Photo by Doug Slater
" Something is at work in my soul, which I do not understand. "
Frankenstein
Adapted by Erik Ehn with Theatre of Yugen
Theatre of Yugen sews together puppetry, Noh theater, modern materials and imagination to recount a story which haunts every generation.
Frankenstein is adapted from Mary Shelley's classic novel by Erik Ehn with Theatre of Yugen. With an original deep ambient soundscore composed and performed by Alan Whitman and Suki O'Kane.
Performed by Jubilith Moore, John Oglevee, Lluis Valls, Libby Zilber and Max
Costumes Design by Erin Blendu, Lighting Design by Stephen Siegel, Puppetry and Set Design by Max, Video Elements by Sarolta cump, Assistant Director Christine McHugh
"crisp, compelling . . .a magnetically intense cast . . .wrapped in a seductive, invigorating soundscape..." - Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle
"Mezmerizing and flawlessly executed." - Jean Schiffman, Back Stage West
Theatre of Yugen opens its twenty-sixth season with an encore presentation of last year's box-office and critical success, the haunting adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Directed by longtime Artistic Associate Erik Ehn, Theatre of Yugen's signature experimental work is based in a discipline of the classic Japanese theater forms - Noh and Kyogen.
The story of Frankenstein's monstrous creation has fascinated artists in many disciplines since Mary Shelley first enshrined the rage and loneliness of the Monster in the public consciousness during the early 19th century. Ehn has pared down Shelley's text in an interpretation that uses the intense, restrained and stylized acting style of Noh to capture the constricted emotional tone and horror of the play. "Muck in a bucket" explains Ehn. "The production focuses on three main qualities: small, careful, frightening." Design concepts revolve around the contrast of darkness and light, as themes of isolation and obsession contrast those of hope and natural beauty.
Frankenstein features a deep ambient score composed by Guest Composers Allen Whitman (formerly The Mermen) and fellow musician Suki O'Kane (ambient trio The Noodles.) The duo uses processed voice and other sound sources such as bowed stringed instruments, bells, samplers, drum and other hand percussion in creating a new hybrid vocabulary influenced by the traditions of Noh musical structures.
The cast includes Theatre of Yugen's Joint Artistic Directors Jubilith Moore, Lluis Valls and Libby Zilber who enter their third season as the new leadership team since the transition from Founder Yuriko Doi in 2001. Valls will play Dr. Frankenstein. The Monster will be portrayed by guest artist John Oglevee who resides in Japan and has been active in Noh there since 1997. This will be Oglevee's third collaboration with Theatre of Yugen (Crazy Horse, At the Hawk's Well.) Bay Area puppeteer Max is also serving as set designer; costumes are designed by Erin Blendu (designer for Butoh group inkBoat) and lighting by resident designer Stephen Siegel. Video elements designed by Sarolta Cump.
The Creators
Erik Ehn - Max - Jubilith Moore - John Oglevee - Suki O'Kane -- Stephen Siegel - Lluis Valls - Libby Zilber - Alan Whitman -Erin Blendu - Sarolta Cump - Christine McHugh
Playwright and Director
A graduate of New Dramatists as well as Yale School of Drama (MFA in Playwriting 1983) Erik Ehn has been writing and teaching for theater companies and universities nationally and internationally. For the past four years Erik Ehn has been collaborating on theatrical productions with Theatre of Yugen, first in revising a literal translation of a contemporary Noh play, Mumyo no I / Down the Dark Well, then with an adaptation of Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere. where Noh style was braided with Philippine material which was paired with an original Kyogen-style comedy, Bright and Gifted. In 2001 he worked closely with Doi and Noh composer Richard Emmert on a Noh piece honoring Crazy Horse, a fusion that blends Noh with Native American dance, singing, flute playing, and drumming.
