MARK CHILLA: It’s hard to imagine anyone would read the book War And Peace, one of the most famously dense and lengthy books in Western Literature, and think… “I wish we could flesh this out a little more.” And yet, that’s the premise behind the musical Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 written by Dave Malloy. Luckily, it’s not an adaptation of the more than 1,000 pages of Tolstoy’s original text, but rather, an adaptation of just a 70-page excerpt. A fascinating concept for a musical, to be sure, and it will be the featured musical this fall presented by Indiana University’s Department of Theater, Drama and Contemporary Dance.
I’m Mark Chilla with WFIU Arts, and I’m joined here by members of the artistic team behind this production of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 to discuss it: Director Richard Roland, and co-stars Tiana Williams and Jacob Jackson. Thanks for joining me.
Rich, I want to start with you. This is a fairly new musical. It premiered off-Broadway in 2012 and then on Broadway in 2016. What drew you to this musical as one to present at IU?
RICHARD ROLAND: The ensemble nature of the show. We also hadn't done a sung-through musical as far as I can remember in my time here. And of course, the music. I fell in love with the music when I saw the show in New York, and I fell in love with the story. At the very end it’s a very sweet story. It takes a lot of drama and trauma to get there, but there's wonderful redemption at the end.
MC: Tiana, you’re playing the role of Natasha.
TIANA WILLIAMS: Yeah!
MC: Tell me a little bit about this character…
TW: Oh, she’s fascinating. Very multifaceted, and I appreciate how Dave wrote this quote-unquote. Typical ingenue. But her trajectory in this show is just so unpredictable.
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TW: And he really just brings out the human element of just all these characters. And she's just so young and naive in a way that the audience has to kind of love. But then you kind of see her make these decisions through the show and just through life and I, I hope that everyone can relate to the type of pressures that she's under in the show.
MC: And Jacob, you're playing the role of Pierre,
JACOB JACKSON: Yes.
MC: Another character from war and peace. Tell me a little bit. About him,
JJ: Pierre is this middle-aged man who is who has lost meaning in his life and doesn't quite know where to go. He's in an unhappy marriage. He drinks all the time and just can't seem to figure out what the purpose of his life is.
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JJ: We kind of follow his story alongside Natasha's story until in the end they kind of intersect.
RR: I'm not going to give away the ending, unless you've read War and Peace, then you know. Pierre is at a crossroads in his life. He doesn't know where to turn. Natasha is newly engaged and arrives in Moscow while waiting for her fiance to come back from the war. She meets a dashing young roguish gentleman and Natasha very easily gets caught up in this cosmopolitan world of taboo and amorous affairs. And partly her choice, partly manipulation, she makes the choice to break her engagement, and that's where I'm going to leave it because I don't want to give away what happens once those choices are made.
MC: So did either of you pick up War and Peace to study for your role or anything like that?
TW: Thankfully Rich kind of helped us out by sending us excerpts from the text. It's been fascinating, 'cause again like you said, it's a book that kind of everyone knows, but no one really dares to touch because it's huge. But the story in the text is really quite exhilarating. So with that, reading the text and having good background information as far as where our characters are, it really helps.
MC: So when this musical was presented, it kind of gained this reputation for being a very immersive production. I know that there was one production, I think that had the audience on stage. How is your production trying to recreate that immersive theater experience?
JJ: So what we kind of do, our space is really, really quite ideal. It's in the Wells-Metz Theater. So there's audience seated where an audience usually would sit. And then there's also audiences on the left and right of the stage that basically wrap all the way around and make it a 3/4 kind of style of a theater. And we just totally lean into the fact that the audience is here with us, and we're telling the story to the audience. We talked to the audience, we go— we sit right next to the audience. We're in the balconies. We’re, you know, shaking the audience’s hand, like giving them some of our imaginary drinks. And just— it's just something I'm so looking forward to, and using the full space to its full potential.
MC So what have been some of the biggest challenges of putting this production together?
