When envisioning the “Beat Generation” of the early 1950s, what likely comes to mind are turtlenecks and sunglasses, poetry and bongos, and the origins of funk and jazz ““ a quirky era that preceded and naturally melded into the grander spectrum of movements that spanned the ’60s. What likely doesn’t come to mind is Shakespeare.
However, this unprecedented pairing is exactly the fusion that has occurred underneath the roof of the UCLA Department of Theater, thanks to the direction of visiting professor and director Joel Bishoff in this quarter’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
With a cast of 21 UCLA graduate students, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” opened Friday at the Macgowan Little Theater and will continue through March 14. One of Shakespeare’s earlier comedies, the play centers on the drama of four Athenian lovers but also includes faery queens, a band of amateur actors and the oftentimes ridiculous plots and subplots they stumble into.
So how, exactly, did the beatnik movement factor in?
“I knew (the play) had to be modern, the question was what period,” Bishoff said. “With any play I do, I usually come up with the song list first. This time as I was reading through, I heard jazz: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk … artists of the 1955 to 1960 period.”
The subliminal societal stratification of beatniks versus Establishment that existed during the ’50s also accommodated Shakespeare.
“The beatniks were the great modern equivalent for faeries, as opposed to hippies who, aside from the anti-war movement, were only concerned with getting high and other experimenting. Beatniks were less about that, were more poets and artists, as opposed to the Athenians who were more straight-laced and Establishment,” Bishoff said.
Surprisingly, Bishoff, one of the original creators and director of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” the second-longest off-Broadway musical, expressed his foremost priority that this version of the play remain timeless.
“I wouldn’t call it avant-garde, that’s exactly not the Shakespeare I want to see. I wasn’t after making it how the ’50s related to Shakespeare, and didn’t want to influence it so much that it skews the original meaning of the play. I wanted to set it in an interesting period,” said Bishoff, who also cites “Midsummer” as his first academic directing experience.
It follows that although “Midsummer” is set against the backdrop of the 1950s, the original Shakespearean language of the script remains intact, with only six lines cut. The influence of the ’50s is evident in the costumes, which range anywhere from sweater-vests, off-color ties and mismatched suits, to wing-tipped shoes and argyle socks.
“Basically we look like a whole bunch of misfits, which is a lot of fun. We’re like an awful mosaic,” said second-year graduate student Kevin Muster, who plays Bottom in the play.
The period is also reflected in the production’s music, which includes the substitution of scat (vocal improvisation in jazz music) in place of two musical numbers, as well as the addition of 11 songs.
“It’s got the jazz tunes with it, which is a lot of fun. I really think people will enjoy it. It should move pretty quickly,” Muster said.
The production’s stage arrangement, designed by UCLA theater Professor Neil Jampolis, is also unique, providing a notably confidential actors-audience relationship.
“We wanted to make a very intimate space so that we could get away from a kind of declamatory acting style, where actors have to pitch to the back of the audience to get them involved with the characters,” Jampolis said. “While the words have to be spoken clearly, they can be directed in an almost conversational tone, as if the audience were listening in on a conversation instead of having it pitched at them.”
Jampolis, who has designed set and lighting for Bishoff since 1989, was the one to initially invite Bishoff to direct the production at UCLA.
“I thought that our department would get a kick out of working with him because he gets actors to really love him as a director,” Jampolis said. “He’s the kind of director who doesn’t say “˜I want this, let’s do it,’ but he tries to teach actors and tries to get them to be the best that they can be.”
Due to their collaboration in the past, Bishoff and Jampolis shared the desire that “Midsummer” remain timeless.
“Some of the greatest productions of this have been either looking like a circus, or Edwardian with people riding around on bicycles, or being in the outer space realm. The human interaction remains very real, and it has absolutely nothing to do with period,” Jampolis said.
Originally written for a wedding, Shakespeare intended the play to be about love and marriage.
“That was definitely one thing I was going for, at the end to make it as romantic as possible,” Bishoff said. “If you love someone, it doesn’t change with time ““ what you wear changes. It relates again to the timeless thing.”
Shakespeare couldn’t have said it better.