The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, October 28, 2015 — 5A
Breaking gender
roles in ‘Caesar’
Shakespeare classic
comes to Ann Arbor
Civic Theatre
By BAILEY KADIAN
Daily Arts Writer
A conspiracy to kill the lead-
er of Rome by stabbing him
33 times involves deceit, vio-
lence
and
a
power-
ful pursuit
towards
reforming
the
state.
It involves
blood-
shed
by
the
hands
of
those
who crave
political
change.
Next week,
the
Ann
Arbor Civic
Theatre
presents
Julius Cae-
sar, a writ-
ten account
of
Roman
history and one of Shake-
speare’s greatest tragedies.
“Is there ever any reason that
justifies murder? That’s what
we’re asking and it’s exciting to
see everyone take that so seri-
ously,” said director Kate Walsh
in an interview with The Michi-
gan Daily.
Julius Caesar marks Walsh’s
sixth show with the organization.
“The actors, designers, pro-
duction staff — everyone wants
to do service to this story,” Walsh
said. “I’m really excited about the
commitment of the people in this
process and the level of expertise
that we are able to access.”
A2CT has been able to use
expertise from numerous sourc-
es for this production. Profes-
sionals such as set designer
Nathan Doud and music design-
er Katie Van Dusen, a School of
Music, Theatre & Dance alum.
The team has brought in Prof.
Rob Najarian from SMTD to
teach combat. These designers
continue to enhance the pro-
duction through loaning their
time and expertise to the devel-
opment of the story.
“Julius Caesar” requires a
cast able to address the dif-
ficulty of Shakespearean lan-
guage as well as the thematic
complexity beneath. They must
focus on making the language
understandable to an audience.
“When you hear it done by
people who love the language
and know it really well, it comes
to life, and you’re like, ‘This is
amazing,’” Walsh said.
The play opens with Caesar,
returning home from the Fol-
lowing. Caesar is warned to
“Beware the Ides of March,” or
March 15, which he disregards.
Cassius, a leading conspirator of
the assassination of Caesar, con-
vinces Brutus to join the cause.
Bloodshed and defeat follow, as
battle for “the sake of Rome” is
balanced with an equally strong
pursuit for power.
The technical design for this
show draws inspiration from
the language of the text, rather
than from the violence and dark-
ness that the plot provides. Most
actors are onstage for the entire-
ty of the show, playing multiple
roles with simple costume chang-
es, which allows the plot to speak
for itself.
“It’s very violent, but the lan-
guage doesn’t match what they’re
doing,” Walsh said. “I wanted
something that was going to be
a sharp contrast, a brutal, violent
contrast to the logic that comes
with the language.”
But the contrast goes beyond
language and violence.
“One of the challenges, being
a female director, and being a
female in theatre, is that there
aren’t a lot of opportunities avail-
able, especially for actors,” Walsh
said. “We have an opportunity to
do something different.”
Walsh has created something
new: A reversal with women
playing some of the leading male
roles in the show. In one instance,
Kaela Parnicky, a veteran of
A2CT, plays Antony.
“It’s a really different role for
me personally. I think it’s very
against type,” Parnicky said.
“Not only because I’m female,
but also because I’m very small
and a soprano.”
Through describing changes
in her mindset, and getting
used to the challenges that this
role calls for, Parnicky credits
Walsh for creating an environ-
ment that allows her to thrive,
despite the challenge.
“This is my third show with
Kat, and I do it because it’s an
ensemble experience,” Parnicky
said. “I love the emphasis on
everyone working together.”
The
subversion
of
gender
roles and type changes expecta-
tions and according to Walsh, is
very positive toward each actor’s
growth.
“It’s not going to be what’s
expected but that’s exciting,”
Walsh said. “Sometimes we can
learn something new from that
character because these people
are approaching it in that way.”
Through a difficult text, a vio-
lent story and a talented cast and
crew, A2CT will try to do justice
to this Shakespearean classic.
“My hope is that no one even
notices, that it’s not even some-
thing that is thought of, because
they go so much into the char-
acters, you are so enwrapped
in the story. That’s hard to do.
The actors just want to push the
story forward.”
EVENT PREVIEW
A
Ann Arbor
Civic Theatre
Presents
Julius Caesar
Arthur Miller
Theater
Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 30-31 at 8 p.m.
Nov. 1 at 2 p.m.
$11 (students)
$17-22 (adults)
Dress up on Halloween
for half off tickets
‘Killer of Sheep’ a
little known classic
By REBECCA LERNER
Daily Arts Writer
You probably haven’t heard
of the film “Killer of Sheep.”
Contrary to first impressions
of its horror-esque title, the
film
is
about
an
African-
American family in the 1970s
in Watts, one of the poorest
neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
It’s regarded as one of the best
movies in film history, selected
for preservation in the United
States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress and
chosen by the National Society
of Film Critics as one of the
100 Essential Films. Despite
the high praise garnered from
almost all of its critics, “Killer
of Sheep” lies dead in its
obscurity.
Directed by Charles Burnett
in 1977 as his senior thesis from
UCLA’s
School
of
Theatre,
Film and Television, “Killer of
Sheep” soon became a classic
among
the
academic
elite.
Burnett made “Killer of Sheep”
on a minuscule budget of about
$10,000 and used his friends
and family for actors. The film’s
academic reputation, despite its
humble beginning, was due to
the somewhat reticent nature
of the release — Burnett only
showed his film in colleges,
museums and churches during
the first release.
“Killer of Sheep” wasn’t
always a classic. Janet Maslin
of The New York Times gave
the film its first review and
criticized
the
very
aspects
later exalted by critics. She
called
it
uneventful
and
chastised
Burnett’s
use
of
non-professional
actors
who
mumble or overact some of their
lines.
