Open Rehearsal: The Court Theatre Blog
Porgy and Bess
April 13, 2011
Summertime
The second day of rehearsal just started, and the cast is sitting around the upright piano as Music Director Doug Peck walks them through the first scene of Porgy and Bess. With Director Charlie Newell observing nearby, Doug begins by asking the actors to read the libretto (ie. the lyrics) out loud like a regular play script, and we hear Harriet Plumpp (Clara) read aloud the words to “Summertime.”
Summertime
And the livin’ is easy.
Fish are jumpin’,
And the cotton is high.
Oh your daddy’s rich
And your mama’s good-lookin’
So hush little baby
Don’t you cry.
Spoken by Harriet, the words shed their familiarity. In the story, it’s a lullaby that Clara sings to her infant child; it’s a hauntingly beautiful introduction to the world of Catfish Row, but also a premonition of tragedy to come. Doug then asks Harriet and the cast to sing the full song again, marking the first time we sing “Summertime” in this rehearsal process. No matter how many times you’ve heard it, the music of “Summertime” never fails to seduce and unsettle, especially with the full import of the story.
Today’s rehearsal is all about jumping straight into learning the music for Gershwin’s score, but yesterday’s first rehearsal was all about Charlie, Doug, Ron OJ Parson (our Resident Artist, and here joining us as an artistic consultant) and the designers catching the actors up on nearly two years of thinking and preparation for Court’s Porgy and Bess. Charlie emphasized his desire to discover the original creative and emotional impulses that prompted the creation of Porgy and Bess, most notably DuBose Heyward and, later, George Gershwin’s encounter with the African American Gullah culture of Charleston, South Carolina. For Heyward, explained Charlie, a white man and the heir to a fallen Southern aristocracy, his fascination with Gullah culture was inherited from his mother, Jane. Jane Heyward was widowed when DuBose was young (his father was killed in a rice mill accident), and she found strength and solace in the lifestyle and spirituality of Charleston’s Gullah culture. Scenic designer John Culbert and costume designer Jacqueline Firkins also presented their visions for Porgy and Bess, which eschew the typical “romantic realism” of past productions of the opera in favor of a simple, abstracted design. Some people will think that we didn’t have enough money for a real set, explained Culbert; but the intention is to remove the distractions of the environment to allow the human drama to come to the fore.
The set model for Porgy and Bess. The main feature of the set is a simple white deck surrounded by simple white benches, inspired by the praise house, a simple chapel found in the Gullah culture. The costumes are based on 1920s designs and fabric cuts, but the materials will be white cotton and linen—the simplicity was inspired by photographs of Gullah baptismal rituals.