RR: The first one is physical. It's time, you know. It's time. It's huge, and you always want more rehearsal time. But then again, I think we're all ready for an audience to come in at this point. So we're looking forward to that.
Some of the subject material is difficult for some people to handle sometimes. And I don't mean that in a horribly dangerous way. But there are some things that might trigger some audience members, in terms of what does it mean to elope or be abducted? Are you being coerced into a relationship. Are you being manipulated into a relationship, and who is on board with that within the company who is not on board with that? And you know, we made a decision to really present that to the audience and not try to cover it up. And saying, “look this is this was happening in 1869 when Tolstoy published this. It's happening in 2022,” particularly the act of coercion and manipulation within a college campus, and what that means. You know, it's a challenge because you just want to figure out how you're going to present that on stage and how you're going to be truthful to it and acknowledge it, because it is part of the story. And we can't excise that. I think it's easier to highlight it now and just say, “hey, we're still dealing with this as a society.”
And also, I really think a story of redemption and we all make mistakes. We all have that friend who makes these horrible choices, and we either stand by helplessly watching a car go over the cliff, or we try to reach out and there's resistance. We all have those complex relationships, and there's always chance for redemption and healing at the end. And I love those stories, and I think just as human beings, we're in constant need of redemption and healing on every level.
MC: And I know this is a show that's almost entirely sung through. I mean, it's almost like a quasi-opera in that sense. So, Tiana and Jacob, how has that been for you the the process of preparing for a role like this, where so much is asked of you physically through the entire production?
TW: I mean, I love it. To be blunt, it definitely helped memorization-wise. But then recognizing that the two of us, and really as an ensemble, to carry the entire story and explain the story in all its complexities with singing—like there's no dialogue—it being all sung through has actually been really, really fascinating. Because then I think as students we get to learn how to really, truly communicate. Even though we're, you know, being swept away by the beautiful music, so it's been really fun.
JJ: Yeah, it's really amazing composition on Dave Malloy's part. And it's very interesting to explore something I've never done before. I've never done a show where there's no traditional dialogue. So I mean, and that's kind of what, you know, the world is evolving to. There, we see more and more of these shows. Hamilton is a big example of that. A big show that all sung-through, and audiences love it, and they can follow it. And I think Dave Malloy is—He's really taken that idea and executed it, you know, perfectly.
MC; The last question I have is, you know, this is, again, a fairly new musical. As actors, since it's so new, there are not many other models to go off of. So how do you go about preparing a role like that when you may or may not have seen it on Broadway in its original run?
TW: I think that concept makes it almost easier to do what any actor should do in any show. Because even if it is a long-running, older production, you want to try to make it yours. But I will say, with it being so young, and it's not a very commercial product, there was so much space for us to make it our own. And we emphasize that so much at the beginning of the rehearsal process. And so not having so many figures to get influence from was just really exciting. Just to know that there is not many people who have touched and really stepped foot into the lives of these characters.
JJ: Everyone in the cast has made these roles their own, which is so inspiring to watch every day in the rehearsal process. Just everybody making these discoveries. And I see Tiana as Natasha, and that is all I see. I just see Tiana playing Natasha. I see one of our cast members Kate [Glazer] playing Marya, and it's just—it's them playing the role, and it's so beautiful to watch. And being, I think, the second college to ever produce this musical, that carries such a weight. But in the same time, it's just such an excitement that we are some of the first people not on a Broadway stage to explore these characters. And it's so, so, so fun, and so inspiring as a performer to do that, and see everyone else in the rehearsal room, no that as well.
MC: Those were members of the creative team behind IU’s Theatre’s production of the musical Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812: Richard Roland, director, Tiana Williams, who is playing the role of Natasha, and Jacob Jackson, who is playing the role of Pierre.
The show opens this Thursday, November 3rd. More information can be found at theatre dot indiana dot edu. For WFIU Arts, I’m Mark Chilla.
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