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A Production Director's Approach to Maxim Gorky's the Lower Depths

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A Production Director's Approach to Maxim Gorky's the Lower Depths A production director's approach to Maxim Gorky's The lower depths Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Scott, Bonnie Frances, 1940- 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 09:26:12 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/347515 A PRODUCTION DIRECTOR'S APPROACH TO MAXIM GORKY'S THE LOWER DEPTHS by Bonnie Frances Scott 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 1965 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment 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 acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript 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 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: W APPROVAL BY DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: PETER R. MARRONEY Professor of Drama PREFACE Most scholars of Maxim Gorky are of the general opinion that he is, and will continue to be, best remembered for his novels and autobio­ graphical works» Though his plays have not achieved a lasting success mainly because he used the stage as a pulpit from which to preach about society's ills, there is one play. The Lower Depths which has achieved a place in World Drama. If the play were no more than a sociological drama of the times in which Gorky lived, it would hold very little interest for us today, but the play does have meaning for us. Much of the play's success in production depends upon the treatment given the characters. They must be presented in such a way that we are able to feel compassion for them; much of this compassion has been written into the script by Gorky, but it is oftentimes overlooked in an attempt to present stark reality. While Gorky presents filth, lust, deterioration in his charac­ ters, he also presents in them an inner dignity. This inner dignity, with which the characters are imbued, is the end result of Maxim Gorky's unfailing compassion and respect for mankind. It has been the purpose of this thesis project to arrive at a directorial concept that would bring forth all the varying moods and inherent dramatic values of the play in a staged presentation. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special acknowledgment is dud Professor Peter R. Marroney, Head of the Drama Department» for his helpful suggestions and assistance, and Dr. John A. Mills, Associate Professor, for valuable information concerning numerous questions. Special acknowledgment is also due Professor Robert C. Burroughs for his encouragement and advice on certain aspects of the set design; Mr. Channing S. Smith for his numerous suggestions concerning quicker methods of scenic construction and detail painting; and Professor John E. Lafferty for his advice on lights and sound, and helpful suggestions during the rehearsal period. Deepest appreciation is expressed to Helen W, Currie, Costume Director, and Roberta R. Bannon, Graduate Assistant in Costuming, for making the costume designs a reality onstage. Appreciation is also expressed to Sue B. Green of Interlibrary Loans and the other staff members of the Library for their helpful suggestions. Not to be overlooked are the cast and crews, without whose help, the production would not have been possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vi ABSTRACT vix CHAPTER I INFLUENCE OF GORKY■S EARLIER LIFE ON THE PLAY 1 II STAGE HISTORY OF.THE PLAY ................ 10 III DIRECTORIAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAY. ........... 28 IV PROMPT BOOK ....................... 46 V SUMMARY OF REHEARSAL AND PRODUCTION PERIOD.,. ...... 144 \ ILLUSTRATIONS 153 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY , * * .................. , * . , , , * 182 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Set for Act I .......... • . 153 2. Ground Plan for Act I . ................ 154 3. Front Elevation for Act I o,............ 155 4.. Rear Elevation for Act I......... ...... 156 5. Set for Act II ................... 157 6. Ground Plan for Act II ............... 158 7. Front Elevation for Act II ............. 159 8. Rear Elevation for Act II .............. 160 9. Costume Designs ................... 161 10. Photographs of Production ................ 178 11. Newspaper Articles ................... 179 12. Program ....................... 181 vi A PRODUCTION DIRECTOR'S APPROACH TO MAXIM GORKY'S THE LOWER DEPTHS Bonnie Frances Scott The University of Arizona, 1965 Director: Peter R. Marroney The purpose of this thesis is to arrive at a directorial philosophy which renders The Lower Depths meaningful to a present day American audience and to realize this philosophy onstage in production. The first chapter is concerned with the influence the author's earlier life had on the play; the second chapter concerns the stage history of the play. Both are essential in determining a directorial philosophy of the play. Chapter III presents this philosophy, and its influence on the direction of the play, the scenic designs, the costumes, sound, and lights. Chapter IV contains the prompt book. Included in the prompt book are the motivational factors that govern the blocking, analysis of characters, and revisions in the script. The final chapter is a summary of results of both the rehearsal period and actual production. vii CHAPTER I INFLUENCE OF GORKY * S EARLIER LIFE ON THE PLAY Despite the bitter years Maxim Gorky suffered through in his youth, there was always present in him an innate optimism about man. He once told Barrett H. Clark: The world is not bad, and if it seems so we have only ourselves to blame, for it is we who are bad. The world in­ deed, is invariably good. It is a happy world; the only trouble is that we are the makers of our own tragedies in it. If the world were bad and man merely the victim of universal evil, then we should all hang ourselves. But we don t hang ourselves; we go on living, building houses, pursuing our trades, and always hoping. We continue to hope because the world is essentially good— life is sweet. The man who com­ plains of his suffering, is utterly and blindly selfish, suffering is his sole occupation, his one aim in life. He sees, nothing but his own sorrows. How can he help being miserable? He has only himself to blame.^ B o m Alexei Maximovich Peshkov in the year 1868, Gorky was later known to the world simply as Maxim Gorky (Maxim the Bitter). His mater­ nal grandparents had the most influence on his early life because he was raised by them. His father Maxim Peshkov, a carpenter, died when Gorky was four years old and his mother, Varvara Kashima married Eugene Maximov, a college student and nobleman, when young Maxim was only five years old. After an attempt to stab his stepfather for kicking his mother in the breast, he was sent to live with his grandparents. At his grandparents, Gorky was soon to learn that wife-beating and other forms of cruelty among uncultivated Russians was regarded as an 1. Quoted in Barrett H. Clark, "Conversations with Maxim Gorky," Fortnightly Review, CXIV (New York, 1923)-,-= 901. 1 inevitable expression of the pent up passions of the oppressed. Accord­ ing to Alexander Kaun: Alexey had had enough experience to realize the prevailing, practically universal, cruelty and meanness of the people around, their pleasure in hurting one another bodily or in such delicately indirect ways as poisoning the neighbor’s dog, or cutting the tail off his cat, or killing his chickens, or pouring kerosene into his barrels of pickled cabbage and cucumbers. When he wondered at the cause of their cruelty and asked his grandmother about it, she retorted that they were not malicious but stupid. The stupidity and tedium of their existence, the wretchedness and hopelessness of their drudgery, accounted for the quest of an outlet for their limited fantasy and desire of some change in their h u m d r u m . 2 Gorky's grandmother, who could explain away the world's sins with such understanding patience, was subject herself to beating by her husband. Gorky was later to tell of the first time he had seen his grand­ father beat his wife; Gorky, who had attempted to intercede, was thrown ' bodily across the room. His grandmother, who had several hairpins wedged in her scalp from blows received on the head, simply picked herself up, dusted off her skirt and continued her chores, reminding the young Maxim not to tell his mother who had come to visit them. He could not forget the incident as easily as his grandmother: I was sitting on the low stove, more dead than alive un­ able to believe my eyes, This was the first time he had struck grandmother in my presence, and the thing was oppressively nasty, it revealed something new in his nature, something with which I could not reconcile myself, and whictiuseemed to have crushed me.3 Gorky later wrote of such beatings in The Lower Depths. Kvashnya, the vendor of dumplings, constantly reminds us of the beatings she was 2.
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