Unlike the bewildered woman swallowed by the unruly machine of
the modern world in the 1928 expressionist drama
“Machinal,” director Jonathan Gellert has been making
his own in the world. Of theater, that is.
Having been admitted in spring 2002 into the graduate theater
directing program among only three others, Gellert now presents
“Machinal” as his MFA thesis project, showing nightly
through March 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Macgowan 1340.
Prior to his acceptance at UCLA, Gellert taught at a college in
Florida, acted professionally in off-Broadway productions and ran a
theater company in New York. When the funding for the Outlet
Theater Company started to dwindle, Gellert headed toward Los
Angeles to pursue his MFA degree.
Studying at UCLA has allowed Gellert to utilize and work with
film, video and television as a means of heightening the artistic
expression of theater. Having created two short films his first
year, Gellert was determined to incorporate elements of film into
his theater production before he left. This is one of the reasons
Gellert was drawn to the show.
“”˜Machinal’ is such an open canvas,”
Gellert said. “We create the inner life of the character
through the senses.”
The use of video was the idea of the scenic and video designer
J.C. Carlos. The play requires a transformation into nine different
environments. Inspired by the Czech constructionist designer
Svobode and with the work of Carlos, “Machinal”
features a series of interlocking screens and scrims to add depth
to the stage.
“With expressionist plays, the stage becomes realistic and
metaphoric at the same time,” Gellert said.
The playwright, Sophie Treadwell, called for sound to function
strongly in the play as well. Using a program that links up video
and sound, the video heightens and complements the extensive sound
design. With the help of Josh Levy as lighting designer and Brett
Banakis as sound designer, the gruesomeness of the crime both
committed on and upon the protagonist is reflected in the
atmosphere of the production.
“Sound reveals the turmoil of inner life and has the
ability to paint that picture of momentary peace and
discord,” Gellert said. “It plumbs to the depths of an
individual psyche.”
Additionally, Gellert chose the production because of the
play’s author, who created what some consider one of the
greatest American plays by expressing strong, sympathetic and very
human characters. The style is alive and the tone is powerfully
gripping.
“I was drawn to this play because it grabs a hold of your
throat and never lets go,” Gellert stated.
This uniquely American play is one of the first feminist theater
pieces, presenting modern society’s effects on women and
humanity.
“It is concerned with the inherent materialism within
society that ascribes values to the almighty dollar,” Gellert
said. “The protagonist is continually searching for herself
and consistently being told who she is by other people,
specifically men.”
In expressionist theater, the mood of the piece is heightened;
the role of the actor is sharpened to find the truth of the
character. As the protagonist is swallowed by the machine of urban
life, the stage becomes a manifestation of the whirling insanity of
a lost mind.
“Although there is a heightened style of acting, the
humanity that the actor brings to the role is the same,” said
Meredith Hines, a third-year theater student who plays the
protagonist, Helen Jones.
Below the feminist perspective of the playwright and the
underlying theme, there is a relevant and universal truth in the
breadth of humanity and the individual’s search for
meaning.
“It transcends just the gender issue. (Helen) is an
individual who is voiceless in a world that has no place for
her,” Hines said.