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May 4, 1998
SP110

CARLETON TO HOST REUNION MARKING 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF WORLD PREMIERE OF BRECHT'S "CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE"

Northfield, Minn. - Fifty years ago, a cast of Carleton College students gathered on the stage of Nourse Little Theater to perform the world premiere of Bertolt Brecht's epic play, "The Caucasian Chalk Circle." The play has since become one of Brecht's most well-known works and on Friday, May 8, several of those students will return to campus to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its inaugural performance and the 100th anniversary of Brecht's birth.

At 3:30 p.m. in Nourse Little Theater, Carleton will present a stage discussion with three respected Brecht scholars: James K. Lyon, the Scheuber-Veinz Professor of Humanities and Languages at Brigham Young University, and the author of five books and numerous articles on the life and works of Brecht; Marc Silberman, professor of German at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and noted editor of several books about Brecht; and Peter Brosius, the artistic director of the Minneapolis Children's Theater Company.

At 9:30 p.m., Carleton's Great Hall will be transformed into a German-style cabaret, featuring vocalists David Harris and Manon Gimlett and pianist Craig Johnson, who will perform "To Those Who Come After: The Voice of Bertolt Brecht." Their presentation includes a variety of songs based on Brecht's works, with music by Hanns Eisler, Darius Milhaud, Kurt Weill and Stefan Wolpe. Eric Bentley, an eminent authority on Brecht, wrote the English text and lyrics to "To Those Who Come After," as well as the English translation of "The Caucasian Chalk Circle."

Brecht wrote "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" in the mid-1940s, while living in the United States in exile from his native Germany. He was a pioneer of the epic style of drama, and had achieved success in that medium in Germany before having to flee the threat of Nazi persecution in 1933.

The play, based on a Chinese play written in 1300 A.D., is a parable set in Soviet Georgia near the end of World War II. It focuses on an act of goodness performed by a servant girl named Grusha and how she is judged by society regarding that act. Part I is the story of Grusha's good deed and the difficult choices she must make and Part II follows the career of Azdak, the eccentric judge who must render a verdict on Grusha's actions.

"The Caucasian Chalk Circle" was first performed at Carleton on May 4-8, 1948, under the direction of Henry Goodman, a World War II veteran who was exposed to Brecht's works in German theaters. After the war, Goodman was a student of Bentley's at the University of Minnesota before coming to Carleton to teach English. At the time, Bentley was actively working to bring Brecht, who was controversial because of his Marxist idealogy, to the attention of American theatergoers.

Bentley's efforts led him to pursue premieres at academic theaters, which were considered less conspicuous. After two years of trying to get the University of Minnesota to produce one of Brecht's plays, Bentley turned to Goodman about using Carleton as a possible venue. According to Goodman, Carleton in 1948 was considered to have a diverse and progressive faculty and staff, which generated an atmosphere of experimentation and inquiry, as well as open-mindedness when it came to avant-garde theater.

Goodman will attend the reunion, as will Alvis Tinnin, who played the role of Azdak, the Village Recorder. In 1948, Tinnin was a war veteran attending college on the G.I. Bill. He was a theatrical veteran as well, having spent two years on Broadway in "Call Me Mister," a musical about soldiers adjusting to civilian life. Tinnin was again cast as Azdak in the first professional production of "The Caucasian Chalk Circle," directed by Bentley at Philadelphia's Hedgerow Theatre in the summer of 1948.

Five other members of the original cast and crew will also return to campus for the event, including Carleton Professor of English Emeritus George Soule, who as a student in 1948 played the role of a drunken monk.

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