A Circular Play

text written by Gertrude Stein

directed by Hyung Seok Jeon

What happens when the ‘nonlinear’ meets the ‘linear’?

Gertrude Stein’s century old text is an example of nonlinearity with its repetition, abstract form, and other qualities, which move the reader away from the traditional place where one collects the meaning. On the other hand, the filmmaking process stands as an example of linearity, with its focus on the construction process, efficiency, and hierarchy of communication.

This contamination, which I thought would work in opposition to one another, however, seems to respond more with their similarities. Stein’s problematic text responded to the violent gaze of the video camera. Though Stein was the frontier of her time, her century old colonial perspective seems to manifest its violent ideas through the single viewpoint of the camera. I identified this as the unsettling paradoxical truth of the collision.

ENSEMBLE

ANDREW MURDOCK
ANXIN HU
CATHERINE ENG
CORINNE TRACHSEL
DANIEL LALOR
EDUNN LEVY
KRISTINA AUTEN
LEONIE BELL
SOPHIA ITKIN

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director HYUNG SEOK JEON
Assistant Director/Dramaturg KRISTINA AUTEN
Music Director/Soloist MEGAN KELLEHER
Lighting Designer THOMAS MILLER
Sound Designer LEONIE BELL
Costume Designer GRACE GILMORE
Live-Media/Projection Designer KATIE PEDRO
Casting Director MARCELLA MURRAY
Production Stage Manager KAYA HUBBARD
Assistant Costume Designer MEGAN KELLEHER
Assistant Projection Designer/Projection Op CALLUM BAYLE-SPENCE
1st Assistant Stage Manager NAHOME DIRIBSSA
2nd Assistant Stage Manager ANDREW MURDOCK

Sarah Lawrence College Theatre Dep. Spring 2017 Season

photography by Ki-hyuk Ahn