Upon first viewing “Killer
of Sheep,” I would have agreed
with Maslin. The film is about
two hours long but without any
extensive or complex storyline.
The plot follows Stan, a black
man trying to take care of his
family and fit into the mold of
masculinity forced upon him
by the culture of Watts. The
black and white episodic takes
of Stan and his family can be
boring as we watch them walk
around the neighborhood, cook
and struggle through daily
life. Stan’s day job provides the
origin of the title, as his work
is the methodical butchering
of
strung-up
sheep
in
a
slaughterhouse.
However, when I further
researched Burnett and his
motivations
behind
“Killer
of Sheep,” I realized the full
value of the film. Burnett was
part of a cohort of filmmakers
responding to the Blaxploitation
film movement of the ’70s,
where Black actors were used
as a crutch to promote Black
‘Winter’ a successful
Netflix original doc
By KARL WILLIAMS
Online Arts Editor
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight
for Freedom” opens with a young
man surrounded by the sounds
of
bullets
and
shouts
of
civilians:
“This is the
Ukrainian
Revolution
… I was just
dragging
a
dead
body.
I stepped in
blood.
You
can’t surprise
me with any-
thing,”
he
says.
It’s
win-
ter
2013.
We’re
in
Kiev, Ukraine under the regime
of Pro-Russian President Vik-
tor Yanukovych, a man whose
previous run for the presidency
in 2004 was fraught with allega-
tions of corruption and embat-
tled by protests known as the
Orange Revolution. The country,
once again, became enmeshed
in a geopolitical tug-of-war
between Western Europe and
Russia. Yanukovych promises
alignment with the European
Union publicly, but privately, he
organizes a deal with Russia.
Outraged
by
Yanukovych’s
secret political dealings, citizens
organize a protest at Maidan
Square in Kiev. Like the Arab
Spring and similar public pro-
tests, many of the thousands
at
Maidan
became
involved
through social media. Many
of them, moreover, are apoliti-
cal — they’re ordinary citizens.
They chant, “Ukraine is part of
Europe!” For the first time since
the invasion of the Tatars in the
12th Century, every single bell of
St. Michael’s Monastery rang.
What’s most remarkable about
“Winter on Fire” is how it was
shot. The film consists mostly of
footage from inside the protests,
putting you right inside the action.
We see men and women beaten
with shocking immediacy. At one
point, a man, bending down to put
one of the scores of wounded onto
a stretcher, is shot on camera.
The film attests to the courage of
the citizens fighting for freedom
and, also, to the filmmakers who
risked their lives shooting it.
After the protests began, Kiev
became a warzone. Protesters
created barricades to defend
themselves against the Berkut.
They
used
makeshift
muni-
tions: they made shields from
the material at hand, used rocks
and bricks as weapons and wore
kitchen pots for helmets.
Over the 93 days of protest,
spanning from early November
through Feb. 22, the police force
used against Ukrainian citizens
— accompanied by hired merce-
naries —escalated from full-scale
beatings to murder: 125 people
were killed; 65 remain missing;
1,890 were treated for injuries.
“Winter on Fire” locates its
drama in the plight of these ordi-
nary citizens turned protesters. It’s
less concerned with the nuances of
geopolitics than the abuse of power
and fight for human dignity. It’s not a
documentary that merely exposes —
it advocates. It’s wholly and explic-
itly one-sided, an unofficial, oral
history of the citizens who fought
and survived the battles in Kiev. The
singularity of its political viewpoint
is its triumph, but it falters in failing
to establish the political conditions
in which the citizens fought. The
film calls for humanitarian democ-
racy, for civil rights and for freedom
in the face of totalitarianism, but it
fails to really carve out the face of
this particular totalitarianism.
While “Winter on Fire” suf-
fers slightly from its failure to
adequately provide its politi-
cal context, the film remains
an exceptional and compelling
documentary. It’s a visual and
oral history of the Ukrainian
citizens’ incredible bravery, and
it’s a well-crafted reminder that
the unity of citizens can result in
political change.
NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILMS
“Ukraine is game to you?”
A-
Winter
on Fire:
Ukraine’s
Fight for
Freedom
Netflix Original
Films
Available exclusively
on Netflix
MILESTONE FILMS
You can tell why this movie is so famous.
stereotypes. “Killer of Sheep”
exists as a reverberation of that
misrepresentation,
because
Stan and his family are not as
riveting as the Black stereotypes
perpetuated by other films of
the time — they’re fully realized
characters
with
flaws
and
dreams that cannot be achieved
because of their circumstances.
Burnett did not create his
characters to entertain, but to
inform in a time period where
emotional material like this was
lacking.
Burnett
was
entirely
disinterested
in
Hollywood
and the mainstream media,
as they were the perpetrators
of Black stereotypes against
which he fought. As he stated
in
an
interview
with
The
Boston Globe in 1979, “I can’t
see my films being produced by
Hollywood … My films are not
entertaining. They don’t appeal
to a wide audience. They’re
limited to an audience that has
serious concerns.”
So maybe Burnett never
wanted recognition for “Killer
of Sheep.” People have tried
to raise awareness for it with
accolades and a rerelease of the
film in 2007 after legal issues
with its soundtrack were worked
out, but maybe that isn’t what
Burnett wanted. He’s described
as the lone wolf of cinema, doing
his own thing. Maybe “Killer
of Sheep” is exactly where it
was always supposed to be —
anonymously on lists of the
greatest films in the world.
Anonymously
on lists of the
greatest films in
the world.
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