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Mother Courage And Her Children

the mother surrounded by her three childre

Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and her Children is The Theatre of the People's contribution to IU and Bloomington's themester "Making War, Making Peace."

Not A New Idea

And it's not just something that they thought of this year. "I've been thinking about producing this play ever since I tried to direct it as a student project ten years ago," says Theatre of the People's co-founder David Nosko. "It both fits our overall mission of community involving socially relevant theatre and the current theme."

Process Before Product

As always, Theatre of the People is as much concerned with process and production. "We held auditions and were happy to be able to cast everyone who came to us. Our co-founder Hannah Moss will be playing Mother Courage."

Director Emerges From The Process

"Then in the readings and rehearsal something amazing happened. Helen Cappannelli, an IU student who had a role in an earlier piece had agreed to be the stage manager. But," Nosko observes "as the sessions went on it became more and more obvious that she should be directing. So, I took a vacation from my own production."

The Art And The Business

Cappannelli, a sophomore majoring in theatre and arts management has been more than pleased with the challenge and the opportunity. "It's great to have this chance to explore and even to put some of the things I'm learning in class into practice. Working with Brecht is hard. It's not the realistic style of acting that most of our cast are used to seeing."

The Process At Work

"Fortunately, the emphasis on process that Theatre of the People practices works well. It helps them and me as we try out the options and find the characters in the text. And I think that the audience will very much appreciate the energy and the focus in performance that this is generating."

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