Books include Beginner (Sun and Moon) and The Saint Plays (PAJ/Jophns Hopkins). Other plays include Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling, No Time Like the Present, Wolf at the Door, Tailings, Ideas of Good and Evil, and an adaptation of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. These have been produced in San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, New York, San Diego, Dallas, Chicago and elsewhere. His critically acclaimed 'Maid was just produced by Crowded Fire at San Francisco's Exit Theatre.
He is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Tenderloin Opera Company, San Francisco (with Lisa Bielawa). He has also worked as an actor and a director, often working collaboratively with collectives of writers, with choreographers, and with musicians. Recently he has directed at the Annex in Seattle and Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco. He has taught at University of Iowa, Santa Clara University, CA, Colorado College, Emerson, University of San Francisco and at Princeton. He currently teaches at Cal Arts in Los Angeles.
Puppetry Artist
Max works as both puppetry designer/builder and performer using materials such as papier mache and cloth as well as techniques with projected shadow, slides and stilt walking. She began her work in Brooklyn in 1990 where she designed both sets and puppets for a new production of Bernarda Alba and Garcia Lorca at Art at St. Anne’s. Her work began in San Francisco in 1993 when she collaborated with Wise Fool Puppet Intervention on Babel, and has performed at New Conservatory Theater (Dinosaurus), and most recently CELLSpace (On the Ether:Stories of Flight, The Sand Child). She has created several shows with Luna Sea Theater: Killing Mom featured Bunraku puppets to retell a classic story by Ding Xiaoqi, and Sweet Meat which SF Weekly called "morbid, yet elegant." Her piece Hop incorporated Bunraku puppetry with live musicians. Max has also taught puppetry at the Randall Museum.
Director
A graduate of Bard College, Jubilith has been with the company, and a student of Yuriko Doi, since 1993. She has also studied Noh with Richard Emmert and Akira Matsui (Kita school), and, through a Japan Foundation Fellowship, trained additionally in Tokyo with with Kanze School Noh master Shiro Nomura, Kyogen master Yukio Ishida (Izumi school) and Kotsuzumi Noh drum with Mitsuo Kama (Ko school.) With Theatre of Yugen she has performed in Janine Beichman’s Drifting Fires; the modern Noh play, The Well of Ignorance (or Down the Dark Well) by Dr. Tomio Tada; a Noh adaptation of William Butler Yeats’ Purgatory; in several productions of Noh Christmas Carol; September 2001 in Erik Ehn’s Crazy Horse; and a variety of roles in the company’s repertoire of Kyogen comedies. As one of the company's new Joint Artistic Directors, she has worked collectively with the artistic team to create two original experimental pieces The Clay Play (2002) and Norton I, (Being the Most Noble Tale of the Fall and Rise of Joshua Abraham Norton, Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of All Mexico) (2003).
Guest Artist
John is an actor/musician currently based in Tokyo. He has been studying and performing Noh for the past six years under the tutelage of Richard Emmert, Omura Sadamu and Akira Matsui. Apart from Noh, he has performed extensively as an actor in the New York City area, Europe, North America and Asia with a variety of companies. These include: Richard Foreman's Ontological Hysteric, Peter Schumann's Bread and Puppet, Min Tanaka's Maijuku and Michael Counts' Gale Gates et al, of which he was a founding member. His most recent credits include: the final performance of GAle GAtes et al entitled The World at the Whitney Museum in New York, Theatre Nohgaku's At the Hawk's Well, Theatre of Yugen's Crazy Horse, and an original piece entitled Home performed at Theater X in Tokyo as well as the role of Johanne in a Japanese language version of Salome. You can also hear him in the US as the voice of the Italian Iron Chef.
Guest Composer & Musician
Beginning her musical education at age 6 in the basement of Stan Lunetta (timpanist, avant garde composer and early innovator in electronic music instrument building), Suki played her first orchestra pit at age 13 (CSU Sacramento, Fiddler on the Roof, principal percussionist), detoured into dozens of experimental, jazz and punk ensembles and for the past twelve years has lived in the Bay Area creating site-specific sonic collage. Most recently she designed sound for Autumn, an installation by Kevin Taylor McCauley for Rudolph Valentino's tomb in the Cathedral Mausoleum, Los Angeles and performed at Sound/Shift Big Sur as a founding member of the sample sound project The Noodles. Suki performs on mallet and toy percussion in the new music ensembles Moe!kestra! and Daniel Popsicle and as drummer with She Mob, the band that came in 771st (tied with Michael Jackson) in the Village Voice 2002 Pazz and Jop Poll. She teaches children about the musicality of everyday objects at the Museum of Children's Art in Oakland, where she also performs the services of arts administrator.
