A DIRECTOR'S PRE-PRODUCTION ANALYSIS OF BERTOLT BRECHT'S "THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE.". Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Faiznorouzi, Mohammad Reza. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 10:07:52 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/275074 INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this document, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. 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THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA M.A. 1984 University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor. MI 48106 A DIRECTOR'S PRE-PRODUCTION ANALYSIS OF BERTOLT BRECHT'S THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE by Mohammad Reza Faiznorouzi A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 8 4 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial ful­ fillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited, in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknow­ ledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manu­ script in whole or in part may be granted by the Head of the Drama Department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. ^ SIGNED: 1g' APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: Dr. Harold Dixon Date Associate Professor of Drama To my brother Abdollah, Who died too soon. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express his sincerest grati­ tude to his thesis director, Dr. Harold Dixon, not only for his patient assistance and encouragement in the preparation of this thesis but also for the guidance and help which he has always given to him as a student. Gratitude is also expressed to Rosemary P. Gipson, Assistant Professor of Drama, for her invaluable comments and suggestions. To the Library Assistants of The University of Arizona, especially to Denise Shomon, Gloria Ritter, and Mina Parish, for their kindness and great help in providing the writer with numerous helpful sources necessary for the completion of his thesis, the writer will always be grateful. Special thanks are extended to the graduate student Gregory McNamee for translating some passages from German into the English language. Finally, the writer will be eternally indebted to all the scholars and commentators on Brecht whose names appear in the list of references. Without the help, the iv V insight, and the inspiration offered to the writer through their valuable studies on Brecht and his works, this thesis would not have been possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: BRECHT AND BRECHTIAN THEATER 1 II. THE SOURCE AND THE BIRTH OF THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE (PER KAUKASISCHE KREIDEKREIS) 41 III. THE BERLINER ENSEMBLE'S STAGING OF THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE 57 IV. THE WORLD OF THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE . 93 Message of the Play 93 Structure of the Play 98 Geographical Location 106 Date 107 Economic Environment 109 Social Environment Ill Political Environment 112 Religious Environment 114 Previous Action 116 V. THE ANALYSIS OF THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE 119 Act I: The Dispute over the Valley (the Prologue) 120 Act II: The Noble Child 130 Act III: The Flight to the Northern Mountains 145 Act IV: In the Northern Mountains . 156 Act V: The Story of the Judge 171 Act VI: The Chalk Circle 191 VI. DIRECTORIAL PLAN FOR STAGING THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE 206 vi vii TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued Page Director's Concept of the Theme of the Play 207 Director's Attitude toward the Characters in the Play 216 Genre of the Play 219 The Style of Presentation 223 Casting the Play 225 Directing and Acting Requirements .... 227 Choice of the Stage 233 Settings 235 Projected Scenery 238 Costumes and Make-up 242 Masks 243 Lighting 243 Music 245 Sound Effects 246 VII. SUMMARY 248 LIST OF REFERENCES 251 ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to reveal a director's pre-productional preparation work with, and an analytical and interpretative study of, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and to arrive at a directorial plan which would bring forth all the inherent dramatic values and significant points of the play in a truly epic presentation. In the chapters which follow, the director's exhaustive work with the play is presented. The work in­ cludes a study of the special world of the play and a full analysis and moment-to-moment interpretation of it. This is essential in determining a directorial plan for staging the play. Presented then is the plan, which is simply an outline of the methods by which the director's interpreta­ tion of the play can be best expressed to the spectators. Included also are a study of the sources of the play and how it came into being, a discussion of Brecht and his Epic Theater, and a study of Brecht's own produc­ tion of the play with the Berliner Ensemble. Such studies are helpful to the director in his complex task of staging the play. The thesis is terminated with a summary of results of the pre-productional preparation work with the play. viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: BRECHT AND BRECHTIAN THEATER Seldom is the theater fortunate enough to have an artist who can provide fresh, new ideas. Rarer still is when the theater has an artist who creates a more success­ ful theater with his fresh, new ideas, a theater richer and more productive because of its guided purpose. Neverthe­ less, theater in the twentieth century was lucky enough to possess such an artist, to see such a phenomenon. The phenomenon was felt on 29 September, 1922 when people gathered to see the first performance of Drums in the Night in the Kammerspiele Theater in Munich. The play belonged to a young artist called Bertolt Brecht. This very first performance of a Brecht work was highly praised and marked what Brecht had decided to do. Having awarded Brecht the coveted Kleist Prize, Herbert Ihering, the highly influ­ ential theater critic of a major newspaper, wrote: The twenty-four-year-old writer Bert Brecht has changed overnight the poetic face of Germany. Bert Brecht has brought to our times a new tone, a new tune, a new vision. The signal of Brecht's genius is that his plays have ushered in a new artistic totality, with laws of its own, a dramaturgy of its own. His plays, starting with Drums in the Night, 1 2 increasingly in Ball, and In the Jungle of the Cities, are new poetic planets. ... He is young and has already seen all the depths.* The young Brecht had felt the necessity for change, had begun establishing the foundation of the new laws of a new theater, and had become determined to spend his entire life battling against the misdoings of the rotten-to-the- core theater of his time. In 1920, Brecht wrote of the theater of the town of his birth thus: Even the most indulgent opportunists would not have the gall to claim that the Augsburg City Theater contributes to culture—not even at Augsburg's level.