Friday, November 21, 1997
Musical digs into lives of famous assassins
THEATER: Student production focuses on killers of American
presidents in a striking manner
By Jammie Salagbang
Daily Bruin Contributor
"Everybody’s got the right to be happy,/Don’t be mad, life’s not
as bad as it seems./If you keep your goal in sight/You can climb to
any height/Everybody’s got the right to their dreams."
The lead song "Everybody’s Got the Right" in the musical
"Assassins" could serve as the theme behind this production,
opening tonight in Schoenberg Hall.
"The Theater Department at UCLA is avant-garde in the sense that
it wants to do ground-breaking new material," says Pual Green, a
fourth-year theater student who plays John Wilkes Booth. "Usually,
the department is under the belief that musicals are outdated."
A group of students thought otherwise. When the director of the
musical, Sierra Rein, a third-year theater student, and a group of
her friends noticed the paucity of musical productions, they
decided to put on one of their own.
"To do a musical, or any theater, enriches your life and it
really focuses your life in many ways," Rein expresses. "The
ability to have artistic expresion through the voice and through
the body, to affect an audience (and) their thoughts, is amazing in
life."
Due to what the cast and crew say is a lack of departmental
interest in musicals, practically all aspects of the production are
under student control.
Not only directed and acted by students, the musical is also
produced by the Theater Underground, a group of students affiliated
with the theater department. Allowed to support one project a
quarter, Theater Underground chose "Assassins," a musical by
Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman.
True to its name, the play focuses on killers and would-be
killers of American presidents. The very fact that the show is not
a stereotypical 1930s muscial where everybody just breaks into song
or sings when they’re happy attracted Rein to the project.
"(‘Assassins’) has comedy in it, but it’s also a very
philosophical, very deep, very disturbing and controversial piece,"
Rein says. "I hope it disturbs people. I’d rather people come out
of the theater questioning what happened on-stage."
Many cast members agree the muscial may be like a shot in the
arm to some of the audience due to the nature of its content.
"It takes a daring person to start a play like this because it
gets a lot of crazy reactions," says second-year theater student
Ellen Etemadfar, the stage manager for "Assassins." "You’re either
going to love it or you’re going to hate it; there’s really no
in-between."
The musical centers on a group of American presidential
assassins, with John Wilkes Booth as the pioneer and leader of the
pack. Many cast members say a pivotal scene occurs when Booth
encourages Lee Harvey Oswald to shoot the president in the name of
fame.
"Some people think that it glorifies assassins, but personally,
I think it just gives the audience a chance to see the other side
of assassins and what drove them to do that," says third-year
theater student Will Pelegrini, the show’s scenic director.
According to the play, the assassins have some very interesting
reasons for their actions. Charles Guiteau kills President Garfield
to promote a book and John Hinkley attempts an assassination on
President Reagan to impress Jodie Foster. Others had more political
reasons, like Leon Czolgosz, who kills President McKinley because
he doesn’t believe one man should have so much power. John Wilkes
Booth shoots Abraham Lincoln partly because he believes Lincoln
instigated the Civil War.
"People hear who the characters are and think it’s just about a
bunch of nuts running around, singing songs, and that’s not it at
all," Green says. "It’s about these specific people who have not
had their dreams realized and decide to take matters into their own
hands by going to the highest authority and demanding that their
dreams come true."
THEATER: "Assassins" will be performed today and tomorrow at 8
p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in Schoenberg Hall’s Jan Popper Theater.
Admission is free. Donations are welcome.INGA DOROSZ
Paul Green (right) plays John Wilkes Booth in the musical
"Assassins."
INGA DOROSZ
Tom McMahon looks at the gun Tom Lenk hands him.