumni Association to be “a joyous experience.”
“The work done by Jess and Lynn in 'Blood Wedding' is worth sitting up and taking notice of, and we are still not sure how far they'll go. We should be proud to say we were there at the beginning,” he says.