Light Design
Stephen has been Theatre YugenŐs Technical Director since December of 1999. He designŐs lights for dance, theatre, and live music. He has designed lighting for many Theatre of Yugen productions including The Clay Play and most recently Norton, I (Being the most Noble Tale of the Fall and Rise of Joshua Abraham Norton, the First Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of All Mexico). Stephen has also designed lighting for: The 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, Asian American Theatre Company, Amy hill, Takami, Hiroko Tamano, Pauline Olivieros, Strangefruit, Eri Majima, Ashpool, Theatre of YugenŐs Yugen Presents Series and many other talented performers from the Bay Area and beyond. An ensemble member of Theatre of Yugen Stephen also studies and performs Kyogen and Noh. In his spare time he works on his own solo show that he debuted at Noh Space in January of 2003. Collaborating on this production of Frankenstein with all parties involved has been an inspiring and creative adventure.
Ensemble
Now, as one of the company's new Joint Artistic Directors, he has worked collectively with the artistic team to create two original experimental pieces The Clay Play (2002) and Norton I, (Being the Most Noble Tale of the Fall and Rise of Joshua Abraham Norton, Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of All Mexico) in which he played the Emperor. He also played both the Doctor and then the creature in Theatre of Yugen's critically acclaimed Frankenstein.
Ensemble
Libby holds degrees in Theater and French from Lawrence University (1982) and is a graduate of The Drama Studio of London at Berkeley (1985). She started performing with Theatre of Yugen in 1986 in a production of Shogo Ohta’s Komachi Fuden, following which she began studying with Yuriko Doi, touring locally and nationally with the company and their repertoire of Kyogen comedic plays. Mainstage roles in experimental fusion productions include Estragon in Waiting for Godot, Komachi in Sotoba Komachi, the shite (protagonist) in Janine Beichman’s Drifting Fires and the Grandmother/Attorney in Kokoro/True Heart. She served as Assistant Director for the Noh and Native American collaboration of Erik Ehn’s Crazy Horse. Last year she spearheaded a Theatre of Yugen collectively-created original piece, The Clay Play and served as "Third Eye" on this year's collective project of Norton I, (Being the Most Noble Tale of the Fall and Rise of Joshua Abraham Norton, Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of All Mexico).
Guest Composer & Musician
Allen Whitman has performed, recorded, produced, licensed and written music for over thirty years, touring Japan, Sweden, most of the lower 48 U.S. states, Alaska and Canada. He has worked in a wide variety of musical forms and with a wide variety of musicians including Helios Creed, Tiny Tim, The Inkspots and The Sandals. He produced the Million Mom March benefit CD featuring Emmylou Harris, Ani Difranco, Melissa Etheridge, Shawn Colvin, Sara Hickman and others. He is a founding member of the San Francisco cult psychedelic surf band The Mermen. He has worked with playwright Erik Ehn on productions in both San Francisco and New York. Currently he's in post-production for an instrumental dancehall CD "biL" with SF-based beat builder and urban reggae label owner Standout Selector (mixed by Dan "The Automator" Nakamura) while simultaneously in mixing for "The Unfinished Tattoo" with SF-based producer/engineer Jamie Lemoine (Westside Chemical), a spoken word CD of the life and times of Leon "Whitey" Thompson, ex-bank robber and former Alcatraz prisoner. He performs sporadically around the San Francisco area with Ralph Carney (of Tom Waits, The B-52s, etc) and Ted Savarese (of Drizzoletto, Delectric, etc.)