And We're Off!

Summer rehearsals began for a theatrical adaptation of Yevgeny Zamyatin's WE.

Photo from experimental lab rehearsal for Yevgeny Zamyatin’s WE.

Click here for WE tickets. Performances October 11 - 20, Brooklyn, NY.

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This week rehearsals began for the adaptation of Yevgeny Zamyatin’s dystopian novel WE that I am directing and producing. Ten actors, seven designers, one production stage manager and I are working together to collaboratively theatricalize a novel that UATX Professor Jacob Howland described as “the greatest dystopian novel of the twentieth century, but also one of the least known.” The show will run October 11 – 20, 2024 in Brooklyn, NY.

At a recent production meeting with the staff of the theater where the play will perform, they asked, “What is the run-time of the show?” “That’s an excellent question!” I answered, “We are creating the show during rehearsals this summer, so I’ll keep you posted as we get to the end of this rehearsal period.” I did confirm I’m aiming for a two-hour performance. As you’ll read below, that’s an ambitious goal.

Inside the Process

Instead of writing a final draft before rehearsals began, I compiled text from the novel that I’m using to further adapt and refine the play in tandem with actors and designers during rehearsals.

While I could make all the decisions about the text on my own, it’s not as fun as bringing an idea of what the text could be into the rehearsal room and getting ideas from my collaborators on how to move it forward, one experiment at a time. Often they come up with exciting ideas I could never have dreamt of on my own, which makes the final production all the richer.

This approach worked well on the last two plays I put together. A flexible draft gives everyone a spine to hold on to (we know who the characters are, where and when we are, what the event of the scene is) while at the same time it gives us creative freedom to change dialogue if an actor feels a character would say the line slightly differently, or if a designer has an impulse to visually express the text, we can experiment with imagery (e.g. projected video) and then, hopefully, cut the text that is superfluous–if we can show it, we don’t need to have a character say it, and that cuts down the length of the show.

The draft I created for this rehearsal period is the third iteration of the text. Initially, I edited a 1924 translation down to the dialogue and essential descriptions of actions and settings. However, since the novel is written as the journal of the main character, there were (and are) several monologues in which the main character articulates information the audience needs to know to advance the story. These monologues are the least dramatic, but I’m hoping to have fun using them to allow the main character to talk directly to the audience as if they are the alien beings who he imagines will one day read his journal. If we can find the right style, I have a feeling these monologues will be riveting.

The first draft I created was too long. I tried it out during an experimental lab period with actors and designers over seven rehearsals in January and February 2024. The lab culminated in a ninety-minute presentation for an invited audience, mostly consisting of the designers who came to one or two rehearsals during the lab, but didn’t see all the material until the last day. Although I did work with everyone on editing that first draft, the ninety minutes we presented was only one third of the novel. Even though everyone said the presentation was compelling, it was clear that if I didn’t get my scissors out and start ruthlessly cutting text, I was going to have a four hour play on my hands.

Photo from experimental lab rehearsal for Yevgeny Zamyatin’s WE.

One of the most exciting discoveries that came out of the lab was the use of hand-held light sources and shadows. In the previous show I put together, I worked with an incredible puppet director and designer who I desperately wanted to work with again. When she and I first discussed the novel, we couldn’t identify a character or moment in the story that justified the creation of a three-dimensional puppet, but we did think we could use human shadows and multiple light sources to duplicate the human form and visually express the large society of people who live in the Metropolis-like world of this story.

Additionally, sex looms large in the drama of Zamyatin’s novel, but staging sex is, to put it mildly, tricky. Also, realistic sex scenes have been done in many productions before; having that kind of scene on stage in 2024 wouldn’t be inventive or forward-thinking. Luckily, we discovered in the lab that we could express the sexual moments in shadow to give the illusion of intimacy. In shadow, we can make it look like the characters are kissing, but what they are actually doing is putting their heads close together, yet one is upstage of the other. We can also play with scale by making the human shadows larger than life, further drawing the audience in to these tender moments of human connection–a useful tool in a story about the dehumanizing impact of dystopia. I was delighted with the effect and I’m looking forward to developing it further in rehearsals this summer.

Photo from experimental lab rehearsal for Yevgeny Zamyatin’s WE.

In preparation for our summer rehearsals, I used the time between February and July to mercilessly cut text. On the first day of summer rehearsals, the actors read aloud the new 3.0 version. I’m happy to report the reading was one hour and fifty-eight minutes! Not bad for a two-hundred fifty page novel that reads over eight hours in audio book form. I’m aware it’s still too long as there are some sequences that have no dialogue, which will add time, but definitely better than it was before-surely my collaborators will help me discover more cuts.

On that note, not only do I receive creative input from the actors and designers, I also get insightful ideas from the production stage manager. Just last night, I was working with one of the actors on sorting out a character’s entrance. The idea the two of us came up with wasn’t anything interesting, but it would have worked fine. From behind, I heard the stage manager call, “What if the door just opened and he was already standing there to say his line?” Neither I nor the actor had thought of that and I said, “Let’s try it.” The effect was charmingly funny and just what the moment called for! We all had a good laugh and were quite impressed with ourselves and the stage manager. It was the perfect kind of discovery to make at the end of rehearsal–everyone seemed to leave on a high note.

We’re off for the next two days, but will be back at it later in the week.

Thank you for reading. I’ll keep you posted on how things progress and I look forward to seeing you at the theater October 11 - 20, 2024.

WE is made possible by grant funding from the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) in the Arts, the Puffin Foundation Ltd., and NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund (A Statewide Theatre Regrant Program). Production design support provided by the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund, a program of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York).