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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