A Clarification

Last class time I blurted out everything I thought about staging Satyagraha. Because most of the time I think much faster than I can speak everything comes out a gurgly mess. (If we can use the f-word, I'm hoping that I can use the word gurgly.) Therefore I would like to clarify the things I liked about the German production and things I would like to see in another. First, I felt that the first act was way too busy and distracting. While this was really frustrating at first, I felt it conveyed well, the lack of focus in the world and possibly also Gandhi's life. Some of the text from the Bhagavhad-Gita talked about finding meaning in your life's work. This showed that even the smallest jobs can take on a deeper meaning in one's life. However, if I were staging this, I might not make the vignettes so strange to not shock the audience. I feel like it distracts from the main purpose of the first act. A lot of the staging was purely artistic such as the scenes with the letters and the scene towards the end with the continuously adjusting ribbons of color. The process of formation of these scenes really amplified the music, making me actually pay more attention to the music. I think we can all agree that the neon light sign with Martin Luther King's name in the third act was a bit silly. Even though this act was very powerful with the progressive snap shots showing Gandhi's ideas spreading, showing Martin Luther King's encounters with Gandhi (reading a book about him, seeing him in the news at a movie theater, etc.) would have made the third act especially moving. I could also see mirror actions, implying both of their assassinations. Certainly, I think that cheaper production could be made using multimedia images pertaining to the grand ideas of the Bhagavhad-Gita and still have a very moving performance. Some suggested in the last class that Cirque-du-soleil would be a nice addition. While, I have every confidence that a show of this type could be very well adapted to the music of Philip Glass, I feel that the extraordinary feats would really detract from the story. Though, sad to say, I have never seen a Cirque-du-soleil show.