Porgy and Bess Program [pdf] - American Repertory Theater

lues, but he insisted on casting classically
trained African-American singers—something of
a bold decision at that time.
When Paulus and Parks made their presentation
for the estates last year, they talked about the
strength of the show being the immortal score,
including classic songs such as “Summertime,”
“It Ain’t Necessarily So” and “I Loves You,
Porgy.” But what needed developing and underlining,
they argued, was the story and character
arcs. They talked about a production that wasn’t
operatic in scope, but intimately scaled—zooming
in on the interior life of the characters.
The story centers on the denizens of the
Catfish Row enclave in Charleston, South
Carolina circa 1930, focusing in particular on the
searing love triangle between three unlikely lost
souls. When the troubled prostitute Bess is abandoned
after her controlling lover Crown commits
murder and flees town, she turns to the crippled
beggar Porgy for nurturing and a place to call
home. As their love blooms, Crown and his conniving
cohort, the drug-dealing gambler Sporting
Life, threaten to pull the new lovers apart—while
Bess struggles to contain her addiction and Porgy
veers towards a desperate act.
Paulus says she and Parks were clear from
Day 1 that they were not going to “Katrina-ize”
Porgy by moving it to a contemporary setting.
Instead, the women concentrated on strengthening
and adding dimension to the characters and
their story arcs, figuring out what makes these
people tick and underlining the dramatic transformations
that happen to them through the
course of the story—often using the novel as a
guide to flesh out specifics. They paid particular
attention to fleshing out Bess’ character arc and
understanding her motivations.
“We want to strip away anything that becomes
distracting, that would raise the question of: Is
that authentic? What’s authentic is the emotions,
the story, the desperate journeys of these characters
and the complexity of who these people are.
Therein lies the richness of the theatrical experience:
The audience’s identification with these people.
Sitting in the audience, no matter what
century I live in and whatever my background, I
can say I understand what Bess is feeling. I can
Classic.
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