ENCOMPASS THEATRE AND EPIC CONSTRUCTION THEATRE PRESENT THE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF BERTOLT BRECHT’S

SAINT JOAN OF THE STOCKYARDS

Directed by Jan P. Eliasberg
Musical Direction by Miriam Charney
Translated by Naomi Replansky
Music Composed by Paul Kazanoff
Electronic Music by George Quincy

ABOUT THE PLAY
Brecht’s Saint Joan of the Stockyards, set in the Chicago of 1929, was written 1929-1931; its precursor was the Brecht/Hauptmann Happy End. One of the main themes in this complex play deals with the question: What good is goodness in a bad world? The young missionary Joan Dark (d’Arc) sets out to mediate between those on top (the meat packers at their financial juggling) and those below (the stockyard workers, unemployed, cold, hungry). The king of the meat-kings is J. Pierpont Mauler; each of his financial coups magically finds its own ethical motive. At the end, Joan dies denouncing goodness which does not also change the world; her words are almost drowned out by Goethean stanzas sung by packers and fellow missionaries.

Details of the stockyard setting come from Brecht’s readings of Sinclair’s The Jungle and other American muckraking writings; other plot elements may have been suggested by Norris’s The Pit and Shaw’s Major Barbara.

The play contains an abundance of plot, comic invention, and literary parody. At first, the packers talk in blank verse like heroes of Elizabeth drama or of Schiller; they then switch to prose; other speech styles echo, among others, Homer and Goethe; and throughout the play recur some short, dry, powerful unrhymed poems of Brecht’s own voice.

Set Design by Tracy Killam
Costume Design by Sally Lesser and Kathleen Smith
Lighting Design by Ned Hallick

CAST (in alphabetical order)
Valda Aviks (Martha)
Ron Faber (Pierpont Mauler)
Rick Friesen (Lennox, Young Worker, First Organizer, Policeman)
Barbara Hariday (Black Straw Hat)
Laurie Williams Howard (Worker, Clerk)
David Keith (Sullivan Slift)
Paul Ladenheim (Cridle, Mulberry)
Joan MacIntosh (Joan Dark)
Christopher McCann (Worker, Detective, Foreman, Waiter, Stockman, Snyder, Reporter)
Joanne Pattavina (Worker, Buyer, Second Organizer)
Esther Rivlin (Mrs. Luckerniddle)
Robert Schlee (Graham)
Joel Stevens (Gloomb, Worker, Photographer)

STAFF FOR SAINT JOAN OF THE STOCKYARDS
Stage Manager (Peter Pullman)
Assistant Director (Jan Cohen)
Technical Director (Sheldon Rieke)
Associate Set Designer (J.T. Zinser)
Photographs (Nathaniel Tileston)
Master Electrician (Jennifer Hunter)
Properties by Kathleen Phelan
Managed by Roger Cunningham

MUSICIANS
Andrew Martinez Trumpet
Steve Miller (Saxophone, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet)
Tom Gorman (Bass Trombone)
Dennis McCafferty (Drums)
Rehearsal Pianist (Emily Grishman)
Conductor (Miriam Charney)

FOR THE ENCOMPASS THEATRE
Artistic Director (Nancy Rhodes)
Producer (Roger Cunningham)

Thanks to Rip Torn, Stefan Brecht and Bertha Case, Carl Weber, CBS Television Network, Timothy J. Engel, Marvin Starkman, Robert Heilbroner (Economic Advisor), William E. Warner (Spiritual Advisor) Dorothy De Simone, Bill Ward and the Wesleyan Theatre Department; Yosef Gordon, King Shade of Roslindale, Mass.; Ellen Driscoll; Mark Masselli; Hillary Zinser; Tracy’s friends at Summit Avenue; Glenn Latal, and Bruce Kennett.

The translator wishes to acknowledge the help of Stefan Brecht, who went over the original text word by word with her.